My glasses

Wow, I can't believe this...

Last weekend I went up the Landmark Tower with my hairdresser, Ryu. After that we went to a restaurant for dinner. And the next day I realised I'd lost my glasses. So that night I returned to the Tower and the restaurant to inquire, but they hadn't found them. So I left my contact details with the Landmark Tower security people, so that if the glasses appeared, someone would call me.

But a week passed and nobody called, so I resigned myself to the thought that I'd have to buy a new pair. I also emailed Ryu to ask him if he'd seen the glasses, but he hadn't.

Today I got a haircut and caught up with Ryu. He asked me various questions about my glasses and seemed more concerned than I was (not that I was looking forward to buying expensive new glasses, mind you).

And now, just then, I got a call from him. After finishing work, he travelled to the Landmark Tower himself, enquired with the staff, found my glasses, and is now coming all the way to my suburb to personally return them to me. The total travel time for him is at least an hour.

Can you believe that? I can't believe the level of kindness I experience in this country... I feel very lucky!!

Preschool class pro-Obama

Today, apropos of nothing, one of my 3-year-old students suddenly said "yes we can!!" The 3-year-old boy next to her immediately picked up on it and both of them kept saying "yes we can!!"

I had never taught them this. It's official, everyone in Japan now knows this phrase.

Speaking of the small kids, one of the mums said her girl is practising the vocabulary cards at home, saying the words. Apparently her favourite card is 'hungry'. Hahaha.

The other day we had a class where the objective was "do you like __?" "yes I do/no I don't". So I had some various foods, and I grouped them according to "yes" or "no". I put ketchup in the 'no' category, so I tried to get them to repeat "Do you like ketchup? No, I don't! No, I don't!"

Instead of repeating it, the girl said, "demo ketchup oishii yo" (but... ketchup's delicious...). I guess at least she understood...

Ski trip ^_^

Guess what? I'm going snowboarding up north in Niigata prefecture. ^_^ I've booked it for the weekend after next. Five of us are going; I spent half an hour in negotiations with a travel agent using my extremely poor Japanese. But with success!! There's some chance I will try skiing as well; I'm not sure.

I'm slightly nervous about it. When I said this to my Japanese teacher, she immediately told me about someone she knew who broke their leg snowboarding. When I said this to Pete, he told me that 4% of first-time snowboarders get a serious injury; 23% non-serious injuries.

When I said this to my discussion class today, someone told me about their friend who had crashed and then had another snowboarder land on top of him, resulting in injuries that required immediate hospitalisation.

Thanks for your reassurance, guys.

The thing is, I wasn't even worried about injuries. I was just worried about it being a bit too scarily fast and uncontrolled, and not being very good at it. But anyway, by and large I'm really looking forward to it, despite everyone's horror stories.

The final straw was when I was teaching my kid's class today, and we reached the listening/reading section together. I read aloud: "Sarah went skiing. She broke her foot. Now she stays in bed."

I'm sure my student had no idea why I kept laughing uncontrollably during this sad tale.

Nihongo noryoku shiken

I'd just like to say that I got my Japanese Proficiency Test 3-kyuu results, and I passed.

!! ^_^

My overall score was 85%. ^_^

Writing/vocabulary: 77%
Listening: 91%
Reading/grammar: 86%

I'm really pleased. Halfway through last year, I was at the level of being able to pass level 4. In six months I did about 150 hours worth of study to get up to level 3.

I have to admit though, in the last few weeks I've had 'study fatigue' and have been too lazy to study much at all. So I'm going to take a break for a while. ^_^

The local post office

I mentioned that much of my suburb seems to be under construction. Oddly, in the last two days, a makeshift vegetable shop has sprung up on the footpath outside the local post office. Suddenly the whole walk there is covered with sagging cardboard boxes full of cheap onions and eggplants and so on, the prices written on the boxes in black marker. I don't know why the post office is suddenly host to this local 'market'.

You know, a lot of this city seems so high-tech and clean and modernised; occasionally it can just feel like any city, but little things like that really bring home to me that I'm living in Asia. I know that sounds strange, but...

Day trip

(click a picture to see it enlarged; more pictures on flickr soon)
(long post ahead!!)

It's always been a source of irritation to me that I've never got a good view of Mt Fuji. It's not through lack of trying. I've been to Hakone expressly to see Mt Fuji, only to go to the wrong place and run out of time to see it. I've been on the famous Kyoto-Tokyo shinkansen, which is supposed to have a great view of Fuji. Nothing. I even climbed the mountain, but it was so foggy and rainy that five minutes away from it, I couldn't see it at all.

