Moving

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog entry and I have forgotten a lot of what has happened over the months but I will try my best to remember. In big news I am moving out of my share house which has served me well but I am glad to be moving especially as we get closer to winter. The room I am in is an extension onto the roof and is not insulated at all so as soon as it is bad weather the room is freezing and really damp. My new place is really modern so doesn’t have any of these problems. Im moving out of Tokyo which is a shame but you can get so much more for your money out in Yokohama-Shi and it is only a 20 minute train ride to Shibuya and the same commute to work I do now. I got a massive place with a really good deal and have been furnishing it with stuff I have been buying off craigslist. I’ve been getting up early and going to my new place before work and hauling washing machines, AC units, fridges ect ect up 4 flights of stairs and then going to work which has been tough but needs to be done! I have until the 21st to move out of mu share house so I have been making use of the time to move things across slowly but I really can’t wait to move across and want to get over there as soon as possible. The main problem is setting up Japanese utilities as even without the language barrier it seems that everything is made into such a elaborate ceremony, there’s no just give me that I want that. I’ve set up the electricity online but have to set up gas and water over the phone which is going to prove difficult. The main problem of moving is the internet though as it can take 2 weeks to install and I of course have to set it up with a language barrier. On the subject of language I have finally go a Japanese tutor and will be going once a week for one on one tuition for an hour and a half before work on mondays. I currently have lessons free with work in a group but they are every two weeks and not as intense and focused, however I will still go to them as it will be good practice but I will hopefully make decent progress with my tutor as she seems very experienced. I really can’t wait to get started!

Struggling to think of things I’ve done……….. Ow me and Lee went to the Tokyo games shows where all the big computer companies put on a big show and promote their new games. There was some really cool stuff there but we couldn’t do any of it because we needed to book tickets which was stated nowhere on the English website but I guess we know for next time. We got to see some decent stuff though and it was an experience. The last guardian demo looked really cool.

Went to a cat cafe which was very different to what I imagined. It was actually really big and full of sofas and cushions and was just really nice and relaxing and a cool place to meet up and catch up with friends. And, well, there were a lot of cats roaming around. It works though, I don’t know how but it does.

Went on a work trip the other day in Kawasaki to massive games center. You can play baseball, football, zorb football, air guns, badminton, arcades ect ect etc there’s a bit of everything, even an indoor lake where you can go fishing! Work is progressing well and I have a good feel for things there now. Totally 100% of anti depressants now as well so hooray. Managed to come off them with no side affects and still have a lot of them left. Halloween was fun at work we all dressed up and I went as a pirate and a giant Yoshi.

I have a kid about 13 who is a problem child who can be violent with other kids ect so he has a one on one lesson with me and we play a lot of games as he has the attention span of someone with sever attention deficit disorder and this week we played a football game where the door was his goal and the table was my goal but we had cups on the floor with minus points on that we deducted points if we hit. He was winning with only 5 seconds left and then, Dan Hustwick gets the ball, instant control, 4 seconds, looks around, only a goal against the door could seal it but I’m too far away and this kid is on guard, 3 seconds, “Hey whats that” I shout and point in a genius move and as he looks I seize my chance, 2 seconds, with delicacy and precision I chip the ball over the table and towards the other end of the room and glory, 1 second, he realizes he’s been tricked but it’s too late the ball is sailing over his head in what seems like slow motion as he scrambles in vain to recover, the ball hits the door, 0 seconds. The made up crowd in my head goes wild in scenes similar to Beckham’s free kick against Greece all those years ago. He was not happy with me, but he hasn’t fallen for the old HEY what’s that trick ever again and has used it against me several times now XD My job is fun.

A friend of mine from work who is Aram’s doppelganger took me to an izikia in Shinjuku where they have nomihoti all you can drink for 300 yen for 30 minutes. This is all serve yourself and has a massive amount of spirits to choose from and a machine that takes your glass tips it at an angel  and automatically pours you a perfect pint. All for around 1 pound 50p. Have you ever heard of anything more beautiful. Going on the original space harrier game was fun after taking full advantage of that.

