Japanory

All change - an overdue update on life in Berlin

Hi! I’m back for a bit of an update for anyone who still reads this blog! (If you’ve wondered where I’ve gone, please take a look here ExpatChild)

Sadly, Rhiannon’s schooling in Berlin turned out to be a total disaster on so many levels.I won’t go into the full, gory details here, but from an academic and personal point of view, school here has been very damaging for her.

Her education suffered greatly due to a number of factors, including a culture here of negativity and criticism with no tempering praise. Her confidence and self-belief has been shattered by this.

Being put up a year was not a good move. Switching curriculums from the British curriculum to the International Baccalaureate wasn’t a good idea either, and unfortunately we discovered this the hard way.

Academically, it wasn’t much of a problem until she moved to Middle School. A few lessons pushed her beyond her limits, but others taught subjects she covered many years ago. Teachers gave no leeway or assistance in subjects where she’d missed out on over a year’s worth of teaching and the pressure mounted. She was expected ‘to know’ and was heavily criticised for not understanding certain things she’d never learned.

On the personal side, she was battling hard to be accepted into a difficult peer group who were older than her. While she has absolutely no problem making friends – at school - the mothers of these friends were unwilling to allow their child to meet her outside of school.

More than once I have heard this killer comment, “There’s no point being friends with her, she'll be leaving soon.”

“Soon?” We’re here for four and a half years! And it’s not just from parents; I’ve had it said to me by teachers too. Unacceptable. The children also picked up on it and repeated it to Rhiannon.

This ‘outlook’ (inlook?) is possibly more prevalent here in Berlin as it’s come up several times. Other parents of expat children say they’ve experienced the same closed-mindedness too. Since writing this post here http://expatchild.com/my-expat-kid/, many, many people have contacted me telling me similar tales, and most of them are expats living in Germany. You have been warned!

In some international schools, the pupil turnover is high, so they are used to the comings and goings of friendships. Here, however, there are actually many more 'locals' than other nationalities in the international schools and it made life pretty tough for her.

On top of all this (and more), there was a spectacular lack of support with regard to some nasty bullying from a disturbed individual.

While on the surface she coped remarkably well, leading to my previous optimistic posts, it all came to a head during October 2012.

We had a decision to make. One thing was clear; she could not remain in that school.

But where now? There was only one other option here in Berlin and we’d heard many poor reports about that school too. Plus, the bullying was not only taking place within school, but online and over the phone too - changing schools again wouldn't solve this.

Rhiannon wanted to go to boarding school in the UK. And we agreed that this would be the best thing for her for many reasons.

I cried for four days solid. I did research, asked advice from a mum of boarders here and pulled out all the stops to extricate her from the damaging environment here.

In December 2012 Rhiannon and I flew to the UK for a day (not recommended!) to visit a prep school and fell in love with the place; the teachers were amazing and the children even more so.

That school then pulled out all the stops and offered Rhiannon a place from January 2013. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we couldn’t sort everything out in that short a time, so she started there after the Easter holidays in April.

It’s been a roller-coaster of a journey, but she’s doing remarkably well there. Her education is finally on a stable footing, the children are charming, and educational support is high.

In fact, Rhiannon came out with this, very telling, comment, “Everyone is really friendly and nice. Even the boys are nice and kind. It’s not normal!” I explained that yes, that should be normal – what she’d experienced at the school in Berlin was a long way from normal.

Her confidence and self-belief have rocketed back and her future is looking much brighter than it was last autumn.

We're extremely proud of her and so relieved she's now somewhere stable, encouraging, safe and healthy.

 

I’ll come back with another post in a day or so to fill you in on other news!

A Quick Update for You

Hello again!

Yes, I know I promised to fill in the missing years from this blog, but I really can't see it happening. Which is a massive shame. Maybe one day...

I'm creating a photobook for Rhiannon detailing her years in Japan as I think it will be a wonderful keepsake for her. The early parts of this blog are proving to be invaluable to my memories, stirring feelings of nostalgia and homesickness. Isn't it strange that a place that isn't my native country can cause homesickness?

We all miss Japan dreadfully. It's just not the same here in any respect at all. Rhiannon is continuing to keep her Japanese language alive with private lessons in the hope she can return there at some point in the future.

We've all been very busy - you can see details here on my Berlinfusion blog.

Everybody's doing well: Rhiannon's started Middle School and is really enjoying it. The system is extremely different from the previous schools but I think it suits her very well.

Kita the dog loves the huge garden we have here and gets a lot of attention while we're out as she's a rare breed outside of Japan.

Raymi the cat is rarely seen. He no longer has massive fights as there are no feral 'ninja cats' here, but he comes back to eat so I know he's still alive! I think he just likes the countrified area we're living in.

I'm studying graphic design - it's never too late to have a career change! It's hard work, but enjoyable.

I've also very recently set up a new venture which may interest any expat parents out there - it's a website called 'Your Expat Child' - and aims to provide advice and resources to parents moving overseas, including those already 'out there' who have become parents.

It would be great to see you on Facebook, and if you could share the website details with people you know who may be interested, I'd be very grateful.

Hopefully, I'll find time to visit Japanory more as my own Expat Child grows more independent by the day, and my own projects calm down.

Japan, I miss you!

 

 

One Year On... Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

If I've programmed this post correctly it should publish at 2:46pm Japan time.

I couldn't let Japanory disappear from my life, although it would appear so from the lack of posts over the past eleven months. I do plan to finish documenting our time in Japan but felt it would be wrong to do so until this anniversary had passed.

It's hard to find any words suitable to mark this sombre occasion.

We shall spend the day together here in Berlin, just as we were in Tokyo on that Friday last year. Perhaps we will visit the Japan - German cultural centre as there seems to be something on later in the day although we haven't ascertained quite what that is.

So much has happened in our lives in the past year but the events of March remain very close the surface of all our minds. Even now, eleven months since we moved here, certain things have the power to freak us out.

Just yesterday, the sound of someone wheeling a suitcase down the road had Rhiannon hurtling down the stairs thinking it was an earthquake.

Kita, our dog, really does not like going down into the basement. And if someone moves something down there the poor creature rushes to the back door, the same as she did in Japan during any tremor.

But overall, we're doing OK.

I wish the same could be said of the many thousands of people still displaced and seemingly forgotten.

We shall be thinking of them and everyone else in Japan.

Blogging from Berlin

I've finally created a new blog to house my musings on Berlin.

It's called Berlinfusion. Please visit and bookmark or subscribe there to read my updates on life in a new country.

One thing I can promise you - it will not be as "interesting" as the last month's worth of posts in Japanory!

I will come back to Japanory from time to time to fill in the blanks of 2009 and 2010 before my memories fade altogether.

See you soon!

Guten Tag!

Thursday 14th April 2011

Well hello again!

I just wanted to let you know we've all arrived safely in Berlin. I'll blog more fully about our trip and arrival as soon as I have my full sized computer and a decent keyboard.I can't type properly on this, the tiniest laptop with Korean keyboard.

It was a long, long journey. Nearly 24 hours in all. We arrived late at night on Monday and our pets arrived late at night on Tuesday. We are all extremely jet-lagged and discombobulated. None of our stuff has arrived yet, so we're living on basics for now.

Rhiannon has been to school already - she loves it so much more than her school in Tokyo. And I really love the fact there's a door-to-door bus service! No more school runs for me - and regular readers will know how much I hate them.

Tomorrow (Friday) I am also going to school. They've asked me to talk in two assemblies about the earthquake. So I suppose I'd better write some notes or something.

I have decided I WILL fill in the blank two years of Japanory in due course, so do pop back when you can - if you follow me on networked blogs, you will know when I've made an update.

In the meantime, I'm still awaiting inspiration for a new blog name for our time in Berlin.
Please help me! Either make a suggestion in the comments below or email me at [email protected]

Thank you and see you again soon!

 

PS - I still have jishin yoi! Most unpleasant, but hopefully it will go soon.

Sayonara

Today it finally hit me that we are leaving Japan for good on Monday morning.

Why the realisation should poleaxe me today, I don't know. Well, actually I do know - today the pets went to a boarding hotel before their early flight on Monday. While walking the dog this morning it suddenly occurred to me that this would be the last walk I would ever take with her along the beautiful sakura-lined walk next to Shinjuku-gyoen. My eyes started leaking and I couldn't blame the blustery wind. Rhiannon's missing her comforter...

The house seems so empty without the furry whirlwinds.

Post-quake comforting

We always knew that our posting here was for four years and we've already managed to extend that by six months. Frustratingly, I keep having to explain to people that we are not leaving because of the earthquake and nuclear events. Our departure has been planned for over a year.

Last night was Tim's sayonara 'do' where we had a nice time with his work colleagues. But it has left me without a sense of closure, as I missed out on saying goodbye to my friends because they left Japan.

We spent today trying to fit the rest of our belongings into suitcases, weighing them, emptying them and starting over. Tomorrow will probably be the same.

And then we will catch a plane on Monday morning to take us first to London and the dubious pleasures of Hellish Heathrow before connecting to Berlin where we will spend the next four years.

While I'm looking forward to our new adventure, I feel like a huge part of my heart will be left behind in Japan. And with the earthquake and everything else that's happened, and is still happening, I would rather be here to help out. But I will be a tryjin from Berlin.

Where we love is home,
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Homesick in Heaven

 

So what's next for Japanory?

For those of you that read and enjoy Japanory, thank you, I do appreciate your visits, emails and comments. And for those of you who found this little Travelblog through a Google search, I hope you got some useful information from it.

Before the earthquake struck on 11th March, I had only just finished blogging to the end of 2008. (If you followed Japanory from the start you'll know I was a retro-blogger, working from my diaries, memory and photos, and woefully behind!). It seems to me to be a little crass to restart doing that again right now.

Then again, I started writing Japanory for my own personal record. In the future, I hope Rhiannon will be able to look back at this and remember her time in Japan. 2009 was a very stressful yet life-changing year on many levels and there are some stories I think may be useful or interesting to some. There are some posts I dread writing as painful memories will surface. On the flip side, there were some absolutely wonderful times too.

Should I carry on with my retro Tokyo tales or leave it be? What do you think?

And for those of you who have asked me to write about Berlin... get your thinking caps on for a blog name please!

I'm not promising anything, but I have certainly found blogging in the present time very cathartic and useful. So if I do write a Berlin blog, I will NOT let it to get so behind!

But now I'm signing off. I don't know when I will get back online again in Germany but I will briefly update you on our arrival.

Thank you and sayonara for now.

Losing my Words

I do believe I have run out of words.

Just as I started to think of composing a new post last night, we were hit by a huge aftershock at 11.30pm. Initially it was measured at 7.4 magnitude but was later reduced to a 7.1.Regardless of the numbers, it was absolutely terrifying.

Everyone apart from me was asleep. The tremor started as normal, but then it continued and got stronger; just like the big quake on 11th March. I was up and had the back door open, wondering at what point I should go up and get Rhiannon. But she was soon hurtling downstairs. It seemed like an eternity before Tim appeared.

The house was rattling horrendously. And the ground just kept shaking on and on. I think it lasted about three very long minutes. Time slows down. It's incredible how many thoughts can run through your mind in nano-seconds.

For some reason this one rattled me far more than the initial 9.0 magnitude earthquake. I think because I've been wondering about the stresses put onto the fault lines and tectonic plates under Tokyo that will produce The Big One - the Tokai earthquake.

I didn't sleep much last night. Just too much is going on right now.

Gaijin, Flyjin, Stayjin and Tryjin

Gaijin
For the non Japanese speakers, the word "gaijin" means a foreigner or outsider. Or to be more precise "non-Japanese", or "alien". This word is a short form of gaikokujin, which means "foreign country people". ["Gai" rhymes with tie with a hard g].

We tend to stand out. Some gaijin find it an offensive word, but we aren't Japanese and cannot be Japanese, so why find it insulting? It's a description, that's all, and one I'm perfectly happy with.

Flyjin
A new term has arisen since the mega-earthquake on 11th March - flyjin. Now this term can be considered offensive as I believe it's intended to be a disparaging description. But I must admit to finding it a funny pun. Flyjin refers to those many thousands of expats who left Japan in the week or two after Fukushima started its ongoing crisis.

Of course, those that left the devastated areas shouldn't be labelled with this derogatory term. Perhaps it should only apply to those who left Tokyo? And anyway, it isn't just expats who have left; many Japanese have evacuated Tokyo as well. Some have moved to their families further away from the perceived dangers, while others have moved overseas.

The decision to leave must have been very hard for many people. Especially for those who had to leave the rest of their family in Tokyo or elsewhere in Japan. The incorrect and hyperbolic reporting in the Western media fueled the pressure on them to leave. Families in the "home" countries put immense demands on their relatives in Japan - I too had some emotional blackmail to deal with, so I know how it felt. Not nice.

For others though, it was a chance to take a long, paid-for holiday, for example, "US Military Families That Fled Japan Receive Generous Travel Allowances"...which hasn't helped "international relations" at all, as you can imagine.

Several people had no choice in the matter as their companies insisted upon them leaving for insurance purposes. Not everyone left Japan altogether, some moved further south in the country. A few are now returning but, as far as I have been told by their work colleagues, they aren't so highly respected anymore. Some may not even have jobs to come back to if the rumoured move of Tokyo companies to Osaka happens. It's also been hinted that if jobs are cut in the near future, who will be first against the wall? I must emphasise that this is speculation from talking to various business people here.

Others have just instructed removal companies to pack up all their belongings and ship them on - they are not returning to Japan at all.

Stayjin
Some people have accused those of us who stayed in Tokyo of being stupid, gullible, mis-informed, brave, stubborn, bad parents, reckless or smug, amongst numerous other judgmental espressions.
Which am I?

Lots of guilt-trips have been poured onto us. "Think of the children!", "What if X happened, then Y and Z? What if? What if?" We've been judged as much as flyjin - but admittedly this judgement has probably just been made in private and hasn't appeared in the press.

But for some reason, it is the flyjins who feel they have to defend their actions repeatedly. Why is this? Is it because the word is out there? Surely people are allowed to make choices? Whether or not you agree with their choices is up to you and judgement is unnecessary, unkind and uncalled for. People make their decisions based on what they feel is best for their family at that time.

However, there does appear to be a palpable divide between flyjin, stayjin and Tokyoites. You see it when you go into a store, bar, restaurant, coffee shop. I see the surprised and pleased reactions in people's faces when they meet me on my regular dog walks. Few people really voice their true opinions, which may only make this worse. All I know for sure is that throughout the past three weeks, we have been greeted with happy surprise and a great deal of appreciation by our local shop and restaurant owners.

