Boredoms in Shinagawa, Rockabilly dancers in Yoyogi Park

It's been ages since I've updated. To say we've been busy would be an understatement.

Last Friday I was hit by something viral, or maybe I ate something bad the previous day. At any rate, I slept most of the day and had an extremely quiet weekend. I didn't realise how much I'd needed the weekend until my body forced me to take it. Felt much more composed and together the following Monday.

I want to update with some interesting things we did prior to last weekend, because sickness isn't terribly interesting!

 We went to see the boredoms play live in Shinagawa, they're a Japanese band that Jason and I both really like. We managed to see them last year in Tokyo, and Jason saw them in Melbourne before that. They're all classically trained musicians who have gone off and turned everything hey learned on its head. Lots of drums (6 drumkits), lots of guitars, lots of noise, awesome in short.

Here's a photo, more photos and some videos can be found at this link.

 

We also went to Yoyogi park for a picnic another weekend. Yoyogi park is a big park right in the centre of the action in Tokyo, near Harajuku and Shibuya. It's comparable to New York's central park in terms of its size and proximity to the city.  We had a nice laidback afternoon, watching dogs being walked, kids running around and paddling in the water.

The best part of our Yoyogi Park visit was taking advantage of what happens on Sundays, that is, different social groups get together and do what they do, in public.  The best examples of these groups are the rockabilly dancers.

A lot of the men in the groups had Elvis-style pompadour hairstyles, and were dressed in denim or leather.  Three separate groups of dancers were there on the Sunday we had our picnic, all dancing in the same public area, and it was awesome.

Obviously, the pictures are great, but nothing compares to seeing these groups in action.  Here's a link to more pictures of Yoyogi Park, and videos of the rockabilly dancers:  LINKY LINK LINK

Apart from the things we've been doing over the weekends, things have been good.  Crazy busy, but good.  Jason's work is keeping him busy, as is mine.  I have to create a lot of the resources/curriculum as I go for two of the classes that I teach, so that has been really heavy going as I have a full teaching load as well.  It can be frustrating at times and it feels like I am standing in place even though I'm running at a full sprint.

With that being said, the work is enormously rewarding, the kids are great, and it feels like I'm contributing something valuable as a member of the small team at the school.

This is all the update I probably have time for right now.  We just had a weekend in Chiba, did some shopping at tech shops in the area and went around town on the monorail.  Next weekend we're off to Chiba again, but with people from work for a beach weekend.  Looking forward to it.  Hope to update again soon.

Until next time!

Capcom Bar/Design Festa 2012, Odaiba

I've gotten a bit behind on the updates, time has flown.  We've been here for almost two months now, and (I know this is getting repetitive) things are getting easier.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a video game-themed restaurant in Shinjuku, the Capcom bar.  It was really entertaining.  The food, the music, and even the staff interactions were all themed around video game references.  Some dishes were linked to a video game scene, and so if someone was served a particular dish, you'd suddenly be in the middle of a dramatic piece of theatre where everyone had to jump in and interact.  The staff were great, and very patient with our language skills, and after a bit we were able to participate with the best of them.

Photos HERE.

The food was great, and even with the theatre element, we were out of pocket about how much you would be for a nice meal out in Australia.  One of the memorable moments was when we ordered the Takoyaki roulette set, which are octopus balls where one of them is loaded up with a HEAP of wasabi.  They arrived about a minute before the first bit of audience participation started.  We each had a takoyaki, and within half a second I realised that I had grabbed the wasabi ball on my first try.  I coughed and spluttered for a while, just as a waiter came over and explained how to interact as the theatre started.  I didn't interact too successfully, I was too busy trying to refresh myself with my cocktail (a tequila shot does NOT help).

A couple of days after this, on the weekend, we went to Odaiba for the bi-annual Design Festa.  Jason had gone in November the previous year while I was at the JALT conference and said that we HAD to go, and that I would love it.  He was completely right.

The Design Festa runs over two days and is held at Tokyo Big Sight exhibition building.  The stalls, performances and food took up most of the building; two storeys and about 5 large exhibition halls, excluding the outside area where the bands played and the smokers hung out.  We spent pretty much the whole day wandering around the various stalls, taking photos, buying stuff and digging the ambience of the place.

