We woke up and, once ready, checked out and caught the shuttle bus to the airport.  Check in was very quick, with my 22 kg of luggage.  The bag felt heavier than that, so I was quite relieved!

We had breakfast at a cafe, and spent time together, before saying goodbye.  I then started the long haul back home, after a very enjoyable and busy time.

It took us a couple of trains, but we worked our way to Narita.  Because it was a long journey, and we were saving money by not catching the Narita Express, we decided to spend the extra 700 yen and take the “Green Car”.  These are basically the “First Class” cars, where you get a seat, and even a food service!  I managed to get some work done on the way, and the trip just flew.

At Narita train station, we put my bags in a locker and walked down the main street.  Narita is a very nice town – I’ve only ever seen the airport until now.  We found a restaurant where we watched a man pull a live eel out of a bin (full of them), cut its head, poke a peg through its eye to hold it to the counter, cut it, gut it, and pass it to the person across the table.  He put skewers through it, after which they got cooked, and served up to us on rice for lunch!  That’s about as fresh as it gets!  It would have been ~15 minutes from swimming to being eaten!  The sauce they put on it was delicious, and we polished it all off, washed down with a beer, of course!  It was very refreshing as the weather was really starting to warm up (~27 degrees).

We went to the shrine, and walked around there.  There was a lovely garden to walk through, but very hilly so good exercise too.  But eventually we left and made our way back to the train station.  There we caught a (free) shuttle bus to the hotel we had booked in to for the night.

Our room was really nice.  We had a view of the airport, and could watch planes take off and land.  Eventually we were hungry again, and went up to the top floor for dinner, where we had a few small dishes to eat, and had a beautiful night view of the town.  We then went downstairs to the convenience store, and bought some OJ and a snack to have for breakfast the next morning, intending to have a proper breakfast at the airport, but needing something to keep us going.

Long day of work.  I met Kaoru at the train station when she got home, and we went out to “our” restaurant for our last dinner out in Fujisawa together.  As always, we were greeted with a friendly smile, and it was nice having a “local” restaurant.  Pity there isn’t a no smoking area in it, but it wasn’t too bad.

Long day of work.  I met Kaoru at the train station when she got back, and we went out for dinner.  We had a place in mind that we wanted to look at, but they didn’t have a table, so we found another restaurant, which was quite nice.

More catching up on work.

Today was back to reality – a busy work day.

I then made sushi for dinner, to have my last time before making it at home.

Todays plan is for some exercise before going home.  And what better way than a hike?

It looks like a nice little hike.  Through the shrine, up a few steps, and we’d be at the Peace Pagoda.  How easy is that?  Then we started doing the hike…

Lots of steps (but what’s new?), and very steep.  Then we got off the steps, and the trail was not very well marked.  We ended up not knowing where to go, and wondered if we were actually going to make it to the top!  But after a lot of wandering, we eventually made it, and the view was worth it!

The hike back down was following the road, so much more straight forward.  We had checked out of our hotel, but we walked past it and refilled my camel back so we would have some more water for the day.  We then caught the trolley car across town, and ended up at the Hiroshima Castle.

The castle grounds are quite large, and a lot of people were picnicing in them, and enjoying the sunshine of this beautiful May afternoon.  After a wander around the grounds, we went inside the castle.  No cameras were allowed, so nothing to show.  But each floor illustrated some of the history of the castle.  At the top, we were presented with another great view of Hiroshima.

We then made our way back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and caught the Shinkansen back home.  It was a long trip, but eventually we were back in Fujisawa.

After dinner we decided to go for a couple of drinks.  We went to an “English” bar, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as the Aussie Bar in Hiroshima.  We talked about what a wonderful weekend it had been.

Today was a casual start to the day.  After a shower, we went to a cafe outside the train station for some breakfast.  Then we filled my camelback with water and ice, and were met at 10.20 to start our *guided* tour for the day.  This was in English, and our trip had 30 people on it – about 23 Poms, a few Aussies and a couple from Switzerland.  Kaoru was the only Japanese person on it (other than the guide, and bus driver).

Our first destination was Miyajima – ranked as one of the three best views in Japan.  After a scenic 20 minute bus ride, we arrived at the port, where we caught the 15 minute ferry ride over.  Unfortunately the Torri Gate, floating in the high tide, got damaged in the storms early April.  So it was surrounded with scaffolding preventing us from seeing it.  Once off the boat, we were walked around the shopping strip of the island, and had the “recommended places to eat at” pointed out.  Having already had Okonomiyaki, I didn’t pay much attention.  Kaoru and I thought we’d find somewhere nice later anyway.

Our tour continued through the Shrine.  The tide was out, and as mentioned, the Torri gate was covered in scaffolding, but other than that, it was a great tour.  At its conclusion, we were given a couple of hours of “free time” to explore the island.  Naturally, I did something a little different.  Kaoru and I walked up a “back street”, and ended up finding another small shrine, a bit of a hike up the mountain.  From here we had some amazing views back out at the island, and the bay.  Once we came back down, we went through the main Shrine again, so we could stop and pray.  This is a very spiritual place for the Japanese, so I couldn’t deprive Kaoru the opportunity to pray here.  As we walked through, we came across a wedding party – a Japanese lady and a French man.  We walked past them, prayed at the Shrine, and started walking back to the meeting place, looking for some lunch on the way.  We found what would have to be the smallest carpark I’ve ever seen!

We found lunch at a nice little stall – I had a fish stick with bacon and cheese (and a beer), and Kaoru had one with Shrimp.  We were still hungry, so split a 3rd with Oyster – the other famous food in the area.  We then continued our walk back to the ferry.  Along the way, we stopped in a Soy Sauce shop.  I had never seen so many different flavour soy sauces!  I thought it was just a single flavour, but these all had a slightly different flavour to them.  I tried an orangey one – it was quite nice!