The UK makes for continual grim reading. As much as I despise the house of lords it was funny they stepped in and stopped Osborne’s tax credit bullshit. Also that cunt who filibustered for 90 minutes so carers don’t get free hospital parking. Just lost for words. It sounds more like a story coming out of the USA with some mental bible bashing hypocrite stopping people having access to contraception rather than an British problem. Dave putting that Chinese footballer in the football hall of fame to impress the Chinese leader could of actually been a plot line from the thick of it. It’s ok though let’s have crack at Corybn and his perfectly reasonable comments from years ago and quote them out of context to say he isn’t a patriot and then photoshop a poppy on Dave so he looks more patriotic. You couldn’t write a political sitcom this good.

Not long until I head back to the UK for chirtsmas now! Should really get around to booking my ticket. I’ve had a very good month which has been productive and spent with a lot of awesome people. I will try update this more often and actually remember things I’ve done XD

A ice cream claw machine

 New apartment viewNew place living room

Shinjuku

  

Forgot to take a pic as Yoshi so got this one of me and Nami

I made a Halloween costume contest display. A kid in full darth vader costume with mask and lightsaber and everything won. ANd rightly so!

Before and after saturdays classes

EVA 20th anniversary in Shibuya. They played episode one on the bi screen

Musashi-Kosugi officially becomes the biggest school in the company

Tokyo game show

Lee is not very good

NEW BLOG!!!

I’ve been really busy and haven’t done much really worth writing about but it has been a while and family members are getting irritated by the lack of contact so I will write this and see hows it goes and hopefully there will be some content in here! Trying to remember what I’ve been up top all this time is pretty difficult as well!

So first work I guess. I like my job. Which is the all important thing. I have as lot of fun with the youngest kids but need top work on my adult lessons a bit. I thought it would be the opposite way round but I feel a lot more at ease teaching kids than I do adults. Clearly some lessons are better than others and when I have 6 genkie young kids in a class you can do anything and they will think it’s fun but get some balloons out for a balloon battle or play high five phonics or simple things that you just exaggerate and have fun with and they will go crazy. I really is a lot of fun. Other lessons are more difficult I have a one on one hajimetay class with a 3 year old who just started last week and she is impossible. She just wont do anything, say anything or engage in any of the activities which is awkward as her mum sat in the lesson so she wouldn’t get scared. Tyler at work says it’s common with new kids especially in one on ones coming to a unfamiliar place having never been to school and interacting with a foreigner in English is bound to be scary. We aren’t friends yet and I need to win her trust and become friends before she will engage is what he says and I get that, it’s just a bit awkward! I have fully taken over every day of the week now and have all my own classes. The only remaining day is Saturday which is a very difficult day and it is mine from this saturday and I’m dreading that day. There are some good classes but there is one really difficult class at the end of the day which I am nervous about taking. So work is good on the whole and a zillion times better than that damn aldi job. I am going trouser shopping after this as my work suit trousers are not designed for all the jumping about and kneeling down and exaggerated movements I do in class and slit down the arse the other day. Stapled them together for a quick fix but it’s hardly a long term solution XD

I have also decided that I will be living in Tokyo indefinitely with no real desire to move back to the UK, even Corbyn winning an election couldn’t tempt me back I just have no real interest in the UK. Will be nice to come back for Christmas that is still the plan though. Thinking of maybe getting my own place but I’m in no real hurry to do so but will be looking into it more and more over the coming months. I also start Japanese lessons on the 27th 2 hours a week which is about damn time I got off my lazy arse and started studying and build a life here. Miss my dog and budgie though 😦