So, do I regret not leaving? An emphatic NO! The "What ifs" didn't happen. I am not glowing around the edges with radiation. It turned out the main problems I personally faced were having Rhiannon at home from school the whole time and the frequent, unnerving aftershocks. Oh, and the jishin yoi. None of which were enough to take me away from my beloved Tokyo. Radiation was not an issue.

If I had left with Rhiannon, Tim and the pets would have had to stay in Tokyo. If there is one thing I've learned from this disaster is that family matters more than anything. Keeping us all together was vital for all our wellbeing. That was our joint decision and we don't regret it.

Incidentally, I met a girl yesterday who, as a child through to her teens, lived very close to Chernobyl when it went - she's fine. And as has been stated in this blog before, Fukushima cannot ever be another Chernobyl, whatever happens.I have done so much research I feel I could write a thesis on nuclear crises!

Tryjin
I really like this term. It's positive, it's go-getting, it's the can-do attitude that spurs people on to make the best of a very difficult time. And the tryjins are getting some amazing results.

Tryjin was coined by an amazing venture called 'Quakebook', a "Twitter-sourced charity book about how the Japanese Earthquake at 2:46 on March 11, 2011 affected us all. All revenues from the QuakeBook Book go to the Japan Red Cross." Tryjin means foreigners who are trying to do everything they can to help Japan.

I wish I could do more to help, and I wish I could be personally involved with Quakebook, but I found out about it too late and our impending move means there's little I can commit to right now. For now, all I can do is help publicise it as much as possible via Twitter, Facebook, various media contacts and here. Maybe in a few weeks when we are settled in Berlin, I can properly help Japan, albeit from afar. No idea how, though. Something will come up, I'm sure.

Other tryjins I've already mentioned (because I know them personally) are Caroline Pover and Dee and Trace from 37 Frames.

BUT, with the worldwide media concentrating on the nuclear crisis, the real tragedy is being overlooked. 

Today's horrific numbers: "TOKYO, April 6 - The National Police Agency said on Wednesday that the March 11 earthquake and tsunami have left 12,468 people dead and 15,091 others unaccounted for in Japan by 10:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT)."

Finally, via Quakebook I discovered this moving song, with photos from the aforementioned Dee & Trace:

 

Ganbatte to all the tryjins. Keep going! You're doing a fantastic job, thank you.

Tokyo's Radiation Levels - Less than Hong Kong or UK

From an article entitled "Hong Kong, Cornwall Radiation Beats Tokyo Even After Japan Nuclear Crisis" originally posted in Bloomberg on 1st April, some fascinating information about global radioactivity figures arose.

This excerpt below from The Business Insider condenses the figures nicely.

With the crisis in Fukushima ongoing, fears over the radiation threat continue to dominate headlines.

But the radiation situation in Japan's financial heart, Tokyo, is better than Hong Kong, and hardly higher than New York or London, according to Bloomberg.

According to the most recent data, here's how the cities match up:

• UK annual average - 0.251 microsieverts/hour
• Hong Kong - 0.14 microsieverts/hour
• Tokyo - 0.109 microsieverts/hour
• New York - 0.095 microsieverts/hour
• London - 0.08 microsieverts

So why were so many people fleeing Tokyo in the wake of the disaster? Simple, the headline number increased by 30 times, according to Bloomberg, so to a person not understanding how small the numbers are to start, it seems quite big.

That doesn't mean the situation around the reactor site, however, is any better or less alarming.

I make no further comment...

Fault Lines & Stresses

Wednesday 30th March 2011

  It's been a few days since my last outpouring, so I thought it time to try some cathartic writing again. I apologise in advance for the self-indulgent whinging that is likely to get spewed out...

Aftershocks have been easing off considerably over the past few days but each one sets our nerves rattling again. Our house has obviously shifted on its foundations as there are many new creaks and strange noises when the walls cool or heat and we cannot shut one of the bedroom doors at all now.

(What is it with this? As soon as I start to write a blog post we get another tremor!)

Anyway. The past few days have been rather stressful, apart from the tremors, radiation worries, and so on.

I feel very frustrated that I cannot do anything to actually help those countless people displaced by the earthquake and tsunami on 11th March. Friends of mine are doing some sterling work either raising money, collecting goods and even travelling up there to help directly with the much needed aid effort.

As you know, we are leaving Tokyo for Berlin on 11th April. This has been planned for well over a year; we're not fleeing Japan under pressure. Flights have been booked; the pets are going through the (very expensive) system and are booked onto their separate flight.

BUT, with all the recent problems in Japan all plans have gone somewhat awry.

Firstly we heard that due to the Fukushima nuclear situation the airline booked to transport the animals is no longer flying into or out of Narita airport. Luckily our animal handler seems to have everything under control but the animals will have to board with him for a couple of nights; something neither of them will take well too. And that's without the stress of a long flight followed by a drive in Germany. I try not to worry too much about them, but I can't help it. I'm in major worry mode at the moment. This is rare for me, but I suppose understandable in the circumstances.

Next we discovered that OUR British Airways flight has also been cancelled! We were due to fly from Haneda airport which is very close to home. The timing was perfect, I would have had a few hours at Heathrow to do a spot of shopping and we would have arriving in Berlin (eventually) in daylight. Now - unless things change again - we have to fly on a later plane from Narita, stop in Seoul, South Korea to refuel, Heathrow for about an hour and hope to goodness we make the connecting flight to Berlin. Can't quite see that going well, can you? If it does, we will arrive in our new home at about midnight.

Apparently (according to unconfirmed sources) the reasons are twofold: there isn't enough fuel in Japan to fill the planes up for a 12 hour flight. And allegedly, the crews don't want to stay in Japan due to radiation fears... unfounded! Levels have remained constantly low away from Fukushima. It's only the nuclear plant's immediate environs that are affected.

It's vital we arrive in Berlin by Tuesday 12th as we have places to go, pets to collect and our car is being delivered.

The next round of shipping is next Wednesday when my PC will go. Eek! I shall be bereft. Before then, I have to sort out this set of shipping from whatever we can carry in our suitcases.

 

As mentioned here, Rhiannon has gone back to school for 2 hours a day this week. What an utter farce! I get her to school - with usual hassle and snail-paced getting-ready efforts by her, shoot home to walk the dog then have to go and pick her up again. She's hyped up from seeing some of her peers again and is utterly intolerable in the afternoons. I am not a natural stay-at-home-mum... She's not at school long enough to tire her out, but just long enough to get her anger issues and bad attitude back again (due to problems at the school - will post another time). This is all not helped by Tim being away on business this week.

(Oh bugger - another aftershock - Rhiannon due at the doorway in 3-2-1... yup, back later...)

See? I can't get anything done.

On her first day back at school I thought I'd hang around and see if I could meet anyone I knew. The lack of gaijin faces was extremely obvious. I'd say about 95% of the parents there were Japanese. I spoke to a few mums I knew who were incredulous that the school hadn't reopened properly even though most other international schools and all the Japanese schools are working as normal.

However, under some pressure (hee hee!) the Board of Trustees had a meeting and finally some sense prevailed - school is reopening properly next week! OK, so it's the last week before the Easter Holidays, but some sort of normality is due to begin at long last. And, quite selfishly I agree, I will get some much needed free time before I go completely insane.

 

At the weekend, we took Tim's work replacement to a nearby restaurant district - Akasaka Mitsuke - for dinner. The place was empty. Desperate restaurant owners were on the street begging us to come in to their establishment "It's OK, we have English menu!" We were the only customers in the place we ended up in which is normally a bustling, lively pub.

On talking to the owner, I learned a new word - "flyjin".

"Flyjin: A foreigner or expat in Japan (gaijin) who heads for Narita (or Kansai) at the first sign of a nuclear holocaust. Alternately fly-jin, fly jin, #flyjin, flykokujin, フライ人. Not a Japanese word and not familiar to or used by Japanese, flyjin was coined by English-speaking Twitter users."

It made me giggle, but realise people had their own reasons to go and many were told to go by their companies due to insurance issues. Those of us who stayed (stayjins?) have been castigated too, so there's no judgment from me. Well, not much... Whatever the reasons for the departures, there is a fair amount of bad feeling by the local employees who had to stay and cover extra work.

I don't believe Tokyo will never be the same again. I shall expand on this another day. It's taken me over 2 hours to write this post with Rhiannon constantly coming downstairs for extra reassurance combined with emotional blackmail.

Apologies for the massive whinge. Thank you if you managed to read it all.There's more, but I'm not going to continue boring the hell out of you any more.

In the grand scheme of things my problems are NOTHING and I am fully aware of that.

But they are mine and I needed to get them out.

 

 

 

Japan Earthquake Support Mission UK

Saturday 26th March 2011

The death toll from the disaster at the last count is 10,418 with 17,072 people still unaccounted for. Obviously this shockingly high death toll will rise.

Sadly, many of the deaths may occur in the evacuation shelters. Food is short. Relief workers in Japan’s earthquake-stricken region are struggling to provide many residents with just two meals a day. Transport links to the affected areas are difficult. The weather is bitterly cold and conditions in the shelters - usually enormous halls - are bleak.

 

I want to raise awareness of a very special lady's mission to collect crucial items for the estimated 250,000 people displaced by the Tohoku Pacific earthquake on 11th March 2011.

Her name is Caroline Pover and you can find her details here but for ease of reading I've copied her latest post here so you can see what she needs and where she is going to be in the UK over the next few weeks.

Please help in any way you can.
Publicity - share this everywhere!
Donations, whether monetary of practical will be much appreciated.

At the time of writing (1415 GMT), Caroline is currently in the Plymouth Guildhall car park collecting items NOW!!

 

From Caroline:

"I was in Saipan when the earthquake hit Japan, and decided to travel to the UK, where I think my skills can best be put to good use for the time being in collecting much-needed supplies and encouraging British people to support the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their homes.

I am travelling around the UK, giving talks to schools or any other community groups, sharing my love for Japan and all the reasons why I have made it my home for the past 15 years. I hope to connect the people I meet with images of very real people and places in Japan that are different from the horrific images they may have seen and might therefore be a little easier to relate to.

As media interest dies down, the people of Japan may be forgotten. I want them to know they are not forgotten and are in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world. In addition to gathering financial and practical support, I am also collecting items that provide emotional and spiritual support, such as thoughtful drawings or poems of encouragement made by young children. Children and adults, alone or in groups, are welcome to say words of support on my “Gambatte” video (see below for the first video, from the people of Newbury).

Hitachi Capital have very kindly lent me a van, and are covering all the insurance — they are keen to help in any way they can and I LOVE them for their positive and encouraging attitude! My favourite airline, Virgin Atlantic, are helping me get everything to Japan, and at that end Garin Dart and his team are driving items directly to where they are needed. No administration fees, no employee salaries, no unnecessary costs. Garin has a list that he gets directly from the people who need items. Right now I am collecting:

• nappies (for adults as well as children)
• new underwear
• new socks
• sanitary towels
• cotton buds
• nail clippers
• dry shampoo
• face masks
• toothbrushes (still in packaging please)
• toothpaste
• children’s toys
• children’s books
• empty jerry cans
• food: anything that is sealed with foil, does not require heating or preparing, and has a long shelf-life
• cling film
• items for pets: rolls of plastic bags (20cm x 30cm in size), 45L garbage bags, Ziplock bags, dog and cat shampoo, thick bath towels, sterile gauze, waterproof medical tape, pet first aid kits, unopened dog and cat treats, canned dog and cat food, de-wormers, flea-tick prevention
• cardboard boxes and masking tape

I am not a registered charity and neither are the people I am working with in Japan. If you are not comfortable in any way then please donate money or items to a registered charity but come along to hear about his wonderful country anyway. As yet there are no efforts in the UK that allow British people to donate non-cash items to Japan. Any cash I do receive I will send directly to Garin to use to pay for petrol for his trucks, and for him to buy items that cannot be sourced outside of Japan, and I have managed to get a bank here in the UK to waive the transfer fees.

Already so far I have received donations of 320 UK pounds. Thank you to Carol Lydon, Barry Goldstone, Auntie Mavis, and Sandy Pearce.

I plan on doing this without spending any of the donated money on anything but what is needed in Japan. Because of this I would like to sincerely thank the following for their kindness and generosity and urge you to use their services:

• t-shirt printing by GAZKAZ Promotional Wear
• vehicle signage by Crescent Signs

If you would like me to visit your school or community group I’d love to hear from you. The route is still being planned but is tentatively as follows:

• Plymouth area March 26th to 29th Contact info             01752-407857 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            01752-407857      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      
• North Devon & Stroud areas March 30th to 31st
• Coventry, Shropshire, and Manchester areas April 1st to 5th
• Leighton Buzzard & Cambridge areas April 6th to 7th
• Twickenham & nearby London areas April 8th & 9th
• Bicester & Newbury areas April 10th to 11th Contact info             01635-40315 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            01635-40315      end_of_the_skype_highlighting      

Confirmed venues are as follows:

• Thursday 24th March 1:30pm St John the Evangelist School, Newbury CONTACT Suzette Pearce
• Tuesday 29th March 8:45–9am Plymstock School CONTACT Nick Johns (van will be parked at school until 10am)
• Wednesday 30th March
  8:30–9am Plymouth College CONTACT Sharon Lambie (van will be parked at school until 10am)
  11–11:20am Coombe Dean CONTACT Sara Fisher (van will be parked at school until 12:30pm)
  1:30–3pm Downham Special School CONTACT Wendy Fisher
• Thursday 31st March
  9:10am South Mead Primary, Braunton CONTACT Donna Loftus (van will be parked at school until 10:30am)
  1:50pm Farmor’s School, Gloucester CONTACT Andy Wareham
• Friday 1st April 8:40–9am King Henry VIII School, Coventry CONTACT Nick Meynell
• Wednesday 6th April 9am Waterbeach Primary School, Cambridge CONTACT Cressida Downing
• Friday 8th April
  9–11am Trafalgar Infant School, Twickenham CONTACT Tamsin Burland
  Castleview, Slough Langley CONTACT Catherine Gorman

For me to visit areas outside of Newbury and Plymouth I need somewhere to stay (and honestly a sofa is fine!), and a full tank of petrol before I set off for the next location. I am really serious about not spending any of the money collected on things like hotels and petrol in the UK, and really appreciate your help with this. It would also be appreciated if you could contact your local media about the van visit so that people in your area who might not come along to the talk could still drop by and donate items.

I will update this page as much as possible, but please do keep an eye on my blog or Facebook page for the latest news. My contact number will change depending on where I am but at the moment can be reached on             01752-407857 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            01752-407857      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Earthquake Sickness - Jishin yoi

Friday 25th March 2011

Well, here's something new. Earthquake sickness.

Not only am I sick of earthquakes (or aftershocks - whatever!) the tremors are also making me feel physically sick. Extremely nauseous to the point of not being able to eat. It's a little like finding your land-legs again after being at sea for a while.

