I’ve Got A New Phone!

Posted on March 31, 2009 by tokyofox

Finally moved into the modern age a couple of weeks ago by swapping my phone for something a bit more modern. When I bought my old one four years ago it was the very latest phone on the market but in an ever-changing market it wasn’t long before it became dated.

In the present day that phone was considered ancient and the network carrier changed name from Vodafone to Softbank ages ago so it was high time I traded it in. The old one had a TV function on it which I rarely used (as mentioned in a previous post, Japanese TV is not so interesting to non-Japanese people) so I didn’t bother getting such a feature on the new lighter model.

The Japanese are aboslutely obsessed with their mobiles and the trains, for example, are full of people playing with their phones. While I do a bit of that myself I only really ever use the e-mailing function (the equivalent of text messaging in the western world) while occasionally having a dabble with the camera and inevitably a few calls have to be made.

As a result I changed to a cheaper plan which will hopefully save me a bit of money in the credit crunch era. I thought it would be fairly simple to change my phone for they actually sent me a letter saying I could change it for free as the old model was so out-of-date.

As always though in Japan, it took an age to do this while we went through the lengthy process of confirming all details to an almost-tedious extent. The guy was of course nice enough and as much as I love the service in this country I do sometimes wonder why it takes them so long to ‘make the sale’ as it gets tiring listening to them go through every possible detail and then repeat the process again to confirm. Maybe I am being a bit harsh but I don’t know why some of these transactions take around an hour.

 
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Kung Fu Panda Special Lesson

Posted on March 21, 2009 by tokyofox

Kung Fu Panda was the surprise hit of last year for me as I originally thought it was some horrible cutesy cr*p aimed at the Japanese market. I saw it on the plane last summer when I went to Malaysia and again when I went to Laos via Bangkok as I was so tired that I fell asleep with 20 minutes left the first time I watched it.

While at home at Christmas I bought a cheap Kung Fu Panda annual in the sales which inspired me to use some of the material inside it as part of my special Kung Fu Panda lesson recently. Having photocopied many pictures of Po (the star of the film), and a maze, word-search and ‘cut out’ mask I went about constructing a special fun-packed animal lesson loosely based around some of the units in the kids books.

      

I never do craft work in kids lessons as I have always been of the opinion that in regular lessons it is bit of a cop-out when they are there to learn, practice and produce English via a wide variety of activities and games. However, I guess there’s a time and place for craft work and as a couple of my groups were ahead of pacing I decided to allow them to make a panda poster one week (using the target language of the recent units) and then a mask the following one which was worn while playing the ‘fishing for animals’ magnet game (see pictures to get the idea!)

 

On top of that I also incorporated some of my personal items into the lesson such as any random animal photos I have (i.e. me holding a crocodile, me and Gromit the dog, swimming with fish, riding an elephant, Jaws, an Okinawan buffalo, my ‘Pringles’ duck impression and so on), my frog ‘croaking’ guiro-type thing, my Aussie magnets, coasters and cork hat.

Special ‘Fu Juice’ was on the menu in one of the lessons which was basically just a bottle of green tea with a new label on it. The kids were fooled up until they tasted it! I also shared out some cheap animal biscuits which had the written English word on them which was a chance to re-enforce their phonics and not just me trying to buy popularity!! Overall, the students seemed to enjoy these special themed lessons and I will now keep an eye out to see how I can shoehorn other such film related things into my lessons.

Posted in English Teaching, Films | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Terrible Terebi

Posted on March 13, 2009 by tokyofox

Terebi is the butchered up way in which the Japanese say television and having been subjected to such viewing over the years I have to say that TV programmes in this country are among the world’s most dumbed down television.

It seems that a large percentage of Japanese TV features a studio audience on a garish-coloured set going crazy about some ‘tarento‘ (talent or celebrity) eating what looks like fairly average food (surprising given the fine nature of Japanese cuisine) and inevitably squealing out the word “oishii” (delicious). Is there really no other way to describe it? It would appear not and on top of that it doesn’t even tell you much, if anything about the taste of the food.

