isn't it nice to be home in Melbourne

today I went into the city with Ben and his family to see a movie. We saw matrix revolutions but that is insignificant to the point of this story.

after we left the cinema and headed down to southbank for dinner, I saw many sights that made me feel back at home.
1. At the intersection of swanston and Collins sts we came across our first beggars.
2. Passing by the front of the pub on the corner of flinders and swanston sts we came across our first bar brawl which had spread to the streets
don't you just love Melbourne??

next up we arrived at my (former) favorite cafe for dinner　- blue train. I saw former after what happened their tonight.
1. We had to wait over 30 mins for a table
2. After we sat down it took them a further 20 mins to take our order
3. The food took a least 30 mins to come out, but even this it was in dribs and drabs. The first 3 meals came out and then there was another 10 mins till the next 1, and then finally another 10 mis after that Ben's and my meals came out. What kind of service is that? I would expect it is Japan, the food never comes out together there, but not in Australia. I have worked in restaurants and I know that you should bring everything out together or not at all!

luckily, Ben's sister had a bit of a chat with the waiter, and we managed to get our bill cut almost in half. When we checked the receipt after they had forgotten to chare us for our drinks anyway.
I wonder how a place this sloppy can make any money, let alone get their customers to return again!

so after that I decided to come home and let Ben have some quality time with his family.

so I took the train home.　I bought a ticket, which caused me ot miss my train and wait another 40 mins for the next one, but I shouldn't have bothered cause the ticket validators were not working at the Elizabeth St exit of flinders St station anyway.

I really love the kind of people you see on the train after 10pm. There was this one couple who had brought their rodeasian ridgeback dog with them on the train. I though the fact that the girl was reading a copy of "A - Z of serial killers" really showed their true colours. The dog had a muzzle but I think the owners were the ones who could have done with one.

anyway, I am home safe in bed now. My mum is funny. She doesn't seem to worry about letting me travel around the world, but is dead scared of me catching the train at night in doesn't

well I am home

and what a journey it was.
I left my home in ebisu at 4.30pm Japan time and finally got back to my house in melbourne at around 2pm australian time.

I had been pretty busy during the whole day on thursday, I had stayed at my friends house on wednesday night (due to the fact I ad already packed up my bedding) so my first task was to get home.

after doing that, and borring a towel from my flat mate so I could have a shower (I had packed up my towels and given them to melinda too), I started on my last tasks.

first I had to finish packing. the day before I had gone to with a lot more stuff than I had gone with. so I had to send another box

so, off to the post office for sending luggae, anotehr $40 later, and a box going on its way by boat to australia.

next stop was the conbini to pay the mobile phone bill.
after that was back to the conbini to post my futons back to the kitohs. you can send large packages everywhere in japan via couriers for quite cheap. better than carrying them on the train (I am quite practiced in the art of carrying large items on the train too however)

last stop was back to the post office to transfer my money back to australia. its not so much in fees, only $40 but the exchantge rate is not working in my favour anymore. so I guess I am around $500 worse off, but what can you do about it

at around 3.30pm I realised that my land lord was coming over and I still hadnt finished cleaning. I did a once over with the vacumn in my room and wiped my fridge inside and out.
he came over at 4pm on the dot and hardley even looked at anything and he said that it was all okay. my work would be getting their bond back.

my bus to the airport was to be leaving at 4.30pm from the hotel a couple of hundred meters up the road from my house. I decided to take the bus, even though it is 3 times more expensive than the train, but you dont have to carry your luggage up the stairs. the station at the cheap train has no escalators. I think JR does this on purpose so you odnt use this staion which belongs to one of their competitors.

but I was lucky, my landlord offered me a lift in his car up the hill to teh hotel. I had already taken my big bag up there earlier in the day in case I ran out of time, so I only had my small carry on stuff to carry myself, but the car was a lot easier and faster.