Had a flurry of visitors recently which has been hectic. Spen and Josie arrived and were here the same time dad was here and then Sophie came for a few days at the same time and then Aram arrived towards the end and is still crashing on my floor. It was great to see everyone and I’m sorry I only got to see you and Josie once Spen. Seeing Spen sing Bohemian Rhapsody at karaoke was an experience I will never forget and it’s a shame I can’t upload videos on here. Dad picked the worst time to come weather wise it’s been really sunny and cool either side of when he was here but while he was here it rained constantly for two weeks and we had a typhoon that seemed to just sit over Japan and not move. It was a shame he couldn’t see Tokyo in all its glory in the sun but it was awesome seeing dad for all that time. I was working a lot but I could always grab a beer after work or get food and then on my days off just spend all day showing him round. He settled in to the culture a lot better than I imagined and think he really enjoyed aspects of it. Seeing him at the game center on project diva was also something I never imagined I would see! We found an original super hang on game complete with bike at the arcade and replicated hours of my childhood trying to beat the damn thing on beginner. We both sucked. Played dad on a dragon ball Z game and neither of us knew what was going on at all it was funny. Sophie had to complicate everything in her typical vegan way though, trying to find food without some kind of meat on it in Japan is a massive challenge but vegan stuff is almost impossible. The server on the shinkansen she was on I like to believe was just trolling her as sophie asked for a meal without most of the stuff in it so it was just lettuce and the server draped it in bacon as she felt sorry for her. I want to shake that woman’s hand. I went to shabu shabu with people from work which is pretty much Sophie’s idea of hell and my odea of heaven. You have a pot of boiling water full of flavors on your table and get stacks and stack of all you can eat raw meat you then cook in the water and eat. It was beautiful ^^ Although I won’t attempt it again without Japanese people there as it was the most complicated and involved ordering and eating system I have ever come across. Took them both to a maid cafe in Aki which was hilarious.

Aram is currently crashing on my floor but will be heading of to Hiroshima tomorrow before traveling round Japan. He is coming back to Tokyo for ten days before he moves on with his world tour so I’ll get to see him again.

Started having a look at the ridiculous UK “media” reports on Corbyn’s win. Can’t even bring myself to get started. The anger I normally feel at the evil right win press, the disgusting human beings in the Tory party, and the vast amounts of idiots in the general public that gobble down the constant stream of bullshit is turning more into resignation and pity. Good lord UK you need to get your shit together.

I’m sure a lot of other things have happened that I should of written about but it’s been a long time and they have slipped my mind. If anything of interest comes to mind I’ll maybe do a micro blog later. I can’t be bothered to read this through so if there are a lot of typos, repetition ect then I’m sorry!

As usual here are some photos……..

Tokyo at night is unbelievable always wanted to live somewhere like this

My classroom at Motosumiyoshi

Full on Ottaku

Aram has landed

plushies I thought emma would like

Dad on project diva

Sophie one moving to victory on fighting climax

usual end to the day

Light saber chop sticks

Super hang on

The beauty of Shabu Shabu

I made a poster

Lee suck at this game

Rob at the game station before heading to Canada

I was drunk and confused if I could go in

John’s I.D couldn’t look more fake

The japanese buy rice like we buy compost

 some things never change

I don’t cook often but when I do it is usually this philly cheese steak

Zushi beach

Chill day at the beach with food in Yokahama and game center thrown in. There is a giant inflatable adventure fort in Zushi bay which is a great idea that I’ve not seen before.

Floating island

Why ow why you can get capsule toys of toast and bins is beyond me

A bit of Britain in Japan the first kebab van I’ve seen

Another week at work and the madness that is robot resurant

Work has been going mainly good but I also have some concerns regarding my suitability for this job. I have still not fully taken over classes and will be inheriting a very busy schedule but I have started teaching the odd lesson and it has been a mixed bag. I have a one on one lesson with a 3 year old for the next month until she moved into a proper class with other kids. It’s just a temporary solution with her mothers schedule at the moment  and one on one lessons don’t normally happen. She is only 3 years old and with no other children to follow the lead of so building up and establishing routines is very difficult. I had a full lesson planned out but ended up just having to go with the flow as her attention span if that of a 3 year old. But I had fun and she had fun and she didn’t want to leave at the end of the lesson so that felt pretty good. In a situation like that so long as the kid has fun and picks up a bit of vocab it’s all good. The adult class I’ve tough was harder than I thought and my pacing was off and lead to me getting through the material too quickly.The issue I am having is that you don’t really learn until you do something several times but I’m expected to go straight into taking over lessons as if I’ve been doing it for a long time but I don’t get any real opportunity to learn at the minute as I’m always doing busy work. I’m currently off for Obon and next week is going to be a really tough week at work where I’m thrown in the deep end and expected to be perfect. This job and this experience is also helping in my attempts to alter my personality through being positive and playing with kids all day. I used to hate kids but I find myself actually liking them these days. But it is very difficult to go against everything you are used to. Most of the people I respect and I don’t know what the word is, I don’t like the word heroes but you get what I mean, people I would look up to I guess, whether real or tv characters all have a disturbingly similar set of features I have only just realized. All of them seem to possess big egos, are rude and miserable, self destructive, but respected for their talents. I think liking this specific type of person stems from my mindset over my life. I somehow developed into a guy who always looks for the worst in everything and is just miserable constantly but I’m not sure why this happened. I’ve had pretty much the perfect life with a brilliant childhood, great parents and family and never wanted for anything. I’ve had a sheltered pampered existence but somehow ended up being a miserable jerk which I don’t really get. At my lowest eb I found people who were outwardly positive and optimistic to be painful to be around, I remember nearly shouting at a couple in a shop for being so stupid and just laughing at nothing! Like why are you laughing at that it isn’t funny, don’t you know the world is awful why are you so stupid ect. These qualities if you can call them that combined with a fairly addictive personality made for a pretty grim half a year when everything around me started to fall apart in my life. However leaving my job and attempting to change my personality to a healthier one over the months seems to be working and I am loving life at the minute. Riding myself of my poisonous job and constant pursuit of material crap has really helped  and I think this new job is helping as well which is all happening at a very good time as I start to come of the anti depressants that really helped me make this positive change in the first place.

