Okay, bad news on the whole culture shock thing. NO CHRISTMAS!! I could live with having to figure out how to roast something with no real oven, and do roast tatties and sweet potatoe, but not having a bloody holiday to celebrate it on. Well thats just rude! I should have examined the holiday schedule a little closer before I sign the transfer contract. In hind sight I guess easter is off the calendar as well. (10 minutes later), yup its confirmed, no easter as well!

Well I suppose it had to happen sooner or later with all this wandering around that I’d stumble into a place that does not have my fundamental holidays. Hey I’ve been stealing everyone else’s fundamental ones (like thanks giving), but it does beg the question why not steal christmas as well. Its basically a fairly good one to steal. Well other than the having to buy all those presents, then being with all those relatives, but then there is the plus side of receiving all those presnts and being with all your family, so I guess the deciding factor would have to be Christmas dinner.

Now the confusing thing for blondini here is that I saw Tokyu Hands (big home improvement store) selling all sorts of crimbo decorations in the seasonal department, so it sorta figured that Christmas tree’s equalled christmans. Subsequent investigations have determined that Xmas is celebrated with gift giving and dinners, just you don’t get the whole day off. Closer examination would determine that they did steal the best bits of christmas. Well almost, they day off would have been nice, and lets not forget boxing day to recover from over-indulgence.

i wonder if I can take the monday off?

I learnt a new thing today (well i’ve been learning heaps actually, just this one I remember to write about (twice as another thing I learnt was the Lotus Notes does not have a redo button and this is the second time I’ve had to write it.) Today we "did" the post office, I had a letter to send to Australia and needed to get a box to send stuff home to mum and dad. Now with a little careful planning I went at just after 10 hoping it would not be busy. Lessons on post offices in the UK have taught me how to avoid queues. This time I wanted to avoid acute embarrassment of asking for the wrong thing, and oh how it went wrong.

So the actual sending card, buying box went quite well, we determined that I wanted the card to go Airmail and that it was a greeting card (カード), the box was a little tricky, but some quick pointing to the sample in the corner sorted that out promptly. (Thats what there for right?). So feeling rather smug it was time to leave, this is when the caper started to fall apart. Fortunately/unfortunately the bank was empty of customers at the time, you will see why in a second.

Now when I entered the building I was sure that the doors opened automatically for me, it may someone walking ahead of me, but I don’t think recall that. Anyway come leaving time I walk up to the door fully expecting it to slide smoothly open with a sense of satisfaction for a job well done – (just been ready hitch hikers guy to the galaxy), so I was rather perplexed when the door remained firmly stationary, not even a little bleep. The first thing that went through my mind was that the post office had just closed and that the teller had not realised the last customer had failed to exit the building. This may seem strange, but in some of the countries I’ve visited the post office will close for any number of reasons at odd times of the day, from birds flying in the wrong direction to the post master wanting to take a wazz. Trust me it does happen. However on more detailed analysis it dawned on me that Japan is a sophisticated country and not prone to "whatever business hours".

My next thought (which I cannot explain its origin) was that the door was not tuned to Gaijin and would only open for japanese people, given the overwhelming lack of people in the post office this thought actually got some backing. Then I remembered motion detectors are not that selective (yet!). During this whole internal dialog of my mind running through possible causes for the door failure the bit of brain controlling physical movement has got me jumping up and down waving like a one man mexican wave trying to get the motion detector to spark into life. To my endless thanks there was also no one walking along the street at this moment!

Finally giving up I had to go back and politely ask the postal staff that I was having a few little problems with the door. At which point the lovely lady who had served me came out and pressed the handle/switch of the door which very politely said "Press to Exit" in Japanese! I strongly suspect that they are still laughing.

At least I still am..

Yesterday was try and find some light fittings for the apartment. This should be an easy thing to do, except not for me. It appears that my apartment has some new kind of light fitting and all the ones I saw in the shop are the wrong type. Looks like a trip back to Tokyu hands to see what I can locate, did get some cheapy ones that actually work quite for for background lighting.

