Japanory

“Fan Mail”

Sorry - bit of a delay updating this due to a major computer problem over the weekend.

Note to self - if my husband offers to rebuild my computer for better performance... REFUSE! It's taken two extremely late nights and much anxiety on my part for it to come back to life. I only wanted a new graphics card!

However, it reminded us of a time many years ago when we worked together on a job in Lyons, France. We had to rebuild a network 11 times before the new software finally worked. We finished at 4am then. Two days later, the server caught fire...

It's good to remember those days!

Anyway, back to the slightly closer past!

 

Perhaps even more than the thanks from the publishers, it was the emails from their readers that really impressed me. Especially when the owner of the publishing company where I sold my articles decided she no longer wished to run them.

This one in particular made me extremely proud and sad at the same time.

Proud that a Japanese woman enjoyed my view of this fabulous country, and sad, of course, because nobody would get to read any more articles. Unless they read Japanory, of course!

Hello Carole,

As a Japanese woman who is living in Edinburgh for 20 years, I want to say your Tokyo Tales are amazing. There are many Japanese fans for your articles and we are all disappointed that we can no longer read your articles any longer.

Your unbiased vision of life in Japan is refreshing not only for Japanese but also for those who have little real knowledge of Japan.

Your articles have made me happy and many thanks to you.

Y

A Disappointed Publisher

Following on from the cancellation of my "Tokyo Tales" articles, I received this sweet email from one of the publishers. I had many others too, but haven't kept them due to a long overdue and over-enthusiastic clearout of my private email. Bad me!

Hi Carole,

Just wanted to say that through T**** I have used all your Tokyo Tales articles in my magazine and am really sorry to see them go. They were the best article on there and really popular with my readers who will be as disappointed as I am.

Thank you, they gave a fascinating insight into life in Japan.

In Response to the ‘last’ published “Tokyo Tales” article

I was asked to finish writing "Tokyo Tales" at the beginning of this year. The final article was published in March 2010. I had to pretend I was leaving then. But as you all know, I'm still here in Tokyo!

So it was a little misleading to my readers. If you were one of them my apologies for that but I had to do as I was told…

This lovely email arrived after the last "Tokyo Tales" was published in one of the magazines. This was one of the emails that got lost during the web-host changeover and I only copied the text. If you were the writer, please do get in touch again!

A HUGE thank you to her for her vivid descriptions.

 

Hi Carole,

I felt compelled to write to you today as I was sat reading your latest offering of Tokyo Tales in the C**** T*** C****.

My husband, two daughters and I, like your family, set off on an adventure to Japan; ours began in January 1996 and ended in July 2001. T was 2 & 1/2 and S just 11 months old when we arrived. We lived in Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture. Having no preconceived ideas, we were not fully prepared for what was to come!

It was your comment 'my time in Japan has been one of the happiest periods of my life and it will be a wrench to leave this incredibly beautiful, culturally fascinating and remarkable country' that stirred emotions in me that took some time to come to terms with back in 2001 and the following couple of years! My feeling exactly!

On returning to the UK I would often find myself daydreaming about going to Jusco's or Kasumi to do my shopping instead of our local Sainsbury's for example. I remember it so clearly, it's incredible! I have never been homesick for anywhere before. When we left Japan it was the longest time I had ever live in one place, having travelled lots as a child myself. Looking back I realise it took quite some time for me to settle but life with children is always busy; for the following 5 years my husband worked in M***** so he travelled back & forth every 10 days and we would visit during the holidays. The girls loved this new adventure, but for me it never quite replaced the feelings I had for life in Japan.

I have read all your 'tales' that have been published in our little magazine and it has brought back the most wonderful memories for us all - we too have an extensive photographic library of our 5 & 1/2 years - I think we took on average, 80 rolls of film every year! I imagine that if we had a digital camera then, we would have thousands upon thousand of images!

I could ramble on for hours, but suffice to say, enjoy the remainder of your time in the land of the rising sun - soon will be Plum Blossom season followed by my favourite; Cherry Blossom. You may like to visit Kairaku-en in Mito, as it has the most spectacular Plum Festival if you've not been before. http://www.jref.com/practical/mito.shtml

I look back so fondly on the time we spent there - hoping one day to find somewhere that will feel like 'home' as much as Tokai did for us!

Best wishes,

A

Testimonials from Publishers

I really did appreciate receiving these. It takes me a long time to write and edit the articles down to a small size, so it's nice to have my work acknowledged in this way.

Some of the published Tokyo Tales articles have been uploaded onto Japanory - the link is over on the left column. I'll get the rest uploaded "sometime"!

Right now (as in Spet 2010!) I have a lot going on in my life that needs clearing before I can start writing "proper" Japanory posts. I'll be back soon!

 Meanwhile, back to the lovely testimonials from publishers and their readers.

