Little Earthquakes

So apparently an earthquake of magnitude 4.2 hit the prefecture of Saitama (just north of Tokyo) on Wednesday around 10:30am, and it was felt in Tokyo, with some buildings shaking. It was not felt by Tyrone though. Oh no, he was sleeping. Just like when it snowed. This is becoming a pattern.

On Sunday night we had the work party at a local izakaya (so local in fact it's three floors below work). I had a great time, got lots of photos, but can't upload them yet as my internet is being stupid. So next time I post I will have lots of photos of yummy food, and general craziness courtesy of everybody from work. No karaoke or Kate Bush this time (alas), but I did try hot sake!

Since this entry has a Tori title, I'd better include something about Tori. So here it is: I present to you a picture of the American Doll Posse, the 5 characters from whose perspective Tori will be singing on her new album. From left to right: Santa, Clyde, Isabelle, Tori and Pip.

I love it, and I love the concept. The Tori character appears to be a caricature of herself (with the chicken, and the previously released picture I featured earlier), it would make me so happy to see that she's capable of making fun of herself. Damn the next 5 weeks are going to be hard to get through - I want the album now! Leaks are starting to appear on the net, but I'm going to be strong and resist till I have the album in my hands... probably.

Side note: I wonder if I'll be able to work the other album titles into my blog? I don't really mention Pele (the volcano) very often, so that'll be tough, unless I happen to make a trip to Hawaii.

Also, the album cover for Bjork's new album has been revealed... oddness. But I can't wait to hear it! I really hope she tours here.


On Monday I'm travelling outside of Tokyo for the first time since I got here! I'm catching the Nozomi shinkansen (the fastest of the bullet trains) from Tokyo at 7:13am to Osaka, and will spend three days in the Kansai area. For the rest of Monday I'll be exploring Osaka and hopefully catch up with Kevin, on Tuesday I'll go for a day trip to Kyoto and then on Wednesday I'll take a trip to Kobe (both Kyoto and Kobe are only about 30 mins from Osaka by train). I'm staying all three nights in Osaka, and on Thursday I catch the shinkansen (a slightly slower one) back to Tokyo, arriving in Tokyo just before 2pm and starting work at 4:05pm - haha will be a pretty tight schedule! But Japanese public transport (at least the trains) is so reliable, I don't think I'll have any troubles. But I'll be out of internet contact from Monday till late Thursday.

Finally, I wanted to say (in mint green writing)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLIE!!!

Listening to: sigur rós - untitled 8 - popplagið (the pop song)

It snowed today!!!

... but I was asleep when it happened... One of my students was awake at 7:30 this morning and said it was snowing, but only for around 10 minutes. CURSES!! I missed it!!

Anywho, since I'm creating a whole new post, I may as well tell you about the rest of my day. I joined a gym! So I went for the first time tonight - so confusing! You have to take your shoes off before going up to the change rooms, and finding the pool is like trying to find your way through a labyrinth. But I eventually found it (with a little help from the staff and a map on the wall - it's amazing, when you think everything is in Japanese you start not to notice English and things like maps).

Also had my first sento (a type of communal bathhouse) experience at the gym - they have showers for rinsing off after your workout, but they also have a large bath, along with a sauna and cold bath for after the sauna. So before you enter the bath you're supposed to wash using the soap and taps provided, along with the little stools provided. That way you're all clean when you enter the bath, and so the water stays clean. I really wasn't sure on how things were done, so I showered first, while watching (okay, not TOO closely haha) what other people were doing, then decided to give it a try. It's so relaxing after you've been working/-out, so I imagine I will make use of this facility even if I don't do a proper swim/workout. So then I tried the sauna, but only spent a couple of minutes in there (the clock was doing weird things - was the heat affecting me already?) before showering again and testing the other bath... which before that moment I hadn't known was cold. So I stepped into 18 degree water, and I'm fairly sure let out an audible gasp. Then just so I didn't look like a complete wimp I hopped all the way in, up to my neck, decided I'd been in there just enough time to look manly and hopped back into the warm pool.... much better.