So enough with the self indulgent phyco babble you guys wanna see some robots right!? Me and John met up for a day of hanging out and having some drinks starting at a brewery and culminating is going to robot restaurant in Shinjuku and I have to say the experience was as ludicrous as I was hoping for. The story *I THINK* from what I could tell is that some evil empire of robots wants to take over a planet and the people of that planet and the animals there get together to fight off the robots and save the day. You sit and just watch in total confusion as a load of anamatronic robots and animals battle it out while people dance around and bang drums. At one point a robot metal stegosaurus with a mounted Gatling gun that fires lasers at a woman who is riding a giant snake. As insane as that sounds I cannot even describe how much more ridiculous it is in person.

Also had the unexpected bonus of watching an absolutely epic firework display. I was pretty tired and had nodded off several times on the tube home and just wanted to get to sleep when I rounded the corner to my street and saw the start of a quality display. Stood on the overpass and got talking to a lovely Japanese family and watched for an hour. The bangs were so loud from the biggest ones and the sound was amplified down the street to crazy levels. If you know me you know bonfire night is my favorite night of the year and I’ve missed the last few with working late and although there have been displays all over Tokyo recently I have missed them due to work again so it was great to catch an unexpected display. Then after that the Premier League started back up after what seemed like way longer than it was and I could spend the night streaming matches.

Off to Zushi beach tmro with some friends and looking forward to chilling out. Gonna be prefect weather for it.

Work scheduled and Maid dreaming

I was schedule to be on camp now but there has been a lot of messing around with my schedule which seems to change about a hundred times a day but it is finally totally sorted and I know what is happening now. I’m not doing the camps now and my transition to taking over classes is being sped up. My schedule will be Monday and Wednesday in Motsosumiyoshi and thurs fri sat in Mosashi-cosugi with Sunday and Tuesdays off. This week is the first true week of teaching for me with the hand overs and new classes are being opened up for me to take which is all a tad scary. Like I’ve said before these are by a massive distance the busiest schools in the company so it is a bit of a challenge to be taking over, especially from such god and much loved teachers. Each have there pros and cons with Motsosumiyoshi being a more chilled out environment and homely but the classrooms are smaller and more run down with Mosashicosugi being in great condition, big classrooms ect but has a more corporate feel to it.