We left the shop and looked at the time – we were now running a couple of minutes late, so hurried through the rest of the markets and re-joined the group to catch the ferry back to the main land.  Our bus was waiting for us there, and took us back to Hiroshima, so we could see the Peace Park / Memorials / etc.

We started at the A-Bomb Dome.  This is the ruins of the only building still standing from the a-bomb.  It is between the target (a bridge) and the point the bomb detonated at, and gives you an appreciation of the destructive power of the bomb.  From there, we walked around the Peace Park – to the monuments that have been erected, the Peace Flame (which will not go out until there are no more nuclear weapons), and other key sites.  Then we went in to the museum, which showed us some before and after shots, and a Diaorama depecting the impact of the explosion.  There was a wall that had a copy of all the protest letters written by the mayor of Hiroshima prior to all nuclear arms tests that have been made.  There was a copy of the order given that the bomb would be dropped.  Memories of my trip to Pearl Harbour started to come back.

After 90 minutes of our own time in the museum, we were returned to our hotel after a very emotional and enjoyable day.  We had a juice, and went up to our room to decide what to do for the evening.  We caught a street car to the underground shopping centre, and after a wander around there, bought noodels for dinner.  We then went to “Southern Cross” – an Australian / Kiwi bar, which was very enjoyable.  The publician was a Kiwi who didn’t speak much Japanese (so he claimed – but I’m sure he spoke more than he let on, given he had been in the Country for 9+ years), and most of the customers were ex-pats.  There were only a couple of Japanese girls in there (and Kaoru, of course).  So we had a couple of drinks and a chat with the publician, and then caught the street car (tram) back home.

We woke up fairly early this morning, as we had a bit to do before leaving the house, and hadn’t packed.  Kaoru still had no idea where we were going, other than we were taking the Shinkansen (bullet train).

From Fujisawa we caught a local train to Yokohama, then a local train to Shin-Yokohama, where we hopped on the fastest of the bullet trains.  This told Kaoru the direction we were going, so she thought it must be Kyoto we are going to.  The Shinkansen is very big and roomy – much more leg room than an aeroplane!  And a very wide walkway.  We had a sleep on the train, which we both needed.  As we pulled in to Kyoto, Kaoru started to get confused – she couldn’t imagine where else we could be going.  I did a bit more Hiragana reading on the train.

Eventually the train arrived at our destination – Hiroshima.  By the time we got out of the train station and found the hotel (which was next to the station – luckily), it was nearly 3.00 (check in time over here).  So we were able to go straight up to our room on the 18th floor, with a beautiful view of the city.

We had been sitting most of the day so needed some exercise.  So we grabbed a map from reception and started wandering.  We found Shukkeien – a beautiful Japanese garden to walk around.  We only had an hour before closing time, so we had to walk fast, but still took time to look and enjoy the scenery.

From there, we walked in to, and around, Hiroshima City.  On the way we found a wall full of vending machines, which I had to get a photo of.  We had eaten lunch at 12.30, so weren’t too hungry, but decided we should eat once it was 7.00.  We found an Okonomiyaki restaurant – the traditional food of Hiroshima.  I had eaten this once before – the first meal I had the first day Kaoru showed me around Tokyo, 6 months ago.  We were very full after eating it all, and the walk back to the hotel was good for working a bit of it off.

Kaoru’s Birthday.

Woke up to a beautiful, sunny day.  I cut back on work, but still had a bit to do.  We went for our usual morning walk.

After lunch, I walked Kaoru to the train station for her to go to work.  I then had to buy Shinkansen tickets for our surprise trip away for Kaoru’s birthday.  But for some reason, my AMEX was declined!  I tried my VISA – that was declined too!  I then tried my Datascore Visa (totally different account) – also declined!  OK, this is going to make things interesting, as last time I tried to withdraw cash, it rejected the transaction when I tried to get out too much.  Back at the Citybank ATM, I found that the limit was only on a single transaction, so by splitting it in to 2, I was able to withdraw enough cash and pay for our trip.

I had lost about 90 minutes with all the dicking around (walking home to check that I had money in the account, before going to the bank to get money out), so I felt behind all afternoon with work.  Kaoru rang from the train station, as she got in early, so I went in to meet her and take her out to dinner.

We went to our “usual” restaurant in Fujisawa.  They recognise us when we walk in now, which is great.  Kaoru reckons it’s because of me (we haven’t seen other Westerners in there).  They were very busy (we were lucky to get a table) but enjoyed another wonderful feast, and even skipped 100 yen donuts, we were so full!  On our way out, we were given a 1000 yen (~$12) coupon for our next visit, so that was nice of them.

It was raining today, so we missed our walk.

I had an interesting experience – trying to find a Birthday Card for Kaoru.  Finding card shops in a strange Country is not as easy as you’d think.  They were on the 5th floor of a store, so it took a lot of wandering, but I eventually got it all sorted.

Other than that, just work.

Back to boring Daz.  Worked today, with a walk break.

Mothers Day.

After sending an e-card to Mum, Kaoru and I left for Clematis no Oka.  This was our day planned to spend with Hiro and Yasuko.  I didn’t know where exactly it was, but I did notice that after quite a bit of travelling, we were considerably closer to Mount Fuji.  In fact, we passed one of the Shinkansen stops for going to the mountain!  There were some amazing views of it, but I hadn’t gotten my camera out yet, so thought I’d save that for the return trip.  To have the mountains on one side, and the water on the other, was just beautiful.

After an early lunch, we walked around the grounds to admire the lovely flowers, and interesting sculptures.

I’ve got to say, I’m pretty happy with the quality of the photos that come out of my camera.  A worthwhile investment indeed!

