July 5, 1997: 8:50am
Oh my lord. OK, it's 8:50am. I just got back from my run, and all I can say is that it was pure hell. Why? Well because I think it was actually the same temperature as in hell. I mean, it's perfectly clear and blue out - no wind - and gawdang hot. I thought that it's even worse than running in Indonesia. Hmm... I'm going to go put my thermometer outside...
5 minutes later
ACK!!!! It's 34C IN THE SHADE. IN THE SHADE! THat means that it's probably 37C in the sun -- what was I thinking?!? I wasn't meant to run in this kind of weather. I don't even want to think about how hot it's gonna get.
midnight
Well I've had an absolutely wonderful, wonderful day! Let's see... 10am found me at the Higashi Koganei station, mumbling something about how hot it was. Anyways, I hear "Shaaaap-san!" and look over to see Hidaka-san waving from his absolutely cool black Ford Explorer. Wow, what a car! It's a jeep, right, and it looks very new. And there are about 8 antennas attached to the back... very hight-tech looking. So I get into the (air-conditioned) car where Mura-san (a guy from work) and Shravan-san are already waiting. We start to drive (we're on our way to the aquarium near Tokyo Bay) and we're listening to some Japanese pop on his CD player - and suddenly this beep sounds and a woman's voice says something in Japanese. So I'm like "huh? The last time *I* checked I was the only female in the car!" so I crane my neck to find the source of this voice, and I see that he has a navigation system right beside the stereo system. I mean, this thing is fabulous - someone actually TELLS the directions to where you want to go. Wow. And then, to top it all off, it's also a TV!
OK, so we're off. Estimated time of arrival is 11:30 because Hidaka-san thinks that it should take from an hour to an hour and a half. Tokyo Bay is on the East Side fo Tokyo, and since we're on the West, it seemed like quite a reasonable amount of time.
We ran into our first big traffic jam when we got onto the highway in Shinjuku. The traffic was so bad that the signs were posting that it was faster to NOT take the highway, but regular roads. Ah well, we'd already paid the toll.
We passed Shinjuku, which was really neat to see from far away. A bunch of reeeally high rise buildings towering over everything else. And plus, it helped me orient each area of Tokyo because we could see pretty far. Later on we also passed the Tokyo Tower, which was modelled to look like the Eiffel Tower, but taller. So it's pretty neat. And then we went into this maze of tunnels. It was so neat because there's a whole network of highways underground right down to the exits and stuff. Cool. Ohh, and of course every few minutes or so we hear a "ping!" (Just like the sound you hear in Win95 when you get mail) and an extremely polite woman giving us directions. Fabulous!
To cross over Tokyo Bay we used the famous Rainbow Bridge, which is spectacular. The design is really neat, and when driving across you can see so much of Tokyo.
As it turns out, we only got to the aquarium at 12:15 or so - so it ended up taking over 2 hours!! But that was fun because the ride up was entertaining. Shravan-san was asking all these questions, in English, but he's got such a strong accent (well, to me and them) that Hidaka-san and Mura-san couldn't understand sometimes, so I'd have to translate -- either from Shravan-san's English to Japanese, or just from Shravan-san's English to English...
Where was I... oh yes, the aquarium. Well, it's part of this huge park that's on the shore, so it includes a beach, where everyone was heading because of the beautiful (did I mention hot?!?) weather. We parked the car, and the first thing I thought when I got out was "Gee, it's really hot", and the first thing I said was "ATSUIne!" (Wow, it's HOT, isn't it?") So we walked over to the aquarium (in the heat) and that's when the first of a great many pictures were taken.
Now this aquarium isn't humungous like a Sea World or anything, but it had the strangest fish I'd ever seen! Not like I've seen a lot of fish or anything, but these guys were really funky! One looked like Pinnochio! One was transparent. And - they even had penguins, outside! Now I guess I'm just ignorant on the living-style of penguins, but I was under the impression that penguins kinda needed the cold weather. But apparently not... anyways, they were cute. We saw a short 3D movie. And we saw LOTS of little kids.
After the aquarium we ate lunch in the caf, and then decided to walk down to the beach - it's maybe 10 minutes away (but still in the park) And wow, has it *ever* gotten windy out (betcha thought I was gonna say hot, huh?) We were almost blown over. And on the last stretch to the beach, the sand was blowing right at us very hard. It actually hurt a lot. But it was worth it for this beach. It wasn't exactly long, or beautiful but it was just great to stand in the sun, on the sand, feel the sea breeze, and breathe in the air. I felt a pang of homesickness for a moment when I realized that it was like the beach at the cottage, and that I wouldn't be able to go this year. But it felt good to get the pang.