so through the japanese traffic and what seemed after circling tokyo a million time, we got the bus onto the freeway and we were off. it takes just over 2 hours to get to narita airport. it felt like forever.

but of course my flight was not leaving till 9pm, so I still had a few hours to kill after checking in. duty free shops at the aiirport can only ammuse you for a certain amount of time. I bought a few things to use up the last of my remaining yen, bottle of baileys, some drinks, a couple of souvenirs and some power plug converters, really exciting

finally my plane was ready and I was off, leaving japan in my wake.
nothing fun every hapens on the plane. the movies were a bit of a disappointment but I guess I chose the wrong ones to watch acouse there were about 10 different ones.
the league of extrodinary gentlemen
santa clause 2
whale ride (the only decent one I chose, but onlly got to see half of)

we arrived in sydney at around 8.30am, my next flight to melbourne was supposed to be at 10am. some would say I had no chance, I thought I could make it but I was wrong. even if I was flagged through customs and immigration very fast, my bags were the last ones off the baggage claim. and then I had to run to the otehr side of the airport and wait in line at the transfers desk for what felt like ages. if I had been allowed to jump the queue and check in at qantas club I would have made it, but I had to line up with eth normal economy people and it took like 30mins.

however, I was able to get on the next flight, 30 mins later. I was able to also get in tough with my parents before they left the house to say I would be late.

the flight was pretty empty actually. I was able to spread out over 3 seats. but the seat I was allocated was right down the very last row of seat and next to someone. you would think the computer would automatically spread the passengers out.

so I got to melbourne around 12.30pm. mum, josh and his gf, and my grandma were waiting for me. I guess the benifit of going domestic to melbourne is that you dont have to go through all the customs etc and you can walk straight out of the airport as soon as you arrive.

so now I am home. I wasnt really tired, even after being away for another 24 hours straight, so I went to the siemens christmas party at dads work for a little while, free alchol how can you turn it down?
then off to eastland to buy some shoes to wear to the wedding I will go to this afternoon.

I think I finally got to bed around midnight, but as soon as I lay my head down on that soft bed and real mattress, I fell asleep right away.

but today I am all fresh and ready to party on!
i have lost all your phone numbers temporarily (my room is such a mess again and i have only been home a day) so give me an email or call me sometime!!!

cant wait to see you all

the rotary christmas party is a very strange event in japan

take a mixture of very drunk rich people, throw in a high school band, some cheergirls, some turlish dancers, a troupe of japanese drummers and some boys wearing speedos and dacning around on a stage in the style of scyncronized swimming, and then you will understand what i mean.

i left work early to get there on time, but i had to stop off at shinjuku with melinda to show her how to pay her rent, so i ended up bein late. so i caught a taxi from the station, but i think after being stuck in teh traffic, it would have been better to walk.

i am glad i was late though, they were still doing welcome speeches when i arrived, and i was late by more than 30 mins

so after eating and drinking and watching all the fun that i explained in the first paragraph, it was time for me to go back to tokyo. i was able to say goodbye to all the rtoarians and megu, minami etc. so it was worth the trip. also i was laden with pressies - i won a set of thermo mugs in eth raffle, and everyone got a bag of chocolates from meiji.

i took the chockies with me to my friends house back in tokyo. i got there at around 12am and i was just a little late cause another friend had just left 10 mins before. so we caled him up and told him to come back again. and he did.

but my friends served their purpose, they ate all the chocolates for me so i didnt have to take them home!

i think we finally got to bed at 3am. they bed someone had made for me was stolen by the guy who we had called to come back. but there is never a shortage of futons in a japanese house.

we then all left at the time they had to go to work in the morning, me i had a day off, but still a big day of travelling a head of me.

only one day to go

latest update in the craziness that occurs in the days preceding my departure.