A lot of the stalls had handmade things, like vinyl toys, magnets, pins, knitted and crochet toys, paintings, jewellery, and the list goes on.  We each bought some t-shirts, and I managed to score some home-spun yarn that was so pretty it made me irrationally excited.  I also seem to like frogs, given that I bought two crochet frog things, one was a hand puppet that we've named Bernie, and the other is a pouch that I've put all of my cross stitch and crochet tools into.

There was a lot of stuff that we were interested in but couldn't warrant paying what it was priced at, but that's how these shows go.  We were exhausted by the end, but we felt thoroughly cultured and happy.  I'm pretty sure we'll go back in November, given how much we enjoyed it this time around.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO

I'll try to update again soon, work has been keeping me super busy and I kind of collapse on the couch when I get home.  Jason starts his new job on Friday, yay!  Next week the students have a changed schedule because some of them have mid-term exams, so hopefully I will feel a little less tired during the week this week.

Until next time!

Golden Week break

Here's a bit of a late wrap-up of Golden Week.  While we didn't get an Easter Break or ANZAC day, we did get a stretch of holidays, leading to two consecutive long weekends, one a three-day weekend, the other a four-day weekend.  We managed to get a nice bit of sightseeing done on our days off, and here's a bit of a summary below:

On the Saturday of the second long weekend, we went to Minami-Machida, not too far away from where we live.  It's a nice shopping district with a lot of outlet shops and family restaurants.  We saw the most families with dogs out that we'd seen in one place since we arrived that day.  I later found out that that particular Saturday was a holiday designated as "Children's day", so a lot of families were out and about having lunch out or on their way to a picnic nearby.  Our aim was to go to Nitori, a furniture and homewares shop, to have a look for some curtains and scope out what there was on offer.

We ended up going to lunch first, at Outback Steakhouse, an American-owned, Australian-themed restaurant.  We got there as they were opening, so we got the full effect of the welcoming.  In most restaurants and shops in Japan, people are greeted by "Irasshaimase", which means "welcome" (roughly). Because this place was Australian themed, we got the onslaught of "Irasshaimase g'day mate", which was hilarious.  Every time it happened (which was frequently), we'd start laughing all over again.  The food was really good, but you can tell it's American-owned, not much was Australian about it.

On our way out of the steakhouse and towards Nitori, we came across a street performer re-enacting the sinking of the titanic.  He played the ship, and ended the scene by dunking his head in a bucket of water.  It was great, and brightened the day a bit more.

Photos from our day in Minami-Machida are HERE.

The following day, we went out to Kamakura, a pretty popular sightseeing spot full of temples, shrines and historic architecture.  It's also got a few popular surf beaches, so it has a lot of tourists year-round, but it's particularly busy during Golden Week.

Kamakura is home to Daibutsu, a giant statue of Buddha that is housed in a temple called Kotoku-in.  We couldn't have picked a better day to visit, it was warm and sunny, and we got out early enough to beat the big crowds.  Daibutsu is hollow, and is big enough for people to fit.  We could have gone inside the statue, but the line was a little too long, and we decided we'd save it for another day because we don't live too far away from Kamakura.

Photos from our visit to Daibutsu and Kotoku-in are HERE.

After we finished up in the temple, we walked to the beach nearby, but it was so windy we couldn't do much apart from walk along the sand.  The windsurfers took full advantage of the gusty conditions though, they were dotted up and down the seafront.

PICS HERE!

It was hard to go back to work after that weekend, but we made the most of our time off, and already have plans for the next time we go out to Kamakura.

I've got some more photos from the current weekend, but I've yet to upload them, it'll wait for another blog post.  The big news from the last couple of days is that Jason has a job!  In his field too, which is a big relief for him.  Details to follow in the next post.

Days are filling up quickly

Well it's been a little while since I last updated, things got busy quickly!

Work has been very busy, I get my head around things and then just as quickly learn something else that I hadn't been doing needs to be done, but I'll get there.  That's not what you're interested in, I'm sure!

We have settled in a lot more now, we have important things like all our necessary kitchen appliances, we have curtains in some rooms, and we have a couch to sit on.  At the moment we're on a holiday.  Although we don't get Easter in Japan, we do get Golden Week, a series of public holidays that often happen in a row each year.  It's been wonderful to have the time off and get the things done around the house that need doing.

