Continue reading »]]> Well, all right. I was asked by some readers to make use of my tripod and to present some footage.

I’m presenting some of the challenges facing every English teacher in Japan. The biggest seems obviously to be to convey the Japanese people the difference between ‘L’ and ‘R’. Even more difficult is it to teach them the correct pronunciation. Hey what a fun job! Even my name causes them trouble. Either I’m called Dshimon or Shimon. But a regular ‘s’ does not exist in the Japanese language.

I’m not only an English teacher here by the way but I also look after the children. That does also mean to play with them and of course also to pay close attention so that they don’t starve because of my exhausting lessons. By the way my favourite game with the kids is ‘Simon says’.
Kirari Kids von Daaaaaaaaaaaax

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Kuba San, Japan; Christoph Flossmann, Germany; Brandon Lamb, U.S.A.;

Continue reading »]]> That’s like taking candy from a baby

For everybody who does not know it: I’m a sugar addict. I need my sugar no matter if in liquid form like soft drinks or in solid form. Mostly those products then originate from companies like Haribo, Trolli, Milka, Ritter Sport or Ferrero.

As much as I have become fond of the food here, Japanese sweets/candies are horrible! I was brought up to eat the food you bought or ordered. A principle I am basically still following today. But what if that what you bought is simply unenjoyable? :-S It’s extremely rare that I throw away food. Rather I try to find somebody to whom I can give it as a present. However here in Japan my hosts can’t be taken into consideration for this as even they don’t like the taste of it.

tiny tots

I don't need to do exercises. I have children for that!

Okay, it is already my third week as an English teacher at the day care and I don’t want to keep you in suspense any longer about my job. The childrens’ ages range from five to eight years. I’ve already taught adult and adolescents but never young children and always wondered how that would be. Also I never taught in groups but mainly one on one private lessons. It is wonderful, a lot of fun and finally, finally I have found a job with people on the same intellectual level as myself. I’m just asking myself why I never chose such a job way earlier. Well, in Germany it’s actually more difficult to get such a job. To work at a Kindergarten you have to have received at least a three year training as childcare assistant or – to teach English and get paid by a state owned facility – you have to be an educated teacher which means you must have graduated from university. This would take too much of effort for me. So I’m enjoying the job here even more.

Sweets for the Sweeties

Oh, I remember something. I still have those terrible sweets/candies. Hm… I think poorly of following education method: but should I not succeed in sedating some children I would at least have something to punish them with.

these are the Kirari Kids

Oh man, this is going to be tough!

[Show as slideshow]

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; my boss Kuba San, Brandon Lamb, U.S.A.;

Continue reading »]]> Here comes the mouse!

Die Maus

Friday. My host Celine has no internet access at home which is why she is taking me to her university, Dokkyo university. There she hands me her wireless password and heads off for her lectures. It’s simply great. This is how I even get to know Japanese student live. Even though I can’t make out any major differences to western universities. As you’d expect from a university there are many lecturing halls, a huge library and of course the canteen. The food there is good. What puts me in a good mood is that the Dokkyo university uses “Die Maus” from the German children’s edutainment TV show “Sendung mit der Maus” as its mascot.

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. Well, but I don't want to prevent him from his plan to study.

.

Schoolgirls visiting

Presented in Surround

I’m moving once again. This time to Bryan, an American host who had lived in Germany for some years and is – how else could it be – an English teacher. Since it is weekend once again it is my good fortune to get treated once again to a weekend trip to the mountains.

Mountains close to Tokyo

Together with Bryan’s friends I’m treated not only to delicious Japanese food once again, but also the best Japanese alcohol later that evening at a married couple with whom Brian is friends. But they are also equipped with a good range of western style alcoholics and I mix them some drinks. Well, I once worked at a disco…

Cozy Cocktails

Suddenly some kind of mobile phone sound breaks the chilled atmosphere. I’m asking myself if I’m this drunk already or if this is a damn good surround sound cell phone. I could swear I’m hearing the sound from at least three spots in the room. “Oh man, does it have to interrupt our nice conversation!?” two of Brandon’s friends are complaining and get their cell phones out of their pockets.
“What is it?” I’m asking.
“That’s the earthquake warning system”
“Everybody is quiet for ten seconds.
“Here it comes!” says Denise.
“And the room starts to tremble for about five seconds.

Never isolated!