Just had to tell you our new mag went out to our new 'upmarket' area - delivery started yesterday and the distributor rang at 8.50 this morning to say they were just finishing the area off because they didn't have time last night.
Five minutes later the phone rang. This bloke had just got the mag through his door while he and his wife were having their breakfast, and he just wanted to say what an excellent magazine, they are very impressed with the quality and great content and especially liked the "Tokyo Tales"! M & L

I always use Tokyo Tales - as everyone says it's quite unique and different from the usual articles A

I use "Tokyo Tales" every month - I love it, thank you Carole S

 

Thank You part 2

Here are a few comments I received from the publishers of the local, community magazines that published "Tokyo Tales".

My thanks to them for including the articles!

 

Thought I'd let you know that I had a call from one of my readers this week saying how much they enjoy Tokyo Tales and wondering whether you give speeches! I explained that you probably do but it is unlikely that you will be able to make the journey from Japan!!! He was very disappointed and asked me to pass on his good wishes. J

 

"Tokyo Tales" is a favourite with my readers, judging from comments from people when I am delivering. H

 

I love Tokyo Tales, I've always run it in my magazines, right from the start, in fact I think I started a month before everybody else did I was that keen to get it out there. It's very different to everything else I run and makes for a very interesting read. We can sample how it would be to live in Japan through seeing it through your eyes. M

 

I love Tokyo Tales! It is very unique and is a world so different from the UK and I run it every month and with some special photos - I've given it 4 pages this month! T

   

I always use Tokyo Tales too because it's so different! Double page spread for Christmas/New Year issues! Please keep it coming. A

 

Thank you

There will be (another) slight lull in blogging while I get my head down to do some work - I need to try and earn some money!

In the meantime, I am going to post some of the lovely emails I've received in response to the published articles - Tokyo Tales. These pieces were published in numerous local, community magazines for just over 2 years.

Thank you is such a simple phrase, but one that is often not used so I feel very privileged that people took the time and effort to email either me, or the magazine's publisher, with their comments. They made me very happy to know my scribbles were being read and enjoyed.

I'll spread them out over a few days to allow me to continue updating the blog with something! Sadly, some of the emails were lost when I moved web host recently, but here is a sample.

Please allow me a little indulgence for the next few days! 

 

I discovered your email address in our local mag. It was printed below one of your articles.

I gave it to my daughter who is in year 1. The class are studying Japan so they all found your stories very interesting. I would like to say thank you for taking the time to share the experiences of your new life.

Good luck for the future. I will be visiting your site for updates to pass on to the class!!! C

 

 

On browsing through a back copy of The H****** Directory my eye caught your “Tokyo Tales”. With a trip to Japan coming up I avidly read 'The Joy of Bento'. And, what was even better I found another copy and discovered 'Japanese Weddings' - the reason for our trip is that we have been invited to a wedding in Kyoto. So I was absolutely thrilled to read what we might expect.

I thought it might be rather nice to speak to the author of these Tokyo Tales (thinking the person probably lived somewhere nearby and could drop by for a coffee!). Instead of which, here I am emailing you across the other side of the world! (Still drinking coffee, though.) H

 

 

Just to let you know that I am a follower of “Tokyo Tales” which appears in the 'O**** Press' every month and as a result am following your Japanory blog!! S

Memory Jolt - On Travelling with Child

July 2007

I can't believe I forgot to add this to my posts about travelling back to the UK with Rhiannon.

At the Passport Control in Narita airport, Rhiannon and I were delayed for some considerable time while the officer looked very carefully at Rhiannon's passport, his computer, some papers and back again. He looked deep into Rhiannon's eyes, asking her to move closer to his cubicle. Eventually he allowed us through.

Then it hit me. I've been told several times that Rhiannon bears a resemblence to Madeleine McCann. Certainly when she was younger, the similarity was very strong.

It was good to know that officials on this side of the world were very actively looking for Madeleine. I hope they still are.

Until this point, Rhiannon didn't know anything about Maddie's disappearence - news here is pretty localised and Rhiannon is extremely sensitive to things like this (as we all are, of course). But on our return journey through Heathrow posters of Madeleine were everywhere which naturally prompted questions from my 5 year old. I told her what had happened: it gave me a chance to give her a lecture on "stranger danger".

However, while I was buying some duty free, she suddenly disappeared! This isn't something Rhiannon ever did - she was never a "runner", always stayed close... until that moment.

My heart stopped. With all the horror still very fresh in my mind... well, any mother reading this will understand the rapidity of scenarios that flash through your brain at this point.

Five very long minutes later I found her. She'd gone to look at the fish tanks surrounding the Creme de la Mer stand and several lady shop assistants were anxiously keeping one eye on Rhiannon and the other looking out for a frantic mother - me.

My heart started beating again.

 

As a terrifying coincidence, we'd all been on holiday near Praia da Luz six months before Madeleine's disappearence.

 

Please keep looking for this beautiful girl.

http://www.findmadeleine.com/home.html