Anyway, I was determined that before my time was up, I WOULD get a good view of Mt Fuji. The mountain is famously elusive; even on a slightly cloudy day, it is often completely obscured. You can be quite close to it and not see it at all. My impression of last spring, summer, and autumn, was that it seemed to be cloudy much more often than not. (That's one thing I miss about Australia. Pure sunshine...)

So I put my hopes on winter, and for the first time this weekend had a) a totally free Sunday with b) a picture of a sun on Google weather!

Woke up unnaturally early this morning and argued with myself as to whether I really wanted to make all the effort to go to Hakone... it's an hour and a half away, and then takes a *lot* of travelling to get around. Also, I wasn't sure I wanted to go by myself; Hakone was sure to be full of Tokyoites on day trips. It might be depressing travelling by myself. (When I first came to Japan, I always travelled by myself. But recently I've always done stuff with people, so I've gotten used to it.)

If I really wanted to see Mt Fuji, maybe I could go to the Five Lakes district instead. But a quick check told me that would take 2 1/2 hours to get *there*. (2 1/2 hours!! It takes less time to get to Kyoto!!) In comparison, Hakone sounded very attractive indeed, so off I went. After all, I told myself, if I stayed home watching Japanese dramas and playing DS games, it might be relaxing, but it wouldn't be a future memory.

I got a Hakone Free Pass, which gives you unlimited transport around Hakone for a set price. This saved a lot of hassles buying tickets, especially as my first mode of transport was a bus with those alarming 'creeping prices'. Some buses here - and I hate this - have fares that go up as the bus passes each stop, and your fare depends on the distance you travel. So if you get off after one stop, you pay 160 yen... after four you might pay 300... after ten, 700, etc...

The Hakone 'recommended course' goes like this:

Hakone-Yumoto to Gora (via Hakone-Tozen railway, a scenic but extremely slow train),

Gora to Sounzan (via a cablecar, which seems to stop every twenty seconds or so; walking would quite possibly be faster),

Sounzan to Togendai via Owakudani (via ropeway),

Togendai to Hakonemachi (via the sightseeing pirate ships!! on Lake Ashi)

Hakonemachi to Moto-Hakone-ko on foot

Moto-Hakone-ko to Hakone-Yumoto (via Hakone Tozan bus)

So you can see the course offers a lot of different types of transport. A quick look at the timetables revealed that all but the first two closed ridiculously early - seems like EVERYTHING in Hakone finishes before 4:30 - so I did the whole lot in reverse.

To the lake

I went to Lake Ashi on the Tozan bus. I get the idea that most of Hakone looks pretty similar. Which isn't to say the scenery is boring - it's not. There are so many mountains, and more trees than you can poke a stick at. Seriously, I don't know if I've ever seen so many trees anywhere before. In winter, when a lot of them are bare, it's not at its best, but it's still beautiful. I saw several hawks too.



I'd never been to this side of Hakone before and I really enjoyed the ride. As Google promised, the weather was fantastic. It was a 40-minute-ish bus ride past lots of whistle stops. (I think most of them corresponded to hot springs; Hakone is hot spring heaven.) Very relaxing, and actually, there weren't that many people around.

Once I hit Lake Ashi I had the real feeling of "I'm travelling again; I'm seeing things I've never seen". The lake was beautiful in the sunshine, and as I walked along the bank, I suddenly caught sight of a familiar white shape at the top of the hill...



Could it be... could it be... it was! And what a view!



It looks great in the pictures but seeing it in reality was amazing. Until that moment I'd been slightly on edge thinking 'what if the direction of the sun makes it unviewable by the time I get to see it; what if clouds suddenly come in'. Now that I had seen a brilliant view of it, I could relax.

Then I walked down to Hakonemachi through a pathway lined with cedars. I also went through the Hakone Checkpoint, a museum reconstructing the checkpoint which used to be part of the old Tokaido highway, with armed guards at the entrance, etc. Actually, I entered this museum unintentionally; it had an entrance fee, so I thought I'd walk around it, only to soon realise that I'd unwittingly entered the museum itself. Fortunately none of the ticket inspectors seemed very interested in me. I guess checkpoint security is not what it once was, hahaha.

Across the lake

From Hakonemachi I took one of the pirate ship boats across the lake. I was lucky enough to get a seat upstairs on the deck. I think most of the Japanese people thought it was too cold up there, because people kept coming up, sitting down, saying 'samui' and leaving again.

Unfortunately, a group of 'foreigners' (sorry, I call all white people foreigners now, it's a result of living here) were unbothered by the cold and acted like a bunch of 12-year-olds, dancing around (literally dancing a LOT) and making weird noises and generally creating a wide berth around them. I can't convey how embarassing they were.

