Trains

I've still not got a picture of a jam packed train, maybe tomorrow as i've got the pleasure of going on the trains with all the commuters with their computers (check the quote partridge fans). However I did find a nice video showing how full they get. Whilst this is a bit of an extreme case, be assured that similar things do happen. I've seen one guard doing this alone but never two or three joining forces to this extent...

http://www.machovideo.com/article.php?article=1841

I think the guy in the white trenchcoat needs some lessons, on no account should you attenpt to enter a full train sideways....always backside first so you don't see people getting annoyed at you. Also note that its only the gaijin (foreigners) making the video laughing, its a pretty normal sight for Japanese people.

Christmas party rehearsal

Tuesday this week (21st), was my Friday (basically I have Wed Thur off most weeks so in effect Tuesday is my last day of the working week). Only had 3 hours or so of teaching too! nice easy day. Went out with the other teachers and school staff after work to check out the local bar where we're having a Xmas party. In fact I'm trying to get to 3 different parties as students pay to go to them and teachers get to drink for free!!! so if all goes to plan I'll be celebrating on the 2nd, 9th, and 16th of December in Kichijoji, Shibuya, and Tanashi. I do work every Sunday after each party, normally for between 5 and 6 hours, which might be a problem but we'll see.

Stayed there for a few hours downing beers and eating Pizza, salad, and other nibbles. Despite the normality of this food to Westerners there's still a surprise element to seemingly simple things like salad....Japanese people seem to have a love affair with raw egg. They mix it up vigorously and put it into bowls of rice and meat regularly and now I've discovered they put eggs which have been cooked for about 5 seconds into salads. If you're lucky you can eat around it but normally some teacher who has grown accustomed to this foodstuff will pop the egg and mix it all in.....silly scenes.

Got a train halfway home, then had to walk the rest as the buses had stopped for the night. Not as bad as it sounds, took me 35 minutes using an indirect route so i didn't get lost. Probably about 25 minutes if you know where you're going. My major gripe with Japan so far is that if you go drinking you have to stop in time to get a train at about midnight, or stay out until around 5am to get the first train home. Getting a taxi isn't really an option as they cost silly money and would double the cost of your night out.

Karaoke

(No pictures for these few updates, either didn't take any or they didn't come out very well as it was dark.....so use your imagination!)

Last Wednesday I went out with a few people for a bit of Karaoke, first time in Japan.....first time ever in fact! I've been pretty drunk in the past and still retained the judgement to determine that my voice is not good and singing in public would not do me any favours. Bit different in Japan though, not quite as daunting.

Instead of being in a bar and in front of the entire drinking community many of whom you don't know, karaoke in Japan is in a small private soundproof room with just the people in your group. As such the possibility of embarrassment is reduced somewhat...little or no chance of heckling either! Also helps that the majority of Japanese people understandably aren't that good at singing in English due to problems pronouncing letters such as R and L and they all want you to sing. I still only sang alongside other people but tackled some difficult songs, my repertoire included 'The Beautiful Ones' by Suede, a couple of Oasis songs, 'Wish you were here' by Pink Floyd, a Beatles Medley, and 'Suck my Kiss' by the Chili Peppers.

Workin' on a Weekend!

Putting up your fingers in a non-rude gesture is compulsory on every photo taken in Japan....the silly face isn't, that's just a extra thrown in by me. This is me in school today, end of my day so i'm pretty happy. Today I taught a PhD student, a businessman, a company president, an advertising executive, and three 9 year old kids. Kids class was the best, lots of fun throwing footballs around, drawing houses and trying to get them to say refridgerator (you try saying it when you can't pronounce an 'r') could be worse though last week I had two 11 year olds trying to say 'travel around the world' !.

What info haven't I put on here yet?...hmmm....I'm taking Japanese lessons. Twice a week in fact, one with a volunteer programme which is pretty much free (bit of an admin fee at the start but thats about it) and another normal one which I pay about £12 an hour for. Both 1-to-1 and both for an hour a week. Slow progress but i'm starting to pick up the grammar and i've taught myself one of the alphabets used here (Hiragana for those in the know, just started Katakana and dreading tackling any Kanji!).

I'm also keeping up my kickboxing over here, which has forced me to learn how to count (up to ten at least!). Not sure if its more difficult here than at home, the three months off has destroyed my previous fitness levels, or its the lack of fruit and veg....but i'm always wrecked after going and aching for days afterwards! Will get a few picks of the gym soon.

Check out my hair in this pic...getting very long, need to learn essential Japanese phrases like 'just a trim', 'thin it out a little', and 'chop into it'. Have visions of me coming out with a skinhead or worse through a lack of communication.

Asse eating

Quite a few foods with funny names. I've seen bottled water called 'sweat', toilet paper called 'naive lady', and today I ate some chocolate called 'asse'. So I quite literally ate ass.....never thought those words would pass my lips....pretty tasty too, it won't be the last time I can assure you.

Getting into the swing

Bit of an update as I'm slacking a bit already. In fact I've only sent this webpage to about 2 people so far as I'd already covered all the stuff in it in numerous group emails. Probably expose a few more people to it now, however I'm unlikely to update it any more regularly as I'm a lazy bugger.
Work is still pretty hectic, classes are all ok now. Have one student who comes in and pretty much collapses as he's so tired. He's a typical Japanese student in that they're expected to do silly amounts of work - normal school all day, cram school at night, extra tuition, English classes, etc. - glad I didn't get edumacated here. Need to mess about with his lessons and get him a bit more involved, but aside from that I think everyone is happy. Doesn't help that he has a book based purely around grammar, his last teacher just played games with no educational merit, and the book is too difficult for him. So basically gonna change the book.

Got all my regular classes and I have about 40 students in all spread across the week. A lot of those are in private lessons, the biggest group I have is 4 students, and their ages range from 5 to about 55. Get a few more classes with people who just turn up or have missed their regular lessons too. Average class time is about 45 mins but again it varies, shortest I have is 25 minutes for a private lesson with a 5 year old and the longest is an intensive course with 4 elementary level adults on Sunday which is 3.5 hours long....pheeeeew eh?.

An Irish guy called Neil has moved into an apartment 2 doors down so had a bit of company in Shimo Igusa rather than just meeting people in schools or miles away from my house. Had a wander around the other night and got a few drinks. I normally get by with pointing at things and using broken Japanese to say 'ichi bieru' but Neil studied in Japan for a couple of months a year or so ago so is quite handy to have around.

Few more pics for you, nothing too exciting, just been trying out the camera on my new phone (3.2 megapixles for those of you who are interested in that sort of stuff - also got GPS, a Japanese to English dictionary, street fighter 2 game, etc.) with some random pictures. I'll try and get some more wierd stuff cause there's plenty of it around, I think you start to get numb to it all though and take it as normal somehow. If I remember I'll get picks of the ridiculous number and variety of vending machines which are everywhere, Tokyo rush hour, some neon, and whatever else I can find.

Another few pics at... http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Bits%20and%20bobs/