TOKYO Pt.2 - Dancing in the streets and running for the trains!

On the sunday, me and Siobhan were initially going to go to Osaka. Our plan was to go to Tokyo’s main station and look at prices….we discovered they were very expensive or very long journeys, so we gave Osaka a miss this time round! It definately wasn’t really worth it just for one day. That left us with the task of trying to sort out transport BACK to Yamagata. First we rang the night bus up - they were full up, and so we were left with no other option than the Shinkansen which I think is reasonably priced between Tokyo and Yamagata and only takes a mere two and a half hours (remember that the night bus we went on took seven!). We booked our tickets for the 20:38pm, the last train leaving Tokyo for my hometown of Akayu (you can see where this is going now eh?)…. After sorting out transportation (which took a good few hours - sorry Chrissy and JoeyD) we had a nice lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant (finally some proper international food!) and then we were on our way.

Akihabara!

First stop, Akihabara. Akihabara is a well known area in Tokyo for Electronics, Gadgetry, and now Japanese animation and allsorts of related quirky Japanese things you can think of. Similiar to the rest of Tokyo, it is a densly coloured and decorated metropolis of skyscrapers and concrete. It was very busy and there was shop after shop of electronics stores. Cameras, Computers, Games consoles, second hand, brand new - you name it it was all there. Typically most of the goods on offer were slightly cheaper than you would find them in England, but not neccesarily any cheaper than you could find them up in Yamagata - there was just more choice that’s all. Nevertheless it was a very cool place. What was cooler though, was the fact that they appear to close the big main road on Sundays. It’s quite the huge road. From the moment Emily dared Siobhan to lie in the middle of the road whilst she took a picture, there was no stopping us. We had so much fun lying in the middle of the road taking pictures, surround by so many Japanese people and the occaisional foreigners walking around us. Some Japanese girls found it great fun and so we asked them to join in for a photo or two!Then came the action shots - trying to jump in the middle of the road and catch the photo whilst you’re in mid-air. Needless to say that this caused more stares and strange looks from the passers-by! I hope we brought a little entertainment to their day!

Craziness on the streets

I bought a Nintendo DS from Akihabara too. After the Game Show I was feeling a little giddy for some new technology. And now I can say I bought it from the home of electronics in Tokyo. After Akihabara, we went on to Harajuku. I don’t think we saw it all but we walked down a very busy avenue lined with mainly fashion shops on either side. From there I bought some very cool trainers - prices were very good too. The only problem is that Japanese people tend to have very small shoe sizes. Whilst the shoes I bought fit me ok…a little snug, I checked after buying them that they were a size 9 and a half! I’m normally size 11! Owing to the fact that they are trainers exclusive to Japan (blue and purple Nike’s with pictures of Samurai on the insides) I figured they probably won’t need to make a lot of larger western sizes! Ah well, they’ll stretch!Finally, we made it to Shibuya, our last stop for the day.

Me and Siobhan had been before but you can surely never get tired of such a place. We went for a drink in the Starbucks that overlooks the centre of Shibuya. I must also say they run a very tight ship in that coffee shop! There aren’t that many staff but they had the customers running smoothly through the tills and they didn’t skimp on the smiles and polite Japanese phrases - very good service! Time was running out, and Emily pointed out we had an hour before our bullet train was to leave. I said ‘Plenty of time, we’ll make for Tokyo station in 30 minutes’ - after all, we wanted to make a stop at the huge Tower Records for some CD buying before we left. Tower Records in Shibuya has about 6 or 7 floors of music, books and games. An extensive choice and the perfect place to go to find the obscure Japanese artists that I like - sure enough I found loads of the CDs I wanted and more!

But time was running out…in a store as big as that it was easy to lose each other. Finally Me, Siobhan and Emily were ready to head to the station, saying goodbye to JoeyD and Chrissy who would take the night bus.We got to Shibuya station only to realise that it would take 22 minutes to get back to Tokyo station - where we needed to be. We were all convinced that Tokyo station was only a few stops away, that it would take us a few minutes to get to and we could calmly make our way up to the Shinkansen platform. We were quite anxious that we wouldn’t make it - time was ticking and the train had loads of stops to make. We worked it out that we were only going to have about 3 minutes to get to the Shinkansen before it set off. I also failed to remember that we had a locker in Tokyo station which we had to find and take out all of Siobhan and Emily’s stuff that had been stored there for the day!

