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ブロッグでは意味がありますか。ブロッグとウエッブサイトは違いますか

私はイギリス人ですけど、このサイトでブロッグを書きたい。ブロッグの目的は何ですか。読んでわかるでしょう、日本語はよくできないけど、やる気があります。今はロンドンにいますが日本語は日本でならいました。
「ます形」はあんまり好きじゃないし、僕にはらしくないし、だからやめる。
３・４年前しいごとのために、日本に行った。もちろん英語のきょうしだった！日本になん％の外国人はきょうしと思う？
あの時、サイフは「マイページ」を作っただけどやる気はなくなった。もちろん、あの時は英語で書いた、まだあると思う。
今回の目的は日本語れんしゅう。
今はりょうしんと北ロンドン「ゾーン５！」に住んでいる。仕事もロンドンで働いている。ちょっとたいくつだけど、いまはきょうしじゃなくて、デロイトの会社員。会計士になるためにしごとです。デロイトは大きいな会社、世界中にも大きい、日本も…日本で名前はトーマツと呼ぶ。
趣味は…
趣味ってどういう意味？ゲームとサッカーに興味がある。
最近はプレステ３を買った。日本から友達を持って来てゲットした！
日本語をレベルアップしたいから、この日記はたくさん間違いがあると思う、見たら伝えてください。

Christmas/New Year in Japan

For some context - over the Christmas/New Year period I had a pretty lengthy holiday. Most people with a long holiday and money burning a hole in their pockets decide to go travelling. Most...^[A]

Friday 26/12/2003-------------------Christmas in Japan

The level of commercialism of Christmas is pretty bad all around the world but it is a different level here. Level up indeed. All the shops do all the Christmassy things as you would expect for a Mass Commercialism Day anywhere else but there is no, even slight, counterbalance of reason or spirituality. It is the most blatant of blatant reasons to shop. They do not even have a day off or anything! The thing is though, the Japanese, generally, do know how to make it look good. I have seen quite a few trees and they are immaculately lit. Any decorations I have seen on the streets have been visually much more interesting than the standard fare and look very impressive at night. They are just so much more...elegant than I am used to.
On Christmas Day itself, I went down to Ebisu (an area in South West of Tokyo) to meet up with a friend from the UK for a bit of Christmas food action. The place was called "Good Honest Grub" and it was a little expensive. The food was alright but nothing special - definitely for the price.

Anyway, Christmas itself is not a special day as such. I have been told that it is more of a couply thing but I did not notice that to be honest. Though I am blind and, unfortunately, had no personal way of checking that out. The decorations stay out for a long time though - well beyond the 12 days of rubbish Christmas Song lore.
The family importance of Christmas in the UK is really replaced by...


Thursday 01/01/2003---------New dawn as the sun rises

Such a different atmosphere compared to the random loutishness, hard drinking and pressure to have a "great" time (that you cannot remember!) evident in the UK. Most people spend time with their family and Tokyoites seem to return to their hometown to see their parents and parents-in-laws. New Year's Eve is not really that important - it is all about New Year's Day.

I was going to do nothing for the whole New Year festivities as I don't really "do" New Year to any real degree. I hate forced occasions and beyond the forced jollity of Christmas comes the contrived, "must have a good time", competitive New Year's stuff. And, after last year, I had no desire to watch people get slowly even more boring. At least last year they would not be boring from the start but the start point would probably be lower this time! So I declined an offer to go to some random collection of nightspots in favour of staying at home. Well done me. The pressure of opinion?

As it happened, somebody made me a very kind offer (thank you Naomi for that) to go to a temple in Omiya to see what happens there. What the Japanese do is....queue!
As I have mentioned in the past, the trains in Tokyo are excellent when they run but they do finish running a little early for my liking. On New Year's Eve, however, they actually run past 12! I think the lines basically run a fairly skeletal service but it is significantly better than no service at all of course.
As it happened, we met a little before midnight and went down to Omiya. Apparently it is the biggest temple/shrine/whatever/thing in Saitama so there was some reason for going. And lots of people had that idea too it would appear.

Anyway, outside the shrine there were tons of stalls selling all kinds of food, masks, toys and....videogames. A little bizarre but there was a lot of buying going on and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Once we had got through the stalls and stuff (refraining from the food even though I was hungry - when am I not?) we got to a huge mass of people waiting to enter the shrine. It was all pretty civilised and we got through after about 45 mins of waiting, by which time it WAS 2004 but noone really seemed to know or care. I looked at my watch (or phone as it is more commonly known) at 0020 I think. There were quite a few police around keeping it all in order but they could have taken the day off.

