Went to the Studio Ghibli museum today...
Completely awesome :)
15:30 |
Category: |
0
comments
Also known as Asakusa Kannon, Sensoji is Tokyo's most sacred temple and easily the most visually impressive I've seen so far. Not only impressive from the buildings, but also since its a busy working temple, so as you wander around you get to experience the monks and average natives going about their rituals.
Despite arriving at a tube station I later found out to be smack bang next to the main entrance way, I managed to get a bit lost en route : / On the plus side though, I did manage to see some unexpected cool stuff along my wanderings...
- The view from the exit of Ueno Station (one the hub stations on the main circular train line that rings around central Tokyo. Not particularly amazing i know, but notable as the first time I've ever been able to take a photo inside Tokyo that barely has anyone in it! A true rarity.
- I think the building with the weird golden... thing, on it is the HQ of Asahi Beer, one of the main beer companies here. Still not quite sure how the gold thing relates to beer but there you go :S
- A rickshaw! I'd always associated these in my mind with China more than Japan, but a cool sight nontheless.
- Officially the world's coolest bar, this massive spaceship / boat travels through Tokyo along the Sumida River throughout the early evening & night. Its even got a dancefloor and hosts live bands. I've been promised tickets to go on by a housemate, i'm seriously hoping she wasn't joking :P
- Not the temple I was looking for but it did let me know I was getting close. This one is called Matsuchiyama Shoden and is dedicated to family happiness and wellbeing. Also radishes. (The annual Radish Festival - i'm not making this up - is held here every January)
Eventually I found my way to Sensoji, albeit through the back gate :P
Built almost 1500 years ago - although many sections have been rebuilt after fires / earthquakes / bombings - Sensoji is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of mercy and is made up of a huge complex of halls, shrines and statues as well as a spectacular five story pagoda.
- Apologies for the poor editting btw, my current insomnia is doing
nothing for my ability to use a computer
- One of the pieces of artwork painted on the ceiling of the main hall.
Unfortunately I'd forgotten to charge the battery up in my cam and so it ran out of juice before I could film the Nakamise-dori, the street at the very end of the video. Essentially a long path flanked by market stalls this place is a proper treasure trove of traditional items, from kimono tailors to sword merchants, specialists in haircombs & fans to confectioners. In general actually I'm not a big fan of Japanese sweets, that said though there was one stall (and im gutted i don't have a video of this) that contained a large machine making individual little biscuits, but using robotic hands to pick bits up from here and put them on conveyor belts there where something else swivelled round and blew sugar dust on them before they dropped into a disc of icing that had that second arrived from another robotic hand etc... all in perfect timing. It was literally straight out of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory...
I'm really glad I took the time out to go, the imposing architecture, clouds of incense and general atmosphere of the place all came together to create an amazing experience.
A fantastic place to soak up the local religion and clear your mind of stress...
A fantastic place to soak up the local religion and clear your mind of stress...
21:05 |
Category: |
0
comments
In order to keep the sushi & rice wine flowing and a roof over my head while hunting down a programming job, I recently began working part time as an ESL (English as Second Language) instructor. The job title isn't all that accurate in fairness; I have absolutely no knowledge / experience of teaching and to be perfectly honest my English skills aren't that amazing either, but essentially the job revolves around just chatting to people, which despite the free beer on tap back at home I can just about manage :)
[ edit: I do know several other ESL teachers who do actually teach, I'm just not really one of them :P ]
In Japan teaching English is a massive industry, and there is a huge demand not only for genuine teaching in proper language schools but also more casual conversational practise in 'conversation cafes'. These don't exist in the UK - at least I've never seen them - but the idea is the cafe owner hires several native English speakers to hang around and have afew drinks with the locals, get them talking about pretty much anything and help them out if they ever get stuck or unsure how to express something - idioms and phrases being the most usual.
I say talk about anything, last week I was reminded of one of my favourite Fawlty Towers sketches...
I once raised the topic of America's influence on modern Japanese culture. Once and never again. From then on literally any topic I brought up, this customer managed to slip the discussion back to WWII and its effect on Japan. Never dodged so many conversation bullets in one go in my life! Although thankfully very admiring of Britain, sidestepping the guy's clear resentment towards the influence of America on Japan's younger generation, whom he felt were "unappreciative of events 65 years ago" and "quick to abandon thousands of years of tradition for rap music & some cheeseburgers" left me needing a swift top-up at the bar...
