Monday, 1st July 2002
I can't believe that I have now been in Japan for about 1 month. Time just seems to fly by. Over the weekend, I moved into my new accomodation, which Macro Inc. have very nicely provided for us. This place is so convenient as it is right next door to the company building where I work! I can now just roll out of bed and get straight to work, which is great as it means that I can have a lie in now! Moving into the accomodation was very funny as we had 6 of the company workers come with us and help us to clean the whole place out! Even with 8 of us, (James and I included), it still took hours to clean the place! Finally, the place was cleaned and everything. Just one problem: cockroaches!! Here, they are absolutely huge and very difficult to get rid of as the climate in Japan just suits them so much. James is absolutely terrified of cockroaches and it is pretty funny I suppose. I'm not that bad with them, but I don't like them either. You really do realise there is a bit of a problem judging by the vast amounts of different cockroach killer products that the supermarkets sell. The other night, James killed one huge one... it was massive, in fact when I threw it out on to the street, you could hear the 'thud' as it hit the floor... EEeuuuurghhh... The biggest problem is that the cockroaches seem to be all in the kitchen.. so everything is now in the fridge! At least they aren't in my room!
Tuesday, 2nd July 2002
Today, Shiosawa-san came round with some duct tape to tape up the cracks in the kitchen floor where cockroaches where coming in and out. James said to me that apparantly, if you see 1 cockroach, it means you have 100... we've now seen over 10 in 2 days... at least 1000 then. Oh dear.. Well, yesterday when I said, "At least they aren't in my room!" Well, this still holds true, too bad that James found one last night in his bedroom! He completely freaked out! Needless to say, the whole house is now spotless as James decided to completely clean everything, the hall, the kitchen, the living room.. He's so scared of cockroaches that last night, he kept the cockroach killer spray with him as he went to bed!! That was after he'd completely sprayed his room with the stuff. I decided not to go into his room in the morning to wake him up just in case he sprayed me by reflex action or something!! I think that maybe he got high from the fumes... Oh yeah... one of our fish died. I wasn't expecting them to last long anyway, but we still have 5 left and they seem to be alive and kicking.
Wednesday, 3rd July 2002
I think that I will go for a haircut. I'm quite nervous about this as all Japanese seem to have their hair dyed one colour or another. Therefore, I'm going to try find out some phrases before I go, like, "What are you doing with that bleach?" Maybe, "Stop!!" Or "What have you done?!" Ha ha.. just kidding, I'm sure it'll be ok.
Thursday, 4th July 2002
Well, there you go. They say a picture speaks a thousand words... I can think of several four letter words that I would like to say! Actually, it's not so bad, I quite like it really! I went to the hairdressers and obviously I didn't have much of a clue. I sat down after answering a few questions and lo and behold, there was a magasine there with loads and loads of different styles of haircuts. It was all good, except that it seems that Japanese people like their hair to be spiky and messed up! There were some really funky styles in there, but I don't think that they would have suited me. Anyway, after I managed to wash out all the wax that they used to put my hair in that position, my hair is ok really. I can just brush it how I normally have it and it looks fine. I do have my cap with me though! (Thanks, Ellie!) 
It was really strange because I got a little massage in the hairdressers too, on my neck and shoulders after they washed my hair. It cost me 2,500 Yen (~?3).. which is reasonable.. seeing as James' cost 4,000 Yen! But he got his hair done by some guy who'd been trained by Vidal Sasson! When I came back to the house, we saw the biggest, dirtiest cockroach I have ever seen! Well, it scared the crap out of both of us. The worst thing was that it wasn't in the kitchen, it was on the wall, near our bedrooms! James completely freaked out again and legged it into his room, but I don't blame him really. Anyways, today, I think that we will get a bed that Macro are buying for us, which will give James some relief!
Last night, we (Phoebe, James, me) went to the cinema to go and see Spiderman! It cost a fair amount to get in, 1,200 Yen, and that was for the special price late night showing! It was also ladies night, which meant that Phoebe got in for 1,000 Yen. Food in there was quite a bit cheaper than the UK cinemas, so that just about evens it out. But no sweet popcorn!
Friday, 5th July 2002
It's that Friday feeling! It feels great to have a weekend to do stuff. Tomorrow, we will all be going to a tea party that we have been invited to... should be fun! I don't really have nay plans for the weekend, nowhere really to go, nothing really to do. I'm sure I'll think of something to do closer to the time. Actually, today I will go to a Japanese class, it's a free trial to learn some Japanese. (8pm). I wonder what it will be like?