Once past the unarmed guards (except for megaphones anyway) you get to the shrine itself and then make the prayer. Is it a prayer? I don't really know as the Japanese people in general seem quite lacking in religion but have a spirituality in what they do seeping through their actions. At the shrine itself, you throw a coin into a collecting trough thing (in my case over the heads of a crowd - dangerous with my eyesight) then clap a couple of times and put your head down and make a wish (or prayer). Ten seconds. Job done. Let's get out of here....

On the way out, you go past a whole load more stalls and one of them (or some) sell these fortune things on paper. You get them and you can read your apparent fortune for the coming year. Then, if you don't like it, you can tie it to the trees on the shrine grounds "for the wind to take it away" and so you will get better luck. Or something. I saw lots of these pieces of paper so either there was a lot of bad luck or the wind was a bit weak. Maybe they were just too damn good at tying.

The trains back involved a lot of waiting as they were significantly less frequent than normal so we sat on the cold station platforms for about an hour altogether and I got home at about 4 or 5. About when the trains start running again in fact.
It was a different type of New Year to normal and it was enjoyable too so I was pretty glad I accepted the offer. I doubt I shall see another one like it so can't complain really. Well I can but I won't.

photos here


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

^{A. Having a couple of weeks off is an ideal opportunity to travel and I did so the next few years. Actually, a few days after this post, I did travel to China to visit Shanghai and Beijing and feel very cold. The following year, I went back to the UK as a surprise visit to my parents which was great fun and a true surprise thanks to my sister's skills. The year after that I went to Bangladesh including a stopover in Hong Kong. These were the only bits of international travel I did in three years although I did take the opportunity to travel around Japan when I could.↩}

Battle Royale II----------------|

Eagerly awaited. 

There is a fairly common formula for sequels to popular films. More money, similar story, same characters, lavish cinematography and, most importantly, not as good.

I saw Battle Royale a few years ago at the cinema in the UK having had my interest piqued, indirectly, by watching "Ringu". The original Battle Royale is a much deeper, and cleverer, film than I think it is given credit for in many quarters. I think even a lot of its fans would baulk at the suggestion of depth to its premise and execution. But its there. Battle Royale came out in the UK in September 2001. There was some other big event then too…

BRII is set a few years after the initial film and opens with a wide shot of Tokyo and then two very big buildings collapsing - this is a film that is going to wear its controversy on its sleeve. The plot is set up with this event, the "winner" of the last film - Shuya - has become the leader of a terrorist organisation named "Wild Seven" and they are responsible for the devastation. The new contestants play a new game and they can all survive this one. The new aim is to kill Shuya. There is a lot less of a set up to the game itself here and it is a lot quicker into it. The kids, however, are given combat equipment to attack with and expected to work in team. A clever addition to the rules is the pairwork "encouraged" by having each person paired up forcibly - if one of the pair dies then the other necklace starts beeping…
The film is a lot more overtly political than the previous one and, at the beginning, reels off a list of countries that the US has bombed. Rather surprising to hear in a mainstream (in its native country) film and this is a theme that follows through. As mentioned previously, Shuya is a "terrorist" and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people yet, by the end of the film, he is dealt with rather sympathetically by the film.
I don't really want to get into the plot details here but this film shocked with its portrayal of the characters and I was very surprised by it. In many ways it is a mixed bag of a film. As it started it felt quite weak and like a "sequel by numbers" but this was a very different beast by the end of it.
Compared to Battle Royale, and there are few other films I could compare it to, there are a number of comments to make. I think that the potency of the imagery is somewhat dulled by the simple difference in clothing. Although the characters do seem to look younger than the previous batch, the constant of school uniform in Battle Royale was an ever-present reminder of the age and immaturity of the protagonists. And, it did just look better aesthetically. As the film develops, the imagery throughout is fairly standard war film fare, which although still technically impressive, is not too memorable. There is nothing to match, or near, the lighthouse scenes in the original for instance.
The characters, in general are not so well developed but they are quite easy to differentiate due to the fact that a sizable number have dyed hair and are "cool". But, whereas the original film told you something of each character before they came to their inevitable end, here there are a fair few cannon fodder types giving the air of time filling. This is due, in part, to the differing intentions of each film but it is still a failing of sorts.
This is not the classic that the original was, this is rarely the case with sequels, but it is a very interesting film with some themes that you would not be expecting to see in other films. It is a sequel, it has some of the same characters, its got some violence, its got decapitation. Definitely worth watching for fans of the original and I would certainly recommend watching that before this.