Aran left Tokyo on Sunday to go set up a new school in Kyoto so we went out Saturday to which him all the best. Pretty jealous of his set up to be honest as he is a new school so has zero students and won’t have to take over from great teachers so gets to slowly build up his style while classes start to fill. We went for a meal which turned into an feast at an easykia (no idea how to spell that). I love those places they are kind of like a Japanese weatherspoons in a way as there are a lot of them and the food and drinks are cheap. You order many dishes to share at the table rather than just for yourself so you get lots of different food and all split the bill which is really cool. The best thing though is how you order which is so convenient and Japanese. Each table has a tablet and a dock so you just select what you want whenever you want and put it back in the dock which transfers your order to the kitchen. There is a drink over here called strong zero and it is as awesome as it is lethal, I can only imagine the horror of what town on a Saturday night in the UK would look like if you could get it back home. Its 100 yen for a large can which is about 50p, it taste literally like a soft drink, and it’s 9 percent alcohol. Essentially it’s a can of special brew that tastes like fanta and costs 50p that you can drink on the street. Seen as Aran was leaving we went to a maid cafe as it’s something we all wanted to do and the experience was as hilarious as it was utterly confusing. A girl dressed as a maid refers to you as master while serving you food and drinks and makes meow noises for some reason. The whole thing is just utterly bonkers from the insistence that a electric candle was magic to spontaneously breaking into some bizarre dance to J-Pop and making us all chant words after her such as cute and meow. Truly this is the most Japanese and confusing thing I have ever seen but it was also ridiculously good fun. The Japanese are ridiculously friendly drunks and when we went to Shinigawa we met a few people outside a bar and ended up getting involved in a newly weds party somehow with the husband introducing us to his wife and all his friends and then drinking with us. I’m guessing the bar was a private function and we just ended up joining in. Two of the guys we were drinking with Takeshi and 2D san (drunk name i guess) came with us to a Karaoke bar where 2D san said he had lived in Barnsly of all places for a year and that the English were nice to him so he would pay for the room for us. This is where Japanese kindness gets a tad hard to deal with as none of us wanted him to foot the bill we all wanted to split it but he kept insisting and we ended up agreeing as we didn’t want to insult him. Someone from work said when they were invited to a house for the first time he was given gifts and casually said that he liked the band that was on to change the subject from being showered with affection and they insisted he take the CD. Anyway we have his contact info so should be able to get him a pint or two to even things out.

Apart from that I have just been sorting out boring things such as setting up my bank ect but natwest don’t half make it difficult to transfer funds as I don’t have my card reader with me I essentially cant do anything so until I get paid I’ll just have to keep withdrawing money with my foreign card and get charged the fee every time which is even more annoying as there is a 30000 yen cap on withdraws even though I set this all up with natwest before I left for Japan. It means I have to wait until pay day to sort out a mobile phone contract as well.

The giant secoder like cricket things that make an insane racket form every tree in Tokyo is a mystery that has been solved. In a lot of anime there is always that racket in the background and I never knew what the hell it was until I heard those damn things.

TILLY!

Go to song

2D san

Pokemon train

Bonus blog Viewing the UK from abroad

Ok this is a nothing blog it is just a means to let off some steam. Living in the UK you become numb to the absolute bullshit that is politics in the UK and see a ridiculous story/ scandal / horrendous media/ Murdoch press ect. I haven’t been keeping up with much goings on in the UK until recently and the things I have read have made me so furious it’s unhealthy. This whole ABC (anyone but Coryne shit, yes that’s depressingly a thing) is ridiculous. The fact that the fucking labour party are going so mental at the thought of someone with views that are in line with the FUCKING LABOUR party is infuriating. Being pathetic little cowards and voting against the welfare bill or abstaining (which is exactly the same thing) is annoying in itself but then trying to turn on people who want to turn the labour party into….. well… the labour party makes me want to smash my head through the nearest window. If you don’t want the labour party to be for the people then join the fucking conservative party. There is nothing wrong with being a conservative, apart form there is but for the sake of argument, they are true to their belief that poor people should be stamped on and that the wealthy deserve to be wealthier and that the poor should pay for that. That’s is what they are for and that’s essentially what they run their election bid on. But to say a party that is supposed to represent the people is “unelectable” if someone who actually represents the people is made it’s leader is … whaa… urghh … just WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE !?!?!? Of course the tabloid journalism and ludicrous story of the speaker of the house charging   a grand to the tax payer to have a chauffeur drive him less than a mile doesn’t help, I mean why has he not been fired for that? Or that absolute cunt tory MP who says he would struggle to live on 70 grand a year and MPs deserve their pay rise while at the same time freezing public sector pay and taking a piss on NHS staff. I mean there is out of touch and then there is this fucking prick. Comments like that make you want to burn down Westminster.  But yeah essentially my point was I’ve hated UK politics and it’s trivial childlike bullshit for a long time but was used to this. However if you move abroad and take a break from the news and then plug yourself back in you realize how deeply flawed and pathetic UK politics really is. It’s as eye opening as it is suicidally depressing.

