Tuesday (27/05/03)
The first day was not supposed to be too taxing and we were only "in" in the afternoon to fill in forms and have a quick chat. A few of us went for breakfast at a coffee place which looked pretty smart. We were offered some croissant bits at the door, which were tasty (yet again) and free. Steve also managed to knock all of them over but the waitress did not seem annoyed and was incredibly polite and picked them al up and still took our little cocktail sticks. Once inside, I had some random pastry, which was cheesy, and an iced coffee. So far, I am unable to fault the food and I reckon I can be a lot more adventurous[A].
Orientation was just meeting some of the staff and having a chat to get some advice. I got lots of reading material including teaching and "living" manuals.
After Orientation had finished, I legged it for the intimidating first solo journey on the trains. Luckily there were no changes required to get to Akihabara[B] and so I got there in half an hour - a little late. The next bit was a little bizarre as I had no idea about what Allan looked like other than he was oriental - not the most helpful detail in my situation. I was also late so there was the definite possibility he had gone. So basically, I walked around the place I was meant to be for a while. This guy caught my eye by simple virtue of being white (a rarity) and he was waiting around. Apparently for the same guy in fact. Allan found me (and the other guy - Pete) and we grabbed some food at Becker's Burgers. Allan can definitely put the food away (Richard style) and he got a load of burgers. Had a bit of a chat about how everything was going and got introduced to Pete. As seems to be the way - he was a really nice guy (as was Allan) and I found out he was also an ex-teacher that had moved to import/export. I told them I wanted to get a camcorder so they showed me around but, disappointingly, I could not find one for a good price like I had seen so I said I'll get one later after a bit of research.
It was a little annoying, as that would have given me digital camera abilities for the week. Then we went to a big Sega Arcade in Akihabara, which was an eye-opener. I had never seen anything like it - 5 floors of pure arcade action. Allan played a bit of "Soul Calibur" and then we watched some "Virtua Fighter 4 evolution" action, which was poetry in motion. I have not seen much of it but there were tons of machines in play and most were busy. There were some really good matches on display and they have an odd one player per cabinet system[C].
It is odd as you challenge from a machine that is back to back so you don't see your challenger. Seems unsociable at first sight but it encourages versus play which lends itself to greater social interaction and improved play. It is far less intimidating to play and you don't "ask" for challenges - they just happen. I played a bit of Power Smash[D] 2 and the second stage of Initial-D (obviously, for anyone that has spoken to me recently) which I hadn't played before. I got a shiny new car (RX-7) and played it. Really nice actually and a better car than the ones I had in London.
I then said my goodbyes and went back to the hotel, getting a pretty decent convenience store fish burger on the way. I HAD to watch a bit of Initial-D after that so I started the second stage. I also played a bit of Capcom vs SNK even though the rubbish composite connection[E] is hurting my head with its awfulness. How does everyone else cope?
Wednesday (28/05/03)
Today was my first real day of training and so we were all in for 10 in the morning. The training was OK - quite friendly but I do think the trainer was trying a bit too hard with the jokes. As in every single time he spoke it was a "joke" I reckon he was about 50/50 in terms of the class liking it and not. In the afternoon we all had "observations" to see how the teaching should be done. I went with someone else to see one adult and two kids sessions (ages 4 then 8) in Warabi[F], which was only one stop away. We grabbed a bit of lunch (some potato cheese pastry job and some sushi) and then watched the magic unfold in front of our eyes. The lessons were great and obviously of a level that we would not attain for a while. The kids lessons were fantastic and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I was never too worried about the kids' lessons but I know others were, but this was good. I think fears may have been allayed. Underneath the school was a 100yen shop. Unsurprisingly, it sold lots of items at 100 yen but, unlike pound shops, these were of a good quality and cheaper. They had chairs and MD storage. Amazing but neither of us bought anything because we would just have to take it with us from the hotel again.
Once I got back to the hotel, I relaxed for a bit by watching a bit more Initial D then playing some Ridge Racer 5 afterwards because I needed some adrenaline boostage. I wanted to watch the Champions League Final[G] that night (it was on at 345am) so I went to sleep and, obviously, forgot to set my alarm. I woke up for the second half and saw the first half of extra time until the TV station just went to a different programme entirely!!!!!! It was 0-0 and they were blatantly carrying on but they went to some morning programme rubbish. I was so annoyed[H].
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
The first day was not supposed to be too taxing and we were only "in" in the afternoon to fill in forms and have a quick chat. A few of us went for breakfast at a coffee place which looked pretty smart. We were offered some croissant bits at the door, which were tasty (yet again) and free. Steve also managed to knock all of them over but the waitress did not seem annoyed and was incredibly polite and picked them al up and still took our little cocktail sticks. Once inside, I had some random pastry, which was cheesy, and an iced coffee. So far, I am unable to fault the food and I reckon I can be a lot more adventurous[A].
Orientation was just meeting some of the staff and having a chat to get some advice. I got lots of reading material including teaching and "living" manuals.
After Orientation had finished, I legged it for the intimidating first solo journey on the trains. Luckily there were no changes required to get to Akihabara[B] and so I got there in half an hour - a little late. The next bit was a little bizarre as I had no idea about what Allan looked like other than he was oriental - not the most helpful detail in my situation. I was also late so there was the definite possibility he had gone. So basically, I walked around the place I was meant to be for a while. This guy caught my eye by simple virtue of being white (a rarity) and he was waiting around. Apparently for the same guy in fact. Allan found me (and the other guy - Pete) and we grabbed some food at Becker's Burgers. Allan can definitely put the food away (Richard style) and he got a load of burgers. Had a bit of a chat about how everything was going and got introduced to Pete. As seems to be the way - he was a really nice guy (as was Allan) and I found out he was also an ex-teacher that had moved to import/export. I told them I wanted to get a camcorder so they showed me around but, disappointingly, I could not find one for a good price like I had seen so I said I'll get one later after a bit of research.