After a wander around the gardens, we were treated to a performance by a guitar and a harp.  I had never seen a harp played before, and it was quite interesting to see the technique.  The music was very relaxing, and the four of us had trouble staying awake.  I could see other people in the audience drifting off too!  Maybe I should get a CD for when I can’t get to sleep at night!

After the performance the weather had turned cloudy.  For the last week, the mornings have started with beautiful blue skies, and in the afternoon it has turned cloudy and cooled off a bit.  This is apparently quite uncommon for Japan in May.  So it meant the photos I had hoped to get of Mount Fuji on the way home weren’t to be :(.  This is the closest I’ve made it so far, and I won’t be back for a while, but oh well – shit happens.

I got a photo of Hiro and Yasuko, and we started the long trip home.  The book we were given when we entered the grounds had a lot of Kanji in it, but it had Hiragana translations, so I spent much of the ride practicing my reading.  It certainly made the trip seem quicker for me – not sure about for Kaoru though, who spent the whole time correcting my (many) errors!

Back at the house I got on Skype to Dad.  It was just after 7.00 Melbourne Time, and Mum was busy with cleaning up after dinner, so I checked they would be available in the evening for me to Skype them.  Kaoru and I went out to dinner in Fujisawa, as we were hungry and didn’t want to worry about cooking after such a nice day out.  Once we got back, we were able to wish Mum a Happy Mothers Day and have a chat with them.

And once again, we are at the end of an enjoyable weekend.

My first reading!

Today I downloaded and read a book in Hiragana!  It was bloody hard, especially as I don’t know the words (although there were a few sounds that were familiar, and I was able to recognise them).  Kaoru had the idea of a childrens book, as that was about all I could get that is in just Hiragana (ie, no Katakana or Kanji).  I put myself in David’s shoes as he does his readers – although he at least knows the words!  Kaoru was very patient, correcting me as needed (which was quite frequent).  All in all, I think it was a great experience.  It allowed me to learn exceptions (such as “Ha” becoming “Wa” under some circumstances), and much more enjoyable than looking at single letters on number plates.

Other than that, we didn’t do much.  I worked, we went grocery shopping, went for a walk…

I slept in a bit today, as I was quite tired from yesterday.  Then it was catching up on a couple of days worth of work, broken by our usual morning walk.

We went for a drink in Fujisawa after dinner – I had been here for 4 weeks and still not hit a pub!  So had to rectify that.  Unfortunately, Kaoru had never been out in Fujisawa, so didn’t know where to take me!

I suggested “Pub Max” – I had seen the sign for it walking back from the station a few times.  However Kaoru explained that this was a “Girls Bar” – which is actually a “Boys Bar”, depending how you look at it.  So she wasn’t keen on that idea for some reason.

We ended up at a different place, which wasn’t really a pub as such, but somewhere we could get a drink.  This was the one thing that makes me miss Australia – people smoking inside.  When I saw somebody eating food while holding a cigarette, my stomache turned.  We stayed for a drink, and had a chat to a couple of “locals” there after work – curious as to why a foreigner was in there.  But we were both pretty tired, so didn’t stay for long before walking home (via the 100 yen donut shop, of course!!!).

Well, it took me until my 3rd trip to Japan, but I finally made it to….

Disneyland!

As a customer, you gotta love an empty car park at a theme park.

Well, it’s actually Disneysea, which is a part of the Disney Resort in Tokyo.  It took us about 90 minutes and 2 trains to get to the resort, and then a 3rd train to get to Disneysea.  Kaoru had purchased tickets in advance, saving ~1300 yen ($15), and being the week after Golden Week, we were expecting it to be fairly quiet.

And we were spot on!  The longest we had to wait for any ride was about 15 minutes!

We started by seeing the “Welcome to Springtime” show – an Italian-based show down on the water.  It was quite funny, how the dialogue was in Japanese, but the lyrics to their songs were in English.  So I could understand a part of the show, and Kaoru translated the story line for me.

The show started at 11.30, but we were there by 11, so had a bit of a wait.  We were getting hungry so ate 3 of the 4 sandwiches we brought along with us.  We figured we could buy more food if we needed it.

After the show, it was time to see some of the rides.  The first was a gentle boat ride.  Basically operating on magnets, and a very random pattern!  You could see the track below, but you didn’t know which turn off you would take, and everybody would be on a slightly different route.  The engineer came out in me, as I admired what went in to such an amusement.

Our next ride was the “Stormchaser”.  We were in a theatre, which shook during parts!  And as we got sucked in to a Tornado and our ship sprung a leak, a light mist of water got us.  It was a very enjoyable ride, and at times almost made you feel sea sick as you felt like you were flying – similar to an iMax theatre.  Apparently one young person on the ride did vomit!  Glad they weren’t next to me!!!

Over to the “Indiana Jones” area, we found a line and waited in that.  We were told it was about a 20 minute wait.  Looking ahead, we could see people getting photos with Mickey.  I was quite impressed with that – something to break up the wait.  After 5 minutes, we hadn’t moved very far at all.  Looking around, there were people of all ages, however we were starting to question the line we were in.  So Kaoru asked a member of staff, and we found out this was just a line to have a photo with Mickey!  Bloody Hell!  If it wasn’t for the fact that there were groups of teenagers (and no young children amongst them) I wouldn’t have joined the line in the first place, but they made it look like we were in the right place!  So we got out of that line, and joined a 10 minute one, to get in a jeep with some Indiana Jones style driving.  I wasn’t going to pay 1300 yen for the photo, but copied everybody else and just took a photo of the photo :).  For 400 yen, yes, I would have – and they just don’t realise how many more they would sell if they charged less.  It never ceases to amaze me.

