Japanory

A Homes and Gardens Interlude

Before I start back on the "rack-my-brains-for-memories-and-guess-the-date-in-the-diary" posts, I thought I'd show you my little garden.

When requesting a home here, we really didn't want to live in an apartment, mainly due to having the cats (now singular, after sadly losing Inti shortly after our arrival). I'd lived in flat for far too many years when in London and really wanted my own front door and direct access to the outside world without going downstairs.

We didn't want to live on the Embassy compound as I felt that Tim would never be free from work. By living away, people would think twice before calling on his services. Also, as I work from home, I need my solitude. Actually, I LIKE solitude and this house fits the bill perfectly.

I also love gardening, and had dreams of cultivating a green space to indulge in. Failing that, I thought I might try my hand at creating a Zen garden. Somewhere to sit in the sun.

Anyway, we struck gold when this house unexpectedly came up for rent: the previous occupants had left earlier than expected, and the landlord was so keen to keep British people in it that he lowered the rent to within our limits.

Our house in England would fit into the front room; the space here is amazing and puts paid to all the belief about miniature homes here in Tokyo. I don't deny they exist as I've seen them, but there are a surprising number of enormous houses and apartments to be found too.

I cannot stand the decor though: beige, taupe and green. Not much I can do about that, just going to cover it all up with bookshelves, pictures and the like.

We are also conveniently situated up a little cul-de-sac, so Rhiannon is free to practise riding her bicycle outside without fear of traffic accidents. Within a few weeks of us arriving, she'd mastered riding without stabilisers! Shame the same cannot be said about her mother...

About two blocks away is a very busy main road, so I was very wary about letting the cat out. However, I took the nervous plunge and let him go out through our French doors. Most pet cats here never go outside, but it would be cruel to make Raymi become in indoor cat after enjoying his first couple of years exploring the outside world.

The garden is tiny, but backs onto our landlord's garden which is huge and beautifully laid out. Beyond that is a deep gully, which I think was an original water or irrigation way some centuries ago. After that, is Shinjuku-gyoen garden.

So, as long as Raymi goes that way, he's safe from traffic. [Two years on, he's proved he has no interest in going further than the first block of houses, so you don't need to worry about some horrible event coming up while I catch up with this blog! Hope I haven't jinxed this subject now!!] He stayed close to home for the first few ventures outside, and I trained him to come in by rattling a box of treats, then rewarding him for coming when called. I've also trained him to sit before having a treat.

As I said, the garden is minute, but contains 3 trees: one evergreen something, one deciduous dogwood and a ratty little conifer. An old, rusty windchime has embedded into one of the tree branches and the chime fell off when Rhiannon touched it.

There are also two plastic troughs containing a wisteria and an unidentified plant that has small white flowers. The wisteria has never flowered. Bulbs also push their way through the mass of roots in the troughs, but add little to the aesthetics of the garden. I will leave them though.

Sharp, coarse gravel covers the "walking" area and a few smooth pebbles cover the miniscule "garden" which is delineated by larger pebbles. I made the garden area a little bigger by moving the big pebbles.

Also we discovered an extremely rusty barbecue, a wooden box to keep tools in - I found a small green trowel - and some discarded potplants. One was an orchid so I brought that inside and managed to coax a flower from it before it died.

Mum is a fervent gardener, so tried to get me to buy a heap of plants when she visited, but we couldn't find a garden centre. Besides, I wanted to see if anything came up in the spring first. I did have a go at digging, to see what the soil was like. It is an incredible rich black loam, which I assume is either silt or ancient volcanic in origin. However, it's full of roots from the trees and not been dug before. When you dig down far enough, you reach solid clay. I wish I knew more about geology!

So, there is the photo of the garden as we found it. Pretty bleak really.

But, it's early days [pretending I'm at two years ago again...]

The only things I have planted so far are some clumps of "cat grass" - something readily available and much enjoyed by Raymi, although I have to feed it to him as he hasn't grasped the idea of munching it himself. Daft animal.

I have plans, I just don't know what they are yet! But I have bought some books on Japanese Gardens, so perhaps a Zen garden will be on the cards.

To be continued...