After 15 minutes and quite a few pictures (note: this isn't ME taking pictures all the time -- it's Hidaka-san and Shravan-san. And they pull an A&L where they each have to take the same picture) we headed on to our next stop which was the Fuji Television tower, which is a building along Tokyo Bay that has a tower with a panoramic view. Cool. Oh yeah, it's the station's main office.. I suppose that means that it's where they broadcast from. Well, it was a perfect day to go, with the clean air and sunshine. There was a beautiful view of the Rainbow Bridge, Tokyo Tower, the harbour, and even Tokyo Disneyland. And yes, that's right, we took lots of pics.
By now it's 4pm, so we started to head back to Hidaka-san's apartment for our dinner. He phoned his wife from the car to ask her to buy some beer, and he used an earpiece to make the call! What I mean is that he plugs this earphone into his keitai (cell phone), puts the earphone in his ear, and that's it! He just talks into the air, and somehow the earphone picks up his voice. Talk about high tech!
We just slept on the way home, and we arrived at 6pm or so. I met Hidaka-san's wife (name was never supplied) and two eldest children (Ayumi, 8, Shiori, 6, and Akane, 4). They're all just adorable, wife included! They showed us up to the apartment which is very narrow and packed with stuff. It's not like your average spacious place in Canada, but very typical of Japan. Their main room is where we sat down, Japanese style on their floor (well, they have floor-couches which are neat) and dinner was served right away! Hidaka-san's wife didn't sit down with us because she was constantly preparing more food. Wow, was it ever an awesome meal. First of all, we started with PIZZA! Yummy! And as a bonus, it had cheese and sauce, together, on one pizza. I was impressed. Then came a salad, and then some deep friend veggies and seafood depped in batter and skewered on sticks. They made veggie ones for me and wow, it was incredibly tasty. I ate a lot of that and at this point I'm pretty stuffed... but then they ask if I'd like curry rice! And since I never turn down free food, especially curry... wow, it was good!
Meanwhile, Hidaka-san's daughters are becoming more and more talkative. They showed me all their stuffed animals (mostly Winnie the Pooh ganga, and Disney gang) and I showed them my Doraemon keychain which they thought was cool, but they liked my severed thumb keychain better. So they proceeded to try to trick each person in the room that they'd cut off their thumb.
Oh yeah, and then Shiori was showing me her pnano book, so someone tells her that I play. She starts to ask me "Can you play this piece?", pointing to one in the book -- and since these are about Gr.2 level I could play them all. So I say, yeah, and she says "OK, play" which is funny because, well, they're pretty easy. So I played a few of the pieces.. fun! Pnano!
Now the TV's been on since we got there -- right through dinner too (it's right in front of the table) which is kind of strange. Hidaka-san has got every piece of high-tech equipment, I mean, a large screen TV, VCR, laser disc, CD player & stereo, snazzy new camera with a great telephoto lens, a snazzy new *digital* camera, an old video camera, and a brand new compact video camera... and more. But the funny thing is that they have a remote for probably each of these things, so maybe 8 remotes in the one room! At one point Hidaka-san wanted to use one of them and well, you can imagine the confusion figuring out which one was which! Oh, their TV is bilingual so I was treated to an English episode of E.R. It was funny because they use so many medical terms in that show that most of it may as well be in Japanese! So sometimes Shravan-san and I would laugh because they'd saya something particularly difficult, and all Hidaka-san, etc would kind of look clueless, but we'd be just as clueless as them.
Before we left his place, his wife gave me a Doraemon fan because I'd said how cool I thought he was. Neat! Actually, at one point during the evening she showed us a home video of Shiori's kindergarten grad when she dressed up as Doraemon for a preformance. It was great! I also was shown pictures of their trip to Tokyo Disneyland, and they just look so happy! The family is really great.
So we left at about 11, so I was actually home by 12 or so. Actually, it's almost 2am now. I phoned Mitt tonight! Oh, it was great to talk to her finally since I hadn't gotten a hold of her since I've been here! And she has email at work, so that's bad news for my productivity.