Then it was time for the roller coaster.  Now, I’m not much of a roller-coasterer.  But thought I should give it a go.  It wasn’t until I was committed to the idea that I saw the following sign…

There was a bit of a wait (maybe 15 minutes), but it was worth it!  Managed to get the adrenaline going!

In Alladin’s Cove, we had a tamer ride – the magic carpet ride.  This was basically a merry-go-round but 4 people were on a “carpet” – and you had a control to go up and down.  From the top (and at the right point) you could get a pretty good view of the park.

Walking through Alladin’s Cove, we got to the theatre for a show just as it started to rain.  Luckily it didn’t take too long for us to get in.  I was given an English subtitle machine, so I could keep up with the story.  It started with a 3 minute introductory narrative, during which we could hear the thunder outside quite loudly, and we were thankful to be indoors.  We then moved in to the main auditorium and got our seats, but instead of starting the show, they told us the storm was bad outside, and we had to stay seated.  My subtitle machine didn’t get the memo though, so I had a “sneak preview” of the story.  Which I thought would be useful, as I could watch the stage and have an idea of what was happening.  After about 10 minutes, they opened the doors, said the main part of the storm has passed, and we have to leave.  WTF?!?!?!?  So we went outside, with our umbrellas up (which we threw in at the last minute), being told that everything was closing indefinately because of the rain.

It didn’t look too bad, so we went to Mermaid Beach – the childrens area, but at least it was under cover, and not too crowded (surprisingly).  Rides were going in there, so we had a go of the “Jelly Fish” ride.  We then thought we see if the rain had stopped.

It was still going, so we got some food, and then found the “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” ride (which was also going).  This was quite fun.  The “Journey To The Centre Of The Earth” was closed and they were giving tours, but didn’t have an English speaking tour guide, so we gave that a miss.

After walking across the park, a ride on the electric railway took us to the American Harbour.  We wanted to catch a performance of the Big Bass Band – a musical performance that sounded enjoyable.  But as we had 45 minutes to kill, we stopped in at the “Tower of Terror”.  This was a great ride, which was basically in a sit-dwon elevator that went up and down.  OK, sounds boring, but when it got to the top, with the window open, we were given a wonderful view of the park!  Only problem was it was so dark inside, that it took a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the light, in order to take it in.  And by then, it was off back down in the elevator!  Again, some clever marketing (such as pictures from 2 rides at a special price) may have had us buy one.  But out with the camera again to take a photo of the photo!

The performance by the “Big Bass Band” was a fantastic Jazz performance – all in English!  We found that Mickey can play the drums, as well as do a bit of tap dancing!  There was a cast of about 30 people, and we were thoroughly entertained for about 30 minutes.

Hotel in the background, in the park.

Volcano in the background

The next show wasn’t until 8.00, so we had about 90 minutes to kill.  We had done pretty much all the rides we wanted to, so it was time for some doubling up!  We started with another go of the Tower of Terror (as that was closest), and then went across the park back to Alladin’s Cove to see the show we missed out on last time.  That was quite enjoyable.  After doing the roller coaster again (which was great in the dark – especially the view over the park from the top!) and the Indiana Jones jeep ride, we thought we’d better get back to the entrance for the next number.

This was a magical show in the middle of the water.  Music, lights, and the occasional fireworks going off made for a very enjoyable 20 minutes.

Mickey on the top

After this show, we were treated with the usual “Closing Ceremony” fireworks.  Nothing too fantastic here, but by this time (8.30) we were getting hungry (as we hadn’t had dinner), tired, and had a long trip home.  So we made our way to the Disney Train to get back to the JR station.  We had some dinner there, and got home not long after 11.00.  The streets of Fujisawa were amazingly quiet on our way home.  I thought it would have been busier on a Thursday night.

We went to bed very tired, but very happy!

Today was all work and no play, apart from a walk before lunch.

Today was all work and no play, apart from our usual walk to get bread for lunch.

Back to work day.

We walked in to get fresh bread, which got me out in the fresh air, but other than that, it was a busy, boring day.

Kaoru still hasn’t cooked the same dinner twice!  Every meal has been amazing!

OK, today may seem a little confusing.  Yes, I am still in Japan.  And yes, it is May.  Nonetheless…

Here we are at Yokohama Oktoberfest!

There were beers…

… and beers…

… and beers…

… and music…

… and beers…

… and even some food!

It was a very warm and enjoyable day.  ~200 yen to get in ($2), but the beers were quite expencive (~$10 each), plus a deposit (~$10) on the glasses.  But that was at each stall, so the glass had to be returned to get your deposit back before you could get a beer from another stall!  Was all a bit of a pain, but oh well…

We were there for both the 2 o’clock and the 4 o’clock show, which were by a german group.  We had a chat to a mixed couple – a German guy and a Japanese girl!  Luckily they both spoke English so we enjoyed some time with them.  Then it started to rain, so we went to the shopping mall next door for a look around, during which it cleared up nicely!

We walked back to Yokohama station for a bit of sobering up.  We decided it was time for dinner, so after stopping for some scenic photos of the Cosmo Clock, we went to the 5th floor for a buffet dinner – all you can eat for 2 hours, for ~$25 a head!

After a very large meal, we caught the train back to Fujisawa.  The train was surprisingly empty, given it’s the last day of Golden Week.  It was the end of a very enjoyable, and much needed, weekend, after the long week of work I had!

Exercise Day…

I spent this morning doing some work.  Then after lunch, we caught the train to Kita-Kamakura.  After going in to one of the (many) temples there, we undertook a 2 hour hike to Kamakura.

Lots of steps, but some amazing views.  And they even served a beer at “Heaven” – the highest point on the hike!

Fuji is there in the background...

See?? There it is!!!

Another shot on the hike.

Which way???