“Stimulated Patients”

Monday 5^th February 2007

Back to the Nihon Medical School today for the full-on English lessons for the young doctors. It's a long trek to the other side of Tokyo for what turned out to be really hard and intensive work. All for payment by a train ticket! Still, it's all a good life experience.

Again, minor hysteria and many giggles amongst us "teachers"; not helped by me sitting next to a fabulous girl from the Czech Republic with a wicked sense of humour who had me in stitches all day. Unintended pun!

This is the very first time this exercise has been attempted so everyone, heads of sections, teachers and students, were going through a steep learning curve. The med students looked frankly terrified and we all had to rotate, change desks after each "interview" spending just 10 minutes with each student. This included running the session then reporting on their progress to the entire class of about a hundred people. Rather humiliating for the students, I felt.

Most of them had very little English, so this was quite a trial. I can see the reasoning behind it: more gaijin are in Japan than ever before, and therefore many turn up in hospital where without an interpreter, life would be very difficult for both patient and doctor.

We are performing as "simulated patients", pretending to present a specific range of symptoms for the doctors to identify, diagnose and suggest treatment. It was too tempting to go into dramatic overdrive and pretend to suffer suitably, rather than read from our script. One of the leaders kept saying "stimulated" instead of "simulated", which did nothing to quell our hysterical giggles.

After a few reports, the head doctor had to step in and tell us precisely how the Japanese had to be reported on. It's normal here to NOT praise out of hand. Negative criticism is expected; they don't quite understand outright commendation and it embarrasses them - allegedly. My students looked very pleased to be congratulated. It must have been extremely difficult for them to conduct an entire day in an alien language that they probably hadn't spoken since having a few lessons at school. Not to mention using English medical terminology.

However, as they are trying to encourage the learning of English and move into a more international environment they told us to insert the negative between two positives. And example: "You welcomed me very nicely and kept up good eye contact. However, I felt very distracted by your constant hand gestures. If you can control this, I believe you may make a good doctor".

In Britain, this is known as a "shit sandwich".

At one point, a very long discussion broke out with the entire class with the masters as to whether it was correct to mention a woman's weight during a medical appointment. The Americans felt this was a huge insult to the woman while the Europeans couldn't really see the problem. The Japanese looked horrified that it was even an issue!

At the end of the day, I was exhilarated with being part of something so different and hopefully effective to the future of Japanese medicine.

Work continues

Monday and Tuesday, 29^th – 30^th January 2007

All day training on both these days (don't forget the school run at each end – how do people do this full time? Amazed respect to them).

Two classes per day.
Nice day on Monday – PowerPoint, not so nice day on Tuesday – Advanced Excel, my 2^nd least favourite subject!

On Monday, all goes well until lunchtime when Tim takes me to a tiny Japanese restaurant for lunch. Fabulously basic place, with the option to sit or kneel on the floor. We take the tiny section containing chairs and place our order.

Then wait for our meal. And wait. And wait some more...

The time arrives for my afternoon course to start when the meal arrives!

Cue urgent phone calls to the office for a minor postponement and a plea to Tim to do the school run, thankfully granted. This really isn't turning out too well, is it? What must they think of my professionalism?

Fantastic food though, shame about the service.

On Tuesday, having learned my lesson, I bring in sandwiches!

Absolutely shattered, very little voice left so I'm pleased I have a couple of days grace until the next course on Friday morning. I won't bother blogging any more about this for fear of boring you all to tears.

Suffice it to say, I survived, and for a second time, pledged NEVER AGAIN!

On an up-note, one of the "handymen" I trained was so pleased with me helping him out that he asked how he could repay me.

At this point, I'd decided to try and sparkle up my tiny garden a little so asked if he could find me some plants to put in it while he was doing his gardening work.

I was just joking, thinking this would be a particularly out-of-order request, but if you don't ask...!

Never Say Never!

25^th January 2007

Today I have to go to work.

(Silent screaming!)

I will have to stand in a classroom teaching people how to use their PCs and Microsoft for the first time in exactly six years.

And still do the school run at each end of the day.

Today's course (Basic Excel) was normally taught over a full day, but this time I have to squeeze it into three and a half hours.