Even Tim mentioned it last night. We feel the ground swaying but are not actually having an quake at the time. Most peculiar and most unpleasant.

Some try to say that it's purely psychological and caused by stress and anxiety. Fair enough, I've certainly had enough of that for the past two weeks.

The recommended cure is to take deep breaths... didn't work. It may well be psychological, but with me it's manifesting a little further south from my head...

So I've been chatting to friends and have learned a new phrase - jishin yoi. Jishin means earthquake (it's taken me four and a half years to learn this word and unsurprisingly I've heard it a LOT recently). Yoi usually means drunk. But apparently there are phrases such as kuruma yoi for car sickness and funa yoi is sea sickness, so jishin yoi nicely translates as earthquake sickness.

Sea-sickness wristbands work so I've been told, but I don't have any. I shall just "ride it out", knowing it is real and not me going completely bonkers.

What else?

Oh yes. As predicted school is closed for yet another week even though all the other international schools in Tokyo seem to be reopening next week. Ours doesn't appear to have enough staff left in Tokyo. But, some "good" news - they are opening one of the campuses to the remaining stoic families for a whole two hours! It's better than nothing, but not worth me coming all the way back home after dropping Rhiannon off. And it will do her good to be away from home for a while. And it will do me even more good too...

The school send "home learning" tasks for us to do. If you could see the complete and total awfulness of trying to get Rhiannon to do her normal, small amount of standard homework, you may understand why this hasn't worked at all. Ah well, it's not like she's studying for exams.

In other news.

International mail finally arrived today. The new dress for my now cancelled birthday / sayonara party is here. And Rhiannon's goodbye gifts for her classmates and friends came too - but of course most of them aren't here so she won't be able to hand them out. Something else to add to my ever-growing and never-shrinking to do list - get postal addresses for lots of people. I can't let the gifts go to waste, they cost a fortune.

Tim's work replacement arrives tomorrow. I wonder if he has any idea what he's in for? They both have to travel to Seoul next week, so I'll be 'single mum' for a few days.

I shall insist he brings home very nice presents as compensation for this extra stress!

 

 

Aftershock City

Tuesday 22nd March 2011

I've managed to drag myself out of my depression - well, I don't have time for "proper" depression any more - too much to do. I'd like to thank to all my well-wishers' emails and Facebook posts. I will get around to replying to them all as soon as I can.

And I have been asked to update the blog, so here I am again! Back to my stream of unconsciousness...

The past couple of days have been reasonably quiet on the aftershock / earthquake front, but the tectonic plates are sure as hell making up for it today. According to the Japan Quake Map I referred to in my last post, Japan's had 27 aftershocks today alone. There were two 6.6 magnitude ones both at the same time - that was interesting. Just as we were getting used to solid ground again

Rhiannon was booked into a gym camp this week, but when we turned up yesterday, it was sadly cancelled due to lack of attendees. There were just three kids - usually there are a couple of dozen. We managed to persuade the organisers to take them just for the morning and it was a great distraction for Rhiannon. Plus a fantastically exhausting workout! She's aching today and finally managed to get get a full night's sleep.

Not tonight though. Lots of tremors in the upper 5's and 6's have set her terror off again. Whilst writing this post, a 5.9 woke her up and it's taken me ages to get her settled again.

For the first time, I regret not running away from Tokyo like the other foreigners. Not through fears of radiation as there is nothing to be afraid of, but the aftershocks are having a detrimental effect on my child. However, on the flip side, I think it will be character building in the long term.She tells me she wishes her friends were around so she had some distraction and she even wants to go back to school (even though she doesn't like school) so she has a bit of normality and peer company.

We are due to find out tomorrow whether it will re-open next week... I shall be astounded if it does.

Here is my solution to one of my assumed reasons the school may not open... Even if there are fewer children than normal, I think they should gather all the classes in each year group into one classroom, in one campus, and I'm sure they can find enough teachers still in Tokyo for that. Some children are taking their GCSEs this year, but are not getting the tuition they need at this vital time in their education.

Colleagues of Tim's are making an emergency run to Sendai on Thursday with supplies for the thousands of displaced people. Unfortunately, because all our stuff has been either cleared out or shipped, we have very little to offer. But I found some of Rhiannon's old clothes my helper hadn't yet taken and an old fleece of mine. Rhiannon is desperate to help and has donated her blanket and her favourite winter dress, but that's all she has left to give. I went through my bare kitchen cupboards - we're trying to "unstock" them before we move - and all I could come up with was three tins of condensed milk! Well, perhaps it will give the children a bit of a sugar boost.

This evening I gave an interview to BBC Three Counties Radio - a friend suggested them and having listened to the show today, I knew it was not a sensationalist programme. Apparently they have been reading this blog all week *waves to them* thank you! I made sure it was recorded as I am terrible on live radio. Turns out I'm not much better when recorded. I do hope they edited out my phrase "Living in earthquake means we get a lot of Japans"... ARGH! After recording stopped (I think) but while I was still rambling away to the presenter, we had a 6.4 magnitude quake which sent poor Rhiannon under the table. That would have been good to record! I believe it will be on the Breakfast Show between 6am & 9am, possibly tomorrow but I don't know for sure.

ETA Apparently the first part of the interview will be on just after 7am and the second part just after 8am, here's the link to the station.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-12408460

Yikes!

 

Finally, a couple of plugs for some wonderful people:

Firstly, please read this amazing, descriptive and eloquent blog post from a lovely, sparkly friend of mine, Dee, a talented photographer here in Tokyo with her equally fabulous partner, Trace. It's a long post, so settle down with a cuppa and enjoy. Some of their beautiful photos are on there too.

Secondly; Lisa Pearson AKA The Mummy Whisperer has asked me to help publicise her free webinar where, for every person who signs up, she will donate £1 to Help Japan charities. Happy to oblige, Lisa!

"I’m going to do a 1hr Free Webinar for the first time explaining the Flexible Family Solution in depth; this is my 6 step process that I give to Mums to help them tackle their family’s problems. For everyone who signs up for the webinar I’m going to give £1 to one of the Help Japan charities, so I need your help to make sure that I give lots by telling all your friends and getting them to sign up too. Go to http://www.MummyWhispererSecrets.com to sign up, and please send your friends." 

And on that note - along with yet another aftershock - I'm signing off for the night.

Let's hope those plates settle down soon. Please?

Japan Earthquake Map

Sunday 20^th March 2011

I've even less to report today so I've decided to stop putting extra pressure on myself during this stressful time by attempting to write this blog every day. If I have something new to say, then I will update you. Otherwise I will just let it ride until we move from Japan and then I may restart putting up the older posts again.

Rhiannon is still very disturbed by the events of Friday 11^th March and last night had no sleep at all. Which meant I didn't either. Although Tim and our visitor took the dog out this morning allowing me to sleep then instead.

School looks to be closed for the foreseeable future –having spoken with other families who have remained in Japan, none of us believe it will open again before the Easter holidays. I hope I am proved wrong. However, there is a gym "camp" next week which I've enrolled Rhiannon into. She loves this and hopefully it will exhaust her enough to sleep.

Today there are a couple of websites I'd like to share with you.

Firstly, it seems the UK Mail has finally got its act together and has written a couple of accurate articles:

Tea and ham sandwiches on a very English evacuation: Mail on Sunday joins bus convoy carrying British tsunami survivors to safety

'We have a stiff upper lip – like you British': Tokyo residents show their true grit amid nuclear chaos (OK, I'll ignore the "nuclear chaos" bit…!)

And this graphic is rather spectacular. It shows the number of earthquakes we've experienced since Friday 11^th March. If you use the drop down menu on the right of the page you can get a clear idea of what went on that day. Japan Quake Map

Due to the uncertain situation here, sadly I have had to close my Dear Fairies business down for the time being – international mail is currently and understandably unpredictable.

So there I am going to leave updating Japanory on a daily basis. I need to look to my own life and family right now. 

I also need to find time to study, get sorted ready for our move to Berlin in 3 weeks' time and try to find a way of earning some money.

Thank you all for reading – do check back from time to time as there may be more news. Who knows?

 

What does a 9.0 Earthquake Feel Like?

Saturday 19^th March 2011

I really don't have much to write today.

Aftershocks seem to be abating in regularity but when we do get one it's quite large. We had a 6.1 at about 7pm, just as we were getting used to solid ground again.

This evening's dog walk was strange and it took a while for me to work out why… all the lights were out. Not street lights, but all the extra neon signs and so on. Tokyo is never properly dark, but it's getting there now as everyone is diligently conserving power to assist in the nuclear reactor plant rescue effort.

While out, I noticed something else unusual too: some doorways had little piles of salt carefully placed outside them. When I returned home I googled to see if I could find out what this was about. It turns out to be a Shinto method of purification. "Salt is sometimes placed outside homes in little piles called Mori Shio 盛り塩 (piles of salt), usually near the entrance, so people who enter the home are purified". So it appears some people may have fears of radiation after all. I have never seen this Mori Shio before in all the time I've been here, so I'm just drawing conclusions.

Today I've suffered from information overload, so I'm keeping this post fairly short until my head has had time to process this information.

Instead, I thought it would be interesting to address some of the search strings that have led people to Japanory recently.

Let's start with the easy ones:

Pictures of Japan earthquake 11/3/11. This would have brought them to my first post on this subject

Panic in Tokyo. I intentionally used an emotive, SEO friendly title for this post and boy, did it get searched a lot with thousands of hits.

What is the distance from Fukushima nuclear plant and Kyoto? 488.4 kilometres (303.5 miles) according to this site.

Why do we get under table when having earthquake? It's what is taught to the children at school during earthquake drills. It's called the "duck, cover and hold" drill. Duck under a table, cover your head and hold onto the table for dear life. Then panic and get the hell out of the house… well, that seemed to be the right thing to do at the time.

Did the dogs bark before the earthquake? Well, our dog was barking, but I think it was at the neighbours who were outside at the time. The only time she has given us clear warning of an impending earthquake was when she was a puppy and woke us with a loud bark at about 4.30am. About 10 seconds later we had an earthquake.

Will Japan have another earthquake? Yes. Of course it will. We're having earthquakes / aftershocks every day. Even before this big quake on 11th March Japan had earthquakes every day in some part of the country. It's an earthquake zone due to it sitting on a junction of several tectonic plates. Ring of fire and all that. Let's hope Japan never experiences another one like this though.

What is Japan's earthquake called? I don't think it's been officially decided yet. See my post here for the list of currently used names; none too catchy yet.

Tokyo should i stay home? I don't know quite how to answer this one. As the searcher was outside of Japan by thousands of miles, I'd say it wasn't an issue! If the search originated in Tokyo, I'd say the same. Tokyo is safe from radiation right now, so no reason to stay at home. Get out there and enjoy life. It can be wiped out in seconds as we have seen in such awful detail this past week.

How big does an earthquake have to be to feel it? Another tricky one. And one that has no definitive answer. It depends on the location, magnitude, depth, movement and a whole heap of other factors. I've felt earthquakes in this room downstairs while my husband working on his PC upstairs was completely unaware. And vice versa. Sometimes a magnitude 4 can feel worse than a 5.5 if it's closer to your position.

What the f*** does a 9.0 earthquake feel like? Oh this one did make me laugh. It was the expletive that set me off and I can empathise with the question put like that! Obviously I can't speak for the poor people near its epicentre, but there are plenty of YouTube clips giving you an idea. For us here in the centre of Tokyo the movement was a gradual build up from a gentle rolling motion to feeling like we were on a boat in a rough sea and unable to walk easily. It was the length of time it lasted that made us realise that it was a Big Quake. And furniture falling over.

And totally off topic, but I just had to include this one…

Hamster go up hoover. Oh dear! Poor hamster. I do hope it survived its horrendous journey. This search ended up here – and I hasten to add there is NO hamster involved in my post.

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One Week on from the Big Earthquake in Japan

Friday 18^th March 2011

One week. That's all. But it seems like the longest week in history.

How can just a few minutes change the lives of so many people, in some cases forever?

It's shocking, devastating and deeply upsetting. I hate feeling so helpless. I want to go out and help, but I can't.

Instead, I have to keep home life as normal as possible, which is a difficult task because life is anything but normal. Tim is working all hours and will be working this weekend too. We have our visitor here. There is no school. Nothing is normal.

My previous comments about Rhiannon taking it all very well were possibly premature and she now seems to be showing completely understandable symptoms of post-traumatic stress. And I have no idea how to help her. Any slight noise or aftershock is affecting her quite badly. She will not sleep, just in case we have another earthquake like last week. I can't distract her with play dates as almost everyone has left the country. I can't take her anywhere as fuel is rationed and we just don't know what is open and what isn't.

I have my suspicions which are shared by the few other mums who have stayed, that the school will not open again before the Easter Holidays, which is when we leave for our new country. It appears a good number of the teachers have also left the country. If this is the case, then Rhiannon won't be able to say goodbye to her classmates and I think this will make her stress a lot worse.

So, today has not been a good day.

I cannot let my emotions out as I am the strong one who has to keep everyone together. A traumatised daughter and dog, an exhausted husband and a slightly shell-shocked visitor. I have felt in turns angry and desperately sad. Anger is directed to various idiots who keep telling me what to do; leave / don't leave; go out / stay in; various media requests looking for horrible sensational stories and who will make them up anyway regardless of what is said; various random online comments saying things like "this was god's will", "god's revenge for blah blah blah" and other such ridiculous and inflammatory dogma. I've had to stay away from the computer quite a lot today in order to keep my sanity.

Sadness comes from hearing stories about people dying of hypothermia in the freezing shelters; the fact that rescuers can't actually find the shelters as all the records were washed away in the tsunami. No centralised data was kept anywhere – each area kept its own data and that's all been washed away.

Clips and tales of lost and brave animals nearly reduce me to tears. And I have heard terrible rumours (as yet unfounded) that many of the expats that left have abandoned their so-called beloved pets.

I say nearly reduced me to tears because I cannot lose it. Not yet. I have to remain strong for my family. And yes, I realise this will all come back on me in due course – probably a few weeks after we've moved to Germany.

Oh, and this week also included the 7^th anniversary of my beloved Dad's death.

 

OK. Enough navel gazing. Onto other fairly random, but still earthquake related, stuff.

I was honoured today to receive an email from the British Library who wants to add Japanory to their web archive. "We select and archive sites to represent aspects of UK documentary heritage and as a result, they will remain available to researchers in the future." I'm rather chuffed about this!

 

Wikipedia now have an entry for the earthquake. There is some confusion as to what this quake is to be called. I'm sure the name will settle down sometime, but currently on the cards are:

• The Sendai Earthquake
• 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
• The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku Earthquake (not very catchy, this one!)
• Tōhoku Kantō Great Earthquake
• East Japan Great Earthquake
• East Japan Giant Earthquake

 

Finally for tonight, I want to spread the news about a fantastically adventurous and ground-breaking "Help Japan" plan by a good friend of mine, Caroline Pover.