On the way home we went to the supermarket to get some more seafood for tonights Sushi – Kaisendon.  It’s basically a bowl of sushi rice, with the raw fish (and vegetables) on top.  Miso soup on the side, and also a side plate of smoked salmon and onion.  Lovely!

Invoice Day!  Decided to make the week worthwhile, so I sent an invoice to FitGenes.

It was a sunny morning, so we had the door open for lots of fresh air.

After lunch, we decided to go for a walk and get some exercise.  We literally stepped outside, and it started spitting.  We ended up going to a coffee shop for some cake and a hot chocolate / lemon tea.  We then went to the supermarket, and managed to get home without getting too wet.

Within 15 minutes of getting home, the sky cleared up, and half an hour later there were blue skies.  Typical.

Tonites dinner – Maki Sushi!  YUMMM!  There is an art to rolling them, but it’s all good fun!

Kaoru had today off work (it’s a Thursday, so she would anyway, but this was a Golden Week holiday too).

It rained for most of the day, so we didn’t get an opportunity to go out, until after dinner when it had stopped.  So we went for a walk on the other side of the train station.  We ended up in an area of Fujisawa Kaoru hadn’t been to before (as there was no need).

More of the same, old, boring, work.  Looking forward to sending an invoice for this!  Ruining my time away…

Another day filled with lots of work.

We went for a walk before lunch, but it started to rain.  Given the rain water is radio active (despite Kaoru insisting it isn’t!!!), we went back home.

Kaoru had to go to work this afternoon, and I didn’t leave the flat other than our short walk.

First work day of Golden Week.

Golden Week is a week where Japanese have 3 days of holidays.  So Tuesday and Wednesday are the only work days.  Consequently, a lot of people will take those days off, and have a 9 day weekend.  Everything will be very crowded.

I spent the day working.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for 2 weeks already.  I’m over 1/3 of the way through my trip here, and I still haven’t seen any of the things I want to see in Japan.  Work is busy from all areas, and balancing the time is very difficult.

Yokohama

We went to Nauko and Ryu’s for lunch today, in Yokohama.  We managed to find their house by walking – from what I remembered last time, all we had to do was walk up hill…and up…and up some stairs…and up another hill…..it took about 3 phone calls for directions, but we eventually made it.  Their kitchen table was *covered* in food!  We already knew we were having Tomaki Sushi, and Kaoru had told me it would be different than what she made, as everybody uses their own fillings.  But I wasn’t expecting *that* much food!  It was sensory overload though!  It all looked and smelt amazing!

Ryu explained that at his English class this morning, they had been studying Psychics and Horoscopes.  Basically they look at something on CNN and discuss that.  It seemed to make sense, as a good way to find a topic to improve your language skills.  But obviously having an Aussie guest for lunch forces you to speak English, and that helps a lot!  So it’s good to be able to do my bit, given the meal they were giving me!

Naoko and Ryu

We seemed to eat and talk for hours.  We were there for 4 hours in total, and never got up from the kitchen table.  There was always food there, and we would just make a sushi roll as we wanted it.  Yep – this is the life!!!

After going to Bic Camera to buy a light globe for the bathroom (it blew this morning), we made it home just in time to feel the earth move again.  This felt a lot stronger than the last earthquake I experienced, and after turning on the TV to have a look, it was under the tables for us.  We were back out after a minute or so – it was a “Level 3” in our area, which is on a different scale to the Richter scale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_seismic_intensity_scale).  It was “Level 5” closer to the epicentre, but that was a fair distance from us.  On the TV we could see footage from a camera mounted in Tokyo, that showed how severe it was there.  Aah, the fun of it all!

Back at home, we were going to have some noodles, but we were just too full still, and couldn’t fit anything in.  So a bit of blogging, a bit of studying, and it was bedtime.

Today was lovely!  Considering we had experienced rain for the last couple of days, I awoke to sunshine and blue skies!  It hit about 25 degrees!

Yep - I think that's the train we want...

We decided to go to the beach for lunch, so hopped on the train for Chigasaki – a beach town, which had a Hawaiian themed festival on for the weekend.  The organisers must’ve been wrapped at the weather!  We had a lunch of Salsa Hot Dog and Nachos, washed down with a Ginger and Mango drink.  There were hula dancers singing away, and it was generally a good vibe.

A short walk took us down to the beach, where we were walking through the sand, surrounded by food tents, all sending out their amazing aromas.  We could have easily eaten at each and every one of them!  There were some beach soccer courts set up, that young (<10 years old) children were playing a competition at.  So we soaked up the atmosphere, enjoyed the sun, and walked back to the train station.

Make sure you go the right way when a Tsunami arrives....

On the way home, at Fujisawa station, we looked at a map, and Kaoru explained the way places are “found”.  There aren’t streets, per se.  A “suburb” is broken up into a number of smaller sections (each with their own name).  Then each block is given a number.  And each building in the block is given a number.  Very confusing to find a place if it’s your first time.

Back at the flat I got some work done while Kaoru cooked yet another wonderful meal.  Although we did have to discuss the portions, because I’ll start putting on too much weight!  It all tastes sooo good!

After dinner I *finally* got around to finishing the basic Hiragana.  My accuracy isn’t that good, and I haven’t gone through the “modifiers” for want of a better term – not sure what their Japanese name is), but I at least know the 46 Hiragana characters, and their sounds now.

A busy day…

Today started with me catching the train from Fujisawa to Shinagawa.  I met Mikiko there, and together we went to Kashiwa station.  We were supposed to catch a local train 1 stop (to Minami-Kashiwa), but were so busy talking we ended up on an express train!  So after 5 minutes or so, it stopped, we got off, and then caught a local train for 15 minutes back to Minami-Kashiwa.  Total cost was ~1200 yen ($15?) so had been an expencive morning of travelling!