Japan, China, North Korea, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Sudan, Yugoslavia, and... Afghanistan
What do they all have in common?
In the past 60 years, America has bombed every one of them
Some 8 million dead among 22 nations
Equality? That's a lie

Revolving Doors

Another month, another teacher I know leaving.
Steve came out at the same time as me so it is a little odd to see him leave so soon - well it feels "so soon" at the moment anyway. I guess to him it is a long time.
The week after Paul left, was a relaxed affair with a bit of tidying and stuff. Some of my students even threw a little party for me, which was very nice^[A]. They brought food in and we all ate and drank. I was told it was a "pot luck" party and this involved everyone bringing in a dish and then we all ate. Some of the lessons were moved around too so that we could have longer.

Anyway, Steve had a leaving "thing" on the Saturday as that was his last day of teaching. And, because he was in company accommodation, he HAD to be out of there on Sunday although his ticket was for later in the week. Anyway, the party was local at "Wara Wara" (an isekaya chain) and I went down after work. I went with one of the receptionists I work with who has lived in Koshigaya all her life. She didn't know where the place was and she had never walked from one station to another! It was nice to show a local around… I got taken to the wrong place and then we had no idea where to go. So I asked her to ask someone, what with her Japanese being a little more competent than mine. But she proceeded to ask a friend on her phone (and via email aswell) so I just asked someone. And we went the right way. It seems a common trait for Japanese people to not ask directions - I thought it was meant to be "men". Anyway, there were a fair few people at the restaurant and I met a few for the first time - they all seemed pretty decent. We stayed for a while and had a laugh but I had work the next day - a Sunday due to a "special campaign" that the school was running. Steve went off to a club in Shibuya, which was tempting but I had stuff to do the next day.

My teaching the next day was a little frustrating because I was at a school I had never been to and will probably never go to again. The students were alright and I finished relatively early. Someone^[B] came round after that and we watched "Battle Royale" - a good film.

I also managed to affirm that the "You're so cool" line in the subtitles is accurate. Like I thought.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. This was with an afternoon class which was actually the very first class I taught (in Kawaguchi school) and was a group of students that I really liked and stayed in touch with each time I returned to Japan. They were all, apart from one, female and married (these were often called housewives' lessons) and they were all interesting and interested which made for a good start to the week. We discussed many things and one of my highlights was setting up a debate amongst them about the pros and cons of videogames (I did do other things as well). Apart from the subject matter, what I found interesting was that they were not used to the honesty and slight confrontation that debate brings and that they had never really spoken to each other like that - they said that this was very difficult to do in Japanese as it is so consensual. (I took this to mean more the native language as you are always restricted by your knowledge of the subtleties of certain words. In a language that you cannot quite capture all the subtleties of, it does not hold you back. I found the idea of this really enlightening. Incidentally, the non-female one was also married and was an academic who I got on well with and have seen once or twice, at least, per year since.↩

B. This lack of name is much more my style! Maybe this was where I became more natural (using names is not my style in spoken conversation either).↩</sup>

Skip to the end...

As The Great Tim Bisley said.

I can't be bothered to write about the rest of the time Paul was here. He is meant to send me some stuff about it but I have not got it yet. Basically, the next few days of the holiday I had were a bit of a write off due to "inclement" weather. It rained very heavily, and incessantly, for three or four days. But it wasn't a typhoon apparently. Well, I went back to work more tired than before the holidays but actually quite pleased to go back. Paul continued to go out to random places in Tokyo and we were back to normal - the default position it felt like he had been here for so long!

We watched a few films and stuff too. We watched all 26 episodes of the first stage of Initial D in three or four nights. Scarily addictive. Paul also watched a couple of Miyazaki Hayoo films - namely "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" [US titles]. And was very impressed. He was visibly "blown away" by Spirited Away.

Paul being here was pretty decent. I was quite wary of spending such a long time with him (or anyone really). I think the quality of Radiohead was too high for anything to go wrong really. Maybe my opinion has been swayed by the lovely presents he has left me. A genuine surprise.