So yeah, back to being active - I feel much better now. I joined the gym at the same place as my work - I was going to join one closer to home (which is only 10 mins from work haha, but still), but decided to go with the one at work, as if I move out of this place (which I would like to do sometime in the next two months) at least I won't have to travel any further to get to the gym. The only problem is, apparently quite a lot of the students from our school go to that gym... so there is a chance I will run into one of them whilst one of us is naked in the change rooms or shower... which would be awkward.

Listening to: Ariane Moffatt - Bien dans rien

tempura, Italian, onigiri and sweet potato. And one craptacular night.

Well it's been a week since my last post, so I'll fill you in on what's happened - I can't say it'll be as entertaining as last week, but I can't find Godzilla every week!

Last Wednesday I had my first Japanese lesson - I can now (theoretically) tell the time in Japanese (although it won't be much use, by the time I get it out you'll have to add another 15 minutes or so. Anyway, I enjoyed it, it was just a free community class taught by local housewives in Tsudanuma, so it was a good chance to interact with locals. After that I discovered an awesome second-hand music store (going to be bad for my wallet I can see!) where I bought my first Nine Inch Nails cd (who'da thunkit?). I then joined my workmate Steve(-o) for lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was so good, for 1100Y each we got a decent meal AND a decanter of wine each! Awesome.

Here is Stevo being a bad influence on Beaker

Things got nasty


Friday night was one of the most craptacular nights of my life. I finished work at 9pm, and decided to go clubbing in Shinjuku, as my friend Yu was out. So I arrived at Shinjuku around midnight, managed to find the club again, and found Yu. However, after an hour Yu said he was going home. This meant that I was now alone at the club, in the middle of Shinjuku with no way of getting home until the first trains around 5am. While I wasn't mad at Yu because I don't think he should have to babysit me, I was just annoyed in general at the situation. Dancing by yourself (well, surrounded by people but still alone) is only fun for a couple of songs, especially when the music is shite. So I decided to walk to the main part of Shinjuku to try to find an internet cafe to sleep at until the first train - the internet cafes here are 24 hr and you can get a private room, good for those pesky times you miss the last train home. So I walked the 15 mins or so to Shinjuku Station, very grateful I'd bought my ipod and headphones (which make very good earwarmers) and scarf, seeing very few internet cafes. When I finally found some they were all full. So I thought "I know! I'll sleep at McDonalds!" as I'd heard this was a common solution to my problem. So I found a McDonalds, bought some food so that it looked like I was actually interested in their product and not just their oh-so-comfy benches, and just as I was handed my food a sign was placed across the stairs to the upstairs eating area, which I correctly guessed meant it was closed for the next 2 hours... Doh!!

So at 2am I found myself walking the streets of Shinjuku with a delicious hot chocolate and not -so-delicious burger, wondering what the hell I was going to do for the next 3 hours. After a bit more walking around, I realised I really had to find somewhere warm, as no matter how suave scarves and jackets look, they really only do so much to protect against the cold. So I headed back to the club, deciding that despite the crappy music and smoky air, at least there I could feel my fingers. I found a comfy seat in the corner of the room, and spent the next 2 hours or so with my headphones on, getting strange stares from some guys and thinking "either ask me to dance or stop staring", and counting down the minutes till the first train. To top off my wonderful night/morning, once I was on my train I fell half asleep, and woke up just as the train was pulling out of my station - as I woke up I thought "hmm I wonder what station we're leaving", then saw the name of the next station - dammit! So I did a quick platform change at the next station, waited another 10 minutes for the next train and eventually got home at 6:20am, getting some sleep before starting work at 1:20pm.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the way I handled the situation - this was the first thing to happen that could've made me really miss Australia, but I didn't really feel that. I survived walking around the streets of Tokyo in the ridiculous hours of the morning by myself, without freaking out. I'm sooo happy I had my ipod though - I think without it the night would've seemed 3 times as long.