We dashed out of the subway train, and dashed around looking for the locker. After a few minutes we found it, and I was sent to hunt down the Shinkansen and try and stall it for a few more minutes (which probably wouldn’t have happened - the Japanese system is so efficient it can be quite annoying!). I dashed up the stairs to the platform, almost tripping over my own feet in the process, only to find the Shinkansen slowly setting off for Yamagata. We were exhausted and we’d missed the last train to Yamagata for that day!

We could have stayed in Tokyo another night but we had our hopes set on relaxing back at home, so we managed to find another Shinkansen that was going TOWARDS Yamagata - the prefecture underneath, Fukushima. We made it there no problems, laughing about the whole situation in the end and amusing ourselves on the train. When we arrived at Fukushima’s train station, we asked the ticket officer if there were any more trains going to Yamagata - he said no. We then asked, how much do you think it will be from here to Yamagata by taxi. He responded by making his eyes wider, stepping a few paces back whilst gasping in disbelief. He replied with ‘many, many, many money!’. Well, there was nothing we could do - and if three of us were in the taxi, the individual cost would be divided.

In the end it wasn’t so bad between three people, although the taxi driver was a little….odd - perhaps annoyed that he had to drive as far as a different prefecture. We made it back safe and sound to my house, a little exhausted, but feeling proud that we hadn’t lost our cool and had thought on our heads to quickly devise a solution…with success!

The fantastic five go Tokyo!

TOKYO Pt.1 - The first day - Fish, Games and Theatre

So here was the first big trip, taking advantage of the long weekends. What way to start off exploring Japan other than with the capital city! Tokyo was A-MAZ-ING! It was a slightly unorganised and chaotic plan, but the fates were fortunate to us at times, and not so fortunate at other times. First of all, David (who likes to be known as JoeyD - there is alledgedly some cryptic connection with his actual name, but it’s a very tedious link!) and Chrystiana came along with Kaitlin and Rebecca for something to eat, as we waited for Siobhan and Emily to drive down to where I live. We were setting off on the night bus at 10.18 and you should know that Japanese transport infrastructure is always very efficient! After one thing and another we realised we had only a few minutes to get to the bus station, only to discover we weren’t quite sure where the bus stop was. I knew the general area, but the general area was a building and so it could have been on any side (turned out we were on the opposite side!).

Anyway, after hunting down a few Japanese people to help us (who never seem to accept that simple Japanese we can master ‘Akayu Onsen wa doko desu ka?’ (Where is Akayu Onsen?) I try, ‘Koko!’ (Here) he replies. I think his reply actually meant ‘In this town’, not in relation to where we were standing! Anyway, he wasn’t much use, but luckily some Japanese ladies were nearby and one of them jumped on her bike, thinking she knew where the bus stop was and she was soon back telling us it was OK - we hadn’t missed the bus! She was a true lifesaver, as we could well have been enjoying the sights and sounds of my little town for the whole weekend!

The night bus was about 7 hours. Not that bad, it seemed to pass quite quickly although I didn’t get much sleep - they’re not the most comfortable modes of transport, but it was cheap.We arrived in Tokyo at about 5.30am - with plenty of time to head to the Tsukiji Fish Market - one of the biggest and most famous Fish markets in the world. There were some huge huge fish! And it was so busy - you really had to be careful or else these speedy carts would drive into you and do you an injury! After gawping at the amazing fish on offer at the market, we went to one of the local sushi restaurants for some fresh breakfast sushi! It was so delicious! Me and Siobhan eat Sushi for Breakfast!

The busy fish market

Sushi and Warm Saké for breakfast!

