Kobe steak, spuds and lots of coffee!

 I took my English discussion group on a trip to a museum designed by an English architect Josiah Conder and thankfully (or not!) it had an exhibition of English photographer.  Her work had fingerprints on, scratches etc which other photographers of the day would have thrown away but she loved these imperfections. Julia Margaret Cameron was around in the 1800s and was very modest saying her photographs would not be surpassed! 
When I got to the tube station it was raining heavily. I was wearing my Crocs and I almost came a cropper or is that a Croccer? 

At the beginning of the week I'd had a brainwave. Why don't I do the last week of the intensive level 2 course and do three private lessons beforehand to summarise each of the weeks I have missed? So I was in email contact with the “school” I went to. After various failed attempts when I eventually spoke to someone it became clear that I could not book a lesson for the next day. Also I couldn't commit definitely to a date as I was waiting to know what date the CEO had chosen to interview me for a marketing job!!  They later emailed me to say they wanted someone with better Japanese and I quote

“looking for a candidate with strong Japanese skills. We believe you will be able to reach that level in the future, but for now, we would like to encourage you to study Japanese every day and give the very best of you.”  Sounds Japanese?  But actually it’s written by an Italian!! Condescending.....?

Saturday morning we caught a train to Osaka, we had a strange breakfast on the train of our fridge contents, arrived in to meet J – who had just landed from London- and then went to Kobe to go to our Air B and B accommodation.  It was as advertised but not quite the same as the photos – clutter everywhere.  It would've taken a professional cleaner about 15 mins to make it look 80% better but I think that the guy who owns the place decided to save the cash and do it himself. Dominic said it looked as though the owner had just moved out (to his Mum and Dads) for the weekend!

Steak in Kobe – of course Dominic rang Steakland! Yes really..

Sunday was museum day.  The fashion museum is in a great looking building but the museum itself was very disappointing.  

 No problem as it was just a short walk to a sake brewery.  It had displays of all the old instruments that they used in sake making and also had clips from footage taken in 1928. Interspersed with this were videos showing what happens now.  So 1928 the place was full of men rushing around the place doing various activities. Fast forward 88 years and there is one man wondering amongst machine controlled vats of sake. 

I had read about a display looking at art from the viewpoint of people with sight impairment at a museum designed by Endo. We went into one room and I was convinced that this was the special exhibit however I was wrong but thankfully had not put my mitts all over the art!

It was in an area downstairs, we had to leave your valuables and take off any jewellery and put on an eye mask.  We were told to hold onto the rope to guide us round the room a few pieces of art were set up for us to feel. We emerged out of the room and took of our eye masks and when asked we were told we couldn't see what we had felt!!

They had a Foujita exhibition on - look at the likeness!

Excelsior coffee is made to look American but is a Japanese coffee chain.  J was amazed at how many people were using the cafe to study we reckoned about 70%. Not sure how any cafes make any money as people nurse one coffee for an hour or two! The floor above was for smokers and the smell permeated down to us.

Monday we stuffed all our bags into a locker at the station and headed off. We did many forms of transport. Bus to a funicular railway, a bit of walking and then onto a cable car which sailed above the treetops. Dominic said this was his favourite part of the day.

As usual at the onsen the male and female bathing was separate but this time at the far end the wall between the two sides got lower and lower until it was nothing. It was a great idea however the area in which you could sit out of the water was in full view of both sides!!  Lunch was bizarrely in a room that looked like 1900s England! The food was beautifully presented and went on for several courses more than expected. 

At the end of it we were all exhausted. 

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I discovered a new product. Chewing gum, banana flavoured. What's to get so excited about?  It looks like a polo mint and you can whistle through the hole!!!! Love it. Have been scouring town to see if I can buy a massive packet of them but so far it just comes in packs of two and I have to buy a whole load of boring chewing gum to go with it.

A lot of bods go on tours so I signed up for one to a wind chime festival. Of course lunch was involved and we had monk food ie vegetarian and without five ingredients - onion and garlic are the key ones that I can remember. At the festival there were lots of wind chime producers selling their wares. Handily they each had a map of Japan and a dot on it to show where they come from. 
I went out to Jimbocho with Kayo the area is well known for bookshops of all varieties and also sporting goods. At one of the shops I found a very attentive English student.