Today I got my first haircut in Japan - the thought of getting a haircut but not being able to tell the hairdresser what you want is kinda scary, so I was a little nervous haha. I went to a place suggested by Stevo, and luckily there was an Australian girl working there, so she was able to help me and so now I don't have the beginnings of an afro on my head! woot.

Tonight I met up with a new friend Yoshi in the city for dinner - I had my first tempura! It was very nice, and again quite cheap! Then we went back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building I visited on my sick day - got to see the lights of Tokyo from 45 floors above ground!

Bright lights - crappy picture. This is looking towards Shinjuku station.

excuse my Joker smile.

I've been meaning to get photos of the people I work with, and so far I've only remembered once. So here's a photo of Stevo and Cheryl at work.
Next Sunday we're having a party at an izikaya - kind of a going away party for one guy and a welcome party for me and the Assistant Trainer Steve (from NZ). So I promise to get photos then. I think I was so lucky as far as my home branch is concerned - everyone is so friendly and so much fun to work with.

I thought I'd show you some of the food I've been eating since I've been here.

From all the convenience stores/supermarkets you can buy onigiri - rice balls - which have different fillings. However the fillings are marked on the packaging in kanji - as you'd expect - so I have no idea what's in each type, making onigiri a mystery package for me! So one day I just chose one at random, deciding I'd work my way through them until I knew what was in each one. The first one I chose I was lucky, it was tuna and mayonnaise, my favourite type so far. The second time I tried it I wasn't so lucky - I chose the pink one as I thought it might be salmon. Well I was half right... it was salmon roe.
It was okay - the texture was just very odd. So I'm not sure I'll be eating that one again.

Also most supermarkets have grill-type cookers outside, from which you can buy hot sweet potatoes. I only realised what they were last week (thanks Cheryl!) and have since been buying them often, they're so yummy!

Also, just to prove that I've been eating healthily, here is my dinner from the other night - prob the third (half-)homecooked meal I've had since I've been here.


Tomorrow is the start of my 7 day work week - it would usually be the second day of my weekend, however I have training all day so that I may teach children (I'll get a day off to make up for it sometime in April). Then Thursday I start my regular working week, and next Tuesday which would normally be my day off I'm working to cover Carrie, who's going on holidays. Going to be a fun week I'm sure haha.

Oh and I'm going to join a gym this week, as I feel like I'm getting lazy and fat. Will be a good way to meet locals.

To finish off, here are some photos from my visit to Shinjuku on the day I was sick - I know I promised these ages ago but tough :P

Walking around Shinjuku, I pretty much got lost many times on purpose. Since I wasn't looking for anywhere in particular this seemed like a good way to explore the area - just walking down random streets and alleys.
A temple in Shinjuku

The inside of the temple
A shrine in Shinjuku Central Park



The Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings - the ones I was at the top of.
One view from the top of the tower. In the distance of one of the windows you can actually see Mt Fuji on a clear day - however the day I visited it was very hazy and cloudy, so I couldn't see it. But anyway - in every direction all you can see are buildings and buildings.

So I've been here over a month now, and have to say I really love this city. I think I'm going to find it very hard to move on, as I know that anywhere else I go won't be as safe as this, or as convenient. I've already reached the stage where I get slightly annoyed at a wait of 5 minutes for a train (in Brisbane missing a train would mean a 30 minute wait for the next one). This city is exactly what I needed in my life at the moment. I'm loving the food, the people I'm meeting are so friendly, and I feel so at home. So for the time being I'm really happy :)

Listening to: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Godzilla attack!

Today was the first day of my weekend, and I had one mission - find Godzilla. My Lonely Planet guide book said he'd been spotted harassing old ladies in Ginza, so I ate a hearty breakfast, packed a bag of ammunition (and a muesli bar in case I got hungry), paid the Y230 required and boarded the steel chariot that would take me to my destiny.