We have our gaijin cards now, and our first bills have been paid, all of this feels very adult and like we're making some progress.  We had a look around Kawasaki station on Monday on our day off, went to Kichijoji on Thursday, and had a day at home today.  The weather's been pretty drizzly/rainy so it hasn't always been ideal to go and do things outside the home.  The cherry blossoms have been and gone, but the weather is warming up, and it's looking like a hot summer.

I've become an expert at sorting rubbish here, which is pretty important in Japan.  Today was the general rubbish and cardboard day.  On my way downstairs with my load of rubbish, I bumped into our next door neighbours, a young couple with a toddler, introduced myself in an awkward mix of English and Japanese, they seem very nice.  I really like the area that we're in, 30 mins commute to Shinjuku, and far enough out to have a rooster crowing throughout the day next door.

Otherwise there's not much to report, things are becoming routine, and it's nice to have a routine.  Things will be busy again soon, so we're revelling in the laidback until it starts back up again on Monday.

In before Friday the 13th!

We are now up to our second week in Japan, and things are continuing to go our way and get easier.

The kids are great fun and I've remembered my classroom management tricks from the high school classroom. It's been a challenge to get my head around a new curriculum, but I'm getting there, and the other teachers are very supportive.

Jason has had two interviews by two different companies, and he has a follow-up interview with the first company. It's great that he's got his foot in the door in a couple of places, and we're optimistic that he'll find something soon enough.

We are waiting on our IKEA delivery, that's due on Monday, and that will include our bed, couch and kitchen trolley. Since the last post we have bought a TV, washing machine and fridge. Our fridge and washing machine were both delivered this evening, and we had our first proper home-cooked meal tonight, and Jason has already done a load of washing and hung it up.

By tomorrow I should have a bank account here, and I'm hoping to get my phone situation sorted out over the weekend. It's hard to fit it all in while working full-time, but everything apart from banks is open until late here, so we can plug away at it bit by bit.

Here's some photos!!!!

HERE

Week One - Life in Japan

Well Jason and I have been here for a week now, and it has probably been the busiest week we have had in years. Jason arrived on Thursday night last week and was able to settle himself into a hotel before I arrived on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning we made the big trek from Ueno to Shinyurigaoka, two trains packed with weekend sightseers. We got there in one piece with all of our bags and found our hotel with no problems. The school had booked us in for three nights, with the cost of a single room covered, us paying the difference between a single and a double room. Once we were checked in, we spent most of the day wandering around the department stores before getting into our massively oversized king size bed for the night.

Monday was the first day of work for me, but luckily not the first day of classes. I was met at the station near the school by the two IB co-ordinators and we walked to the school together. The school grounds are massive, and house not just a K-12 campus, but also a university. The grounds have several big buildings like auditoriums, gymnasiums, a museum, a stadium, and a new cafeteria and leisure area is under construction.

The really special thing about the grounds of the school is the sakura. When I arrived, the cherry blossoms had not blossomed, they were still buds. As of yesterday (Friday), they were all either in bloom or half blooming, and they create the most amazing avenue to walk along. The picture I've included I took on my way back from school yesterday, it's such a treat to have something that beautiful to walk next to.

On Monday night Jason and I were accompanied by the IB admin assistant who has been filling me in on all of the details about the position, and we went to visit some apartments. We visited three altogether, the first two were not really our style, but the last was, and we put in an application. The process of visiting and putting in the application took over two hours, so we all went out for dinner together straight afterwards.

I'm not going to write this as a day-by-day blow-by-blow description because I'll be here forever and it will get dead boring very quickly, so here's some highlights:

There was a typhoon on Tuesday and so we all got sent home early, although I left a little later than everyone else and was walking to the station just as the wind was really starting to pick up and the rain was starting. Got back to the hotel with no problems though, and we made a mad dash for dinner, deciding on McDonalds because we didn't have to go very far. The wind was incredible, and we saw a lot of people whose umbrellas had been completely destroyed by gusts of wind, some holding only the metal frame remaining.

Jason contacted a recruitment agency, met with them, and has a job interview scheduled for next week.

I started teaching my classes on Thursday, and my year 11s are great to work with. My year 9s, are year 9s. I'm going to have to delve deep into my brain to remember all my classroom management strategies again, not to control the class, but to engage them and get them on task. I haven't met my year 7s yet, they start classes on Monday. The first two days are orientation, so I won't be going through any English content with them until Wednesday.

