Coming in from the cold

Well this is it - I leave for Thailand TOMORROW! Extremely excited. For those of you who don't know, my dear old dad made a radical life change and moved to Thailand with plans to retire or maybe teach English to make a little extra cash.

Tomorrow morning I am outta here at 5 am and on an early flight to Bangkok, then a connecting flight to Phuket where we will stay for a few days, before heading to Koh Samui which is where my old man lives. On my way back to Tokyo, I'm spending 3 days in Bangkok by myself because even though I have heard back things about Bangkok - big, dirty, polluted, noisy, yucky - I still feel I should at least see Thailand's capital for a few days. But most of the time I think we will be on the beach, or zooming around on a scooter to see the sights.

But with beaches like this....



who knows if I'll make it back to Tokyo!!!

Well my dad has a laptop, so I'm sure I'll put up a few pics at some point. So, everyone, enjoy your Christmas holidays and have a great ole years whatever you may do!

Take care... ki o tsukette!

Dirty talk

In my continued attempt to learn Nihongo (Japanese), in the mornings I like to listen to these audio files of conversational Japanese lessons called 'Pimsleurs Japanese'. It is quite easy - you listen, they teach you new words, you repeat, they ask you questions, you answer it, they do one side of the conversation and you do the other, it's quite good and easy to remember because of all the repitition.

But today I'm convinced that Pimsleur is trying to teach me dirty talk, because ALL of the conversations seem to revolve around hooking up with the opposite sex!

Allow me to give you an example:

Man: Nanika tabemasuka? Do you want to eat something?

Woman: Hai, tabetai desu. Yes, I want to eat.

Man: Doko de tabemasuka? Where do you want to go eat?

Woman: Anata no tokoro de. At your place!

Man: Hai, ii desu. Yes, I see!

Or here's another example, which I think must be a good conversation for prostitutes:

Man: Nanika tabemasuka? Do you want to eat something?

Woman: Iie, demo nanika nomitai desu. No, but I want to drink something.

Man: Nani o nomimasuka? What do you want to drink?

Woman: Osake. Sake.

Man: Doko de? Where?

Woman: Hoteru de! At the hotel!

At the hotel indeed! Sheesh, obviously these conversations are for people who like to go out and get drunk and get laid! Like Carla! Ha! Just kidding Yam.

My Tiny Universe

It is really nice having my own place for the first time in my life. My 'apaato' is quite small, but very comfortable for one person. I am very happy with My Tiny Universe, everything is clean and everything works, not like in Turkey where we often took cold showers or ran out of water!

Please allow me to give you the grand tour of the facilities.

When you first enter, you take off your shoes (much like in Turkey) at the entrance before stepping in. This is so that you don't drag dirt and crap into your place and onto your tatami mats. Unfortunately, I have no tatami, which actually makes cleaning a lot easier! Anyways, you will see at your immediate right is my tiny kitchen. It has a tiny fridge, a tiny counter top, and a tiny one-burner flame.



Directly opposite the kitchen is the bathroom. It has one toilet, one tiny sink, and a small bath tub. If you look closely you will see the sink and the bath share the same plumbing - you simply turn a plastic knob to change the water from the sink to the shower!



This is my sparse living room. It has penguins on the curtains (not my choice, my boss gave them to me!), a big sliding glass door to a small balcony to hang laundry, and a 'kotatsu' or hot table. You will notice that in Japan, as in Turkey, you sit on the floor either on a carpet or a mat or cushion, and the table is low to the ground. It must be making my back stronger, getting up and down from the ground over and over again. Also you will notice my beautiful, wonderful, brilliant Macbook.



And finally, my bedroom is a loft up a small ladder. It is nice sleeping up there, and in the winter it is a lot warmer up there than downstairs. But it makes answering the phone a bitch, because I have to scramble down the ladder to get the phone which is downstairs!



I sleep on a futon, which is pretty much a number of small, flat mattresses piled on top of each other, on the floor. When I first started sleeping on a futon - as opposed to my massive cushy double bed that I had at home in Trinidad - I woke up every day with neck and back pain. But now, it is extremely comfortable, and I sleep like a baby.

