Dafydd, Dai, Dewi?

David is behaving like a foreigner, which of course he is. If we have to interact with anyone in shops and restaurants and so on, he makes me do the talking in case “they start speaking in tongues” (Welsh). He has learned a few words that help him navigate while I drive which is very useful. His pronunciation isn’t bad either for an Irishman. Someone must have taught him "Rydw i’n hoffi coffi" (I like coffee), but he only remembered the “hoffi coffi” part and kept suggesting we stop for a "hoffi coffi". Sweet. I explained that hoffi is actually a verb (like) and he’s stopped doing it.

Do I belong in north Wales?

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I think I could fit in here. I have felt more at home here that anywhere else we have visited over the past 15 years or so. I love the mountains and the scenery. I am enjoying re-learning Welsh and I love hearing and seeing it around me everyday. I am into the tea and cake culture. I love that there are so many interesting old castles and buildings. I enjoy being near the coast and getting fabulous sea views. I am enjoying all the beautiful wild flowers. I love seeing sheep everywhere (although I can’t seem to be able to bring myself to eat lamb anymore – sheep are way to cute to be food). I love the range of breads you can get here and the locally produced preserves. Perhaps I should move here. What on earth would I do though? Not many vacancies for applied linguists I imagine. I’m not sure I could survive a winter here either.

The Carneddau Circuit

Great hiking day today. We were up and out early hiking a circuit from Llyn Ogwen. 3 major peaks and 5 ½ hours of wonderful views, good weather and interesting terrain. I love north Wales so much.

Stopped in Beddgelert on the way back for tea, coffee at Lyn’s Caffi with apple pie and custard (David) and fudge (me). The staff at Lyn’s all know us now.

Break from the mountains

Today we gave our legs a rest from major hiking and did some proper sightseeing instead. The weather was gorgeous and a perfect day for visiting Portmeirion – the Italianate village on its own peninsular. I have always wanted to visit. They filmed a 1960s show called The Prisoner here and I have vague memories of some of the scenes involving giant balls and messages via a tannoy. The village is really lovely! It stands on a beautiful stretch of coast and incorporates extensive woodland trails. The buildings are all guesthouses, shops and restaurants and it really draws the crowds.






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Next stop was Tremadog for a gourmet lunch at a fine restaurant called Y Sgwar (The Square) situated on the market square. We sat at the window and occasionally locals would stop and look right in at us and pull faces. Strange. Have you ever seen “The League of Gentlemen”?

After lunch we visited Cricieth Castle. We drive passed it everyday, but this was a great day to stop because of the fine weather – we thought we would get some decent views and we really did. We stopped for afternoon tea at a tea garden called Ty Te in Cricieth. I am really going to miss Welsh tea shops.

Climbing Snowdon

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We didn’t exactly get off to an early start, so by the time we got to Pen y Pass car part to climb Snowdon, it was already full. Instead we parked down the hill and got a bus to the start of the hike.

As we got going, we saw a sign where every sentence began with “dim” dim dim dim dim. Basically, the café at the top wasn’t finished so there would be no tea, no shelter and no toilets. No train either which hopefully meant there would at least be fewer people.

There were a lot of people hiking up Wales’ highest mountain, but compared to a popular mountain in Japan in hiking season, it wasn’t too bad. I admired people who had the patience to march their kids up there. One guy even had his baby in a backpack. I assume it was a baby, he/she was covered with a kind of tent to keep out the wind and rain and we could just hear the screaming underneath. There were a lot of dogs too.

It took us about 2 ¼ hours to reach the top along the Pyg track. We weren’t brave enough to attempt the knife edged Crib Goch track, but could see people above walking on all fours above us (I thought they were sheep at first). The weather stayed fine throughout the walk, but we could see the summit of Snowdon ahead enshrouded in cloud. As we neared the top, we entered the thick cloud and could no longer see the valley below. It got very cold and windy and after taking our turn of standing on the summit, we got out of the wind and brewed a cuppa. We didn’t hang about long, but started the ascent, this time via the Miners’ track which went alongside the lake which was lovely. We passed some old ruined mine buildings and machinery which made the place seem very mysterious. We think the Snowdon climb is the Welsh version of the Inka Trail. A bit busy, but really beautiful and well worth doing.

We stopped off at Lyn’s Caffi in Beddgelert on the way home again for tea and apple pie with custard.

Evenings

I haven’t described anything we have done in the evening. Life is very quiet in the countryside. We get home around 7pm, shower and just cook something simple, watch a bit of TV and have an early night. We are usually pretty tired after the daytime exertions. When you have been away for a while, British TV is fun and exotic even if it is just The News and Midsomer Murders.