OJT first week

The first week of on the job training was in two schools that I will be working in split during the week of Masashicosugui and Motsosumiyoshi which is about half an hour away on the subway and travel expense can be claimed back so that’s good. Both are really nice up and coming areas but the schools are the two busiest in the company so expectations are high. I take part in lessons and run odd five minute segments at the moment but will be transitioning to running full lessons soon. It’s a strange job in terms of it really isn’t me being all fun, positive ect it goes against all I know and all that a British person is raised to be. However in my quest to find job satisfaction and not be such a miserable bastard it is a good option which I hope I can pull off. The age range is from 3-14 in 4 age groups and some adults as well. The youngest kids surprisingly are the best as you can just go mental with them and play around learning bits of English through playing games and singing songs and is genuinely enjoyable. The teenagers are a bit awkward as they don’t want to be there and they don’t want to play games ect they just want to mope around. The adults can be really shy but are pretty interesting to talk to. As fun as it can be it is quite demanding and non stop and the Japanese office etiquette is over the top and having to plan lessons is really hard. Keeping 6 student interested in your lesson in a language that isn’t native to them is a challenge and having to suppress the miserable, cynical, awkward Brit in me is difficult. The worst thing with the job is the hours are set at 2 til 10 so it is awkward to do anything either side and I get sunday and thursday off. The days are set as well so the only time off I get is over christmas, golden week, and obon and with Dad, Sophie, Aram, Spen, and Josie all coming around the same time in September this is going to be difficult to do things but I can always just go straight from work to meet people you always see business men going straight from the office and falling asleep on the tube (which I have done and gone past my stop like an idiot). My scheduled for the upcoming month is pretty strange as they don’t want me to take over the classes I will be getting as the will be too much disruption with the spelling bee finals and the tests coming up so for the next month I’m all over the place. This week I am back in Motsosumiyoshi doing more intense training. The week after that I am going on a summer camp with the school for 6 days that the parents have to spend a thousand dollars on to send their kids on it so it’s cool as I will get to see rural Japan and do loads of cool stuff like zorbing, go karting ect for free. I then have a week off for Obon then doing cover around Tokyo for the following week, then another summer camp and finally the week after I take over classes officially as a teacher. Gonna be a hectic month. The heat and humidity at the moment are unrelenting and doing anything takes about 5 times the energy it normally would I am getting better but I still haven’t adjusted to the heat.

Had an insane meal at the outback steakhouse which was one of the nicest and largest meals I have ever had and the generally everyday food is great. I went to a traditional Japanese place with Aran from work and experienced the wonder that is minced pork dumpling wrapped in chicken skin and fried. I do have a craving for some of grandma’s Yorkshire puddings and some proper roast potatoes though.

I wasn’t going to come home for christmas but if I can save up enough money then I think I will. It will be god to see family and friends again so I’m going to try. I just really can’t be arsed with the flight.

I have’t taken any pictures of note so just took a few snaps of my room, which is still a work in progress. I want a new chaior, desk or work table, a lamp and a rug and then it will be complete. I am pretty much set on staying here instead of moving now just because of the location, the people and the fact utilities are capped so it’s 24/7 on the air conditioning. The only hit and miss thing is that the internet can be awful but I’ve had an engineer out and hopefully it will be ok from now on. Ow I finally opened a Japanese bank account today, yey.

I went to Akiharbara on my own without Lee to stop me making impulse buys and spending thousands on the claw machines and arcades. I really need to make sure never to go alone!

If anyone wants to add me on Skype I believe my id is through facebook as danhustler.

I was going to write about a load of other things but have forgot most of it so if I remember I’ll edit this later.

First week at work and fist karaoke experience!

I haven’t written anything in a while as I have been really busy and my blogging will probably be less frequent given how I’ll be slipping into more of a routine. One thing I have found pretty disturbing is that when a metro train is delayed the reason in English is person injured but in Japanese translates as suicide. I knew Japan was the suicide capital of the world but that message is up so freaking often it’s insane! Even my new friend Whitney’s train on the way home from a night out was stopped due to a jumper. Kind of bizarre but Japan seems to but such stresses on people everyday with expectations ect. My boss was saying there is a common story of business men running late for meetings who break there arm so they have an excuse. May just be a story but I can really see that being true.