Monday, 8th July 2002
I went to the Japanese class on Friday evening and it was really quite easy. In fact it made me feel a bit better about my Japanese ability now. I'm sure the trial class was like that so they could get us to sign up, which I didn't as the classes seem to be very expensive. Also, I went to a tea party on Saturday, which was interesting. First of all, it was really interesting to learn how you follow traditions to make tea properly in the Japanese way. Then we had a girly style chat around a tea table, with tea and sweets. The lady's house we went to was very nice and the lady was very accomodating. On Sunday, it was a special day in Japan, I can't remember the name of the occasion, but basically, every household gets a bamboo shoot and writes a wish and puts it on the tree. The tree only stays up for that day though. Also, on the Sunday, I went to the university! I went with Phoebe, as we were going there to stick up some notices in the university to look for language partners to practise both Japanese and English. I wonder if we are gonna get anyone phoning us up or e-mailing us? We cycled for over 4 hours looking for the university! I forgot my map and we must have went round the university about 5 times before we found it! We both got sunburnt, although Phoebe was worse than me. I have quite a busy week planned ahead, social-wise.. I'll be out on Wednesday (for dinner) and also Thursday (playing pool). Should be fun!
Tuesday, 9th July 2002
Cool! Yesterday, I got a response from someone at the University! That's cool because it's nice to know that maybe somehow I will be able to meet some people here that are in my age range who I can meet and go and do stuff with. I don't expect too much really. I just want to practise my Japanese, because at present, all I can do is try learn from listening to the television and maybe sometimes I can overhear other people's conversations at work.
Wednesday, 10th July 2002
We're in for a rough ride at the moment.. A typhoon has just hit our region. It's only a force 6 typhoon (max is 10), which isn't so bad. In case you didn't know, a typhoon is a 'tropical' storm, a bit like a hurricane. It is raining really heavy now, and it's quite windy. The dinner has been postponed now, but I can understand that... I wouldn't want to go out right now! Looks like it'll just be a night in then.
Thursday, 11th July 2002
Japanese weather is just as changeable as in Britain! Right now, it is really sunny and really hot! You really couldn't tell that last night, it was chucking it down. Last night, we got another response to the advert that we placed up at the university! Phoebe got the call and we all met up last night. It was a guy, and he turned out to be the president of the English Club. He was very friendly and he bought his friend along too. He's asked us to join his club on a summer trip! Unfortunately, I don't think that we can go because it clashes with our company summer party. I think that it would have been great fun though!
Friday, 12th July 2002
It's the weekend again! The week has gone by quite quickly and I'm looking forward to the weekend. I think that we are planning to go to Maebashi (the prefecture capital), just to see what it is like! I think that Phoebe has some crazy idea about cycling there... (it's about 11km away) which I'll have to think about. Time to get the sunblock out I think! Last night, we didn't do anything again, another boring night in. I can't have too many nights like those. There wasn't even anything on television, although James spotted something on the TV schedule: Beauty Goddess... I couldn't be arsed to stay up that late (1am) and neither could James. So, we came up with a plan... we called Phoebe and asked her to watch it and if it was good.. .call us and we'd go watch it! This morning, she told us that it was pants... (not even literally...) Ah well, at least it wasn't our time wasted. I dunno what else I am going to get up to this weekend, maybe I'll think of something.
Monday, 15th July 2002
Over the weekend, I decided to go along with Phoebe's crazy idea to cycle to Maebashi... Let's just say that the trip was interesting! Maebashi is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture. It's about 12 kilometres away from Takasaki city. Anyways, we went on Saturday and to start with, it was a lovely day, very sunny. Maebashi itself was very quiet, there were hardly any people there for a Saturday. When we both arrived at Maebashi Station, it just started to rain, but then it cleared up a bit. We stayed in Maebashi for the whole day. Then, as we were leaving, it started to pour it down.. and I really mean pour it down! Basically, cycling home (12km) in the puring rain is not good, the only good thing was that it really wasn't that cold, as I was only wearing a shirt because before it was such a nice day. I was absolutely drenched from head to toe, in fact, I think I would have been drier taking a shower with all my clothes on!