It’s Monday evening I’m waiting at Kitaurawa to be picked up by my new host Andy. The Advent of couchsurfing to the Japanese population seems seems still to be in progress since I am mainly hosted by foreigners. And so this time. Andy gives me a warm welcome in a beautiful British accent. We are on our move to his house as we talk about hospitality and and how he ended up in Japan. Andy 45, a journalist specialising in the Japanese metal industry, comes from Portugal but grew up bilingual. He writes for a British magazine he tells me.

Poster wall of Andy's 16 year old daughter.

It is a nice 3 stories house. Minimum twice as big as the one I’ve stayed in at my host in Shibuya. Andy is married and has a 16 year old daughter. Even though the week has just started and there are no holidays, wife and daughter are not around: “My wife lives at the other side of Tokyo together with our daughter. She attends a kind of elite high school there. It would simply be too long of a commute every day, so my wife and me decided to rent a flat for both there. It is not common to live on your own in Japan when you are 16. It’s actually normal to live with your parents when you study at university. Sounds weird hm? No rioting.”

“Rioting?” I’m asking.

“Well, I mean a lot of things are so preordained. Few chances do develop your own life. I think this is what Japan misses a bit. A lot of things are overly organised. Which, in my opinion, leads to the fact that only a few people – too few -, form their own opinions or are really individual. Or let’s put it this way. Of course they have their own opinions, but they rarely express them and do even less to change certain grievances”

“Hm, this might be a reason why there are almost never demonstrations going on on the street. And if they happen at all they are not really big.” I’m thinking.

Andy is cooking a Moroccan dish for our dinner: “I came to Japan years ago where I found and married my wife. She is a trained biologist and held a well paid position at a company researching cancer back then. After a few years, we had decided to move to Portugal where I had a job which meant she had to give up her job here in Japan. Even if it was difficult for her in Portugal, she did actually very well in finding a job there. But after some years we realized we both didn’t belong there and decided to go back to Japan again.”

“May I ask about your wife’s job?”

“Sure, she’s a housewife. When we came back from Portugal she applied once again for research jobs but could not get any work. Only minor positions like an assistant job or being a secretary.”

“Was the branch in which she researched no longer lucrative, or what was the reason for it?”

His respond comes quickly almost with a little anger: ”No! Her ‘mistake’ was that she gave up her job to leave Japan! The Japanese people consider this to be not reliable. So when she came back nobody wanted to hire her based on this ‘argument’ that she could not longer be considered reliable. It does obviously not count how talented you are! This country has such a pool of wasted talent. You know, this is actually one of the few things that makes me furious about Japan! And after some years she simply couldn’t stand those kinds of jobs any more and this is how she ended up being a housewife.”

I’m bewildered.

Despite the fact that Andy is the only bread earner in the family, he still takes his time to host and cook for me and even for showing me around the next day.

As much as I like his house there is something about it – about Japanese houses in general – that drive me mad/crazy. The missing insulation. No matter how many windows, window shutters, curtains and doors you close you hear the street noise constantly. Of course it leads to the result that a huge amount of energy is being wasted. The walls have a width of maximum ten to 15 cm (6 inch). There’s no glass wool or polystyrene insulation in between preventing the hot air from the outside to funnel into the air-conditioned rooms. And it’s of course right the other way around in the winter time. They rather waste three or four times more energy than they need just because it’s not common at all to insulate houses here. Also the windows aren’t double-glazed. Neither the ones in the air-conditioned trains nor those in houses. My last host Ryan told me he heats his flat with a movable kerosene heater. All this in one of the richest countries of the world? How does this fit together?

To save energy the government recently tried once again to introduce the “Super cool business” including a casual dress code that aims to save energy by not having to use the air-condition to cool all the guys in their stuffy suits. Not only since 3/11 – but especially since then – Japan’s economy suffers. Like in most economic crises of the modern times, people don’t spend more money than necessary which leads into an economic vicious circle. To combat this Japan’s government introduced subsidies for household devices. Andy’s family made use of it. However, the fridge came from a Japanese company but was produced in China. So it did not really help the domestic economy. Instead of such measures, Japan would be well advised to facilitate the local construction industry – a branch which does not really export and is thus totally reliant on domestic demand. With this Japan could kill two birds with one stone. They could save a decuman amount of energy so that they wouldn’t need as many nuclear power plants as they have today. And it would be a blast for those sector of Japan’s economy that cannot rely on exporting their way out of trouble.

tombstone

The next day Andy shows me around in Omiya. Since he has a well equipped family household he provides me with a bicycle and we both cycle to Omiya’s main temple. We are on our way to it as Andy stops to show me a Buddhist churchyard. Beautiful, so far I haven’t had the chance to enter one and see the graves close up.