I quote from her site:

"I can give speeches, I am persuasive, I can write, and I don't like the word "no." Those skills have to be helpful in this situation somehow. This is what I'm doing … I am going to drive a truck around the UK giving talks to schools and any other communities about how wonderful Japan is and all the reasons why I love it, and fill that truck with food, clothes, toys, money, and whatever else the people of Japan need in order to rebuild their lives. Virgin Atlantic will help me get it to Japan, and I will arrange for it to get to where it is needed."

There is a Facebook page set up for this venture. Please spread the word and if you can help in any way, please get in contact directly with Caroline as soon as possible.

Panic in Tokyo!

Thursday 17^th March 2011

Oh my god! The panic in Tokyo today was unbelievable!! First thing this morning my inbox was full to the brim with messages from friends in the UK and Facebook friends had posted links to various UK newspaper headlines with dramatic impact such as:

"GET OUT OF TOKYO NOW"
"BRITS TOLD TO GET OUT OF TOKYO TONIGHT"
"THOUSANDS FLEEING THE CITY IN A PANIC OVER RADIATION LEAKS"

Holy ****! I checked other papers online and most said the same sort of thing.

What on earth had happened overnight to prompt this melodramatic journalism?

I checked my many sources, and found a paragraph on the FCO Travel Guidance site had been changed slightly, and could have been misconstrued by anyone not reading it properly, or those with little knowledge of semantics…

But the journalists stopped reading at that line and made their sensationalist headlines. Well, it sells the papers, I suppose. But it also misleads everyone and for those of us with friends and family in the UK meant we had a lot of explaining to do later today. Naturally they were terribly upset. After all, isn't everything you read in the papers true?

Of course it isn't. Luckily, most people realise this, but still, it creates panic where none exists. Apparently the TV and radio were just as bad too. There's a particular story in one paper that is wrong in every single respect but I don't want to give them more hits, so I'm not going to link to it here. Whether it was the interviewee lying or creative journalism, I don't know.

The FCO site has now updated its travel advice to make it clear that British nationals currently in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should consider leaving the area. Consider being the operative word here. This advice is totally unrelated to radiation, which as I stated yesterday will not be an issue even in the worst case scenarios. It is purely because of disruption to travel, power and possible food shortages.

I guess my rant against the media comes from this: I have been approached by numerous media companies requesting interviews and such.

Initially I thought this was a "good thing" and I had a tiny piece with my name on it in The Times on Monday (and even that was misquoted). But I have since realised they are mostly only after horrendously awful stories. Take this request from a TV station I received today, for example: "when things go wrong in Fukushima, and there's a death cloud going towards Tokyo, we would like to talk to as many people as possible"…

<Insert many expletives here>

Anyway, I emailed, Twittered and Facebooked soothing words wherever I could. Made a mental note to call Mum early, before she read her paper. Then I got on with my day. I took the dog for a nice walk in the glorious sunshine and admired the early cherry blossoms, helped Rhiannon make her Lego train, read a magazine, bought food (yes, there is food in the shops).

Life is going on pretty much as normal here in Tokyo. It is not a ghost town. People are no longer queuing for food, although they are for petrol. Children are playing in the parks. Obviously we are panicking wildly here.

Then I came back to the computer.

Wow!

An email giving details of a special chartered flight out of Tokyo tomorrow was waiting for me. What on earth was going on now? They need to have an answer by this afternoon. To be honest, I'm still not entirely sure why this was set up, but there it was.

Back on the phone again… And got firm confirmation that the radiation levels are absolutely fine, and will remain fine (I keep repeating this, but look back at yesterday's post with the briefing transcript). We are in more "danger" from aftershocks – which seem to be calming down now (hope I haven't just jinxed Japan by writing that) and walking home at night in London is statistically way more dangerous than living in Tokyo.

Should I stay or should I go? I went through the pros and cons of leaving – I couldn't think of any pros and the cons are too complex to go into here.

We're staying. Basically I cannot actually leave this country until our leaving date of 11^th April. So, if I do have to move anywhere, it will be further south in Japan, but goodness knows where as I have no family or friends there. As for potential blackouts, transport problems, food and fuel shortages, well, we're only here for another three weeks or so, and can certainly cope for that long. We were expecting a blackout tonight but that didn't happen. As long as Tokyoites continue to be frugal with electricity, we should be OK. All the neon lights that Tokyo is famous for are switched off.

My only regret is that it looks like school may not open again for some considerable time and friends have disappeared overnight, so Rhiannon and I won't be able to say goodbye to people properly.

 

We have a visitor staying with us at the moment (what an introduction to Japan!) and this evening we decided to go out and find a restaurant for a meal out. We discovered the most amazing little bistro down a back street near where we live. Just one lady customer was sitting in there and we were welcomed with open arms. The menu was all in Japanese but the chef did a sterling effort trying to explain what the items were. He was translating into Italian, so I managed to grasp the basic items. Delicious!

The lady customer spoke perfect English and we spent some time discussing recent events with her and the chef. She told me that on the day of the earthquake people had to walk home as the trains stopped. Many had to walk for hours and hours and along their route Japanese people were offering them tea, coffee, rest, beds for the night and the use of their bathrooms. A huge department store over Shinjuku station allowed stranded travellers to sleep in the store; fed them and basically made them as comfortable as possible. Naturally all the staff had to stay there too in order to look after the temporary refugees.

This they did happily.

This is Japan.

Social Networking and Japan’s Earthquake / Tsunami

Wednesday 16^th March 2011

Not much to add today: we're still getting numerous aftershocks, some bigger than others. Shops are still hugely under stocked, but by doubling up our efforts to visit various places we're now OK for food and other essentials. Most shops and train services are closing a lot earlier than normal – Tokyo is not a 24-hour city at the moment. Rhiannon's school has been closed for another week. But this seems to be because other international schools have closed for two weeks and so many people have left Tokyo rather than any concrete reason (see the transcript at the end of this post for my reasons for thinking this).

I mentioned in my post yesterday that as I was writing, a large-ish quake jolted me. It turned out to be a 6.1 magnitude tremor centred on Shizuoka – a prefecture south of Tokyo, near Mount Fuji. Apparently – according to Twitter - 33 people were injured, 92 buildings damaged, 3 landslides, 500 homes still without water. And 21000 homes lost power but that was soon restored This quake was very worrying as Shizuoka is designated as the place where the doom-laden Tokai earthquake is overdue. Japanese geologists have long forecast a huge earthquake, called the Tokai Earthquake, along this zone. It hadn't happened yet. When people talk about "the big one" (ie earthquake) it's the Tokai they are referring to. Friday's magnitude 9.0 was not "it".

Social networking has been a lifeline – literally – for many people during these grim days. When all the telephone lines were down, including mobile phones, the internet was still working. Twitter has been buzzing, with approximately 1,000 tweets from Japan every minute in the early hours after the quake. Since then it has been an amazing way of communicating information around the world. Of course, misinformation has also been doing the global rounds, but it's quite easy to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Hashtags have been put to great use. My favourite being #Edano_Nero (nero means "go to sleep"). This refers to Yukio Edano, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary and right-hand man to Prime Minister Naoto Kan who has been communicating every development since the catastrophes hit. He's been on TV almost constantly since Friday, to the extent that people started telling him to get some sleep. #Edano_Nero = Edano_go to sleep! He's been described as the 'Jack Bauer' of the crisis. He has commanded much respect here in Japan because he has explained the situation to people honestly and directly without reading from a script. Finally, he went to bed after working for 105 hours. Then people started using the hashtag # #kan_okiro … okiro means "wake up". Kan is of course, the Prime Minister who hasn't been seen much.

Facebook has been incredible too. My personal group of family and friends have been a huge source of comfort to me with their many messages and words of comfort and it's enabled me to update everyone on my situation with ease. Also, people have found friends and relatives displaced due to the earthquake via Facebook and the 6 degrees of separation theory really seems to hold water right now. News and information has been disseminated rapidly. Facebook even include this little box at the top of my Facebook page informing me of country-wide updates regarding the power-outages and other details.

News from the tsunami-wrecked north east has been very distressing. Due to the enormous death toll (at the time or writing, the number is over 4,000) the recovery teams have been told to photograph unidentified bodies and take DNA samples before disposing of them as soon as possible. Many thousands of people are still missing.

Finally, I just want to re-iterate my post from yesterday. We are staying in Tokyo unless we are told to go. The main danger is the aftershocks NOT radiation.

I now have the full transcript from the briefing meeting yesterday with The Government's Chief Scientific Officer Professor John Beddington, Hilary Walker from the Department of Health and Lesley Proctor from Health Protection Agency.

It's long, so get a cuppa and see why I am reassured!

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Situation

Also – When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping…

Tuesday 15^th March 2011

Today did not get off to a very good start as we were rudely shaken wide awake by a particularly nasty aftershock at 5am. Not a rolling sensation this time; more of a 'poltergeist has got hold of the bed and is very angry' movement. Rhiannon came hurtling into our room and got into bed with us. Tim got up and ended up going into work at 7am. I drifted back to sleep only to be woken by the doorbell – an international DHL delivery! Some normal life is still going on, thankfully.

It took me a while to discover that it was only about a 4.1 magnitude, but it was apparently right under Tokyo. Personally I think the epicentre was under our house.

We haven't had too many earthquakes / aftershocks today (can anyone yet explain the difference between these two descriptions?) but they've kicked off again this evening. Why have the tectonic plates decided to shudder at night time? During the writing of this post we were hit by a 6.1 mag which seems to have caused a number of problems in Shizuoka. It had me and the dog running outside (Tim and Rhiannon are at Haneda airport collecting a visitor who will be staying with us for a while to help Tim out at work).

My helper comes on Tuesdays so I was looking forward to seeing her and to take the opportunity to leave the house for a while because she can look after Kita (the dog) who I don't want to leave alone right now. She'd had a long trip to reach us and I felt very guilty for her journey to us and had to leave early as all the trains are stopping very early in the evenings now.

So at lunchtime, Rhiannon and I went to Omotesando for a much-needed retail therapy trip. We spent a happy hour in Kiddyland and, with the prospect of no school for a while, I treated Rhiannon to a huge lego set to keep her occupied for a while. I also kept my promise to a friend in the UK to buy her some weird Japanese goodies before we leave. Then we had lunch out and laughed a lot and basically had a wonderful time. It reduced stress levels immensely. I would have bought my birthday present, but all the designer stores were closed and only a couple of independents and tourist places open. The only people shopping were gaijin.

No, I was not worried about any potential radiation problems.

I do not subscribe to the sensationalist news reports and prefer to rely upon information by scientists directly involved in this crisis. For example, the word "meltdown" is emotive and not necessarily correct. We are miles away from Fukushima and radiation dissipates quickly. Naturally I do feel desperately sorry for those close to the plant. And we must not forget the devastation in Sendai and other places affected by the tsunami.

There was a briefing today. Some details are below.

Update on Japan's Nuclear Power station situation 15 March 2011 17:00 (From Business Link Japan) Highlights are my own.

Telephone briefing from Sir John Beddington, the UK's Chief Scientific adviser and Hilary Walker Deputy Director Emergency Preparedness at the Department of Health.

"Unequivocally, Tokyo will not be affected by the radiation fallout of explosions that have occurred or may occur at the Fukushima nuclear power stations."

The danger area is limited to within the 30 kilometre evacuation zone and no one will be allowed to enter this area other than those directly involved in the emergency procedures currently being undertaken at both Fukushima 1 & 2.

Sir John went on to answer a series of questions including a comparison between Chernobyl and Japan. He said, "They are entirely different. Chernobyl exploded and there was a subsequent fire with radioactive materials being launched 30,000 ft into the air". The maximum height of any Fukushima explosions would be no more than 500 metres.

"The amount of radiation that has been released is miniscule and would have to be in the order of 1,000 or more for it to be a threat to humans" This was confirmed by Hilary Walker.

Sir John went on to say that the Japanese authorities are doing their best to keep the reactors cooled and that this is a continuing operation. All workers on site dealing with the emergency are being fully decontaminated at the end of each shift.

When asked how reliable the information coming from the Japanese authorities was as to radiation levels he said, "this cannot be fabricated and the Japanese authorities are posting all the readings on the recognized international information sites which they are obliged to do. Independent verification shows that the data provided are accurate".

In answer to a specific question from the Head of the British School in Tokyo, Sir John Beddington and Hilary Walker said that there was no reason at all for the school to be closed unless there were other issues such as power outages and transport problems.

A transcript of the briefing should be on the British Embassy in Tokyo website soon.

Some further clarification from Sir John Beddington:

"The point about the Chernobyl thing was, it went up to thirty thousand feet or so and it continued for months on end. The sort of thing that would happen with an explosion in Fukushima would actually be relative duration, hours at the absolute most. What happened with Chernobyl was that the graphite core caught fire and you got radioactive material being putting out to a very great height over a very long period and pretty much went round the world. That radioactive material then went in to the food chain; sheep ate it and concentrated it. That was the problem. It's totally different here in Japan."

 

So, no, we are not leaving Japan before we're supposed to (unless of course, other events occur in the next few weeks) and we are all well. Rhiannon is not traumatised by all the quakes, she's taking each and every one in her stride – apart from the one this morning which is understandable!

And we shall probably go for some more retail therapy tomorrow.

Exodus

Monday 14th March 2011

I wasn't sure I would find much to write about today, but as you will see I managed my usual verbose entry.

Rhiannon's school have decided to close for the entire week, something she is extremely happy about. Apparently all the other international schools are closed for two weeks and our school was the last to make this decision.

I'm in two minds about this development. Mostly I am extremely happy about having my daughter safe at home with me so if anything happened, we'd be together. This is most important, I've come to realise. However, she is Hard Work to keep entertained, especially with all our belongings out of the house in a shipping container. Today we had a lazy day and I allowed her to watch way too much TV. The dog isn't doing so well. She's unsettled and nervous still, and doesn't calm down properly until everyone is home, including our wandering cat.

I can't stop thinking about how lucky we've been in all this, and how dreadful it must be in the devasated areas further north. By a bizarre stroke of luck or an incredible set of coincidences, my entire family was at home together when the earthquake struck on Friday. So many families have been separated; with many thousands separated forever.

Perhaps because we were all together when it happened, Rhiannon doesn't appear to be traumatised too much by it. I should imagine that if she had been at school on Friday she would be in one hell of a state by now.