If that spectacle isn’t enough to test ones patience, then bright, flashing kanji captions appear willy-nilly throughout often accompanied by unnecessary sound effects. Furthermore, so many shows constantly feature a little box in the corner where the reactions of Japanese celebrities’ faces can be seen.

Sure, there’s a time and place for this kind of thing but its almost constant throughout the Japanese TV network. I think I remember reading somewhere recently that Japanese need to feel the empathy the audience is feeling to enjoy the television event whereas westerners can make up their own reactions to such things. Not sure if thats correct but there’s probably an element of truth in it.

With all this dire tripe served up on Japanese TV I am so glad that I have cable TV which is far from perfect but its an improvement. I guess though, that as time progresses, that TV will be viewed less and less with the internet taking over. I already watch more on internet sites like YouTube and project free-tv and with football being streamed live on sites like iraqgoals there will be very little, if no room in my life for Japanese terebi. I won’t miss it!

Posted in Japan Life, Quirky Japan, TV Shows | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Bored Of Snowboarding In Hakuba?

Posted on March 2, 2009 by tokyofox

Having had flu for over a week before my trip I was very apprehensive about myself and Ethan’s yearly trip to Hakuba and it’s fair to say that it wasn’t the most succesful trip but not due to any argument between us. We got on fine as always but I somehow lost my ski-lift pass after the first day and had to fork out 5000 yen for a new one day pass which I wasn’t happy about as we were trying to cut costs this year by staying at a cheaper hotel down the road from the resort rather than staying on site like we did last year and the year before.

On top of that weather conditions were fairly sh*te on the Friday after a very promising start. It was great for the first hour between eight and nine with nice powdery snow but went downhill after that. It then became very rainy, cold and windy resulting in the main gondola being closed which meant the courses we could use were very limited which resulted in us calling it a day slightly earlier than usual at 3pm.

Back at the hotel the two of us then shared a hot bath which is such a Japanese tradition and not a homosexual free-for-all. These baths may be immensely popular with the locals but we lasted only a few minutes before giving up.

After a short nap (much needed after very little sleep on the overnight bus journey) we decided to forego dinner (probably a good idea given the tiny meal we were served up for breakfast the following morning) and went into town as Ethan was desparate to return to the Mexican restaurant we visited last year but certainly not to try the aptly named ‘death’ sauce again! After a not-so-amazing meal we then had to run through the sludgy streets to catch the last bus back to our hotel as one bus didn’t stop for us outside the restaurant as we had expected it would.

 

The Saturday morning was also frustrating as the gondola didn’t open for a while and when it did it always had long queues. Also, the second mountain link was closed until the early afternoon for no justifiable reasons it seemed as the weather conditions were very good. To be honest, the trip was not such a disaster but we might have to think again when it comes to choosing our next snowboarding destination.

 
Posted in Action & Adventure, Japan Travel | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Finally Got My Hands On The F-Cup Cookie

Posted on February 18, 2009 by tokyofox

Given that I don’t take much notice of the local media my news about Japan still comes from external sources and quite often the things that I hear about Tokyo are completely new to me. The international media tends to only focus on the weird and (not-so) wonderful things to come out of Japan which usually revolves around very silly Japanese TV game shows (which I never see) or fairly useless innovations.

One such example was ‘F-Cup Cookie’ (read by some as f*ck up cookie, I kid you not!) which were heavily talked about on Scott Mills’ excellent BBC Radio One show back in December 2007. These are special cookies which are supposed to enhance womens breasts which, given the fact that the Japanese (if I can generalise for a moment!) are not so well endowed in that department, you would have thought would maybe be popular among the millions of overly-fashion conscious Tokyo girls.

Typically, I never saw such products on sale anywhere until finally I came across them the other day in one of the chain drug stores. About 750 yen for a box of 14 and by taking two a day a girls bust size supposedly increases which is exactly what Scott Mills put to the test which can be seen here in this video.

Being the romantic that I am I gave them to my girlfriend for her birthday the other week. In my defence, I should say that she did know about them beforehand and knew that it was a joke and that I was not implying anything by giving them to her. Furthermore, I would also like to add that I bought her a silver necklace, flowers, card and a t-shirt and made her a photo frame. I also took her out on both the Saturday and Sunday night so hopefully she will remember all that rather than the aforementioned cookie.