At the cemetery

Once again on our way to the temple. Only a few minutes later he is interrupting our trip once again to show me the newly built Saitama Shintoshin station and its city centre with it’s new built stadium. Yoko Ono’s John Lenon museum used to be in there as well. Well, this is Japan’s attempt of beautiful modern architecture. All those buildings are pretty new.

Omiya Metro station

Omiya's stadium

As Japan suffered a plethora of bomb attacks during the second world war this temple is unfortunately not as old as I was hoping for. But it’s nice anyway. In addition to that, I haven’t been to a place in my life where I’ve seen so many turtles at once in one pond!

Omiya's Tempel

turning turtles

Omiya's temple

Even on our way back we can’t make it in one go and have to stop off to do our dinner shopping. But I’m grateful for it because Andy is the first host who shows me that there are actually greengrocers that have bargain prices.

At some time in the morning the bell is ringing. A man in a blue overall wearing a building-site helmet is passing Andy a little, plastic packed towel as a present to apologize in advance for eventually occurring inconveniences which might happen within the next days as they are just about to begin to paint the neighbours’ house.

Hm, maybe I should try something like this when I’m back in Germany before having a party which might get a little louder and could also lead to disturbing the neighbours. Should some drunk people roar too loud, the neighbours would even have something to plug into their ears as tiny as this towel is. Hm… but on the other hand such a small towel fits quite well into the mouth of a roaring drunk. Hm… one shouldn’t give up on every new idea too quickly but on this idea, it’s maybe better to throw in the towel!

On Wednesday evening I’m moving once again. On my way to my next hosts I’m facing a new problem. All I can say about it is: “Don’t use Tokyo’s metro during the rush hour with two backpacks!”

Once again an American-Japanese couple. Dylan, 30 recently married his wife, 29. They both are preparing for leaving Japan and want to gain foothold in the U.S.A.

Oh, well …

Oh, did I forget to tell? This Thursday is my first working day at the day care. Yes, I took the job! But it does not mean that the job search is over yet, as this job is unfortunately not a full time position and I need to find at least two further jobs in order to finance my living here. Well, since one should not really measure its value based on just one day, I’ll wait a little until I think a little deeper about it. So I’m asking for some patience please….

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services, my hosts and especially Andy for the text revision.

]]> http://www.cyclonara.eu/third-week/feed/ 0 http://www.cyclonara.eu/second-week/ http://www.cyclonara.eu/second-week/#comments Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:19:24 +0000 admin http://pendzichpictures.eu/?p=88

Continue reading »]]> Woho, I’m an alien. I’m a legal alien I’m a German man in Japan…

To be honest I didn’t find a way to get my foreigner’s registration card without having a permanent address here in Japan. However Jim and Heath were nice enough to use their address to get myself registered. It is once again one of these situations in which I am asking myself how I am supposed to give all this back to the couchsurfing community? Because Jim and Heath asked me if I’d like to do it this way. I did not even ask for it.

It’s Friday, Friday, fun, fun, party, party…

I once again face the challenge of finding my new host’s station. After straying around again my desperate look must have caught the attention of a slightly drunk owner of a recycling company. He is just on his way back home from his work party and once again someone is not only explaining the way to me, but is also guiding me to the right station. However we end up at two wrong stations along the way. Well, this is not his fault. It’s the alcohol’s fault.

I need a Hiro!!!

Hiro is my new host. He works at Japan’s telephone network. I asked him to stay for two nights in his flat. But it will only be one. Why? Originally he wanted to go to an Onsen (hot springs) hotel together with a friend of his and stay there for a night. But since his friend had to call it off a new “victim” had to be found. And this “victim” is me. “It is okay, Simon, you are invited. Of course you don’t have to pay for the hotel!” Slowly Japan is becoming creepy to me. If it goes on this way I will be promoted to a Yakuza boss (Japanese Mafia) after all.