Y Garn and Beddgelert

The weather looked a bit sketchy, but we thought we would attempt another mountain walk starting near Beddgelert called the Nantlle Ridge. We sat in the car for a while wondering whether it would be a good idea to start climbing up the peak of Y Garn in the spitting rain. We decided to go for it, but the weather was bad pretty much all the way up. My already wet boots were uncomfortably squelchy the whole time. When we got to the top of Y Garn, we decided not to do the rest of the circuit as the weather was really horrible. We climbed down again passing a drenched family of 4 (including the 3 year old daughter). That’s hard core.

We thought we’d go to Caernafon Castle instead but the rain was so heavy that we could barely drive. We could see blue skies the other way so decided to turn around and head towards them. We passed 2 ladies walking along the road in the torrential rain and we offered them a lift. They looked very jolly and said no thank you. Mad.

We got back to Beddgelert, parked the car and enjoyed tea and coffee sitting in a tea garden by the river in the sun…. until it started to rain and we huddled under the sun umbrella until it stopped. We explored Beddgelert a bit. What a lovely town! Pretty touristy, but not ridiculous. I wished I had taken the house there instead of the one we had miles away in Rhiw. The money I saved on rent I would just pay in petrol anyway.

We followed the riverside path to the grave of Gellert, Llewelyn’s dog. Heard a lot of Brummie accents. I guess Birmingham isn’t that far from Snowdonia. People had picnics beside the river and some brave souls even went for a dip. We went for tea and bara brith at “Lyn’s” caffi.

There was a big outdoor shop and I decided to have a look. We both got new jackets, socks and boots. We didn’t actually go in for boots, but there some quite good offers. David was due to replace his and I discovered that my new ones weren’t actually Goretex, so unless I wanted wet feet for the rest of the trip, I had better buy some new ones. We came away feeling really pleased with our purchased and wanted to try them out on Mount Snowdon the very next day.

The tip of Llyn

Today we drove to Aberdaron on the Llyn peninsular and did a coastal hike. This was really beautiful until it started to lash rain as we walked back via the lanes. The Saturday travel supplement of the weekend’s guardian featured some of the remotest places in the Britain and one of them was the tip of the Llyn peninsular opposite Ynus Enlli (Bardsey Island) exactly where we had been today! It is pretty remote where we are staying. We can’t get a phone line and forget accessing the internet! Back at Aberdaron, we had a pub lunch at The Ship. Nice enough, but overpriced just for a Ploughman’s and a bowl of Heinz tomato soup. The barman could have been the twin brother of our friend Joe-Joe in Japan. Joe-Joe loves making fun of Welsh people (he’s English) so I found this really amusing. We overheard two people talking in the bar, rather the woman was talking in a really loud voice at the man who said very little. She went on and on about herself – how tedious! At one point she started talking about how she had given up smoking because there were too many holes in her aura. I gave David a look, but he hadn’t heard properly so I had to wait until they left to tell him what I had heard. We have been running with this ever since: “I had better not have any more coffee as there are already too many holes in my aura” etc.

That afternoon we went to Pwllheli as I had to access the internet to send an article I had promised by mid August. I had to do this in the basement of the town library in the kids’ section on a computer which censored Facebook. We also had to find a launderette as when we asked our landlady about a washing machine, she said “I’ll have a think about it.” Did she think we’d go for 2 weeks without washing any clothes after hiking on muddy mountains everyday

Cnicht - the Welsh Matterhorn

We were out early and drove to a town called Croeser. Village. Hamlet even. Just a few houses and a car park actually. We parked the car and started to get ready to hike. Lots of cars started turning up and we got chatting to a few other hikers – they were from the local Ramblers Club. Often when we go somewhere to do a hike (Indonesia, Malaysia…), the only people climbing the mountains are foreign. We wondered whether this would be the way in Wales, but apparently not. We met mainly Welsh people on the mountains of Snowdonia. We spent the next few hours hiking starting with the impressive ascent of Cnight, the Welsh Matterhorn. I slipped while scrambling up near the top and couldn’t find any where to put my feet so just hung onto the rocks. I shouted for David to help, but the wind was so strong, he couldn’t hear me so I had to scream. He came back and lifted me to safety. I have a few big bruises on my legs now. Tricky things mountains. After reaching the summit of Cnight, the Ramblers turned left at the cairn and we planned to turn right (even though they warned us that the ground would be very mucky). The ground was really mucky and I discovered that my “waterproof” boots weren’t waterproof at all! I squelched through bogs and my boots remained waterlogged for the rest of the day.

