Japanory

Izakaya Friday

Friday 20^th April 2007

Mum left for the UK yesterday and we have only a couple of days free before our next visitor descends upon us. Something others have warned us about is becoming realised - when you live in a different country, people will use you as a freebie holiday home. People who have only been acquaintances now become "dear friends" and ask to be invited. Ah well.

Rhiannon has a busy day ahead at school. The school photographer is due and she's going on a trip to Kodomo-no-kuni - Children's Land. As far as I can tell, it's a large park with a little petting zoo. She wasn't very forthcoming about it really and we keep meaning to re-visit. I've added it to my list of things to do again!

As for Tim and I - we have a rare night out together planned!

I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago Tim agreed I could join the ranks of the true expat wife and get myself a "helper". This is the local term for a cleaner, babysitter and basically all-round helper. Some lucky mum's have a helper all day, every day. They collect the kids from school, cook and clean for them, and generally be wonderful. How I wish our finances were in the league of the expat bankers, but they aren't, so I will content myself to having her here for a couple of hours a week to do my ironing. I hate ironing.

Merle is adorable and I want to keep her with me forever. Rhiannon loves her too, so we are happy to have her babysit while we go out. We haven't ever really had a babysitter before so this is all fairly new to us all. When we were in the UK, my parents were too far away to help out and Tim's parents - although close - let us down at the last moment so many times we gave up asking.

So with great excitement (on my part - Tim gets to go out more than me… mutter, moan!) we head off to an arranged meal with the parents of children in Rhiannon's class. Although I went out earlier in the year, this is the first time Dads have been invited.

The venue is Andy's Izakaya, an establishment much loved by Westerners as it is quite pub-like and the menu is in English! Our directions were vague - "It's across the road from Bic Camera in an arch under the train tracks"…

What we didn't realise was Bic Camera is massive and the road splits into several branches. The train tracks are part of an enormous interchange and each arch contains a restaurant. And none of the signs say "Andy's Izakaya" - all are in Japanese, of course. I tried phoning some of the mum's whose numbers I had on my phone but nobody replied. After half an hour of looking, Tim was getting cross and was about to demand we go home when he spotted the telephone number on a door which corresponded with the directions we were given. Hurrah!

Inside it was heaving. I've never seen such a large number of people crammed into one restaurant.

Because we were so late, the meal had already started and we were unable to sit next to each other. Tim got lucky and was placed between several rather "merry" ladies.

The food was excellent. And we tried shochu, a rather naughty alcoholic beverage that is served with grapefruit. Can't stand grapefruit, so I had it neat. It's rather like tequila… I think.

As the less determined party-goers left, there was room to move around and finally chat to people. We stayed to the very end and I became close friends with two lovely ladies, Yoko and Amy. I seem to get on far better with the non-Brits here. Yoko is, of course, Japanese and Amy is Singaporean. Both are bubbly, frank, intelligent and great fun.

We must have got home somehow but I have no recollection of that!

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A Cloisonné Lesson

Wednesday 18^th April 2007

I'm leaving Mum to do her own thing on her last day in Tokyo. She will go shopping or to Shinjuku Gyoen garden. Or both!

Following the recommendation of many other expats, I've enrolled in a class at the Tokyo Union Church. Today I will be learning how to do cloisonné - the ancient art of making pretty things out of metal and enamel. It's only for one morning so I'm not sure how much I'll get done.

As it turned out, the lesson was very simple and I made a pendant and decorated a small pill box. If I knew where they were I'd photograph them for you, but I wasn't entirely impressed with my efforts so gave them to Rhiannon who was impressed.

There were about four students and a bouncy teacher who brought her own kiln with her. We soldered thin metal wire onto the pre-cut shapes, filled them with enamel powder mixed with water to make a paste then cooked them. As I'd already done this during metalwork lessons in school (sometime in the last century) none of this was particularly new. However, the enamel was different and the colours hard to gauge before firing.

The teacher wants me to apply to go to her next lesson and will bring me in a tile to enamel and display at an exhibition. How exciting!

Aikido and Ceramics… NOT at the same time!

Monday 16^th April 2007

Rhiannon goes back to school today (yay!) and is due to have her very first Aikido lesson after school.

There are loads of extra-curricular activities at the British School in Tokyo and Rhiannon is eager to try as many as possible. I'm very happy for her to give everything a go if she wants because I never had the chance to try anything due to where I grew up (deepest, darkest Devon in England) where there were no opportunities at all. And besides, I have a lot more work coming in and could really use the child-free extra hour or so at the end of a school day… Rhiannon is a rather demanding child and is, quite frankly, exhausting. (Understatement!)

Although there are lots of activities, sadly none are available for five year old reception year kids. Apart from Aikido. So I signed her up last term and today will be her first lesson. The Dojo is at school so I have no need to ferry her around and just have to pick her up at 4.30pm.

Once the school run is completed, Mum and I catch the metro to Kappabashi. I love Kappabashi where there are numerous kitchenware shops and, my favourite, ceramic shops. Although I've been there a few times already, this is Mum's first visit.

I should have realised. If I like something it will be the complete opposite to Mum's taste and vice versa.The pottery here is, to me, beautiful, edgy, rustic at times, decorated in a quirky manner and fairly modern. I swiftly realised Mum was not impressed at all. So I abandoned my plan of visiting all the "plate" shops and looked at some of the others in the area.

We discovered a shop selling many styles of glass bottles and jars ready for personalisation. Shops selling signs and others selling uniforms. There were also lots of personal shrine shops which were rather incredible if a little mystifying. I didn't feel too comfortable taking photos of those.

 

There was also a tiny shop selling all kinds of coffee making equipment. Not just pots and filters, but some Heath Robinson-esque contraptions too. Fascinating!

We were both intrigued by the many shops selling fake food. Outside most restaurants here are plastic replicas of the meals served inside. This is obviously where they buy their models. We wondered if the plastic foods are made to order depending on the restaurant's request or if the chef cooks to match the model.

 

Kappabashi's charms were soon over for Mum so we walked over to Asakusa so she could look around there. She loved this area when she visited at Christmas and wanted to nose around a stationery shop at the top end of the temple and to look around the many alleyways selling fabrics and kimonos.

I stayed a while until I got bored, and then left her there, confident that she was finally at home enough in Tokyo to be able to find her own way back to our house.

With just enough time for a cup of tea and a quick check of emails and so on, I relished the snatched moment of total peace before heading off to collect Rhiannon from Aikido.

As with any new activity, I was anxious as to find out whether she enjoyed it or not. She's very much a girly girl but incredibly active which needed an outlet. Hopefully, Aikido will prove to be this outlet. The Sensei assured me the mix of girls and boys was pretty even.

Nervously, I waited in the school's lobby for her to come up the stairs from the gym. Other children dressed in their white kit were coming up but Rhiannon was last as usual. Then I heard her…

Did I mention she is loud as well as over-active? There is no off-switch on her. And no volume control.

Anyway, she obviously saw me before I noticed her and she yelled up the stairs,
"Muuu-uuum!!!! I had SUCH a wonderful time! Aikido is brilliant! I got to throw a grown-up man right across the room and he hit the wall with a big SPLAT!!!!"

Aikido was obviously a huge success. I am very happy.

But then she decided to practise her newly learned moves on me... OUCH!

 

 Be afraid!