Kayo took me to a famous curry restaurant and what do they serve with curry? Boiled potatoes in their skins with a decent sized pat of butter!  OMG!!!

 

A friend was organising a trip out to see Lotus flowers, again lunch, and then a visit to the Tokyo Stock  exchange.  I could only join the stock exchange bit and by some random mechanism I identified Ricoh on the list of companies. 

When we had come to Tokyo on holiday Dominic took me to a coffee van that I absolutely loved.  It had a display of tiny biscuits and cakes and there was a little water garden in a pot outside. When we moved here I decided that that van would be my local and we chose to live very near to it.  However before I could visit it again it disappeared but last week I found it ! Yeh!

It is now officially the end of the rainy season. However this morning we were woken in the early hours by a torrential downpour and thunder!  

English but not as we know it!

So I signed up to help some young people at the visually impaired school in Tokyo practice for their English oral exam.  They have to read a short paragraph in English and then answer a question based on it. Then there are 2 questions asking for their view on a "related" matter. Then they look at an image showing various activities and describe them and then another image showing a situation that they also have to describe.

The first issue I had was that the English in the paragraph was very peculiar.  The questions were written in an odd way too. 

The image displaying a situation was a bad drawing of a man in a bookshop wanting to buy a book but realising he has not got his wallet with him. There is a bubble above his head with a drawing of a wallet and a cross through it.

Some students were given a large print version of the image others got a description in Japanese in Braille or large format.  I got the English translation of what the young people were given.  So they were told the man is at a loss and that there is a picture of a wallet with a cross through it! Oh my God this test has just got 10 times more difficult for them!  

I got quite concerned and at the weekend asked an American guy who teaches English at a Tokyo University what's the story? It turns out that the test is set by group of Japanese people and they believe that native speakers do not need to be involved in the process. Well that explains everything and I can now relax!

H,C and A arrived in Tokyo on Saturday. The next day we decide to immerse ourselves in Japanese culture and went to two shrines and enjoyed hot and cold noodles for lunch. DK cold, me hot.  

As there are no public holidays in June Ricoh were encouraging people to take the 24th or 27th June as holiday. DK does not need much encouragement so we all went off to Kamakura to look at the big Buddha and also look at the hydrangeas. 

 

Hungry so stopped for tacos.  I had a mango dessert - only to find bits of taco at the bottom of it!

DK waiting for his flattened shrimp!

Our visitors soon got the hang of Tokyo and were out and about doing their own thing. But we got to meet up with them in the evenings to hear about their adventures. 

On Saturday everyone else was going to go off to the rugby. I had declined. However the day was very hot, and the seats in the stadium are plastic.  So H decided that if the seats are in the sun it would be very unpleasant experience. So H and I did an arduous 10 minute walk (not!) to the Nezu museum. It had an exhibition of mirrors – the back of them. And we got to enjoy the large garden. We nipped across the road to have coffee and a large piece of Victoria sandwich cake. Yummy!







Just as we were leaving the boys texted to surprisingly say they were having beers and did we want to join them? 

Our visitors set off to Hiroshima on Sunday morning.

I had my last English discussion lesson until next term and I got taken out for lunch. I've arranged to meet them next week for an excursion. I really wanted to try and do something English and then go and eat something English. The Japanese English association in Tokyo gave a couple of ideas. I was also on the hunt for a document I have seen which listed all UK brand shops so contacted the British Council.  They gave me a link to a promotional poster which had no information on it.   I felt very tempted to write back to say the information provided was bloody hopeless but instead I thanked them very much for their response. I found a museum in Tokyo that was designed by the British architect Josiah Conder who I'd never heard of.  Thankfully they have an exhibition on of photographs by an English photographer (also never heard of ) arranged with the V&A (yes of course I have!)

Japanese love anything new and so when Shake Shack ( a burger joint) opened last year the queues were 2 if not 3 hours long.  I went on Monday with 2 mates.  We joined the queue at 10.50 and the place opened at 11am.  The queue does not move much as people don't go in and sit but have to place their orders at the counter first...and then go back to collect the food when it is ready.  I don't see all the fuss about burgers - this one had a soft bun which went to mush..and the shake was ok.  Apparently I was supposed to have a concrete - dense frozen custard.  The best burger is still Hotel Continenta's (Whitstable) bun is toasted, salad has a light dressing....is anyone still awake?