In fact, I believe it is this trauma that has caused many of our fellow expat families to make a rapid exodus from Japan. I've been astounded by how suddenly and quickly they have left, leaving brief messages on Facebook saying things like "we're catching a plane tomorrow to go to X, Y or Z". Some have said that their children are so panicked by all the aftershocks that it is better to get to a more stable country as soon as possible.

And we've certainly had a lot of aftershocks, with a couple of big ones today which sent us trotting outside again. I've given up trying to work out what magnitude each one is now. As you can see, the map is so full of markers, and it updates quite slowly and sporadically, that it's just not possible to discover which one was "that one". When I phoned Mum this evening for my daily update, her first words were "I hear you've had another big quake". My response... "Have we?" I don't know all of what the British media are reporting, but from what I have seen it's mostly sensationalised and not all accurate, that's for sure! Yes, as I mentioned, we had two substantial ones today, but the whole day has been pretty rock and roll. As was yesterday... and the day before that. I'm beginning to feel quite queasy from the motion.

Of course, the extremely scary situation with the Fukushima nuclear plant is also contributing to the panic and the urge to get as far away from it as soon as possible is strong. Our information indicates that there is nothing to worry about - yet. We're monitoring the situation on a minute by minute basis, though.

For us, it's not so straightforward to just up and go. We're due to leave Japan for good on 11th April anyway. So if Rhiannon and I left now, we'd still have to come back before moving on. That's a lot of travelling. It's much too far to go back to the UK. And I can't think of anywhere else closer we could afford to go for a "holiday" as we've only just come back from one which was rather expensive. And of course, we'd have to leave Tim and the pets behind. Neither of which is conducive to keeping stress levels down.

At the forefront of my mind today was the extremely disturbing information from somewhere that there is a 70% likelihood of another huge quake before Thursday. I was doing OK until I heard this, then every aftershock set my already ragged nerves even further on edge. I've since heard this has now dropped to only a 40% chance. Whether this is true or not - I mean how can this figure be proven or even decided upon? What precedence has been used to predict that?

On the food front - there are quite major shortages here in Tokyo. Even the restuarants are limiting their offerings. I did manage to get some milk today, so I'm OK for my numerous cups of tea and Rhiannon's daily intake. But there is no meat or bread to be found. Tim went out on a hunter/gatherer trip early this evening and came back with vegetables and some unknown frozen nugget-type things. I will have to get inventive!

He also tried to get petrol. It's being rationed now, but he was unlucky as all the petrol stations closed early for a change.

So it looks like life here may get quite difficult in the coming days / weeks, but I've managed the "hard life" before and will do it again.

 

Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, Evacuations and Food Shortages

Sunday 13^th March 2011

The title of this blog post clarifies the main worries and topics of conversation today.

I finally had a fairly decent night's sleep and, in an effort to keep some normality in Rhiannon's life, Tim took her to a Titanic Exhibition here – strange choice of distraction, but it's one of her fascinations. I stayed at home as due to a knee injury I received last week, I'm finding it hard to get around and am in constant pain. Mind you, this pales into microscopic insignificance when viewing the devastation further north in this country.

We're still getting lots of aftershocks here in Tokyo, and now we're told to expect another huge earthquake at some point. Apparently there is a 70% chance of a quake of magnitude 7 or higher occurring in the next 3 days. That's not a comforting thought at all. Is it?

The member of our family most affected and traumatised by Friday's earthquake is our dog, Kita. At every unusual sound, she panics in her gentle way. With every tremor she tries to get outside. She also doesn't leave my side at all. When her "pack" is all around, she's calmer, but if even one is missing, she is very anxious indeed. And of course, unlike a human, we can't explain what's happening. Rhiannon is also fairly stressed by it all, but as she's had regular earthquake drills at school, she knows the deal. But it's affecting her sleep – in that she doesn't sleep.

So, onto the topics of the day.

The crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant is causing a huge amount of concern all around. Most of my morning was spent in a long phone call with my brother who is pressing me to leave the country RIGHT NOW, or to send Rhiannon back to the UK so he can look after her. Being a scientist and a bit of an expert in nuclear stuff, he bombarded me with worse case scenarios.

He's not the only person with this point of view and I was very surprised to discover many of my friends are actually leaving Tokyo today. They're heading for various places either further south in Japan or to nearby countries such as Singapore. Some of these evacuations are personal decisions but some are forced on them by their employers or allegedly on advice from their embassies. I have no confirmation on the latter – my friends understandably have more important issues to deal with than to answer my questions on Facebook. Interestingly, the majority of people carrying on as normal are the Brits – it seems the Blitz Spirit is still alive and kicking in our generation.

The main problem with the Fukushima issue is there is so much conflicting information. It's impossible to separate media hysteria from fact. And anything to do with 'nuclear' produces a lot of opposing views which end up getting biased during the reporting process. I've done a lot of research and reading today and am none the wiser really. I guess I am going to take life one day (or hour) at a time, take on board advice and see how things evolve over the next couple of days before making any rash and complicated decisions.

In light of this potential catastrophe-in-the-making, the people of Tokyo have started panic-buying groceries and other supplies. Supermarkets have been emptied of stock and don't expect deliveries any time soon. I have not stocked up at all, so life may get interesting soon! Because of our impending move, I've been trying to "eat down" our cupboards and freezer stock. I popped over to the local conbeni earlier to get milk. Conbenis are local convenience shops that hold basic supplies, are constantly fully stocked and are open 24/7/365. But the shelves were completely empty! Well, empty of anything useful – there was plenty of sake and sweets, but no milk, bread or actual food.

Oh and another thing – Rhiannon's school is closed tomorrow, so I will have her to take care of too. They cite the reason for closure as power cuts are forecast which will make commuting and communication unpredictable. Some older children were stranded at the school on Friday as it took their parent 11 hours to drive through the horrendous traffic to reach them! In this case, perhaps it's good to keep the school closed for the time being… even if it will drive us parents insane!

I am beginning to get a bit stir-crazy as I've been housebound for a week after injuring myself. I'd really like to go out somewhere nice tomorrow, but I don't feel I can leave Kita on her own right now. Also, Rhiannon still isn't very well so I may have to make a trip to the doctors anyway, if at all possible. Many places are closed – I don't yet know if the clinic is open. I shall also have to try and find some food.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Life is so unpredictable and changeable right now that there is little point in making plans. Updates and information are changing minute by minute so it's hard to keep track of developments. We may not even make it through the night if another major earthquake strikes…

And on that cheerful note, I'll sign off now and hopefully "see" you tomorrow!

The Day After The Earthquake

Saturday 12th March 2011

I finally dragged myself off the computer at 3am after spending the entire time Tweeting, Facebooking, emailing and answering the Skype phone. Oh, and writing the previous post too.

Fully clothed, I crawled under the duvet on the sofa and put the BBC News on to see what was happening. My traumatised dog and laid-back cat both fought for prime position on me; not comfortable. I dozed fitfully but eventually fell into a very deep sleep that was rudely interrupted when Tim and Rhiannon arrived home at 7am.

The roads had finally cleared enough for them to travel home. In fact, the roads were empty. I think everyone stayed at home to clear up the mess that surely must have occurred in homes with belongings.

We spent the day doing very little really. Countless aftershocks occurred - and are still going on. They are starting to make me feel queasy as most of them are like moments of dizziness. Others, however are sudden and startling jolts.

A trip to Shibuya was very strange. Normally on a Saturday you have to fight your way through the crowds but today it was almost empty. Also, many shops were closed. This is most unusual - shops stay open all the time, even during the many public holidays.

Public transport is still not working to full capacity.

Tales from friends abound: quite a few older children were stranded at school - those able to stay with friends were very lucky. For some however, the parents' journey took 11 hours, so bad were the roads.

Others tell of supermarkets being stripped bare of food. I'm not entirely clear on why this is happening. It may have something to do with the ever increasing panic due to the nuclear plant at Fukushima exploding.

Another called me to ask if we were thinking of evacuating from Japan entirely! No - we're leaving on 11th April anyway.

I am so tired that I'm not functioning fully. I'm sure there is more I should add to this post but I can't think of anything right now. After the massive adrenaline surge of yesterday, with injections of extra supplies after every large aftershock, my body and brain has gone into a rather blank mode.

So I'll sign this post off now. I'm sure there will be more drama to come tomorrow.

 

 

 

Japan’s Big Earthquake 11/3/11

Friday 11^th March 2011

I'm sure today's date will become of historical importance in due course. As will the time 14:46. This is when Japan was struck by its biggest earthquake ever. Although its epicentre was some 230 miles north east of Tokyo, we were very much affected by it. 13/3/11 ETA The magnitude has been officially upgraded to Richter 9.

We were all at home. Rhiannon was off sick from school and Tim returned from work early to give me a break from looking after her.

At 2.40pm I was sat at my computer in the dining room while Tim and Rhiannon sat in the living room looking at something on the iTouch. I was Tweeting (http://twitter.com/Talloracle) and all was calm.

Our neighbours (and landlords) had visitors and were in their garden adjoining ours. Our dog was barking and growling at them. She considers all areas around our home to be her territory, so the barking was normal. But she never growls, so I got her to come inside. Perhaps she knew what was about to happen. She has done this only once before – when she was a pup, she barked and woke us up at 5am one morning and a few seconds later we had an earthquake.

By 2.46pm my computer screen started wobbling and the windows next to me rattled gently in their frames. This is not an unusual occurrence. We have many, many earthquakes here and there was a significant one yesterday. That one caused little disturbance here in Tokyo and many of my friends didn't even feel it. I did, but it was nothing like todays.

Today's earthquake was massively different as I'm sure you are aware from all the global news reports.

We all carried on with what we were doing to start with – it started fairly moderately; I mentioned to the others that we were having an earthquake as sometimes you can feel them in one room and not another. Also, I should mention that all our belongings were packed and shipped last week ready for our move, so we have no ornaments to clatter, pictures to sway or wind chimes to tinkle a warning.

But then the shaking got stronger and stronger and just did not stop. Normally the tremors stop after half a minute or so.

Rhiannon came around to me and said "should we get under the table now?"

A moment's beat – the water in the fish tank was getting very choppy…

"Yes, let's get under the table" – more to keep Rhiannon calm than anything else really at that point.

Tim came into the dining room as Rhiannon and I were joined by a rather scared dog under the table. There wasn't room for all of us.

The shaking increased in violence. My computer began to move across the desk. Tim grabbed hold of it at the same time as water sloshed right out of the fish tank and onto the floor. Oh my god! Then a drawer flew out of the sideboard and something crashed over in the kitchen.

Rhiannon started screaming. I was screaming in my head.

I couldn't believe the shaking was intensifying significantly and that it was still going on. I found out later this event lasted for about four minutes – that's one hell of a long time for an earthquake. It seemed a lot longer than that.

Time to get out of the house. The nearest exit was out of the French windows into our tiny garden. Tim couldn't open the door; he was panicking in a quiet way and turning the handle the wrong way. Once outside, the shaking was so severe we couldn't actually walk and had to crouch on the ground. Our neighbours were also on the ground.

We sat on the ground in the garden, hugging each other and looking anxiously at the house. One of the people in the garden next door came and said something in an urgent tone to us, "Do not go back inside, there will be another one!" Our landlord, an incredibly kindly gentleman, gave us soothing gestures.

I shot inside (yes, I know!) but I had to get the dog's lead. Rhiannon was in her dressing gown – remember, she's unwell. We went out the side entrance to the front of our house. Many people down the road were also out of their buildings and crouching on the ground. People were crying.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the vicious shaking stopped. We gave it a few more minutes, then went back inside, leaving the doors open. You have to leave doors open as earthquakes can jam them closed. One of our spare rooms has a door that has jammed from a past tremor.

Tim took Rhiannon upstairs to get dressed. I came back onto the computer to see what the magnitude was and update Twitter. I was horrified by the preliminary magnitude, which, if memory serves (it's been a crazy day) was about 7.something. Then – OMG! We had ANOTHER one shortly after. Rhiannon hurtled down the stairs with her cuddly toys and a toothbrush in her mouth. Tim grabbed his cigarettes… priorities!

We spent the next 45 minutes or so repeating the above. Me coming in to update people on Facebook and Twitter, Tim to try and get Rhiannon into some clothes other than her PJs and Rhiannon doing every possible displacement activity she could think of. Then getting interrupted by another quake. I can't call them aftershocks as that implies something smaller, but all of these were big. The dog stuck close to me at all times, bless her.

At one point, a yell from Tim and Rhiannon upstairs: "Oh my GOD! Come and look at the bedroom!"

All the drawers had flown out of the chests and they'd toppled over. Then Rhiannon went into her room – her empty bookcase had fallen over. Thank goodness all our belongings have gone, the carnage would be terrible. The bathroom stuff was all over the place, but thankfully unbroken.

Next Rhiannon went into the spare room. "Mum, Dad! TV! Glass! All over the floor!!" Sure enough, the not-quite-so-little TV had toppled off the cabinet and appears smashed on the floor. We haven't investigated yet as another large quake sent us running outside again. But not before I'd managed a few photos.

After a while, things calmed down a little. Tim spent a lot of time trying to phone work. But all the phone lines, both land and mobile, get automatically cut in the event of a big earthquake. So he had to make the decision to go back in to check all was well. This was at about 5pm. Rhiannon wanted to go with him. I figured this was a good idea as she was panicking quite a lot at home and being occupied elsewhere would do her good. I stayed at home to look after the dog who was considerably disturbed by all the comings and goings of the afternoon.

We tuned into the news just in time to see the devastating tsunami sweep across Sendai. Absolutely horrifying.

What does an earthquake feel like? It's hard to describe really. Each one has a different movement. Most of today's tremors have been akin to a boat rolling on a rough sea, rather than a vigorous side to side motion. Even after the ground has stopped shaking, you feel like you're still moving. Especially with the aftershocks – of which there have been too many to count. Aftershocks of 6.7 are not what I'd particularly call an aftershock, but a serious earthquake in its own right. Adrenaline surges and time stands still. Anxiously you await falling buildings.

Tim and Rhiannon headed off in the car for what should have been a 15 minute drive. After an hour, they called me on the Skype phone – stuck in a major traffic jam and nowhere near work. It was gridlocked out there.

I took the dog out for a walk. The scenes on the streets were incredible. Cars filled every available gap in the roads – no rude honking of horns, of course. This is Japan, that's just not done. And because all the public transport was stopped, thousands of people were walking home. Some of them will have hours of walking to do in order to get back to their families. Conbenis were full of people getting supplies of hot food and the queues were coming out the doors.