I arrived at Ginza expecting scenes of carnage, buildings toppling down, overturned and destroyed cars everywhere, and instead I was faced with an even more shocking sight - high class stores selling things I could never hope to afford! Ginza is for Tokyo what Park Avenue is for New York - loads of big name designer stores, all of which made me feel like such a bogan as I walked into them.


One of the first stores I saw as I emerged from the underground gave me the resolve to continue my quest - I realised that there were some stores that needed protecting! (If only so that a certain Miss Vuittonaholic could visit them if she ever came to Tokyo!) I briefly visited the store, and contemplated purchasing some Y140000 (AU$1400) shoes.... then realised how ridiculous that would be, and how many pairs of equally-as-good looking shoes I could buy for the same price....


But I had more important matters at hand. For a few minutes I thought my quest to find Godzilla was all but over - the beast had left no trail of destruction for me to follow. And then I spotted it - the beast liked fruit...

Seeing that half-eaten apple shocked me out of my daze, and the hunt was on again! For an hour I stalked the streets of Ginza, looking for clues as to his location. At one stage I thought I may have seen him disappear into a music store, and so went inside to investigate further. No sign of the Zill-meister (as he's commonly referred to, by me), but I did find a Bösendorfer piano - I tried to take a photo but one of the staff politely gestured for me not to. So with a quick "gomennasai" I was off again!

Things were getting de-desperate, as every street I turned down yielded no clues, no enormous footprints, not even a half-devoured human who, with their dying breath could have whispered the Zill-meister's location (which to be true, wouldn't have helped given my lack of understanding of Nihon-go). Through a series of trials involving paddles and swollen asses I managed to procure an ancient map marking the site of his nest, however given the fact that Japanese streets have no names, this proved somewhat useless.

Just as I'd given up all hope of finding the great lizard, I stumbled (as often happens in these situations). As I picked up my belongings, I realised that my breathing had suddenly become a lot louder, and somewhat fishier... "How odd" I thought... then I looked up, only to find myself staring into the terrifying jaws of the monster!



For what seemed like an eternity I was too terrified to move - had all my training (I did sit through all of the 1998 remake) been for nothing? I reached into my bag for my weapons, then remembered that in my desire to look fashionable I'd brought my ultra-hip laptop satchel, and not my backpack, and all I could fit in it was my phrase book!! Curses!

I was determined to show the beast I wasn't scared, and so gathering up all my courage, I opened my phrase book and roared the first phrase I found: "DENGENPURAGU O KUDASAI!!!!!"

I'm not sure whether it was the fact that I'm still missing half my voice and so my manly roar sounded more like a slightly boyish shout, or that the phrase I'd picked translates as "I'd like to buy an adaptor plug", but in any case, the G-man wasn't phased (if maybe a little puzzled), and he proceeded to advance on me.

I'd now lost all hope - in preparation for my digestion I set my iPod to play what I thought would be my last song - Tori's hypnotic voice came drifting out of my headphones "surrender, then start your engines" - oh how apt, except for the fact I had no engines to start, part of the reason I was in this situation...

The beast stood menacingly over me... saliva dripped down, saturating me as I literally shook in my boots... with a horrendous roar the beast opened his massive jaw (duh).....

All of a sudden, I heard a heroic cry -

"MEEMEEEMEEEEMEEEEMEEEEEE!!!!!"

I looked up to see my rescuer staring down the mutant lizard!


With another heroic "MEEMEEMEEMEEEEEEEEEE" Beaker leapt atop Godzilla's great spiky back, displaying a nimbleness and strength never before seen in a muppet his size. He grabbed hold of a spine, and while the great monster roared and shook in outrage, Beaker held his position.

"Oh no!" I thought, "He'll be thrown for sure! He can't possibly hold for much longer!!"...

Well I won't bore you with the details of what happened next, but 20 minutes later the beast was tamed, with Beaker riding him like a carnival pony!


Uttering a few words of command, Beaker leapt down from the G'meister's back, landing beside me on the pavement.

"The beast has now sworn to protect this city" he said, as he wiped the blood from where a great claw had ripped into his muscular upper arm. "Now, let us depart, we are needed elsewhere".

