Tokyo Fox (東京狐)

Bowing Out Of Tokiwadai School

Posted on October 13, 2009 by tokyofox

I finally left Tokiwadai school last month after 4.5 years which was not something I wanted and was a very sad moment for both me and my students. The reason for the change was that this school as well as a couple more near where I live became part of a different district recently and the bosses didn’t want any of us to be working in two districts. More ridiculous is that this school is right near where I live and in easy walking distance which was a huge bonus as the early starts on Saturday mornings meant it was very convenient for me.

Now I have to go to Gotanda which is about an hour away door to door and only time will tell if I can get used to doing that week in week out. I met many great people in Tokiwadai school over the years but there are five people who stand out above the others who I want to mention here.

Starting with the adults, Hiroko and Masafusa have been my private students since day one and have been incredibly kind and generous to me with regular gifts and dinner dates. In the lesson they have shown me probably far more respect than I ever deserve and have always been up for the additional resource materials which I have regularly used and/or tested out on them.

Saying goodbye to them was difficult but not as hard as saying bye to the three young girls I have been teaching for a couple of years. While its easy for me to stay in touch with adults the same obviously can’t be said of the kids. Saki and Misaki have kicked off my Saturday’s in fine style and they were a great pair, possibly my favourite students, who were a real pleasure to teach and their progress was amazing. They were always really energetic and worked so well together and got into all of my games and activities without any complaint.

My final mention goes to Hiiragi who must be one of the most mature 8 year olds out there. She was a private kid student and also a joy to teach as she just soaked up all the new vocabulary and grammar with such relative ease. On top of that she really respected me and her farewell card to me was beyond belief for someone of that age. I couldn’t have penned such thoughtful, emotional words when I was twice her age!

My girlfriend even cried when she read her and her mum’s letters to me. The latter even thanked me for influencing her daughter with my musical and football tastes based on the music I used in the lessons and mentioning Leicester City once or twice. Or maybe it was because I bought her the Match of the Day annual last Christmas as it featured her favourite player Peter Crouch (no idea why that is so) and after showing her the Gary Lineker/Leicester City page I was so proud when she had a Foxes badge on her mobile phone wallpaper the following week.

Posted in English Teaching | 4 Comments

Cheese Curry Cup Noodle

Posted on October 12, 2009 by tokyofox

A few months ago I blogged about F-Cup Cookie after I had heard about it on Scott Mills’ Radio One podcast. I may be living in Japan but there are always things from Japan which make their way into the British media and are almost always of the more quirky nature.

Mills occasionally refers to his Japanese podcast listener who seemingly sends him stuff to sample and talk about on air. The latest thing to be mentioned was Cheese Curry cup noodle (no plural in Japan by the way so noodle and cookie is right, well it’s right in a Japanglish type way!) which doesn’t sound too strange to me but maybe I have been here too long!

Anyway, I finally spotted one of them in the convenience store yesterday and had it for my dinner at work and I’ve got to say that it was actually very nice and not anywhere near as disgusting as one might imagine.

Posted in Food & Drink | Tagged cheese curry, cheese curry cup noodle | Leave a comment

My First Bicycle In Japan Opens Up Many More Options For Me

Posted on October 10, 2009 by tokyofox

One of the sad things about being here in Japan is that some really good friends go back home. One of those people who I thought would be here for longer than me was Ethan who I have known since my days at N*va, and have been on many snowboarding and theme park excursions with.

I was therefore shocked a few months ago when he said he was leaving to join the US Army but one thing I did get out of his departure was a new road bike……but not for free though. Having said I’d buy it off him a few months ago, I was looking forward to using it to go to three of my nearby schools but then I got transferred from two of those!

On top of that it has also been raining heavily quite a lot recently so that I haven’t been able to use the bike much beyond a few little trips to the supermarket or wherever which it has to be said is nice.