Dai-san picked us up from there and we got to Kashiwa stadium around 12:00 (half an hour late).  I got the updates applied to their computers, gave them a new (second) phone, and walked them through the subtle changes that had occured.  We got away about 2.00, and drove to Nishifunabashi.  We went a number of “short cuts” – down streets that really should have been one way, but weren’t.  Dai-san seemed to know a number of these back roads, and we got to Nishifunabashi stadium about 3.00 (again, half an hour late).

Once I had installed the updates there, I went through them with Miyakawa-san.  I also gave them 3 replacement phones – these ones were in Japanese, so have eliminated one of their arguments for not using Datascore (the phone I had left them with last time didn’t support Japanese characters).  We got away about 6.00.  As we were all pretty hungry (no lunch as the day had been so busy), we went to a nearby restaurant and had some sushi.  We left about 6.45.

Dai-san went home, and Mikiko and I caught the train to Shinjuku, where we were meeting Occhi-san and a group of his friends for dinner and drinks.  We turned up about 8.00 (an hour late), but it took us a while to find the actual place, so it was 8.20 by the time we got there.  They had arranged 4,000 yen (about $50) for meal and “all you can drink”.  But after the last time Occhi and I went out together, he ended up in Hospital and I spent the next day in bed with a bad hangover.  So we were more respectable tonight!  Kaoru didn’t get away from work until late, as it was the end of the month, but arrived around 9.30.

As usual, it was a very enjoyable evening out with Occhi.  He brought along the goal keeper for his team, who is the one non-blind player.  He also has been studying English so spoke quite well.  There was also a “Sports Management” student there (which, given my experiences, I wonder what the Japanese teach people with regards to “Sports Management”!), and one of the girls we had met in the past.

The trip back to Fujisawa was a long one.  We had to go to Shinagawa and change trains.  We got back to Kaoru’s apartment around 1.00am, both very tired.

Today was a work / meeting day.  First a 9.30 Skype meeting, then work.  Met Kaoru for lunch after her facial class, in Fujisawa.  Then back for another Skype meeting, and more work.

Very boring Daz – too much work to do.

Kaoru cooked a wonderful Paela for dinner.

Was the earth moving for anybody else this morning???

Kaoru woke me at about 5.30.  Looking up, I could see the cord for the light swaying back and forth (which was obviously just hanging there, and it was *us* moving!).  There was no sound, and I couldn’t feel anything, but the earthquake was enough to wake Kaoru.  It’s an interesting reality when you experience it, but it’s treated as a common, every day event.  I don’t remember if it stopped before or after I fell back asleep – it seemed to go on for a while, but that early in the morning, who knows???

After a bit more sleep I got up, and Kaoru and I caught the train to Kachidoke.  Dai-san met us there in his car, and we took Datascore down.  It is mind blowing how little these people know about how to make money in indoor sports – and even more so, that they don’t want our help to do it!  Aah, the Japanese culture.  I don’t think I’ll ever really get it.

Travelling on the train, walking around the stations, in shops – it’s a totally different experience now.  I’m looking for all the Japanese writing I can (and there’s plenty of it!) and trying to read it.  As I only know 35 of over 1000 characters, I don’t know much, but I try to sound out what I can and Kaoru helps with it.  The biggest part is seeing the differences a font makes.  For example, my “training aid” may show 2 distinct lines, but depending on the font, there may be one continuous one.  For example, imagine drawing the letter X without taking your pen off the paper.  You would draw from the top left to bottom right, to bottom left, to top right (so a solid line at the bottom).  This would be read the same as the X as we know it.  So recognising them both as the same character is quite a challenge, but I’m getting there.  Understanding how they are drawn (with the pen) helps utilise your imagination, and I think I certainly have an advantage over others learning in Australia and only getting contact time while at their course and studying with others.

Dai-san, Kaoru and I had a drink after removing things, and then Kaoru and I caught the train back to Fugisawa, and Dai-san went home.  We had lunch at Subway.  I think it was the worst meal I’ve had in Japan!  It’s certainly not something they do well!  Maybe I picked the wrong one (Duck Pastrami and Orange Sauce), but the bread wasn’t anything great either.  Think I’ll stick with noodles and other Japanese food!

Kaoru went to work, and I came home (via the shops) to do some work, and post about a week’s worth of blog entries to keep you all happy!

We went out to dinner, at a nice restaurant we went to last time I was here.  Kaoru was really hungry (as was I!), so we ate quite a lot.  After a couple of courses, a whole fish came out!  Our final course was some sushi (naturally).  We then went to Mister Donut for dessert – it was 100 yen donut day today, so we picked up a few for tonite and tomorrow morning tea.

A bit more studying and work, and it was time to call it a night.

Before breakfast I was going to recall the first 20 Hiragana characters with 100% accuracy.  And I got it first go!  So that was good, as I was hungry when I first woke up!!!!

Today was more focused on work though, as I had a few issues to fix.  1.30 Kaoru left for work, and I had a Skype call with FitGenes.  That lasted until after 3, after which, I had to work hard to complete a document to issue that night.  I tried to learn a few new Hiragana characters while working (I’d put one in front of the monitor and look at it every now and then, to recall it – then get a new one).  Kaoru came home and cooked dinner.  After eating I had another half hour before finishing all of my work.

Before going to bed I spent some more time practicing.  35 characters, at about 90% accuracy, over 2 days.  I was pretty happy with that.

First day of work in my new “office”.  Kaoru made lunch, and then went to work.

I started planning what I was going to be doing.  But was very distracted with trying to learn the Hiragana.  Found some programs on the web.  Kaoru had also shown me the pens they use for writing (which greatly helped understand why the characters look the way they do) so I practices a lot of the writing too.  By the time Kaoru came home from work I was fairly confident with the first 15 characters.

