Continue reading »]]> Life is aMANZAing

It’s once again video time. Enjoy the first winter sports pictures of this blog! It’s an New Zealand/Bavarian co-production. Err… The second part explains everything about the Japanese People and their German obsession.

Have fun!

Life is aMANZAing! von Daaaaaaaaaaaax

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Special thanks to: Hayden Rhodes, New Zealand; Okamoto San, Japan; Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> And a happy new year!

A short video about how the Japanese people celebrate new year’s eve. It’s also a Japanese custom to eat Soba – Japanese noodles – at new year’s eve. No, no fireworks :(

Sylvester 2011_2012 von Daaaaaaaaaaaax

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Updates part two:

• sixth week: Photos of the Kirari Kids (the children I taught English) are online. (more will follow this week and are going to be posted in this thread as well)

Special thanks to: Fumi Oono, Japan; Hyunjung Kim, Korea; Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> Mountain Mania

So far I have been very lucky with my stay in Japan, and with my jobs as well. I am currently working in an Onsen Hotel in Manza. The mountain site is simply a dream come true, with crystal clear night skies – a nice diversion compared to Tokyo’s starless sky – and we have already had our first snow.

as you can see... you can get high. Even with only a little snow!

Sulphur pit and snow :)

Shrines even in the mountains

But every job has its down sides. My shift is split into two parts. The first shift starts at 7:30 and lasts until 10AM, the second shift begins at 15:30 and lasts until 22:00PM. I don’t have to schedule time for breakfast or dinner as we are given a 30 minute break during each shift to eat. However, you have to show up for work ten minutes before the actual shift starts. I’ve been told this is a regular procedure here in Japan. Obviously I was very lucky regarding this rule so far, as my previous jobs in Tokyo did not require me to perform 20 minutes of volunteer work every working day. But, according to my Japanese friends, volunteering is the norm. A quick analysis shows that I am losing 1.200 Yen (15 AUD, 15,62 CAD, 9,84 GBP, 15,36 USD) per week, 4.800 Yen (60,06 AUD, 62,50 CAD, 39,39 GBP, 61,48 USD) per month and 24.000 Yen (300,32 AUD, 312,50 CAD, 196,94 GBP, 307,34 USD) during my five month stay. (I only have a two month contract since the economic situation is still fragile). I wouldn’t want to know how much the unpaid work for the year adds up to for the entire working population! My job doesn’t pay all that well, so my loss is quite low. However, there is no exception for well paid engineers, specialists and managers regarding the rule. In the western world, the unions would mount their barricades. Yet here, this is considered completely normal. Still, I’m not all that compelled to complain. Besides the extras I mentioned last week, I receive two free Japanese lessons each week! As it turns out, the lessons are worth more than what I lose through the volunteer work. For my Japanese colleagues, this is actually unfair. Japanese lessons are the only lessons that are offered, which is useless for anyone who already speaks the language. It might even be beneficial to the hotel to offer other languages for those who already speak Japanese.

Manza Onsen Hotel

And here’s a little something for penny-pinchers who go to the gym from time to time: Here, you could easily save the money from a monthly membership. Anyone who has to heave 300 solid wood chairs in a row onto the tables twice a day and put them down after cleaning the floor, carry 44 pound meal pots several times per shift from the kitchen to the buffet, and still have enough strength left over to clean really doesn’t need the gym any more. Even though the work is hard, I like it a lot. I have learned much about Japanese meals and how to cook them. My colleagues are very nice and explain everything to me. I never find the work tedious and there is always something to do. Since I work in the kitchen and in the dining room, work is diverse and time flies.

Japanese Mountain: You Rock

The hotel itself reminds me a bit of Club Mediterrane or Club Aldiana of the European Alps (actually, there is a mountain range in Japan which they call the Alps as well). Indeed, conversations with fellow men is not handled as laxly as it is in those clubs – the Japanese politeness is never forgotten here – but the buffet is also good, rooms are furnished similarly as well (as far as I am concerned, Club Med still prevails with a TV-set per room – or did so until the late 90′s). This is unthinkable in Japan of course, where rooms in lower price class come with a communal toilet, which we only see in hostels. Like in Kinugawa (week two) the guest can choose between rooms with traditional Tatami mat floor (rice straw mats) without a bed, but with a futon, or a room that resembles that of the west with a varnished wooden floor and its own toilet. Only the most expensive rooms have their own bath. Usually guests wash themselves with other guests in showers right next to the Onsen tubs. And like the clubs there is an event going on every night. While the programs of the clubs concentrate more on sketches, dances, quizzes or comedies, there are mostly musical acts here with – for western ears – quite kitschy songs. I was floored when I heard Johannes Brahms ‘Guten Abend gut’ Nacht’/'Lullabye of Love’ performed on a trombone. Most Japanese people seem to like it. The Japanese tand also has something special. When they are not playing trashy western style music it is at least their very own culture and custom which is nourished and cherished. When you have to listen to U.S. American or British charts for the thousandth time in western clubs, it would be nice to have the chance to listen to traditional Alps cultural music. Even if it’s just to get to know a bit more about the culture. A club dance spared to the guests.