So, that's about it! The grand tour is now finished. If anyone is planning to come visit me, don't worry, it may look small but there is always room for a friend!

Partners in Crime

This is my dear friend, Taeko-san, who is without a doubt the coolest and sweetest person in all of Tokyo.



Now I know it looks as though she is hooking her finger into my bra but she's actually not. It's an optical illusion!

We went out last night to an Irish pub in Shinjuku called Dubliners, the same place where you are guaranteed random people will come up to you and chat like old friends. Last night a very strange bearded old geezer came up to Taeko and asked her if she knew where a good 'love hotel' was. Love hotels are all over the city, it's simply a place where you can go with your partner to get your groove on in privacy for an hour or two or whatever floats your boat. But it's super private - apparently when you go to the 'love hotel' you pay for the room through an electronic machine so that nobody sees you! Anyways Taeko of course told the ''jiji' which is Japanese for ''dirty old man'' to piss off.

Winter in Japan....

... is not much of a winter at all!



I snapped these shots this morning on my way to my origami class by the dear old lady who teaches me how to make beautiful boxes and leaping frogs, Teruko-san. I can't believe that in mid-December, it is still like fall. No snow, no nothing! In fact this weekend the weather is going to be a high of 17'C! Incredible.



After the origami lesson, I hopped on my trusty steed - my bicycle - and rode to Kodaira's oldest and biggest temple because I'd never been before. When I arrived I wasn't sure if I could just go right in, but not a soul was around, so I had the chance to wander around quietly in a beautiful garden all alone and enjoy the warm sunshine.



In the garden were carefully manicured plants, small streams, and a variety of stone statues.



I also found one particular statue, that I've seen at almost every temple I've been to, and this statue is always wearing some kind of clothes, like a bib or a hat. After a little research, I found out why.



This is Jizo, the Savior from the Torments of Hell. In Japanese Buddhism, Jizo is the guardian of stillborn, aborted and miscarried babies. While that might be sweet, there is a bit of a disturbing story behind this!

It is also believed that children who die prematurely cause so much grief to their parents that they are sent to hell. In hell, they are sent to a dried-up river where they are made to build monuments made of small pebbles to Buddha. But their work is sabotaged by a cruel demon who scatters the stones, and it is Jizo who comes to protect and help the souls by hiding the children in his sleeves. Mothers who have lost their babies often put red bibs or hats on Jizo so that Jizo may take special care of their departed child's soul.

Kind of odd, no? I mean... if I were a mother who lost my child, the last thing I'd want on my mind is the idea of my poor baby stuck in hell and being terrorized by mean demons! Rough!!!!

Anyways, time for school.

Christmas Party

Yesterday was our school's annual Christmas Party, which is a get together for the students, their siblings, their parents, us the teachers, and the managers. It was held at the nearby Koganei Park, and it was a really beautiful sunny day.



I know it's December and it should be winter, but it is really a lot more like autumn. The trees started changing colors a few weeks ago so you still see a lot of beautiful red and orange leaves all over the place. Winter seems to be quite mild here, yesterday was 12'C, which is fantastic, considering this was the view from my living room in Turkey one year ago!!!

Anyway, we had lots of games, such as a balloon race, where you had a balloon on a string around your ankle, and you had to run away from people trying to step on your balloon and pop it.



There was also the tug-of-war....



Where the kids took turns going against the teachers, then against the moms, then against the dads....



Below is a picture of one of my little sweethearts, the one of the left is Aika and she is only 3 years old (see, she is holding up three fingers, she likes to tell people she is three!). She's in my kindergarten class and sometimes they are a REAL handful. On the right is her very sweet sister.



After the party, a bunch of us went downtown to Shinjuku, and ended up in a gay bar with the cheapest happy hour in Tokyo - only 1000¥ and 'nomihodai': all you can drink! Considering you can easily pay 700¥ for ONE drink in a lot of bars, trust me when I say this truly is the best deal in the whole city.




