Japanory

March 2008 – Day to Day Life and Manicures

Generally life goes along the same way as usual. Here's a summary of my day to day life so I don't need to bother you with it again and can concentrate on "special" events or occurrences.

School run:
Juggle after school activities so I remember what time to collect Rhiannon on particular days:
Ikebana lesson on Monday mornings:
Coffee on Tuesdays with my good friends:
Work work work – often until the early hours of the morning:
Shopping trips – grocery and Carole-time treats.
And so on…

We rarely go out in the evenings.

Sometimes I have my hair done.

Very occasionally I treat myself to a facial, but stopped going there when the lady told me I needed Botox... and it wasn't something the salon offered so wasn't a sales spiel at all. Not happy about that and complained to the manager who laughed and said "isn't she wonderful?!". Erm, no, bye!

And my new "thing" is to go for a manicure, something I've never done before. I consider my nails to be my best feature (yeah, that's all!) and they grow very long and strong. I used to paint my own until my eyesight got too aged to do them neatly. The school mum's rave about gel nails, but I've heard they ruin your real nails so refuse to try them.

Whilst in Hawaii I discovered nail art and soon found out this is a very Japanese skill and, having never been one for French Tips or neutral nails, I embrace this funky fashion. It took a while to find a salon who worked the way I like. They are always amazed that my nails are my own and sometimes try to take them off! This makes for a great ice-breaker in a language-challenged environment. They are ready to do something avant-garde and "not kawaii!".I usually go for black & white but can't find a pic of them.

Once again, it's the little things in Japan that make all the difference: when it's time to pay, the lovely girls get my purse and money out of my bag for me so I don't smudge the varnish.

I was so sad when this shop closed down a year or so later and I haven't found another such good one since.

Customer Service Above and Beyond

We had a phone call from the water authority. They had taken the trouble to find someone who spoke English in order to call us.

They were concerned about a sudden increase in water consumption during December and January and were worried in case there was something wrong with the water meter or perhaps a leak somewhere. Should they send someone out to take a look for us?

We explained that we'd had many visitors over this period and therefore, yes, water consumption would have been increased substantially. They understood and thanked us!

Another little bit of Japanese culture that is just amazing.

A Magic Floor

Sunday 2^nd March 2008

We went to a different shopping mall over at Odaiba. Nothing much to see in the way of shops (for us) but it was a beautiful building. The area is called Pallette Town and the mall, Venus Fort. The interior architecture was lovely, like wandering around an old European town. Restaurants are nice too.

  On the walk over there were spotted (well, couldn't miss it really) the enormous ferris wheel with its multi-coloured gondolas.

And this fabulous sign – "Beam me up, Scottie!"

In Venus Fort there was a "magic floor" which responded to the pressure of people walking on it. We had a wonderful time – the picture changed from time to time, sometimes there were bubbles to "pop" or balls and butterflies to chase. At one point it changed to look like a pond with fish swimming in it. Rhiannon leapt off in alarm, so realistic did it appear!

Outside the mall was a giant "baby bouncer" thing. Naturally Rhiannon wanted to have a go but ended up really hating it as the helpers bounced her too high.

There was also an amusement arcade nearby, so a fair bit of money was thrown away in pursuit of trying unsuccessfully to get something from "The Claw" machines.

Recycling - Tokyo-style

February 2011

Just wanted to pop this in while thinking about it (we're currently de-cluttering ready to move across the world, so this is relevant, but not chronologically necessary).

The rubbish collections here are remarkable. There are no public waste bins on the streets; everyone takes their garbage home with them. Roads and pavements are spotless. Absolutely no litter at all. People (usually women) go out early in the morning to sweep away any specks of dust that may have collected outside their home or shop.

Attention to detail is incredible.

In the autumn, they are out there almost constantly, sweeping away leaves.

I don't.

But I do have a waste disposal unit in the kitchen - aka the Kitchen Monster. It needs feeding regularly. I have no idea what happens to whatever goes down there, but it's pretty scary and extremely effective.

The only bins you will see are the bottle and can bins next to vending machines. And occasionally there are bins outside conbeni (convenience stores).

Oh yes, and cigarette "stations" with large, water-filled ash buckets where smokers congregate so their cigarette butts don't mess up the streets.