After our fishy escapade, we ventured on to Tokyo’s neighbouring prefecture, Chiba, for the Tokyo Game Show. It was an interesting event! I had it suggested/recommended by Lewis Packwood of another JET blog written a few years ago that I found on the Internet. It was very Japanese - hosted in the ‘Makuhari Messe’ - a huge venue, the Game Show is the largest in the world and took up more than one of the halls at the venue.We saw lots of new games soon to be released, people could play demos and previews (and queue up for up to 80 minutes just to try them - not for me thank you!). The most interesting thing was all the Cosplay. Cosplay is an abbreviation of ‘Costume play’, where people dress up as their favourite game or animation characters. They don’t skimp on the detail either! There was a whole area for people to pose and take photos. Me and the gang got bored of watching all the other Cosplayers get all the attention, and so we decided to start our own series of poses in a Cosplay fashion, right in the middle of the Cosplay area. We managed to draw a little bit of attention, but probably for all the wrong reasons! Nevertheless it was funny and impromptu! Our fantastic Cos-play action poses!

Part of the Tokyo Game Show in Makuhari Messe

This is the future! Glasses that you can't see out of!

If I had a Cos-Play award to give, they would have gotten it!

Improvisation de la Cos-play

Action pose!

After the Game Show we went back to Tokyo and spent some time trying to find some accomodation for me, Siobhan and Emily. You see, me and Siobhan had gone down with the intention of going to Osaka the day after - only to discover that it was VERY EXPENSIVE to do such a thing - especially for one day. So, we had to look for a place to stay. Chrissy and JoeyD were staying in a new and very cheap hostel/hotel in Shinjuku, near the centre of Tokyo. I rang up and they said they had no more rooms left and we should try ringing later to see if their are any guests that don’t turn up. Anyway, we really needed a shower so we tagged along with Chrissy and Dave. Once we got there, they offered us the chance to stay in the meeting room on the tenth and top floor. It turned out to be great! Spacious, nice couches, and a fantastic view of Tokyo! And for about 14 quid each per night! I’m going back there again!

The view from the 'Penthouse'

We freshened up and rushed off to catch one act at the Kabuki-za in the Ginza area of Tokyo. Kabuki-za is an old theatre that runs traditional Japanese Kabuki plays. Kabuki-za is the only theatre to adhere to the traditional form of Kabuki, by having an all male cast. It was very emotional and dramatic. They seem to speak in a rhythm, which makes it even harder to understand anything they are saying, but the special effects, costume, make up and scenery were very impressive! We just went to see one act, which last about 1hr / 1hr 30 mins and only cost us about £4 each!After the Kabuki theatre, we were STARVING and went for some Mexican food! The nice thing about the bigger cities is that you can find allsorts of international cuisine much easier. However, typically, its often not quite how you recognise from when you eat it back at home. Also, when it comes to international food - portions are typically a little on the small side (personally for me anyway!) nevertheless, the food was very good and we had a nice meal together.

Kabuki-za theatre

Whilst most of the gang went back off to get some much needed sleep, me and Siobhan wanted to go off to Shibuya before meeting a friend of mine who was also in Tokyo that I met at the Tokyo orientation a few months back. SHIBUYA IS SO AMAZING! The most famous area of Tokyo that commonly appears on TV back at home. It is huge, colourful, noisy and bustling - but the balance of everything going on is just right - not too much! We crossed the famous Shibuya crossing and went to check out all the colourful neon lights on the streets around the centre of Shibuya. This was at about midnight, and shops were still open and there were still loads of people walking around! Even at 1/1.30am when we were making our way back to the hotel, people were having their haircuts in the Shibuya salons!

Shibuya crossing

Another moment of joy for me was when I saw a Donner kebab van at the side of the road of the Shibuya centre. It actually said Donner kebab! Unfortunately I’d had my fill of Mexican, and wasn’t in the mood for a Donner, but next time I’ll be back!

Mmmm...donner...don't worry dad I'll take you there!

A few more weekends to the present!