Monday: had dinner with kimiko and her parents at a small restaurant in Omori (a couple of stations away from work) where they live. It was one of those places where you call the owner "mama"
her dad is really funny and on the way back to the station decided he wanted to buy some cakes for all the people in my apartment. i managed to bargain him down to 2 slices which jen and i ate when i got home.

Tuesday: enlisted the help of Melinda to buy the rest of the omiyage i hadn't gotten yet. After that we went back to my apartment and begun the huge job of moving all the stuff i was giving her from my apartment to her apartment. We managed to get one more helper, Melanie from work and then we set off on a lovely train adventure. i think we were getting a lot of funny looks from the other passenger. Well we were carrying a TV, washing basket full of food and a huge plastic set of drawers fulls of various stuff. Add to that a very large bag of coat hangers. That was how we convinced Melanie to help, she didn't have any coat hangers and needed some. i guess it was her payment. :)

Wednesday: the plan for today is as follow.
1. Go to work after packing up as much stuff as possible in my room. DONE
2. Carry my remaining futon on the train and try not to get knocked over in the mad rush. DONE
3. Arrive at work in one piece. DONE
4. Japanese lesson at 10.30
5. Lunch with Japanese teacher and her daughter at 12.00 in ebisu
6. Go to shinjuku with Melinda to pay her rent.
7. Go home and send other futon back to the kitoh's by Takyubin.
8. Come back to work and say goodbye to everyone
9. Go to sakado for the Rotary Christmas party
10. Decide whether i should come home late or come home really early in the morning. If i come home late i will have to go to a friends house seeing i have given away all my futons now.

lets see if i make it through the day. i think it will be too much and my brain will just go fizz

long time no write

I am sorry it has been so long since I put anything up on this website.
due to the fact I only have a few days left in Japan I have been pretty busy with parties and the like
I will try and give a run down of what I have been up to

Wednesday: went out to dinner in osaki with my boss juergen and my new replacement melinda from swinburne uni.

Thursday: had dinner and many many drinks in shinjuku with my Japanese friends (shacho and bucho etc). Didn't get home until 4am by taxi

Friday: took Friday off work to go shopping for omiyage but was not so successful seeing I slept in till around about 2pm.
then at 8pm we had a bit of a house party in azabu at Peter from work's house. Also didn't get home until 4am. We fit around 20 people in a one room apartment. Pretty impressive. I tried to leave a bit earlier cause ei had my bike to get home but they wouldn't let me

Saturday: met up with megus mum and auntie for lunch in ikebukuro. Then in the evening I went to a friend from high school in japan, RISA, wedding. It was also in ikebukuro but I went home in the middle to have a nap. Too many late nights. We were only invited to the "2nd party", but that didn't go so long so we had a "3rd party" of our own at a Japanese pub, but I got home in time to take the last train to ebisu.

as you can imagine by this point I was exhausted. 3 all nighters and nearly another one in 1 week!

Sunday: today I promised shacho and zume to go and see "the last samurai". We took the 11.20am show and I didn't expect it to go so long so I promised Melinda I would meet her at 1pm, but I went all the ay throught to 2pm!! So was waiting a while. She doesn't have a mobile so it was hard to get in touch. But in the end she called and I hid under the chair to talk to her while the movie was still going.
the movie was really good too
after that we went shopping a bit, still found no souvenirs to take home though.
we went back to my apartment to collect a few things for Melinda to take back to her apartment. I am selling her all the things I cant take home with me like TV ad desk and futon.
finally at 5pm I head off to see my host family who I stayed with from January to April. Had dinner and now I am home in bed.