Signs at these stations show the Japanese view of litter. Although these signs indicate a bias against smokers, this is one of the few countries in the world where you can still smoke in a restaurant.

We don't have wheelie bins but use translucent white bin bags. They are translucent so the collectors can see if you're sticking to the rules. Each year, we are issued with a pamphlet showing how and when to put our rubbish out. If we don't comply, the bag is left behind for the whole neighbourhood to see!

On the relevant day, the refuse needs to be put out by 8am. You're not meant to leave the food waste overnight due to feral cats, giant Jungle crows and the occasional tanuki (google it!!) The bags then need to be covered with a blue nylon net to prevent these creatures getting in. However, the crows are very clever and I've seen one lift the corner of the net while his mates attack the thin bags with their enormous beaks.

Here are our Rubbish Recycling Rules: as you can see, almost everything has been accounted for.

Tuesday & Friday

Food waste
Paper scraps
Clothes
Flowers
Rubber
Leather
Dirty food containers
Dirty PET bottles (PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, the plastic from which they are made)
Cooking oil/fat
Plastic products that are not food containers or packaging

Wednesday

Plastic packaging
Clean food containers
Plastic tubes
Plastic bottles (not PET)
CD's
Videos
Toys
PET bottle lids

Wednesday in a separate bundle (has to be flat and bound with special tape or string)

Newspapers
Magazines
Cardboard
Paper packs (milk / juice cartons)

Thursday

Food tins
Drink cans / bottles
PET bottles – not lids

Saturday

Glass bottles
Ceramics
Pans
Lightbulbs
Small appliances
Razors, knives etc

When I lived in the UK we only had our rubbish collected every other week. Papers were also collected once a fortnight and the bin we had to put them in was about the size of a supermarket shopping basket. If we put out more paper recycling we had a visit from the council threatening to charge us "Business Rates"! Outrageous.

I think this puts the UK to shame.

 

Guam – Some Extra Photos of Wildlife

As I had 'flu and wasn't firing on very many cylinders at all there aren't the usual number of photos of my holiday.

But here are a few random ones so you can get an impression of Guam's wildlife.

We couldn't really travel off the beaten track at all because almost all of Guam is a US air base or something, so most of the island is out of bounds. Numerous establishments catering for the forces surrounded the hotel and town – places like strip clubs, topless bars and so on. Not something I particularly wanted to explain to my child.

And guess what happened when we went back through airport security on the way home? Yup! You've guessed it – yet another full search. We were not amused and vowed not to visit anywhere owned by the USA again.

Anyway, here are the extra photos:

I have NO idea what this was. I notice this little pile of sticks and it was moving! I presume some sort of caterpillar or other bug walking along the slightly larger, darker piece of wood.

 

A wader of some sort at Talofofo Falls

 

A butterfly - you really needed to know that, didn't you?!

 

A small green crab - I nearly fell in the sea trying to take this photo!

When we finally arrived home, we found one of Rhiannon's spherical goldfish had died and was in the process of being eaten by its tank-mate. Surprisingly, she wasn't as upset as expected but more fascinated by the hole that the other fish had made in its belly!

Guam – a Short and Very Incomplete WWII History

After the attack on Pearl Harbour in World War II, Guam was wrested from the Americans by the Japanese in 1941. The Americans seized it back in 1944. It was chosen as a target because of its size and proximity to relevant places in the Pacific campaign – it would make the ideal base.

Before the Americans arrived, a dreadful event occurred: (The local people on Guam are called Chamorros)

From Guampedia "On July 15 and 16, 1944, with the American forces approaching Guam near the end of the Japanese occupation of the island in World War II, Japanese soldiers massacred nearly fifty Chamorro men and women from Merizo in two separate confrontations in caves in the Tinta and Faha areas just outside the village of Merizo."

Then the Americans landed on the island. It was a hard battle. Rain and thick jungle made conditions difficult for the Americans, but they were determined and prevailed. As was normal for the Japanese soldiers, they did not surrender and almost all were killed. However, a few escaped into the jungle where they hid out for many years. One famously survived for 28 years. Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi lived alone in a cave until January 24, 1972 when he was discovered by hunters.

Talofofo is a village located in the southern part of Guam and it was near here that the Chamorros were herded into caves and killed.