The weekend after Zao was the JET welcome party. An event where we could meet the new and old JETs together. It was a very nice relaxing time although my partying got the better of me and I slipped in an effort to climb the steepish hill to the toilets and sprained my foot badly. I didn’t feel the pain then (let’s say I’d had one larger shandy….) but in the morning, wow did it hurt! I was limping, and if nothing else can say I provided Siobhan with a source of laughter for a few days as I hobbled about Japan and my daily life waiting for it to heal.

This is a carefully selected photo that tries to catch a portion of the party atmosphere, whilst still portraying me in a positive 'not-doing-something-too-stupid' light!

For breakfast we went to a place we discovered quite near to where I live called Coco’s. Apparently it’s an American based chain, and I had a bacon and cheese sandwhich and a roast beef sandwhich (baguette bread) but still, it was as close to the English classics as I’ll probably get over here and was much enjoyed!

The next weekend was my first long weekend - it had a public holiday, and the Japanese seem to have loads of them. I drove up to Kahoku with a few friends to meet another JET who’s town was holding a pretty big festival.

Before I reached Kahoku, I got a flat tyre - but I didn’t panic, me and the person I’d just picked up found the car jack and as soon as I’d done that I was quickly on my way to changing it. I only had a small emergency tyre so I had to find a new proper tyre as quickly as possible. It took me ages to find a place that sold the right size, and even then I had to wait for it to be delivered from somewhere else!

I was upset...

In Japan, with the mazillion festivals they have and love, its very easy to feel that when you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all. But, in honesty they all have something slightly different. This one was nice because it had giant floats and some nice traditional Japanese costume, dancing and even performance (I think Noh but I’m not sure).　

Beautiful Japanese dresses and Japanese floats

Kahoku temple

These poor kids had to perform a slow series of movements as they processed down the street with those heavy looking chimney sweeps....I don't know why, because Japanese houses don't even have chimneys!!!

The day before that one of Maggie’s friends invited us all round to her house for a meal and some drink. She put on a real banquet and it was delicious, some mexican food, some thai food and of course some Japanese food (delicious Imoni, I can’t get enough!). I don’t think she was expecting as many people as came (there were a few - read: two - unexpected Finnish exchange students who came along with Siobhan - they’re in Japan for six weeks) but she did a fantastic job and nice to spend a bit of time in a proper Japanese home! Thank you!



After that, we decided to do some good old Karaoke (strangely enough you start to love and look forward to it when in Japan…must be something in the water), we had great fun singing along to The Carpenters, Bon Jovi…and my karaoke speciality is fast becoming New York, New York - I go all out with the crooning on that number!

As you can clearly see, we take our Karaoke in Japan very seriously!

On our extra day off we decided to go to Sendai - this time we took the slow train, which was pretty slow - probably because of the bank holiday trains seemed to be a little more sporadic than usual which meant it took me about 4 and 1/2 hours (including waiting between train changes) to get from Shinjo to Sendai.

But when we were in Sendai we found some English bookstores (not that I need any with the Yamagata JET English library situated in my very house!) and we found an Indian Curryhouse! Hurrah, we could enjoy Basmati rice and some good naans (even cheese and garlic!) and some pretty nice curry - it didn’t quite have the selection we might find back in England (ie. on the menu there was ‘Chicken Curry, Fish Curry etc.’ but it was nice nonetheless. The chefs were Indian and seemed to speak a little English as we said thanks on the way out, but one of them must be married to a Japanese lady who served us - I thought she was Indian in her Indian outfit, but she spoke Japanese far too well, and understood us far too little for her not to be Japanese!

Mmm...Naan!

Another exciting thing is that Lush! (the popular handmade cosmetics store) is opening a shop next week in Sendai!) The Japanese don’t seem to be too strong on smelly stuff. One particular day at school I must have only had a shower with shower gel, and shampoo, and one of the kids thought I was wearing cologne? They don’t seem to wear aftershave or perfume, but seem to have a very acute sense of smell…..anyway, I can buy some nice smelly soaps and such hopefully which will remind me of England’s green and pleasant land!

Zao ROCK!