After coming out of the bogs, we came across a spooky disused slate mine. I took some eerie pictures and we continued along the miners’ road back to Croesor where we discovered a little renovated cottage doing teas! We took off our boots and sat in the sun enjoying hot drinks and freshly made Victoria sandwich. Wales does tea and cake so well that I sometimes wonder why I ever left.

More photos from this trip are on facebook https://www.facebook.com/jomynard1/media_set?set=a.34331095819.57151.630680819&type=3 

Haunted House

The house is really scary. Definitely haunted. There is a room at the end which is the coldest room and we never use it. On that first night, I went in and started playing the (out of tune) piano. David thought it would be really funny to sneak up on me and make this toy clown peer at me round the corner. It absolutely freaked me out. I screamed and when I saw it was just David mucking around, I burst into tears of relief. I haven’t been in the room since. It has the same mirror in there as in the movie “The Ring” (the American version). I never go upstairs on my own at night and there is no way I will go downstairs in the middle of the night if I need the loo. The house is pretty grotty. Our landlady knows this and her excuse for the broken furniture and sketchy flush is that it’s not worth getting things mended as she won’t be letting again after the end of this season. Nice.

Finding our cottage

Back on the road we soon joined the holiday traffic heading into Porthmadog. We dug out the directions that the agency had given us to find the cottage. They were really funny involving exotic place names like Pwllheli, Llanbedrog and Mynytho. And instructions like “Follow this road until you come to a tractor workshop on your left – Dafydd Glyn Jones, Seithbont Garage”, “carry on until you come to the Rectory”. We found the rectory OK, but drove up and down the narrow lane a few times looking for the steep road track down to our cottage. We just kept missing it, which was easy to do as the fog was really thick and we could see nothing around us. The lane was really narrow and it was totally impossible to turn around.

I dialed the number of the landlady on my mobile phone. No signal. We pulled into the rectory to ask for directions. There were two cars parked there and two wooden doors with no bells (back doors? Where was the front door?). David went out into lashing the rain and knocked on both doors with his knuckles. Nothing. I started to remember a horror movie I had seen as a child where an entire village was enshrouded in fog. A visitor stumbled on the village and was made welcome there only to find out later that all the residents were flesh eating zombies. Then there’s Silent Hill. Shudder! In a good horror movie we knock at the “wrong door” or the landlady turns out to look like Mrs Danvers.

We knocked at another house. We could see into the sitting room and a very old lady and a middle aged man in a vest were sitting on a tatty sofa. The place was littered with papers. The man opened the door. The house smelled of cats and dirt. Even though we were standing there in the pouring rain, I hoped he wouldn’t ask us in. He took our address and directions without smiling or saying anything. It turned out that he knew the house and amiably pointed us in the right direction – back the way we had came down that narrow lane again. We thanked him and ran back to the car.

Back we went down the lane. This time going really slowly so that we wouldn’t miss the track. We found it and began to drive down until it became too steep and slippery so I pulled into a kind of layby and we walked the rest of the way down.

We found the house. 200 year old Welsh cottages always look sweet and welcoming from the outside, but this one looked really creepy in the fog. We went into the garden and called “hello”. Nothing. We tried the front door. Locked. We went round the back and found the door unlocked. In we went. The smell of damp hit us. Hello? Nothing. Back outside. We heard a small voice with a posh English accent “Hello! Hello!”. The landlady! She was about 4ft tall, hunched with sore-looking varicose veins over both feet. Her grey knotty hair hung limply around her shoulders. She came running out of a hole in the hedge. It turned out that through this hole is the garden shed where she lives. It was a peculiar setup.

She showed us around the house. It was like something out of a museum. Ancient wooden furniture, low beamed ceilings, scary old pictures everywhere. This couldn’t be further away from our life in Japan. As we were leaving, a man with a flat cap knocked on the door and asked if it was our car blocking the lane. Woops. He didn’t seem to mind that he had had to walk all the way down the hill and back up again. I was relieved that we had another neighbour. A rich one too apparently who drove a BMW off roader. I had to park in the lay by on the main track and our landlady came up with her jeep to collect our stuff and drive it down to the cottage. Once we unpacked the car, she disappeared into the fog and we haven’t seen her since. We tried to give her the money for the electricity, but she said there was plenty of time for that. Was there something we didn’t know? She knew we wouldn’t last the 2 weeks for instance?

