Beijing 2007 Pt I – The Great Wall: In Spitting Distance Of The City!

Posted on November 11, 2007 by tokyofox

Less than 60 minutes sleep and defeat in the Rugby World Cup Final for England wasn’t the ideal way to start my China trip but at the final whistle I went to the Airport for my morning flight to Beijing via a transit in Shanghai.

Fortunately, I met a French guy on the plane who lived in Beijing and shared a taxi with me which I continued on in to my hostel after his stop thereby saving me from the hassle of navigating my way there by bus, subway and on foot.

I was up at 6:30 am on the first morning to take a local bus and taxi 90 km away to see the Great Wall in Mutianyu which is the second nearest place to see the famous landmark. After taking a chairlift I was on the wall itself with the sun shining brightly too. The first part I walked along was quite taxing really and a kick up the backside in terms of underestimating it.

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Overall I spent about four hours walking back and forth along the complete length of the wall available to the public in Mutianyu. It really did feel good to experience such an iconic spectacle and was such a sight to behold resulting in me taking many photos.

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I was glad I chose this section of the wall rather than the far more touristy part at Badaling, and I was even rewarded by having it all to myself at times in the early afternoon. The descend was great fun and done via toboggan which was a nice relaxing and thrilling way to round off the first part of my Beijing experience.

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Back in the capital slightly earlier than expected, I went to Tiananmen Square where many Olympic cultivations were on display as well as a countdown clock across the road.

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I saw the soldiers parade through the mass crowds and generally just soaked up the atmosphere of the place in terms of people watching.

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As for the Chinese people, I can tolerate the no-queueing on trains (although this is slightly improving in the run up to the Olympics) and even the spitting but what is really disgusting is the sound which accompanies it. It’s not just men but women too, and even the guard who I was posing in front of on the square let loose with phlegm though thankfully not in my direction!!

You can see my Beijing photos here
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Back To Civilisation

Posted on November 11, 2007 by tokyofox

After five and a half weeks i am so happy to be back on-line properly. Sure, I have been using my house computer a fair bit but that’s really cr*p and slow and just not so convenient to use. I was relieved to get the phone call last night to say the repair was finished and in my basic Japanese I managed to throw enough words together to say what I wanted to say.

It has since turned out that those words actually made perfect sense which really surprised me. I was in Akihabara’s electric town with all the other geeks this morning waiting for the stores to open at 10am so that I could pick up my computer. Basically the fan broke and for some reason it took them over a month to fix this most common of computer breakdown problems. I am mightly relieved though that my computer wasn’t completely wiped clean and that I still have my photos and music just how I left it.

A little lighter in the pocket now but I am back in cyber-world and what did I do in the absence of a computer for the last 38 days I hear one or two of you ask. Well here’s the answer:

* Read ‘Life of Pi‘ by Yann Martel

* Watched more TV, particularly football

* Slept a lot more

* Went jogging a little more often

* Cleaning and house DIY

* More drinking

* Made all sorts of pointless lists

* Wrote a few articles for the school newspaper

* Learned a bit more Japanese

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A ‘Grate’ Barbeque Party!

Posted on November 8, 2007 by tokyofox

My school had its rescheduled BBQ Party in Futako-Shinchi on the 7th of October after rain had stopped play the previous week. There were many groups of people out enjoying the Autumn sunshine in our location next to the river. Our little group comprised of mostly teachers with a few students thrown in too. Nothing appeals to us teachers more than a free party and, with the following day a school/national holiday, the opportunity to get completely sozzled without paying too many consequences was not one to be missed!

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Having surprisingly defeated the Wallabies in the Rugby World Cup the night before the English among our group were in a good mood for a typical Aussie BBQ and everyone brought enough meat to the table for no-one to go hungry.

The game of football which came next showed that there was no footballing ability among us to put too much pressure on the current school teams squad members! The climax to the days preceedings were the hundreds and hundreds of sparklers which were given out willy nilly and the fireworks display brought the event to a close.