Actually I’m welcomed by Hiro like a Yakuza boss. In his Lexus limousine with integrated TV-Set he’s taking me to a restaurant and of course there’s no chance to pay for the bill by myself! I like the restaurant’s concept. Every table is equipped with a grill in its middle. And the buffet is loaded with bite-sized cuts of meat for everyone to take.

But all this is of course not enough for the Yakuza boss so I’m getting invited to the public bath. This is deeply rooted into Japanese culture. I think it can be compared to the Roman bath culture. The Japanese people enjoy their baths naked and separated by gender. Often it’s mothers with their daughters and fathers with their sons. But even if I didn’t bring my family with me I’m still being granted access :)

Hey, what is the girl doing here in our department? And she’s dressed that’s not fair! She works here. Wait a minute. That gives me an idea. Perhaps the baths here are also offering  jobs for males in the girls section. Hmm…

No matter where you look at you’ll see the man’s best unit everywhere. Many of us might have stumbled over the penis map that recently has been rife on the internet. I wonder how those who have compiled this map took their measurements. Did they really measure the size on about 1.000 People of all their countries each to get a representative result? How did Japan do once again?

Oh… I see. Hm, well yes… Well I didn’t take any measurements personally and really don’t have any interest in doing so here, but well according to sense of proportion I can at least confirm the result for this bath here. Well, … *giggle* I don’t really want to brag but … he he… Okay. I’m going to stop it right here. Because of all of those wonderful things that happened to me here so far I really haven’t earned the right to poke fun. As the saying goes: It’s not about size it’s about the technique. And here the Japanese people are far more advanced than we are. How if not because of this would Japan have made it to one of the largest industrial countries of the world? There! And even in the public baths Japanese people can’t wave the high tech. As there is one bath in which you sit down between two electric diodes. I wonder if this is supposed to be relaxing or something for masochists…

Sometimes it does not even have to be complex technique. It all starts over with such small things like lining up in a queue/line.

queueing with IQ / A line for the Metro line

It works at every platform, every escalator everywhere! Juvenile scrambling as we know it from our western countries is to be sought in vain here. And even in the metro Japanese people don’t have to prove constantly that they can shout the loudest in their cell phones – as many stupid/silly Germans do all the time. Making a phone call in the Metro is prohibited. Epic!

Saturday.

On our way to Kinugawa

Hiro and me packed the car. We’re heading off for Kinugawa to the Onsen hotel. It’s about 100 km (62 miles) north of Tokyo. Fukushima is only 165 km (102 miles) away from there.

During a short break Hiro shows me a 100 Yen shop which are very popular in Japan.

100 Yen Shop

Eyecandy

Our hotel rooms smell like hay. “That’s the Tatami mats on the floor”, Hiro explains to me. When entering the room I’m thinking to myself: “Well done but the guys forgot to put beds into the room.” After a little while Hiro tells me that the beds are being made while you are eating in the restaurant.

Hayhotel

Hotel with history

View from our room

mad mattresses

Fact! When coming back from the Restaurant, two mattresses like entities are lying on the Tatami floor. And this is how I’m spending the first night of my life in Japan in a hotel without a bed. A sacred duty of every hotel room: to have a water heater and of course different sorts of tea. Hiro is pouring me a cup. Hm… I don’t know how they did it but the tea tastes exactly like the floor smells like. Like hay :)

Cool Kimonos

Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not complaining and don’t want to sound arrogant. I had the best weekend so far in Japan thanks to Hiro! It was simply awesome! Thank you Hiro! For everything!

Also very interesting are the signs on the way back. The in Japan omnipresent raccoon dog tanuki. Ohh how cuuute!

Tanuki

Umbrella savety requirement

And even the fact that umbrellas are required on the highway/motorway seems a bit strange to me.

How may I imagine that? Maybe like on the photo?

Pan Tau in Japan. Photo by Hiroyuki Ochiai

So that I can’t get lost in Tokoy’s metro system once again Hiro is taking me to my next host by car on Sunday straight to one of Saitama‘s outskirts, Kawagoe. Brandon, a 23 year old American who has already lived in Japan for two years and will return in November. He’s showing me very interesting videos he made about Japan. After a late meeting we have an impromptu dinner and it turns out that Hiro is not only a very kind person but also an adept cook.

Brandon also works as an English teacher. But he has no problems leaving his flat to me while he’s heading out for work on Monday. However I’m also heading off for the city soon as I have to register for my work and travel stay at Shibuya city hall to get my