Cherry Blossom Adventures

No not chicken…chikan…

Well yesterday I apoligised for having nothing interesting to write about and then this morning I was touched up on the train (To tell you the truth I would of rathered have a boring day instead of this). I have met with a few weirdos while in Japan, especially on trains, or late at night you might come across a couple of drunk salary men making comments about you but never anything as bold as today. And I have never felt physically worried or scared over anything like this before…

Yamanote-sen is one of the busiest train lines in Tokyo especially early in the morning. Any Aussies out there remember the TV ad where John Eels (I think?) the footballer was seen pushing all those Japanese people onto the train. Well that job actually exists and while you don’t see it every day the train was like that this morning, and when I hopped on at Shinjuku we were all smushed in like sardines. To tell you the truth I am kind of used to that part…

Well a middle aged man, standing quite close to me, kept looking at his watch, and each time would graze my breast. At first I thought it was kind of an accident until he put his hand under my sweater. I looked at him, kind of giving him a death stare but it was impossible to move and I didn’t want to say anything in case it really had just been an accident. Next stop, I try to move away but instead get pushed up against a wall and the guy kind of follows me and then in between that stop and the next one he did it again. I looked at him again and said STOP IT (in japanese) and then by this stage had a little more room so tried to move away a little so that my shoulder was near his chest instead of us facing straight on. Well I honestly thought that would be the end of it but nope…then he groped my bum. By this stage I was so shocked that he had been so bold, especially after I had asked him to stop (One other guy touch my breast once and I grabbed his hand and told him to stop and he ran away and got off the next stop). When this sort of thing happens I have always been told to say “CHIKAN” which mean groper, grab them and pull them off the next stop, because usually there are station hands at almost each train door exit. But I was so shocked I didn’t do any of those things, and then my stop came and he actually had the nerve to grin at me. I felt disgusted. I have heard a lot about this, and I was surprised that I did not act in a different way. I had always thought that if saying stop did not work that I would be the first to yell chikan and cause a scene. But instead I got off my stop and was actually worried that he might of gotten off and followed me…I kind of felt sick….

The girl next to me, saw what was going on, and turned away. I do not know if anybody else noticed.

They are common on busy trains…especially the chou-sen, yamanote-sen and the one that goes to Saitama (saikyo sen?)…usually they are business man in their 50’s dressed in suits and run away or get off as soon as you say something or try to alert somebody else (This is what I have heard, and also talked about with my teachers today) and in recent years there has been an increase in this sort of thing…especially with men touching junior high school and highschool girls who are less likely to say anything.

I hope tomorrow is a normal day in which nothing interesting happens …even if it means my blog is dull!

Any other foreign women living here in Japan have any tips if I am in this situation again?

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I have nothing interesting to write about as my weekend was fairly quiet although had dinner with Alex & Ei-chan on Friday who have recently gotten together and are so adorable….Plus I was happy to introduce Ei-chan to buritos (He was happily surprised because when he used to visit me as a student a couple of years ago all I ever made for him was pizza or pasta…Don’t get me wrong I could cook other things back then but they were the easiest…)

My friend James was here Saturday and he found a hair in his Obento…I know he reads my blog so I thought I’d bring it up again because I want to know if he gags while reading this post. I didn’t actually see the hair…and I was not allowed to bring it up because he kept gagging. So James….haha there was a hair in your Obento box (Obento box is like a lunch box that usually you buy at the supermarket or conbini usually with some meat or fish, rice and then either a salad or something gross and pickled. I am not a huge fan……I am less of a fan now that I know there was a hair in one (Also it was a classy obento box also…expensive one from lonlon!)…….GROSS!!!

It reminded me of that story about how someone found a human finger in their can of coke?!

Anyone got any crazy gross food stories…Please don’t make them too gross because then I will gag…Which is never fun!