Of course the action didn’t finish there as a fair few of us continued on to a bar in Shibuya and the inevitable all-night karaoke. I thought i did very well to stay awake all night this time but those initial thoughts were proved wrong a few days later when my school manager showed a photo of me having a quick nap on the streets of Shibuya prior to the singing session.

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The Simpsons In Japan: A Lesson On Stereotypes

Posted on October 13, 2007 by tokyofox

At the start of the year I was googling to find out the name of a Simpsons episode when I came across a lesson plan involving the dysfunctional family. Eight months later and I finally got round to doing a special lesson based around ‘The Simpsons‘ 30 minutes over Tokyo episode (season 10 episode 23).

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Despite being hugely successful around the world ‘The Simpsons‘ have never made it big in Japan and are known as nothing more than CC family at best after they advertised the CC Lemon soda drink many years ago. Very few of my students had heard of them so they had to be introduced on the board via a fairly bad picture which I had.

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Before that I had done a very quick warmer on why people want to come to Japan, what places they want to visit and what tourists most want to do here. After that was an introduction to the word stereotype before they chatted in small groups about their impressions of various countries and their native inhabitants.

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As someone who finds stereotyping and generalising funny this part was very amusing to listen to as was the next part which was about how non-Japanese viewed Japan and Japanese in terms of customs, sport, technology, food, personality, character, homes, cities, countryside, education and work. Lots of typical short answers there about shy people, crowded cities, small homes, advanced technology and hard work.

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It was then time to play about 13 minutes of the episode (via my laptop) in three parts with a series of questions to go with each part designed to stimulate discussion such as why Homer always walks through the sliding paper doors, the seizures eminating from a cartoon, why an American family would go to ‘America Town’, Japanese quiz shows, things that Bart and Homer learned and how true the stereotypes were.

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Additional resources being used in the classroom is always a welcome idea and can break up the monotony of the book a bit and I was very happy to try something different. I tried the lesson with two upper-intermediate level groups and I think they found it difficult to follow what was said especially the voice of Marge Simpson.

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After all, as much as they may be able to listen to English, they almost certainly had never listened to cartoon voices. Overall though it was a nice break from the book for both the students and myself and interesting to use additional resources to try and stimulate their learning.

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Click here to read ‘Japan-Related References In The Simpsons’

Posted in English Teaching, TV Shows | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

Wakeboarding In The City

Posted on October 1, 2007 by tokyofox

Move over Jack Osbourne because there’s a new adrenalin junkie in town and its me!! A couple of weeks ago it was bungy jumping and on September 23rd it was wake-boarding on the Edo River near Ichikawa on the Tokyo-Chiba border. For the uninitiated wake-boarding is like a cross between water-skiing and surfing.

First to go was Ethan and he took to it like a duck to water showing no fear as he got up out of the water and started to glide through the glossy smooth waters before the inevitable fall. Overall it was a great introduction to the sport in his allotted 15 minutes and a lot for me to live up to when it was my turn.

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I fastened my feet on to the board and lowered myself into the surprisingly warm water and frustration followed as I just couldn’t get myself into the right position to get out of the water. Eventually at the fourth attempt I was up and cutting through the waves like a hot knife through butter…or maybe i was just relieved to have got up on my feet that I didn’t do anything too fancy as i wanted to make sure I got some value from it!

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Over the afternoon we had a couple of go’s each (15 minutes each time) with Ethan having no problems whereas I had a few spouts of being unable to get on my feet. Once we did get going though it was great fun riding along on the crest of the waves though it was vey taxing on the upper half of the body particularly the arms which were aching quite a bit.

To do wakeboarding correctly you’re supposed to hold the rope down by your hip but this proved difficult and led to my unorthodox style of looking like I was being dragged along by a dog rather than walking it casually which is how the professionals look when they’re doing it.