When we arrived, the area was completely deserted apart from some very large free-ranging and rather unfriendly pigs and piglets.

A chairlift takes you above the treetops down to the fresh-water falls below. Someone told us that during the massacre these waterfalls were red with blood.

Today they were rather beautiful. We could walk around on a very wobbly bridge.

Nearby was a small museum which showed tableaus through time from the days of the ancient Chamorro until World War II. Rhiannon was both fascinated and horrified – remember at this point she was only 6 years old and wasn't aware of war, let alone its associated atrocities.

We did see Yokio's cave but I didn't feel good about taking photographs of it for some reason. The picture at the top of this post is from Wikipedia.

Guam

Friday 8^th February 2008 – Friday 15^th February 2008

Once again we were pulled over by the US security heavies for a full check, just like in Hawaii. This was getting ridiculous and Tim complained loudly. Naturally it made no difference at all but at least he didn't get arrested. Apparently it's all "completely random, sir"… err, don't think so!

As I have 'flu I don't really recall much of this holiday.

I do know that if I didn't have 'flu I would have found Guam to be the most boring place in the world.

As it was, I found myself a hammock next to the pool, plugged myself into my MP3 player and listened to my Japanese language course. And promptly fell asleep. Tim and Rhiannon played happily in the almost empty pool and didn't think to wake me up. So I got very sunburned on the first day.

Obviously I wasn't up to much those first couple of days so we ate in the hotel and I fell asleep in bed while Tim and Rhiannon watched TV. They are on their ideal holiday!

The beach was really tiny – about four feet from sea to edge and none of us fancied going in it as there was a lot of weed and potential jellyfish around. Both Tim and I had been stung by a Portuguese Man o'War in the past (on very separate occasions) and didn't want to repeat the exceedingly painful experience with unknown nasties.

A double-decker tram / bus shuttled between the hotels and "town" so on subsequent days and nights we took this to find other restaurants. These comprised TGIF and the Outback. And that was about it. Oh, we did try a Japanese restaurant one night but it was so appalling that we all felt rather sick. The tram was fun though. Open-topped, it whizzed along the road with Rhiannon standing up and me shouting "duck" to get her head down just in time as we passed under Frangipani trees. She thought this was hysterically funny. We gathered fallen Frangipani flowers to decorate and scent the rather drab hotel room.

We hired a car for a few days just to get around a bit more. Some nice views, beautiful turquoise sea.

This is called Bear Rock

To Rhiannon's delight, we discovered a sort of upside-down lighthouse. It was set into a massive bomb crater in the sea and you climbed down the spiral staircase to a viewing gallery to see the most gorgeous reef fish that obligingly came to the windows so I could take pictures of them.

The bomb crater thing gives an insight to the darker side of Guam which I'll write about in the next post.

On Holidays & Visitors - a Bit of a Rant

February 2008

We were warned before we moved here that people would see us as a chance for a free holiday and that all kinds of distant friends would come out of the woodwork and visit. Sadly, the people I would dearly love to have come and visit are unable to due to lack of finances.

Tim only gets a set number of days leave per year. Rhiannon has set school holidays, of course. And we only have a limited amount of money to spend on holidays, as has everyone.

Our summer holidays are reserved for going to the UK in order to a) escape from the melting heat and humidity of a Tokyo summer; b) to stock up on stuff we can't get here and c) use up the ridiculously long school break – over 8 weeks!

Christmas holidays have already settled into my Mum coming over here. As a fairly recent widow, I cannot bear to leave her on her own over Christmas and she's never been invited to spend it at my brother's.

That leaves the school's Easter holidays (about 3 weeks) and the February and October one week half terms.

Tim's parents keep saying they will come over to visit, then not committing to a date.They only want to come when Rhiannon is off school. So the Easter holidays are reserved for them. But once again, they cancelled their plans at the last moment.

A friend of mine – an ex work colleague from years ago – invited herself and her daughter over, for a week in April. Unfortunately, her child's school holidays don't coincide with Rhiannon's break so this will not be as much fun as hoped. But there's a weekend in the middle of it, so the girls can spend some quality time together.

And it took a while to get all the dates confirmed, otherwise we would have taken some proper holiday time at Easter.