Anyway that was a slightly grim way to start things off. First week of training for work was pretty decent. I’ve been training with 5 american’s who are starting in different schools the same time as I am, some in the local area and some further afield. They are all awesome and have made training a good laugh. Been out for beers after work, food after work and had a big night out to celebrate the end of week one on Saturday. I am nervous about this job as it is so different from what I have done and I have never exactly been a kid person but I think I’m quite adaptable so will hopefully adapt to the challenge quickly. On the job training starts tmro at one of the schools I will be working in 20 minutes on the subway away in Musashi-Kosugui so the commute is decent. There are not enough words to explain how hot it is wearing a suit in this city at the moment but luckily Dad has sent me 10 anti persprint as the Japanese stuff is pathetic on westerners. The school I’m at is a busy one so it will be back to back all day goofing around with kids.

Karaoke is awesome. Snuck in a bottle of wine with me so didn’t have to spend a lot which worked a treat. Classy I know. It’s quite widely done apparently and frowned upon but if you don’t make a show of it it’s fine. Went to a place in Akiharbara with the work lot and there are so many floors to the places and you get your own room and can call the bar to deliver drinks whenever you want. Big selection of English tracks and being the only Brit it was only right that I belted out some Blur, Oasis and The Who. Stayed there for a few hours and then me, Aran and his room mates hit Shinigawa while the others headed home for more drinks, which turned into more karaoke, much much more drunk karaoke, with costumes, at half 4 in the morning. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Needless to say it was a 2 day hangover that I seem to get more and more now I’m old.

Went with a guy from work with the greatest name ever (John Flare could you get more American) to check out this craft beer place but when we got there it had been demolished so it must have been good. Ended up in Shibuya and I actually found a place that does cheap cider!

Really enjoying my time in this city and do not want to leave for the foreseeable future. The best thiong about work is if it goes well I can stay in Tokyo permanently. I just hope it goes well. Do not want to go there tmro!

Most of the horror from Karaoke I can’t upload as its video which your eardrumbs will be thankful for.

Shinigawa at 5am is nice

I’m happy face for the kids

The freelancer reference I’ve been waiting 14 years to find

Black man. interesting brand.

Yokohama and Shinagawa aquarium

Went to explore Yokahama with Lee on Thursday just a 30 min ride on the Tokido line out of the city. Lots of shops and a rollercoster and ferris wheel and other rides right in the center which was a bit odd but will be heading back in the sun to go on them and should have some awesome views.  I have a fairly addictive personality and have been hooked on the claw machines determined to win useless crap and Lee has become an enabler. I did win a Shizu figure though so I was very happy with that, totally worth it. Lee has been searching high and low for something for his sisters birthday so I guess that makes him a better brother than me. Being in a different country to my sister for me would be the perfect excuse not to get her anything. Not that I would anyway but now I have the excuse.

I love aquariums so went along to the grand reopening of Shinigawa aquarium just up the road and it had some very Japanese touches. Having paid about 3000 yen each for the grand reopening we were expecting something decent and for the first half an hour it was hilariously awful. For some reason there are amusement park rides all over the place at the start and the only fist tanks have very little in them and are really not worth looking at. However this being the land of the high tech toilet there was a needless technology aspect to these tanks as they had interactive touch screens where you can pull up pictures and play around with effects and put virtual fish in the tanks. Why you ask? Christ knows. It would probably be a significant cost saving measure to put actual fish in them. We watched an old Japanese man bring up a virtual squid and then walk off looking as bemused as us. Then the Jellyfish room which in theory was really cool but was kind of ruined by inexplicable loud firework sounds with flashing lights and periods of darkness making it annoyingly difficult and hit and miss to actually see the damn things. Thankfully after this bemusing start to the day which had become pretty funny by now we turned a corner and saw the place turn into a mixture of a real aquarium and sea world. Cool fish tanks and underwater walkways, dolphin shows, penguins and sea lions saved the place from being a hilarious and crap day and made it a genuinely cool place to hang out.

Rainy season has finally ended and the 30 degree days with not a cloud in the sky are hear to stay. Been stocking up on shirts and stuff I need for work as I start training on monday. I could still technically not get the job still if I am awful at the training and I HATE role play (unlike Luke’s mum likes wayyy) with a passion. I guess its good because I can still quit if it turns out it’s awful but I’m now at the point where I could really use a source of income and some routine. I’ve worked out a budget now the initial large outlays on work stuff, trips and doing up my room are out the way I shouldn’t have anything but day to day cost to worry about. It’s not like I am earning anywhere near what I was at Aldi it’s around half of what I was on but it makes a hell of a difference not making car payments and insurance and petrol on top of that all utilities being about 60 quid a week so when you think of it like that it’s not as much of a relative drop in income as you think.