It's hard to put into words how I feel about all this, – when I gave up working all those years ago due to a difficult pregnancy, I was well past my burn-out date for this type of work. As a freelancer, I used to alternate a few months training with a few months as helpdesk and support work. This helped keep me sane.

However, the final couple of years of my IT freelancing career were all of these jobs lumped together in one glorious and adventurous mission. I kept at it, although I was "close to the edge", is as it allowed me to travel all over the world, from Moscow to the Solomon Islands (but I'll save all those stories for another blog!).

So, when I finally had to resign due to health reasons, and to become a full-time mum, I swore I would NEVER go back to that work again. Ten years of IT training was enough for me.

Never say "never"...

So, words to explain how I feel... dread, frustration, anxious, irritation, horrified, yet surprisingly calm as I do know my stuff, and slightly exhilarated.

Interesting selection of students, from high-powered bosses to the "hired help" who are, frankly terrified. I separate them to alleviate their terror from being up close to the Big Boss and in doing so, have made a friend for life!

By the end of the day I am absolutely exhausted with sore feet and a sore throat from talking and 'projecting' my voice. Out of practise!

The course went well and it was actually hard to spread it over the time allowed. I've always managed to keep the course time down because I don't waste time telling the students what they don't need to know for their job. However, I used to be on a daily rate of pay, now I'm on an hourly rate, so I need to keep my hours UP!

However, all the angst with this particular job came hurtling back once I realised I'd been given the wrong information as usual. So I ended up having to have lots of meetings with various people to find out precisely what was expected and had to cancel tomorrow's course.

The upside is that I get to go out to lunch with Tim, which is lovely and something we haven't done for years.

Small world though: in January 2001, Tim and I were working in Vienna and met a rather memorable couple. I'd bumped into a guy here a couple of times who looked vaguely familiar, then spotted his wife's name on the phone list and had a lightbulb moment - it was the same couple!

Anyway, this night I stayed up until midnight rewriting all the courses for next week to incorporate what the students actually know rather than what they think they know... a big difference. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew – it's going to be a tough week.

Think of the money... it's the only thing keeping me going!

<<< I Love This!

I really do love this little widget here on the left of the screen! The one that shows where all my readers are coming from. Isn't it fascinating?

It's fabulous to see all the different countries listed, and wonderful that this blog is being read by people all over the world. I'm learning a lot of geography, discovering different countries and their corresponding flags.

Thank you for visiting! I'm very flattered and hope you are reading and enjoying my ramblings.

I would really appreciate it if some of you could add some comments so that I don't lose heart by feeling I'm just wittering away to myself! I'd love to hear from you.

I'm finding it quite hard to catch up with myself, and am rather cross for leaving my blogging so late. I've been here over two years so far, another two to go (maximum) and have only managed to blog a fraction of that time so far.

However, I WILL catch up, I WILL finish and get "up-to-date" as soon as I feasibly can.

Once we leave Japan, hopefully we will end up in another fascinating country and I can start all over again!

Thank you once again for visiting Japanory. Mwah! XXX

Bus Bliss

Oh, what a difference finding the bus has made to my life!

We can leave for school almost an hour later, meaning a lot less shouting (from Mum) and a lot less resistance (from Rhiannon). It's a new experience for Rhiannon who hasn't had the pleasure of riding a bus before, and we can see more of the surrounding areas.

The bus route seems to finish just around the corner of Shibuya station and then there is a little walk to school, but nothing compared to taking the Metro.

The scenery en-route is fascinating. Just up the road from us is a small area of greenery – trees, shrubs and some large rocks. Very pretty. Interspersed amongst the trees are a number of blue tarpaulins fashioned into tents and lean-tos. It's a small and seemingly permanent area for homeless people. What a very appealing place to set up 'home'.

Then we travel through Harajuku, the centre of fashionable Tokyo along with an incredibly busy station. And home to an enormous multi-storey shop called 'Snoopy Town'. What do you think it sells? Yup: everything to do with Snoopy and his friends! After this the bus negotiates the unbelievably hectic crossings around Shibuya, including the famous Hachiko crossing. This takes some time but it's still way better than taking the train as I get to people-watch to my heart's content.