And we left Ginza, confident that the city was now in safe hands. I took a final glance at Godzilla, now Protector of Ginza, before stepping into the darkness of the subway.

The most wonderful thing happened to me today!

I walked into a crowded elevator, full of people of all ages, and I WAS THE TALLEST PERSON IN THE LIFT!!

That has never happened to me ever!!

Okay, I promise tomorrow night I'll put up a proper post for what I did today - basically I lost my voice, and given a voice is a pretty essential tool in the instruction of English Conversation, I had to call in sick, so decided not to waste a day off and headed into Shinjuku...

Will post more pics tomorrow, but in the meantime, here's:

Me on the 45th floor of the North Tower of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building (said elevator brought me here)

Beaker staring down at the city
and a cool shot of the sun coming through the clouds.

The minute you walked in the joint...

So tonight I went to karaoke with the people from work, for Cheryl's birthday.

I had such a fun time, despite the fact that I had no voice for most of the time. Here when you book a karaoke room all the drinks you want are free (well, the ones from the 3 or 4 page menu they give you) so we kept ordering vodka and ginger beers hehe. I've only known these people for a max of 2 weeks, but tonight it felt like they've been my friends for ages, we had such a great time! There ended up being 9 of us (7 instructors from Aus (2), the US (2), Canada (1) and the UK (2), and 2 Japanese NOVA staff from our branch) in this little karaoke room.

From left: a Japanese staff member who changed branches before I arrived, so I'd never met her before tonight and can't remember her name, Stev'o (UK), Carrie (Aus), Sherman (Canada) and Mayumi (from our branch). Not pictured: Cheryl (US), Sara (US), me and another guy I'd never met from the UK. I should have got more photos but my phone ran out of batteries after these two.

And my tori group - remember back in Brisbane when we went karaoke-ing there were only about 8 or 9 rooms in the whole place? Well walking around this place felt like walking around a mansion - hallways off hallways filled with karaoke rooms!! I think we were in room 41 or something...

Anyway, so by the end of the night, I'd sung to:
Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush (a duet with Stev'o - he's British and a Kate fan!) - but my voice lost it's higher registers, so I had to sing it low - felt so wrong, or like I was in that British Ukulele Choir that covered that song! Next time I will have my voice back and will be able to sing it properly!! but I was still able to do the "waving" she does at the end of the filmclip heehee)

Karma Police - Radiohead
Closer - Nine Inch Nails (with Sara and Carrie)- lol everyone else was a bit shocked at the lyrics.
Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
Big Spender - Shirley Bassey (duet with Sara)
Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics (group song)
Ashes to Ashes - David Bowie - this was the last of the songs I chose, and I was able to finish singing it just before racing for my last train

They didn't have any Tori though - not a single song!

Anyway, despite barely having a voice I had an awesome night, we did lots of dancing on the seats to the songs, and shouted our lungs out! I shudder to think what my voice will sound like tomorrow though - and I have 8 lessons to teach!

So there you have it - my first Japanese karaoke experience!

The Magic Position

Well a few people have commented on my lack of posting over the last week, and well, to be honest, it's because I haven't really done anything interesting... well, I have, but nothing that's really been deserving of a complete post. So here's a brief recap of my week.

On Friday I met up with a new friend Yuichi in Shinjuku - he lived in Brisbane for about 6 years, and then moved back to Tokyo last year. He showed me around the gay clubbing area of Shinjuku and then we had a coffee, before I had to get back to Nishi-Funabashi for work.
Anyway, here are some photos I managed to take in Shinjuku on my phone (hence the craptacular quality)

The NTT building - it really intrigued me, just rising out of the middle of nowwhere like that

The NTT building again - I told you it really intrigued me

People waiting in line to buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts - it apparently takes about an hour to buy these doughnuts, so people come out carrying cartons of them. This was only half the line, there were people waiting around the corner to get into this line

A ummm... strawberry sandwich?? lol it looked interesting, and I saw it at the "kyu kyu", or 99Yen store, where surprisingly, nearly everything costs 104Yen (the 99Y is before sales tax, so really I think it should be called "the 99Y before GST store" but they can't make an annoyingly catch song out of that), and so I thought "why not?"