Now to figure out wood polish at the supermarket after finding that the bench cleaner is also really good at lifting the floor varnish. Yet another go at trial and error to see what does what by checking the picture on the front!

Did I mention I am right next to the “The Garden” this is the equivilant of UK Waitrose and prices to match. Noticed that many things were just that little bit more expensive. Still it’s really nice to have it there, and Tokyo Store before that and Poraroca on the other side of the road, super bloody market heaven.

Well I’ve done it, moved into new location. Place is just wonderful. Here is a the excerpt of email written to parents. Easier than typing the same message over and over again!

The apartment is absolutely brillant, you might call it small but with only me it does not matter. All the furniture fitted except for a coffee table I had brought in London. Well it would have fitted, but then the room would be very crowded. I had purchased it online so had never seen it. Unfortunately/Fortunately it was not "solid" wood (unlike the oak table), but rather laminated effect wood and on closer inspection the lamination was not really very well done either. It happens to be the perfect size for holding potplants on the balcony, so guess where its gone! I don’t know if it will like the climate that much, but it will do for a few years i am sure.

The new oak table it really wonderful. Glad I got the 4 seat size, it fits the room, but does not take over. Had to get some special stuff to put on the bottom of all the furniture as the floors are all wooden. (The floor in the living room also has underfloor heating for Winter.) The kitchen is adequately sized. I would have prefered them to make the shoe closet a little smaller and put in 3 burner stove, but not a major problem, How many times do you use more than two burners? The gas system drives everything and there is a panel in the kitchen that if you press one of the button it will pour your bath at the desired temperature and depth!

Microwave and TV arrived, TV works off the computer so I now have

DVD Player
Radio/Stereo
Video Recorder (once connected to Cable TV)
And my computer, I had planned it before I left and so far it is working a treat. Soon I’ll have it hooked to the internet which I understand is Fibre Optic so will be lightning fast
All in one box. It runs a special version of Windows called Media Centre and I have a remote control that runs everything from the Sofa!! Once all hooked up will be quite something. I’m going to have a go at voice control later as well.

I have to go and buy light fittings tonight as they were not included, nor were curtains, but this does mean i can get to pick my own. The view is huge, feels like you are looking out at the world. There is nothing to block the view, or have neighbours looking in. Gets some decent light as well (which is good if we remember the lack of light fittings). Instructions for everything are in Japanese so some things are a little trial and error. Someone at work today has helped big time with translating, and I found manaul which has english panel for washing machine. Fridge is fairly straight forward and is now happily making ice and keeping everything cold, now to fill it up!

The other thing that I really appreciate particularly after living at the temporary accomodation is just how quiet the place is. No street noise, sirens or such. So nice that you can actually hear in the insects in the trees below. The other place you could not hear yourself think it was so noisy. There is still the background hum of a big city, but thats never going to go away. And you can only hear that with the windows open.

Now that everything is unpacked I am going to spend next few weeks clearing stuff I don’t need as I’ve accumlated so much, particularly clothes and t-shirts. Bit hard thou as most come from different parts of the world!

Well I hoping that I’m finally surfacing out of stage one of culture shock. Got the phone, got the cheap call card, got my life line out to here. Spent 1/2 hour talking to Jane last night which was just great. Makes it feel like I haven’t just dropped off the end of the map into a complete parallel universe. I know that only an email away, or forbin, MSN, but its just not quite the same as hearing a voice on the line!

Starting to get to grips with the job now and have enough work to keep me occupied, and can now start to ramp up and take on more. Its odd I actually used the words にほんご　が　はなめません today with out even thinking them. I hope I got the spelling of that correct. As you may now have figured out I’ve learnt to type hirigana on my keyboard, watch out folks he is on a role, well not really. (2006 – update – the japanese I typed meant – "I don’t speak Japanese")

Move day is tommorow and I’ve got some extra stuff to purchase tonight for the big move, then pack my stuff and we are off. Oh better go and write my new address to carry in my wallet for a while. Bad news is that computer connection will not be ready for new apartment, and i doubt phone either. Real estate agent didn’t quite grasp that fact.

oh well next time. What you mean your going to do this again.!

