Monday, 2nd September 2002
I had my three day weekend... I didn't actually do all that much on my day off, but it was nice to just relax a bit. While James headed off to Tokyo, I decided that I had no purpose in going there and it would just be a waste of money, so I just stayed in Takasaki. Later on Friday evening, I met up with Mika and we went to play pool together! She's actually quite good at pool! Afterwards, we went to eat yakitori, and at the same time, we met a friend of hers working there. Her name was Ya-chan... and she's really cool! She has a really friendly personality and that was not only reflected by the way she spoke to us, but by the way that she got along with the customers she was serving. Although her English isn't very good, she communicates with a nice big friendly smile and by her actions. Some of the things that she did and said were very funny.. she should really consider a career change... she could become a comedian! Also, she rides a motorcycle, which I think is really cool too!
On Saturday, I stayed in mostly. James went off to Tokyo again, but I didn't mind really. I enjoy my own company and when we both cooped up together, living together and working together, it can be nice to have time to yourself. In the evening, I watched some J-League football, Kashima Antlers against Vegalta Sendai. The standard wasn't too high and the final score was 2-1 to Antlers. I hope to see Jubilo play in my time here in Japan.
On Sunday, I went to play Rugby as I promised earlier to Yajima-san and the others. I turned up and Yajima-san very kindly picked me up from Maebashi Station. The rugby training wasn't so difficult, even though I wasn't really expected to do all that much. There were three classes, juniors, then high school to university and then the mothers! However, the main emphasis was on enjoying sports rather than competitiveness. I joined in with the middle group at first and we played touch rugby. The rules were slightly different to what I was used to when I used to play. In the UK, when we played touch Rugby, we had to give up possession if we got two hands around the waist, but here, you can just literally touch and then you would have to give up the ball! Needless to say, it was difficult. On the team I was playing for, we were pinned back against our own line and then I managed to break through, run to the other side and score a try! Then, everyone on the other side proceeded to drop to the floor and do about 20 push ups!
After the little practice match, they did some drills, like passing, ruck and maul. I was a bit out of touch, having not played for a while. I decided to watch some of the other groups and I talked with many people, who even though they didn't speak too much English, they would nevertheless be very friendly. Saori turned up too, to give me back my things which I left in her car from the previous week. Thanks! After about an hour, I was thrown into a game! I was asked to play on the left wing, a position that I'm not too familiar with as I used to play as hooker in the scrum. It was ok in the end, I scored 28 points (4 tries, 4 conversions). I think the other team were a little surprised when I went in for my first tackle... I hit him pretty hard (which is what I was always taught)! I don't even know why I did that because we were playing on a clay ground! I ended up cutting my knee, but it was nothing serious. I enjoyed playing rugby, it was good fun and pretty clean, although I would have preferred to have played on grass instead. I felt so tired after the rugby, as soon as I arrived home, I just literally collapsed and went to sleep! I woke up again later on in the evening, feeling a bit more refreshed.
Tuesday, 3rd September 2002
It's only just occurred to me that yet another month has passed by. Recently, I have been enjoying myself a lot more as I have been more active than usual. As they say, you get out what you put in. Weekdays, as per usual are quiet enough. We never leave work before 5:30pm and sometimes even stay there until 7:30pm or even later. Although there is no obligation for us to stay, we are free to leave anytime after 5:20pm (I think). Tonight, since Phoebe's friends are here, we are going to have dinner together. We will cook dinner I think, at our house as it is the only place big enough. I wonder how it will turn out?
Wednesday, 4th September 2002
I've found out that we get a couple of official days off soon, which is most welcome. Last night, we had dinner quite late as we had to do shopping to buy the food before we could have dinner! We didn't finish till about midnight and so today I'm feeling quite tired. Although last night we all watched a really funny television show where they had a pair of celebrities bowling against each other! The losers got some really bad, but funny stuff done to them, whilst the winners would get the opposite of what the losers got! So, in one round, the winners got a really delicious steak, whilst the losers got raw steak! The last round, the winners got to eat some kind of bee larvae, whilst the losers had to eat some frogs!! It was so disgusting... Good job that we'd finished dinner before we saw that. Right now, it's raining really heavily, which is strange as it has been really hot for a long time now. Hopefully, as we approach Autumn, Japan will start to cool down.