While I was trying to ignore them, looking in the other direction, a Japanese boy about 10 years old said 'hello' to me. So I said hello and asked him his name (in English). "My name is Tetsuo," he said, and then we had a short conversation in Japanese and English. His mother asked me if the other foreigners were friends of mine and I said emphatically that I didn't know them; I was travelling alone. Hahaha...

Later, I was standing by the rail looking out at the lake, and Tetsuo found me again, and his eyes lit up. He called my name (with -san ^_^) and came to stand next to me. "Is it your first time on this boat?" he asked me in very clear, simple Japanese. (Adults rarely speak so clearly to me.) I said it was. He said it was his first time too. It's nice weather, isn't it, I said. Yes, and there are no clouds, he said. What are you doing after this? I asked him. I'm going home, he said. I'm going to Owakudani, I said.

It was a simple conversation but it put me in a good mood for the next hour. ^_^ He was such a nice boy. ^_^

Once we reached Togendai, I lined up for the ropeway. A few people behind me, the annoying foreigners came in. I started counting how many people were going in each car, hoping that I wouldn't be with them. Fortunately I was safe.

Owakudani

We took the ropeway up, and the scenery was beautiful. At this point the afternoon sun was low in the sky so half the hill was bright and orange; the other was half-hidden in glare. Mt Fuji was still huge and clearly visible in the sky as we climbed the hill.

Soon I saw Owakudani approaching. It's quite a sight. It's nicknamed 'hell valley' and it's a volcanic crater full of sulfuric activity. Very cool-looking.



The specialty of Owakudani are the eggs which are boiled in the natural hot water. These eggs are supposed to prolong your life by 7 years. Their shells turn black. Unfortunately, by the time I finished eating a laaate lunch (tempura and soba, mmm), the eggs were all sold out. So instead I ate a Kitty egg. Since cats have nine lives, I guess I've prolonged mine by 63 years.



I mentioned before that everything in Hakone closes crazy early. I thought I'd checked the timetables but when I returned to the ropeway at 4:30 I found it had finished 15 minutes earlier. Ummm. Great. I knew bus timetables also finished really early in that area, so I was slightly concerned about how I was going to get back to Hakone-Yumoto.

As I walked back outside I thought that in a worst-case scenario I could buy some kind of gift at the gift shop, ask some random Japanese families (who had cars) for a ride, and then give them the gift at the end. This kind of request would be even more unusual in Japan than in Australia - people here very rarely ask strangers for favours. Fortunately I didn't have to try it out, as there was a bus to Sounzan (unfortunately not covered by my free pass, so that was some wasted money...).

Back home

From Owakudani it was a long stretch back home. Ten minutes to Sounzan. Ten minutes on the cable car; 40 minutes on the train to Hakone-Yumoto; 15 minutes on another train to Odawara, then an hour and a half home. Not to mention all the waiting times. Yeah, Hakone is not really a convenient place to just drop by. For all the return journey it was dark and I was just knackered.

The girl sitting opposite me on the train to Hakone-Yumoto was wearing an elaborate kimono. I assumed she'd been to a wedding or something. I think it was the kind of kimono called 'furisode', and it had very long, thick, dangling sleeves. It was interesting to watch her sit down. She couldn't just sit; she had to carefully adjust herself, and then arrange one sleeve to hang carefully over her lap, then the other sleeve. Throughout the journey she was continually, subtly checking her kimono's status out; adjusting bits and pieces, tugging at the obi in the middle, etc.

When I was waiting in Gora, I remembered the last time I went there. It was 3 years ago, with Yan. It was as far as we got in Hakone, and I remember resenting it for not having a view of Mt Fuji. Really, there is nothing there, just as I remembered.

Hakone is a very Japanese place. I remember thinking that the first time I went there. Its most popular activity is its hot springs. It's full of tea houses and places selling amazake (sweet sake), Japanese architecture, omiyage and countless bits and pieces of local history and culture. But this time the Japanese-ness of it was less mysterious than before. I could some of the food, some of the omiyage, some of the signs.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Progress, progress

My neighbourhood seems to be very much under construction these days. I may've mentioned the new apartment building being built next to mine. And I mean RIGHT next to mine. The work seems to be roughly at ear level, too. This morning it was drilling.

But that building's not all; in the last two or three weeks I've seen the closure of several shops I walked past every day; shops that've been there since I first came; shops I've never been in and rarely seen any customers in. I feel that way about most of the shops and restaurants in my suburb - how can they make a living? I guess some of them can't.

Most notable was the convenience store (admittedly, there had been three convenience stores within 250m of each other), which not only closed, but was demolished and razed to the ground. Now it's a big empty lot, nothing but flat, perfectly smooth gravel. I wonder what will appear there??

***

Speaking of progress, I'm still loving the renovated Kawasaki BE (department store). The basement level is one big food hall and oh! Beard Papa's cream puffs are GREAT.

