Japanory

In Praise of Buses!

Rhiannon and I are at the end of our tether with this awful school run. Going in isn't too bad. Well, it is, but at least Rhiannon is fresh at the start of the day and there aren't too many people around at that time. But the 'going-home-run' is atrocious.

One traumatic afternoon (for both of us), Rhiannon tantrummed for nearly the entire journey – a whole hour straight. She's never done this before, ever. Along with the whole change of country, culture shock, the new school, (which is more pressured than the exceedingly gentle schooling she'd experienced in the UK) it's hardly surprising the poor child is so shattered.

We have an incredibly frazzled mum and daughter at the end of each day. There's no 'happy family' for Tim to return home to at the end of his work day. He can't work out what the problem is – I am very tempted to suggest he does the school run a couple of days and see how he copes! Not well, would be my guess.

But! An end to the nightmarish school run could finally be in sight.

My gorgeous friend, Teri, has told me in great detail about the buses. I hadn't even thought of using a bus, doh! She has even gone to the trouble of obtaining a bus route map and worked out how I can get to school on the bus, which bus to catch, and even how to how to pay when getting on board.

Not only that, she told me there was a bus stop just across the road from my house! I cannot believe I hadn't noticed it and went to investigate. Sure enough, there it is! But I can't read the timetable as it's all in Japanese. I make a guess and plan a trial run. Unfortunately, there are only 2 or 3 buses every hour but it looks like the one we need is just right for getting to school on time. And the timetable appears to be fairly straightforward as long as I remember which column means weekdays and which refers to the weekend.

This could be the miracle cure to the endless waste of time that I'm spending on the school run. It's taking a minimum of four hours out of my day.

So, at the weekend, we go on adventure and take the bus to Shibuya. What a revolution!! The number 81 bus picks us up. It only costs 200 yen for any length of journey, and Rhiannon travels free of charge due to her age - she doesn't start paying until she's 6 years old. The seats have no leg room for tall gaijin, but that's not a problem for Rhiannon, of course! Then at Shibuya, we hop off and work out where to go from there. It's as easy as pie and will only be a few hundred yards walk to school, instead of a couple of miles.

What a breakthrough! I'm so happy!!

IT Training Work Looming

Friday, 19^th January 2007

Today I had another meeting to find out precisely what sort of computer training they want me to do at the Embassy. I've been given a scary list. Well, it's scary only because a lot of it is entitled "Advanced" and I haven't done anything "Advanced" since I stopped IT Training in 2001.

However, on speaking to some of the potential students on an informal basis (in the bar...) it appears this requirement has been greatly exaggerated. Thank goodness!

Long ago, when PCs and Microsoft were first introduced into the Embassies worldwide, intensive training was provided for all staff on all the products they were to use. I was lucky enough to be taken on to help with this and got to travel the world, go to exotic locations and meet interesting people. All in the line of work of, course. Ah, those were the days!

Of course, staff members move on and move in, so quite a few people never received the initial training and, unless they already had the computer skills, were expected to just pick it up as they worked. As most of us know, this isn't the best way to learn for many people.

So, rather than pay a fortune to bring someone all the way over from the UK to run classes, I will do it instead. Luckily, my speciality is tailoring courses to suit the trainees so I found out what they knew and set myself the task of creating bespoke courses in all the Microsoft Office programs.

The first course is scheduled for next Thursday, 25^th January. Yikes! I have a lot of work to do before then. I am nervous, cross and excited all at the same time...

Costco and Toilet Paper

Now, why would an enormous globally present supermarket warrant a blog post of its own?
Because it was a trip away from home and because I’ve never been to one. Ever!

My lovely friend Teri, was kind enough to offer to drive me to Costco so I could to stock up on essentials such as toilet roll and Western food. Toilet roll is very thin here, and is only sold in packets of two. We have three toilets in our house so it runs out rapidly. Half a roll equals the same, erm... absorbency as a few sheets of Andrex.

OK, too much information there! On with the trip...

After we’d dropped our children off at school, I got into Teri’s car for an interesting drive. Teri is from Costa Rica and drives like a true Latino. Which means that when she found herself in the wrong lane, she thought nothing of driving over the zebra crossing in order to get into the correct lane. Numerous times she stopped to jab the GPS as it was giving conflicting information – allegedly. I must admit to closing my eyes a couple of times, but we reached Costco intact.

Then she said, “Of course, Costco only take American Express or cash, do you have AmEx?”
Uhhh, NO! And I don’t have much cash either!! Oh dear. It looks like I won’t be bulk buying after all.

