Sports Day

Across Japan in high schools and junior high schools, September is the month of the sports festival. It's a big deal, students have been preparing for it since July, through out their non-existent summer vacation, possibly even longer.

These are the notes I took at one of the rehearsals.

Today was another gorgeous September day, well by gorgeous, I mean stupidly hot, but I know I'll get all S.A.D. when the sun disappears in the winter, so I'm going to put up and shut up about the heat.

My school have been rehearsing a traditional Japanese dance and some other dances for days and days, along with different sporting events, all practised in the blistering sun for hours on end, like a hard core boot camp. I feel sorry for them, but they seem to be running about quite happily.



What amuses me though are the lengths the female teachers go to to maintain their pale skin- we're talking total sun block, big hats, JACKETS.... If you are female in Japan, a tan is a no-no- unless you you are a ganguro girl- but more on them in another post.

The glare given off by the regulation white t-shirts worn by all the students made it look like an advert for washing powder, and rousing circus-like tracks and instrumental jazz pieces were the soundtrack to all the events. It was being held in the school playing field, which is less field, more large sand trap, so all the dust being kicked up ought to keep a lot of mothers and their washing machines busy...

I fell about laughing at events such as the tug of war using a bamboo cane, the mass skipping event where large groups of students would attempt to skip together using the same rope, and my favourite event, the 10 legged race- where 5 students would run together in a line with their ankles tied together. Surprisingly that event didn't result in a trip to the hospital, although we did have some kids pass out from the heat...






Another event involved a relay race, a sack jump, a dash to some seats where you had to burst balloons with your bum before running up to a net which you scrambled under, then ran to a basket that had balls that had to be carried on a spoon for a certain distance until the next team member was tagged in to begin the relay. And there was the big box race- in which you had to balance several large boxes on each other and run without losing a box...

Essentially, all the games focused on team work, which isn't surprising considering the Japanese cultural emphasis on society. There are also no losers- just teams who are not doing as well as other teams. These teams are cheered on over the loudspeaker with a cry of "Ganbatte!"- "Do your best!"




The third year girls dance to Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend'



The third year boys dance to The Black Eyed Peas' "Pump It"

All in all it was very entertaining day, but that's probably because I didn't have to take part in any of the events myself!

San the educator illustrator

This is what I have been doing with my time at school lately. Anything to keep myself from bashing my head repeatedly on the table out of sheer boredom.
Due to my school's rehearsals for its upcoming sports festival (more on that next entry), I have spent even more time (who knew it could be possible?!) outside a classroom than in one.

Having said that, colouring in is rather therapeutic, I look busy, and my teachers appear to like my pictures- even requesting that I do some more. I shall put any further artistic endeavours of mine on here later; and feel I should advertise the fact that I am available for any vaguely artistic jobs going that don't have a very selective or demanding audience.







In other news, check out the hot Sesame Street bag that I'm currently rocking- I bought it as a self birthday present- long live Elmo!

The Japanese Birthday

I don't know why I do this to myself every year.
I plan birthday celebrations that then leave me feeling stressed and even though they usually end up turning out ok, at the end of it I haven't completely enjoyed myself.
I usually take the day off work- end up in a shop somewhere trying to find the perfect outfit, which then depresses me when I can't, rush to where ever my party is being held and then stress some more as I watch my rag tag groups of friends who usually have nothing in common other than knowing me, try and hang out together.
I've given up on enjoying Christmas, and I'm beginning to think I should do the same for my birthday....

It wasn't all bad though, check the following...



This was waiting for me on my desk at school.



A Japanese teacher brought these cakes over to my house when she found out I was going to be on my own on my birthday.



Even more cake! This was from Nicky and G who also took me out for a Chinese on the weekend.



A picture made by one of my students for me- I was given a whole bunch!



My favourite picture from the karaoke party- this is Shoko and Solomon- a new JET from North London.

I got a lot of birthday love via Facebook and text messages, and I got a really big haul of gifts at the party which was a nice surprise- and makes up for the fact that my parents forgot...

So yeah, Happy Birthday to me.
Next year I'm spending it on a tropical beach somewhere with a hot gigolo pouring me cocktails or somewhere near the Eiffel Tower.

Tim in Japan- part 2

Tim's entry continued- no mention of us going to Mount Fuji though, tut tut...:

On the morrow, we travelled by shinkansen (bullet train) to Okayama and than took a local train to Tsuyama, San's town. Once we got to San's house I thought it was lovely, perfect for one person really and we relaxed until we met Will and went to a restaurant called Joyfull (yes, they spell it with two 'l's for some reason).
I think Joyfull is a Japanese attempt of a American diner, although it was designed as if they had only read about what an American diner should look like rather than ever seen one. I thought it was sweet and I can see why we went as the food was at least something I understood (pretty much everything else I had eaten before was either guessing, or from San's recommendations).



