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.

Posted in Quirky Japan | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

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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TF Film Review: The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Posted on May 24, 2006 by tokyofox

Found myself at the cinema yet again last Sunday for the opening weekend of the film adaptation of ‘The Da Vinci Code‘. This was a surprise in itself as I have never read the book and have to say that I have never even come close to doing so.

However, having heard so much talk of the book I was maybe slightly intrigued to see the film as it involves a lot less time being dedicated although at 160 minutes long that tested my patience! Does any film really need to be this long is what I ask? I thought the end was in sight a few times but the story continued to drag on and, as well as myself, I could feel the people around me starting to get restless and moving around in their seats a bit with more than a few no doubt needing the toilet too!

I knew nothing about the story other than it having some controversial religious theme. The film has taken a bit of a kicking from the UK critics from what I’ve read since. Not really sure what to make of it myself. Apart from the length I didn’t actually find it too bad. I quite enjoyed the action scenes which was maybe due to my low expectations but not surprisingly I had little idea what was actually happening during the puzzles, clues and explanation. A code of cr*p if you ask me!

Tokyo Fox Rating 5/10

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Doing It For The Kids

Posted on May 20, 2006 by tokyofox

Last Sunday I went to the Saitama Culture Centre in Minami- Urawa to play a part (albeit a very small minor one) in an English recital of ‘The Ugly Duckling‘, ‘Humpty Dumpty‘, ‘The Three Little Pigs‘ and ‘Do Re Mi“.

However, this was nothing to do with my day-job but voluntary (though slightly enforced!) assistance for Ai who doesn’t just work in a top Tokyo hotel but also has her own English school. She runs this from the basement of her parents house along with her sisters piano school which was also doing a performance in unison with her own one. This school is essentially a nice, small, friendly local school for the kids in their village and one or two others.

This was basically a bi-annual performance put on for the sake of the students’ parents getting the chance to see their young ones in action on stage.

The piano side of things took up most of the time and then seven of Ai’s students took over for the remainder before being joined by all the pianists for a rendition or two of ‘Do Re Mi‘. My contribution was short and just involved working the on-stage projector via clicking on the computer mouse after each line was read to display a new picture to compliment the students reading. The kind of job any muppet could do really but Ai insisted that it was a job for a native English speaker. That part ran smoothly thankfully apart from Ai’s laptop running out of battery power just prior to the performance. Luckily I discovered this during the intermission and she could drive the short distance home and back to collect the plug adapter lead.

Overall, I was very pleased to see and hear such young talents and very proud of Ai for organising such an event as well as running the school on top of an already heavy workload at her hotel.

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Ian Roper R.I.P. 7/9/76 – 15/5/04

Posted on May 15, 2006 by tokyofox

It was exactly two years ago that I lost my great mate Ian Roper to cancer. When I heard the news I was obviously taken aback but not completely surprised. His cancer of the glands first came to my attention in the Summer of 2003 while I was working in Germany. Being the man that he was, this news came via other sources as he didn’t want people to know. As far as I was aware this shock news came and went but just as I was preparing to come to Japan late 2003 I got the devestating news that the cancer had reappeared and was in fact terminal.

Ian didn’t want to talk about it which was fair enough in my opinion as no-one likes the extra attention and constantly being asked if they’re ok.

During my last few weeks our friendship group did what we could to give him a good send-off and when I said farewell to him prior to my departure I knew in the back of my mind that it would probably be for the last time but I still lived in hope. When you’ve known someone for more than two decades its very difficult to let go but I  stayed strong as the last thing he needed was me getting emotional on him and hammering it home to him that his days were numbered.

He was only 27 and had nearly always been the best at everything. The kind of person you should hate but I didn’t as it still surprised me at times how he managed to score straight ‘A’ grades throughout his GCSE’s and A-Levels when his head was in the clouds at other times. He was an all-rounder who also excelled at playing football and cricket which he participated in at various levels.

Ian was very much a modest man and certainly not big-headed and he didn’t lose any dignity in his fight against cancer never once seeming to complain or feel sorry for himself.

I guess I’ll remember him in terms of socialising at Leicester matches or in the pub. Ever keen to do something or go out he was a born leader who made my social life that much better and was naturally champion at necking his pints in an unbelievably quick time. If ever I was envious of him for anything then it is quite sad that it was for this skill rather than anything academic or sporting.

I did also admire his willingness for splashing the cash in contrast to my far more careful approach. He would often be the first to get in his rounds and the rest of his wage was frittered away without care on clothes, cd’s, video’s, dvd’s and large drinking sessions. A man who, in hindsight, thankfully enjoyed life to the full.

Humour played a major part in our friendship though others would maybe suggest that our reasons for laughing were not funny at all. Anyhow, we knew what made us chuckle and giggle and that was usually just cr*ppy anecdotes and catchphrases from yesteryear and lines from comedy programmes which he had an amazing knack of absorbing like a sponge. I often thought he was like Johnny 5 from the not-so-classic ‘Short Circuit‘ films as he instantly stored so much information into his very big brain!

In some ways he was already dead once I left England as we didn’t communicate again as he had stopped working and I was unable to send messages to his mobile. Obviously I got updates elsewhere but was just waiting for that dreaded call and when it came it was hard to take in but inevitable. By all accounts he had been suffering lots during those final stages of his life and maybe I should be thankful (as I think he was too) that I didn’t get to see him in such a state thereby not leaving my memories of what he became but of what he was.

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