This is why not... I have no idea what the white stuff is, I can only assume fake cream...

Anyway, that night after work I was bored, so went into Shinjuku for dancing with Yuichi and his friends. The funny thing though - once you get in, you either come home on the last train, which for me would've been around 11:30pm, or you stay out till the first train, which for me leaves around 4:30am. Taxi's are ridiculously expensive, so you pretty much have to stay in town all night or come home before the night's even begun. So I left home around 11pm, knowing that I had to stay in Shinjuku, as pretty much once I got on the train there was no way for me to get back home (without spending my entire savings on a taxi :P).
I had a great time, and the best thing about the club we went to was that there was no entry fee - you simply had to buy one drink, which ended up being the only alcoholic drink i had all night! Just enough for my to get my dancin' boots on, and I was set!

Around 4am we went to McDonalds for breakfast, then i caught my train home, stepped in the door at around 5:45am, and slept, ready to wake up, get ready and be at work by 1:20pm... exhausting - but i had a great night and made some new friends.

The rest of my week was pretty uneventful. I picked up my coat from dry cleaning on Monday night, wore it for the first time to work today and then spilled my dinner on it tonight.. doh! No one else in the restaurant seemed to notice, I'm not sure whether it's because they really didn't notice, or because they were trying to keep from laughing at the silly foreigner who literally couldn't handle his food...

One of my students sounds like the Scottish character from Little Britain - "a-yeeeehhhssss".

In Voice the other night, there was only one student, an editor of a maths textbook, so he got me to explain my Honours thesis on the whiteboard - it felt soo good doing some maths again, and I pretty much had to do it all from memory. Surprising how much I was able to work out on the spot....

Oh yeah, I got sick on Monday night, so spend the first day of my weekend (Tuesday) at home with a cold, but i was actually lucky i got sick on my weekend, as I don't get paid for sick days. I'm actually quite surprised it took me this long to get sick! All of the other instructors in my branch have been sick, as well as my students, but it took me a while to catch it.

Tomorrow night is Cheryl's birthday, so I think everyone from my branch is going out for Thai food in Ginza, followed by karaoke and dancing... Tonight while teaching I was starting to lose my voice, so hopefully by the time karaoke comes around my voice will be completely gone :P Although that doesn't really help with the English CONVERSATION teaching.

Yesterday, I needed to get out of the house, and met up with another new friend Aung in Shibuya, where I bought two albums - Cut Copy's Bright Like Neon Love and
my current obsession, Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position.

Yeah, he looks a bit like a crazy homicidal clown - but his music is incredible, I listened to this album last night and for most of the album I had to actually stop what I was doing just to absorb the music. At times he reminds me of both Bjork and Kate Bush, because of his songwriting style, but more so because of his use of instrumentation - at various times in this album he plays

• a viola;
• two Bosendorfer grand pianos;
• synths;
• baritone and soprano ukuleles;
• dulcimers;
• a clavichord;
• a clavinet;
• a therimen;
• harmonium;
• autoharp;
• gongs just to name a few;

as well as the audio and electronic programming! Also featured are a string quartet, clarinets, a cello, trombone, vibraphones and glockenspiels, and Marianne Faithfull providing guest vocals on one song! One track also features the sound of fireworks, anther starts off with what sounds like an alarm clock going off (beep beep beep beep beep) and one song The Stars sounds like Bjork at her Vespertine-ish best, managing to sonically capture a beautifully starry night sky (so I can listen to this when I'm missing the clear night's skies of Aus?)

So I'm currently floating in a state of sonic bliss, in my own little world of sounds rushing from one headphone to another through my head, amazed at the power music can have over me, that it can leave me feeling numb, floored, grinning like an idiot for hours, and feeling wonderously happy that music like this is still being made.

Currently listening: Patrick Wolf - Overture