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.