Krispy Kreme donuts is my pick though. (Japanese people call them 'Krispy donuts'.) Today I went there for the first time. Usually Murphy's Law operates - when I want to go and buy donuts, there's far too long a line; when I'm in a bit of a hurry and don't have time, there's almost nobody. But today the stars aligned and the line was only a dozen people.

It's a fairly small store but well organised against the crowds. While waiting in line, someone is on hand to pass out menus and - oh glee! - a free glazed donut. I thought they only did that when the line was really long, to keep the customers sweet.

This donut was warm and fresh from the oven, mmm.... sadly for them I'd been in the middle of tossing up whether to get one or two glazed donuts, and getting a free one kind of clinched the deal. Generally though, in Japan, it's probably a safe sales strategy. As I've mentioned before, Japanese people tend not to buy just one or two individual snacks, but whole boxes of them.

Anyway, they also have staff taking your order both at the counter and in the line, and then giving you a register number - there are five cash registers. Every staff member is manically busy all the time. I feel bad for them...

Disney Sea

Today I went to Disney Sea with Yumi (my head teacher). It was a great day! It got a bit cold after dark, but the day was sunny and clear.

Now, Tokyo has two Disney theme parks, right near each other: Disney Land and Disney Sea. Let me tell you, there is definitely a market for two Disney parks. Disney is hugely popular here, and on the weekends there are always hordes of people. Accordingly, we went on Monday, and it generally wasn't bad (though a couple of rides perpetually had 90 minute waits, this is still nothing compared to peak times!).

Anyway, Disney Sea is quite different from the traditional Disney Land. Two of the 'lands' are overtly Disney - one themed on The Little Mermaid (and it was amazing!!!) and the other on Aladdin (also really cool!). The other lands are various water-based places - a land themed to look like Venice, one like old-style New York, one like a mysterious island, etc.

The best thing about Disney parks is that as soon as you get there, you feel like a kid again.

I ate a lot of food and went on a few rollercoasters and lots of other rides. We rode on gondolas, went 20,000 leagues under the sea, survived the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, passed through the eye of a storm, and various other adventures. Indiana Jones was probably my favourite ride. We got our photos taken with Aladdin, who surprised me by being American and greeting us in perfect, American English. Hahaha...

We also got to see several shows, including an amazing big band cabaret show, and an equally amazing fantasy show on the lake involving loads of enormous decorated boats, dancers, kites, fountains, Disney characters, and fireworks. If you've never been to a Disney park before, it's hard to believe how lavish it can all be. No expense is spared, it seems.

The strangest show was one we accidentally happened upon in Aladdin's world. Imagine you are in an Arabic-themed 'town'. A bunch of Japanese guys in shiny Arabic clothes are playing a face-shredding 'Smoke on the water' interspersed with 'Prince Ali' (from Aladdin). A bunch of cute Japanese girls in harem-y clothes have brought some guys up from the audience, given them random implements, and told them to play air guitar along to the music. So one guy is 'playing' a sword, another is playing a lamp, and the third is playing a rug. The girls are belly-dancing, and the Japanese dudes are playing electric guitar with a Middle Eastern wail. Very surreal.

At the end I bought 'omiyage' (souvenir gifts) for my co-worker whose birthday it was recently. Now, Disney did a very wise thing coming to Japan. Nobody buys merchandise like the Japanese do. You get a combination of the 'omiyage' culture (where everyone has to buy gifts for their co-workers, friends, family, dog, etc), and a 'willing to buy anything as long as it's vaguely cute' culture, and it must be very lucrative indeed.

It never ceased to astonish me (and I have lived in Japan over a year!) just how many people were walking around wearing Mickey (or other character) ears, hats, bows, etc; walking around with popcorn buckets around their neck, carrying Disney bags, etc.... even so many guys wearing Stitch heads or Genie hats or whatever...

Japanese girls are the main target. And it's Valentine's Day soon, so there were loads of Valentine's-y souvenirs, for example matching Minnie and Mickey toys/keychains/t-shirts/handkerchiefs/etc where you buy the 'set' and each member of the couple keeps one of them. I think a lot of men were forced to accept Mickey paraphernalia today.

I admit though, the main Valentine's image they used was so cute even I bought a little photo album with the picture on it... cast ye not stones... hahah...

Speaking of Disney Land, I have one student, a girl about 20, who goes every week. I'm not kidding. Every week. She has a yearly pass. She has been there at least 40 times. I know!!

Anyway it was a grand day and I very much enjoyed Yumi's company. I may post a few pictures on my web album this week. (By the way, I updated it a few days ago. If you don't have my album's address, please email me. I don't want it to be public though. ^_^)