Well not if you buy your mobile phone (aka. cellphone) in Japan. To start with they use a completely different system from the rest of the world. In Europe you buys your mobile, charge it up (and tell me who ever changes it the recommended first time!), and off you go. Travel off for a quick tan in the sun, no worries you mobile will work, everywhere you take it. Not quite.

The use of mobile phones when travelling has become as second nature as making sure you have credit card. It probably now ranks higher than travellers cheques on the list of things to make sure you take with you. When I first started my own little juant around the globe 7 years ago this was not the done thing, mobiles were still abilt chunky, chargers were a hassle and networks/tariffs did not interlink, or were prohibitively expensive. How much it has changed!

We used to have to rely on email and "internet" phone calls to communicate with friends and family from the outer locations of civilisation (Chaing Mai/Chaing Rai, and forget Luang Prabang – no internet, delightfully refreshing). Even then if your F&F were online you could hear back from them in the same "email session" and the really radically would use Yahoo Messenger and AOL, MSN was not quite the giant it is today.

Makes you think back to the days when there was no such thing as email and communication had to be done by snail mail. Maybe I was one of the very last lucky travellers here as Mum and Dad at that time had a computer, but the internet had not hit the sticks of New Zealand so they were not "Online". The closet they got to real time would be me sending an email to my sister in-law who would print it out, phone them to tell them a fax was on the way, then fax it to them. Many communications back then were done with good old fashioned pen/paper and post office stamps.

Today the next generation of travellers leave with there mobiles all primed up for international roaming and are really never out of touch with friends or family as they as just a phone call/sms message away. The odd impractical time zone issue arises, but in essence we never really lose contact now. Does this dimish the experience of travelling around africa and then phoning to tell mum and dad about it. Hell I phoned Sue from Petra, who am I to talk. I do however feel that we may have lost some of the magic of travel because now its no longer the remote experience it used to be. We used to wait for people to arrive back in the country to sit down and tell us all about it, now we know it all before they land. Still there are always the pictures – Digital – another story to.

Back to phones, well got one, will explain the gory details later. Culture shock is diminishing slightly.

Okay, I could handle one earth quake, but pushing to 3 really noticable ones in one week, why me I ask. This is not counting the couple that I know happened while I was almost asleep. The bed moves in a certain way when the tower is shaking! Figure must have been really bad in previous life. Certainly hope I enjoyed it.

Went shopping to Tokyu Hands during the weekend at Shinjuku which is a mega shopping area, and yep it really is full on. Visually, spacially and aurally its quite an assault on the senses. Tokyu Hand itself is quite manageable and only got crowded towards the end of my visit. Found rubber matting to put under furniture to protect floors and picked up a toolkit. Located what appears to be picture hooks but shied away until can confirm what landlord will allow, so overall rather pleased with result of actually locating and purchasing.

Even located Ironing board, but was not feeling brave enough to enquire about delivery, could justify this in many ways as still waiting for confirm of local transit included in move, plus confirmation of final address, actually loads of excuses to cover that I’m to chicken shit to try it out for afraid will get it wrong. Really must get over that scary cat thing, but not easy which surrounded by people who cannot understand you. And that even if they can speak english perfectly cos mine is not perfect and difficult even for english to understand.

Back to sign language maybe. Moved on to track down a really nice fridge, but again without confirmation of house not much could be done. Actually its all waiting on that now. Oh how I am looking forward to my own pillows!

So the plan so was to go for a run last night. Sounds all very healthy and good for the psych. The climate was even kind enough to have stopped raining. It was halfway home that I remembered the bruise and something on my foot. They arrived to my consious on Saturday morning which getting up I realised that something hurt. Closer examination revealed the beginnings of a rather nice brush and a lump of missing skin.

