Kazu showing his interview pic with Basement Jaxx 

Do-kyung and Tomoko 

Kazu and Mikio 

Old friends

I met up with some old friends on Saturday. We haven't seen each other for 3 years, so it was cho nasukashi time! I took them to my favourite bar in Shinjuku, Bar Albatross, and we had a good chat about what we had been up to since we last saw each other. Mikio is going to be married next year, Kazu is now an editor at a fashion magazine (he interviewed Basement Jaxx last week, the lucky bastard!), Tomoko is working in HR at a toilet company and Doo hyung is studying for her Masters in Japanese Economy.
Hopefully we'll be able to meet up again during Obon, the major summer holiday here in Japan, where the dead come back to haunt the living!

Hunting high and low

Jeez, what a day. Just spent 12 hours with a couple of brilliant estate agents who very patiently showed us 5 possible places to live. I felt really sorry for them because they didn't have time for lunch, whilst we sneaked off and had a bite to eat.
Well, I fell in love with one place. It's situated 20 minutes walk from Komazawa Daigaku station, almost next to Komazawa park (which is huge), about 10 minutes walk from Tama River and right in the middle of cool shops and restaurants. It was really modern, clean, with plenty of space (even had a veranda which had enough room to have a table and chairs plus bar-b-q). It felt good, and was a good price. But, Miyu can't face walking that far to a station (even though there's a bus stop just outside the flat). So, we have to kep looking.
I don't know. I think walking is good - gives you time to think, but I suppose it's not the most conveniently located of places. Haah...
So, Miyu's now going to go out again tomorrow and continue the hunt (I have to work).
Wish us luck!

House hunting

We got our eviction notice through the letter box a few days ago. The house we're living in is 30 years old, and thus isn't earthquake proof. So, the owners are going to knock it down and then build a new, earthquake resistant building, and at the same time probably double the rent on it!
So, Miyu and I ventured to Jiyugaoka today, although we were supposed to go to Kamakura but the weather is really shitty. The reason we chose Jiyugaoka is because Miyu dreamt about the place a couple of nights ago, and so we thought we'd try the place.
It was really cool. Loads of lovely eateries and watering holes and loads of little shops. We ventured into an estate agent and spent two hours leafing through rentals, "helped" by a young rookie agent and his barking mad senior. The younger definitely suffered from ADD, as he was constantly twirling his pen, looking everywhere but at us and then showing us the same apartment over and over again even though we kept saying we didn't like it! His senior talked and talked about his 3 months spent scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef when he was younger, and how he hated wearing a tie and shoes (although he raised his feet to show that he was actually wearing sandals). We must have looked at about 200 places, and none of them suited.
Feeling a bit dejected and deflated by the whole slightly bizarre experience, we popped into a ramen shop to recharge our batteries, and boy were we glad we did. The ramen was AMAZING! Of the Shi-o variety (salt soup base), and everything worked well together.
We then hooped on the train to Nakameguro, which I didn't really like, due in most part to a f**k-off big motorway bisecting the town. We walked onto Shinsen, which is a bit soulless and then got the train home. It wasn't that long a walk but we were soaked in sweat and desperately needing a cold beer and an even colder shower - both of which were satisfied on our return home!

Return of the MIyu

Yay! Miyu came back tonight, so I'm as happy as a very happy bee can be!!
Today saw Tokyo beseiged by a HUGE thunder storm. It was bloody amazing actually. Lightening streaked the sky every 2 seconds followed by thunder claps that burst ear drums. People were flinching around me from the cocophony. Truly amazing.
I don't think England ever has the same sort of storms that they do over here, where the rain comes down in sheets, so that even if you venture out in the mistaken delucion that an umbrella will keep you dry, you will in fact be COMPLETELY soaked! I was today, and I had to spend the rest of the day steaming, and eventually stinking...

Vine building and fence 

Vine building 

Shinjuku skyline 

The big blue building inthe distance, Hatsudai, Tokyo 

A little lizard scampers up my living room window. 