I was actually half expecting a present...of Paul still sat in my room refusing to leave^[B]. Instead I came in to a fairly tidy flat and two things on my desk: a card and a box. Rather excellently the box contained a "Neo Geo Pocket Color" (the name - they can't spell colour unfortunately). The card was even better as Paul had drawn it himself - a picture of Pikachu and Doraemon both saying some Japanese (kanji too so I cannot read it - "peace" allegedly). Inside he wrote some Engrish and, nicest of all, he had written "arigato gozaimashita". Which means "thank you" for things you have done in the past. I'd like to think that he meant "Thanks for everything" which is how it was translated in an anime we watched.

Well I ended the day pretty pleased but I do kind of miss Paul. We had some interesting chats and it was nice to be able to speak normal English at my normal rate with somebody that would understand me. So it^[C] begins...


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. By this, I think I mean the idea of having a more "genuine" experience without the influence of people that knew me. This was possibly the reason I made an instant, unfair judgement on John when I first met him - it was almost as if I was a little fearful of having someone see through me. I had a number of visitors over the years and the majority (with some notable exceptions - I fell out with a couple of people in ways that I had not done before or since) were very positive but I would definitely place Paul in the upper echelons. He wanted to see/do things but he was almost unfussy as to what they were and I think the country grabbed him in that time.↩

B. He returned to work in Japan himself and spent a similar length of time in the country which I think has to be partially because of the time we spent together.↩

C. The "it" beginning was really just my "real" time here - without the stabiliser of having a friend there - now I would have to make some new friends. Making new friends is a tricky business and I did not do too badly in this period of time - I would still count a decent number of people I met as friends - and some of them even "good friends". It was a good time and age to do it and I was massively more successful at forging new relationships in Japan than at any other time, especially university to which I can compare the times quite closely.↩</sup>

Is marriage confirmed?

I went down to Shibuya today because it was something to do. I got a mobile phone too. And it only took me a few months. Not that I have many people to contact.

Getting the phone was a true experience too. Basically, I knew what phone I wanted to get and just wanted to find somewhere cheap. Cheap being free in this case. The phone system here is pretty different from other parts of the world (theory one - the Japanese are "racist" and keep the best stuff for themselves) both technologically and stylistically^[A]. As far as I can tell, the fashions in phones have already been explored here quite extensively. The phone I got was with J-PHONE (guess what J means…) which is in the process of being rebranded as "Vodafone". There are so many pictures of David Beckham floating about to advertise them too. They also use Michael Schumacher and Hidetoshi Nakata but there is so much more Beckage that it is quite scary. Anyway, here, each handset is exclusive to the network so if you want a specific handset, you need to go on a specific network. I was not too bothered. They have some pretty nifty phones here too and they all have cameras and lots have video too. Mine can take pictures at a decent resolution (640 x 480) and store three mins of video. There is a really great one on DoCoMo, which rotates and has a 1MP camera. I never saw the point in cameras on phones before but it is useful to be able to take quick pics of info. I never send them though^[B].


Anyway, the shop I got it from was a "Yahoo BB!" shop in deepest Shibuya - not where I would expect to find it cheap but it was free and you cannot get much cheaper than that. And the process was well worth it. Now my Japanese is still pretty much non-existent but I can point and say, "How much is that?" [ikura desu ka] and then followed by "I'll have that" [kudasai]. So I did that, I wanted it in red and that was sorted out so I went to the counter. I got pretty deep into the contract I was signing and understood most of it vvia some hand gestures and face making. I even wrote some Hiragana and Katakana for my name and address. Which I am quite proud of! The attendant knew no English at all (fair enough) so there was a lot of pointing and giggling from both parties until she had the best idea ever. Being a "Yahoo BB!" shop they had a fair few PCs online (they use these shops to sell broadband and also to show how life changingly amazing it all is) so she had the bright idea of using online English <--> Japanese translation.
Pure Comedy.


I have used these translators quite often (to read Japanese sites) such as http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and they are not supremely accurate. Better than nothing and OK for gist I guess but the languages are quite quite different. She just finished the main thing and then typed loads in for the detailed questions at the end - asking me about call waiting and voicemail. I think. It took a long time to type it all in but I didn't mind too much - its difficult to mind when she seems so very nice, helpful and always breezy.
Then, she asked me something that I had no idea about. So she mimed it, which made Paul and myself crack up (and then her too afterwards). I had no clue so she just did it again. Basically, she put her right arm like a chicken wing and then flapped it in time to four notes she sang- "puh puh puh paaaa". It was hilarious and I just wanted to see it again. And again. It was even better because she knew I had no clue what she meant yet she continued to do it and smile whilst doing it. She loved it! Paul said it even surpassed Junko's b-boy impression - his previous highlight. After a few attempts at explaining, she sauntered over to the PC and did her translation magic^[C].