Ps: I apologise for the recent lack in decent posts…I don’t really have much to say and while my blog has always been kind of dull I now seem to have no inspiration….any hints?? Maybe all the coffee is doing my head in…

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Unfortunately nothing intresting is really happening at the moment but I did join a couple of flickr groups including 365days, What do you want and 26 things as well as a couple of others so that I could look around at the photos. For 365days you are supposed to take a self portrait of yourself everyday for 365 days…I am only 5 days in and already I was late posting yesterday (Although I did take the photo yesterday morning hehe). The 26 things project is something a couple of other bloggers whose blogs I read have done. Notably Martine over at Frangipani and Kinki at 35degrees, both of who are fantastic photographers!! I know a couple of other great photographers who read my blog as well that might be intrested in the 26 things project so check it out. There should be a new list coming up in the next week or so for November…

I on the other hand, while know how to hold my camera, focus and shoot, lack the talent that a lot of others out there have whether they are professionals or not. By joining these couple of groups I hope to be able to learn to take better photos and improve on my own techniques…I love taking photos and I take a lot (most of which are kind of crap!!) so it seems like a good idea to actually work on taking better ones.

Since I have nothing else to chat about today (and hey I wouldn’t want to bore you to sleep!!) thought I would post the first five photos from the first five days of my 365days challange! (Go see D’Jen’s flicker also as I know she has started too!!!…In fact I stole the idea off her!)

Maybe after another 360 days I will have gotten to be a better photographer!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

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Some of you might remember writing about seeing/hearing a Japanese guy do Beatles covers outside the station a couple of weeks back. Well if not read about it here. Anyway I went again tonight, with my camera, despite the rain to get a couple of shots. I have become quite hooked on his original stuff also and he knows me by name (”Rorachan”) as this is now the third time I have seen him. I googled his band name and I did not realize that they actually had quite a few Cd’s and a webpage etc etc so might have to get myself one of those. (For the record he is one of three members from a band called Jetter-3)…

I have even made a new friend, Chie, a Korean girl who came up to me the second time I was there and said ” Yay another foreigner” In Japanese…..I was sort of like “what the…” because I embarrassingly had not realized she was not Japanese. So despite the crappy weatherI went along tonight to have another listen…

Anyway on with the photos (for Deb who requested them) and a couple of videos that unfortunately do not do him much justice…but have a look and a listen anyway! I still have no idea how old he is but he doesn’t look much older than 20 or 21 but he might be older than that. Is it just me though or is he a real cutie?

Have a listen to him here. I have another video of him singing his own stuff but YouTube is not cooperating with me at all. Below is some other random shots from weekend and today…I said I would try to get some photos right? The one below of the mystery man is one of my favourite photos…Not sure why. I see this guy everywhere…He was there tonight standing near where Beatles Boy was playing…He is always wearing that hat, grey clothes and carrying 3-4 pens and colouring in and drawing on the pictures you see below…

These first two photos show todays weather…Not great hey? Cold and a bit miserable!! And the last photo is of Chip the super cute Shiba-ken Dog!! The dog belongs to Kozoe & Taku. Taku plays soccer with Shumpei so whenever I go watch I get to play with Chip (I just heard that poor Taku broke his shoulder during the game on Sunday…Silly boy. He went in for a tackle and the other team got a penalty kick…He layed on the ground a bit going “Itai Itai” (It hurts It hurts) then got up continued playing and was fine…well turns out it must of really hurt!…Hope he gets better soon)

For more photos check out my Flickr

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I came home on Thursday and said to Shumpei*

Me:There is a great cafe near the school and it is so cheap so I will be able to study there before coming home

Shumpei: How much?

Me: 220yen for a latte

Shumpei: Veloce cafe?

