Nikko

Another Day trip, this time to Nikko - home of lots of famous temples and some monkeys. Maybe i'll add more information later, but its 12:40am now so for now you can just look through the pictures and make up your own history.

pictures here...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Nikko/

P.S. There's a new poll! >>>>

Hiking

Wait a minute...that picture's green!...surely that can't be Tokyo?! well yes Dave you guessed right in your little conversation with yourself, that isn't Tokyo. I ventured away from the bright lights into the countryside! yes it does exist in Japan despite Tokyo being the centre of most people's attention (a little like London, all you travellers note other places do exist in the country you know - 'Go to London, I guarantee you'll be mugged or not appreciated').

On the first day of my holidays I pulled myself out of my comfortable bed at 'silly o'clock' in the morning and caught a train with 6 Japanese people and an American fluent in Japanese (one of the many times in this holiday that I realised just how little Japanese I actually know), after the sparkling conversation on the train for a couple of hours, we hiked along a river up to an Onsen (hot spring). Where we split into two groups (no bathing suits in these baths so the boys and girls are in different pools).

I'd been to an Onsen before but those two occasions were in a very quiet hotel where I had the pool to myself, and in a private Onsen with my girlfriend who (cover your ears mother this may shock you) has seen my rude bits before! So this was my first time to expose myself to a group of 20-30 men.....yes it was, don't be silly!, no jokes here please. To make it more interesting of the 7 people I was with there were 3 ladies and 4 gay men.

Surprisingly everyone resisted throwing themselves onto me and I emerged both physically and mentally unscathed from my experience!

More pictures here....
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Hiking/

Poll results are in

Slow updating again eh! I worked on my birthday, all day in fact as I had a Spring School, and then I worked at 9am the next morning so I didn't do anything! Had a meal out but nothing out of the ordinary.

On the Thursday before (5th April) I went to Yokohama with Akane. Had a wander around China town, looked around the city and some of the sights, strolled through a park on the seafront and did a bit of shopping. It was a little quiter than the middle of Tokyo, nice to be in a more relaxed surrounding, but didn't see anything too spectacular there.

Since then I've been working a lot. April is the start of a new school term here and similarly a new school term in Shane. This means students leaving and new classes being formed. As such a number of my quieter days have beefed up a bit. I now regularly teach over 5 hours of lessons on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Including two intensive courses which are 3 hours 30 mins each!!

Also been looking into an alternative apartment. I pay a little over the odds at the moment as the apartment is owned by Shane so they add extra rent on for the fact that they provide a fridge, microwave, and some basic furniture. If I move i'll have to pay out a deposit, some 'key money' (ridiculous Japanese concept of giving someone a gift of usually a months rent for them letting you have the apartment), insurance, and also pay for a guarantor (basically a company to vouch for me because i'm a foreigner and could run off and not complete my lease). All this means the first month will cost a huge amount of money, but if I stay longer than 8 months or so I'll save money as the rent will be £100 or so cheaper. So decision time !!?! What's Dave gonna do? stay or go? how long? where? when?....watch this space!!!

On a more serious note, the results of my first poll are in and its a predictable win for chocolate ice-cream. The new kids on the block came a respectable second and the reliable vanilla props up the top three.

Chocolate 50 %
A silly Hagen Arse or Jen and Terry concoction 33.33 %
Vanilla 16.67 %

Birthday!

It was my birthday on Friday 6th, I've reached the ripe old age of 26. Thankyou to those who remembered!

Cherry Blossom

The Cherry Blossom or 'Sakura' season is upon us. The pretty little flowers only last for a week or two and in that period masses of people travel to see them in the parks around Tokyo or further afield. I spent part of Thursday looking around Shinjuku Goen in Shinjuku (strangely enough). Felt a bit weird being in this reasonably tranquil park knowing that one of the busiest areas of the city surrounded it.

I've also added a neat little voting system onto my webpage on the right. Ignore the advertising bit which I have to endure as its a free service, and instead just take part in the first of many deep and meaningful questions which will have you debating for hours.

More pictures here - http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Sakura/

Say Cheese

A few pictures emailed to me, hopefully get more soon. Exhibition opens tomorrow so will be down there after work on maybe on Wednesday.

Teaching and posing....not at the same time though, well not very often.

Lots of extra shifts again this month, I worked 17 of the first 20 days of March.
The extra days themselves were OK but their culminating effect meant that on the few days off I did have I spent a lot of the time sleeping!

Other news...