We found out about a music festival going on in Zao when we were there at the orientation. It sounded like fun, and it was free so I was very determined to go to this weekend music festival, whether I had camping equipment or not (I didn’t - I was utterly unprepared which is not like me but I had an incredible amount of fun - one of the best weekends I’ve ever had). I met another JET from the next town by Nanyo and we headed off in my car to Mt Zao. Mt Zao, as you will now be aware of from the abbreviation, is a mountain. Mountains are commonly high and this one is no exception - so my poor oldish car had to struggle for ages up slopes and mountain side roads whilst I had to struggle with a huge ton of low lying cloud or fog. It was very thick, but me being the experienced driver that I am managed it safely through, and after a certain point we were above the low lying fog. 

It took us ages to find the place, which had done a good job of concealing its noise, music and lighting right up until you were very close to it, but find it we did, and luckily we found a bunch of other JETs too. Loads! So we had plenty of tents to choose from to kip over. The festival was quite small - it was only the second year (second time) it had been organized. We arrived on the first night - Friday and there were probably 1,000 people (perhaps a few more) dotted around the place. On the Saturday, numbers probably peaked at 2,000 ish. It wasn’t really rock music we heard - they were all Japanese bands and DJs, but my, the Japanese sure do make great music. 

This is a band called 'Angri' and they were amazing! Ska, hip-hop, rocky dance music!

The morning after. High up on the mountain, steam rises from beyond the forest areas.

After we got settled we danced for a few hours to a techno-y DJ housed in a Wig-wam, and after that (around 2/3am) me and Siobhan headed back to the tent, only to find a rather deserted dance area with a DJ playing random tunes like Obla Di Obla Da, and La Bamba. We couldn’t just leave that DJ to feel like he’d wasted his night playing a carefully selected and prepared music mix to the few Japanese people who weren’t dancing - we had to step in and give it our all. What followed was me, Siobhan (an ace Yamagata newbie) and Max (second year) dancing our hearts out, often making it seem like we’d prepared a highly elaborate and well choreographed piece of work. We cajoled the few Japanese spectators into laughing and dancing about too and it was definately the highlight of the weekend for me. 

We were absolutely exhausted by the time it got to 4.30/5am and went to the tents to get a much need 4/5ish hours of sleep before the next line of events. On the Saturday everybody was feeling a little worse-for-wear, I had a sports day at Yoshino on the Sunday so I wasn’t going to stop over that night but I stayed till midnight to watch and dance to some amazing bands before driving back and getting home at about 2.30am, only to have a Sports Day at 7.45am the following morning. 

Of course, I took part in it too! I did the Yoshino Marathon - about 5km - twice around the village, I was surprised I didn’t collapse with fatigue, but I did make it through the whole marathon and I didn’t come last! Not surprisingly I wasn’t too keen on making it to the staff enkai after - I had a very good time…but I really needed some sleep. Because the Sports Day was on the Sunday - I was given a day off in lieu on the monday - so I went to the biggest city in the Tohoku region of Japan (Northern Japan) - Sendai. I also decided that I would go by Shinkansen which was pretty amazing - they are unbelievably fast! It was nice to see a big city and some more foreigners than I've become used to seeing. I tried to find the office to get a re-entry permit for if I want to fly out of Japan and come back (stupid unneccessary beauracracy) but everything was in Japanese, so I didn’t find it in time! Ah well! C’est la vie Japonaise!

The presentation ceremony at the end of Yoshino Sports Day

The good old tug of war...

Outside the train station in Sendai - the big(ger) city!

