月別アーカイブ: 2009年7月

Cheap living part 1

Simon and I have made it through our first few months living fairly cheaply. Apart from rent that is.

You can buy heaps of house hold necessities like cutlery, toiletries, stationary, containers for everything and so on from shops called “Hyaku yen”(100yen) Shops, they have nearly everything you need. They are like the equivalent to the Reject Shop or Hot Dollar back in Australia, but totally kick their butts. They have the most random things you could need from storage drawers, to screwdrivers to popcorn, instant curry and noodles, or little tatami mats, thongs, ear cleaners, nail polish, etc, etc. And everything is actually 100yen, not like the Reject shop where you have to pay up to $5 for things. I guess Japan can afford such low costs for their items as there are just sooo many people living here they will still make a profit.

There is even a grocery version of the “Hyaku yen” i.e. 100Yen Lawsons, we have beenbuying a majority of our food from here. A key phrase I have learnt is “fukuro ga irimasen”(i don’t need a bag)-yes I take my canvas bag to the supermarket, lol, to which the cashier is more than happy to hear.

Background Music

One of the first things I noticed about our little town is that there is background music playing as walk the streets. It’s pretty random, but at least no one wears those lame t-shits that say “I wish life had background music” or something equally lame lol.

So at different times of the day you can catch tunes ranging from some random Rastafarian type beats, to music which sounds like its from a Final Fantasy games, to jazzy melodies and a whole other range of questionable songs. I think that its pretty cool/cute tat our town has its own songs playing. I am not sure if any other tows do the same thing though, but I think it gives the place a nice atmosphere.

Also at 6pm everyday there is a tune which is played that signals to the children “Time to head home, its getting late, you’re parents will be wondering where you are, it’s time for dinner, etc…” or something to that extent. I suppose it is fairly handy for children to have a signal to tell them to start heading home, particularly if they don’t wear watches or pay attention to the time.

I was just told that the ‘background music’ to our town may be a local radio station. Sometimes we hear a voice over that sounds like its advertising something, I guess I should find out what is being said sometime. But he also says that he has never heard ‘background music in other towns.

wow Tokyo summer

word about a Tokyo summer… wow

So I’ve lived in Japan for 5 years when I was little…

but that was many years ago. 13 years ago exactly.

I had completely forgotten how ridiculous(ly hot) Tokyo’s summer can get.

To be fair I think it got hotter in the last few years.

I mean… 3 days ago the weather network announced that the rainy season was officially over

2 days ago it was 35 degrees. FML!

I’m from Canad, the land of snow, Eskimos, poutine and everything else related to cold weather!!

No way on earth am I ready for a intense weather like this one.

And while I’m melting away under the heat dressed in a my wife beater and shorts…

The Tokyo girls are fully covered in long sleeve shirts, gloves, hats, umbrellas (but for some reason very very short shorts)

I find it amusing that while girls in Canada spend a fortune going  to tanning salons,

girls in Japan spend 10000X more money on whitening lotion!!

wow…

donation please?

Last Friday Night Part 4 of 5

So my attempt to get more money had gone awry. Plan B was to try my hardest to get into the music that was playing on the dance floor while I waited for my friends to come. By this stage the dance floor was still half empty so I felt a little self-conscious but I took comfort in the fact that my friends would be arriving in about 20 minutes.

20 minutes later I got a text from my group of friends . One of them had forgotten his ID and wasn’t allowed to enter. In an act of solidarity they forewent the special entry tickets to Axxxcis  and decided to go to Camelot. Camelot is another club whose bouncers are presumably more understanding about missing IDs. I should have met them outside but I didn’t want to upset the Axxcis bouncers again, because I really didn’t want to leave just yet. The place had not yet come into its own.