As I'd had all my doors open all day I was absolutely frozen, but didn't want to close them as the aftershocks continued almost non-stop. I had some food and a good old cuppa tea and phoned Mum before she switched the news on. Most of my friends and family are online, but a few aren't, so as soon as people hear the news they called me. It was a busy evening, updating concerned friends and family, and trying to reassure friends about various missing people. I was also desperately looking for my cat. He'd popped in after the big tremor, so I knew he was OK, but with the open doors, I thought he'd probably gone out again. I kept going out and calling for him to no avail. After several hours, I noticed a dark, fluffy tail poking out from a chair. He'd been tucked up under the table all the time!

Finally I heard from Tim at about 9.30 – that's 4 ½ hours to travel a 15 minute journey ; he'd finally made it to work and fixed the emergency phone system and other problems. Rhiannon had been offered a bed and a dose of Calpol by a colleague. There's no way they'll make it home tonight.

I've literally just heard from him again (2am here), the landlines are back up. Rhiannon is still awake and having a party! Tim's going to sleep on the floor of that house.

And there's no way I will be sleeping tonight. But I'm about to curl up on the sofa under a duvet and see what happens. After such a traumatic day, I can't quite believe that I'm not with my family. I just hope that nothing else happens tonight.

My thoughts are with all those in the north of the country whose Friday turned into such a terrible catastrophe.

Kyoto - The Golden Pavilion & Ryoanji Zen Garden

27^th December 2008

Quaint streets meander around the city, with countless small shops, restaurants, wooden buildings and geisha headquarters lining them. Kyoto is a cultural and architectural paradise which is small enough to walk around while admiring the scenery.

As well as all this, Kyoto is home to many geisha and maiko and is where the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" was set. Actually, to be accurate, geisha in Kyoto are called geiko. It's not unusual to see maiko in ornate and colourful kimonos walking around and posing for tourist photographs.

Perhaps the most renowned of all the Kyoto landmarks is Kinkaku-ji, the 'Temple of the Golden Pavilion'. The three-storey Golden Pavilion is found in the middle of a large temple complex and is more stunning than the pictures imply. Artistically positioned on a mirror-like lake, the reflections are all part of the design. Rebuilt numerous times, the latest incarnation was completed in 1955 and in 1987 it was re-coated in pure gold leaf.

On a sunny day, this must be absolutely dazzling.

And the surrounding grounds were interesting too. Here's a little shrine where you have to try and throw money into the little bowl. Many, many coins were used up in this little game! None of them reached the bowl...

After this, we went on to the only place everyone else wasn't keen on – Ryoan-ji, where the famous Zen rock garden is found. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm with rocks (can't say I blame them, to be honest!) but I was determined to see them. Unfortunately the temple that houses these rocks was some considerable walk away so everyone moaned at me. I pushed on. Tim and Rhiannon went "on strike" and refused to come in any further than the outlying temple grounds. Mum and I went to see the big stones.

You have to remove your shoes before entering this sacred part of the temple.

Fifteen rocks are strategically placed in a sea of gravel as a symbolic representation of nature and is a place for meditation. However, it was so crowded that peace and tranquillity were hard to find.

Was it worth it? Ummm, not really worth the long walk to be honest, but I am pleased I've seen them. Visit if you have plenty of time. Or if you are a rock and Zen freak like me!

Oh look! A gorgeous big stone!!

Kyoto Sightseeing – Kyomizu-Dera

27^th December 2008

Until 1868 Kyoto was the capital of Japan. This former imperial city is home to numerous palaces as well as thousands of temples and shrines and has a very different look and atmosphere to Tokyo. It's a lot smaller and, because it wasn't bombed to oblivion during World War 2, many of the original buildings still exist in all their glorious magnificence.

Armed with a proper guide now – with opening times - we set out early to visit the first of our "must do" places – Kyomizu-dera. Rather than walk, we took a cab which turned out to be a splendid idea as this temple is located at the top of a very steep hill.This is the dramatic entrance to the temple complex.

Kyomizu-dera is a spectacular wooden temple built on a mountain and home to a sacred waterfall. Kyomizu-dera means 'Clear Water Temple'. This amazing construction has a massive wooden platform jutting out over a sheer cliff-face. No nails were used in this building; something I was pleased to learn after visiting.

Beneath this overhanging platform, the sacred waterfall drops three streams into a pond. People come prepared with little cups to take a drink of this water for its therapeutic properties.

Rhiannon bought a nice keepsake cup from a stall, popped it into the long-handled ladle and took her drink, following the instructions here:

Part of the temple is set aside for worshiping various 'love deities' and there we found a pair of rocks placed several metres apart. These are the "Love Stones" and a charmingly translated sign tells people how to make their wish:
"This stone is called 'Love-fortune-telling' stone. If you walk safely from this stone to the other with your eyes closed. for once, your wish'll be granted soon. If you can't, it will be long before your love is realized. And it is said taking advice requires you to have someone who'll help you achieve your love."
As this particular area was so busy, it's highly likely that you will bump into someone en-route from one stone to the other. I suppose this means that your quest for love will encounter obstacles.

Another feature of Kyomizu-dera is its famous New Year kanji – each year the abbot (?) paints a large kanji to denote the feelings of the year just past. All this in one elegantly drawn character. This year it was "change". Rather apt, I thought.

Details from this site:

The kanji character 変 (hen) which means "change" was selected as the single best kanji to characterize the year 2008.

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation announced the results of a poll in an annual event held at Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto on December 12.

"Hen" was chosen to symbolize the changes of power in Japan from 2007 to 2008, with current Prime Minister Taro Aso taking over from his predecessor, Yasuo Fukuda, who vacated the post in September after serving for only one year.  Shinzo Abe, who preceded Fukuda, also resigned after serving just one year as Prime Minister.

Likewise, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama made change a part of his presidential campaign, and the recent global financial crisis has changed the economic landscape around the world.

We all thoroughly enjoyed visiting this temple.

In the surrounding area are attractive streets lined with extremely ancient buildings which we noticed on the way to our next destination.

 

What to See in Kyoto

Friday 26^th December – Sunday 28^th December 2008

I can't believe it's taken us so long to get around to visiting this ancient city. With Mum here for her third Christmas in Japan we feel we really ought to do something different. So, we've got a hotel in Kyoto and a trip on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to look forward to.

Tim visited Kyoto earlier in the year for the G8 Summit and managed to see a little of the city. Mum is really excited about the trip as am I. The Shinkansen wasn't as beautiful or as comfortable as one would expect; the front looked more like a duck than a bullet or plane and the seats were very hard. But it was fast and we arrived in Kyoto at lunchtime.

The signs on the seat backs made me smile. (Click on the picture to be able to read the information!)

We can't spend as long as I'd like in Kyoto as it's very expensive. Since the Lehman Brothers' crash the yen has strengthened to an incredible high. When we first arrived in Japan one UK pound would buy us about 245 yen. Now it's nearer 125 yen. We get paid in sterling and have to exchange it, so in effect we are trying to survive in one of the most expensive countries in the world on half our pay. This means we will try to fit in as much of the "must sees" as possible in a short time.

Luckily, Kyoto is small compared to Tokyo and everything seems to be within walking distance. Except we have Mum, who is feeling her age a little, and Rhiannon who doesn't 'do' walking. Also it is extremely cold here. Much colder than Tokyo, and we passed snow covered fields on the way.

Our / my list of "must sees" are as follows:

• Nijo-jo Castle – famous for its "Nightingale" floor that "chirps" when you walk on it to warn of possible intruders.

• Gion: Antique Row – potential shopping.

• Kiyomizu Dera - Tim visited this when he was here for the Summit and recommended it.

• Ginkaku-ji (The Silver Pavilion) – "Restraint, elegance, wabi sabi. Ginkaku-ji is perhaps the pinnacle of Japanese artistic expression. Best known for its stone gardens (built to reflect the moon) and simple buildings"

• Kinkakuji Temple (The Gold Pavilion) – possibly the most well-known and most-photographed temple in the country.

• Ryoanji Temple - the most famous Zen rock garden in Japan.

• Kyoto Handicraft Centre – more shopping!

We will have our work cut out for us to visit all these.

As usual, I forgot to bring the visitors guide, so we have to rely on a tourist map from the hotel to work out our itinerary. Almost immediately we cross off the Silver Pavilion as it's on the opposite side of town to everything else.

So we head off, walking, to the Nijo-jo Castle. It was quite a distance, but an interesting, flat and easy walk.

It was closed! Damn me for forgetting the guidebook - it would have told us that it closes over Christmas and New Year.

We went for dinner instead, then wandered around the fascinating streets near our hotel for a while. Most of the shops there sold specialist local sweets and food.

Christmas Lights in Roppongi

21^st December 2008

I'm not bothering to write as many posts now as much will be a repeat of previous entries. Time's running out for me to get up to date with this blog before we leave Japan so I'm just going to concentrate on the different things and unusual occurrences. And I'll post at least two new entries a day, so please keep checking back!

Mum's arrived for her Christmas holiday; Rhiannon's been doing her Aikido, violin, going to sleepovers, parties and so on. I've been writing and shopping. Tim's been working both here and overseas. Same old, same old!

We went to see the spectacular Christmas lights at Tokyo Midtown, an upmarket shopping complex in Roppongi. Christmas lights in Japan are invariably a brilliant blue. And this year there was in incredible installation covering an area about the size of a tennis court or maybe bigger, it was hard to tell. They were animated, showing constellations and the occasional shooting star.

Other lights are below – my apologies for the shoddy photos, my camera just isn't up to the job of shooting at night (an excuse to buy yet another, maybe?!)

And the Rainbow Bridge is clothed in its Christmas / New Year garb and actually looks like a rainbow now!

Won’t Get Fooled Again

Wednesday 19^th November 2008

I have the opportunity to see a legendary band who happen to be one of my all time favourites. I'm so excited!

The Who are playing at the Budokan tonight, the second of two concerts here. Tickets for the first one were sold out within minutes, but we managed to get into this one.

And I really hope that Roger Daltrey's voice is up to repeating the famous scream in my favourite of their tracks – the title of this post.

They were completely brilliant! What an incredible performance AND they played all my favourites. Zak Starkey on the drums was extremely proficient.

I was buzzing for hours afterwards.

Daltrey's voice was very croaky when he spoke after their concert last night, but was completely fine when singing. But I really didn't think that he'd be able to pull off that scream. So I was very surprised when the genius Pete Townshend played the opening chords to "Won't Get Fooled Again". During the lead up to "that moment", Daltrey stayed at the back of the stage sipping a drink while the audience held its collective breath.

Was this going to be a poor imitation of the famous voice? Was it going to ruin a lot of dreams?

Oh no it did not! He did it. It was FABULOUS!

A goosebump moment that will live with me forever.

By Royal Command

Monday 27^th October 2008

We've been invited to a reception at the British Embassy.

Actually, we have been informed we must attend.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall are coming for a visit. There is a huge amount of excitement amongst the Japanese members of staff. They adore royalty and cannot believe they may actually meet them. The Emperor and Empress of Japan never, ever meet their people but just wave a couple of times a year from behind glass.

We are drilled on how to greet them – to Charles, "Your Royal Highness" first and then "Sir" thereafter, and to Camilla "Your Royal Highness", then "Ma'am". We can curtsey or bow if we wish...

We arrive on time, to a mass of extremely enthusiastic people – many of whom, in a different environment would probably claim to be republican, but are clearly not. We're given a quick briefing and a limited amount of alcohol. Well, it wouldn't do to be pissed when they arrive, would it?! And then we wait. And wait. Their plane is late arriving.

Suddenly there's a buzz and we are all herded into a large room and curtained off from the reception hallway. There are about 200 of us in all. And we wait some more.

And then the curtains are opened and the Ambassador ushers Charles and Camilla in. Charles takes one side of the semi-circle of people while Camilla starts at the other end. All the Japanese people bowed extremely low and long, and some of the ladies tried a curtsey. I was most impressed by our Ambassador – he knew everyone's names, not just his staff, but their spouse's too. We were all introduced individually.

Tim had a long chat with HRH about his (Tim's) work and then Charles turned to me. I completely forgot the official greeting and, to the rolled eyes of the Ambassador, said a cheery "Hi!" to The Prince of Wales and shook his proffered hand. His handshake is firm and confident. He asked what I did, and I replied "I look after him" nodding at Tim. He laughed and said I had a very important job, that he liked my hair and then spent a good few minutes talking to me in a very natural, pertinent and self-possessed manner. I liked him immensely.

Camilla was wearing a powder-blue outfit which suited her very well. She's far more attractive in real life than in photographs, but she was obviously exhausted and basically rolled out the same phrase to everyone she met.

Unfortunately, the official photographer didn't turn up for some reason, so there is only a snapshot of the occasion.

Holding a Child’s Birthday Party at Home

Sunday 12^th October 2008

Tips for holding a child's birthday party at your home? DON'T DO IT!

After Rhiannon's successful and huge party last year, we've downscaled dramatically for her 7^th birthday. We've decided to only have a handful of girls here at home, with old-fashioned party games and food.

Never again! There were tears, tantrums, arguments, bitchiness and it was all horrible, loud and stressful.

Little girls are unbelievably mean. Rhiannon has been getting a bit of aggro at school due to her cute haircut, of all things. Actually, it's not just the little girls that are mean – I've actually had a couple of mothers complain to me about Rhiannon's neat bob. Why? Because their daughters now want their hair cut in the same style and the mothers don't want to chop their darling's tresses. How ridiculous.

Mind you – check out the expression on Rhiannon's face in this photo – there's some serious attitude surfacing already, it's not funny!

Anyway, I made a mermaid birthday cake and chopped Barbie's hair into a bob just like Rhiannon's! It was a big hit, although the photo perspective makes the mermaid's bum look a bit big.

I was very glad when it was over. Goodness only knows what we will do for next year's party because I am never, ever holding one at home again – unless I can move her birthday to the summer and have a pool party or have a house with a massive garden so they can go outside and run riot. Neither of these is likely to happen though.

Tokyo Insects and other Wildlife

October 2008

Another photo-prompted post.

This is the time of year for some great insect sightings.

Look at this magnificent praying mantis. I presume it's a female due to her distended abdomen.

She watched me as I zoomed in for her close-up, her neck swivelling in a slightly unnerving fashion.

This is the Japanese Hornet - Vespa Mandarinia Japonica – it's about 5 - 6cm long. I had one in the house but my photo didn't come out well. I've included it anyway so you can get an idea of the sheer size of the thing.

And a turtle sunning itself by a lake in Shinjuku Gyoen.

And OK, this is certainly not a wild animal, but a photo of my cat, Raymi being uncharacteristically affectionate and cute. He only wants cuddles when it's raining outside, which isn't often here!

Sacked by Email

Monday 6^th October 2008

After Naz went back home I worked extremely hard all weekend so I could upload all the articles by the usual deadline. Cutting it quite tight this month, but the time difference allows for this as I can work all day long before the UK even wakes up.