On Friday, under false pretenses (according to James) we were invited out with some of the company employees... to a karaoke bar!! Obviously, if any of you know me, you know that I can't sing, but still, it was a very enjoyable night. Afterwards, we decided to go out someplace else, and we ended up going to a place called 'Black Church', which is apparently Takasaki's only club sort of place. When we got there, the place inside was tiny, and there can't have been more than about 30 people there (including staff!). The place was really quite dark and being called 'Black Church', you'd kind of expect gothic style people inside, as the place kind of looked like that sort of style. The music was ok, it was mainly dance I think, but towards the end, the music because absolutely rubbish.. Ah well, we left soon after! The prices inside were quite expensive too... 500 yen for a drink! (?), and that was for a single vodka and mixer! Not sure how many times we'll be going back there!
Tuesday, 16th July 2002
I'm really missing being able to just go out to the pub or something to meet up with my friends when I have nothing better to do after work. At present, we only have a television to watch when we get back from work. Basically, we wake up, go to work, then come back with nothing much better to do. Really, I can't afford to go out to do something new everynight. I suppose I should find something to do with all this free time after work... but what?
Wednesday, 17th July 2002
Last night, Phoebe, James and I went out with Fujimaki-san and Miyoda-san to a quaint little place to eat. It was chinese food, and it was delicious! We had dumplings, which were exactly like the ones that I once helped to make at Roseangle... the ones that you have with vinegar and chilli. After that, Miyoda-san drove us around for a bit, but really, there wasn't any places to go to! Today, I am going to hand in a paper to the boss, requesting to start up a football club!! I wonder how many people will join? I hope at least 10 so we can get a game of 5-a-side going! Itseems like most people played sports when they were at school or college and now they don't seem to play anymore. There's a very cheerful boss (Imai-syunin), who is a bit of a character. I don't see him too often, but I've said that we should go play pool (billiards) sometime as he says he is really good! He says that he is really good at everything!
Thursday, 18th July 2002
Yesterday, Phoebe, James and I joined up with Miho and two of her friends to go out and have a meal together. It was really nice. Afterwards, we went to go see a film together at the cinema. On the whole, the evening was very enjoyable. Today at work, we got called into a meeting to discuss our situation. We have now been set to to another project, which us 3 interns will be working on. I don't think that this is a good idea. Why? If we are expected to learn Japanese, it would be impossible at the moment. For starters, our work involves mainly computers and programming. All programming is done in English. If we are assigned to work on a project with each other, we are hardly going to speak Japanese to each other are we? I think that it would have been a much better idea for them to assign a fourth member to our group and so we can all benefit as a whole, we can learn some Japanese and s/he can learn some English. Obviously, they may not be able to waste a worker working this way, but if that is the case I think that it may be a better idea if the 3 of us were split up. I'm not saying this because I don't like James or Phoebe, in fact, I get on with them very well. It's just that together as a group, I feel that we are holding each other back in terms of learning Japanese.
I don't like to be referring to my co-workers as 'them' and 'us' because that is not what it should be. We are working for the same company and therefore it should just be 'us'. I think that I will speak to the boss about this.
Friday, 19th July 2002
I got an invitation the other day to go to a 'Drinking Party' with the guy who responded to my 'advert' for a language partner. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but as he said that they would be pleased to meet me, I assumed that there would be more than one person there! It would be a pretty boring party otherwise! At the last minute, I was informed that it would cost me 3500 yen to go to the party. I was kind of wondering what kind of party this would be and what kind of place we were going to. In Japan, I have seen clubs where you have to pay an entrance fee to go inside. Nothing new here, we have that back at the UK. However, it seems that these places are not really clubs, they are something different. It seems like they are a kind of 'classy' bar. I really don't know as I haven't been inside one (yet). Anyway, as I told Phoebe and James, who were initially going to come along with me, I told them the price and they ditched me! So, I went to this party on my own (although to be fair to James, he came with me to make sure that they weren't there to give me a beating..). Anyways, when I arrived and met everyone, it turned out to be a night out with some of the members of the English Club. There were about 11 people there I think.
Initially, I was really quite nervous as the aforementioned 2 $*%^ ditched me, but I shouldn't have been as everyone was really nice. They made me feel welcome and everyone spoke to me. In fact, I had a really good time out, just something that I needed. I didn't drink too much as I had work the next day (today), but it was more of a dinner party than a drinking party. The price really was quite reasonable seeing as you could drink as much as you like and you got fed too. It was nice to meet some people in my own age range and hopefully I'll be seeing more of them in the near future.