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Tokyo Daytripper: Big Weekender Pt III – Yomiuriland & Bungy Jump #4

Posted on September 24, 2007 by tokyofox

I hooked up again with Ethan on Sunday 16th September to complete my big weekend of activities. This time it was Yomiuriland and getting from the train station to the amusement park was interesting in itself as we had to take a cable car which gave us a nice birds-eye view of the area.

We started off on the ‘Bandit’ which was a rusty coloured ride that lasted long by rollercoaster standards and whizzed around about half of the park but had a very disappointing drop at the start. After that we did a Formula Battle race where the guy asked if we had driver licenses which we said we did back home. Not sure why he asked really as there were kids going on these karts later on!

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Next up was a standing rollercoaster with a loop which was ok but more interesting for novelty value than anything else. The white canyon followed which was great and a spaghetti-type wooden rollercoaster which really jolted us about inside of the car and had so many drops and close shaves.

Once I’d done a standard vertical drop ride I couldn’t resist the chance of doing another bungy jump to add to the three I did in New Zealand over five years ago. It was 900 yen (£4) and only 22m high with a big crash mat below which you could probably just jump on to and survive.

That didn’t stop me getting a little nervous though as it was windy at top and I was jumping rather than diving off which a lot of people may think is easier but I disagree. In fact I was probably more at ease diving off from 134 metres and six times the height of that at Yomiuriland! After the ‘3-2-1-bungy’ countdown I was jumping for joy for about a second of freefall before the bungy cord did its job and left me bouncing around for a bit. Overall it wasn’t a patch on the Kiwi ones but it was never really likely to be was it?!

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We rounded off the afternoon in the swimming area which was pleasant but not so interesting though we did ride on a huge floating rapid water-ride and did a few lame jumps and dives off the diving board including the inevitable running bomb which entertained those who were watching.

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Tokyo Daytripper: Big Weekender Pt II – Mount Takao

Posted on September 20, 2007 by tokyofox

When a colleague asked me a fortnight ago if I wanted to go up Mount Takao for a nomihodai (all-you-can-drink) session I didn’t think too much of it but as the morning of the event neared last Saturday I began to think that it was a mental suggestion. The idea of climbing a mountain in 30+ degrees and reaching the top sweating, dehydrated and hungry and embarking on two hours of alcohol excess didn’t sound like the most sensible idea.

What he didn’t mention was that we wouldn’t be acsending the 599m high mountain on foot and that a buffet was also included. Furthermore I didn’t know that there was gonna be a big group of us which made just getting there a task in itself what with all the waiting for people and stopping off along the way to meet others.

A choice of cable-car or chairlift took us up about half-way with most of us opting for the more exciting latter option as we’d have to come down via the former for sure. After we disembarked we popped into the monkey park for a very short visit just before closing time and then it was the fairly short walk to the peak to see the lush green forest views and take a few photographs.

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Then it was time for the real business of drinking though most of us were more in need of food than anything else! Mind you we had to wait nearly an hour for that privilege as the garden party area was too full but we could get free beer while we waited. Eventually we had an amazing buffet available to us and proceeded to neck a fair few beers in what was a different but very nice setting.

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Tokyo Daytripper: Big Weekender Pt I – Tokyo Summerland

Posted on September 18, 2007 by tokyofox

My days off are Friday and Sunday but last weekend I also had the Saturday off resulting in a busy few days of activity. Starting very early on Friday morning myself and Ethan made our way to Tokyo Summerland which is a big water amusement park in north-west Tokyo.

I first visited this place two years ago and the indoor swimming pool was a sight that had to be seen to be believed when the wave machine came into operation every hour. If you imagine a packed football terrace but in water then you will hopefully get an idea how busy the pool was. Complete pandimonium and without an inflatable ring (a Japanese obsession in these places) I got very scratched each time someone flowed into me. The man-made waves were fun and a good size too and thankfully it was nowhere near as packed though it did seem that without the crowds something was lost or is that a little weird to think that way?!