   
Posted in Food & Drink, Hentai, Japan Life | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Not The Best Way To Get A-Head In Life!

Posted on February 10, 2009 by tokyofox

A couple of years ago I was featured on Keikotomanabu website and just this last month I have appeared in the magazine made by the same company which one of my students works for. However, you may have to look closely at the photo below to see yours truly as it is only the back of my head which is shown. Some would say that that is my best side!!

The fact is that the article is all about one of my schools students (not mine though) and I was chosen due to me being the only one in the school at that time back in November. My out-of-focus head was just used for some arty-farty photograph technique and not surprisingly most of my students failed to notice it when I showed them the magzine!

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TF Film Review: Quantum Of Solace (2008)

Posted on February 6, 2009 by tokyofox

Here it is then – a review of a film which came out in November last year apart from the fact that it has only just been released here in Japan. These delayed releases really are annoying as you can basically get the movie on download before it comes out here. I know that promotion and subtitling can take time but if some films have a worldwide release date then surely so can most others, especially ‘Quantum of Solace‘ which is even distributed by Sony who are of course a Japanese company.

 

I was very late to get into the Bond franchise with ‘Tomorrow Never Dies‘ (1997) being the first one I saw in its entirety and from then I on I was hooked and over the years I have made the effort to see many of the others, both new and old. I even went to James Bond Island near Phuket (featured in 1974’s ‘The Man With The Golden Gun‘) which was a highlight at the time for me and Ethan.

Having bought my ticket in advance (its 500 yen cheaper and also included a free bottle of Coca Cola Zero zero 7) I got up early last week for the 10am showing before work. I’d been doing my best to avoid any article or TV report about the film but couldn’t help but hear that it was now more similar to the excellent Bourne films and that was constantly in my mind as I watched some of the opening scenes which were reminiscent of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ (2007) in my opinion but I guess that film franchise also borrowed heavily from Bond.

Overall, I enjoyed the action parts of the film, the Latin-American scenery and just looking at Olga Kurylenko who is one of the best looking Bond girls in my opinion. I can’t really explain it plot-wise (luckily so for those who haven’t seen it yet!) but that’s never been such an important thing for me. Of course its difficult to re-boot a franchise so soon after it was initially done and so it was always going to struggle to match the exploits of  ‘Casino Royale’ (2006) but I thought it was still quite good and continued the story of its predecessor which is rare in 007 films. As much as I like Daniel Craig’s portrayal of Bond I do miss the little things which made 007 iconic such as the gadgets, quips and memorable lines.

Tokyo Fox Rating 7/10

You can see my ‘Casino Royale’ filming locations here and here.

Posted in Films, James Bond | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt VI – Krakow (Poland)

Posted on January 31, 2009 by tokyofox

The overnight journey from Bratislava to Krakow was my first time to experience a sleeper train where I was on the top of three beds in our shared cabin. With no idea what was outside it really felt like a roller-coaster at times (in terms of that feeling you get in your stomach) as the train bumped about while speeding along.

There were also lengthy stops at other stations where I was often wondering if it was our destination. Thankfully the conductor woke us up 30 minutes before our arrival in what was a very cold and snowy Polish city.

We eventually checked into Good Bye Lenin hostel for a couple of nights and again I headed off on my own as Hugo just wanted to laze around. Wieliczka salt mines were my destination after a short 30 minute bus journey out of the city. I had to rely on an old local woman to point me in the right direction of the mines as I got off a stop too late and very grateful I was too as she didn’t speak a word of English but must have guessed where I was going.

The mines were 150 metres below ground so I had to walk down about 400 steps to get to see the worlds deepest Chapel where even the chandeliers are made of rock salt albeit grey in colour rather than white. It was more interesting than I thought it would be and the guide was informative with his stories but at the end of the day its still difficult to get over the fact that its all just a load of salt and therefore hard to take too serious. Luckily a lift could take us back up to the surface.

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Once back in Krakow I looked around Wawel Hill which had a really beautiful castle and cathedral and in the evening our excellent hostel had a cooking Polish food together type event which was a nice way of meeting a few other guests staying there.