Captain to the bridge!

more than meets the ice

Next week, I will explain why the bath water here is so healthy, what the Japanese Emperor has to do with this hotel and I will discuss more about the environment.

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Zack Rosenthal, U.S.A (proofreading); Lilith Pendzich;

Continue reading »]]> Sleepless in Shuttle

After another sleepless night on an airplane I arrived at Narita Airport for the second time. This time even more packed with stuff compared to the first time. I brought my bicycle trailer and my snowboard. Well, since I don’t have my own bicycle (I used my sister’s bicycle for the Hamburg – Rome bicycle trip) I obviously need to deal with that problem here in Japan. However I’ve still got some time for that as the trip is scheduled for 2012 and I do not intend to start in the winter season.

Oh, there is something I kept as a secret so far: My new job here in Japan. Those who have accompanied me on my Japan stay through my blog so far might remember that I already had arranged a job at an Onsen (hot spring) hotel in the Mountains of Gunma Prefecture close to Nagano before I began my Japan stay. After 3/11, tourism all over Japan had decreased and so the hotel manager apologised for being unable to hire me. However he got back to me some months later, telling me he could use me now. As I had found another job by then we set a starting date for the first of November. Even though Fukushima completely screwed up my plans for Japan the outcome was even better. I knew the hotel was located in the mountains. I knew it was an onsen hotel. I did not know that it is in middle of a winter sports area. Of course I would have happily worked there during the summer season when I could “only” have enjoyed the onsen and walking around the mountains. But this way I get to enjoy both the onsen as well as snowboarding.

First I have to pick up some stuff my dear and record breaking host Brandon kept for me while I was in Germany. But how to get from Narita Airport, Chiba prefecture to Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture almost 62 miles packed with a rucksack, a 47 inch x 23 inch x 20 inch bicycle trailer weighing 101 pounds including a snowboard without having to pay a fortune? And how to get then from there back to Tokyo again to catch the bus to Manza, Gunma Prefecture? I’m definitely too packed for any train or metro. Luckily there are buses to Kawagoe. And for 3.000 Yen (37,95 AUD, 39,48 CAD, 24,68 GBP, 38,60 USD) it’s not even expensive.

“Brother from another mother:” being welcomed by Brandon in Kawagoe.

The hotel I will be working at has it’s own company bus that departs daily (!) at 9 a.m. from Shinjuku, Tokyo. Packed with five items now I definitely can’t take the metro to get there from Kawagoe. It’s almost about 31 miles after all. So once again I depend on a coach service. Actually there is one company offering such a service however only after 9 a. m. and … it’s the only one I can find. A taxi would cost me at least 7.000 Yen (88 AUD, 92 CAD, 57,6 GBP, 90 USD) if not more, if I found one at all that could carry and if so would accept this much stuff at all. I feel kind of ashamed to ask former hosts with cars since November the 1^st is a regular working Tuesday—it’s understandable that they have better things to do than to be my chauffeur. Wait a minute… I came to Kawagoe by an airport bus. And they run 24/7 to almost every place in the Tokyo metropolitan area and also 24/7 from almost every Tokyo metropolitan area. Hmmm… Let’s search: Haneda airport to Shinjuku. Arrival time 8:30. Wow, success! But would be there at 7:30 already. Departing from Haneda airport at 6:15. Okay, now Kawagoe to Haneda Airport. Oh …. hmmmm departing 4:25 a.m.

Well, I knew it would take sacrifices. With my Tetris packing skills I managed to pack everything in my bicycle trailer two big plastic bags, my backpack and the snowboard goes on top of my trailer. After another sleepless packing night at Brandon’s, in buses and at the airport, I finally arrive in Shinjuku. I’m at the place described by the hotel manager—there are buses but even at ten to nine there’s no sign of the Manza bus. I’m sending a text message to the manager… No reply. 5 to nine. I’m calling him. Nobody is picking up….

At about 20 minutes past nine I discover the bus station where the bus departs form. The bus had already taken off of course. I’m going to bus station manager. He has the landline number of the Onsen hotel, is calling it for me and hands me the phone.

“Hi is this Ichimura San?” I’m asking.