He was spot on. I think perhaps he drinks too much coffee…

* Conversation translated and edited slightly

My latest coffee obsession is Hot White Chocolate Mocha from starbucks. The coffee at Tully’s is really good too. But the best coffee I have ever had in Japan is at a little cafe near Nissan in Roppongi….It is possibly the best coffee ever…they also had really nice breakfasts and lunches….despite being Japanese owned it was like going to a cafe back home!!!! It is actually a bit of a shame that I don’t work out that way anymore…..One thing I do not understand however is why Japanese people seem to think that a cappuccino needs to have cinnamon on top? I am not a huge fan of cinnamon so when I used to order a coffee at the restaurant next to work after lunch i would say cappuccino with no cinnamon please. And the waiter would go ” Oh you mean a latte”…How does cinnamon define a cappuccino and latte?

I never used to drink coffee…I think most people are like that at first right? The first time I lived in Japan at 19 I never drank coffee but I still spent a lot of time at cafes with friends especially on the weekend…Me with my orange juice and them with there iced coffees and hot machiatos. Everyone always saying…”oh you are young Laura but you will be drinking coffee soon.” I am not sure exactly when I switched over to the dark side but it was while I was back in Australia last year…I started out drinking mocha’s but now will drink almost all coffee although I prefer hot over iced…I think i figured that drinking coffee is such a social thing that I could no longer cut it by drinking juice and water. So at 20 I started drinking coffee and I am afraid now it will be a life long addiction….

(The first time I actually drank coffee and enjoyed it though was actually January 2005, while at the snow in Japan. I think however this was just a reaction to the cold…plus It was more like hot milk and sugar with a little bit of coffee but it was so good at keeping me warm!)

I now drink at least two coffees a day…Sometimes I make my own but usually it is on the way to work or school and then again at lunch time with a lunch set or something. I think coffee will come in handy a lot over the next 6 weeks while studying for my exam!! Is coffee, like beer, something you have to grow into? Is there anyone that actually liked coffee the first time they tried it!!

Ok I am off to buy coffee, study and watch Shun play soccer….

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Some photos. I am sorry for the quality…

In between studying this weekend and the gym (and possibly some jewelery making as I am inspired by what D’Jen sent me and what she does with her jewelery business) I am going to try and go somewhere interesting and take some photos. Maybe.

I am going to have dinner with James and Cat later tonight so who knows what the night might bring…

To see all my photos (although I have not added many recently) click here

The first shot is of some jewelery (can’t you tell?) the earrings on the right are the ones that Jen sent me in a parcel recently and the other two are earrings I made (I do realize the red orange pair has a mistake…I think once they are on someones ears though it won’t really matter…I’m going to send them to mum). The second shot is from Tuesday night dinner in Harajuku (If you are ever in Japan you MUST go to Good Honest Grub…It is so nice!!!!) although this photo was taken in a bar a little bit later. It is Emma, me and Jen who are so good to me!!!

Hehe…Deepresso…Coffee in a vending machine. It is trying to say that it has a deep flavour (ie.strong). The second shot is of me & Hiro in the park last weekend…It was freezing and well he wears big clothes and I easily fit inside his jumper…I know it looks like I am dying but I am actually trying to get away from the smoke from his cigarette…And someone took a photo at that very moment….We look like Siamese twins…except I am female and western looking and he is male and Asian looking….

It was a week today since I left my job. I am so much less stressed and happier. While I am grateful for the experiences I had etc etc it was just too much for me in the end. The course is going well. I have lots and lots and lots of study to do but the two teachers I have are helpful and by going back to school it is keeping me motivated to study more where as by myself I was barely doing anything. I went to get a massage after class today with this Chinese guy that lives near me…He said ” Have you had stress recently your muscles are very tight” I said a little but that I was always a little tense and he said he had never seen muscles so tight on a female before… He is so funny. I have been to him once before and he always under charges me and goes over time and then sits and has tea with me after and talks about pressure points and massage. He speaks to me in a mix of Japanese, Chinese and English (Keep in mind I speak NO CHINESE) but we manage to communicate OK. It was nice to have a massage before the weekend, and while it is a treat i certainly can’t afford very often I do feel better for it…

Well better wash up before I go meet James and Cat!!!

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Well since my last post some decisions have been made. I have decided for now, that I won’t be working again at least for a little while.