I quit my kickboxing gym as I was paying about £45 a month to go as many times as I wanted but only getting there once a week on average because the hours I work and the hours the gym is open are pretty similar. I've been to look at another slightly different gym with more Jujitsu/grappling type things mixed in, but not been there to try training as yet....hopefully next week so i don't start getting fat.

My bicycle has a puncture.

I got very drunk last night and spent today being sick and lying around in bed feeling sorry for myself, I'm blaming warm sake and I may never succumb to its temptations ever again.

I have two 'language exchange students' (wink, wink, nudge, nudge), of course they're not private students who pay me money as that would be frowned upon by my superiors as potentially taking money from their coffers. If I could charge for those lessons then it would be a valuable extra income and quite enjoyable as both my students are very nice people....but that's not happening....see, I used a conditional sentence ('if....then')....i'm very careful about things like that! :-)

I missed phoning home for Mother's Day (sorry mum!) and didn't get my girlfriend anything for White Day (only in Japan/South Korea, bit like Valentines day). Luckily neither were outraged. My girlfriend said I get her presents anyway, I think my mum was surprised I even knew it was mothers day.

And perhaps my most exciting news is that I was a model yesterday. A friend of a friend is holding an exhibition of photos next week and consequently asked me and Akane to pose for some photos (not those type of photos! all above board I can assure you). I'm getting copies of the digital photos sent to me so I'll post a couple of them. I can't go to the opening night as I'm working but probably pop down next week at some point and wallow in the fact that people are looking at photos of me.

Kickboxing event

I've written a long post three times and it hasn't worked each time GRRRRRRRRRRR!, so i'm doing a number of small posts instead. Heres a link to a kickboxing vs shootfighting event I went to a week or so ago. Note the inconsiderate person who stands in the way for an important part of the fight.

If you're wondering what 'shootfighting' or 'shooto' is then join the club, it seems to be kickboxing with chokes and throws added - all standing up though, no wrestling on the floor like pancrase, UFC and pride type events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXZ3Uvj_SqM

Another long gap!

I'm slacking again, almost three weeks since my last post.

I got given a fish by a friend of mine who I hadn't seen for a couple of months, it died after about two weeks.

I'm sampled the delights of Pachinko - pinball type machine that requires less skill, very popular here. Have dabbled once or twice then tried fruit machines too. Finally won something last night, about £40, I've pretty much broken even over the last 3 weeks though...the usual story with gambling! There isn't really a trick to it but you can select the right machines by checking figures which tell you how many people have played on the them and how much has been paid out on that and the previous couple of days. Needless to say I dont know enough about it to take those factors into account. Some people play them instead of working though and queue up outside at 9am then spend all day in there smoking and drinking coffee top keep them going!

Been running a bit, been going 2-3 times a week, about 1.5-2 miles each time followed by a bit of skipping. Not so much in the last two weeks but I did go kickboxing twice last week and biked 5 miles or so on Mondaywith a passenger! Oh yeah, I now have a bike too. Thinking of biking to some of my schools.

I had 4 days off this week, Wednesday and Thursday as normal, then Friday and Sarturday as they were school holidays. I went to Kunigawa on Thursday and stayed there overnight to sample the delights of an onsen (like a hot spring spa). Basically you get naked, go in a hot bath to get your body temperature adjusted a bit, then wash yourself thoroughly, rinse, and get into a big hot spring bath with lots of other naked people. I went in the onsen attaced to the hotel once, which was empty at the time, and also went to a private onsen owned by the hotel out in the woods. The one in the hotel wasn't too impressive but the smaller private one was really nice, very relaxing!

Here's the hotel I stayed in...
http://www.kinugawa.co.jp/plaza/index.html

...and here are some more pictures...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Kinugawa/

Videos

One or two videos. Recorded 2 on my camera and 2 on my phone, pretty obvious which is which as the camera ones are significantly worse in the quality stakes! Don't get too excited, Steven Spielberg I aint!....hehe, check out my English usage, wouldn't fink I wuz a techa wuld ya?

I can't really explain how much better the van one was in real life. I was walking through Shinjuku yesterday and this van pulls up to the traffic lights with music playing from speakers on the top of the van. The guy driving then proceeded to play a tiny keyboard on his dashboard. Could actually hear it coming through the speakers too...not just some sort of miming.

Shibuya - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFBdM0CQvXg
Roadworks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yygzeLXespQ
Horse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vtMia99bmo
Van - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_9RTmI-4po

(originally did the last link incorrectly but it works now!)

I also had my 0.5 seconds of fame this week, got a quick mention on Mark Radcliffes radio show on Monday after I emailed him......again its not that exciting but still, I got mentioned on national radio - first step to world domination! Catch it while you can, it'll be erased by next monday.
9:41pm on the listen again section...well actually 9:41pm 10-10.5 seconds to be exact.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod
Radio 2 > Mark Radcliffe Monday show

Quick Update

Nothing groundbreaking in the last few weeks, but heres a very quick rundown.