I also had a Japanese class today (that I had booked yesterday).  My first “Beginner” class (after I had done the Introductory lessons – which I hadn’t completed yet).  The teacher typed some of the notes in Hiragana rather than English / Roman characters, which was probably the turning point for me, to start cramming and learn the Hiragana quickly.

After dinner, I learnt another 5 characters.  Learning how to pronounce them properly is certainly a lot easier when you have somebody with you all the time, and she has been a great help to accelerate my learning.  Before bed I could do the first 20 characters with only getting 2 wrong on my first attempt.  So I was pretty happy with that effort, having not really learnt another language before.

First job today was to set up my work area for the next 5 weeks.  Kaoru had bought me a desk and chair, so they needed assembling.  There was also a bit of re-arranging of furniture in her room for it to fit.  After an hour or so, everything was together and set up, short of a power board for it all to run off.  So we went in to Fugisawa for lunch (Mos Burger) and shopping.

As well as the power board, we went in to the kids department and bought a childrens (ages 3-5) puzzle, focused at teaching Hiragana – the first alphabet(??) I was to learn for reading Japanese.  It seemed strange buying myself something from an infants department (sure, I’ve bought myself *toys* before, but not that young!).

On the way home, we went shopping for dinner.  Back at the apartment I got everything connected, and was live!  Kaoru prepared Temaki Sushi for dinner – it’s basically “do it yourself” sushi, so all the food is presented in front of you, you pick up some seaweed, add rice, add food, roll, dip in soy sauce, eat, *and repeat*, *and repeat*, *and repeat*…..  During this, Mum and Dad signed in to Skype, so we had a chat to them while enjoying dinner.

I unwrapped my “toy”, and we started work on me learning the Hiragana.  It’s going to be a long haul….

I had to check out of the hotel this morning.  I left my bags at the hotel, and Kaoru and I went to Ginza, and walked around a bit.  Because she lives so far from Tokyo, she doesn’t get in there much, so wanted to make the most of her local stay.

We went to Shimbashi to see the train blow it’s horn.  We also wandered around the dark alleys – an area that Kaoru wouldn’t do on her own, but is safe for her to do with a male.  There are lots of pubs (some seedy, some not too bad), and Japanese strip bars.  No, we didn’t go in any!

Since we were out, we decided to go to Akihabara, to buy some more phones.  We needed 2 for Nishifunabashi (so they had remotes that were in Japanese), and then a spare for each of Nishifunabashi and Kashiwa (so batteries wouldn’t go flat).  I managed to find them at not-too-bad a price – 2 were brand new and 2 were second hand.

We went to Shinagawa and picked up our bags, and then caught the train to Fugisawa.  After taking our stuff to Kaoru’s apartment, we went out for dinner in Fugisawa.

Jack, Mark, Mikiko, Kaoru and I had lunch at the Italian Restaurant next to the hotel.  I hadn’t eaten there before, and it was a nice, and reasonably priced, meal.  Kaoru left from there for work.

We then had a meeting with Sportec – a technical convention held in Tokyo in November, to discuss the Sportainment stand for that.

Jack had to leave for the airport.  When Kaoru got back from work, we caught a taxi to Roppongi Hills to meet up with Mark and Ange, and some friends of Ange’s, for dinner.  Mark had warned me beforehand that it’s not a cheap restaurant.  Well, that was an understatement!  It was a French restaurant, and being given a menu in two languages – Japanese and French – doesn’t really make it any more useful to Australian customers.  We could read the prices though!  It came to ~$175AU *each*!  Having said that, it was a wonderful meal, and lovely wine to accompany it.  Don’t know if I’ll follow Ange’s suggestions again though!

We caught the train back to the hotel, and said goodbye to Mark and Ange.

Kaoru had her facial class today, so went along to that.  I spent the day doing other work.

Had dinner at the food court downstairs, and then Mikiko, Mark and I went to Nishifunabashi, to meet Wackazamia-san (Kachidoke) to show him how leagues work (and how to run a profitable business, other than the simple “court hire” model).  Datascore was running, the music was on – it was all very smooth, and he started to get it (ladders / fixtured games / atmosphere).  Regardless, we’re still taking Datascore out of Kachidoke.

Mikiko caught up with a friend after that.  When Mark and I got back to the hotel, he, Ange and Jack went to Gonpachi for dinner (it was the only place open).  Kaoru and I went to the “Top Of Shinagawa” (34th floor bar in the hotel) to enjoy a nice cocktail.

Our original plan for today was for Brett, Kaoru and I to do some shopping for Brett’s girls.  He’s never had spare time in Japan, and as there was nothing planned for this morning, he was going to put the time to good use.  I was also asked to attend, to meet the management team at Konami.  I wouldn’t have been required for most of the discussions, so it was agreed I would turn up around 12.00 to meet them all.  This meant Kaoru and I could do the shopping for Brett.  So we went to Kiddy Land, figuring that would have everything we could want / need.  Unfortunately it didn’t open until 11.00, so I had Kaoru on a strict time budget – 30 minutes to get in and out!

I have never before been the first person to enter a store.  I felt like some mad shopper lining up to get in (although there was no line – just somebody standing at the door, with a rope across the entrance, looking at their watch).  We then did speed-shopping and managed to get all the presents wrapped, and walked out of the store bang on 11.30.  We rushed back to the hotel, I got changed, and then caught a taxi to Konami.  Couldn’t have timed it any better!

After the meeting we had lunch, and then back to the hotel for Brett to get the presents in his bag.  He caught the Narita Express to the airport from Shinagawa station, and I got some other work done.

Dinner was at Gonpachi – our first meal there for this trip.  Mikiko, Jack, Mark, Ange and I caught a taxi from the front of the hotel.  Kaoru joined us after work.  Miyakawa-san (from Kashiwa) was also there, to discuss a few things which have been outstanding from Sportainment’s end for a while, and also the use of Datascore.