For years I have become increasingly irritated by Japanese cyclists with their squeaky breaks and rude ringing of bells (rude to me but normal over here) as they pedal up and down the paths thinking they own them. Riding on the roads just isn’t so common here as people think its dangerous but it ain’t half quicker than using the pavements.

What is more of a problem for me is finding somewhere to park the thing. I certainly don’t want to pay to leave it in a proper parking lot and leaving it anywhere near the station usually results in a ticket being put on it and with that comes the possibility of having it taken away which then costs a few thousand yen to get back. Finding a quite backstreet just away from the station can be a taxing task at times and even though it’s a safe country I still prefer to actually lock the bike to something rather than just putting it round the frame and wheel.

Posted in Cycling | Tagged cycling in japan, Itabashi-ku, Japanese cyclists, Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre, why do japanese cycle down the wrong side of the road, why do japanese cycle so badly? | 1 Comment

Vietnamese Festival 2009

Posted on September 29, 2009 by tokyofox

A couple of Sunday’s ago my girlfriend and I met up with our friend Mizuki in Harajuku to go to the Vietnamese Festival on another scorcher of an afternoon in Yoyogi Park. Though not as colourful or busy as the Brazilian Festival a couple of weeks prior to this it was still a good way to spend the day catching up with each other while getting drunk in the knowledge that there was no work the following day as it was a holiday.

In fact the day turned into a bit of a bender as we started off with a few beers in the park just before 3pm and continued with the 333 (ba ba ba) Vietnamese beer at the festival. I thought this beer was fine when I went to Vietnam a few years ago and so was more than happy to consume it again all these years later though Mizuki, who lived in Ho Chi Minh for a year, woud no doubt disagree with me. There was some nice melodic Vietnamese music being performed live on stage and I had some pho (Vietnamese beef and noodle dish) before we went off to Ikebukuro to continue drinking until midnight. About 9 hours of drinking and amazingly I felt absolutely fine the following morning!

Posted in Asia Travel | Tagged tokyo festivals, vietnamese festival tokyo, yoyogi park events | 2 Comments

Tokyo Daytripper: Monkey-ing About On Sarushima

Posted on September 23, 2009 by tokyofox

Over a year ago I read an article in a magazine about there being an island in Tokyo Bay which can be easily reached on a day trip. Even now, many of my students haven’t even heard of it. Monkey Island (Saru-shima) is just 15 minutes away from the south-west coast of Tokyo.

A couple of Sunday’s ago Michael and I set off for day away from it all which was made a bit more difficult in terms of getting there due to work being done of the main line that takes you to the naval port city of Yokosuka which is the gateway to the island. It may have absolutely bucketed it down with rain the night before but it was a beautiful sunny September day on what was likely to be the last summer weekend.

Sarushima is certainly no paradise island but the excitement came from just being able to take an island break from the concrete jungle while not actually leaving Tokyo. The island consists of a small beach on one end which is packed full of day trippers having barbecues on the black sand while the rest of the tiny island consists of vegetation surrounding the brick lined WWII tunnels and the remains of artillery positions.

It only took a very leisurely hour to see the whole island (a cave, rock pools, rocky promontory for fishing) and then we found a spot on the beach to sit among the crowds where we drank a few beers (bought from the island shop), had a quick swim and fell asleep before getting the last boat back to the mainland.

Despite the islands name there are no monkeys on Sarushima. A priest was supposedly once guided to the beach by a white monkey or something like that and thats where the island gets its name.

Posted in Japan Travel, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged day trips from tokyo, how to get to monkey island, monkey island, sarushima, Tokyo Daytripper:, tokyo islands, yokosuka | 8 Comments

Tokyo Daytripper: Life’s A Beach At Enoshima

Posted on September 21, 2009 by tokyofox

It may have been sunny on September 11th but the beach at Enoshima was more-or-less empty as Japanese people tend to not go to the beach based on the calendar rather than the temperature which was about 29 degrees celsius at times. Once August has finished they seemingly just switch to Autumn mode which has been made notable by changes in fashion among the Japanese female population.