Wish me luck at work for monday I really hope it goes well. The thought of me actually becoming good with children is something I struggle to imagine but I never thought I’d move to Tokyo and quit my job or have a dog so stranger things have happened, for example Wes starting a fight with the wall at Milers.

Had a good video of the stupid interactive aquarium but again the file type isn’t allowed, I’ll figure it out eventually.

Ja na

This woman spent a good 5 minutes taking pictures of Kumamon and selfies. I was watching her while I ate and trying not to laugh as she fell over while leaning back to take another selfi. She then walked off and came back a few mins later to take more

Accepted the job / Kanagawa cultural fest

I decided to take the job given I’m living on nothing but savings so having some money coming in would be good and hopefully the work will be fun and rewarding. This means I have committed to staying in Tokyo for at least a year now and after than I can decide if I should stay for another year or move on to Australia. The money isn’t great but for the sort of work it it is it’s decent and it’s not like I can do any other types of work out here at the moment. Plus I would rather have a job that I enjoy that is rewarding and pays less over another Aldi type hell job. Plus I get a fixed work schedule for the first time in my life with Sunday and probably Tuesdays off. Holidays are set as the main holidays in Japan though so it’s very very difficult to get any other days off. In celebration I bought a monitor and a PS4 and some bits and pieces to turn my room from looking quite empty into a bit of a man cave and I’m happy with the results. I get to have a look at flats in the area that the company provide and some on the site look awful and some look decent so depending on what they can source me I may end up staying at the house I’m in at the moment which would be no bad thing given it’s a nice house, the location is good, it’s commutable to my job, house mates are cool ect. The only problem with this place is that the internet sucks a lot of the time with 12 people using it it’s incredibly annoying.

Went to a cultural festival over in Kanagawa with Lee and his friend Mio the other day and had to meet them at a station about an hour away on the Tokido line. It’s the first real time I have been totally lost since I got here trying to find the correct platform in the labyrinth that is Tokyo station took me a fair bit of time and I accidentally upgraded to first class without knowing it. First class was pretty awesome though and its clever how instead of checking your tickets its just updated on your oyster card and you swipe the card on a panel above your seat that then displays that you have paid. Anyway by the time  arrived I was crazy late and experienced culture shock for the first time. The festival is the very definition of loosely organised chaos. Miles of stalls line the streets selling food and alcohol and fairground style games while thousands upon thousands of people squeeze up and down the roads. Stall vendors are all shouting to try and get your attention and I stood bemused watching two stall owners one equipped with a mega phone and one with something similar get into a polite shouting completion trying to get people to the stalls. Both of them were laughing and thought it was hilarious and at that point i turned round looking at the sea of people behind me and trying to get out the way all the while trying to eat meat off a stick, drink a beer, and hold an umbrella at the same time. It was at that point the thought what the fuck is going on crossed my mind and I got my first blast of culture shock. There were that many people there I could barely follow what was going on around me let alone do anything els. Plus I was a bit hungover so you know that didn’t really help. However it was a good experience the stick meat was delicious and the beer was cheap and good plus the novelty of drinking in the street during the day was pretty good! To add to the day of confusion because I spent more than 2000 yen at the local 711 I got entered into a mystery box raffle and it took me quite a while to work out what the store worker wanted me to do as she pushed this box with a hole in it towards me. Won a chocolate bar after the confusion was resolved. There’s a lot of this kind of unexpected random stuff that happens in Japan.

Off to the aquarium with Lee tomorrow in Shinigawa which looks amazing and as most of you know I love aquariums and think Lee is pretty ok so I can’t wait! Shall make sure to eat my fill of curry Udon and not ruin another shirt getting it all over me like a child and having to walk around looking like a complete nob.

I had a video to upload that tries to capture the madness of the cultural festival but it won’t let me upload it. I’ll upload it next time I post if I can figure it out.

Ok update the aquarium does’t open up again until the 10th but I’m sure we will find something fun to do.

Chocolate bananas. Why god?

The quest for Saturn merch ended

Freedom pizza on the 4th