Castell Harlech

There are two car parks for Harlech Castle. The one where all you have to do is walk over the drawbridge and you are in. the other one involves climbing up hundreds of steps to the back entrance…. You guessed it, we were at the lower car park and climbed up in the wind and rain. I did start to wonder why on earth we hadn’t stayed in Thailand longer… Harlech Castle however was really spectacular and the views from the towers even on such a crappy day were really breathtaking.

Heading North

After a fun few days in Cardiff, it was time to head off again.

Mum and Dad got up early to help us pack the car and see us off on Saturday morning. I admit I was really excited about going off on a trip into the unknown (at least to me): north Wales. The land of beautiful landscapes, mountains, beaches and famous castles.

I had run the post codes through the AA route finder so we had a printout to follow, but we still got lost within 20 minutes and ended up in a housing estate in Newport… After getting back on track we had a straight run through until we stopped for tea somewhere near Builth Wells. I had a pot of tea and a slice of excellent bara brith (fruit cake). The coffee machine was broken, so David sat there nursing his Brecon Carreg water willing me to hurry so that we could go and find somewhere that did proper coffee.

Next stop was for lunch at a pub called The Brigand’s Arms which was built in the 16th century and used to be a coaching inn. I have low expectations when it comes to Welsh pub food, but this meal was REALLY excellent. I went for homemade leek and potato soup (my favourite!) and goats cheese tart with salad. David had venison sausages and vegetables. I asked the waitress where we were and I think she said “Machlin”. I couldn’t find it on the map, but it was on the road to Llanidloes – look out for it if you are up that way.

Back on the road and the rain was getting really heavy. Somewhere around Machynlleth we spotted a sign for “Harlech Castle” and as we were making really good time, we decided to take a detour. The landlady wasn’t expecting us for hours yet. There probably would have been quicker ways to get to Harlech, but this coastal route was quite nice (apart from going through Barmouth – full of tacky cafes and souvenir shops and miserable people all walking round in the rain).

Bangkok Nightlife

Wilailuck picked us up from the Radisson and took us to a place that looked like a beach club right next to the expressway. It had sand and swimming pools and fantastic food. Having a Thai friend is really useful for getting the tastiest food cooked exactly how you like it.

After dinner we headed to the nightclub area. There is a row of clubs all free to get in as long as you order drinks. We picked a very cool looking place where most people were sharing bottles of Johnny Walker and buckets of ice. Apparently bars keep your bottle with your name on it for next time. We sat on bar stools and enjoyed some live music from a Thai R&B band called Calories Bla Bla. Wilailuck said she had heard some of their songs on the radio recently. They were pretty good. The club was so much fun that I could have stayed much longer, but we had a long flight the next day.

Koh Samet

Not much to blog about in Koh Samet. Just a lovely, relaxing 4 day trip to the beach. Good food, pool time, massages, and bonding with local scabby hounds. It is definitely a good idea to go during the rainy season. Everywhere is very quiet if you don’t mind a bit of rain and it doesn’t rain all the time. There were a few characters in our resort including John the friendly American there with his Bangkok bar girl. They didn’t have much in the way of a common language so whenever anyone new arrived, he tried to make friends with them for some conversation. He even hit on other women who arrived in front of his “girlfriend”, but she didn’t seem to care. He got really drunk on his last night and got the barman to play all his favourite American rock songs and he drummed along to them on the bar. We were glad when he passed out about 8pm and then left the next day.

We were sad to leave Koh Samet, but excited about meeting up with our friend Wilailuck in the big city.

More pictures from Thailand on Facebook http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=51355&l=6383b&id=630680819

Back to the hotel

After a bit more wandering round the Siam Square area, we got into a taxi to go back to the hotel. We asked the driver to take us to the Radisson.

- Where?
- The Radisson, Rama 9 – do you know it
Mutters. Puts his foot down angrily. Jerks to a halt.
We pass him the card the doorman gave us from the hotel.
- I know. I know.
Does a U turn. Foot down. Screeches to another halt and turns off the ignition. The traffic lights stay red for 10 minutes. This is quite normal in Bangkok.
We sit in silence for a while until the driver tries his luck:
- 150 Baht OK?
- No, meter please.
No answer.
We watch the street scene outside. 6 or 7 monks dressed in orange robes pass us and walk up the stairs and cross over the footbridge. Down they come the other side. 4 of them get into an orange taxi. So much orange.

When we get back to the hotel, it’s too early to sleep and we remember that have a voucher for a free welcome drink and head up to the bar on the top floor. It’s a large elaborately decorated place and completely empty. We think about making a hasty retreat when a cocktail waitress spots us and we are too nice to run away. One drink won’t hurt.