But I logged on ready to go to find a snippy email from the boss complaining I hadn't done the work in time! She'd decided to move the deadline forward but hadn't bothered to tell me – nice. I've had my suspicions for some time that she was looking for a way of getting rid of me so she could employ someone cheaper.

Now's she's made up a reason and I'm out of a job.

Of course, as a freelancer I should be prepared for this kind of crap and it serves me right for thinking of her as a friend. Lesson learned.

I've still got my writing work to do for her, but I've lost three-quarters of my wages now. I'm hurt, cross and annoyed that I still have to continue working for her as I have no prospect of getting any other work elsewhere thanks to the lack of acknowledgement for my articles as I'm not allowed to use a by-line.

Apart from this, I am quite relieved in a way, as I mentioned before, I was no longer enjoying the work. But I really need the money.

Bah!

From Sashimi to Jimmy Choo

Tuesday 23^rd September – Friday 3^rd October 2008

My fabulous friend, Naz, arrives for a holiday. We met many moons ago when we both worked at the BBC, hit it off straightaway as we both have the same work ethic and outlook on life, and have thankfully stayed friends ever since. She is bubbly, confident, attractive and completely bonkers with a heart of gold! It's brilliant to finally have a visitor I love coming to stay.

We do the usual trips: Mount Takao, Hakone for the black eggs, Yoyogi park and Shinjuku Gyoen where we fed the turtles and giant koi in the lakes.

I also introduced Naz to the coffee morning girls and Yoko joins us for a walk around Omotesando.

Yoko reserved us a seat at a rather special sushi restaurant, a 'proper' one – not a tourist one. You can tell it's a good restaurant because they don't have the disposable cheap pale wood chopsticks that you have to snap apart before using. The chopsticks were smart, made from mid-coloured smooth wood and when we had finished our meal, they were cleaned and handed to us as a gift.

It never fails to amaze me how much food Naz can put away yet still remain willowy slim. Yoko and Naz order a set dish of sushi with rice, but I can't eat 12 pieces of sushi as well as a huge bowl of rice so I chose a small set menu of sashimi with rice. We sit at the counter in front of the display cabinet. Right in from of me is an enormous sea snail thing, still alive, on its 'back' – not sliding around the cabinet. I'm not squeamish, but certainly didn't want to eat it! The fish was the most delicious, melt-in-the-mouth sashimi I have ever had – before or since. (The restaurant is no longer there, sadly.)

There was an intriguing slab of a very dark meat that I thought may be horse. So Yoko (being the only Japanese speaker) asked what it was. The chef looked rather anxious for a moment before replying, "Whale".

Oh!

From the chef's expression I presumed he was expecting uproar from the two gaijins in his restaurant. Now, I do not condone the killing of whales, but I am certainly not about to kick up a fuss about another culture's cuisine – there are far more animal-killing problems in the world. The sickening dolphin slaughter here for one, the killing and torturing of numerous endangered species for so-called medical purposes, and many, many more. Check out Whales, Whaling, Dolphin Hunts and Japan for more information on the industry here.

Anyway, I ordered a few slices of whale. I didn't kill the animal, it was already done. And I wanted to try it because I'm like that – a bit of bravado. I've eaten all kinds of weird things – guinea pig in Peru, llama in Bolivia, bug stew in Venezuela, and besides, many people think eating raw fish is disgusting… And yes, I would have eaten it if it was horse, too.

It wasn't nice, to be honest. Partly knowing I was eating whale and partly because the texture was rather heavy I found it quite unpleasant. It was very rich and afterwards I felt a little queasy.

But a new experience as often as possible is my motto.

After our interesting lunch we wandered down Omotesando looking in the shops. While I'm a handbag and jewellery addict, Naz is a shoe addict. And Jimmy Choo's shop was right there. It's quite daunting to enter designer shops in the UK - not sure why, but it is. Over here, it's absolutely fine. So Yoko and I forced Naz inside. I drooled over shoes I could never possess - they're too small and narrow for a start, and I can't wear heels.

But we 'forced' Naz to buy a pair! Well, we persuaded her to hand over her credit card after she found the most delicious pair of super-sexy shoes with vertiginous heels, in her size and actually cheaper than she would find in the UK.

What a souvenir!

Freelance Working & Trying to Have a Life

September 2008

As I've mentioned here and here, I have a LOT of work on. As everything is deadline related, I have to intensify my workload significantly in order to have a life away from the computer. This is especially important when I go on holiday or have visitors.

There is a now a new web system in place, replacing the clunky old software but it's more time consuming and for some reason, I'm finding it really hard to get to grips with how to make it work in an efficient manner. The deadline for uploading all the pieces is around 6^th monthly – most of them arrive on 4^th or 5^th and then need to be proofread, edited, formatted, photos sourced and approved by the boss and then everything uploaded onto the internet.

Not only that, but the articles I write have to be uploaded two months ahead, so my writing schedule is extremely strict. I had to write solidly before the holidays so that I can have some free time. For instance, before the summer holidays started in June I had to write all my articles up to Christmas. All this means that I normally work until 3am then I'm up for the school run at 7am. It's taking its toll. Work is no longer fun, but I need the money and occupation, so I continue. Remember, I get no recognition for my writing and very little thanks.

It's vital to stick to a timetable, but occasionally this goes out the window, for example, when Rhiannon's ill or something else comes up. However, it all works out in the end – by me working my butt off at ridiculous hours of the night. So although it's no longer fun, as such, I truly enjoy the challenge of getting it all done - I've always worked well under pressure.

Whinge over! I'm setting the scene for a post to come in a few days…

The Lehman Brothers' Collapse

Mid September 2008

The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the associated domino effect of banks around the world has been the talk of the school gates recently. Most of the expats here are from banking circles and their future is suddenly very uncertain.

Most of these workers get paid outrageous sums of money with mega-zero bonuses which are usually ostentatiously displayed on their wives' fingers or in their ears as huge diamonds. There are exceptions to this stereotype of course!

The downside to their over-high salaries is the fact that they could be asked to move at any time, with no notice, or in this case, lose their jobs entirely.

There's a lot of unrest. Expat bankers have been warned they will be the first to leave in the event as the government here will protect the Japanese workers – gaijin will go first.

It's at times like this that I thank my lucky stars I am no longer in the banking industry (I left in the mid-nineties), and that Tim's job is in the public sector and is unlikely to be cut – for now.

But it does look like many of my lovely friends will be leaving Tokyo soon and this makes me sad.

The first of my friends to go was my darling Deb, but I can't quite remember exactly when she left Tokyo as my diary system has disintegrated. She has three kids; a girl in Rhiannon's class and twin sons in kindergarten (not called nursery here!).  She only had a very short notice. I still miss her now.

Hamster Damned

End of August 2008

Now, I love all animals. All my life I've happily shared a home with everything from gerbils, chipmunks, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, birds of every flavour, all manner of amphibians and reptiles and hoards of creatures with too many legs like tarantulas, giant cockroaches and escaping millipedes. All very peaceful and happy times. Well, perhaps not peaceful, but that's another tale altogether!

Only one type of animal bites me with annoying regularity. Hamsters.

I've never owned one but have 'hamster-sat' for others, and I always, but always get bitten. Properly bitten, with blood and pain. Needless to say, I am not a hamster fan.

I was unsuccessful in my attempts to get a more interesting creature. Rats aren't in the shops here, neither are mice (probably not cute enough for the Japanese market). Gerbils are rare too. A rabbit is too big; we don't have a suitable garden and it couldn't be a house rabbit as we have the cat.

Whatever we get will have to be shut away in a spare room. Rhiannon thinks she wants it in her bedroom, but I know through experience that rodents are nocturnally noisy, so that won't work. We see Sugar Gliders in cages, but I have no idea how to keep these gorgeous creatures and think it's sad for them to be caged. Other options are chinchillas – see above for reasons not to. Ditto degus, guinea pigs and chipmunks.

Nobody listens to me and we end up with Crystal.

Rhiannon is very pleased with her first "very own" pet. I showed her how to handle and care for Crystal. See how it happens? Tim promises a pet, and then has absolutely no idea what to do with it so it's all down to me…

The bloody creature bit me. Hard. But I will grudgingly agree these photos make her look cute.

Seoul Survivor

Friday 29^th August 2008

Tim's only in work for the morning so I took Rhiannon swimming, then headed back into the tunnel nearest the hotel to buy her a souvenir costume doll. I wasn't going to venture far today after yesterday's panic. Then we came up for air and went to Starbucks where we were to meet Tim at lunchtime.

Rhiannon's tooth fell out. Oh the drama! It wasn't quite ready but she bit down on it while eating a bun and there was blood everywhere. Flimsy paper napkins were pulled out en masse to plug the hole and stem the bleeding. Once that was over she was pleased as punch.

Tim took us to another shopping area. Namdaemun market. It was full of crappy stuff really and I wasn't interested.

So then we went to another place which boasted numerous jewellery shops – much nicer for me, but sadly we're not there to purchase jewellery. I need a new suitcase and the other side of the street is lined with bag shops. We choose a big red, semi-hard sided case and then have to wheel it around for a while until we can get a cab back to the hotel.

In the evening we went out with a load of people. I've been feeling a bit queasy ever since the rocky flight over, made worse by a possibly out of date prawn at dinner last night. I managed to survive the evening by drinking a little too much alcohol. But back at the hotel I spent the night with my head down the toilet. Tim gleefully explained to Rhiannon that this was the effect of me drinking too much but it wasn't. Honestly!

Back home tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to the flight. But I am looking forward to school starting next week. Two months is a very long time for a school holiday.

But boy, have we managed to have some fabulous times this year!

Lost Seoul

28^th August 2008

Rhiannon and I are on our own in a confusing new city. If I was travelling solo, I would be so nervous about it, but with the distraction of having a child in tow I fear getting completely lost. So we don't venture very far at all as it's a complicated city to navigate. I have maps and suggestions on where to go.

Tim told us about the "tunnel shops" that radiate under the streets and are close to the hotel. So we head there first. All the shops were closed but the windows were full of interesting little knick-knacks and jade. Also, many ginseng shops displaying intriguing concoctions of the root – and often the whole roots too. It seems that Asian countries open their stores late and then remain open late into the evening. There's little point heading out to shop before 11am.

These tunnels opened out into a shopping mall which contained lots of closed shops – we had set out too early in the day, so to stop Rhiannon Shopaholic whinging we went for a drink in a little café to kill some time before exploring further.

Later we found a massive department store called Lotte DFS (Duty Free Shopping). Most of it is a normal store, but the DFS bit has, of course, cheaper prices. Having shopped in a DFS before in Hawaii I thought it would just be a case of showing my passport and tootling off with my goodies. Not here though. I bought a Swatch for Rhiannon and a bag and wallet from Chanel but to my immense disappointment was told I had to collect my items from the airport when we left the country! So we went a little crazy in the rest of the non-duty free part of the shop so we could at least go back to the hotel with some presents to ourselves.

(I duly collected everything from the airport but didn't get chance to look at the things until we got home. Most unimpressed. Rhiannon's watch didn't work, and I'm damn sure my wallet was not the one I had chosen but couldn't prove it. My bag had a slightly dodgy twisted chain too. We sent Rhiannon's watch back and got a replacement some months later, but I was unable to get satisfaction from Chanel – I didn't want to send such an expensive bag by mail so learned to live with it. A warning to others buying from Lotte DFS in Seoul – caveat emptor – you have no way of knowing what they've given you until you are well away from the country.)

Time to return to the hotel to meet Tim. So it's back into the tunnels again, but I went in the wrong entrance and got lost. Rhiannon panics like hell over this kind of thing so I had to pretend I knew where I was going. After many random turns I finally found a tunnel I recognised from the shops we'd seen in the morning. Everything looked different as they were all now open with displays on the path outside.

To my great relief we found the hotel again.

Seoul Searching

Wednesday 27^th August– Saturday 30^th August 2008

And now we're off to Seoul!

Tim has to go to South Korea on business every few months, and this time his trip has coincided with the summer holidays so we've decided to all go together.

Luckily the flight goes from Haneda airport which is much closer to home than Narita, so it's not a mega trip to the airport. The flight was awful! I've never been on a plane flying through so much turbulence as that (the return flight was the same too). It was not fun but rather scary. Tim said it's usually like that!

We arrived at the hotel just as an enormous crowd of people began gathering in the massive square outside our window. Unsure what this was all about, prudence kept us inside while Tim went to work. A closer look at the crowd revealed them all to be monks, robed in all colours.

I found out later that 200,000 Buddhist monks gathered in protest. "The monks denounce episodes of discrimination and violation of religious freedom on the part of state officials and leaders. They are calling for an official apology from the Korean president and equal treatment, denouncing "inhospitable" attitudes toward them."

 

As Tim was only expected to be in work for a couple of hours, I took Rhiannon swimming in the hotel pool until his return. Then we went out for dinner with some friends and later we went to a huge computer complex so I could buy a new laptop. It's easier and cheaper to buy electronics here as they are more English compatible. Japan keeps their electronics purely Japanese. And very expensive. To get something that will work overseas or at least with an English operating system, you have to go to Akihabara and pay double.

I searched for ages in this hangar-sized store. For once I didn't know quite what I wanted and kept getting distracted by fascinating new gadgets unavailable elsewhere.

South Korean currency is amusing – UK£1 is the equivalent to about 1800 won, so we have huge piles of notes to lug around with us. I can't recall how much the laptop cost, but I do remember the pile of money I had to pay for it with was nearly a foot high! The shop owners have automatic counting machines to speed the payment process.

And now I have a dinky shiny new HP laptop which is far more portable and warp-speeds faster than my brick of a 10 year old Dell. And now I don't have to borrow Tim's laptop any more.

Snow Monkeys – in Summer

Saturday 23^rd August 2008

It's time to head home to stifling Tokyo from our short break in the cool mountains.

Rather than set off back the way we came, I insist on travelling a different route because I really want to see the famous "Snow Monkeys" which apparently reside nearby (according to the tourist guides).

It turns out they aren't that nearby but some considerable distance away over a series of really high mountains. Tim took a bit of persuading to make the detour but as I said, "I visited a dam for you, please let me see the monkeys"! He knows how obsessed I am with wildlife so he agreed.

Thank goodness Tim enjoys driving, especially over mountains with hairpin bends on every corner. Higher and higher we went, until we were swathed in the clouds. But wait! They aren't "sky clouds", as we discovered when we opened the car windows. The stench of sulphur assaulted us immediately. These are not any old mountains, they are living volcanoes! We made it through unscathed and found the town which goes by the intriguing name of Jigokudani, meaning Hell Valley. It took us a while to find the Jigokudani Yaen-koen - Hell Valley Wild Monkey Park (what a rather off-putting name!).

