Playing A Waiting Game

Posted on June 17, 2006 by tokyofox

Undoubtedly the worst part of my job is having to be on standby ready to work on my day off every now and again. This involves getting up and being ready for the possibility of work if one of my colleagues decides they are not fit enough to turn up on that day. The uncertainty of it all is not a comfortable situation as i would rather know which school I am going to and at what time.

My time for this ‘standby’ has come around tomorrow and I now have an anxious wait. On top of that it also means my Saturday night is ruined for ‘just in case…’ reasons as indeed is my Sunday in some ways as I can’t make any plans in advance.

I have been on Sunday standby a few times before and haven’t been called up for duty yet but I am not so optimistic about tomorrow as the World Cup is on and we have just been paid so maybe a teacher or two will be splashing the cash on the lash tonight.

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World Cup 2006 – Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

Posted on June 13, 2006 by tokyofox

Finally got round to experiencing my first World Cup game in a bar last night. I was working till 10pm so rushed to a bar with a colleague to watch Japans opener against Australia. We tried and failed to get into ‘Nakata.net Cafe’ which is a shrine to regular Bolton bench-warmer Hidetoshi Nakata who is maybe Japan’s greatest export. Instead we ended up in some tiny secluded flashy upstairs bar in Shibuya where a small selection of buiness workers had gathered to watch the match.

I think the Japanese in there thought we were maybe Aussies at first but after one of them overheard me saying that I hated the ever-gloating Aussie sports teams we got chatting. This was at exactly the same time that Japan broke the deadlock with what was a very dodgy goal. The second half then followed Englands negative sitting-back style a bit with the big difference of course being that England held on whereas the Aussies came from behind to hit the Japanese with three late goals.

The final whistle just before midnight here saw thousands and thousands of deflated Japanese supporters heading for the stations and their homes crying into their sushi! One of my students today thinks that the World Cup is already over for them. We shall have to see about that but with Croatia and Brazil to come it could well be the end after their Leicester City-style act of throwing away last nights game.

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A Different Ball Game: My First Time To Watch Japan’s Most Popular Sport!

Posted on June 11, 2006 by tokyofox

Well what a cr*p game played in very difficult weather conditions that was! No, I’m not talking about England’s World Cup opener but about baseball having just been to my first ever game last night.

It was absolutely p*ssing it down with rain yet again when I met my mate Colin and some of his friends to go and watch reigning champions Chiba Lotte Marines against the Yomiuri Giants who I consider to be the Manchester United of baseball in Japan and so are hated for that reason alone by me!

Contrary to what many might believe, baseball is the number one sport in Japan. I knew absolutely nothing about the sport beforehand and, after watching this game, I can safely say that I still know nothing!! It was actually quite refreshing to be able to take whatever we liked into the stadium so we naturally took in many beers purchased cheaply from the convenience store.

In terms of results, I think Colin beat me in the drinking stakes by a couple! For anyone who gives a sh*t, Chiba won the baseball 3-2 not that I understood why but I did enjoy the spectacle and atmosphere. The highlight of the day was seeing the many cute J-girls who constantly served the crowd with alcohol beverages from the beer tanks on their backs. These girls deserve a lot of credit for the way they have to keep running up and down the steep steps in the name of selling beer to the crowd!

Final Score: Chiba Lotte Marines 3-2 Yomiuri Giants

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Hair Today Gone Tomorrow

Posted on June 9, 2006 by tokyofox

With the weather p*ssing it down here all day I decided to shave my head again for the first time in over half a year. Despite the rain today the really hot and humid weather is fairly imminent and given the amount of sweat that people generate in the Japanese summer I thought it best to not have any hair getting in my way and getting on my nerves.

Theres no short cut to becoming a barber but after about 30 minutes I was finally transformed. In fact it took so long to do that I thought I was going to be late for an appointment and it was a bit of a close shave but i managed to get out by a whisker! There is even the thought by some that men who cut their own hair can be quite barbarous!! At first I hated my new haircut but now its growing on me!! Can’t think of any more puns so I’ll give up now.