There is an island in Enoshima connected by a bridge which my friend Michael (from my TESOL course) and I visited first to work up a sweat before cooling off later in the sea. The island is a bit of a tourist trap with plenty of souvenir shops (one which has a ‘mouth of truth’ wish machine remnant of the real one which I visited in Rome last month) and restaurants as well as a shrine and botanical garden which I didn’t go in this time as we didn’t feel the need to waste money on the entrance fee. The glass tower in the garden sticks out from the top of the island and reminds me ever so slightly of Scaramanga‘s secret lair on James Bond Island as depicted in ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’.

There are many stairs, high slopes and hills on Enoshima which can lead to the rockpools and caves on the back of the island where dozens of hawks fly overhead. Elsewhere on the island there is also a lovers shrine featuring thousands of padlocks which I guess is a sign of their love or something like that. After that, we took to the beach and its dirty black sand where we consumed a few beers, went for a swim and fell asleep before heading home.

Posted in Japan Travel, Tokyo Daytripper: | Tagged beaches near tokyo, day trips from tokyo, enoshima, hot japanese beach babes, how to get to enoshima, Tokyo Daytripper: | 5 Comments

Brazilian Festival 2009

Posted on September 18, 2009 by tokyofox

Throughout the summer months Yoyogi Park plays host to many countries’ festivals of which I have been to a fair few in the past. This year I hadn’t been to any due to TESOL course commitments and being on holiday and so on but I did meet up with Peter and his wife Kumiko (below) to go to the Brazilian festival a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely sunny day and inevitably busy as I guess the idea of a Brazilian festival sounds a bit more exotic than the other ones with its colour, samba dancing and what-have-you-not.

I was probably more excited though about just having a few beers as I had stayed off the alcohol for a while before due to the problem with my wisdom tooth. There was some Brazilian beer on sale which was nice and refreshing and I bumped into my colleague and good friend Mostyn (below) who was drinking caipirinha’s which on first taste were very strong but maybe all the alcohol is in the top of the cocktail.

All in all it was a good day, though to be honest these festivals are pretty much all the same to me – lots of people, big queues for the food stalls and music that is not so appealing to my ears. However, that’s not the point as its just nice to hang out and get away from it all amid such an atmosphere.

Posted in Food & Drink, Japan Life | Tagged Brazilian Festival tokyo, tokyo festivals, yoyogi park events | 1 Comment

The Tooth Of The Matter

Posted on September 18, 2009 by tokyofox

Last December I wrote an entry called Menace Tooth Society about some tooth pains I had and having just re-read that article it was quite a surprise as I didn’t remember hardly anything about the visit to the dentist. Anyway, whilst doing the TESOL course earlier in the year I began to occasionally feel unbearably sharp pains in my teeth on the left side of my mouth. It felt like a tooth (for I didn’t know which one was the problem) was just being bottomed out and these aches came and went within an hour or two and repeated every two or three weeks up until last month including one horrible night of pain at Luke Skywalker’s home in Tunisia. That was nothing to do with Darth Vader using his dark side powers on me for staying at a Jedi’s home!

On Saturday afternoon on the 29th of August the tooth pain started but this time it just didn’t stop. I took painkillers and had to wait till the following Tuesday to see my dentist for an emergency appointment. Things moved a lot faster than I had expected as I had an x-ray and he pointed out the problematic wisdom tooth in the top of my mouth which was pulled out fairly quickly. I could even hear the cracking, crunching sound as this was done but obviously felt nothing as the anesthetic worked its magic.

There was a bit of blood and a huge hole left behind which felt a bit strange for the next few days but a load of painkillers had been prescribed to ease that pain and now I am just waiting for the hole to close up. Hopefully, that is the end of the matter. This is the tooth that was extracted though (maybe thankfully!) it can’t be seen so clearly.