So that leaves us only the one week half term breaks to get some much needed R&R for ourselves.

Japan is a surprisingly long way from everywhere. We don't want to spend hours on a plane for just a week's holiday, so look for closer options. We rather fancy Saipan or Pulau, but can't sort out the flights in time, so we get a last minute trip to Guam. It's only three hours away.

We never do package tours, but book it all separately. This time there are no self-catering options available so we have to plump for a hotel. Later, we discovered that most of the rest of the school are going to Guam as well, but will be staying at another hotel some distance away. While I am sure Rhiannon would like to play with her friends, I am very relieved I won't be forced to socialise with any of the parents. Yes, I am an unsociable cow at times.

I want, and desperately need, proper peace and quiet as I have been working my butt of recently, and with all the hoohah over the past few weeks I just want to kick back in the sun, read endless books and relax properly with no computer, dreadlines or email.

 

Then I get 'flu.

Bloody typical.

SNOW!

Sunday 3^rd February 2008

Oh my god! It's snowing!!! Proper snow. In Tokyo! How exciting!!!

As you can tell by my overuse of exclamation marks!!! Isn't it pretty?

The cat was not impressed. He went out to do his business, looked at his paws in disgust and promptly came back inside again, miaowing at me as if I'd deliberately made it snow in order to spoil his day.

It was snowing hard. And the flakes kept getting onto my camera lens. It was strange to see blossom covered in snow.

And just down the road are grapefruits on a tree. Very peculiar in the snow!

After coming home poorly from school on Friday, yet making a miraculous recovery yesterday, Rhiannon was a bit lethargic today.

I thought she was just tired and wanted to watch TV as she's a bit addicted to the box. She had no temperature; therefore, I was insistent that we all went for a walk in Shinjuku-gyoen. Fresh air and fun in the snow is far better than being stuck inside a stuffy house. So we bundled up and went out.

It was beautiful.

Tim and Rhiannon built an enormous snowman! Judging by the reaction of the other people in the park, snow in Tokyo is rather rare and they were all very impressed by our snowman.

After building it, we trotted over to the shelter in the distance to warm up with a tasty can of hot chocolate from the ubiquitous vending machine. I turned back to see "our" snowman being appropriated by everyone! They popped their own hat or scarf on it and then posed for a photo beside it.

Then we realised that Rhiannon was actually not-very-well-at-all. So we hurried back home.

She ended up with some sort of 'flu and was off school for the rest of the week.

Bad mum moment.

A Busy Friday for a Mum

Friday 1^st February

Today was a busy one!

It started off with getting Rhiannon to her stupid o'clock gymnastics class. We will never, ever do morning classes again. It's hard enough to get Rhiannon out of the house on a normal day, but to get her to school for 7.40 in the morning is horrendous. Actually, she loves the class, it's me that loathes mornings.

After this, her class group is holding one of their assemblies, so I go to have a much-needed coffee before it starts. All the children did extremely well, showing no signs of nervousness at all when they have to stand up in front of the entire school and the mums and dads. Unfortunately, my camera isn't good at taking photos in the big hall. Once the assembly is over, and all the other attendees has left, the parents of the class involved get to take photos of their kids and have a little cuddle. Rhiannon is a bit weepy, for some reason, but trots off like a good girl when it's time to say goodbye.

Then we had a Class Mum Coffee Morning – so over to another Starbucks for a get-to-know-you chat and more latte for me.

While I'm in that area – Shibuya – I went for a wander around Tokyu Hands after coffee. Well, I had to get rid of the caffeine buzz somehow! And Tokyu Hands is the best place for that. Such a fascinating, yet confusing store.

I got home just after lunch time and had settled down to work when I had a call from school to say that Rhiannon was unwell and with the nurse. So another drive back to school – if I'd gone to another shop, I'd have saved myself a double trip. I even remembered to send a text message to her violin teacher to let him know she wouldn't be coming to her lesson after school.

Rhiannon's running a bit of a temperature and is very quiet, which would explain the weepiness after assembly, but she didn't say she felt ill then. I tucked her up on the sofa, dosed with the ever-useful Calpol (imported from the UK – medicines are pretty much impossible to get here) and she had an early night.

She was much better the next day. Of course.