Nomihodai, however, is extremely dangerous. I had a great time but I certainly paid for it this morning when I woke up with a hangover from hell. Ah well, you only live once right! Gotta enjoy yourself now and then.

uhhmmm.......

I hate to ask a stupid question.... but WTF IS THIS!!!!!!!

Snapped this shot yesterday as I was walking through Shinjuku Station and simply HAD to take a picture. What is this for? What are they doing to this woman? And how can she be so placid and calm when someone is sticking some kind of torture device up your left nostril?

The Singles Scene

When you live in a massively massive city, it is sometimes difficult to meet new people. So recently I've been testing out the waters of the dating pool! Tokyo is full of single people trying to meet other single people. And of course, one way to try to meet people is to go out to bars.

There is this one place I've been to a few times, an Irish pub called Dubliners, which is very popular with foreigners and English-speaking Japanese people. It is kind of a strange place though... imagine going somewhere that EVERYONE talks to EVERYONE as though they already know each other, where people have no qualms about walking up to you and striking up a conversation. It is like shyness doesn't exist once you enter Dubliners. Really very weird!!

But meeting guys in bars is not always such a good idea.

The first date I went on here was with a Japanese man, but it was quite a bomb. I had gone one night to a little bar in my town with my coworker, and after a few drinks, this Japanese gent next to me struck a conversation. Turned out that he was a general in the Japanese army, and he and his Osaka troops had been posted to Tokyo for 3 months to study English in an intensive course, for 6 hours a day. So his English was quite good and he only lived 5 minutes away at the nearby base.

Little did I realize, I had my beer goggles on, so when he invited me out, I thought 'well, hell, I don't know anyone in Tokyo, so why not?', and I agreed to go out with him sometime. When we DID go out, it was awful, incredibly boring, we had nothing to talk about, nothing in common, and that was pretty much that. Never saw him again.

Then there's the internet. I know what you're thinking - that Internet dating is kind of pathetic and weird and only for losers who can't meet people. But YOU try meeting people in a city of 30 million! In Tokyo it is a really popular thing and surprisingly, the people who are online are often quite handsome, and successful, and just trying to meet someone. Or maybe I am just being naive.

My first blind date was quite decent, we met at a Starbucks and chatted quite nicely for about 2 hours, but he was definitely not my type. He was a little shorter than me, and very thin, and very white being Swedish, and well... you know I am a lot of woman... so I tend to like a strong man! He was nice, but not for me.

My second blind date was with a really nice American guy who was very cool, an English teacher who was also drummer in a band, who had been living here for over 8 years. But sadly, he was one of those types who had his heart broken by his last girlfriend and wasn't quite ready, or willing, to try out someone new. We actually did meet a 2nd time, but then, it just died a natural death. Ah well.

Then I recently met up with an English guy who said he was looking for people to play pool with, so we met, and played pool, and it was nice, and we decided to meet again. So we went out for date #2 on Thursday night after work, and he said he wanted to go for karaoke. I know it might seem strange - two people going to sing karaoke - but in Japan it is pretty normal!

Anyways... I suggest a karaoke place... and we go... and he doesn't like it... he starts to bitch and complain about how shite this place is and gets all pissy about it, which I thought was a big over-reaction. Then after the karaoke, he said, hey let's go for coffee! So I assume we're going to a little cafe or something. But then he takes me to a McDonalds, and then pulls out this 600¥ free-purchase card, and 'buys' two McFlurries with it! HOW CHEAP IS THAT!!! I was quite horrified. There is nothing I hate more than cheapness. And not only was he cheap, he also apparently has a temper. Not a good combination. I don't think I'll be seeing him again.

But I must say, the dating scene is pretty fun! Nobody dates in Trinidad - either you are together, or you are just brushing. There seems to be no real in-between, no casual dates to get to know other people. It is fun to just meet new people just for the sake of it, just go out and lime and see how it is. No strings attached, no harm done. So, for now, looks like the single life is for me.