Monday, 22nd July 2002
Quite a lot of things happened at the weekend. James bought a Gamecube on Friday because Mario Sunshine got released! It was quite funny because he already has a Purple one back in the UK, so we were debating which colour to get, either black or orange. It was funny because Phoebe's favourite colour is orange and so James said that he should buy an orange one so that he could tempt Phoebe to buy it off him when the time comes to leave! However, I wanted to get a black one because it just looks cooler! In the end, James bought a black one! James has been playing Mario Sunshine quite a lot over the weekend. On the Saturday, James was hanging out the washing and I was inside the house. James shouts at me to get me outside, where I find him with a piece of bread and he's ripping little bits off, throwing them towards this little bird, a sparrow. It was quite a cute little scene. We were stood there staring at this little bird and it wasn't frightened of us at all. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, a cat jumped out and mauls the little bird!! It was a little surreal. We both jumped into the house and saying, "Eeuuurgh... I don't want to see that!!" James says that he feels really bad now because he's technically an accessory to murder.. in association with the cat.
Also on the Saturday, Phoebe's friend arrived from Canada. I wonder how she is getting on here as she cannot speak any Japanese and Phoebe isn't really taking any time off from work. Anyway, on the Sunday, Phoebe, her friend and I agreed to go to the Takasaki theme park. You would not believe how hot it was! It was 37C!! The worst thing was, the theme park is up a big mountain! We attempted to cycle about maybe 1/6th of the way up the hill, and we just couldn't take it anymore after that.. I was sweating all over. To give you some idea, I drank 2 litres of fluid in less than 2 hours and I didn't go to the toilet once! Once we got to the theme park, it was quite old, but it was ok. It was no Alton Towers, but I didn't expect it to be. After going so high up the mountain, coming back down again was fun! It was actually quite frightening just how fast we were going downhill. No need to pay for a rollercoaster!
Tuesday, 23rd July 2002
This morning, while James and I were in the kitchen, eating breakfast... we saw a flying cockroach!! It was the biggest, dirtiest cockroach that we have seen yet! the worst thing is that we let it go out of our sight and so it is still hanging about somewhere in the kitchen... Last night it was another boring night in, but my Japanese teacher gave me a call last night and we have arranged to meek up some point quite soon. That should be good fun and I'm looking forward to that.
Wednesday, 24th July 2002
Seeing as all the crockery and cutlery were poisoned the day before by the insecticide coupled with a meeting that we had last night, we couldn't be bothered to cook for ourselves! Therefore, we went out last night to eat. First of all we went to this restaurant, but it wasa really busy, so we ended up going to a fast food kind of place, but it was ok. Phoebe was initially going to join us, but she changed her mind. She did ask us both out for dessert though. We walked all the way to the other side of the station... only to find that the place had closed! So we walked and we walked and then we walked some more. In fact, we ended up closer back to home than we started, which was no bad thing! Dessert was nice, but it was just dessert. Today I feel a little bit unwell. I can't describe what is wrong with me, I just don't feel well. I don't know why.
Thursday, 25th July 2002
Well, today was a fun day at work! We took most of the afternoon off because the daughter of the boss of Macro USA came to Japan and wanted to talk to us about university life! She's 18 and about to begin university in the US. We didn't really talk all that much about universities, after all, there's only so much that you can say about it. We all just had an enjoyable chat. Today, I got paid, however, I also had to pay my bills. I'm not going to say how much it was, but let's just say that my bills were quite high. Looks like I'll be living off spaghetti and ketchup for the forseeable future... James got a new bass guitar today, so I think that I'm in for a few sleepless nights...
Friday, 26th July 2002
It's the weekend again! Tonight, I'll be heading off to Tokyo to... I dunno... I'm just going for the hell of it. I have no idea what to expect, but I've been told that it is very different to what I am used to so far. It should be good. I have no idea where I am going in Tokyo, no idea where I am going to stay... I'm just... clueless... I'm sure things will be okay. I'll be going with several people, so at least I won't be on my own, unless I get lost..
