Transform to Tokyo

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted, I have been very busy at work as at the moment Junten is in testing season. Not only that, my mother is here in Japan so I have been spending time with her too and not to mention attempting to catch up on sleep, let alone catching up on this blog…plus I have a lot to do and see in Japan bar work. Okay, now excuses aside I want to just write some small things about what has been happening (that I can remember) since my last blog post and also on what is to come soon.

Milk Seafood Cup Noodle: Well, for several weeks, the most exciting thing I did was eat a milk seafood cup noodle. I just thought the translation was funny, they mean that the soup stuff in the cup noodle is like a creamy soup. Sorry guys, but this cup noodle does not actually contain milk (I don`t think so anyway). Mike peer pressured me into buying it and weirdly enough I enjoyed it. Thinking back to those weeks…they were so uneventful…
Linkin Park and Dir en grey at Saitama Super Arena: There was a national holiday on the 23rd of November and me and Mike were lucky enough to get tickets for the Linkin Park concert and even luckier for me, Japanese rock band Dir en grey were also playing (and Yellowcard too). Yellowcard got a good reaction from the Japanese fans and to my surprise, their set was actually quite decent (I thought it would be rubbish, as their albums have been going downhill since Ocean Avenue). When Dir en grey came on though, not many people stood up or even clapped them. I enjoyed their set though, moshing away as the only person standing in my block. Maybe everyone thought it was weird that this foreigner who can`t even understand the words was going mental for their songs but whatever. I enjoyed it and that’s all that mattered to me. Linkin Park of course were fantastic. Even better than the first time I saw them (maybe, I`m kind of undecided though). I couldn`t think of any way they could improve the set though at the end, as well the severe ringing of ears and adrenaline buzz I could feel so it was a good concert and certainly wasn`t missing anything…
Strange filmings: After our weekend promotions work one week we were asked by some 3rd grade junior students to go to Akihabara with them to help film a video for their social studies class. Mike had already been in it once, as the topic of the video seemed to be about foreigner`s views of Japan or something. Anyway, we went to Akihabara, which for those of you who may not be aware is the massive electrical town in Tokyo. You can literally buy anything electronic here and is very well known for its video game, anime, manga, action figure and strange pornographic cultism. The people who indulge in such cults are known as `otaku` in Japan and in the film we appeared to be going `otaku hunting`. Me and Mike also tried to enjoy some common otaku activities (though, not the strange pornographic kind…it didn`t really seem suitable for the 13 year old school kid`s video). We played Taiko no Tatsujin together (at our own expense of course) which is a game based on traditional Japanese Taiko drumming. Afterwards we were shown a sheer display of Taiko otakuism as one of the students demonstrated just how immense on the game he was. I also tried this level with him and barely scored any points at all…I was proud. After touring around Akihabara, we had an interview (in English) and then a fashion check from one of the students. Currently in Japan there is some TV star (I don`t know the name) who gives `fashion checks` so, it was kind of a bit of current media added in there for humor. Shortly after this, it was realized that for the whole time we were there, the camera was not filming. Of course, everyone was sad, but we quickly did our interview again for them and then left to go to Shinjuku to meet some of our friends. Though that trip was utterly pointless, there were some more times we were filmed for the video (at more promotions sessions), sometimes without even knowing it. I`m looking forward to the finished thing and will hopefully have time to tell you all about it later.
Shinjuku`s `Pink Big Pig`: After the filming disaster, we went off to Shinjuku to meet our Australian `buddies` for a drinking session. We walked around Kabukicho, the bad area of Shinjuku (and truly enough, it is not very nice), for a little bit before going to `Pink Big Pig`. For some reason, my senses tell me `Big Pink Pig` would sound better but as we know, the Japanese have a funny (and sometimes hilarious) idea of the English language, so Pink Big Pig it was…Anyway, inside was a nice all you can eat and drink place with a lot of entertainment. Me and Mike both really enjoyed the night and are hoping to go back there again sometime.
Loads of promotions sessions: Of course, the most exciting part of our time recently has been the promotions sessions four weeks in a row, one Sunday and three Saturdays…not. This weekend, for the first time in a while we actually get a two day weekend. Usually at these promotions sessions we work (if it can be called that) giving out `documents` about the school, stand there looking foreign and saying sorry for not understanding any questions people may ask us. Usually we do this between 11.30am and 5pm, split into two sessions. Three out of the four times we received a free lunch, and we expected it on the 4th time too, but it wasn`t provided and we weren`t even told about it. The free lunch is usually nice, though, it doesn`t really pay for us wasting pretty much a whole day of our precious weekend.
Night out with Barney and Terry: We had a good night out with the other half of the ELC crew last Friday (and will do once again this Friday, I hope). We went to see the Christmas tree lights being switched on at Terry`s old university and then we went to Dubliner`s pub in Shibuya and went home very late…
Kamakura trip: Last weekend we went to Kamakura, one of the old capitals of Japan with my mum, Sven (one of our Australian `mates` [that`s not sarcasm, he is our mate, it`s just that`s an Australian like word isn`t it?...Isn`t it?]) Yumi from our Monday evening class and one of her friends, Sanae. We arrived nice and early at Oji platform (so no catch up sleeping that Sunday for me…) and soon after waiting for Yumi to find us set off to Kamakura via Tokyo. In Kamakura we visited a lot of shrines, at all of which we could join the Japanese people in their weird fascination with the colour changing of the leaves. At first I thought it was very strange that they would love this activity so much, but then I got quite into it and then to be honest, by the end of the day I think I felt the same way I did at the start. It`s nice thing to do, in small quantities. Luckily, we could also do other things like see the shrines, go walking around town and eat at some nice places (well, two). One of the coolest things of the day though was seeing the `Daibutsu` which is a large statue of Buddha you can go inside of. Kamakura had a good mixture of Buddhist and Shinto shrines, all with nice gardens, so we had a nice day in the nature, which we rarely do, due to our city life…
Evening lessons and volunteer jobs finish: This Wednesday was our final evening lesson and today was our last trip to the nursery this year which was lucky for us, as now we can feel a lot more relaxed in the evenings and have more time to wind down from work. I`m sure I will miss the classes though over the time we have off, not only that but I think I will even miss the bakery and nursery, as much as they are very hard work too! (Especially the nursery which is slowly healing my dislike of young children. Today was actually pretty fun.)
Daft punk at Makuhari Messe: This Sunday. – Please see next post…
ELC Christmas Party: Next Friday – Please see the post after that…
Holiday in Hokkaido: A holiday, finally! We set off for Hokkaido on the 26th of December and will stay until the 2nd. I`m really looking forward to it, particularly snowboarding! Hurry Xmas!

Thanks for reading and once again, sorry that this post was so late. Now I must get on to putting some of my pictures up. Will post another post with the link on soon! Thanks again! See you!