Melting

OK, now it's getting ridiculous. Today in Tokyo the mercury his 37c!!! Everywhere I looked, people were melting before my eyes. Nobody was smiling - there were just these pained expressions on everybodies faces as they gasped and stumbled their way to an air conditoned safety zone.
Last night I had a surprise visitor. As I sat watching a very bad movie, my eye caught movement on the window. I looked over and what should I see but a rather cute looking lizard! There's a photo of it above. Can you see it's cute little feet? Adorable.
I had a really good chat with a friend who's going through some hard times at the moment. He thinks he's turned the corner now, and is getting help. Unfortunately it means his relationship with his partner might be on the rocks, which is very sad. This was a "perfect couple", or so that was the image that was perceived by everyone. Quite a shock really, but at the same time, it just goes to show that every relationship has its ups and downs, and I should count my self lucky that I'm in a great relationship with Miyu.
Talking of whom, she'll be back after a week away tomorrow, so I'm very excited. If the weather's good on Sunday we're going to venture down to Kamakura, and have a walk around the temples and beaches down there - yay!

Remembering JJ

It's incredibly humid here at the moment, so I'm hiding in air conditioned zones as much as possible, lest I melt away to nothing! Miyu is still away in Fukushima, visiting friends and spending time with the Watanabes' new kitten. It really is an adorable little cat. Miyu's mother was walking home a couple of weeks ago when she found it and it's brother kitten huddled in a ditch by the road. Somebody had dumped them there, and Miyu's mum took them both home. Apparantly they were ravenous and ate for a whole day! One of them has now gone to one of the aunts and the other is comfortably settled in. It's so horrid that people dump cats like that. The least they could do is leave them at a vets or something.

In my act of rememberence for JJ, I set out on a bicycle ride at the same time as his funeral bagan in England, riding around the back alleys and looking for interesting, hidden things. I found a beautiful old temple, nestled amongst some ceder trees not too far from here, and I went and meditated there for a while, thinking of John and his antics, and all those times he used to visit us. Whenever I was within his field of dripping stickiness, time seemed to slow down and, I'm not sure but, maybe this was in order to mark a stark contrast with the hyper kinetic pace of Tokyo. Or maybe it's the domain of a master storyteller, where reality and fantasy combine to create a new, and I must admit, a more exciting dimension. He really did love to tell stories, didn't he? The thing was, it was always the same stories, but over time these stories seemed to get more detailed and ever more fantastical, as if he was constantly editing some internal book, and offering up a new print of "John's stories". I know he was working on a kind of autobiography, but I didn't hear if it had been completed or not - anybody out there know?

Anyway, after the meditation, I looked up at the night sky and noticed that it was a full moon, which I thought was apt, as I think moonlight, as opposed to sunlight better suited JJ's personality. I then took off and decided to go and eat at Outoya (or as John used to call it "the healthy food restaurant"), which was the first place John took me to eat when I met him after arriving in Tokyo. It's a chain restaurant, and they have them scattered all around Tokyo, including Kichijoji and Chitosekarasuyama. After finishing, I cycled slowly back to the house, and then listened to BBC Radio 4, as John so often used to. Somtimes when I went around to visit him, he'd bundle me into his "mansion", sit me down with a cup of tea and insist I listen to a program he's just downloaded. He was so excited by the combination of old tech (radio) and new tech (pc internet), and how it gave him access to a taste of Britain, here in Japan.

Then, after listening to a couple of programs, I went to sleep. I'm not sure if I dreamt of John that night, but I like to think that I did. Meeting him once more for some tea and being regaled by another one of his lyrical stories.

Crying

I think I've forgotten how to cry. I can't actually remember the last time I cried. Tears have come to my eyes, but I can't have a good old cry any more. It's as if some part of me has shut down, and I can't access it - the sadness.

Waking, dreaming...

The noise woke me. It sounded like a sigh, an expulsion of breath from a living thing, but seeing as I was alone in the house that wasn't possible. It was still dark so I fumbled around for the bed side lamp, turned it on and picked up the alarm clock. Bringing it close to my face, as I didn't have my glasses on and I have atrocious eyesight, I groaned when I saw it was only twenty minutes after I had switched off the light and gone to sleep. I had been dreaming about walking through a wood. It had been dark and rather musty in the wood. Light barely made it to the ground due to the thick canopy of trees. I was alone, or at least I thought I was until I heard the sigh behind me, and I turned and then I woke up.
Sometimes I seem to go straight into a dream, and then wake-up only a few minutes later. It feels like I've been asleep for ages, and sometimes I have dreams that are whole stories, all crammed into those few short minutes. I think dream time is stretched time, and far more can happen in dreams than can in the equivalent time when you're awake.
Anyway, I turned the light off again, rolled onto my left side and closed my eyes.
The soil was damp beneath my feet, and I had to keep my hands up in front of me to push away branches that were in my way. It seemed to be getting darker, and the smell of the forest became thicker and more pungent. Everything around me was either a shade of green or brown. Suddenly my right foot sank into the ground, right up to my knee. I tried to pull it out, but to no avail. I struggled for some time, but the more I did so, the more my leg sank into the ground. I suddenly turned my head to the left, and found myself staring into an old man's face. His eyes were milky white, his skin transluscent, wispy hair lank and plastered to his forehead and his open mouth a black hole. His breath stank of rotting meat and his lips were bleeding.
He sighed...