Now I'm going to sleep. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be just like today. Oh, we saw the weather report, and it was actually 40C in Tokyo today - I wasn't just exagerating!
for pics of this day go here
Sunday July 6, 1997: 9am
Well, I think I'm going to have to modify my Sunday Rules because I break them too often. Like today, I got up at 5:30am -- only 3 hours after going to sleep. Why? Well, I knew that it was going to be really hot so I decided to get up early, run while it might be cool, and then go back to sleep. So I was BACK from my run by 6:50am!! Of course, it was still realllly hot out. On TV it said that it was 26C at 4am. Ugh. Anyways, I'm about to go back to sleep, if I can. It's really a pity that it's so hot out because the weather is just beautiful. For the record, I could see Fuji both today and yesterday. I guess it's becoming less and less of a special occasion... but it's still fabulous every time!
4pm
Awesome - I just got my first real phone call! I mean, parents just don't count (sorry guys). I finally got in touch with Bianca!! Cool, as it turns out, she's living in Musashi Koganei which is only 5 stations away. Wow. So we're gonna do something next weekend. She's here as a student from Australia, so I guess her Japanese is pretty good now. (I know Bianca from Gr.9 in Ottawa when we both lived there) That's really brave to study over here, it must be hard. Well, it was a short phone call because she had to go for dinner, but I"m so glad I talked to her! She said she went to the BEACH today and yesterday -- only an Australian would stand this kind of heat!
Monday July 7, 1997: 5:45pm
It struck me on my run why Japan is called "the land of the rising sun" -- it's not because the sun rises so early, but because of the actual Japanese word for Japan: "Nihon". The kanji (chinese character) writing of "Nihon" consists of two characters - most commonly known as "day" and "book". So this confuses most gaijin because we go "Huh? Day book??? WHat does that have to do with Japan?". But I'd never considered the other meanings of the two kanjis, which are "sun" and "origin", respectively. Ie "the origin of the sun" - the land of the rising sun! Of course!
Tuesday July 8, 1997: 5:30pm
Yuck. I've had a horrible, horrible day. There was nothing particularly disasterous, but nothing went right.
I guess it started out with getting up at 5:15 -- I mean, no matter HOW you look at it, that sucks. Then my run itself was bad -- really, really bad. I could barely move my legs. I even contemplated cutting it short for awhile. And then at work today I didn't accomplish ONE THING. Not one. Every single thing that I tried to fix just wouldn't work. And I just couldn't think straight at all -- and I was so tired, I could've just fallen asleep at my desk! Argh!!!
Wednesday July 9, 1997: 6:45pm
Wow, we just had an earthquake! I was just sitting down to dinner when my table started to shake, and the walls too, and I thought "*what* are they DOING dowstairs?!?" And I get up to look outside and then it finally hits me -- an EARTHQUAKE! So I hop on over to the nearest doorway, and I realize - hmmmm - this is a lousy doorway, but well, I think it was over by then.
And so I began to wonder if it really had been an earthquake because I haven't experienced one (well, when I haven't been asleep or in the car, that is) since I was 5 or something. So I turn on the TV to check, and sure enough, it was. Neat-o. Now all I need is for a volcano to erupt and then I will have had the full Japanese experience.
Actually, I *am* a bit worried about getting a big earthquake. See, a big one's supposed to hit Tokyo every 68 years, so they say. And the last big one was in 1927, and it was HUGE. Killed something like 120,000 people, I think. Anyways, if you make the calculation... the big one was supposed to happen about a year and a half ago. Just imagine what would happen in Tokyo -- it'd be 10 times worse than Kobe maybe - and that was bad. My boss told me that every year he says "THIS year..." but it doesn't happen, yet. Well, I'm not exactly hoping for it, but in the meantime I *will* be on the lookout for a good doorway.
midnight
Cool - 3 phonecalls tonight! First I talked to Bianca - and since the tennis guy (Yamaji-san) hadn't phoned me yet to make plans for Saturday, I went ahead and made plans with Bianca. Cool, it's gonna be fun! Next, a call from Jason! We experimented with the various buttons on our phones that we couldn't understand... And lastly, Yamaji-san finally phoned, and as it turns out we won't be playing until the next next weekend anyways, so it's good that I already made plans for this week! Sounds like it's going to be neat though because it'll be a group of people from his work. He speaks English really well - he lived in the States for a year when he was a student. Of course, it's been 8 years since he graduated from grad school (he's an architect) so he said he's forgotten a lot. Anyways, we have yet to finalize the tennis stuff.