Tim plays the 'Will it make me gag?/ What is it?!' food game that I am a little too used to...

The next day was probably one of my favourites; some might say that it is sad that after going to all these fantastic places in Japan, my favourite day would be one spent cycling around a small Japanese town, looking at a Japanese garden and being shown the sights, but I loved it. It was so relaxing, so pretty and I felt so at peace. I could feel the stress of the journey, the stress of work and other personal rubbish slowly going away.



Tsuyama is in the back of beyond, but it has nice sunsets..

The next day we were off to Tsushima, a small island near Korea with some of San's friends to stay at a beach house. The journey was long and I have to admit I was disappointed. I had an image in my mind of a small house on a beautiful beach, pretty much untouched, maybe walking distance to a small village where there would be a restaurant or a pub where we could go for drinks and chats and stuff.
It wasn't like that, it was a house in the middle of nowhere on a small wooden pier, there were sea urchins littered around so the only way to get the sea was jumping off the pier and than getting back on was a pain. I tried to hide my disappointment but think I failed a little bit. Though driving around was cool and the slide park we went to was great fun, it wasn't what I was hoping for.



Tim is a moany old so-and so, check the view from our doorstep.

I think at this point I should mention that fact that I am not normally such a brat but maybe the heat and the exhaustion did mean I had less patience than I normally do. So apologies to the rest of the gang who I met there, I am usually quite nice. Good time to mention the heat as well, it was hot and very humid, the kind of heat that makes you hot and sweaty and tired the instant you walk out of the door. I kept myself hydrated as much as possible but I don't think there was enough water in the world.


After the little island we hopped onto the ferry (a later one than we hoped) and headed over to Hiroshima...



The ruins of the A-dome can just about be made out through the arch of this monument.

Hiroshima was beautiful, the Peace Park I though was very tranquil and the museum even though horrific was also very interesting. I was surprised at how the museum didn't blame anyone but was more directed to ensuring the message of banning the bomb and ensuring that nothing like this ever happened again was thoroughly engrained into your soul.



This monument has the word 'Peace' inscribed in it over and over again in different languages.

Tim neglects to mention Kyoto, but we'll forgive him.

This is a just a taste of what my summer was like- the first summer in the longest time that I haven't been slaving away, but had time to actually enjoy it. As I am now back at school (boo :( ), no doubt I'll feel the need to reminisce on these halcyon days filled with sunshine, booze and lots of lie-ins. I'll fill you in on the details later...

Tim in Japan- part 1

It took forever and much whinging to get an entry out of Tim, but here it is- well, most of it anyway, he hasn't finished it yet....


The journey began at 5am in the morning at Heathrow, feeling knackered though excited I jumped onto my plane to Charles De Gaulle, France. Air France seemed very nice and as a non budget airline tried to force some food and drink down us before the end of the hour journey. From Charles De Gaulle I waited an hour before the 12.5 hours flight to Tokyo. The flight seemed to go on forever and the movies weren't that great but after trying not to die of boredom I eventually arrived in Japan on Monday morning, found a train reasonably easily to Shinjuku and was on my way. Looking forward to the adventure with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, for someone who normally plans everything down to the last detail, only have a hotel for 3 days and not knowing where and if Sanyu would be at the train station filled me up with the adrenaline I needed to keep awake for the last leg of the journey.

Arriving at the station I started to head towards the exit where I thought I was going to meet San. Tokyo station is big, very big on multiple floors and with multiple exits and so in no time at all I had absolutely no idea where I was. After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles I found a telephone and called San. She answered (thank god) and with the help of some kindly souls we met up at the right exit. I was so happy to see her I didn't even notice the barrier trying to hinder my exit and walked merrily through. After a quick hug we jumped onto the JR Line to try and find our hotel and after being redirected by a kind man who had been 'visiting' for the last 10 years we were on our way.

The hotel was a distance away from the centre of the city in what looked like a business park, even though the hotel was called Shinagawa Seaside there was no seaside to see, just impressive looking tower blocks and shopping centres. As the hotel wouldn't let us in until 2pm we found some food and caught up, around 2pm exactly we went back to the hotel found a room which was very nice, (they gave us a free upgrade) we slept the sleep of the truly knackered (San had also been travelling all night via the night bus).


The next couple of days were a bit of blur to be honest, I loved Tokyo, the mixture of old and new quite literally inches away was amazing and the amount of people were insane and even though they were lovely, you did get the feeling you could never really integrate and that even though on the outside they had changed and become more western, in the inside there was something so alien that I would never really understand it completely.