Costco was as large as an aircraft hanger and spanned two floors. What an experience! Huge trays of meat, sacks of fruit and veg and a staggering number of, mostly American, foodstuffs. Crates of wine and many other enticing articles were out of my reach having no means of paying for them.

Luckily, all the items were labelled in English as well as Japanese but I nearly made a terrible mistake. Boxes of sugar were displayed alongside other white granules. I grabbed what I thought was granulated sugar, then, as an afterthought, read the label... it was Monosodium Glutamate! Eeeew!!

But I did stock up on cat food and cat litter, plus some lovely bread and a few other bits and pieces.

And I bought a giant pack of toilet paper.

Odaiba

Sunday, 14^th January 2007

Tim has an idea for a day trip today so we jump at the chance to see somewhere new.

We are off to a place called Odaiba, which is somewhere “over a river and by the sea”. Excellent! A Real Trip!

This involves countless trains, culminating in a trip on a wonderfully modern, unmanned monorail which speeds us over the roofs of Tokyo on an elevated track. We managed to get the front seats so Rhiannon pretends, as all kids do, to drive the train. We get many amused looks from the other passengers. Although this might have to do with the fact that Tim was also pretending to drive the train...

Flying over Tokyo Bay to our destination I enjoy the fabulous views of some incredible futuristic architecture.

Odaiba is a large artificial island located in Tokyo Bay. Some of the spectacular sights here include the graceful Rainbow Bridge, one of the world’s largest Ferris wheels and the amazing space-age Fuji TV building. The latter takes my breath away with its other-worldly design. Apparently the ball at the top weighs an incredible 1,200 tons and measures 32 metres across. Goodness knows how they got it all the way up there!

Once there, we explore the area finding a massive shopping mall with a large restaurant hall which we earmark for lunch.

Outside, I snap away taking photos of all the wonderful buildings and views over the Bay. Then we realise we can actually get down to the sea so we make our way through the clipped trees and giant anchors placed artfully in the ground. On the way, we are amazed to see a Statue of Liberty!

Even though it is January and pretty cold, Rhiannon goes paddling in the sea chasing the small fish darting in the shallows. I didn’t expect this of Tokyo, that’s for sure! Not only can we (fairly) easily get to the sea, it’s not polluted or mucky in anyway, and there is even life in it! Ducks and cormorants bob around, doing their thing, while spaceship-like ferries carry passengers to unknown destinations.

For lunch we drag Rhiannon away from the giant beefburger and down to the restaurant hall we noticed earlier. While I ordered a steaming bowl of Japanese noodles and soup, Tim and Rhiannon let the side down and order McDonalds.

We will return to this place, it looks like there is a lot to discover here.

 

 

A Playdate

January 13^th 2007

Today is the day for our first ever playdate in Japan. We are due there at 10am.

I woke up at 11am. Oops!

In my defence... OK, no defence, I was hung-over after a late night at the bar yesterday.

So, an apologetic phone call to the mum, who was tangibly unimpressed, and the quickest dressing-and-heading-out-of-the-house-run on record. Rhiannon and I make our weary way to the station for a two-change Metro trip to Roppongi. Once out of the station we immediately become hopelessly lost in a shopping mall of labyrinthine proportions and properties.

At one point we had to venture up an escalator with a height nearing that of Fuji itself. We distracted ourselves from our slight acrophobia by admiring a colossal advertising hoarding portraying David Beckham with a cut face. This brought a lot of questions from Rhiannon who still hasn’t grasped the concept of advertising. “Who is he? How did he cut his face? Why hasn’t someone given him a plaster?” and “He is rather cute, isn’t he Mummy?” Erm, not my taste, but he’s better than thinking of how high this escalator is!

Another phone call, and the mum, whom I shall call Maria, talked us through the miles of bland corridors and funky sculptures and water features to the correct exit.

Thankfully, we found the apartment without much difficulty, but I’ll never make it through Roppongi Hills alone! What a complicated piece of planning, especially for someone like me who gets lost just crossing a road.

Now, usually with playdates, us mum’s tend to take to opportunity to drop the child off and beat a hasty retreat to go and indulge in some child-free time. Not this time though. I was fully expected to stay and chat with Maria. OK, I’ve not actually planned anything so I settled down in the hope of making a new friend.

Maria is a large American woman married to a slight Japanese man. Apparently gaijin woman + Japanese man is quite a rare pairing, but I haven’t worked out why. Her husband appeared bearing a tray of tea and disappeared back into the kitchen, where he stayed for the entire time I was there. Apart from his regular and soundless visits to refill the endless cups of tea, I saw nothing more of him. Was he a servant? Or didn’t he like to socialise? It was rather odd.