Not wishing to give the wrong impression mind, 99% are very easy to talk to and extremely friendly; chatting to the locals also provides a great opportunity to mine for recommendations on what food/drink/places to check out. I thought it odd when first starting out that both places warned me to never give out my number to customers, but after only a couple of shifts soon understood why. Although the cafes bring in a wide range of people from college students to professional singers to police chiefs, over here there's a certain section of Japanese women who go a bit crazy for western guys, and they come in big numbers (paying the cafe owner big money) to come in and chat with one for a few hours every evening. It can actually feel a little creepy at times but for each of those moments there are 10 ridiculous comments that make you laugh (like being told you look like Brad Pitt, serious :S) or interesting insights into Japanese life. Being the only Brit in either cafe helps as well, being more of an oddity generally allows me pick of the more interesting customers to talk to, rather than being caught in a fairly predictable conversation about where I'm from / what my plans are in Japan.
Work in an Eikaiwa is definately something for the short term, since you're not an actual teacher there's not that sense of fulfillment in your work to make you want to carry on for a serious period of time. That said though as a way of funding your travels somewhere new its a laugh, you'll meet loads of interesting people and its brilliant when you first arrive for picking up local knowledge and insights into the culture. Also to be fair, after a very short while you'll find yourself much more appealing to the actual teaching recruiters, if that's the path you want to take.
Oh, one more thing though... if anyone reading this intends to come here, don't teach at Ray's Club.
Just trust me.
[ edit: I do know several other ESL teachers who do actually teach, I'm just not really one of them :P ]
In Japan teaching English is a massive industry, and there is a huge demand not only for genuine teaching in proper language schools but also more casual conversational practise in 'conversation cafes'. These don't exist in the UK - at least I've never seen them - but the idea is the cafe owner hires several native English speakers to hang around and have afew drinks with the locals, get them talking about pretty much anything and help them out if they ever get stuck or unsure how to express something - idioms and phrases being the most usual.
I say talk about anything, last week I was reminded of one of my favourite Fawlty Towers sketches...
I once raised the topic of America's influence on modern Japanese culture. Once and never again. From then on literally any topic I brought up, this customer managed to slip the discussion back to WWII and its effect on Japan. Never dodged so many conversation bullets in one go in my life! Although thankfully very admiring of Britain, sidestepping the guy's clear resentment towards the influence of America on Japan's younger generation, whom he felt were "unappreciative of events 65 years ago" and "quick to abandon thousands of years of tradition for rap music & some cheeseburgers" left me needing a swift top-up at the bar...
Not wishing to give the wrong impression mind, 99% are very easy to talk to and extremely friendly; chatting to the locals also provides a great opportunity to mine for recommendations on what food/drink/places to check out. I thought it odd when first starting out that both places warned me to never give out my number to customers, but after only a couple of shifts soon understood why. Although the cafes bring in a wide range of people from college students to professional singers to police chiefs, over here there's a certain section of Japanese women who go a bit crazy for western guys, and they come in big numbers (paying the cafe owner big money) to come in and chat with one for a few hours every evening. It can actually feel a little creepy at times but for each of those moments there are 10 ridiculous comments that make you laugh (like being told you look like Brad Pitt, serious :S) or interesting insights into Japanese life. Being the only Brit in either cafe helps as well, being more of an oddity generally allows me pick of the more interesting customers to talk to, rather than being caught in a fairly predictable conversation about where I'm from / what my plans are in Japan.
Work in an Eikaiwa is definately something for the short term, since you're not an actual teacher there's not that sense of fulfillment in your work to make you want to carry on for a serious period of time. That said though as a way of funding your travels somewhere new its a laugh, you'll meet loads of interesting people and its brilliant when you first arrive for picking up local knowledge and insights into the culture. Also to be fair, after a very short while you'll find yourself much more appealing to the actual teaching recruiters, if that's the path you want to take.
Oh, one more thing though... if anyone reading this intends to come here, don't teach at Ray's Club.
Just trust me.
18:41 |
Category: |
0
comments
First off, yeah, sorry. I've been a bit lax on updating this recently, the honest reason being i've just been so insanely snowed under with a million and one dramas minor & major. The past couple weeks have been somewhat chaotic to say the least but there'll be plenty of updates coming shortly :P....
17:24 |
Category: |
0
comments
OK so since arriving part of me has been (not very) secretly looking forward to experiencing an earthquake. Nothing major, it's not like I want my probably not amazingly quake resistant house to be seriously tested / blatantly fall to pieces around me. But apparently at some point it's fairly inevitable and provided it isn't some massive disastrous one I kinda think it'd be a cool experience.