Did my two 6 day working weeks and as such didn't have much time to do anything else, I've had another week of work and am now back to my two days off a week for at least the next 6 weeks , YAY!

I finally got my hair cut after 3 or so months of avoiding trying to explain what I wanted done to a Japanese hairdresser. I got one of my school managers to come down with me and explain as it was in the same building. One benefit is that you don't get the usual hairdresser chat. It was limited to him asking if I was American (in japanese of course 'Americajin des ka') and then later telling me that he was giving me a Jenson Button haircut! I'm not sure what one of those is, but I think that most Japanese people must go to the hairdressers with a picture in their hand or a a famous person in mind as a lot of people suggested I do that. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Jenson has a better hairdresser than this guy, I won't be going back...bit uneven and I had to get someone to tidy it up a bit for me...aight now though.

The intensive course I did last year isn't on this year as nobody signed up and as such I have a 3 hour gap in my timetable on a Sunday. Occasionally this will get filled up but quite often I get to finish a bit earlier. One such day I went to watch some professional kickboxing. Nice small venue so very close to the action. Few of the fighters came down in strange stuff, one in a cape and a mask, one guy was a typical Shibuya boy (area of Tokyo where lots of these late teen/early 20 year olds gather with long 80s hair, too much tan and what look like ladies clutch bags) but the best was a guy who came out dressed head to toe in a spiderman outfit! to the spiderman theme...the old one...not from the newish film. He won too, then did spiderman shooting webs type poses for the camera men around the ring.

Been out a few times too, spent too much money :-(.

Budda

Happy New Year! Back to work this week and I start the year with two 6 day weeks! Nothing too exciting to tell as yet, but I'll post the last of my holiday pictures.

Went to Kamakura to visit some of the umpteen shrines and temples there. I'll probably edit this entry and add a bit more info but in the meantime heres the link to the pictures...

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Kamakura/

New Years Eve

Only a week late! i'm catching up at last. Also realised as I was getting the pictures ready for this that there has been very little reference to other people I know here in Japan or pictures of them. I'm not living the life of a hermit....honest! I'll put a bit more in my next post explaining who these people are, no time right now.


Heres a few pics of the night. Went out fairly late, about 11pm, met with a group in Shibuya had a few drinks then went to the busiest crosswalk (pedestrian crossing) in the world for the countdown. Then wandered around talking about going to a club before finally settling in a bar...we stayed there until 7am! Pretty good night. There were a couple of latex masks around in the bar, we took the horse one from the bar and Simon wore it on the train home...few funny looks there.

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/New%20Year%202007/

Christmas Lights

Despite most people following Shinto or Buddhist religions over here Tokyo still manages to put most of our Christmas lights to shame. Far from the switching on of a few piddly lights by C-list celebrities such as the Chuckle Brothers, self styled commoner Kerry Katona, Mr Blobby or the latest X-factor rejects, Tokyo has rows of lights, trees, strobe lighting, and geometrical shapes that would be strewn across the floor and used to garrote fellow revellers at home.

Phew, bit of a rant there eh? never mind, i'm back in the Christmas spirit now. I went to the Tokyo Dome on route back from Akihabara, there's a few pictures on the link at the end of this post so you can see the lights yourself. The dome is pretty big and is regularly used to host baseball games etc. The K1 final is held there in December but the prices are stupendous and the nearby Korakuen Hall regularly holds kickboxing matches so i'm planning on nipping to one of those in the near future.

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Tokyo%20Dome/

Roppongi

Ok, i've still not caught up on those 25 days but heres a bit of new stuff. Roppongi is basically the sleaziest part of Tokyo where foreigners come to party all night. Most of the area looks like a slightly downtrodden version of Shibuya or Shinjuku but there's a new development called Roppongi hills where a lot of these stupidly rich foreigners live.
Nice architecture, boutiques, coffee shops, sculptures, a cinema and a art gallery make it a bit more of a desirable place to visit. Had a look around, took some pics, then spent a few hours in the gallery where there was an exhibition by Bill Viola - some sort of video artist. Bit wierd to be honest, found the techniques he used more interesting than the subject of his work. Bit of a one trick pony too - i.e. if you slow something down a lot you can see a lot more happening and it becomes more interesting. Still a few good pieces though. Then dinner and drinks afterwards.
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Roppongi/

A few 'Engrish' signs

Japan has quite a few strange signs, many of them with badly translated english phrases and instructions. Some of them are just written too literally, others have a complete disregard for English grammar, and the final category reflect the fact that Japanese culture is very different to that which we're used to in the West.