Monday, 29th July 2002
What a weekend it was! I went to Tokyo on the Friday evening after work and we ended up in Roppongi, looking for a place to stay! We eventually found a place to stay at 11 o'clock. We (James, Alisdair and I) proceeded to go out and have a few drinks. Places there stay open until the early hours of the morning and there are no times I don't think that they must stop selling alcohol. We had a few pints at a pub and then we moved into this shot bar. The prices were really expensive (1,000 yen a shot!) Luckily, it was James' round! I hadn't heard of the shots before and so I chose one called 'Die hard'. I should have known not to drink it when the Barlady asked me if I was sure I really wanted to order that! I downed that, and then some guy comes up to me straight afterwards and said, "Wow.. You can drink that? Do it again!!" I said that I would if he bought me the shot, which he did! This stuff was pretty strong, it was sambucca and 'Wild Turkey' (no idea what that is). So, I downed it again! Then the same guy goes, "Again, again!" So, he bought me another!! there was no way that I could have done another shot of this stuff.. it was foul! Well, after that, we left the place because it was really expensive and suffice to say... I couldn't remember anything after that!!
The story goes something like this: I was so drunk I could barely stand. James and Alisdair said that I walked off somewhere twice and I was sick too... Also, Alisdair and I were play fighting and some guy asked James, "Hey, is that white guy giving that Japanese guy some trouble?" At which point, I broke free and decided to punch a sign. I don't know why. Then some guy goes crazy at me for hitting the sign and I really can't remember what happened. The next morning, I woke up with a massive hangover and I think I was still a little bit drunk! James wanted to go to Starbucks, so we went and while he and Alisdair were having coffees, I made do with just water and I just slept in the seat! I felt terrible. Later on that day, we went to Shinjuku Park, which was quite nice and then we joined up with Phoebe and Malisa and some of the other interns in Japan to go see the firework display. First of all, we visited the temple in Asakusa, which was really big and then afterwards, we went to go see the fireworks. James and Alisdair said that they were tired and they headed back oof to the hotel. I think that they missed out, because it was such a spectacular event. First of all, I couldn't believe just how many people there were in the streets! There were thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands! Lots of people were dressed in traditional yukatas too.
We all queued up to do a slow walk across the bridge to see the fireworks. When the fireworks went off, my mouth dropped open! I was just captivated by the moment and the event. I've never seen anything like it before. The fireworks went on for over an hour and it was amazing. I shall put some pictures up soon, but I just don't think that the pictures can just say how beautiful the display was. After the display, we decided not to use the trains for a little while because of the sheer amount of people russhing about to use the trains! I eventually returned to Roppongi at midnight. James had left to return back to Takasaki and Alisdair had gone to bed. I decided to explore Roppongi a little! It is a very lively place at night and there were many foreigners there. Maybe the next time I go, I'll go to a club or something because they look really good.
The next day, I went to explore a little around Tokyo, I walked a little around Shinjuku and went into a few shops. Also, I went to Akihabara, which is a famous district in Tokyo where they sell electrical goods. There were so many shops there, I just didn't have enough time to see everything. They sold almost anything electrical that you could imagine! I eventually returned home to Takasaki at about 7pm.. I was exhausted! In fact, even today, I haven't quite recovered yet! I'll be going back next week to meet my Japanese teacher! The only thing is... I haven't all that much money left now, Tokyo is a really expensive place!
Tuesday, 30th July 2002
Nothing exciting today. Although I did see the state of Phoebe after she'd climbed up Mount Fuji!! She was an absolute state! So funny.. makes me so glad that I didn't go with her. I said that she was crazy and I was right! Also, all day during work, she said that she was so tired, but after work, she flopped down and said that she just wanted to go home, but then she got roped into band practise!! She didn't finish until 9pm! Oh dear... On another note, James has been roped into playing for the Macro K-Band too! He'll be 'headlining' at the summer party on Saturday, on the bass, with Phoebe on the vocals! Should be interesting... Good job I don't have any musical skills.
Wednesday, 31st July 2002
Another month has just flown by. I wonder how many more months will be like that? At this rate, I'll be going home soon! Just continued doing some more work today, although, slowly but surely, I'm falling into a routine. I get up, go to work, go home, do nothing for a few hours, go to sleep and then it's back to work again. Life here really does sound fun doesn't it? Nevermind, at least I have the weekends off and I can go do some more exciting things then. I've been told that there is a certain point that you get to, where things just add up more and more until you can't take it anymore. At this point, you either continue as if it is normal or you just feel totally demoralised and give up completely. I wonder which category I will fall into? I remember speaking to some other interns the other day and some of them want to just go home already (they've been in Japan for the same amount of time). They were talking as if though it was a prison sentence they were sitting!
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