I can imagine that the next few days are not going to let up at all. I have plans for every day right to the last minute it seems. Got kimiko to see tomorrow night, Tuesday is more packing and moving stuff with Melinda, Wednesday is Christmas party in sakado and thursday is going home!!!

help me!!!! I need to go bak to oz to rest

terror in japan?

there is a rumor going around at the moment that there has been a terror threat to Shinjuku for today, especially the station which sees 3 million travellers and commuters going through it each day.

its apparently linked to the fact that japan has finally approved the dispatch of its "self defence force" to help in Iraq.

i have searched the net for more info but cant find it.
this could mean that it is nothing. lets hope so

but none of you worry, i am a long way from shinjuku and have no plans to go there until tomorrow.

all night karaoke, not such a good idea when you have to work the next day


after i finished my Japanese exam on Sunday, i went straight out to Sakado to say goodbye to all my host families and friends out there.

i think i got there around about 5pm and then when straight to the Kito's house cause i was going to stay there and also have dinner there.
after a really yummy sukiyaki dinner, i got on my bike to visit the Tsubarayas. At the moment they have a guy staying in their home from Australia called Troy who is teaching at Nova. I hadn't caught up with him in a while so i hung out talking to him until Yukiko was supposed to come home. She was at her part time job until 12pm so we had a while to wait. Watched some TV, ate too much ice cream and then we decided to go to Mister donut. But it was only open till 12am too so we were kicked out then.

Megu wasn't going to come out to see me cause she had a cold but she must have changed her mind at around about 12 cause she calls and come over to meet us at the donut shop. She only lives about 5 mins walk from Yukiko.

so there started our all night karaoke session. We got there around 2am and didn't leave till 6am. i had to work, and Yukiko had Uni but Megu has a pretty good life here, can sleep anytime!

but it was fun. We sang nearly every song we knew in the book. Its a bit of a shame that don't have so many new English songs, only the really popular ones. Megu kept complaining that none of the aussie songs were in there.

Megu decided to come back to the kitos house with me cause she wanted to borrow their internet, so we crawled into my futon at around 6.30am vowing we would only speel for 2 hours, but when i woke up, i hadn't heard the alarm and it was already 9am!!!

i had been planning to go to the chocolate factory before going to work so i would be late anyway, but i was a bit worried. But it was okay, the chocolate factory was not open until 10am. So we had a bit of time.

before that, i had promised to help Megu transfer her money for her rent, but that is another story that hasn't finished yet so you can have that one tomorrow.

the chocolate factory is so cool. As soon as you step out of the car the smell of cooking chocolate is so strong, its almost unbearable.
the reason i can go here and have so many times in the past is that the head of the factory is a Rotarian in the club i came on exchange with back in 1999. He wasn't there on Monday but we could go in anyway to use their staff shop.

i bought a few bags of reject chocolate for work. And a whole heap of stuff to take home and share with all my uni friends. If you are reading this, i didn't forget you!!!

so i ended up getting to work at around 12.30. so only 3 and a bit hours late. But my boss had said that that was okay as long as i brought chocolate.

but on the train back to Tokyo i was so tired, i thought i was going to be sick. i must have looked so bad that and old lady gave up her chair for me! But that was only when i had 10 mins until the station i was to get off at so it didn't help so much. Its really horrible in Japanese trains in winter - well summer for that matter too - they put the heating and the cooling on so strongly you feel ill when you step in and out.

but by the time i had arrived at gotanda i was feeling better. Anyway, i couldn't really take the whole day off, it was my own fault i chose to go to all night karaoke.
actually i think it was a mix of not eating breakfast, the no sleep, the hot train and the chocolate. So who can you really blame.

but i am still stuffed today.
its also because Megu came over last night cause she still needed help with her rent payment. And i don't think we got to bed until 1am last night too.

tonight Melinda arrives in Tokyo. i will pick her up from a station close to work Shinagawa (she is catching the NEX express train from the airport) and then i will take her to her new apartment. Its only another 15 mins from there so i think i will not stay too late and try to get some rest. From tomorrow i have to teach her everything i have done in a year so i think i will be busy.

well time to go home. Maybe i can get a few hours of sleep before she gets here at 9pm

The big day

so after all of this waiting and studying, the big day of the Japanese Proficiency test arrived. And of course, the day when i had to spend so much time inside a stuffy exam room was the day with the nicest weather we have had in a while.