The free drink is super sweet and alcohol free. A clever technique for making you buy a second drink (which we do) and before you know it, you make a night of it (which we don’t). The band get ready to play and it seems rude to walk out now, so we sit through a few cheesy numbers sung just slightly out of tune. The lead singer is quite a character. He takes his performance of My Way very seriously. By now at least we aren’t the only customers any more. There is a table of Thai businessmen who order two large bottles of scotch and two buckets of ice. This gives one of them, the boss we guess, the courage to request the microphone and sing a few Thai ballads. We clap politely and think about leaving but think it might be a bit rude to leave mid show so we wait until the break. My good manners will be the death of me.

Siam Square

We learned that there was a shuttle bus (to somewhere) leaving on the hour so we went down and joined the group of people already waiting.

“Where do you want to go?” asked the attendant
David and I looked at each other. We hadn’t thought that far ahead.
“I don’t know”. I say “An MRT station?” I remembered too late that MRT is in Singapore, not Bangkok “Siam Square or somewhere?”.
The attendant looked back at me puzzled
“Haven’t you got a Lonely Planet book or something?”
“Um, no”

I didn’t add that I didn’t feel the need to get one as we have been to Bangkok loads of times and are only passing through this time. Anyway, he smiled and helped us into the minibus and even gave us a card with information on how to get back to the hotel in Thai to give taxi drivers later.

We weren’t actually that far away from the centre of the city as it turned out as 20 minutes later we were dropped of at the MBR Centre in Siam Square. I had been in there before, but it was David’s first time. It’s an enormous, bustling, noisy, confusing, rundown city of a mall. Loads of floors containing shops, stalls, massage parlours and food stands. We were hungry so headed for the well signposted foodcourt on the 4th floor. They give you a plastic card when you enter and each time you choose something from one of the stands, the staff do something to your card and then you pay at the end. I love these places as you can have all sort of bits and pieces from different stands. We went for tom yum kung each and a papaya salad to share. We also chose a fresh juice each. I had forgotten how good the juices are in Thailand – great for soothing chili-burnt mouths. It was a fairly smart place and almost all of the customers were foreign. On previous visits, he had managed to find food courts that ordinary Thais went to. We found one of these on the floor above and stopped for lab (spicy minced pork), green curry and more later on.

In between these bouts of eating, I stopped at a beauty shop for a well overdue manicure and pedicure while David joined the people in the row of hospital beds getting massages. I had a window seat to do some people watching. There really are some phenomenally badly dressed foreigners wandering around Bangkok. One guy in a string vest sporting a mullet came into for a massage and was ushered to the bed next to David. I haven’t seen a mullet since the early 90s – where on earth was he from?

Arriving in Bangkok

We have been to Thailand so many times so I am wondering whether I will be able to blog about it with a fresh eye…. Here goes….

We had already booked the Radisson Hotel online. Does having the Internet means that there will be no more adventure travel for us? Anyway, it was nice to feel pampered and have people carry our bags for us and call us Sir / Madam / Dr.Mynard / Dr.McLoughlin – this never happens in Japan. We took a London taxi from the airport to our hotel – seriously, we did! There is a company that makes them for export. There is also a new airport in Bangkok. I remember landing in the old one located right in the city. You come out of the airport and sit almost stationary in traffic jams for an hour. The new one is located out of town and linked to Bangkok by an expressway. Here’s the drill: you come out of the airport, pick a lane, go as fast as you can until something gets in your way, switch lanes and repeat until it is time for you to turn off.

When we arrived, they told us that there were only smoking doubles available or a non-smoking single. I told them it was our anniversary (it was!) and could they upgrade us. They did! Always worth asking J The deluxe room was lovely, if slightly cheesy. The hotel has a large pool area overlooking the expressway.

Catching up after the summer

It's Sunday 14th September and I am back in Japan after 6 weeks away. A lot has happened and I have only kept a sporadic diary but I will post snippets from it today in case anyone is interested.

A quick trim

I just got my haircut (not that you would notice – it still looks a mess). I always put it off for as long as possible in Japan because I find the whole process really irritating. Here are the problems:

1. It’s hard to explain exactly what you want in another language

2. You need to go armed with a picture to show the stylist. Unfortunately, Japanese hair magazines are somewhat uninspiring – all the styles look the same. None of them flattering on me.

3. The stylists always take AGES! Tonight I purposely asked for a “quick trim”. Emphasis on QUICK. I was in there an hour and I didn’t even get a shampoo or anything.

4. They always ask me loads of stupid questions (that to be honest I don’t understand properly). They seem to be asking me how to cut hair…. Why don’t they just get on with it?