“Ah Simon San, I’m sorry I forgot my cell phone at home today. Oh by the way I just realised I made a mistake when describing how to get to the bus station. It’s not south side it’s west side.”, he apologises.

“Yeah, I think I just realised that as well” is my reply.

”But can you still come via train? You know transportation fee is the companie’s burden”, he is asking.

“Er, no I’m afraid that won’t be possible”, I’m replying.

“Ah wakarimasu ne. But tomorrow via our bus?” he’s asking again…

Hm… I think I’ve got another problem. Should I really get all my stuff now back to Brandon? I am pretty sure he would host me again but after all he did for me so far I simply don’t want to bother him any more. With all my stuff it would be outrageous to beg any host for an emergency couch for only one night. As much as I earned within the last four months I should actually afford myself a night in a hostel but who knows if I will stay this lucky regarding finding new jobs after my next one? For safety reasons I’d rather save the money. Luckily it is a bright and shiny day without the slightest sign of a cloud. And even though it’s November the temperature is quite all right. So yes, I am really thinking of sleeping in a park. I know it’s not legal and not how a guest should behave in a foreign country. But these times are tough.

One might wonder now how it fits together that I on one hand indulge myself the luxury to travel world wide, to take my snowboard with me but stint on the other hand with 3.000 Yen (37,95 AUD, 39,48 CAD, 24,68 GBP, 38,60 USD) for a night. I’d like to emphasise the following regarding that: My Hamburg – Rome bicycle trip was more a makeshift since I lost my job during the world wide economic crisis and it appeared senseless to me to apply for jobs in a time in which thousands experienced a similar fate and it was therefore quite unlikely to quickly find a job at a time in which most companies rather dismissed people instead of hiring them. The reason for my Japan stay is admittedly and surely my thirst for adventure but also the fact that I’ve never accomplished a one-yearlong lasting stay abroad with which I’d like to value my CV. And the snowboard? – Is ten years old and was a present. And if you book a flight about one year in advance, put some effort in a sophisticated search you will be stunned for how little money it is possible to travel around the world. And this shall also be told: Who searches long enough will find an airline that does not even charge to transport a snowboard. But now back to Shinjuku.

Where to put my stuff while I’m sleeping? Jim and Heath! Right, one of my first hosts who live in Shibuya nearby Shinjuku. Hm… Can’t reach them via phone. Seems I have to go there with all my stuff and ring the bell.

Finally there somebody’s opening the door. But it’s neither Jim nor Heath.

“Hi, er you must be a couch surfer I suppose?” I’m asking the gentleman.

“Well, kind of. Jim and Heath rented the house to us while they are on their vacation”, he’s replying.

“Oh, that’s embarrassing. Well, I’m a former couchsurfing guest. I kind of got stranded, not asking to stay for a night only if I could leave my things here at the pitch for a night?” I’m explaining.

“Well, sure. No problem!”

As I’m so exhausted I’m lying down on a meadow in a park. About three hours later I awake. 3 p.m. of course too early to finally settle down for today. Hm… maybe I should go to a hairdresser’s before seeing my new employee.

So this is my first time I am at a Japanese hairdresser’s. She’s doing a good job. What I like about the Japanese hairdressers over the German ones is that they wash your hair not before but after you got your cut so that really all cut hairs are gone. Also interesting: They clean your ears with the towel. Kind of shocking or let’s simply say unexpected if you are not used to that. But what I like best is that I’m receiving a free shoulder and back massage after all is set and done! And as much as my shoulders are aching after the long haul today it comes at a time that couldn’t have been chosen more sense-fully. All this for 3.500 Yen (44,28 AUD, 46,06 CAD, 28,80 GBP, 45,03). Better invested than in a hotel night. :)

After getting a sushi pack from a grocery store for dinner I can even brush my teeth in one of the park toilets. Wow, got my hair washed, teeth and face cleaned—only need to find a cosy spot in a park which can’t be spotted by the police. When finally finding one I’m discovering several homeless people who seem to be used to this place already. As I am unfolding my camping matt and sleeping bag I feel a bit ashamed. For me this situation is like an adventure. For them it’s their daily routine. I get into my sleeping bag and fall asleep quite quickly. I wake up about three times at night but with my jacket on in my sleeping bag it’s really all right.

A grip to my throat the next morning tells me it is not cut through. A grip to my pockets tells me my wallet is still there. No I am not in a prison cell. And yes, after picking up my stuff from Jim and Heath’s I’m finally catching the bus to Manza!

Special thanks to: Hubertus Neidhart from Webspace Provider Network for excellent web page hosting services; Jim McKinley (proofreading), Lilith Pendzich;