After dinner, Mark and Ange invited Kaoru and I to a wine bar which a friend of Ange’s owns.  We had some lovely champagne and salad, wine, and some alcoholic sorbet.  It was a great end to the day.

After a bit of a sleep in, I started the day with the usual breakfast.  I spent most of the morning catching up on emails from the last couple of days, and working on the FitGenes Labware SRS.  The others went to a meeting at Konami.

Brett came back, and we met up with Ange to go to Kashiwa.  We grabbed a bite of lunch at the station, and then caught the 3 trains across town.  Dai-san picked us up from the station and took us to the stadium.  We walked in, hoping we wouldn’t get a 3^rd strike.

Urata-san was the only person there, and he gave us positive feedback.  I checked the Dashboard, and the Player Login Screen logs, and they had been using the complete system (as they had told us).  So things were much more positive here.  The downer was that Urata-san isn’t a decision maker, and the decision maker’s weren’t there.  So the trip wasn’t a waste of time, but not as productive as we had hoped it would be.

Dai-san took us to his house, where we met his wife and had some Iced Tea.  He pulled out some old documentation he had, from a 1997 proposal to the Japanese Market.  The things we keep!  He then showed us his motorbike…

We had been discussing this over the last couple of days, and are now convinced that we need to change our marketing strategy.  Luckily we actually do have a strategy in mind, that we will now be executing, so hopefully Dai-san manages to come through.

We caught the train back to Shinagawa.  I got some FitGenes work done, before we went out to dinner.  Once again, another fantastic meal.  Just after we arrived, Kaoru called to say she had reached Shinagawa station so I went and picked her up.  I somehow managed to find the restaurant again (it was in a complicated area of Shinagawa, which I hadn’t been to before).

The Sportainment boys had had a fairly successful meeting at Konami, and needed Brett to go in to discuss running League’s with them, and how they can make money.  The change of management that occurs every 3 years means the same explanations need to be given over and over again, about how to make money running competitions.

Brett, Kaoru and I had breakfast together in the usual café at the station.  Kaoru left to go to work, and Brett and I caught up with Mikiko, Mark and Jack, to discuss our strategy.  We (all except Jack) caught a taxi to Kachidoke to see how things have been going.  I had partially been monitoring their usage through Logmein logs, so was quite optimistic.  Unfortunately this wasn’t to be the case.  Out of 24 “events”, they had used the system 11 times.  A bit disappointing, but all part of the way they don’t run leagues, and aren’t ready to change, despite acknowledging that the way they do things isn’t profitable.  A very cultural lesson for me – they want things to change, but won’t do anything to make the change happen.  When you want to help somebody, but they don’t want to do what needs to be done, it is very frustrating.

Our next destination was Nishifunabashi.  We had already received an email from them (which Mikiko had translated) saying the players like the animations and their team names, the Player Login screen is useful, etc.  All the stuff we know.  So again we went in to the meeting very positive.

We were told about a couple of issues that had come up, and that they hadn’t used the system since March 18.  When I checked the Dashboard, I could see NO saved games on it since January 25^th (when I was last there, most likely).  I looked at the event log and could confirm the tablet had not even been turned on since January 25^th.  So now we were aware that not only are they not using it, but they are flatly lying to us.  We were very disappointed by this, and told them what I had found.  After their initial reaction of saying “the computer is wrong”, they started to realise that we can audit what they are doing, and blamed it on not being told the importance of using the system.  We were also told that Konami will not be spending any money (so effectively, they won’t be buying it).

Back at the hotel, we got changed.  Then Brett, Mark, Ange and I went to dinner (Mikiko and Jack had another meeting to attend).  Brett and I finished the night with a few drinks at the “Top of Shinagawa” – the bar on the top floor of the Shinagawa Prince, to get our thoughts together and do some strategizing (although a few Long Island Iced Tea’s later, our strategies may have been a bit flawed!

Well, Saturday night was our annual Euroa Skydivers Reunion.  Lunch, dinner, and plenty of drinks at the Pier Lounge in Altona.  After finishing off at Nick’s, Yarra took me to the airport, for my next journey.

The plane left 10 minutes early, so we started taxi-ing at 11:55pm Saturday night.  I attempted to get some sleep, and after a light breakfast, I landed at Singapore airport, for a 3 hour layover.  As I had the time, I stopped and had a foot massage, to get the blood flowing again after sitting for so long.

I managed to get an hours sleep at the airport, and get some work done.  Finally it was time to fly out to Narita.  I was entertained with Mission: Impossible, and a bit of *trying* to remember what Japanese I had learnt (not much!)  Our first landing approach got aborted, as an outgoing plane had a “medical emergency” so didn’t take off!  Finally we landed.

Immigration was amazing – no other planes had landed, and because I power-walked from the plane, there were only about 10 people in front of me!  So, didn’t take long at all, considering last time I was there it was about a 30 minute wait.  Eventually my bag arrived, and I got through the doors, were Kaoru was waiting for me.

We caught the bus to Terminal 2, as Jack was arriving in about 45 minutes.  Unfortunately his plane was delayed by 40 minutes, and we decided as he had been to Japan before, he knows his way around, so we’d just head to Shinagawa.  So we got on the Narita Express.  After checking in we found Brett, Mark, Ange, Mikiko and Dai-san in the restaurant downstairs, so ate and caught up.

As we left the restaurant, Jack arrived.  So Mikiko, Brett, Kaoru and I kept him company, as we went to a 24 hour restaurant around the corner.  It was one I hadn’t eaten at before, and it’s always good going somewhere new.  But as we had all done a bit of travelling, we were ready to call it a night.