Earthquake preparations are taken pretty seriously here obviously - for instance next to my bed when I arrived was a glow in the dark luminous yellow box, containing an emergency chain ladder complete with grappling hooks and a bunch of signalling stuff (I ended up putting it away in the wardrobe, you can tell I too take this pretty seriously). I was also advised to prepare a survival kit as well - presumably with basic first aid, food & water, little red book incase the chinese invade etc - and keep that next to the escape box.
What got me thinking about this though was this afternoon i was sat at my desk chatting to a mate back home when suddenly the floor seemed to move back and forth a couple inches, just once, but very quickly. It was the same sort of feeling you get sat in a car that stops suddenly. A quick snoop online later and it turns out that yep, I'd just had my first earthquake experience :D Although it had a magnitude of 5.1 (moderate) it was centered about 50 miles away and so deep inside the Earth (a touch over 26 miles) that it was barely noticeable.
Still though, got me thinking...
So now the luminous glowing boxof doom is out from the back of the wardrobe and back next to my bed, and while I'm still (perhaps weirdly) looking forward to a decent quake, maybe I'll look into that survival kit after my next pay day. Never know eh? Besides, could also be useful if Godzilla decides to attack again...
Earthquake preparations are taken pretty seriously here obviously - for instance next to my bed when I arrived was a glow in the dark luminous yellow box, containing an emergency chain ladder complete with grappling hooks and a bunch of signalling stuff (I ended up putting it away in the wardrobe, you can tell I too take this pretty seriously). I was also advised to prepare a survival kit as well - presumably with basic first aid, food & water, little red book incase the chinese invade etc - and keep that next to the escape box.
- Genuine earthquake safety notice not far from my house. Pretty much everything here is displayed in cutesy cartoon form, especially public service announcements.
Still though, got me thinking...
So now the luminous glowing box
17:53 |
Category: |
0
comments
Over 200'000 geeks, nerds and generally sunlight averse people. Hundreds of exhibitions. Eight massive arenas. One event...
Tokyo Game Show!
No not my foray into ridiculously cruel and impossible to win Japanese TV entertainment, TGS is the biggest computer games conference in the world and this year I had a ticket :)
I find myself saying this most days but this time there really aren't enough superlatives to describe just HOW weird some of what I saw that day was. From a 40 year old Japanese man dressed up in a Sailor Moon school girl outfit (don't ask, i really dont wish to remember) to "romantic adventure" games, to people strolling around casually in insanely detailed and immaculately produced home made costumes from practically any major game you can think of from the past 20 years. Unfortunately footage hit abit of a brick wall early on - just after I entered I was rushed by a bunch of security guards shouting and pointing at my camera and lack of press-access pass : /
It was a cool experience, it definitely gave me some stories to tell down the pub (or Izakaya) and i did enjoy trying out some of the unreleased games & 3D stuff they had there. Just the limitless neons, laser shows and 30ft+ lcds beaming out games trailers and footage to an ocean of gawping onlookers was quite impressive in of itself. The retro corner was well worth checking out as well - largely for the ensuing flashbacks of getting a kicking at street fighter by my bruv, or playing streets of rage with my mate Danny when I was about 8 - even if it did make me feel a bit old. Winning a bunch of free stuff (game, tshirt etc) was pretty fun too (and the proceeds off eBay will go a long way with my rent this month :P).
In honesty though I don't think I'd want to go back to either this or another similar convention elsewhere again. I'm glad I went once, It was a great 'box tick' and I would've regretted not seeing what it was like if I hadn't, but yeah, once is definately enough. I guess it's the same deal with any kind of convention, but the place seemed to be a magnet for the ones who took an otherwise perfectly acceptable hobby, that extra step (or ten) too far. Before going to TGS this year I considered myself a pretty serious gamer, attending and seeing / meeting a bunch of other people who also call themselves that swiftly made me reassess my eligibility for the title.
I do enjoy hiding myself away now and then and conquering the virtual world in Civilisation, or taking Cardiff to the champions league final in Football Manager. For my sins i've even dabbled in the crack cocaine of the gaming world, WoW (dont panic, i've been clean a few years now); but I'm not in the same league as 99.9% of those at TGS, i'm not even playing the same sport.
Cool experience, but not for me.
Tokyo Game Show!