It was a little annoying, as that would have given me digital camera abilities for the week. Then we went to a big Sega Arcade in Akihabara, which was an eye-opener. I had never seen anything like it - 5 floors of pure arcade action. Allan played a bit of "Soul Calibur" and then we watched some "Virtua Fighter 4 evolution" action, which was poetry in motion. I have not seen much of it but there were tons of machines in play and most were busy. There were some really good matches on display and they have an odd one player per cabinet system[C].
It is odd as you challenge from a machine that is back to back so you don't see your challenger. Seems unsociable at first sight but it encourages versus play which lends itself to greater social interaction and improved play. It is far less intimidating to play and you don't "ask" for challenges - they just happen. I played a bit of Power Smash[D] 2 and the second stage of Initial-D (obviously, for anyone that has spoken to me recently) which I hadn't played before. I got a shiny new car (RX-7) and played it. Really nice actually and a better car than the ones I had in London.
I then said my goodbyes and went back to the hotel, getting a pretty decent convenience store fish burger on the way. I HAD to watch a bit of Initial-D after that so I started the second stage. I also played a bit of Capcom vs SNK even though the rubbish composite connection[E] is hurting my head with its awfulness. How does everyone else cope?
Wednesday (28/05/03)
Today was my first real day of training and so we were all in for 10 in the morning. The training was OK - quite friendly but I do think the trainer was trying a bit too hard with the jokes. As in every single time he spoke it was a "joke" I reckon he was about 50/50 in terms of the class liking it and not. In the afternoon we all had "observations" to see how the teaching should be done. I went with someone else to see one adult and two kids sessions (ages 4 then 8) in Warabi[F], which was only one stop away. We grabbed a bit of lunch (some potato cheese pastry job and some sushi) and then watched the magic unfold in front of our eyes. The lessons were great and obviously of a level that we would not attain for a while. The kids lessons were fantastic and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. I was never too worried about the kids' lessons but I know others were, but this was good. I think fears may have been allayed. Underneath the school was a 100yen shop. Unsurprisingly, it sold lots of items at 100 yen but, unlike pound shops, these were of a good quality and cheaper. They had chairs and MD storage. Amazing but neither of us bought anything because we would just have to take it with us from the hotel again.
Once I got back to the hotel, I relaxed for a bit by watching a bit more Initial D then playing some Ridge Racer 5 afterwards because I needed some adrenaline boostage. I wanted to watch the Champions League Final[G] that night (it was on at 345am) so I went to sleep and, obviously, forgot to set my alarm. I woke up for the second half and saw the first half of extra time until the TV station just went to a different programme entirely!!!!!! It was 0-0 and they were blatantly carrying on but they went to some morning programme rubbish. I was so annoyed[H].
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. Which I was. In the span of time that I was in Japan, I had a grand total of two meals that I didn't like - unfortunately both were with company. The quality of "normal" food in Japan is remarkably high and it meant that I could trust that a meal would be at least OK wherever I went, which is really liberating.↩
B. Akihabara is an area that is between Ueno and Tokyo stations that had built up an "electric town" reputation that made it a mecca for gamers and those interested in consumer electronics. I went to Akihabara quite a few times over the years but it changed quite substantially in that time too to become more palatable and less specialist in electronics. These are, of course, relative terms.↩
C. These types of arcade cabinets are called Versus City. I am not sure that I have seen them in many places other than Japan where they are the standard. Cabinets are generally very well maintained and you often see mechanics recalibrating the machines and ensuring that they operate at a good level. Maintenance is a very important part of the psyche of arcades, it seems, and other places and so catastrophic failure is rare. The cabinets are also "sit-down" which is a different feel to the stand-up variety I was used to but it lends itself to a much more relaxed environment.↩
D. Power Smash is the Japanese title for the game Virtua Tennis - a tennis game par excellence. ↩
E. Annoyingly, I may have terrible eyesight but I am attuned to video signal interference - so I may not be able to read the text on screen, but I could probably tell that the signal was fuzzy or there was colour bleed better than most. It is hugely frustrating to have one of the downsides of good eyesight without the upside of actually useful, good eyesight. As I mentioned earlier, I was quite in to videogames and the technical aspects to them. "Composite" is a connection method for video which was the low-level standard. A higher standard was "RGB" which separated the signal and had far less interference and I used this exclusively at home. This has been simplified by the use of HDMI in more modern equipment which gives a nice solid connection.↩
F. Warabi school was infamous amongst the teachers for having a difficult school manager and so when I was moved there a few months later, I was not pleased but I found it to be a pleasant place and I seemed to get on quite well with the school manager. I had some great students there too.↩
G. This was between AC Milan and Juventus and I used to have a soft spot for Milan due to some of their players being amongst my favourites - specifically Paolo Maldini and the slightly lesser Andrea Pirlo (at the time, 2003, I really liked him, such a graceful player. It was a bit weird when the English press seemed to suddenly "discover" him in the 2012 Euro Championship.) The game itself was apparently quite dull and went to penalties which Milan eventually won.↩
H. At the time, I thought this was because football was not popular in Japan but it was only a year since they had hosted the World Cup. I don't know why it was so poorly treated but the Japanese people I saw (and I was based in Saitama) really got into football when it was on and the World Cup in 2006 was followed by everyone - even with the time difference. I still have strong memories of some of the "housewives" lessons being about the football on the night before and the excitement after the 2006 final.↩
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