Their apartment was beautifully decorated and crammed with some incredible Japanese antiques such as rare tansu, (cabinets), screens and scrolls. I imagined this was like a Real Japanese Home.

Rhiannon went off to play with the two girls and Maria proceeded to educate me.

Now, this is quite hard to write in retrospect as things have since changed between us, but at this particular time, I was very open to learning all I could about Japan and its beautiful culture and objets d’art.

So, I learned a lot and we organised a trip for the two of us to visit Kappabashi – AKA Kitchen Town - a wonderful sounding place where shops selling ceramics, plastic food and all kinds of fascinating kitchen stuff.

Lunchtime approached and the husband brought us both a small meal on neat trays while he served the children a different lunch in the kitchen.

From time to time, a minor argument would erupt between the kids, and one or other of them would traipse in with “Muuuu-uum, so-and-so did this...” My reaction to these common upsets was normally to listen and encourage Rhiannon to “deal with it”, but Maria had a very different approach which was somehow belittling to me and Rhiannon. She would set the children down and proceed to give a psychobabble lecture which always seemed to make me out to be a bad mother or, worse, to insinuate that Rhiannon was badly behaved.

It was all very subtly done however, and it wasn’t until later in our acquaintance that this became a problem. At the time, I just put it down to a culture difference, her being a much more capable mother than myself and perhaps a little showing-off to a newbie. I was also feeling very guilty about being so late for the date and the obvious disapproval she projected about my being hungover!

After many hours, I could take no more tea and information, so we left and went home.

Taking Control of my Days

 

12^th January 2007

Today I made some life-progress!

I committed to two new things, both of which I have never done before.

To start, I went to a coffee morning at the school. Held in the large, sunny school library, it was completely packed with mums. Coffee and real English tea was available so I made sure I indulged freely in the tea. The librarian, a wonderful Swedish man, provided a feast of delicious home-made cakes which didn’t last long.

Feeling very much like the new girl at school (which actually, I was) I drifted around trying, and completely failing, to get included in conversations.  So I people-watched for a while; a mix of nationalities, including Japanese, is represented at the school but the people attending the coffee morning were all gaijin. Most had expensively highlighted hair, loud voices and enormous glittering diamond rings. I feel very different and most definitely a bystander. I wonder if this is a Mummy Mafia that has been much written about in the British press.

I discovered that someone was handing out booklets so I asked for a copy. It’s entitled “Tokyo ABC – A Parent’s Guide to Life, Living and Getting Out of the car Parks!” which bodes well for some useful and amusing content.

After an indeterminate length of time (three cups of tea) I decided to leave. There were far too many people there, all ostentatiously greeting and gossiping with old friends and not particularly interested in talking to newbies, apart from the typically female 'once-over' - the slow, top-to-toe sweeping look that is designed to make one feel inferior. Never works with me, just makes me laugh!

So, clutching my new book, I headed off to find something else to do.

I found a Starbucks, and grasped at the familiar to rediscover my equilibrium – and find a toilet after all those cuppas!

Settling down to have a flick through this interesting and useful book, the first page I looked at declared “don’t stay at home alone” and “find something to do”.

OK, let’s do that.                               

Many of the people that had taken the time to talk to me (not from the school) had mentioned a church that ran cultural courses as part of their Women’s Group. Now, I do not ‘do’ church, but seeing the list of classes they ran I decided to go and see what was open to me. I knew the name of the church so I hailed a cab only to discover that it was located just up the road! Luckily the cabbies here are very honest and he told me – in sign language and Japanese – where it was, rather than letting me get in and taking me on a scenic, money-making drive as they would in many other countries.

I always have a slight reservation in entering churches, fearing I’ll be struck down for my disbelief – which is a ridiculous statement if you analyse it. Venturing in I met Rose, the lovely receptionist, who handed me a brochure and I sat down to peruse the class list.

Between the school run times and finances, I narrowed my wish list down and booked in to learn Ikebana. I didn’t realise there was more than one school of this floral arrangement discipline, and two of the three were in the afternoons, making it tricky to get back to school in time to collect Rhiannon. So I chose the one that was running on Monday mornings – Sogetsu Ikebana. I also put my name down for a one day lesson on Japanese Gardens and another to do some enamelling. How refined of me!

Feeling very pleased with myself, I headed home so I would have time for a short rest before heading out for the much dreaded two-hour school run.