Sore feet
Aching back
Stuffy nose
Itchy eyes
Stiff shoulders
Dry hands
Split ends

….

Ahh the joy of working in Saskatoon again.

I figure that for the next set up updates, I copuld do something a little different. Instead of doing updates as to what I’ve been doing, how about I do an update about what I’ve done in the past? I’m sure there are a many many stories that I could tell you about things that I have done in Japan which I haven’t chronicled here.

I did enter quite a few a LONG time ago (more than a year ago now), sadly though they were all erased when my server crashed just before Christmas. If anyone out there remembers the stories that I posted, feel free to leave a comment so I know which one’s to re-write.

One of the first stories that I recall writing about was that of my very first dining experience in Tokyo…. and on with the show……

I arrived in Narita Airport in Tokyo (Technically the city of Chiba) and honestly was not sure what to think. I’m surrounded by a million people, most of which were shorter than I and all I could hear was the chatter of a foreign language, sadly I didn’t know almost any Japanese at the time so all I could pick out were vowels and the odd word here & there. After going to the Currency Exchange booth and swaping out about $600 of the $8500 I had brought, I figured it was a good time to call Leo, my contact in Tokyo. He would be putting me up for the night so I could find my own place.

I gave him a ring, and his words were “Just meet me at Hachiko at 5″ -click-. Oh great…. it was 1pm already so I figured I would need to walk pretty quickly. Japan is a small country after-all, I’m sure I could make it from the airport to Shibuya in the next four hours.

Boy was I wrong.

Turns out that it’s a 1.5 hour ride on the express train, or nearly a 3-hour drive if I take a taxi. GREAT…. so much for my bright idea of walking to Shibuya. If I recall correctly, I told one Mr. Paul Sherrard (FatPaulie) “A train? Pff, I’ll just walk it!” to which he replied “OK smarty-pants, have fun”. So I went off to find the train….

One thing I should mention was that the moment I stepped off the plane into the gangway, we got hit by the jet-wash from the jet’s engine. I felt as if I would melt right then and there. Only after I got to the underground train station which was well out of the way of the sun, did I realize that no, it was not jet-wash, it was just the regular heat of summer that I had just experienced!!!

I eventually got to the train and made my way to Shibuya.. “Look for a statue of a dog” is what I was old. If you find it, then you’re in Hachiko Square. This “Great Statue” is only about a foot tall on a pedestal. Somewhat difficult to find if you do the following… 1) Come out of the wrong gate, 2) Leave through the wrong exit, 3) Never have visited this place before, and 4) DON’T SPEAK A LICK OF JAPANESE!!!!

What can I say, I was awe-struck. I looked around at all of the strange architecture, I looked at all of the different sub-species of teenagers, and all the millions of people dressed in business suits. I was later to learn that these are what the Japanese call “Salary Man”… the worker-bee’s of the Japanese culture. They do all the hard 9-5 work (most of the time with countless hours of overtime) and bring home a small salary every month. Unlike most companies in North-America, Japan has a monthly pay which is a little skewed as well.

For example… pay-day is on the 30th of the month, so if I start July 1st, then I need to wait until August 30th before I receive my paycheck from August. Odd, yes. Annoying, HELL YES, especially when you blow through all your money in the first month (oh, but what a month!).

Eventually I hear someone call out “Chris!” I look around… nah, I’m hearing things, all I see is Japanese people, I’m supposed to be on the lookout for an Australian guy. “CHRIS!” My eyes scan the crowd again for anyone that might be looking at me, I make eye contact with an old woman, a couple Salary-men, a couple cute school-girl’s, and some other Japanese guy off to the side who’s eerily smiling at me.

The eerie guy yells again “CHRIS! ARE YOU DEAF!!??” What the… “Are you Leo?” The guy nods his head. “I thought I was looking for an Australian guy.” “I am Australian, but my Mom’s Japanese!” he says in a fairly thick accent. Well I’ll be darned.

He greets me, then we hop into a taxi and make our way back to his apartment in Shibuya, which no doubt costs about $2000 a month. For the first time since I stepped off of the airplane, I get hit by a cold blast from his airconditioning… oh thank the good lord.

Later that night we meet up with two of his room-mates, Will and Andy, and off we go for dinner, a round of darts and finally a lot of drinking and karaoke!

My first day was pretty good!

Day two… was… interesting. I woke up to hearing Andy stumble back into the apartment, still somewhat drunk. Since it’s now Saturday, he decided to stay out al night and party it up with countless numbers of Japanese school-girls, all of whome were enfactuated with the size of the White-Man’s penis compared to the typical Japanese guy. Sorry folks, it’s not a myth. I woke up, with a mild hang-over, and was promptly told by Leo and Will that they both work, but I could hang out at the apartment untill they got back, OR I could go shopping. I went shopping… and how!

They took me to Hachiko again and the two of them dissapeared into the crowd, obviously knowing where they were going, unlike one newbie in Japan. With that I figured “how hard can it be” and went on my way. After a few hours of mindless rambling through billions of people I finally spotted the first English of the day… HMV!!!! FINALLY! I browsed through all of the regular titles and was impressed at the very large vinyl collection before making my way up the 7 floors to the top.

I walked into a large open room of which had magazines, videos, video-games and the such on the wall. I picked up a magazine & started flipping through, but sadly not for long. A younger Japanese guy approached me wearing a company shirt which resembled the front-door to this new room. I was politely told that the magazines are for paying customers… of what I wondered. Ahhhh!!! I was in an internet cafe where you can surf the net, play Xbox, Playstation, watch DVD’s or just have a nap in a private cubile!

I opted for the internet where I left my first OVer-seas update on Pozland.

Ouch… ouch! OUCH!!!! I realized after a few stomach-pains that I still hadn’t eaten anything since I arrived so decided it might be a good idea to check the menu. I looked through & saw something that resembled golden meatballs on a bed of rice… fair enough, I’ll take it! I went to the front counter expecting the English-speaking guy to be there… but he wans’t and to make matters worse the new guy couldn’t speak a lick of English! Oh no!

With some difficulty I eventually conveyed that I want this thing called Tako Yaki. Groovy. A short while later it arrives looking like a carbon copy of the photo on the menu, neat but at the same time, a little creepy. Then something else happened. It moved. No, not moved, that’s the wrong word for it. It wiggled and continued to wiggle at me throughout the entire time.

Good lord, my food is moving.