Is marriage confirmed?

She was simply asking if I was married. I personally would have done some mime based on the wedding ring and I still, to this day have no idea what her mime was^[D]. The tune was not a wedding song and I have never been to a chicken wedding either.

With that bit of fun over, I had to wait a while for them to activate the phone (and charge it up a bit for me and then I was away. And all connected up……….but to nobody.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. For quite a long time, the Japanese mobile phone economy was quite different to the European one but there is a deal of convergence now with the smartphone. The "flip-phone" was hugely popular in Japan and internet usage was very common already at this point with almost all phones using e-mail instead of text messaging such that there were few problems communicating with other people either on phone or computer. Smartphones were not as quick to penetrate for this reason as many of the benefits of smartphones were not new to Japanese users and a major factor, in my opinion, is the typing of Japanese being quite well suited to a numerical keypad so the big benefit of a keyboard was lost. Flip phones were convenient though with portability and decent sizes available.↩

B. This is still true and I rarely use the camera which is, of course, ubiquitous on mobile phones now. I used to take pictures of maps and timetables when I went somewhere so that I could have that as a reference when I needed it. It may not be much fun (although many had fun at my expense for doing such things) but it was very useful and many people did also do it after initially mocking me. Of course, this was a time when online mapping was not so common but the timetables (and journey planners etc) were already commonplace on the walled internets that the phone companies provided. Mapping is seen as such a commonplace thing but it was at around about this time that Google released their "Earth" and "Maps" products and I do remember being amazed by them at the time. When I first provided instructions to how to come to my flat for some visitors, I drew the map out and labelled the relevant buildings by hand. I then took a photo of the map to put online and also walked the route from the station to my flat and took pictures of the junction so that the visitors would be able to find it. I put all of that stuff onto an unlinked page on my website to send to people when they came. Now, I guess I'd just provide the address.↩

C. Again, this was not a particularly well developed field at the time and machine translation was not really able to convert across the grammatical differences well. The questions would probably be trivially simple for a modern translation engine such as Google Translate which is also machine translation but is constantly adapting and learning in order to give decent output. 2003 was a strange time, technologically speaking, and it was the cusp of the truly pervasive internet. I can see that now.↩

D. Thinking back to this, I have a feeling they were meant to be bagpipes - it is the only common instrument that seems to have the heft. This particular story is one that I completely forgot (as, in fact, had Paul) about until I read it recently but, in hindsight, this was one of my happiest moments in my Japanese time. Everything felt so fresh, exciting and comfortable at the same time - and having a longer standing friend there at the time also made it feel more real.↩</sup>

"Monorail! MonoRAIL!! MONORAIL!!!"

I'd spent the last few weeks being told, constantly, that there was some amazing fireworks action happening every Saturday. But my working hours kind of preclude me from the joy. But not this weekend. Hurrah! Or so I thought…

Paul was blaming me for his dodgy stomach that he had got on Friday. He blamed it my chottomatte delivery but I reckon it could be the delayed jetlag mixed with his general incompetence. Or some other food. Well, this kind of impacted on Saturday as he felt like crap. Much like the atmosphere - we had a typhoon situation. Typhoon^[A] sounds so strong but I don't think it was so extreme in reality. Admittedly most of my clothes did end up near the bike sheds but still don't think it was enough for a "warning". And the Japanese warnings are really specific. They give a time for when it will hit each area. It is funny because they do the same thing for the passing of the seasons. The rainy season starts and finishes on particular days which are marked on the calendars. Not too accurately in my experience though.

Anyway, Paul's illness promoted his lethargy which meant that we got a bit delayed in leaving. There were meant to be fireworks in Urawa - the capital of Saitama. Pretty big ones too - 13000 of the bangs according to one report I read. It was going to be excellent I thought, note the tense.

Paul and me got to the station (where we had not been before) and walked towards the bright lights and sounds. Except there were none. So we walked in a direction. Until we heard some English chatter from some people on bikes. I say English but they were obviously American you could hear them from about a mile away^[B]. Paul shouted to them to ask where the fireworks were. Cancelled due to the wrong kind of rain. In Japan!! Everywhere I go, I always take the weather with me. Unfortunately. Paul felt rubbish but, trooper that he is, didn't want to waste the trip so we walked around for a bit. Then we went into an arcade. It wasn't too busy but there were a few players. Paul picked up the courage to have a go on a new game that is pretty popular here now (though I think "flavour of the month" rather than long-term) SVC Chaos^[C] - an SNK beat 'em up with some Capcom characters - an SNK riposte to the Capcom vs. SNK series. Within a few minutes, he was pretty chuffed with himself having beaten a real life Japanese person in the arcades. Quality. Had another look around and then went home to start another day.