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Unfortunately the huge dipping freefall and speed slides outside were closed and the tunnel-type slides which were new to me weren’t that exciting. The assault course (very unstable stepping stones/floats/logs with a net to grab on to hanging above) was interesting but physically tough at times and the highlight of the day was starting a quite long chain link as we floated around the outdoor lagoon on our rubber rings.

We wandered over to the amusement park area after which was a bit cr*p really. The first ride was the free fall roller coaster type thing seen in one of the pictures below. A near vertical drop where you’re sitting horizontally facing down to ground as you speed down into a kind of ‘L’ shape. That proved to be the high as the rollercoaster, pirate ship and the intriguingly named ‘Love Express’ all proved very disappointing before we sweated it out on the big wheel which gave us some great views over the whole complex and the surrounding river and series of bridges.

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Ooh Aah Kashi-wa!!

Posted on September 13, 2007 by tokyofox

Witnessing the spectacle of an Aussie Rules game in Melbourne last month made me realise how much I miss watching live sport. Apart from last years baseball game, a sumo tournament, a couple of Rugby games (Ireland v Japan, Newcastle Falcons v NEC Green Rockets) and a few Kashiwa Reysol games I’ve not seen much in the flesh during my time in Japan.

I wanted to support Nagoya Grampus Eight when I came here because of the Gary Lineker connection but living near Kashiwa in my first year in Japan I ended up going to see them four times. Three defeats and a draw so I wasn’t much of a lucky omen. The fact that they didn’t win at home all season in 2004 perhaps indicates that it wasn’t totally my fault!

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Seeing that Reysol were playing in Tokyo for some reason on Sunday the 2nd of September I jumped at the chance of seeing them play at the National Stadium against Yokohama F. Marinos. Sadly I couldn’t get a ticket in the atmospheric end behind the goal as it was sold out so I had to settle for a 3000 yen seat in the corner.

An explosive start to the game saw Reysol go ahead inside the first minute via an own goal which stunned both sets of supporters and after that the game descended into a fairly dull game with Marinos dominating possession but apart from one effort never looking like scoring. Anyway, it’s only taken four seasons but I have now finally seen Kashiwa win.

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The strange thing about Reysol games is that all the singing on the terraces (and there is lots) seems to have no reflection on whats going on on the pitch and never seems to change and seems to resemble a karaoke session in some ways rather than football chants. All of this is a far cry from the English Premier League and indeed the second, third and probably even the fourth tiers!

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Tokyo Daytripper: The Old-Fashioned Amusement Park In Northern Tokyo

Posted on September 4, 2007 by tokyofox

On Friday the 24th of August I went to Toshimaen Amusement Park which is a 15 minute train ride away from where I live. Sadly we didn’t have so long there as we only got there at 2pm and it was also quite mild for a day in the ridiculously hot and humid August.

Swimming pools in Japan seem to have very little to do with swimming. These areas are full of inflatables and people just lying around drinking and eating and then theres also the J-girls doing their make-up and acting cute in maybe the only country in the world where they can wear heels with their swimsuits and not be considered tarty!

The highlights are (apart from the many many cute girlies!) of course the slides and due to the queues in this place I only bothered to go on two. The first was your twisty type descending from up-high and was quite painful as my feet got smacked round against the side and the second was a speed one which I didn’t see to much of as there was so much water sprayed in my face along the way down a big dip. A good adrenalin rush though!

Most people drifted away between 5pm and 6pm and after that it was time for the rides. We didn’t have a pass for all the rides but could pay for them individually which means that you don’t go on anywhere near as many rides. Being very choosy we only did the one and that was the 500 yen Cyclone. It was really good and maybe this was heightened by the fact that there was just a simple waist seatbelt for protection while we were seated on velvety seats in a log looking rollercoaster with a few dips and a long dark tunnel part.

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