Tokyo Fox (東京狐)

It’s a fairly known fact that the Japanese work ridiculously long hours each and every day which may explain why they always seem to be sleeping in public whether it be on the trains or in their cars parked by the side of the road which is not too kind on the environment with their engines running unnecessarily.

Anyway, if they’re not falling asleep they are trying to stay awake and it appears to me that so many tend to use eye-drops to help with this. Sure, some (particularly in this hayfever season) use them for other purposes but I’ve never seen so many people openly use them in public. I think the reason for such regular use is not just lack of sleep but also over-heated office air which irriates their eyes making them dry and red and so eye-drops are the solution.

Personally, I absolutely hated them when I was younger and more-or-less had to be pinned to the sofa while my parents added a drop to each eye so I guess I can now be thankful that I don’t work for a Japanese company and so can maximise my sleep if I desire.

Some may see it in the western world as a sign of looking weak but the Japanese custom of bowing is seen through my eyes as being quite a nice tradition. Its always a bit embarassing when you meet someone (whether they be known by you or not) and don’t know whether to greet them with a handshake, a hug, a kiss, a kiss on each cheek, a backslap or whatever.

That uncertainty never happens in Japan as its bowing only when between two Japanese people and of course this method is also more hygenic. Of course bowing can be quite comical sometimes when drunken salarymen (business men) are maybe too close at the end of the night and inadvertantly headbutt one another.

I’ve always been a bit of a nodder especially when it comes to saying hi to someone in passing. Not sure how I was last Christmas when I was back home but I’m told that when I returned to the UK a few years ago I kept on nodding and bowing to everyone out of habit. A sure case that you can take the man out of Japan but you can’t take Japan out of the man!

Cast your mind back excatly two years ago and its fairly likely you won’t remember what happened. If you do its almost certain that you won’t be aware that today is the 2nd Anniversary of this blog. When I told people back then that I had started recording my life on a website they laughed but a couple of years on and they’re not laughing now are they?!!

I didn’t think I would make it beyond a few stories and some random photo albums but somehow I have scraped the barrel to churn out entry after entry and rather proud of it I am too. Whether anyone else is I don’t know! With the continued growth of sites like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo I am not sure whether there’s such a demand for following friends fortunes via blogs. The hits on this blog have been very consistent all this time which I guess are reasonable but nothing special but if you are reading this then thank you very much and please continue to check out the site.

This last month has certainly been the coldest I’ve ever felt during my years in Japan and by some distance too. Snow has appeared several times in the last couple of weeks so I have basically continued from where I left off in Iceland over the New Year.

Despite these freezing temperatures it may surprise you that I am now going to moan about how hot it is inside public places like shops and stations. My ar*e was almost burning on the train seat the other week which may sound nice to some but honestly some of these places are ridiculously over-heated that one can sweat needlessly, particularly during rush hour. This country has implemented ‘coolbiz’ (dressing down at work in the Summer) to save energy costs so why not further promote their ‘warmbiz’ campaign for the same reason.

I sometimes feel that the Japanese have been over-pampered in terms of what are excessive indoor temperatures in my opinion (but completely normal for them) for when one goes outdoors the fluctuations in body temperature are greater than elsewhere which may explain why they don’t seem to fight the common cold so well.

Of course there may be other reasons for catching this in a city so packed but it can’t help and (without starting to sound like my mother) there is less benefit to be felt when you go from the cosy warmth indoors to that outside. Therefore the lower the difference the easier it is for you to adapt or am i just talking out of what was burning on that train seat?!!