No not my foray into ridiculously cruel and impossible to win Japanese TV entertainment, TGS is the biggest computer games conference in the world and this year I had a ticket :)
I find myself saying this most days but this time there really aren't enough superlatives to describe just HOW weird some of what I saw that day was. From a 40 year old Japanese man dressed up in a Sailor Moon school girl outfit (don't ask, i really dont wish to remember) to "romantic adventure" games, to people strolling around casually in insanely detailed and immaculately produced home made costumes from practically any major game you can think of from the past 20 years. Unfortunately footage hit abit of a brick wall early on - just after I entered I was rushed by a bunch of security guards shouting and pointing at my camera and lack of press-access pass : /
It was a cool experience, it definitely gave me some stories to tell down the pub (or Izakaya) and i did enjoy trying out some of the unreleased games & 3D stuff they had there. Just the limitless neons, laser shows and 30ft+ lcds beaming out games trailers and footage to an ocean of gawping onlookers was quite impressive in of itself. The retro corner was well worth checking out as well - largely for the ensuing flashbacks of getting a kicking at street fighter by my bruv, or playing streets of rage with my mate Danny when I was about 8 - even if it did make me feel a bit old. Winning a bunch of free stuff (game, tshirt etc) was pretty fun too (and the proceeds off eBay will go a long way with my rent this month :P).
In honesty though I don't think I'd want to go back to either this or another similar convention elsewhere again. I'm glad I went once, It was a great 'box tick' and I would've regretted not seeing what it was like if I hadn't, but yeah, once is definately enough. I guess it's the same deal with any kind of convention, but the place seemed to be a magnet for the ones who took an otherwise perfectly acceptable hobby, that extra step (or ten) too far. Before going to TGS this year I considered myself a pretty serious gamer, attending and seeing / meeting a bunch of other people who also call themselves that swiftly made me reassess my eligibility for the title.
I do enjoy hiding myself away now and then and conquering the virtual world in Civilisation, or taking Cardiff to the champions league final in Football Manager. For my sins i've even dabbled in the crack cocaine of the gaming world, WoW (dont panic, i've been clean a few years now); but I'm not in the same league as 99.9% of those at TGS, i'm not even playing the same sport.
Cool experience, but not for me.
13:07 |
Category: |
0
comments
First off, the food here is fantastic - I'll post more about it once I learn more Japanese and can work out what it is I'm actually eating - but yeah every now and then you naturally end up craving some home comforts, its inevitable. Now my Dad is known in our family to make a seriously mean madras and as a result i've developed quite a taste for a good curry, so when I heard others in the apartment block talking about a local curry house I of course got quite excited.
me: "Ooh what did you have? jalfrezi? dupiaza?...."
Jo: *confused* "Chicken."
me: *sigh* : |
So yeah i'm yet to find an actual indian restaurant - or apparently anyone who even knows what a real curry is - although all's not lost, I have found a temporary fix. One that slakes my indian food cravings while also appeasing the moderate addiction to Greggs that I developed last year in Manchester... I bring you... deep fried CURRY DOUGHNUT !!
Baked things in general are pretty cool here actually, I hadn't expected the Japanese to be very up on that sort of food but in Tokyo at least you struggle to find a single street without a boulangerie or patisserie. They have a fascination with the French over here which I guess explains their depth of breaded delights (you can get a roll with literally anything in / on / covering it here) and day to day you occaisonally see french words in place of where you'd expect Japanese - to the extent where in some cases (like with bakers) these replacements seem to be the standard name.
Anyway... curry doughnuts, get on the case Greggs.
me: "Ooh what did you have? jalfrezi? dupiaza?...."
Jo: *confused* "Chicken."
me: *sigh* : |
So yeah i'm yet to find an actual indian restaurant - or apparently anyone who even knows what a real curry is - although all's not lost, I have found a temporary fix. One that slakes my indian food cravings while also appeasing the moderate addiction to Greggs that I developed last year in Manchester... I bring you... deep fried CURRY DOUGHNUT !!
Baked things in general are pretty cool here actually, I hadn't expected the Japanese to be very up on that sort of food but in Tokyo at least you struggle to find a single street without a boulangerie or patisserie. They have a fascination with the French over here which I guess explains their depth of breaded delights (you can get a roll with literally anything in / on / covering it here) and day to day you occaisonally see french words in place of where you'd expect Japanese - to the extent where in some cases (like with bakers) these replacements seem to be the standard name.
Anyway... curry doughnuts, get on the case Greggs.
09:16 |
Category: |
0
comments