And on Sunday, another day did start. With plans again. Plans to go to Odaiba which is an area in the south built on reclaimed land. The reason for these plans: A digital Arts Festival and more fireworks. I will see some! Now, the problem is that to get almost anywhere in Tokyo, I have to go via Akihabara (usually getting out to change trains, and lines). So we stopped off in Akihabara and had a "quick" look for a CD-writer and some arcades. Ooops. Too long.

We made our way towards Odaiba for the fireworks festival. To get to Odaiba, you take a new monorail^[D] thing which is very nice, but a little expensive. People seem very proud of it as they are so open, windowed and driverless. A bit like the DLR in fact.

Japan has been in recession for about a decade now and the government has tried, many times, to kickstart some regeneration by major public projects. Odaiba is one of them. A totally commercial place with no real reason to exist. Retail and leisure. Like so much of "New" Tokyo. The monorail is decent, if a little busy today. But there is a completely pointless (as far as I can tell) loop that the tracks make out in the bay. It just turns all the way round (can see it on the map) whilst going up. I thought that it was used to go up but I think there is a downhill bit before the next station. Totally pointless^[E]. But fun.

The Tokyo Bay Fireworks are supposedly some of the best in the world and, I think, the second biggest ones in Tokyo. The popularity definitely showed on our arrival. The great thing about the fireworks being on such a scale is that people can see them from all over the place. Even so, everywhere you can see them from is totally packed. We went to some fake beach and tried to find somewhere to sit. The operative word being tried.

After the explosions had started (accompanied by a few "oohs" and "aahs") we sat down on the path. There was a lot to see both in the sky and on the ground. The other good thing about festivals is that lots of people "make an effort" so there were a lot of very attractive girls floating about too. Quite a few wearing Yukatas but also a lot in "normal" attire.

The fireworks were actually very, very good. I'm not a massive fan of fireworks but big displays are usually better than the school type that we normally get to see back home. These are free, better and have a great atmosphere too. The quality of the fireworks was excellent and some real thought had been used for the choreography. My personal highlights were the huge ones that exploded, but you heard the bang a good few seconds afterwards as they went so high up, and the Doraemon ones. These were particularly impressive as they exploded into the shape of cat's faces - with whiskers!

As ever, the problem now was getting back. The station we were at was rammed so we walked through some of the shopping centres (one of which is called Palette Town pokefans) until we came to another station. This was also rammed but there was a smaller overspill so we queued. And queued. We got on eventually and the monorail guards had prevented the train getting packed at each station by buffering us through so the train was pretty spacious. And people could actually get on at the next station. Good organisation.


NOTE: The original blog did not have photos within posts (as it seemed too tricky to code it for me to bother) but sections for photos. I have put some of the relevant ones in the post.


---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---

<sup>A. I had a number of experiences of typhoons over the years and they are quite scary when they pass over. It does not happen so often but it will require the shutting down of the rail system which causes havoc as Tokyo really needs trains to operate. They also leave behind a trail of broken umbrellas (I say trail, but they are usually disposed of neatly in the bins) and the last time I was in one, I broke two umbrellas within about one hour and then just escaped inside.↩

B. The stereotypical, loud, American tourist is based on experience but they are not all, of course, like that and there were a number of annoyingly loud British people I encountered on my travels - and not just in Japan. My "favourite" was when I first went to Itsukushima jinja which is near Hiroshima looking out to a particularly lovely scene of the torii gate out in the water during sunset. It would be a wonderfully serene moment in photographs but in reality, there were a group of tourist loudly exclaiming how peaceful it was there. Repeatedly. And loudly. ↩

C. It was a pretty popular game but I am not sure it had legs to keep going and the 2D fighting games that seemed to have long lasting appeal over the years were Street Fighter, the actual King Of Fighters series and the Guilty Gear series.↩

D. This is called the yurikamome line (named after the black-headed seagull) and Odaiba, in many ways, was supposed to be a little like Canary Wharf but ended up very different↩

E. I guess it isn't totally pointless as the bridge it uses - the Rainbow Bridge - is elevated quite high above the water to allow larger ships underneath but it did feel like it could have been done less extravagantly. ↩</sup>