Junk food nation

I was on my way back to Hatsudai train station yesterday, after another fascinating discussion with Endoh regarding his design philosophy. It was lunch time, so there were dozens of people on their way to various eating establishments - ramen, tonkatsu, soba, curry - and I noticed that the eatery which was busiest was...Macdonalds! It was especially popular with High School boys, who I saw congregated in a near by park, munching away on their Big Macs and fries and washing it all down with pop.
Now this is really worrying. Of all the food they could eat, they choose this junk, which I've not touched for about 3 years now. When I was a child, going to a Mac was a real treat - all those bright colours and endless advertising reels in the unformed mind, and tries to addict you to their poison. I mean, it really is crap! Check out Super Size Me, the documentary about a man who ate nothing but Macs for one month, and almost died!
It's just plain bad for you, and all these kid are wolfing it down. One of the reasons is because Japan has the world's cheapest Macs, so it's easy to buy a "meal" with your lunch money. So much of their "appeal" is aimed at kids, and it just seems evil that they do this (you can tell I'm annoyed, can't you?!)
It just gets to me that somewhere like Japan, which has one of the healthiest diets in the world, should allow junk like this being sold. Very sad.
OK, rant over.

Miyu finds the fluffy, sparkly treasure 

what lies within? 

What a week

It's been a mixed week of big events, some good and some sad. Last weekend found me in a salsa club for the first time in my life, wiggling my hips to some Latin American tunes whilst at the same time cheering England on up on the big screen. Great fun BTW, Salsa dancing. A really friendly bunch of people dancing the night away in good cheer.
The following day I received the devastating news that JJ, traveller and friend, had passed away (see my previous entry). Next day I began helping my architect student, Masaki Endoh, edit one of his old books which will be re-published soon. This guy is amazingly talented, and I'm learning so much from him about design, architecture and our place in relation to those things. He's just been asked to exhibit in Paris and be part of the 2nd Beijing Architecture Biennial. This guy is going to be huge in the future. Then on Wednesday I had my work review at the badger college. My prof is very happy with the work I've been doing, and even said she'd recommend me for a professorship at the college (teaching English) if I wanted it to happen. I'll have to think about that one. I met a good friend on Thursday and was able to get some things out in the open that have been niggling away at me for some time. And finally today, I went and met a guy who works for a big Japanese medical company, who's giving a ground breaking presentation on his research to a big conference in Montreal later this month. He's Japanese, and has to do his presentation in English. I checked his O/P, corrected any Englsih mistakes, made suggestions on improving some phrases and then coached him through his presentation. He was really happy with my work, so has invited me back next Tuesday to help him further. And lastly, but by no means least, Miyu and I celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary today!! Unfortunately she's not here, as she has to attend a wedding fair in Fukushima over the next few days, to show off her new line in wedding accessories. So, we'll be celebrating proper next week.
Of course, it's also the anniversary of the London bombings, which brings me right back down to Earth.
Peace be with us.

An end of an era

I received some very sad news yesterday. John John Yoxall, dear family friend and peripatetic eccentric extraodinaire, died in hospital after complications resulting from his terminal lung cancer. I'm in shock, and finding it very difficult to comprehend a world without JJ. He's been in my life since I was a mountain boy in Yamanashi, always turning up with a new story to tell - fantastical road movie stories that fired the imagination and painted luminous landscapes in my mind. He surrounded himself with good design and good people, never afraid to speak up at times when others kept silent. I remember his wicked, infectious laugh and his insightful observations on the Japanese people and society. I thought my children would meet him and be equally awed by the JJ effect. His kindness and generosity. Endless cups of tea and the peeling of exotic fruits. His yellow bicycle and his jogging form coming into view down a Kichijoji back street. He never stopped travelling, and I dare say he now continues his travels into another world, another dimension and another time.
I'll miss you JJ.