I must also give special mention to the valorous attempts of Siobhan McMillan the wonder woman from Middlesborough to get from her tiny town in North Yamagata to the heights of Mount Zao. Having got on the train to the bottom of Zao, the doors wouldn’t open at the Zao station stop and so she had to get off at the next station - a tiny platform with absolutely nothing around it and a ridiculously long Japanese name none of us could pronounce easily. She waited for a train to go back the other way which finally happened. Then she tried to grab a taxi outside of Zao station, only to have the first one sabotaged by a Japanese person, whilst she was trying to explain where she wanted to go. She had more success with the second taxi, actually managing to seize his attention and get him to drive her somewhere, although he had no idea what the Zao Rock Festival was, let alone where it was! Nobody seemed to know anything about the music festival and there were no flyers or details lying around for her to point to! So with a bit of guidance from me she told the taxi to take her to the top of the mountain, Zao Onsen which was quite near to the music festival and I would try to pick her up around that area. However, the taxi driver was trying to be very helpful and rang up a few of his mates about the strange mysterious event the strange mysterious foreigner wanted to go to. Having no information from his friends he stopped at a Convenience store near to the onsen and managed to get details from the workers there, which finally got Siobhan to the party! Gambatte Siobhan! I salute your efforts!

I (finally) start teaching!

After 3 weeks I finally begin teaching, and my first school is tiny. Very tiny. 27 students make up the total school - 12 in the third year, 9 in the second and 6 in the first. It really is a fantastic school - a little out of the way in the mountains, but the drive to work and back home everyday was lovely, going through the mountains. Yoshino JHS is a lovely school, the kids are so friendly, as are the teachers. They made me feel very welcome and it was a great place to start my work as an Assitant Language Teacher, towards the end of the two weeks I got the jist of my job pretty well, and I think the kids liked me - I think its hard to win some of them over after they had such a good JET beforehand (he stayed three years, so the older ones especially would know him pretty well!)There is a fantastic music teacher at the school - and the first Japanese person to know my favourite composer Francis Poulenc, we were both very excited so we did the geeky musical thing of sharing CDs and sheet music to look at and listen to. The magical thing was that whilst neither of us had a very great grasp of each others language, we still managed to communicate well enough and establish a nice friendship.The other amazing thing about the school is that because there are so few pupils, they HAVE to do sports and they HAVE to do music activities too! So on certain days the girls all play Basketball and are very good at what they do, and the boys play Volleyball and have one of the strongest teams in the area. As well as that, they ALL sing! All the girls and all the boys - and they all enjoy it. They do some pretty hard stuff too - and it is so fascinating to listen and learn about Japanese composers that we don’t hear about at all in the UK. The Japanese language lends itself quite well to singing, but because of the different script ひらがな (hiragana) - it makes it a little harder to read and sing. Kanji is the hardest script to learn (thousands and thousands of Chinese characters, but hiragana is syllabic and pretty approachable - it could easily be translated into the roman alphabet and then we could have access to a whole new repetoire of some very interesting western influenced classical compositions!Sorry, I rant a bit….Yoshino was the first place where I had a proper time after school to practise the piano, a Yamaha baby grand - I played for about an hour - it was great but made me miss having easy access to a piano - in the space of about 2 months now, I’ve only been able to play on a piano 3 or 4 times :-S!

Oh the difficulties of writing a blog and living in Japan!

So little time! I’m trying my best, but all the time I seem to keep doing more and more stuff in Japan - so I’ll try and go a little faster in an attempt to get to the present day in my blog! Firstly, we had the New Yamgata JET Orientation, which was so great to meet all the new JETs and there are some great people - and after being away from native English speaking for a fair while, it was so nice to talk at a normal speed and have a bit of fun and a laugh. We certainly did - especially on the second day, when we went to Mt. Zao - a famous Ski Resort are in Yamagata. We went for a dip in the Zao Onsen, with beautiful outdoor surroundings and a very sulphuric hot natural water (my second onsen!), then after that we had a big Enkai with some great food, some great drink and some brilliant karaoke. Good times were definately had by all I do believe!After that, on the next weekend, a fairly calm and relaxed time was had. I met up with Koji and Yutaka, the two guys I met at the Obon festival and we played football (I know, I know, I’m no Wayne Rooney but its the taking part that counts) and I met a bunch of other young Japanese people who were all really nice. It was great fun - after that we ate ‘Kaginori’ - a Japanese favourite - basically crushed ice with some flavoured syrup over it - its quite a tasty and refreshing sweet to have when its so so so hot!

Yamagata City - my first trip in Japan!