Snow monkeys are Japanese Macaques which range wild throughout most of Japan. Road signs warn of their presence in much the same way we see cows on road signs in the UK and Australians have their kangaroo signs. Macaques are not friendly and have no fear of humans, often raiding homes and shops in rural areas. Having been chased by a troop of Long Tailed Macaques in Malaysia some years ago, I know they can be very scary en masse.

These seemed placid enough though – perhaps Japanese Zen has affected them.

Rhiannon is very nervous about being so close to so many monkeys, until she sees this little one. Kawaii!

And then these two.

The park is home to a series of hot springs. It used to be a village but everyone moved out once the monkeys learned to use the springs to warm up in the freezing mountain winters. Since then, the area has been home to just the monkeys. One was bathing, but as it's August, obviously the Snow Monkey name is a misnomer.

A sign at the entrance warns that although these monkeys are wild, they are used to humans but under no circumstances should you take any food or drink into the park. Of course, someone did (not us, I hasten to add) and was immediately set upon by a cheeky juvenile who stole the paper bag of food the visitor was carrying. The young monkey was then roundly scolded by an older monkey and the spoils of the raid confiscated by her. While she was attempting to open the cellophane packet the juvenile sneaked up behind her and snatched back the treasure. All hell broke loose at this impertinence and a keeper came out of a hut with a catapult! He fired a few pebbles into the fighting troop and they dispersed, leaving these to inspect the remains of the bag for any last titbit.

This visit well worth the extra long detour in my opinion. I'm so glad we made the effort.

Kurobe Dam and Butterfly Magic. Hakuba – part 2

Friday 22^nd August 2008

Lots of photos

 

Today Tim wishes to visit a dam.

Yes, you read that correctly, a dam. I can't believe it. We've travelled all this way, to stunning countryside, and he wants to see a monstrous concrete construction. But I humour him as he has done a lovely deed sorting out this short break.

It wasn't too bad. And the weather was gorgeous.

From Wikipedia: The Kurobe Dam or Kuroyon Dam, is a variable-radius arch dam on the Kurobe River in Toyama Prefecture on the island of Honshū, Japan. It supports the 335 MW Kurobe No. 4 Hydropower Plant and is owned by Kansai Electric Power Company. At 186 metres (610 ft) high, it is the tallest dam in Japan. It was constructed between 1956 and 1963 at a cost of 51.3 billion yen. The project was a difficult engineering feat for the rapidly growing post-World War II Japan, and claimed the lives of 171 people.

We walked across the dam and looked over the edge. It was a heck of a long way down! Apparently during the tourist season the officials let huge amounts of water rush out to provide a spectacle of sight and sound with rushing white water and the roar of its power filling the valley. We must have visited at the wrong time.

A small train took us through a dank tunnel to a station a little further up the mountain where we walked in woodland for a while admiring the view through the trees of deep emerald water.

We'd taken a picnic with us and were looking for somewhere to sit and eat it when we were suddenly surrounded by delicate and strikingly beautiful butterflies.

Almost immediately one landed on me. Not to be outdone, Rhiannon tempted them by putting some squash on her finger and within minutes one came to her too. Not only did it land on her, it stayed calmly on her hand for well over half an hour while we continued our walk through the dancing butterflies to a pretty clearing for our picnic. She was ecstatic – now she thinks she really is a Princess like all the Disney characters she idolises.

After our rest we said goodbye to the butterflies and continued on our way to a cable car (called a 'ropeway' here) which would take us to the top of the mountain.

Once again, the views were magnificent.

So all in all, what promised to be a dreary day, turned out to be rather magical.

Hakuba – part 1

Thursday 21^st August 2008

In the northern Japanese Alps lies a ski resort in the Nagano Prefecture called Hakuba. There are two seasons here – the white season and the green season. Skiing or no snow, basically. Its claim to fame is that it was the location for some of the 1998 Winter Olympics events.

It took us ages to get there – about 5 hours if memory serves. Japan has a strange road system when it gets to the mountains. Marvellous views abound and just as you see something particularly beautiful, the road turns into a tunnel right through the mountain so you can't see anything. Some of these tunnels are literally miles long. I'm sure the engineering is to be admired, but I would prefer to admire a view of nature.

Tim's booked us into a lovely hotel recommended by people more wealthy than us… he still complains about the cost now! But it was absolutely beautiful and wonderful to see a little bit more of Japan. There was a Jacuzzi bath outside on the balcony and an almost private onsen next to our room. I am not allowed into public onsen (natural hot volcanic spring baths) as I have tattoos which are banned here. But I took a look and nobody was in there so I was finally able to experience this very Japanese activity. My word it was HOT! But the sulphurous water was very soothing and made my skin extremely soft.

The restaurant was special and we were entertained by a minute little girl of no more than 2 years old who was running around with glee. At one point she was hurtling through a door when we appeared on the other side ready to take our table. Instantly she came to a halt, stood to one side and bowed deeply and very formally to us. She was enchanting and I still can't quite get over her graceful and natural manners. It's incredible how this can be instilled into one so young, yet there it was. Her parents were nowhere to be seen so there was no prompting from them. It was completely natural to her. I think it's a deeply ingrained respect for others that is sadly and severely lacking in the UK.

How often do we have to remind our children to say a simple "please" or "thank you" before it finally sinks in to become as natural as that? I wish I know how they do it!

Home to Tokyo

Tuesday 12^th August 2008

I now call Tokyo "home", not the UK. Whereas Tim still refers to going to the UK as "going home". Not sure whether this has any bearing on anything, just something I've noticed.

So now it's time for Rhiannon and I to get ourselves back home where Tim will meet us at the airport.

Ignoring the horror that is Heathrow airport, I made a quick trip to the Chanel store and bought a pair of shoes. There's no way I can find my size in Japan; my feet aren't huge at size 41-42 but over here that's a man's size – so I was thrilled to find a pair in Heathrow that fitted me. I paid and off we went. Unfortunately, I discovered later that I'd used the joint account card instead of my own so had a bit of a moment when Tim found out the price. Oops! He was actually very cool about it, thankfully!

The flight was pretty uneventful and, thanks to the Nintendo I got some peace and even managed to sleep for a few hours. However, I did panic a little when I woke up to find Rhiannon had disappeared. It turned out she was at the bar (I love Virgin Atlantic. Bars on planes, perfect!) chatting to the crew and random people as if she was princess of the air.

Landing at the slick, empty and hassle-free Narita airport we shot through in about 30 minutes; from plane to outside to meet Tim. In all the excitement of meeting up with Jane and Eve, we'd neglected to tell him about Rhiannon's radical haircut and he didn't recognise her, much to her delight!

Tim wasn't the only one to get a surprise. I got two.

Firstly, it seems that Tim has promised Rhiannon she can have a hamster. I don't like hamsters – I'll explain why later.

Secondly, something far more pleasing; Tim has booked us a couple of trips. Next week we will be visiting a place in the Japanese mountains called Hakuba and the week after that Rhiannon and I will join Tim on his regular business trip to Seoul, South Korea. How exciting!

But now it's time to recover from jetlag.

And see if I can stop the sneaky hamster promise from taking place.

Don't Drop the Hog!

Each and every day in Japan I see something that makes me do a double take.

I particularly love what I see on the roads here.

Here is a lorry full of big boxes - "Do Not Drop".

Inside the boxes are Harley Davidson motorcyles! "Your Hog Has Arrived!

Sogetsu Ikebana - First Certificate

May 2008

(Yes, out of chronological order again, sorry!)

How wonderful! I've passed my first certificate in Ikebana! I haven't had a certificate for anything since I was at school so I'm rather proud of myself. Well, it takes about 3 months to actually receive the certificate but I've finished Book 1 and Sensei has sent off for the paper.

There are twenty lessons in each exercise book; four books to complete before attaining a diploma and then, in theory, I am able to teach this elegant art. I really hope I will have time to complete this. The classes aren't every week and shut down completely throughout the summer so it will be a bit of a trial to find enough time. We'll see.

Books 1 and 2 cover the basics of creating arrangements using the plant materials and containers. Fixing the plants in a shallow basin called a suiban is moribana style and using a kenzan - needle holder. Securing branches and flowers in a tall vase (nageire) is a lot harder and sometimes very unladylike language comes out of my mouth when everything topples out.

Often I don't quite 'get' what I am supposed to do. I think this is a twofold problem; no direct translation from Japanese into English of a specific concept and my lack of a natural Japanese eye for style. But I really enjoy finally being able to arrange a few flowers in an attractive way at long last.

This photo is not one of my creations though, I can only dream of being as good as this.

 

Meeting Strangers from an Internet Forum…

Monday 4^th August – Friday 8^th August 2008

I've mentioned before that I'm a member of The Bad Mothers Club. (If you're interested to know what this site is all about, take a look at the discussions here).

Anyway, some local members want to meet me! How lovely of them.

I've got no internet connection. Well, I have, but it's old fashioned dial-up only in the house in Exeter. So, through lots of phone calls – usually with me stuck in the hedge at the bottom of the garden due to there being no mobile signal in the house – we've finally managed to get a small group meet organised.

A little nervously, Jane and I made our way to the meeting point in a café and wait for random strangers I've only "met" on the internet to make themselves known to us. I suppose my appearance helps people find me – red and black hair isn't that usual – or it wasn't then.

We met a truly lovely bunch of ladies and some of their children and went for lunch in a place I'd never been to before. After lunch we had a quick poke around some gorgeous vintage clothes shops and then made our way back to our various homes.

I really hope I can do this again some time. It was wonderful to put faces to names and meet the real people behind the forum nicknames.

This was also before Facebook took off, so we really were meeting "strangers". It was fabulous!

Miniature Pony Centre - Again

Monday 4^th August – Friday 8^th August 2008

Rhiannon wants to take Eve to the pony centre.

I hate the drive there - all narrow windy roads which, when I lived here presented no problems at all. But that was long ago and I've become more used to city driving now.

There are enough activities to keep the two girls busy and happy for the day although I worried about Jane's ability to walk up and down the hilly fields. Still, there's plenty of places for her to rest and it's a way of passing the time.

The house is way too small to stay inside and we can't afford to keep going into Exeter.

Luckily the weather was kind to us, and now it's summer holidays for the UK kids too, there are some extra activities laid on. Including face painting.

We ended up with two rather scary geishas!

A Car Park Mistake

Monday 4^th August – Friday 8^th August 2008

Although Exeter city centre is within just-about-walkable-distance from the house, it's a bit too far with children and with Jane still fairly weak I drove us all up there and parked in a car park at the edge of town.

Off we wandered, looking at the shops, getting coffee and a sit down, browsing the books and magazines before finally ending up at the other end of town outside Hawkins Bazaar. Rhiannon was on the verge of kicking off about getting get another toy when she'd already been spoiled enough. I was tired through lack of sleep when suddenly I remembered the stupid parking system in Britain.

Hells bells! It was a Pay and Display car park and I hadn't done either!! OMG (I had to get that in here somewhere.)

Car parks in Japan are all sensible. Either you take a ticket at the barrier on the way in and pay for the time you've spent in there on the way out. Or in other car parks a clever raised clamp thing pops up under your car so you can't leave until you've paid at the machine (each parking space is numbered, so you tap in your bay number, pay and the clamp lowers).

So I made Rhiannon come with me all the way back to the car park, hoping against hope that we hadn't been clamped of fined or towed away. Thankfully, none of these had happened. So I paid and displayed – eventually.

And Eve got her "fluffy ball".

Fluffy Ball and Pizza Lamp

Monday 4^th August – Friday 8^th August 2008

We took the kids to the local park to run off some energy. Yes, it was still raining – it is Devon, after all!

Jane still gets tired pretty quickly so we headed home after a while and ordered a Chinese to be delivered. The kids played happily upstairs while we caught up on life, the universe and everything.

Eve took a huge fancy to a toy of Rhiannon's - what she dubbed as "Fluffy Ball" – it's this from Hawkins Bazaar. So we promise a shopping trip and I said I'd buy her one of her own.

The rain stopped and we sent the kids outside to run around the quiet cul-de-sac. It wasn't quiet for long… Dusk was falling and the photo-sensitive ligts came on. For some unknown reason Eve dubbed these "Pizza Lamps" – not because of their shape but because she thought they smelled like pizza. They don't. But it became a theme of the week and kept two nutty girls in hysterical laughter for days. We still talk about it now. Funny what things children invent when the TV "doesn't work"… (tee hee!!)

At bedtime, things got 'interesting'. The house has just two small bedrooms, a single and a twin. Of course, the girls want to sleep together so they get the twin, Jane needs proper sleep so she gets Rhiannon's single room and I have a tiny mattress on the floor in the living room. It didn't actually work out like this at all. I've mentioned before that Rhiannon is a dreadful sleeper and, being super-overexcited, sleep was NOT going to happen. We played musical beds each and every night of the week and usually ended up with Jane and Eve in the twin and Rhiannon in her room – I stayed downstairs. Sometimes, if Jane was already in bed, Rhiannon would sleep on the floor with me.

Tired.

The Big Surprise!

Sunday 3^rd August 2008

Today's the day!

It started with rain and ended with joy.

Here's the story...

When Rhiannon was in nursery in Northants, she had a lovely best friend, Eve. Eve's mother, Jane and I became close friends too. We spent a lot of time together.

Rhiannon and Eve on Rhiannon's 4th birthday

Then Jane developed an aggressive form of breast cancer and her partner left her. Let's not even get into the second part of that dreadful sentence. Jane left the area and moved closer to her family near Coventry where I drove up to visit on a few occasions. We'd take the kid's to a soft play area attached to a pub where they ran riot while Jane bravely endured the rude stares at her scarf covered head and offloaded to me about her ex and her debilitating and lengthy chemotherapy.

Although she was still enduring treatment, she felt strong enough to catch the train down to Devon for a much-needed holiday. Because she still had off-days between treatments, she couldn't guarantee she would be able to keep her promise, which was fine. But was also the reason I hadn't told Rhiannon about the plan. Rhiannon is fully aware of Jane's condition, but I didn't want to raise her hopes for something as exciting as a visit and a whole week with her very best friend in case Jane wasn't strong enough to make the considerable trip.

As soon as I had a call saying that they were on the train I knew "it" was on.

So at the time the train was due, I dragged a grumpy child away from British TV and into the car to drive to the station.

"Why are we going here?"

"We're going to watch the trains"

"We're WHAT? No, that's boring and I don't want to. I want to go home" ad infinitum…

In the station where the train was just pulling in, I spotted Jane as soon as they appeared near the gates. Rhiannon stared at her with a puzzled expression – Jane had a full head of hair so probably wasn't recognisable considering the time scale since we'd seen her looking so well. Then she spotted Eve and still didn't quite believe it until Jane and I hugged.

Then Rhiannon squealed with utter joy and embraced her friend in a massive bear hug.

Awww!