I decided to explore the place a bit more. I discovered another dance floor upstairs which was where everyone had gone to. There were two electronica musicians making music with a beat box and a laptop and two people painting pictures on the canvases. The place was much cosier than the other two levels and not too long after I started dancing a group of Japanese came on to the dance floor too. One of the guys from the group actually came over to me, mentioned something about me looking frustrated and promptly introduced me to his friends. We all got talking after a while we went to the couches that were positioned near the walls. The girls in the group were studying vetinary science which I thought was very interesting.

Some of the vetinary science students were keen to leave Axxcix and head to Atom. Atom was a familiar name because an Australian friend hates the place. I hadn’t yet been so I asked if I could join them and they said yes.

Festive Ueno

Living in Ueno has been such an exciting experience! Every season Ueno Park has a different character, which makes every season enjoyable. Starting from July, there are evening lanterns all around Ueno Park along with the beautiful water lilies among tall lotus leaves. As I walk to work and home everyday for 20minutes, I feel so relaxed and peaceful. It’s nice living in Ueno!

tokyo transport

Tokyo probably has one of the best transport systems ever! The longest I have ever had to wait for a train to arrive is 5mins(beating Cityrail and waiting at Gosford Station by a longshot). Trains in Tokyo can get you to nearly everywhere you want to go in the city and they are so frequent that your life is no longer run by timetables – as you know that there will be a train coming soon. But if you are on a schedule a good website to use and find out the best train route is Jorudan.

Below is a map of the Japan Rail(JR) lines used…
As you can see the trains go all over the city – talking commuters from one end of the city to the other everyday, and there are also the subway lines. When you first arrive in Tokyo this system might be a little overwhelming and confusing as there are sooo many different lines and different ways you can get from point a to b. But each line has its own colour coded trains.

If you happen to catch the train at peak hour it could mean your playing sardines with a train full of people. And I’m not kidding. Just look at this clip from youtube. Luckily we haven’t been during these times. Well only once or twice like when we went to Disneyland as it was early morning. But a lot of the time I have to stand up on the train from work. Apparently the train line that we live on (Kehin Tohoku) is one of the busiest, as it travels from Omiya in Saitama (north of Tokyo) to Yokohama (South of Tokyo), which means that it would be very convenient for many people to use as they don’t have to transfer lines.

The only thing that I don’t understand about the trains is – Why stop operation at midnight??!?!?! Yes, sadly the trains of Tokyo City cease operating Cinderella style, which seems like such a shame as it means you can either go out early and get the last train home, or pull an all nighter and catch the first trains home, or catch a taxi(which we all know is going to cost at least 100,00 yen). Sigh, there could be so much bar hopping potential.

Apart from that downfall, the ticketing system is awesome! Maps at each station show you how much your ticket will cost for where you want to go. You can get commuter passes called SUICA. Which are plastic magnetic passes that you can load with yen and means that you can sweep through ticket gates without worrying if you have the right ticket amount, as the amount is deducted from your card automatically(If you do happen to go to a station and not have paid enough for their ticket, all stations have conveniently placed a “Fare Adjustment Machine” which automatically calculates how much more you need to pay, minus any embarassing moments). Suica cards are much more sturdy than the flimsy Cityrail paper tickets and are also waterproof, plus they have your details on them in case you accidentaly leave your card on the train.

The Paperclip (A poem, by sir Elwood Coruthors)(read by thou)

Oh my sweet steely friend, how your edges bend and curve at the tips,

your bent hips, form a grip,

to hold in place, the face, of each page I flip,

from the front of my book, you make a trip,

ever so slowly from page to page, you slip,

counting ardently, so not, a plot, line I miss,

Each page is crisp, till you are done with,

now they seem so tattered, so ripped,

bent out of shape, and snipped,

oh my paperclip,

as a book mark, I realise thou art too harsh,

to clasp, with care, something so dear and close to my heart,

I need something flat, more vast,

for every page you pass….lays in ruins,

what I am doing? to continue using,

this tiny sharp paperclip,

as a book mark, thou art ill equipped,

Last Friday Night Part 3 of 5

The group of friends that I had been fortunate to meet had to leave after about half an hour of conversation. I decided to look a round at the dance floors again. They were a bit more populated than before which was good so I tried to get my groove on.