I start at an intensive program at a Japanese language school tomorrow, 15 hours a week for four weeks, which should help me prepare for my proficiency exam in December. I think the teachers think I haven’t got a chance ( mainly because I have barely done any study for this yet and it requires 600 hours of previous study according to the manual) but I think (I HOPE!!) most of it will come back to me once I get into it a bit more. I have studied a lot of it before but i have forgotten A LOT!!! I will work hard and devote a lot of time outside my classes to studying as well but I have realized now if I want to actually get study done I have to go to a cafe where I don’t have access to the internet, TV or books. I think my coffee habit will grow a lot over the next couple of weeks!!

On Monday night I joined the local gym which is only a minute from my apartment and I went yesterday and today both time for an hour and a half or more. Today I even went to an Aerobics Cardio class with was both strange but good. Strange because I was in a room with 60 Japanese people and because I had never really done aerobics before so had know idea what I was actually doing and it was quite difficult to watch the person in front of me and try and listen and comprehend what the instructor was saying at the same time. It was good though and after the 45 minute class I did 45 minutes of weights and sit-ups and then 20 minutes of Cardio on the jogger/walker machine! My classes tomorrow are from 10am-11-30am and then from 1pm-2:30am so I will have to go to the gym in the afternoon or at night after dinner. It is strange because I would love to get up early in the morning and go first thing but the gym does not open til 9:30??? What kind of time is that for a gym to open? Granted it stays open until 11pm but still…Some of the other Tipness gyms open earlier but this one unfortunately doesn’t. Oh well will have to become an afternoon or evening exerciser, and if I get up early and want to exercise I suppose I could always go for a jog or walk.

Going to the gym and working out is meant to release endorphins and that is one of the reasons I am going. So that I can get my endorphins from that instead of chocolate. The other reasons are to shape up, teach myself to like exercise (as I am not really a fan!) and to lose weight. So that everyone can keep track of my progress I thought I would let everyone know what my weight and BMI etc is so that in a months time when I check in again with the nice little man at the DR FITNESS TRAINING DESK (Yes I kid you not, that is what it is called) I can let you know if my hard work has paid off.

My weight is 72.8kg and my BMI is 25.5. However the scales I stood on there were strange because they told me everything from my BMI to the fact that my left leg had more water in it! Also how much of my body was water, protein, bone and fat. I can’t really say I am big boned anymore because it seems it is actually fat, water and protein and my bones are surprisingly light! I want to lose about 10 kilos but If I got down to 65kg and kept my weight steady I would be happy with that!

In other news-

Last week I received a package from D’Jen and it was so COOL! I have even made some earrings out of the beads she sent me and worn the nightie she made to bed more than once. I love packages and despite the hellish week I had last week it definitely would have been a lot worse without the package! Mine to her should arrive by the beginning of next week so I hope she likes it as much as I like hers. Will post some photos of the earrings I made and the package on Flickr later!

I had dinner last night with Em & Jen at Good Honest Grub in Harajuku. I love that place!! Apparently when Jen was getting shown around the area by her real estate agent he pointed it out and said ” foreigners love that place…I have no idea why!” He was a Japanese man. But really, how could he not know? It is fantastic, the food is great, fresh, and like home. Plus the serve some mean fresh fruit cocktails!! There will be some photos of the night on Flickr eventually although I didn’t really take many! Nice one of Em drinking her nectarine nelly out of a coffee cup though! Bit strange but hey!

Today I caught up with S, who I hadn’t seen in ages!! It was great to see her and have a chat about everything that has been happening recently. She looked really well and I think we will catch up for lunch next week as it just so happens that my language school is right near her place! I am really looking forward to seeing her again and I am sorry that we lost track of each other the last couple of months! Lucky thing travels all over so next time we meet up will have to hear all about her more recent travel adventures!