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Meet The Parents!

Posted on June 7, 2006 by tokyofox

I am currently having to endure parents observations in my kids classes. I was relatively new to the job with my present company when this happened last year and it seemed to pass me by almost unnoticed which was maybe due to it still being my induction period where I had a few other observations and i was keen to impress.

However, a year on and its a different story! I now have more kids classes and bigger ones too including the biggest class in all of the company. With 10 lower elementary students in one class that is the maximum for a lesson but with maybe half their mums watching (with two or three of their other kids too) it means a very crowded classroom.

For the naughtier students it is perhaps better for the teacher as they dare not misbehave in front of their mums but on the other hand there are many students who get very nervous and freeze or speak more quietly than usual which can lead to the classroom atmosphere not quite being what it should.

These last two days have been very busy for me with a few consecutive hours of teaching anxious students in front of a ‘sell out’ crowd! I was a little nervous too prior to the first observed lesson. Overall the lessons went better than I could maybe have imagined and the watching mothers seemed to enjoy seeing their kids play the many games that we got through (more than usual as not so much messing about) while engaging in much speaking practice.

This is no doubt as close as I’ll ever get to being an entertainer on a very small scale but nevertheless still rewarding. To see the kids doing the actions to the songs and smiling (not all the time for all but most of the time anyway) made me very happy.

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Food For Thought

Posted on June 4, 2006 by tokyofox

Its a fact that Asian people are far more obsessed by food than their European counterparts and it took me a while to realise when I got to Japan as I was so often asked about Japanese food by students which took me by surprise a little as its not the kind of question I anticipated as I would never ask such a question back home.

Living in a big over-populated city it is also common to see people queuing up outside restaurants waiting to sample part of the many many different foods which this country has to offer. There is a ramen (soup and noodles with slices of meat and vegetables in it) restaurant near to my house which always seems to have a long line of people waiting outside (even when its raining) even though there is a probably another one very nearby which is just as good.

However, the popular one has been on TV I think so continues to be inundated with customers which still bemuses me although I have to say I am a little intrigued as to why.

When I was away from Japan at the start of last year one of the things I missed about this country was the food but queueing up for a restaurant is still not something I would really ever consider doing and nor is travelling fair distances just to sample food but thats where Asian people differ. I often hear of students going to far places just to try the food which is something i could never imagine doing before and not something I would expect many people back home to do.

While that may all seem not so different I have been amazed these last couple of days to see an unbelievably long line of people lining up outside a bl**dy Baskin Robbins ice cream shop which truly highlights the difference in thinking between countries and how keen some Japanese are to eat certain things when us Westerners would most probably find alternative eating needs when faced with such a situation.

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Show Me The Money!!!

Posted on June 2, 2006 by tokyofox

Despite being a vert technologically advanced nation it is maybe somewhat surprising that Japan hasn’t taken the use of credit cards to their hearts. It is still very much a cash based society which means that people carry large(ish) amounts of money on them at all times. Yet in spite of this, there is very little crime and theft. In fact I often walk along the street counting my money without a care in the world. Very little risk is involved in doing this unlike in other countries where you’re likely to get mugged. Maybe I will one day when I’m no longer in Japan (when that may be I don’t know!)  I recently had to carry a large amount of cash but I never really got nervous about having this on me for a few days.

On the subject of money the Japanese are very respectful of it and always pay other people via an envelope containing the funds. You can also bet your life that all these notes will be crisp and new-like as all money appears to be here. A far contrast from the crumpled up, torn and graffitied notes you may get in the UK.

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Sundays In Harajuku

Posted on May 30, 2006 by tokyofox

Thanks to Gwen Steffani many people who haven’t been to Tokyo may have heard of Harajuku due to a few references in a couple of her songs. This place is famed for its extreme teenage cultures and fashion styles with Takeshita Dori (street) being the main focal point which is a lane bursting at the seams where Tokyo’s so-called trendiest teens go shopping among the fashion shops, boutiques and crepe stands.