The second weekend I was in Japan I had a whole day to myself! I decided to explore beyond the boundaries of my small city and take the train to the biggest city in the prefecture - Yamagata city. When I say biggest, it is probably the size of Leeds I reckon, maybe smaller. It took about 30 minutes to get there. First of all I had to deal with the train station and ticket system - not that these would be hard thing to deal with, only that most of the instructions, signs, train times - you name it - are all in ridiculously impossible to learn/understand Chinese characters (Kanji), resulting in a rather challenging experience. Nevertheless, I successfully remembered the Kanji for Yamagata (山形 if you ever need to know) and was on my way (only a slight panic that I was on a train heading the opposite direction, but I should have been more confident in my Japanese deciphering skills).So I made it to Yamagata city - I saw my first westerners in the train station since I first got to Nanyo - Americans I think - they looked lost and confused! Unfortunately I walked out the wrong exit from the station - walking away from the main area of the city. I wandered around a rather uninteresting park for a bit and then got frustrated that, to say it was the biggest city in the prefecture - it was rubbish!I began to make my way to the train station and get out of this place, but thought I would have a wander to the other exit - lo and behold I found bigger buildings, neon lights and more people! From that point onwards it was a very enjoyable time - I found a classical music store that sold loads of Classical music (only all the composers are in Japanese so when you’re looking for ‘Beethoven’, you have to look for something like ベートフェン　and ‘Mozart’ would be モーザルト. It was nice to see some familiar music though. Pianos were selling for about £3000 upwards so I can’t really buy one for my little Japanese house anytime soon! I bought a really cool Union Jack tie too which I will wear when the weather starts getting colder (the summer is so hot that short sleeved shirts with the top button undone is acceptable). I also bought some CDs I’d wanted - Japanese artists are so much easier to find in Japan! The other highlight was finding my first MUJI in Japan! Muji, for those who don’t know is a beautiful looking shop in the UK, imported from Japan. It is SOOOO much bigger in Japan! They sell loads more stuff! From clothes, to stationary, to food and even bicycles! Crazy! Generally this is what tends to happen in Japan, you have to work a great deal harder to get anywhere in Japan when you don’t know the language. If you persevere you typically achieve some success and great satisfaction as a result!


The remains of an old castle in the park by Yamagata station


The park had a really cool Samurai statue - one of the most interesting parts of it.

Festivalfest!

For at least the first 5-7 days of my life in Japan, I was kindly treated to a number of parties, meals out, and festivals! Here was my busy busy itinery! The day after my arrival and my Onsen/meal event, I went out to a smart looking restaurant in Akayu called EST! with my Supervisor and some other Elementary school teacher and my supervisors 16 year old son who speaks very good English. The Elementary teachers spoke little or no English but were very friendly and my Supervisor can understand English pretty OK but he’ll only speak English when he has too! I was quite grateful for my supervisors son being there because otherwise it was a little Japanese intensive! We had Italian food, which is a bit of a cool style of food in Japan at the moment - but of course it’s got a Japanese kind of feel to it. So along with pizza, which I ate with chopsticks, there was Tofu and Natto! The famous Japanese food, which is a popular question for a foreigner to get asked: ‘Do you like Natto?’ - because the consensus of foreigners think that Natto is absolutely disgusting! I was challenged to try it and eat it by my supervisor and I actually liked it! (I am the first ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in Nanyo City to like it straight away (they have had seven other ALTs before me). Whilst it typically has quite a potent smell, I believe it tastes a bit like a mix between Peanut Butter, and Blue Cheese! It’s actually fermented Soybeans and other such things - which does actually make it sound disgusting. The meal was then followed by the most famous of all Japanese institutions - Karaoke! And we had a private eating booth complete with karaoke system (microphones, flat-screen TV, electronic computer for song selection etc.) - it was my first time in Japan doing Karaoke and when it’s done properly like the Japanese do it, with a little bit of beer to enhance performances - you can’t help but have some great, innocent fun. After that, I was ushered out to go with my supervisors son to go for some Spicy Miso Ramen. Ramen is like soup but with good portions of meat, vegetables and noodles in it. The restaurant we went to is very popular and well known for its good Ramen.