Posted in Japan Life | 3 Comments

Tunisia 2009 Pt II: El Jem, Monastir & Tunis

Posted on September 5, 2009 by tokyofox

Another 5am start for my final full day in Tunisia. I was at the louage station by 5.45am waiting for the shared taxi to fill-up. Unfortunately I had to wait 90minutes for it to be full which is not that bad I guess but when yoh haven’t got so much time on your side its not so great. I was still in El Jem by 8am though and visited the amphitheatre there which was really nice and fairly empty when I got there though that didn’t last long as a load of German tour buses soon arrived thereafter.

A louage back to Sousse followed by a fairly instant louage down to Monastir followed. I visited the Ribat in Monastir which featured in ‘Monty Python’s Life Of Brian‘ and the (fairly) unique thing about this place is that its right on the beach with the tower offering great views of the beach which I went to after for a quick swim. The sea was so refreshing given the temperature and for me, it was interesting to see Muslims in such a non-religious situation and believe it or not quite a relief to be free of the Star Wars sites which had dominated the trip up until then. Indeed, it would be quite nice to return to the country one day for a ‘normal’ holiday.

Once back in Sousse I later took another louage back to the capital city Tunis which I hadn’t spent any time in on my arrival into the country. The reason for the early starts to all of these days is because the louage situation can get quiet later in the afternoons so one doesn’t want to be waiting around for ages for the car to reach capacity.

Having often been the only guest at my hotels in the south I hadn’t really anticipated the budget hotels being full but the first three I tried were. Eventually I ended up at the ironically named Hotel de la Tranquillite which was under three pounds for the night and was a basic prison cell sweatbox. Still, it did its job providing somewhere for me to lie down at the end of the day and that was basically the end of my first trip to the African continent and it was quite an eye-opener for me in terms of not being able to use hardly any English for the first time in my life. My French skills are fairly basic so I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for someone who doesn’t speak any French at all.

I may have ticked most boxes while I was there due to some excessive travelling but there was just that something lacking which was not having much in the way of conversation, sharing experiences and so on with other travellers.

I had a quick look around Tunis but was too late to visit any of the major attractions in the area but what I did see was the Grand Hotel du Lac ad its strange shape which was maybe an inspiration (or inspired by) for the sandcrawlers in Star Wars.

Posted in Africa Travel, Movie Locations, Star Wars | Tagged el jem, monastir, monty python filming location, sandcrawler, sousse, tunis, tunisia | 3 Comments

Tunisia Filming Locations: Star Wars Traveller – Tatooine (a.k.a. Djerba)

Posted on September 1, 2009 by tokyofox

I just missed a louage to the island of Djerba at 5.30am and then had to wait over an hour for the following one to become full. The cost of the taxi included the ferry crossing and culminated at the north of the island from where I then hired a taxi driver to take me round the places I wanted to visit. This island is a very popular destination for tourists who frequent the eastern side of the island and its beautiful beaches so my driver must have thought I was a right oddity for wanting to see three old run-down buildings on the west side in Ajim.

First stop was the marabout of Sidi Jemour which played Anchorhead in a deleted scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and was also used as the outskirts of Mos Eisley. Personally, I wasn’t that bothered about this place but as I was in the vicinity I thought I may as well see it.

Further down the coast and close to the ferry port was Ben Kenobi’s hermitage; a lone derelict building which appeared on screen for about one second with Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder outside it. The film portrays it as being in the middle of the desert by using a low camera angle but it is fact right next to the sea. This was very geeky but very exciting although there was nothing whatsoever inside for that was no doubt filmed in the studio.

My final port of call on the Star Wars trail was the Mos Eisley Cantina bar where Luke and Ben were introduced to Han Solo before escaping in the Millennium Falcon; filmed on a nearby sidestreet which I found thanks to the map in Mark Dermul’s ‘Trip to Tatooine’ book. Without such a map it would have been fairly impossible to find the Cantina, the blast-off alley and the stormtrooper checkpoint. They were still difficult enough to find even with the map! Of course its been over 30 years since the movie was filmed so needless to say that the buildings are not in good condition but it was nice to finish my Star Wars journey at such a pivotal place in the whole saga.