Problem is I’m not completely sure how they occured and since they were not present Friday morning will have to be attributed to "Unidentified Friday Night Injuries", and I am sure you all know what I am talking about. The injuries that you don’t recall because you don’t really remember them hurting you at the time, thanks to the wonderful events of Friday night drinks. I wish it was something glamerous, but suspect it was a dropped object such as frying pan. Oh well, not running!

Instead we replaced running with an aggressive bout of Ironing, why!. Well my new iron arrived from Amazon (next day delivery free, some thing rock here). So obviously I had to find out of it was any good. I am really have got sad, and also the owner of a totally ironed wardrobe.

Giving some serious thought as to wether I should be here or not, its not exactly been stimulating for my mind so far. Perhaps take a loss and just get someone where I familiar with things. shite third symptom.

On the bright side there was somethig I saw today that just made be laugh about Tokyo, and damned if I can remember what it was. May lunch which was delicious, sushi hand rolls that you have to unroll, remove the wrapping then roll again. Bit fiddly, but highly tasty.

Yesterday not the best day, did not succeed in the slightest at finding insurance, and have received nothing back from the real estate agent, or the lease company. I am coming to the slow conclusion that things move rather slowly here in Japan across the board. How slow, well it makes the UK look positively hare like.

I guess for us foreigners the compitition is not that strong so a degree of "who cares" settles in. But hey we do have some excitment today, I get to pickup my "alien registration card" to officially begin my life as an alien, I can also open a bank account, which promises to be a long and drawn out process, but then again I could be surprised. We shall see and report back all the gory details.

Well the vending machines here as just as capable of turning out bad coffee and tea as elsewhere. It must be a universal law that internal free vending machines must turn out crap so that we are forced to go out and buy our coffee. If you took a deep look at the vending companies and traced all there accounts back via the caymen island you will no doubt find a consortium of Starbacks, Nero and other lead players secretly controlling the quality of free coffee vending machines. Looks like I’m up for a walk downstairs for a Latte anyhow.

Feel totally tired all the time at the moment, not really sure why, may be the dismal weather outside, last night it was raining kittens and puppies for the walk home. Or perhaps its being forced to watch 70/80s reruns on Super Channel. Actually its rather fun watching CHiPs again. The stories are quite delightful, male chavenism still rules, AIDs and other problems did not exist and everyone walked around with big hair and smiles. Its a glimpse back to a time of innocence that is now forever gone.

Well its almost the end of the working day, and I’ve not got a lot more to report. Tuesday is always a little bit interesting in that I’ve some routine stuff to do!

Got the bank account open with very little problems at all. Actually to be brutally honest it was easier that opening one in Britain. Well in this case easier and cheaper. First step was to pickup my Alien Registration Card. For those curious this does not mean that I come from somewhere outside the orbit of pluto (although some will argue differently.), then wander over to the bank with this, my passport and some address information. Within 30 minutes walk out with Bank account, and application for credit card. Sometimes the hard things are easy and the easy things hard.

Well to cure today bout of culture shock I’m going to head home and go for a run around the whole park! With my faded tan its will be an interesting point of who is shocking who. Revenge is such an ugly trait, but hey did I ever say I was perfect!!!

And the other achivement today was get 145 out of 155 hirijana charactors right in a test. Now to work on the entire alphabet, baby steps!!

Well folks
I had my very first earthquake yesterday. Now you may think, so what, well at my core (dig deep, real deep) , I’m still just a country boy from outback New Zealand, and my particular bit of NZ sticks doesn’t know what an earthquake is. The closet we would get is a mug slide, or a particularly low flying fletcher airplane. So big areas of terra firming shaking is not something I was looking forward to.

Actually I didn’t really notice it at first. I was more curious why the telephone cable was swinging around, then I notice the door was opening and closing to its own little rhythm, and then the fake pot plant in the corner started it own little counter point. At about this time I realised that this was an earthquake and I was 9 floors up observing it. Actually it was not a bad a I thought, but lets not roll out a larger one just so I can see what thats like.

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=352268

For those interested. Anyway first earthquake survived! This is some city to get used to.