The day after - Friday, after the two events on the previous two days - it was finally my official welcome party. My bosses and some co-workers were all there and we had a traditional style Japanese meal with lots of beer (and a good opportunity for me to fill up the big bosses glasses with beer - it is very rude for a Japanese person to have to fill their own glass, but they don’t assume foreigners know about this custom straight away so it normally impresses them and looks good!) It was at this point in time, after formal introductions that I realised I had believe my supervisor to be somebody different! I got their names mixed up because the other guy, Mr Hosokawa seemed to be doing more things to help me get settled in Japan. I hope they didn’t notice but not quite being 100% certain is a common encounter in this kind of situation! After telling them I was a pianist, one of the guys in the office had taken the trouble to find somebody with a keyboard for me to play something at the party for my coworkers. Unfortunately the keyboard they’d found was the tiniest kind you can find with horrible sounds, no pedal or any such thing. Nevertheless - I played a little ’something’ (I’m not sure what !) but they clapped politely and told me I was very good - just wait till they hear me on a Yamaha grand!

Following the meal, we went on to the second party (always a custom in Japan to have more than one party - which was….Karaoke! In a charming little bar where we had Nomihodai (’All you can drink’) and lots of Karaoke. They were quite impressed when I started catching on to the choruses of the Japanese songs and singing along! On Saturday, Mr Hosokawa, one of the workers with a good grasp of English, and a keenness to practise speaking, took me around Akayu. He showed me the shops nearby and what I could buy from them. He also took me to some of the more remoter areas of Nanyo City. We went to Kuguri falls - I beautiful waterfall deep in the forests of Yamgata, and he took me to a bridge high up over the mountains where all you could see were thick trees and other green mountains in front and behind. In the evening, I was invited to (or made to go?!) to a school party - it was a nice opportunity to meet some of the teacher and the children too! They had long half-pipes of bamboo outside - like a long slide - and made a little flow of water run down them, then they would send Somen noodles shooting down them and the trick was to catch them with your chopsticks and place them into your bowl to eat! I got quite good at this in the end! There was also Yakitori cooking on barbeques - skewered Chicken with a delicious sauce! I love it!




See how the kids look up at me in adoration and amazement!!!

Sunday was a free day, but I thought I would visit a Japanese lady who speaks great English and loves to befriend each JET that comes to stay in Nanyo. She is fantastic and we had a nice chat and she told me about another festival that was happening later that evening on Akayu’s main street! So, I went along and watched some brilliant dancing and again saw a few of the kids - it was nice not to be escorted and I could wander around the different stalls and show my face around the rest of the community! Watched some great dancing too - the Japanese seem to love dance routines! Anyone know Billy Blacks/Blaxx? He’s American and really popular over here?!

Monday evening after work was a Tug of War festival - the tenth and final one being held in Nanyo. It wasn’t just any old Tug of War competition - this was a 500 metre rope and so thick! I couldn’t see the end of the rope from the middle of it, either way! Apparently this is why that festival won’t happen anymore, because they’re afraid that the rope will break soon and it’s very expensive to buy another one! Everybody from the area came out, young and old to take a side and ‘heave’ or ‘ho’ (there are Japanese words, but I can’t remember them at all!) - unfortunately, nobody who I asked seemed to know which side won - it must be the taking part that counts! And then, people kept giving me free beer tokens!


There were a lot more people pulling on either side of me outside of the photograph!!

A few days later it was the important Obon festival. Obon is a traditional Buddhist festival for the dead - I was invited to dance on the main street of Akayu with Nanyo City Hall who I work for. We danced traditional Japanese dances for such a long time around the street, but it was so much fun. I was wearing a traditional Japanese Yukata and met some great friends from the City Hall who speak impressive English! A very long winded blog entry but it just gives you a taster of how busy I was in my first week and how many amazing things I experience and people I met! There will definitely be more to come I know that for sure!