5. When you get your hair washed, they place a paper towel over your face so that you can’t see anything. Why do they do that?

6. The hairdryers are painfully slow because of the voltage. The stylists usually have them on cool so that it takes even longer.

7. The stylists basically cut one or two hairs at a time and then stand back to make sure it matches the other side. This quickly gets annoying.

8. Every time you move from your seat (to the wash basin or what ever) everyone chimes in with “Otsu kara sama deshita” (good job). I don’t understand why they do this.

9. They make a big deal about the loyalty point card. As a returning customer, (why oh why?) I got a 150 yen discount tonight….. roughly 70p.

This cut should last me until I get to Wales when I will go running to Lorna, the hairdresser I have had since I was a child. Lorna knows exactly what to do with my hair and remembers every style I have ever had including that groovy perm she gave me back in 1983.

Please do it at home (2)

Another poster from the Tokyo Metro - "Please be careful of noise leaking from your headphones in the train." Would that be noise in liquid form?

Hikers scrub up well

Photos from the weekend:

Hiking in Yashagaike, Gifu-Fukui border
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42433&l=dd0e4&id=630680819


Nick and Aiko's wedding
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42429&l=c6d49&id=630680819


What a fantastic weekend!

Back to Nagoya

Back to Nagoya.... this time for a visit.

On the first night we went to an Izakaya with Justin. We had already eaten, but wanted to pick at something. We asked the waitress what went well with beer. Can you guess what she said? Nuts? No. Crisps? No. Olives? Wrong again. Chicken sashimi. We ordered it of course. Welcome back to Nagoya.

Wedding preparations

We are going to our friends' wedding in Nagoya on Sunday and I casually asked my Japanese co-workers if there is anything I need to know. Now I'm really nervous! Here is some of the advice they gave me:

"You know you give money, right" (yes)

"...but don't give an even number of notes, it symbolizes separation" (gasp!)

"...Oh, and don't give notes with a crease in them, they have to be perfect notes" (OK.... when I go to the ATM, do I keep sticking my card in the machine until I get perfect notes out?)

"...and you have to put the cash in a special envelope. Make sure you don't get the one you use for funerals" (more gasps!)

You don't just stick the cash in the envelope either, your name has to be in the correct place and it has to be folded correctly (if I get it wrong, I could be following protocol for funerals)

"...don't show your upper arms until and hour or two into the party"

"Get your nails done"

"Get an "up style" at the salon"

"Nagoya weddings are famous for being really beautiful. I hope you have a posh frock" (not exactly...)

I'm not sure when I am going to find time for salon visits as we have to be there in the morning and are hiking the day before...

Despite being a bit worried about doing something wrong, I am looking forward to Nick and Aiko's wedding.

There's more!

If you just watched that YouTube clip, you might have noticed that the clip has a cult following....

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=RZjP2NTxOyY&feature=related

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=RpJ0xlN3nR0&feature=related

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=pRALwkbryPM&feature=related

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=HpxM0vn2EbM&feature=related

Funny!

Preparing students for an overseas visit

The world outside Japan is a dangerous place. Better learn some useful phrases if you plan to travel this summer.....

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=jXdsA-42gRU

Please do it at home

The train companies are cracking down on antisocial behaviour on trains. What might that be? Well, one thing is putting on make-up. Below is one of the posters for the campaign that I spotted at Hatchobori subway station. I always find it entertaining to watch already over-made-up girls looking at themselves in a portable mirror on the trains as they reapply mascara and lipstick and even curl their (fake) eyelashes with one of those torture instruments. It must take a lot of skill. You could take your eye out with one good bump. Actually, I don't see many mobile beauty workshops in Tokyo as I did in Nagoya. I sort of miss it.

















If you think I'm a geek for writing about Tokyo trains, there's a guy out there who writes about his morning commute on the Chuo line (or the "Sardine Express" as he calls it): http://tokyoexpatlife.blogspot.com/. This is one of the lines David takes and he comes home with entertaining stories everyday.

Another guy collects and posts pictures of Japanese people asleep in public places: http://www.kirainet.com/english/japanese-sleeping/

Wild Flower Festival

Next weekend at Odaiba there will be a Wild Flower Festival. We beat the crowds and went today instead. I love poppies and I never imagined I would see so many of them down at one of my favourite sci-fi spots, Odaiba.

Lovely wild flower pictures here http://picasaweb.google.com/jomynard/WildFlowers

New Japanese Class

Good news: I got kicked out of the beginner’s Japanese class! I took Nancy’s advice and showed off what I knew. The teacher asked me why I was there and I ended up leaving before we got started on lesson one of “Japanese for Busy People”. I am trying class 3 instead on Monday. I hope I don’t disgrace myself.