On one bus journey, we spot a mum with her daughter who is wearing the BST school uniform, so we pop over to say "Hello". The mum is Japanese and married to a Greek man, while the girl is in the year above Rhiannon. We have a lovely chat and then the mum asks me why I get off the bus so early? It appears that, if I had a little more knowledge and more patience, the bus doesn't terminate at the stop where we normally disembark. After waiting there for 5 or 10 minutes, it then moves up the road to stop literally just across the road from school. Bliss!

Returning home is even simpler. After dropping Rhiannon off at school, I can nip back across the road and within a few minutes catch the bus home. I still have to watch very carefully where to get off and press the little button to ring the stopping bell, otherwise I end up some distance away and have to retrace my steps by about half a kilometre.

The reverse school run works just as well, with enough time for Rhiannon to get a little play in the small playground near school before catching the bus home, arriving more than an hour earlier than before. Happy child = happy mum.

I've bought myself an MP3 player – something I've never been too keen on as I prefer not to have things stuck in my ears. But have since discovered the joy of tuning out. However, after finding myself singing aloud to some Leftfield track (oops!), I decided to download some Japanese lessons instead. Might as well use my extra time for good intentions. I've learned how to say "hello" for the different times of day, finally mastered "thank you"... and that's about it so far.

After a few drinks, I agree to do something different...

Monday 22^nd January 2007

This is something new. It appears that I've offered to help some student doctors learn English! It's amazing what one will agree to after a few drinks!!

One of the other wives I've met through Tim's work is a GP and has contacts around Tokyo. She's persuaded a few of us who are at a loose end to help out in a brand new training session in some teaching hospital on the other side of Tokyo.

Today is the "train the trainers" induction. And even better, we'll get paid for it!

So, after a blissful school run on the bus we met up at a Metro station and headed off on quite a long journey to this hospital. Once at our destination Metro station, we proceeded, as is normal, to get completely lost. It seems most people get lost in Tokyo on a daily basis so everyone is incredibly helpful. However, if the person we've asked directions of doesn't know the way, they won't actually say they don't know – saving face? Or just wanting to help? I don't know; instead they confidently give directions to somewhere else, anywhere! I guess they hope we will find someone more clued up. An interesting yet frustrating characteristic.

Eventually after much walking and luck, we find the hospital; a huge, imposing and unprepossessing building with many pale and exhausted-looking young people in white coats bustling around. Just like hospitals in the UK, really. I think I was expecting something extremely modern, state-of-the-art and high-tech. This it most certainly wasn't.

There was a vending machine, of course, so I grabbed a tin of coffee and swigged it down. I quite like the vending machine coffee as it's hot and sweet. The taste isn't really coffee, but it will do the job.

We found out where to go and squeezed into a very small and rickety lift along with a few other gaijin who were all there for the same session. One of them carried rather a lot of extra weight... and the lift started complaining! The maximum weight it could carry was exceeded and it was not going to move until this was sorted. Unembarrassed, the large gentleman got out and the lift worked again.

Next, a trail of bemused gaijin wandered down a low-ceilinged corridor and found a huge room set up with a number of desks and a speaker's podium at the front.

There were about 70 gaijin of all ages, nationalities, skills and reasons for being there. Most were after the promised money, some were there for the experience and others were there as favours to friends. A couple of back-packing types barely had any English themselves, this didn't bode well for the poor students. Feeling a little nervous we got a bit giggly and silly, but soon behaved ourselves when the "teachers" came in.

Names were taken, paperwork handed out, instruction leaflets and scripts to read from. How to work with the students, some of whom had barely any English at all, apparently, and pep-talks from a number of high ranking doctors.

Then the bombshell – we WEREN'T going to get paid for this! Oh, the uproar that caused! Misinformation, change of mind, who knows; but there was a lot of unrest and complaining so a gopher was dispatched to find out what had happened.

Meanwhile, we broke for coffee.

On our return, the powers-that-be had come up with a compromise – we wouldn't get cash, but we would get a railcard to the same value – about £25 per day's attendance for the actual training to commence next week.

Not particularly happy about this, but as I do use the Metro it will be useful.