Thursday, 5th September 2002
James didn't come into work today because he's taken his days off to go down to Tokyo to watch a gig. When James isn't here, it means that I have to wipe up all the desks on my own! What fun.. James will be off tomorrow as well, so the enjoyment won't stop for a while then. I don't think that I will have anything to do tonight, bar going home and making myself something to eat. Hopefully, the weekend will bring something exciting along for me to do.
Friday, 6th September 2002
Again, James isn't in, so I had to wipe all the desks! I hope that he's having fun... Mind you, work isn't so bad really. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't in work to be honest. I'll take my days off because they are there. I've just learnt that tomorrow is the Company's yearly meeting and everyone is required to attend. On a Saturday. Oh well, I hadn't made any plans for tomorrow anyways. I really don't know what to expect, but meetings are meetings. I have something to do over the weekend, and that is that I promised to go to the international festival on Sunday. I just know that Mika and Saori will be there. It should be fun, these kind of events always are! I'm looking forward to it.
Monday, 9th September 2002
I had a funny weekend.. First of all, we didn't do anything on Friday, I just lounged about the house and went to bed quite early. However, James' friend came round and that's always fun. After all, on the Saturday we would have the Company meeting. So, the company meeting... ah, the company meeting. I won't say much more. Anyways, after the company meeting, Phoebe came round to our house. James was saying since Thursday that he wanted to drink to get drunk. So... we did!! Although the funny thing is that James said he wanted to get drunk, he got the least drunk out of us all, which is just as well as someone has to watch over us..! Well, I'll admit to being drunk, but I wasn't as drunk as Phoebe was! She was absolutely hammered! Although I cannot remember much, according to James, this happened... "Phoebe, it's getting late, shouldn't you be going home soon?" (Phoebe) "Yeah, sure I'll go just as soon as I finish this Pretz..." If you don't already know, a Pretz is a snack food that resembles a thin breadstick. Well, Phoebe picked up what she thought was a Pretz... it was in actual fact a chopstick!! She drank quite a lot to get herself into that state.. a bottle of red wine (the whole thing), a bottle of Sake that she heated up and then another bottle of sake, but this one was sake for cooking purposes!! Then she had some of my Vodka.. I had some cans of Aki-nama, which is a limited edition of a beer just for the autumn. It's pretty strong for a beer at 6.5%! I can't remember too much myself, but I took Phoebe home because she was in no fit state to go herself and I remember walking with her and we got about as far as the company (which is only next door!) and she fell over and pulled me down with her!
On Sunday, we met Tomoko, who is a university student and she's looking for help with her English speaking competition. Actually, I was very impressed with her level of written English, it is much better than my written Japanese! Phoebe and I helped her as much as we could (although.. Phoebe and English just don't seem to mix.. "Sleep until someone died" and "1 millions yen" spring to mind). I hope that Tomoko does well at the contest because her speech really is very thoughtful, insightful and inspiring to everyone. After we helped Tomoko, she joined us as did James to go to the International Festival. It was actually really good fun. They had foods from different countries, beers from different countries and many many people there. Some old ones, some new ones. I met Mika and Saori. I tried some Taiwanese noodles, some Thai soup, some Brazilian fried thingys.. They were all delicious and I tried some New Zealand Beer and some good old Fosters! Also, the event wouldn't have been anything without the people! I met some more new friends, so I must say hi to Junko, Keiko, Nakamura-san, Yumihiro Shibata and Annalisa! Really, Everyone is so friendly and they make it so hard not to enjoy yourself!
Tuesday, 10th September 2002
As per usual, a boring night in. Although the language club is getting more regular and the time has been shifted which means that it'a more convenient for everyone. Work is as per usual too, although we are all working quite hard to try get stuff done. It looks like overtime again for me tonight. Can't write much today.. gotta work.
Wednesday, 11th September 2002
Well, it's the big day today and we (in Japan) are amongst the first to get to this day. Although I do sympathise with what happened, it's now a year on and in my opinion, I feel that it best to forget what happened and move on. It's not so good (still in my opinion) to 'remember' this day as it was. I remember that today, that Shirley will be flying to the UK! I think that nothing will happen as today is far too obvious to do anything.