  

A 90 minute bus trip the following morning took us to Auschwitz which was probably my main reason for wanting to visit Krakow. Overall, it was a thoroughly interesting  place to visit and the concentration camps and their rather gruesome stories in the barracks were a fascinating insight into such a horrific piece of history. After such a day we certainly needed a few drinks so went out on a pub crawl with people from the hostel which for some reason only included two places.

  

The good thing about Krakow is that its small, compact and easy to walk around which I did for my swansong on my final morning taking in Kazimierz Jewish quarter and the Old Town which was nice but difficult given the -10 degrees celsius temperature.

 
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Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt V – Vienna (Austria)

Posted on January 26, 2009 by tokyofox

Having ‘done’ Bratislava quicker than I imagined I decided to take a day return to Vienna as it was only an hour away for just nine euro’s return on the train. Hugo was being a miserable git and decided to stay put in Slovakia as he wanted to just sit around reading a newspaper or something. A waste of time in my opinion but I guess the beauty of travelling is that you just do whatever you wanna do.

Consequently, I went alone and got off to an awful start but I wasn’t the only one! When the platform for our train was announced 10 minutes before its departure a small cluster of people went to platform 1 where a train was waiting. One guy opened the door and got on and about eight more of us followed suit but as soon as we stepped onto the train we were shocked as it started moving very slowly ending up at the depot five minutes away where we then had to run back along the track resulting in all of us missing our intended 11am train and so we then had to wait nearly an hour for the next one!

Didn’t bother with any tram or train tickets once in Vienna as I headed first for Schönbrunn Palace on the outskirts which featured in the 1987 James Bond film ‘The Living Daylights‘. My initial bad impressions (due to the seemingly ever-present scaffolding on such places) were thankfully soon to be found wide of the mark when I went round the back and saw the beautiful sunny sight of the Gloriette structure in the distance from the Palace which would provide great views across the city as well as of the Palace.

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After that I went to Stephansplatz in the city to see the humungous Stephansdom and walked on over through the picturesque Hofberg Imperial Palace area avoiding purchase of most things which seemed so expensive now I was back in Western Europe. After about four hours looking round Vienna it was time to head back to Bratislava which I did but not before I’d made another (slight) mistake as I got on a train which took me to a station on the other side of Bratislava. Without a map I just got on a bus which many locals were getting on and hoped for all hell that it was heading back over the river to the part of the city I recognised. Luckily it did just that and I had a few hours left before Hugo and I would take the overnight train out of Slovakia.

    

Posted in Euro Travel, Films, James Bond, Movie Locations | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Euro Trip 2008/09 Pt IV – Bratislava (Slovakia)

Posted on January 19, 2009 by tokyofox

Having packed our bags the nights before (easy for light traveller Hugo who only brought what he was wearing and a few changes of underwear!) we had to get up at 5.30am to get to the bus station in time for our jourmey out of Hungary and into Slovakia an hour later. It was the coldest bus ever and I slept for a short while before waking up wondering which country we were in. Still Hungary!

As we later drove straight through some run-down place with broken windows posing as passport control. I thought there might be some short procedure with a passport check but that was definitely not the case. We just hopped on a random tram where luckily some stranger pointed us in the right direction where we eventually checked into Hostel Vegas which was run by a young Slovak guy who had lived in Brixton and had certainly picked the English sarcasm and sense of humour.

We headed straight out for Bratislava Castle which was, as often seems to be the case with tourist attractions, a little under-reconstruction and nothing too special to be honest but the city itself was a lovely little place to just wander around. We later walked on up to some tall statue on a hill overlooking the whole of Bratislava which gave the typical panoramic view of the city and beyond.

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On a much lighter note the snow on the parked cars seemingly gave the excuse for some people to draw phallic symbols on the windscreen or bonnet and there were a fair number of these throughout the city. Needless to say that we joined in with this “craze”.

Our room-mate was from Indonesia and spoke German and only a tiny bit of English so I ended up speaking by far the most German since I lived and worked in Hamburg in 2003. This guy came out with us for dinner at the Slovak pub where I had bryndza sheeps cheese as part of a pasta dish with pork which was very nice.

Posted in Euro Travel | Tagged | 2 Comments