Tokyo Nightlife

I often read ridiculous things in Tokyo guidebooks about how bars, restaurants and shops change over so quickly. I thought it was an exaggeration. One of our favourite places around the Tokyo station area is the New Maronouchi Building or “Shin Maru Biru” to locals. It took a while to find as Tokyo station has dozens exits, but it is worth hunting down as there are some seriously chic restaurants, not to mention 2 of my fave shops - Banana Republic and Molton Brown. We had dinner had a trendy Italian place and then went a place called Bar 120 afterwards. We were lured in by the sounds of Elvis and didn’t realize until we had ordered a drink that we had become part of the music-art-installation. On the wall were displayed about a hundred album covers representing the best of Western rock dating from the 1950s up until the birth of the CD. We were part of the installation as we were invited to choose one of the albums to play. What would you have gone with? Led Zeppelin? Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars? Blondie? U2? Simon and Garfunkle? The Beachboys? The Beatles? Supertramp? We chose The Clash (written as The Crash on the pamphlet, but we knew what they meant….). Being in Bar 120 was like being at a friend’s house and flicking through his (let’s face it, it would be a guy) albums. I’d love to go back, but being Tokyo this place will only exist for another week. Akiko, our musician waitress, told us that the new exhibition/bar will be something to do with Sinatra. We’ll be back.

Darts

I am on holiday! It has been a good time to get to know Tokyo better and meet up with friends. Chantal showed us some off the beaten track places around Harajuku one night. We played darts in a bar in Kabukui-cho with Naho another. That was quite an experience. I haven’t played darts for 20 years and things have changed a lot. The darts are plastic and the board automatically calculates your score. Naho didn’t know what we were talking about when we asked her where the backboard was. I found I was rather good at darts. I missed the board completely a few times (good job the darts were plastic), but I also managed to get 4 bull’s eyes!

Forgetting my Japanese

I am seriously forgetting all my Japanese. I speak English at home, I work in an English-only environment now and my last Japanese class was in February before we left Nagoya. It’s a bad situation. My university are offering free classes and I went along for a level check today. The teacher asked me a few questions in Japanese and I thought I muddled through. I always forget numbers and dates, so that didn’t look good (I wanted to tell her that I mix them up in English too half the time). At the end of the interview, she told me that I would be put in the beginner’s class! I was so upset! I’m not a beginner! After 3 years of living in Japan – how can I be put in the beginner’s class!? I knew I was rusty, but things were worse that I imagined! I now know how my students feel when they are placed in low streams at university after years of study. It feels like everything up til now has been a waste of time. Now that I have calmed down a bit, I know this isn’t true and I am determined not to give up.

Antics in Yoyogi Park

I’m starting to feel a little more settled, so it’s time to re-activate the blog.

At the end of January we found a flat in the Tokyo Bay area. Since then we have travelled to Ireland, started new jobs, moved apartment, travelled back to Nagoya twice for meetings and the graduation ceremony, attended the IATEFL conference in Exeter, played “host family” to Yuuki, one of my old students from Nagoya and waited for Internet… Now that the conference in out of the way and I am online again, I am starting to feel like I live here.

We had a fun day yesterday in Yoyogi Park. Flea market, dog show and buskers. I will let the photos say it all: http://picasaweb.google.com/jomynard/TokyoApril272008

New Apartment!

We found a flat - hooray! We managed to find one we could afford that isn't made of chipboard like our current one. It is also bigger and has high door frames in most rooms. Still a bit of paperwork to do, but hopefully we'll move in on March 1st. Now that I know that we are moving into a better place soon, the current flat is annoying me more than ever: the way I am NEVER warm and the fact that we can only have 2 appliances on at once. I have to switch the heater off if I want to use the hair drier, oven or iron. I can't believe we have put up with this nonsense for 3 years!

Only in Japan

I was driving onto campus today and I saw a girl dressed in a cape, bonnet and big furry mittens. If that wasn't weird enough, her mate was wearing thigh-high boots and shorts.

It's like everyday is a costume party in Japan.

Remember Suzanne Vega?

To be honest, I hadn't listened to a Suzanne Vega song for 20 years, but we found out she was coming to Nagoya and thought we'd go along. I used to love her old stuff and liked the new songs she has on her MySpace page. There have been so few gigs we have wanted to go to recently, so it was nice to go and see some live music again. The last time was The Enemy in December. I am happy to report that the Suzanne Vega gig was great! I have re-discovered a really talented artist.

