Blogs from Tokyo, Japan, Asia - page 242

Hi guys, how's stuff? Good I hope. The culture shock from India to Japan was brilliant - we both really enjoyed it! Sealed roads, no one uses their horn, no beggers, no heat and dust, everything is clean and neat, everyone is wonderfully respectful and doesen't want to know your life history, tell you theirs or think we are strange for trying to establish 3cm of personal space around ourselves. Trains arrive on time - to the minute, and when the girl opened reception at 7:01am yesterday and we both looked at our watches thinking that was great service, she then apologised for over sleeping! To make the shock as acute as possible we spent the first day in Shinjuku, a hugely built up area, enormous department stores, wide traffic lanes, the biggerst TV screens ... read more

Konbawa, mini video inutile en grande primeur! La semaine derniere je postais une annonce sur un site web pour trouver des nouveaux eleves pour Brightons School (l'ecole ou je vis). Une fille ma repondu, Sato, et apres une semaine de bla bla par e-mail on s'est enfin rencontre aujourd'hui. Je dois avoue que je me trouve courageux d'avoir fait ca, habituellement je suis tellement pas a l'aise quand je rencontre des filles, surtout pas parler avec elles. Alors imaginez rencontrer une japonaise pour parler anglais et japonais avec... ouch. Mais faut croire que je change et que je deviens un homme (mit a part le fait que j'ai toujours fait pipi debout). Donc on s'est rencontre a 16h00 a une station de metro (un peu stressant, moi je l'ai jamais vu, et elle, a juste a ... read more

Comme j'ai bien dormis... pourquoi pensez vous? A- J'ai dormis avec des triples japonaises B- J'ai mange un bol de bebes morts C- J'ai un nouveau lit Comme vous avez probablement tous repondus A, vous avez tort! J'ai enfin un lit, un vrai. Paul a acheter un nouveau lit a son garcon de 8 ans, j'ai donc herite de l'ancien. C'est un beau bolide de formule 1... nan je blague, c'est un lit simple, mais combien confortable pour avoir dormis sur des tatamis pendant plus de mois. Disons que j'ai senti une difference en me levant ce matin, habituellement je suis toujours tres fatigue, mais la mon sommeil est mieux. Beaucoup d'entre-vous ont bien aime le dernier post, vous m'avez meme dit que ca vous donnait reelement le gout de venir (On ajoute Genevieve a la ... read more

Since this entry is backdated (the next few will be too), I don't have much to add so sorry for everyone who is expecting to be quite entertained. The beginning of April was cherry blossom (sakura) time in Japan and let's just say that I am not the only person who thought them to be gorgeous. Pedestrian traffic increased by about 875%, making it even more time consuming to get anywhere (which I didn't think possible in Tokyo). Apparently even when you get to see the trees every year, it never gets old, which is kind of nice I suppose. It's very popular to have a hamani (picnic) under the trees, an experience I was glad I got to have with the family. And unlike in the US, where a picnic might typically consist of sandwiches ... read more

Hello all, The day we decided to revisit Odaiba, the weather was rainy and not very pleasant. So, we headed to the opposite side of the island, where we heard there was a lot to do indoors. Here we were not disappointed at all! We spent the entire afternoon shopping, playing games and exploring Sega's Joypolis - an indoor amusement park/arcade complete with rides, virtual reality games and even a 3-D horror show called "Dark Chapel". I think by far though our favorite thing there was the snowboarding ride...we rode it at least 3 times each!!! While shopping at Decks, a large indoor shopping plaza adjacent to Joypolis, we went back in time. Well not actually, but there was a floor that had many western items from the fifties, sixties, seventies, and maybe even the eighties. ... read more