I met up with Suma from work at around 9am at Meguro station. He was doing level 4 and i was doing level 2, but we were in the same test location just different rooms.

we had to go to a location called Tokyo University of engineering in Ookayama on the Meguro line. Not so far from my house. Suma rode his motorbike to Meguro and then we caught the train together.

so the first part officially started at 9.45am. it was the kanji and vocab section. When i say officially, i mean that we had to be in the exam room then, but then they spent the next 30 mins telling us about the rules of the exam and handing out all the papers and mark sheets. Everyone had our names marked on it so it had to be done in a special order

it was at this point i realized that either many of the other people in the room could not understand the instructions by the exam supervisions, or they were out right cheats.
as soon as the supervisions backs were turned, they had opened their text booklets, had their pencils out and were writing down their answers before the test had even started, and then of course writing way after the end bell etc. But i guess it is the supervisors fault, they didn't seem to be doing their job very well cause there was at least 5 people in my genral vicinity who were doing this.

the next section of the test started at around 11.15 (plus all the waiting time for the booklets and mark sheets again) and it was for listening. Most of it was easy, but they try their hardest to trick you. The first part of the test has pictures to refer to, but the second part you have to listen to the dialogue and also the questions and make a choice from the 4 that were said. a lot harder than it seems.

last test was for comprehension and grammar. This is said to be the hardest part. The booklet itself is over 20 pages long and you have 70 mins to read it all and answer the questions. The sheer length of some of the sections makes it crazy. But i managed to get it all done and i feel pretty confident with what I answered for 90% or so of it. it was actually a lot better than i was expecting. i think the ones i had done in the practice tests i had done the day before were a lot harder.

but then again, i have to wait till late February until the results come out. Seeing i will be already home and they don't send the results overseas i have to hope that my boss will pass them along to me at some point in time as i am having them delivered to work.

study study study

I spent all Saturday studying for my Japanese exam on Sunday. The exam itself normally takes around 6 hours to finish if you include breaks etc but I managed to get through 3 of these practice tests in one day. I am so stuffed after it all

halfway through it I couldn't stand it anymore and I stopped and watched a movie on my computer.
then when my friend from work Stefan called and asked me to join them for dinner I jammed at the chance. I hadn't been outside all day except to buy a new set of pencils and an eraser.

I had been saying to myself, no I will not go out on Saturday night or drink anything cause I have to be fresh and clear thoughts for the test on Sunday, but things never go as planned.

I had originally accepted the dinner plans that we would go out to dinner and then I would go home. But they came all the way to Ebisu so I felt kind of obliged to go along to the bar after dinner. We went back to the place called "Audio" that I had gone to with Richard when he was here. You get a 1000 yen free voucher when you go in, but you have to spend more than 2000 yen to use it. And 500 yen of it goes with the "seki-dai" which included those all you can eat chocolates though.

so after all that, I was playing to stay for only 1 drink, but it was actually cheaper for me to drink a second drink than to not because one drink didn't take it over 2000 yen. So had to stay for a second drink, but I got out of there by 11.30pm

champagne at 10.30am!?

when the cats away the mice will play i guess. Our boss has gone back to Germany and the secretary was not there yesterday.

we had suspicions that it was one of our work mate's birthdays yesterday so i called up the HR department and got them to confirm it. (i wonder if you could get that info out af the HR department of an Australian company without breaking some kind of privacy laws)

anyway, some of the other people in the office had organized a cake with candles and we sung happy birthday.

then the birthday boy disappeared for about 10 mins and he came back with 3 bottles of champagne. Apparently this is the tradition in the German offices of Siemens.

so there we were at 10.30am, eating cake and drinking champagne out of paper cups. It was funny though, all the Japanese people in the office had a small sip and went straight back to work, but the rest of us gaijin made sure that all the champagne was finished.