I know I promised some photos but I really have to make dinner and study now! If i finish the study will load some photos up!! Until next time…

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I know I have not posted in almost a week, and I also know I have not commented much recently around the other blogs, but rest assured I am still reading….and I am alive!!

After a couple of very stressful weeks I resigned from my job on Friday and while I can’t go into much detail, now that I have had more time to think about things I know I made the right decision. I know it may seem as if I gave up very quickly because it wasn’t that long ago that I was posting about my new position and job and what good news it was but like I said I have made the right decision and I feel better (and a hell of a lot less stressed) than I have been since I started the job. It is a bit of a shame because I really loved my internship but I guess it was not meant to be…

After a turbulent couple of weeks while I have not come to any real firm decisions yet I will be staying in Japan for the time being and it looks as if until December I might enroll in a language course since I REALLY need to study a lot if I want to pass my proficiency exam on December 3rd.

I also want to say that I think I have some of the most supportive parents in the world…They have always been fantastic to me but as I get older I realize more and more all that they do for me and continue to do for me. I love them both (and little bro!) so much!! Shumpei has also been really supportive (As have a couple of friends - you know who you are!) and even offered to get a WHV and come to Australia if I wanted to go home. Considering he does not speak much English (although he really wants to learn) and is happy here, and has a good job, it was amazing for him to even offer.

Since I will have a little bit more free time, at least over the next couple of days, I will try to upload some half decent posts with photos!!

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Well the wedding is over and I am exhausted. It was over yesterday, but I am still exhausted and feel like I could sleep for days! It was my first Japanese wedding experience (Although it was funny because I actually went to a wedding reception the day before also….I think I like the nijikai’s (like receptions but with friends and not family) a lot better!!)

There are a couple of photos on flickr here. Basically it was a lot like other weddings but in Japanese and I felt slightly left out most of the time because there are certain things only family can do, so Shumpei would have to leave me and go into this room, or go collect the money gifts or go for photos etc. It was also stressful due to the amount of Japanese I was consuming and the amount of bowing I was doing. Not to mention all the polite smiles when people told us we would be next… (I was freaked out by this at first but was told by Shun later that because he is the younger sibling that everyone feels they have to say this).

Kazumi looked beautiful. I had only met her once or twice but she is lovely. Aniki (Taka) was quite nervous in the morning when we were at the house. Sitting is room smoking like a chimney…before he went to the hotel and put on the rental suit (couldn’t smoke then now could he!). He looked lovely too. It was a really nice ceremony and the reception went well. It is all very organized and the staff of the hotel are everywhere, lifting the dress and making sure everyone is in the right place….

The foreign minster (fake minister!?!) at the Sherton Hotel Glass chapel was kind of funny….Reading his script in Japanese and using English and everything. I am guessing he doesn’t actually speak much Japanese because his accent and pronunciation was a bit off. I have heard about this ministers before but had never seen one so that was kind of funny…You can see him in the back of the photo above! Japanese girls want the traditional western style white wedding and I guess the foreign minister completes this…

I would go into more detail but I really need to sleep!!! Maybe more details next time….

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The last couple of days have not been that great.

So sorry for lack of blogging.

A typhoon hit Tokyo Thursday night and continued through Friday. On Friday I took an umbrella from phone and it turned inside out and almost poked my eye out due to the spokes…I proceeded to have two other umbrellas break during the day. Three umbrellas in one day…how is that even possible? (I did see broked umbrellas littered aroudn the streets yesterday though!)

I walked home soaked because I was determined I was not going to buy another umbrella. I have not been able to go for walks/jogs because of the weather. ALthough I did cycle yesterday.

I think Friday put me in a bad mood for yesterday and I was just grumpy all day. Now I am back at Shumpei`s parents house and his brothers wedding is tomorrow and well I am nervous because it is not normal for GIRLFRIENDS to go to this sort of thing and I know his mum would prefer if we pretended we were engaged but I won`t do it. I am sure by the end of day my brain will have exploded due to an overload of Japanese….

It is almost midday so I should probably wake Shun up….

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