Crowds at Shinjuku Station, the equivalent of our Leicester Square, or New York's Times Square I think.

We visited some sites while we were in Tokyo, the Imperial Palace which had some beautiful grounds but I wasn't really sure whether we actually saw or got close to the palace itself. I took some pictures but had no real idea of what I was taking the pictures of.



A side view of part of the Imperial Palace which was heavily under armed guard.

The Sony store which fulfilled my nerd quota and even though Sanyu will probably deny it I think she enjoyed it as well, though more for the cool looking aquarium sitting outside than the cool technological toys inside.



Taken through the fishtank outside the Sony Building- which was a nice reminder of all the gadgetry I want but can't afford!

We spent quite a bit of time trying to get to the Tokyo Tower which we somehow missed (the thing is bigger than the Eiffel Tower so goodness knows how we missed it) but instead found a lovely restaurant which as it was my birthday was a nice way of spending the evening.
The food was lovely and the staff even though they did not understand a word we said was so sweet and helpful. To thank them I tried to leave a tip and even though my heart was in the right place, the poor girl was distraught with the left over money, the look of relief as we let her put it in the charity box was obvious. So strangely in a country where you are going to get the best service in the world is also the one country where you can't leave a tip, being a westerner who is used to feeling like a cheapskate if he doesn't leave 10% for average service this was the first of many culture differences I encountered.



Yes, that's right- horse, and apparently whale meat is tasty too...

Over the next couple of days we squeezed in a temple, which was beautiful, the Rainbow bridge which is a bridge ... sorry but apart from getting some nice pics with my beloved Tripod of the city I didn't really see the point and Tokyo Tower where I had a strange feeling of deja-vu, it is almost identical to the Canadian Tower, the views are different but you can see the inside were pinched or designed by the same people.



The Tokyo Tower in semi-silhouette.

My favourite part of Tokyo were the train journeys and the people watching, the tourist bits were great and I would have felt sad if I had missed them, but just sitting on the trains (which were clean, punctual and easy to use .. another culture shock from someone who has used British Rail for too long) watching the different types of people come on and off, the amount of people going from one part of the station to another like drone bees, all very orderly and all very polite, (though if you don't stand to the side of the train entrance or don't follow the crowd, they would just bump into you, not out of impoliteness, I just do not think they can comprehend your existence if you are not in the correct place at the correct time). This reminded me a little bit of Singapore which had arrows on the pavement to show which direction you should be walking.

I was sorry to leave when our 3 days were over, but thought we had a good taste of Tokyo and was looking forward to seeing San's home town and to see how she lived in this strange but lovely country, the night bus was a good cheap option so we went to buy our tickets ... they were full!!! ... Okay don't panic, we will just use the Bullet Train, I had been secretly wanting to have a go on one of these anyway and as I can't sleep on anything moving the idea of a 4 hour journey rather than an 8 hour journey was rather appealing to be honest ... but they were full too!! ... Okay so we have nowhere to sleep and no way of getting to San's house, so we sat in Tokyo station staring blankly at a map wondering where we were going to get a hotel at such short notice during one of the busiest holiday seasons in Japan (Oban)with our guide books open.

"Can I help" came a friendly cry from my left, I stopped my feverish flicking through my guide book and looked up at a young and friendly Japanese business man.

"Yeah if you can find us a hotel" I replied in rather a stroppy like matter, I was tired, I had nowhere to sleep and this guy was going to try and give me directions, I was not in the mood for fighting with the language barrier, I was hot, tired and just wanted to curl up in a corner.

"Not a problem" the guy took the guide book and started calling hotels, the look of shock must have been apparent on my face, I have been into travel agents who were less helpful. The look of shock started to turn into one of disappointment as every hotel he tried was full.. though our friendly guide found a hotel he used to work in which had a room and started taking us there. I repeat started taking us there, not gave directions but almost literally took us by the hand, through the subway to a nice, clean business hotel.

Once we were all booked in :"Can I ask you for something" the guy asked, arrrh now we are back into my charity, the guy wants money, something I can understand from the western world, people do not do anything nice without wanting something in return, I started fingering through the notes in my wallet to ensure I had something that wouldn't offend but wouldn't leave me bankrupt.


"Can I have your email addresses" the guy said, and my world turned upside down.
Hang on a second, someone had called around all the hotels in our book, found a hotel, took us to the hotel, organised getting us settled in and just wants an email address in return?! I vowed to email him the instant I found an internet connection which when I got to San's house I did. (Continued in next entry)