The weather is getting hot and humid.....we've had the A/C on and I want to buy an electric fan.

H, C and A returned from their travels so we had one last day with them in Tokyo.  We went back to the 100 steps - a series of rooms from 1935.  Used to be a wedding venue but now it is an exhibition space.  This time is had some illuminations - very good.  

 

Place has fab carvings.

We popped over to see the bonsais and koi at another venue but there were way too many people and way too many weddings going on. 

 So we popped over the road to the bakery and had a pie.  The shadiest place to eat it was by the funeral trappings of a shop!  Nice!

A quick visit to Donki for the final souvenirs, still the waving cat eluded them. So DK did a detour to try and find one and we headed home.

In the evening went out with an Irish couple who are always good value.  DK booked a restaurant but since we last visited in November the prices have doubled, we sat down looked at the menu with some surprise.  We checked if they wanted to leave but said they were ok to stay.

It's a long weekend approaching so we are off to Kobe!

Luxurious living in June

So DK set off on his work trip. I was a bit concerned as since arriving in Japan we haven't really been apart.

That day I went to lunch. To a restaurant at the end of a canal. It was great. The four of us sat outside protected from the sun under an awning and looked out over the water. We then went round to visit a Venezuelan woman selling Japanese pottery in someone else's house!

I had time to get out my sewing machine. Making a shirt using a Vogue pattern. (predictive texting suggested a fag pattern!)  I specialise in clothes that don't fit me in material I like - think the pattern needed a more draping fabric rather than cotton! Oh well onto the next one!

 

And of course I could go for curry, I went to the place that A and G ate at on their visit. I decided to go for the thali as I thought if I ordered separate dishes I would end up with a mountain of food. Instead I ended up a mountain range of food, the naan bread was absolutely enormous. I was so stuffed I had to come home and drink mint tea to help with my digestion! The next day at the Farmers Market I had another curry!

I also went to the hairdressers. Up till now I've been using one Dominic had found. This one was certainly posher and I was in a room on my own. The whole process took two hours!  I wandered down the hill and got a coffee and went for a wander and a sit down in the fabulous park nearby. From the map I could see there was a library in the park so went to have a look.  I arrived and asked where I could put my empty coffee cup and was told there were no bins. I pointed outside and asked if there was a bin. There wasn't. The woman pointed to the coin lockers. So I left my coffee cup and some of my other detritus and went to read a couple of magazines. Collecting the contents of the coin locker before I left.


You might find a recycling bin by a drinks machine or one in the equivalent of a Seven 11 shop. There are no bins on the street or in parks.

On my list for a while has been to visit Nippori also known as fabric town.  The place is packed with fabric shops.

On Tuesday I went out with a couple of people from Berlitz for another curry!  

The Issey Miyake exhibition which people had raved about was closing soon. I hadn't understood before that his clothes are just folds of fabric. if you lift a garment up by the straps it's a bit like a Christmas paper decoration.  It suddenly develops form and a dress appears! Pretty amazing.  On the way there I spotted this old house - in the centre of Tokyo.

Met a mate for a walk along a valley and then had dinner together....yes curry but totally different this time as I had a glass of wine with it. 

Invited to watch a parade 3 of us waited in the cool of a building. Fumie called the shrine from where the procession...running 20 mins late.  We waited some more. She then went outside to check- the lack of people had seemed strange. We were in the wrong street!  We hurried along and caught the parade.  We then went to see the guest place at the palace which is not open very often.

Saturday I headed off to an ikebana session - I chose my leaves and a thistle type flower.  I of course realised it was a true thistle after I'd caught my hand on the thorny bits a few times.  I couldn't decide where to eat...so you've guessed it - another curry !

Having a coffee the person next to me nipped off to the loo....leaving her handbag, computer and phone.  This is absolutely normal in Tokyo ...

DK returned from his work trip so we went to check out the local irises....as it is iris season. He struggled through the rest of the week.  At the weekend he'd promised me coffee - and here it is!

Bods here mad about animal cafes. I went to the hedgehog one.  Do you think this fella is confused by the fabric of my dress?