Christmas Lapse

Twenty five days since I last posted an entry eh!? pheeeeew, lots to catch up on then, I'll split it into sections so you're not overwhelmed!

Christmas Party in Tanashi
I don't actually work in Tanashi, but I've done a few cover shifts there and know a few of the teachers, as well as the receptionist and manager there as a result. I finished work on Saturday 16th and despite having a stinking cold got ready in record time and caught the train down there. Only planned to have a few drinks because of the aforementioned sniffles, but as with most nights the unplanned ones are usually the best. I briefly went to the school to find everyone was already well on their way, especially the school manager who doesn't really drink, then we were led down the street to a karaoke bar.
Fourteen of us crammed into one room and started singing and taking advantage of the 'Nomihodi' on offer (not sure of the spelling here but its basically paying a set amount and drinking as much as you want for a period of time, in this case we paid about £14 each and got karaoke and as many drinks as you want for 2 hours). After this 2 hours was up we got another 2 hours, then went to an Izakaya (basically a traditional type restaurant - ie. shoes off, small dishes and various drinks). Eventually headed home at about 5:30am, not in the most sober state but certainly not as bad as most people there!
I stupidly decided to get a couple of hours sleep before I went to work (never do this...ever...people had warned me against it but I thought 1.5 hours would revive me). What actually happened was I fell into a deep gin induced sleep and the 6 alarms that I set on my phone around 5 minutes apart from each other failed to wake me. I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing and as I answered noticed it was 10:05am.....five minutes after the start of my first scheduled lesson and an hour and five minutes after I was supposed to be in work!! Raced down to work in record time looking fairly haggard. Luckily as I'm such a nice guy and a good teacher (modest too eh!) another teacher had taken my first lesson for me and the receptionist hadn't followed the procedure of phoning head office. Consequently there were no kickbacks from the event. Only thing I had to do was apologise profusely to the secretary, thank the the other teacher, then struggle through 4 hours of teaching.

Team Dave

Busy weekend. Met a friend on Thursday for a few drinks and got invited to a club on Friday night, not the best idea as I work on Saturdays but as i've been here for 2 months and not had a big night out yet I threw caution to the wind.

Worked Friday until 9pm, got a train home and was in my apartment at about 10pm, by 10:20 I was catching the train again on my way out. Few drinks in Shibuya then went onto Daikanyama to a club called Unit for a night of dancing to Tech House. Stayed there until 6am, walked back to Shibuya and caught one of the first trains home, got in at about 7:30. Had about 45 minutes to have a shower, get changed and gather my stuff then was back onto the train on my way into work. Was absolutely knackered on the train but perked up a lot after my first hour in work. Didnt drink much in the night as I knew I had a fairly busy day with kids lessons etc so was more lack of sleep and dancing. Think I somehow went beyond being tired and came out the other side as I got through the day, then went straight from work to a Christmas Party!

Party was for one of my schools (Kichijoji) and was mainly students. Each teacher was allocated a team of students (hence the team Dave title) and we had a few games to play such as identifying pictures of famous people with beards drawn on them, a modified version of blankety blank etc. Free food and drinks but only lasted 2 hours and most of that involved me sorting the students out so not that exciting. Managed to catch the bus home this time and got in at 11pm....went to bed at 12, 39 hours in all...wont be doing that every week!

Kickboxing

Had a week of kickboxing as I was out galavanting last Wednesday forgetting the Thursday was a national holiday. Back to it this week though so took a few pictures. Not sure if
I'm a lot unfitter, I'm always tired, or its because i'm not eating as well but training seems to be a lot harder here!

Managed to go on consequtive days a few times though so must be getting a little easier. Normally go to a class on Thursday and just drop in if I go on a Wednesday and either train alone or get paired up with someone there. Trained with a 40 year old bloke this week, built like a brick sh*t house and has been kickboxing since he was 18. Luckily we were punching and kicking the bag, not each other!

Didn't go back today as my thighs were still aching! In fact I slept until 3:30pm. Nice waste of my day off eh? dark when I went to sleep and dark when I got up again. Did get out of the house at least, went and had a few drinks with a teacher I work with on Sundays called Kerryn. Missed the last bus again and had a 30 minute walk when I got to Ogikubo.

1st Christmas party on Saturday in Kichijoji and may be out on the town tomorrow night. Then two six day working weeks approaching...pheeeeewwwww, busy busy.

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Kickboxing/

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.