Thursday July 10, 1997: 11:30pm
Well today I figured out the bug that's been stubborn for the past 3.5 days. In THE FIRST 2 lines of code -- go figure. Hmph. Stupid declaration. Anyways, now I can get on with my work. I"m getting into the gamma correction, which means -- math equations!!! Yes, I actually had to do math! It's fun, and it's not perfectly simple either. Of course, it's not Djokovic material... Hey, I'm using Newton's method, spiffy.
Friday July 11, 1997: actually early morn Sat. 1:30am
Today was great! I mean work was just -- OK, I guess, but tonight was Shravan-san and Behera-san's welcome party -- and well, since I had such a great time at mine, I had no doubt that this would be a blast. So we started at 7pm at Majur, the Indian restaurant in Tachikawa. Already I knew this was great because I *do* love Indian food (hmmm -- I haven't by chance mentioned this before, have I?) Most people were drinking beer, but since it was still early (hey, the night was still young!) I opted for the mango juice instead. So of course everyone thinks that I don't like to drink now, and they're making all these comments and stuff. Ah well, they'll see. The food came right away and we were there for another 2 hours!! That's a lot of food...
I sat at the table with Miyasaka-san, Shravan-san, and 3 other really funny guys. It was great! I got to practice a lot of Japanese since by now it's most people's language of choice with me. 2 of the guys at my table love DOOM and QUAKE. They invited me to play with them at lunchtime - I'll have to take them up on the invite sometime. Heh heh. I'm vicious with a big gun. (Ok, so I've never played before... is it a sin?) And Miyasaka-san knew an English word tht I didn't! "Premontory". What on earth is a premontory anyways?? Well, it made him very happy! We decided that he should be giving ME English lessons. Probably! Hmmm - it was neat because they're starting to get used to me. I mean, they'll all joke around with me, laugh at me, and I can laugh at them. So much fun! Plus, the food was good, and when it came time to pay, they only made me pay 3,000 yen ($37). I suspect the rest had to pay 5,000 yen ($60). "Student's Price" as Wada-san said. These guys are great!
Then began our search for after-dinner entertainment. They decided to go for a Japanese nomiya (bar) instead of karaoke. By now our group of 30 had dwindled down to 10, which was good because we were having trouble finding a nomiya that could seat all of us. This is because most Japanese start drinking early, and are completely drunk by 10 -- see, the trains stop running sometime soon after midnight, so they either get their partying in before then, or party right on through til morning.
We didn't get into a place until 10:15 so in the meantime I chatted with Behera-san. He's kinda cool. Pretty young, maybe 25 or so. Likes to party, smoke, drink, program in Java. Uh huh. Actually, at dinner him and Hirabayashi-san were comparing drinking feats just like you'd hear in Canada ("Well once I drank 100 shots of beer in a span of 30 minutes" "Oh yeah? There was this time that...") Behera-san doesn't know ONE WORD in Japanese!! Oh oh. He's also going to pull a Gupta-san, ie. stay here for 2 months, return to India to get a new visa, then return for the rest of a year.
So when we finally got into the bar, I saw that we got our own room - with the Japanese low table. Darn it, now my legs are going to hurt... but wait! What's this? When I go to sit down, I realize that there's a deep area under the table dug out so you can sit as though you were on a chair. Neat! So we order drinks and food. Hirabayashi-san has made me promise that I will drink something alchoholic! He orders lots of Osake (rice wine) for all of us to drink, and I get something for myself on the side project. They ordered tons of food even though we were pretty stuffed already! It was great fun. I was sitting near Mura-san, Behera-san and another guy whose name eludes me. They're hilarious!
When the sashimi got there they wanted the 3 gaijin to try it... um... raw octopus and fish?!? Sorry, I'm a vegetarian! But to appease them I took some of the side veggies, put on some wasabe (HOT mustard!) and dipped in the sauce -- just like you do with the fish. Strange! Mmmm and the other food was really good. I think everyone was having a good time, laughing and drinking and eating. Very fun. Hirabayashi-san offered to take the 3 gaijins to a famous park in Hachioji on Sunday but I'm not sure if I'm gonna go because there's so much I have to do! But... I really want to, and it's so nice of him to offer!
Well, we were at the nomiya until about 12:30 and then we all headed home. Since Mura-san lives just around the corner from me, we walked pack from the station together. With him I only ever speak Japanese, and he told me that I should really speak up more at the office because I speak really well. Cool! See, because I know Mura-san pretty well, I'm more talkative than at lunchtime when I'm around 8 other people. But from now on I'm going to try to speak up. And if I'm not understood, then fine, so what?
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