Manic May

We got back off holiday and I started an intensive Japanese course. Going to lessons every afternoon. I was in a group of eight and joined a week in. The others were able to write and read hiragana.  I scribbled manically trying to decipher the text rather than being able to read instantly from it. Turns out the student next to me had studied Japanese in college for a year! 

What got me through it!

Teacher on left  a bit shy! So I presented certificate to student

One evening we met up with Wei a friend from Shanghai vision days. He was in Tokyo on a conference. Dominic said we were going for a curry and I was delighted. However we queued up with the 20 people from the conference to go into the ninja restaurant!  We had to go in in sets of five and be led through the corridors and shown the various trapdoors! I was tired and was not amused by this delay in me getting food. We sat down and had pate with crackers in the shape of some ninja weapon. We then had gazpacho... And so the strange mix went on.  Wei asked Dominic if he could stand up and tell people what his first impressions were of working in Japan.  Then everyone stood up and did their summary of the conference.  They were all incredibly motivated by their experience here. We left them to go on drinking and we returned home.

C & M came to visit. I was so excited I woke up at 5:30 when their plane landed.  I decided to get up and do some lesson prep but it was soon 7am and they were ringing the doorbell. Well actually they had rung the doorbell of other neighbours twice.  oops!

We went to Akihabara otherwise known as Electric Town. We headed for Yodabashi Camera.  I stayed on one floor which was full of model making kits of all kinds of stuff as well as Gacha Gacha machines.  They show what the series of plastic things are: cats on sushi, parrots, hamsters in various poses. You put your money in and the thing comes out in a plastic ball. 

Yes it really is a whole bottle of whisky in a vending machine!

We came home via commune 246.  Basically a series of outdoor stalls selling different drinks and food. 

On Monday DK went to work and the rest of us went to the fish market together which was an experience. It sells $24 million of fish a day!  The plan afterwards was to go and eat sushi. However we'd seen fish in various states. In pools of blood, writhing on the floor with someone ready with a knife and a long bit of wire. Euch!  So no one said anything but we were no longer hungry for raw fish.  Instead we ate the samples from the many different food stalls nearby. 

The next day they headed off to Kyoto returning for the weekend. On Saturday we dashed over to Kamakura.  Where we saw the impressive Buddha and then caught an old fashioned train to go over to and around an island.  We had been there before but this time I did have the jellyfish ice cream.  All I will say is that the black sesame was better.  C queued up to get a prawn and a squid.  But they are mixed with some pancake type mix and came completely flattened as a big crispy wafer. 



On Sunday C had found a Time Out walk to do in a trendy area so this is what we did. It has a few French things in town including A Cordon Bleu cookery school. And we arrived to find a French festival going on! So Dominic and I had some French savoury pastries in other words - Pies!

We headed back home to a salad place we recently discovered that C loves.  C and M's second visit! 

Sadly M left which meant the next morning C and I did some work separately and then went out for a drink and a chat together. We went to some trendy organic kind of place. It had the green tea latte that C loves.  It also did decaffeinated coffee which is very unusual. I asked for a latte. That wasn't possible but I could have a drip coffee decaffeinated. I asked for some milk with it and was told that wouldn't be possible. However eventually it was!  We had a great time sitting out and chatting... How come you have the most meaningful conversations just before friends depart?
C then left to get a taxi to the train station to go to her business meeting in another part of Japan.

The rest of May disappeared quickly in a series of English and Japanese lessons.

It was our 15th wedding anniversary this year and I tried to book a posh lunch at Joel Robuchon's several months ago but the place was already busy. Well that's what it showed on the website but the problem was it didn't take bookings so far in advance. By the time I realised this it was actually full. Joel has another place in town which is less posh so I booked that instead. I joked with Dominic that we should go away for the weekend and he said we would see. I'm not sure why as we were both exhausted. The plan for the weekend was lots of nothing followed by lunch and then more nothing and reading papers.

DK had been trying different churches but decided to return to the original so we asked C and R if after church they would like to go to the trendy area for lunch which they did on the condition that we go to some random place they had been to before; a Yemen coffee shop that serves dates (and of course coffee). 

Off on our holidays!

The Japanese do not take their holiday entitlement. So the government create public holidays in order to force people to have a rest. In May there is a three day public holiday called Golden week. (mmm yeh I know 3 days does not a week make!) So Dominic and I took the whole week off and the week before it!