Enough about that... Well, last night was a late night for me.. I stayed at work until 9:30pm. Although in reality, I didn't miss all that much. It wasn't as if I had anything planned for last night. As soon as I got in, I just had a quick bite to eat and then showered and went to bed, ready for today. Again, nothing planned for today, although I can't stay in work as I have to go pick up a parcel today from the post office.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot.. For all my Scottish friends back at home, the Faroe Islands are the greatest aren't they? ;p Just face it, I know that I'd get murdered even if England lost to some half respectable team.. so it's just desserts! For the less informed amongst us, Scotland managed to draw 2-2 with the mighty team that is the Faroe Islands! Also, did you know that the whole population of the Faroe Islands can fit into Hampden Park?! Ha ha..And the fact that the Faroes only had one full professional player - and he plays for some Danish second league outfit. Your 'world class' midfielders, (Lambert & Ferguson) couldn't control a midfield against a couple of fishermen and brickies!!! I'm never gonna let yous all forget this one.. Bertie.. keep going my son, I think even the English might warm to you if you keep going at this is rate!!
Thursday, 12th September 2002
Again, nothing too exciting down the week.. tomorrow is Friday and the start of our 'extended' weekend. Today, I applied for my welfare holiday for the coming week, so I'll see how that goes. I haven't decided what I'll do on my holiday, I'll cross that bridge when it comes.
Friday, 13th September 2002
Are you superstitious? Not a good way to end the week really. Although, work has eased off a little now. It's raining really heavy outside at the moment and Japan here in Takasaki seems to be getting colder now. Tonight, James left work at about 6:00pm, then about five minutes later, three other company workers left. I left at about 6:30pm and I walked outside into the corridor and to my surprise, the 3 workers were stood there, waiting in the corridor! Ther reason why was because it was raining really heavy outside. I opened the door and I just thought, nevermind, I only live next door! So, I just went outsidde and walked home. I think that the 3 workers were a little surprised at that. Maybe they don't know that I just live next door?
Friday night.. I have nothing planned and I'm not sure it's a great idea to have any kind of drinking event or anything. I might end up doing something really stupid!
Tuesday, 17th September 2002
What happened to Monday? Well, on Monday, it was 'Help the Aged' day and so we all got a day off for that! So, what did I do over the weekend? In short.. not very much really. On Friday evening, I just stayed in because the weather was pretty terrible. Then, on the Saturday, Phoebe and I went to Maebashi to just go and see it. We were also looking for clubs there, but we couldn't really find any. On the Sunday, I just sprang out of bed.. for some reason I had loads of energy and I had to use it up! I went cycling all over the place and by the end of the day, I was feeling quite tired!
For the special day off on Monday, James and I went to go see 'About a Boy'... yes.. it has on;y just come out here in Japan! The film was quite good really, although there weren't many people there in the cinema. I didn't expect there to be! I do wonder how the translations work sometimes as some of the English is very specific and I'm not sure that there is a direct translation of some of the things said. The film was ok, quite good. After that, we just went home and rested until it was time to go to work for today.
Later on today, we will have the language club, which should be good fun. Today, we will be talking about children's games that they play. The language club isn't just about learning language, it's also a chance to meet up with the people from the HQ that we don't really see very much of these days and just have a chat and some fun.
Wednesday, 18th September 2002
Today, my application for a holiday was approved. I still haven't decided just what I'll do with my free time off... it's about 5 days off in total as we all receive the next Monday off work due to it being the Autumn Equinox and I have the Tuesday off too. Oh well, I'll just have to read my guide book to Japan and decide then!
Thursday, 19th September 2002
I'm still no closer to a decision on what to do. Tokyo does sound appealing, but it's not going to move away any time soon and there aren't really any special events being held there. Last night, I didn't do anything really, again just made dinner and went to bed. However, I stayed in work as I do most nights of the week now for a couple of extra hours. It's not that I am extremely busy, but I just figure that if I have so much free time, then I may as well use that free time doing something productive. (Or at least try to..)
It looks like I will have something to do after all.. On Sunday, I will be playing football I hope! I haven't played any kind of competitive football for a long time now, so I think (to quote my brother / Neil / anyone else who knows me) "I'll have the touch of a rapist..."!!