However, on Sundays the attention switches to an open area right next to the station where many young people gather wearing many costumes whether it be dolls, anime characters or punks etc.

Every Sunday many of them go to hang out in this area while a load of foreigners walk among the Japanese groups snapping photos. I don’t really know the meaning of it (if there is even one) but having witnessed it a few times I went to meet a friend there last Sunday with the addition of my camera. These are the lengths I go to just to have something to put on Tokyo Fox!!

As well as the aforementioned crazy costumed teens there was also a quite large group of dancing Japanese Elvis impersonators round the corner which I had heard about but never seen before. Definitely something to be experienced!

Anyway, this very unique event provides a great atmosphere and has lots of food stalls, posers and freaks but is very difficult to put into words so just check out the Harajuku photo section to catch my drift.

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A Supersonic Summer Music Festival

Posted on May 29, 2006 by tokyofox

Got my ticket for Summer Sonic ’06 the other day. This is a two-day festival where the line up alternates between Osaka and Tokyo over a weekend although technically the Tokyo leg is in neighbouring prefecture Chiba but given that Tokyo International Airport and Tokyo Disneyland are both located there I don’t think it really matters.

I’m only going to the Sunday event which is on August 13th and features international acts Linkin Park, Massive Attack, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Nelly Furtado as well as many Japanese acts.

I went last Summer too which was a rather different experience for me compared to the traditional field festivals i’ve been to in Europe and the US. Instead, the main stage is in the baseball stadium but to get to the other stages I had to walk for about 20 mins to the big indoor exhibtion centre known as Makuhari Messe (or I could even have taken a free bus!!) which meant crossing a very busy road. A world apart from Glastonbury and Reading!

In between live songs the crowd went completely silent while waiting rather than cheering, whistling, chanting, shouting, chatting etc. Maybe this ‘silent’ atmosphere could have been helped by having music played in between bands but why no-one spoke I don’t know!! While the Japanese did get excited during the actual songs they didn’t in-between them which was maybe due to the western bands not being understood. Or maybe its just because silent, patient and respectful anticipation is in their nature.

One thing that the western festival organisers could learn from is the organisation of the rubbish which was great. For me it was strange but very good to see the Japanese picking up the bottles and cups at the end. At other festivals it can be quite annoying that waste is not taken too seriously and that watching a band has to be done while constantly treading on used bottles etc. This time I will know exactly what to expect.

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Tokyo Daytripper: Tokyo Daibutsu In Shimo-Akatsuka

Posted on May 26, 2006 by tokyofox

When I came back from my Okinawa trip recently my students wanted to see my photos which resulted in me boring them with all the photos on my computer. One remarked that I must like Daibutsu as I had photos of the famous ones in Nara and Kamakura as well as the record breaking ones in Ushiku (the worlds tallest Budha at 120 metres high) and Nokogiri-yama (Japan’s largest) where I went a few weeks ago. I denied this but having said such a remark I ended up visiting yet another one today.

I work on one of my days in a place called Akatsuka and finally got off my backside today and took the 20 minute walk to see the the not-so-originally named Tokyo Daibutsu which I had never had time to visit during my working day. Despite the accolade of being Japans 3rd largest I don’t think it features in any guide books and is a little off the beaten track.

It was a fairly pleasant area and well away from the crowds and worth checking out if you’re in the area but maybe not a place to go out of your way to get to. There was a temple in the grounds and a quite nice Japanese lake packed full of carp. The day wasn’t as nice as I had expected as it was very cloudy and looking like it could have rained at any moment but luckily it held off.

Anyway, thats that checked off now and hopefully I wont feel inclined to see another buddha statue again but no doubt I’ll hear about another one which is billed as being the biggest, the tallest, the biggest reclining or whatever other bullsh*t can be fed to us gullible tourists!

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