We got approved for the apartment we applied for on Thursday, paid the deposit, key money, first month's rent and associated fees last night. We can pick up the keys today!

We also applied for our alien registration cards last night and got a certificate stating that we have a fixed address so that we can open a bank account and buy a mobile phone. There's a lot of administrative things that need to be done just to get by every day, but we're getting there.

We are going shopping today and tomorrow, so that we can live and sleep in our apartment. We have a long weekend ahead of us I think, but we've made real headway.

Shanghai/Beijing

Hello!

The big highlight of the solar eclipse is in the link below.

Well, after the lovely outing to Cybermart again, we had Thai hot pot, not being able to find a little sheep outlet nearby. Quite good, but not quite what I was after. The lights of Nanjing Rd are something else, and so we did a bit of wandering to check it out. Photos in the link that follows.

We were going to go to a water village called Zhujiajiao the next day, but in the end it was all a bit much, and so we ended up going to Yuyuan gardens and attached market instead. The gardens weren't hugely special, but it provided a bit of escape from the bustle of Shanghai, and we spent a bit of time wandering around. Saw some kittens, probably all from the same litter, tiny little neglected and flea-ridden things. Really quite sad, but there was nothing that we could realistically do about them. Putting food in front of them, they had no idea what to do, and would sniff it, then fall over, then forget it was there.

On Friday we left for Beijing. Check out from our hostel was at midday and so we had a 5 or 6 hour wait before we caught a taxi to Shanghai railway station. The train journey was fine, we had a soft sleeper, and I slept like the dead most of the way. The same can't be said for Jason, but I wasn't awake for that. It was a 10 hour trip, and on the other end, the queue for the taxis was absolutely brutal. After about 30 minutes waiting in the line, we finally got to a taxi, who didn't know where our hostel was, and so it was back in the queue for us, but not really, because by this point the queue has morphed into an all-out tooth and nail every man for himself fight.

We eventually got to where we had to go, and Beijing is pretty awesome. The temperature isn't revolting, but that's mostly because the humidity isn't as awful. We're about a 15 minute walk from Tianneman square and the forbidden city. We went to the forbidden city and Tianneman square on a Sunday, and that was a massive mistake. Crowds were huge, and it was a pretty hot, sunny day. We didn't end up staying for long because it was hard to move around, but we've been back to Tianneman square since. We're going back tomorrow again, because we want to see (pickled) Mao in his memorial hall. The queue is massive and there's no bags allowed, so we're going first thing in the morning with just our wallets.

Because the forbidden city was so crowded, we decided to take a day trip out to the summer palace, and that was fantastic. So much variety and amazing views, difficult to really describe except in photos, which will be coming soon.

After the summer palace, (same day), we went to Beijing's electronics market, which was really different to Shanghai's in that hardly any Westerners were there, and they were even more ready to pounce.

Foodwise, we've had so many treats this trip. In Shanghai we went to South Beauty restaurant, extravagant and delicious, for a fraction of the cost you'd pay back home. Went to a cheapo dumpling place and had xiao long bao, the soup dumplings, but they weren't as good as the dumpling place I used to go to. Thai hot pot, dim sum at Xintiandi, Sichuan, a little bit of street food (I can't trust it as much in Summer).

In Beijing, it's been even more varied. Went to a Sichuan place called Spicy Grandma, where we had the most amazing braised pork belly which remained amazing until the point where the fat on the pork changed from "mmmmm rich and yummy" to "oh my god I feel suddenly ill". Went to Quanjude Roast duck restaurant - arguably the best in Beijing, 5 storeys high, queues of over 40 at each floor, and geez the duck was good. We went to "Ghost Street" - a place full of eateries, and I took Jason to REAL hot pot, which was great, even if we left the place sweating. We went back again last night, but this time had the arabic-inspired Xinjiang cuisine. It was really cool to have dumplings filled with spices you'd expect in a doner kebab. Ghost street is amazing at night, and again photos are forthcoming, but not yet.

Last little bit before I sign off on this massive update. Today we went to the Mutianyu section of the great wall, and it was fantastic. Photos to come soon.

Below is a link to Jason's photos, he's been more selective with the upload than I have, and so most of them are worth looking at.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derphead/sets/72157621870975258/