Wednesday, 25th September 2002
I'm back now after my little holiday. Actually, I didn't actually do anything too exciting. Rather, I just took some days off to relax and do nothing special! Of course, even for me it would be a little difficult to spend 5 days sleeping and so I really did do somethings. First of all, on Friday, I decided to take a trip to Tokyo. I had no real plans with what to do and so I just ended up going to Ikebukuro, Ueno, Akihabara and Shinjuku. I wanted to go to Shibuya and Ginza aswell, but I didn't have enough time to fit all that it in one day! Oh well, Tokyo isn't going to move away, so I think that I will have plenty of time to go there later. At Ueno, I visited the market, in Ikebukuro, I went to the Toyota Amlux showroom, the biggest car showroom in the world! Also, I went to Sunshine City and Seibu, which are the two largest department stores in the world. I got lost in Sunshine City and I had some trouble finding my way out! As nightfall set in, I went off to Shinjuku and I wandered around for a while. I saw some sights and the vast neon signs really do light up Tokyo at night. After all that, I went home and I was tired!
On the Saturday, I took a break from it all because I was still quite tired from the day before! The next day, Sunday, I met my new team mates from the football team, Hitachi Takasaki (yes, Hitachi). They were all very friendly and I watched them win their game 4-1. We actually went 1-0 down and I was left wondering what kind of team I had joined, but it was all ok in the end as we went 1-0 down and then 4-1 up! Actually, the standard isn't too high and the game isn't as physical as it is in the UK, but that's fine. I just took part in the training session before the game and the coach explained to me that I can't play just now because the registration period has finished for this season. However, I'll be free to play in the winter tournament and also I'll be able to register for the new season which I think begins next year. I'm really looking forward to that. My team mates all seem to be very skillful, but there seems to be a slight lack of graft. Although the other side weren't exactly top class, I don't think that I'll have much of a problem getting a place in the team. Although no one really spoke any English, they tried and that's all that matters.
On Monday, it was a free day for all of us and I took the day off again (can you see a pattern forming here? ;p) to just relax. On Tuesday, I suppose I was getting a little bored with having such a long time off and I just wanted to do something to pass the time. I decided to go to play some pool and I ended playing for a while. After that I just didn't really do anything and I just waited for the next day for when I'd be back at work. All in all, it was a nice break, although it highlights the fact that even if I did take time off, I'd need to plan some things to do as on my own, Japan is expensive and the time you have, you can make it as exciting or as quiet as you wish.
Thursday, 26th September 2002
Tonight, I or we all have something planned! Phoebe, James and I will all be going to our first Japanese lesson. It begins tonight. I really don't know what to expect and also we aren't quite sure where it is! I'm sure that we will be ok though! Last night, near the end of work, Hotsuike-san was speaking to me. Nothing in particular, he was just very friendly. Its nice to know that people will talk to you. Right, I have to leave now, Japanese class is coming up very soon!
Friday, 27th September 2002
Last night's Japanese class was quite enjoyable, although I feel that they may have got the groups slightly mixed up. James said that he was put into a difficult group, while I was put into the group where basics were being taught! So, being taught 'kore wa nan desu ka?' and replying, 'Kore wa ringo desu..' didn't really benefit me at all. Aside from that, all the people are very friendly and they aren't really teachers, I think that they are all volunteers. We met some familiar faces that I have seen before at international meetings and some new ones. As the new term for schools has started, we are seeing a lot more foreigners around Takasaki, mostly from the JET teaching program. I met Tera, Reggie, Franklin, Amy, who are all in my group (sorry if I spelt your names wrong!) There were people from all ranges of ability in the complete class, but everyone seems to have stayed in Japan for far longer than I have. I hope that this isn't a sign of things to come in terms of my development in learning Japanese.
Monday, 30th September 2002
It's the end of yet another month. Over the weekend, I didn't really do anything too special. I didn't plan anything out or anything and so I just kept myself busy doing nothing in particular, which I think I am particulary good at. However, On Saturday, I did venture out to Takasaki with James for a few drinks. James' girlfriend gave us some Korean drinks and so we drank those. I can't say that I noticed much difference at the time, but when I woke up on the Sunday, I felt as if my head was going to explode! Thankfully, I'm feling better today.. but I'll remind myself to stay away from 'Jinroh'!
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