Apartment Hunting in Tokyo

On Friday we are going up to Tokyo for a few days to look for a new apartment. We already have a few appointments lined up, but I am getting nervous that we won't find anything we like for our budget. Which factors will take priority: proximity to Tokyo? size? number of rooms? high door frames (David is sick of stooping)? proximity to a station? outdoor space? sunlight? It's not an easy task. I have come across so many blogs where people are annoyed by the process. Here is one article that kind of sums up the process.

Wish us luck.

Day out in Kyoto

When people list some of the benefits of Nagoya, one of the things that comes up is its proximity to Kyoto - only 36 minutes away on the bullet train. Despite how near it is, today was actually only our second visit to the old imperial capital. Most people go in autumn or spring when it is at its most beautiful. We manage to go off season and avoid the crowds, but also have to deal with bad weather. Our last visit was in the sweltering June heat. This time we had freezing rain to deal with. It was still a fun day though, especially as we were able to catch up with our friends Sayuri (who is from Kyoto) and Zack (who has just moved to Kobe).













Kiyomizu-dera Temple





























Lunch time
















Zack Laughing at Sayuri's fortune preditction at Shimogamo Shrine

Walking off the gyoza in Heiwa Koen

Today we went for a walk in our local park, Heiwa Koen, to work off the gyoza from last night. We wondered whether this would be the last chance we would get to walk in this park before we move. We first came to this park during cherry blossom season in April 2005 and we have since seen it in autumn, winter and summer. Of course, many of the trees are bare now, but the camellia are blooming everywhere. The Japanese Camellia (tsubaki) is one of my favourite flowers and I still can't believe it can bloom when it is so cold and all the other flowers are dead. A lot of people were out today walking their dogs, visiting graves, flying kits, riding bikes, fishing and there was even one couple sailing a remote controlled mini surfboard.

Rent-a-dog

Live in a small apartment and can't own a pet?
Want your kids to have access to animals?
Want to donate money to an animal welfare and rescue centre?
Want to get some fresh air and exercise?
Well come along to Heiwa Koen Animal Centre and rent a dog for an hour!
Brilliant.

Gyoza

Tonight we went to the best gyoza restaurant in the country. At least that's my opinion. It's owned by our friend Yukie's sister and a group of us went along and ordered 4 types of delicious dumplings. I ate way too many of course. I can still taste them now.














Fried dumplings















Ryoko, Chiaki, Ayako and (another) David















Yukie bringing us steamed dumplings















Spying on the chef through the window

Ikeda-yama, 923.9m

It was freezing cold on Sunday, but it didn't stop us going for a hike. The views were impressive and there was even a bit of snow.

Moving to Tokyo

We have been pretty busy since we got back from California. We can finally tell people that we are moving to Tokyo in March to start new jobs in April. David got his schedule this week and he'll be teaching first period 4 times a week. This means he will join the Tokyo rush hour crowds. He'll be one of the million people who passes through Shinjuku station everyday.

The end of the road for the Hula Guy

Before we left San Francisco, we mailed the Hula Guy back to Amy and George in San Luis Obispo. We got this e-mail from Amy a few days later...

"The Hula guy didn't survive the trip. He arrived today all broken - his stand shattered into many pieces. George and I are very sad because we wanted to put him on our rental car in Hawaii. We considered buying a replacement, but it just wouldn't be the same. I think he's going to be put to rest in the trash can...."

San Francisco and Berkley

I had a fantastic birthday in San Francisco. Here are some of the highlights:

• surprise room service - strawberries, chocolate and champagne!
• giant breakfast at Max's
• wandered around the fun streets of San Francisco
  
• saw an art exhibition at the Yerba Buena Arts Centre
• had tea at Peet's
• stopped for a few pieces of Sushi at Yerba Buena
• had delicious Thai food for dinner
• saw an independent Spanish movie (El Orfanata) at the Embarcadero Center

The next day we took a BART out to Berkley during the day and met our friend Kazue (visiting from Japan) in the evening at the Ferry Building near the Embarcadero.

Here are the photos

Point Reyes and Marin County

Today was a beautiful sunny day and we drove from Healdsburg to San Francisco stopping at some very interesting places on the way. Some highlights:

• driving alongside a body of water and later realizing that it filled the San Andreas Fault
• eating clam chowder and tamales in Marshall
• walking along Drake's Beach in Point Reyes state park
• the beautiful countryside and beaches
• discovering North beach in Point Reyes
• spotting another Hula Guy
  
• eating fresh oysters
• crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset
• checking into the chic Westin Hotel in San Francisco
• having dinner at Lori's Diner in SF

More photos of our day