After a while I couldn’t take it any more. I couldn’t help thinking what a stupid rule it was that would effectively prohibit someone from getting more money and spending it in the club. I could only guess that the argument for such a rule was to avoid the confusion that can occur at the entrance when trying to determine who has been in and who hasn’t.

I went down to the ticket window and started explaining that I needed to go to an ATM to get some more money. Eventually they agreed and I hoped that the bouncer got a good look at my face so that he would remember me when I returned.

My bank is Shinsei bank which means I can get money out from only 7elevens and MUFGs (but only during certain times).  It turns out in the area surrounding the club for a few kilometres in every direction there are no 7elevens and at that time the MUFG that I found would not serve me. It took me about 45mins to admit defeat and return to the club.

When I got back to the club, the bouncer, whom I had previously taken pains to ensure that he remembered my face, had now been replaced by two other bouncers. I asked one of the bouncers whether the previous bouncer was coming back. They responded that he would be coming back shortly.

While I was waiting and had just begun to think that in fact the previous bouncer was not returning any time soon, one of the people whom I had met earlier asked me if I needed some help. I explained to him my situation and he talked to the bouncers on my behalf and I regained entry. Luckily they didn’t ask whether I had been successful in my attempts to get more money.

Painting in the park

I decided to do some painting in the park. I haven’t painted for ages, about 18years or so, so I thought it would be a nice relaxing way of chilling out. As it turns out, painting is really difficult!!! I tried to paint on the canvas that I bought at Daiso and used the eisel that I got at the 100 yen store.

I started painting, but it took me about 15 minutes to make just one section entirely red!!! Also, when I drew the sketch, I was quite ambitious. Painting in detail requires a lot of skill, and I have a lack there of.

I sat meticunously painting and repainting the same area, until I got bored of red and decided to paint another section white. I continued as before, painting and painting. It was really theraputic. I messed up the painting trying to do a black line, the thinner I tried to make it, the thicked it became as my hand shook.

It was a really cool idea to paint, I sat and listened to the sounds of the park around me and looked at my view across the lake. My girlfriend came and joined me after an hour or so and we sat there basking in the sun and each-others company. Then we went for a meal, and shopping. This was a while back, maybe a week or two, but it was really cool!

I am going to keep up my new found hobby, my painting was spurred by a dream I had, and although this dream was a nightmare, it was kinda cool, so I thought that I would like some type of pictorial evidence of the ramblings of my psyche. It is nowhere near finished yet, just a few red and white blobs here and there.

Tokyo Career Forum

Yesterday and Today I went to the Tokyo Career Forum!

For those of you who don’t know what it is… it’s an annual job fair held at the Big Site in Tokyo for bilingual students!

Compared to previous years, there was a noticeable decrease in the number of companies that attended (less than half!) but nevertheless it was a good experience.

Most of the interviews are conducted in Japanese, but there are still good number of interviews that are conducted in English, so it’s an ideal job hunting destination for foreign students living in Japan. Actually, I was surprised to see how many foreign people there were!

In total, I was interviewed at 4 different companies… one of which was done in Japanese. I can’ describe how stressful it was! Conversational Japanese is ok for me, but as soon as I have to speak formally, I freeze up… keigo is too difficult! and I’m sure it’s even difficult for some Japanese students!

Some notable companies that attended this forum was Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland, Mitsubishi UFJ, P&G etc etc… and believe it or not, Abercrombie and Fitch. Apparently they’re launching their product into the Japanese market (finally) and they’ll be opening their first store later this year, and they were recruiting staff for the position of “management trainee”… it sounded interesting definitely, and their booth was very popular!!

I really hope by next year, the economy will pick up a bit… there are too much competition and too little job positions available this year…

Anyways, for those of you who are considering a long term commitment in Japan, I suggest you try out the Tokyo career forum next year!!