Nomihoodai!

Dear all, I fear i am going to have to stop writing all my posts on a monday evening after my 2 days off as it will start to appear as if i spend my whole time misbehaving! The latest installment of the aforementioned is a sake and beeru (local pronunciation - my personal favourite being "gin n tonicu") fuelled evening dancing to R&B / Hip hop in a western style club in Shibuya (central Tokyo). I keep telling myself as i leave my house on a saturday night that i WILL get the last train home but it just seems like such a party pooper to leave early. So yet again my sunday was spent in bed! I am lucky to have monday off at the moment (its going to change to sunday and wednesday soon). But it means that I can still get up and do something on Monday. Have seen some cool art galleries and some really crazy architectural structures that you could only imagine in Japan.
There is also a place called condomania - which I have yet to see but it should prove quite interesting i think! Have so far managed to decline the offers of "fancy a trip to Tokyo disneyland".
I discovered today that there are 30 million people living in greater tokyo - no wonder i get lost and confused everytime i go into the centre (I am so glad i learnt some survival Japanese before I came out here!). Trains on the central line go every 2 minutes during the week and every one is packed out. You have to watch out for groping on such trains - which is why the government has now introduced women-only carriages during rush hour times! I have thankfully had no problems so far - and have got myself well prepared for such events (you have to grab the offenders hand and hold it high as you shout the japanese for pervert to embarrass them!) I can understand how that works! There is quite a high level of seediness around - all the manga is packed full of big breasted women, scantily clad and the men read it on the trains with children sitting next to them and yet you would be frowned upon for holding hands with your partner in public. It is also a big faux pas to eat in public and yet nobody seemed to bat an eyelid the other day as this guy was gobbing big phlemmy balls of spit onto the otherwise pristeen train carriage. Double standards a-plenty!!

Hello Kitty

I cant believe i have been here a month now - the weeks have just flown by so fast! I am settling into the teaching - I have some really nice classes and some hellish ones too (just for balance) Its the five-year-olds who just wont do anything they are supposed to that are the worst but ill learn how to handle them soon I suppose! I have had tears in my classroom twice now and each time it just means the whole lesson goes down the pan!
I ended up in another Karaoke place again on saturday - this time at least managed to stay awake. I think ive got the bug but its going to have to be curbed as it is getting a bit too expensive!
Great to hear all your news - please keep the emails coming and I promise i will write proper emails and letters soon!

Karaoke!!!!

Its sunday evening now and I am suffering from post-karaoke madness! We went into the centre of Tokyo last night to have a few beers which soon turned into a few more and before I knew it I was astounding my audience with such sweet vocals and blinding harmonies in a darkened karaoke room. Well actually I decided that I had to turn to my gangster roots and mash up the place drumnbass styleee. Oh yes I have an underscovered talent as a master of ceremonies I can tell you!! Its such a lot of fun to do as a group of friends and the `all you can drink beer offer` is a nice touch. However, I got a bit too excited, danced a bit too much and promptly fell asleep on the comfy sofas! Apparently it was hard work moving me when it was time to get the first train home at 6 in the morning!

mice roppongi and hairdressers

I spent my first proper weekend visiting the crazy sights of Shinjuku which is one of the busiest areas of Tokyo and also where my Japanese friend lives. after finally managing to leave the station and find my friends (it has a confusingly large number of exits and floors and areas and people and signs and noises) we had a good tourist stroll around before heading to Roppongi (I love that name) where the nightlife of Tokyo can be found. We went up Roppongi tower which has 52 floors and the lift gives you motion sickness and makes your ears pop! but the view was well worth it. just as the sun was setting you get an amazing view over Tokyo with all the dizzy lights from bars, sushi restaurants, cars, ferris wheels, skyscrapers and all the rest. on a clear day you can apparently see as far as Mount Fuji from that tower which must be impressive.
There was a really cool ancient to modern art exhibition of China on at the same time. It was so refreshing to see and apreciate art again having finished the formality of studying it!
We ate in a restaurant in the same building and at one point my friend Hiro screamed- there was a mouse running around the floor under the tables. The whole place exploded it was so funny to see! Eventually the offender was whacked over the head by one of the chefs and calm was restored. Still didnt get any money off our meal!!!
I have done the compulsory thing of getting on an express train instead of a local one and for some reason my Japanese wasnt good enough to negotiate the best way to proceed after that! I got home after 1 & 1/2 hours when it should have taken me 25 minutes!! It had to happen sometime! At least the trains here are always dead on time - even if there are a confusing array of choices (local, rapid, private, JR, subway, overground). And they are all sparklingly clean. I have even started to fit in with the locals as I catch a few forty winks on my way to work. (Everybody is asleep on the trains here!)
Finally- one of the many quirks of this place is that hairdressers (of which there seem to be thousands) stay open really late but in the absense of real customers they crimp and cut and curl and perm plastic models hair in the windows. Does that happen at home or is that a bit bizarre!!