So wearing my Snoopy chocks away t-shirt we headed off to the south west islands of Japan, Ishigaki, Myakojima and Okinawa. 

Ishigaki - a direct flight from Tokyo. Met at the airport by a very laid-back Korean hostel owner after we'd seen various posters displaying the poisonous wildlife in the area.  We rented the owners car- no paperwork to fill-in, no surveying the car beforehand and I don't even think he checked whether we had a driving license! 

Jimmy the jockey!

 



He had drawn a map of the local area on which he marked the various local beaches, bakeries, cafes and restaurants and where to watch sunsets.  

We went down to a beach from which you're not allowed to swim because they don't want people interfering with the pearl cultivation beds. The water was a fabulous turquoise. 

We spent the next 5 days driving around going swimming, snorkeling and venturing to 2 nearby islands.  The furthest one is known as the jungle of Japan. We weren't sure whether to go or not but eventually did and went to do the trip down the mangrove river and then walk to a few waterfalls. Down at the river at the ticket "office"  the woman selling the tickets asks "where are you from?" Dominic says Ireland and her immediate response is "cold". The bloke in the ticket booth with her who we assume is her husband pipes up that he lived in Ireland for two years. He's a jockey he says the name of the stable he used to work at,  Dominic is able to tell the guy that his mum and dad know the owner! Bonkers!

I feel that the lonely planet guide loves telling its readers to go to way out places and then suggest going somewhere even further away that is absolutely brilliant. They said the best beach in Japan is Moon beach on this jungle island, so we decided to head for it. At the bus stop we can't work out what the schedule is. Thankfully someone tells us we have a two hour wait. We asked them if they know our favourite beach on Ishigaki. They do so we asked them how Moon beach compares. Without hesitation they say our beach is better. So we head straight back to the ferry. Ha! Lonely planet we have beaten you! 

View from our bedroom

However at the beach I realise I haven't got my snorkel gear. Dominic has and is telling me that he can't describe how fabulous the fish are. (His snorkel mask is fitted with prescription lenses so borrowing them would not be the best!)    But then the sea goes absolutely flat, I am just standing in the water up to my waist and I can see perfectly the fish swimming around me.

We tried out the various local restaurants; the only issue being that you would typically bump into somebody from the hostel and then there would be the awkward question of whether you should eat together....

Best snorkeling

 

Sat here and enjoyed a pizza!

Next Myakojima, my favourite island. It's actually one island linked to 4 others by very impressive bridges. One of which I think is the longest bridge in Japan. How on earth such a small community can afford or justify the expense I have no idea but it was very handy for us.

There are many beautiful beaches. We stayed at a weird Moroccan place that was expensive and had shared toilets and bathrooms. The owner was great at knowing what the weather was doing and which direction the wind was blowing and based on this was able to tell us the best                                                              beaches to go to.

We went to what was labelled the best snorkeling beach.  We just walked in from the beach and within a few yards it was just like swimming in an aquarium. The guy renting out the umbrellas and chairs played an Okinawan instrument that sounded very plinky-plonky. It was most surreal to be snorkeling and hearing this music.

 


The Japanese apparently love getting kitted out for any activities. So they went into the water with a full wet suit, booties, gloves!, and often a flotation vest.  We just had our swimming gear but it made me wonder if they knew something we didn't.

Our last island was Okinawa. It's bigger and it's famous for having about 20,000 American troops living there. Someone commented that the best areas are fenced off for their training activities.

We flew into the capital Naha which does not look attractive and headed out for an hour to get to the Marriot hotel. Our friendly relocation agent in Tokyo, Louise, had moved in December to work there. She had arranged a great hotel rate and somehow managed to get us upgraded twice. From our massive luxurious room we could see the huge pool below. We had fun with Louise going to a tourist village recreation thing which normally I would not like but it had lots of crafts you could do.  So between us we made a candle!

trendy coffee van

Fabulous Japanese meal at the Marriot!

Also visited the massive aquarium. Beaches looked great but you could only swim in the netted area. So even if you walked out to the deepest bit you were still not up to your armpits. So we were glad that we had maxed out on swimming and snorkeling at the previous islands. 

We headed home.  And I joined a four week intensive Japanese course the next day.