Just back from the travel agents to go and pay for my ticket home for christmas.

What had started out as a very good value £348 - unfortunately rose quite a lot, when the airport tax went from an estimated modest £90 - up to an actual whopping £198 - thus bringing the total flight cost to £456

Anyway, tears aside, here is the schedule:

• Thursday December 13th : Cathay Pacific #CX465 (1415 / 1605)
• Tuesday December 18th : British Airways #BA28 (01:10 / 0620)
• Tuesday February 5th : British Airways #BA27 (2155 / 1750 +1)
• Wednesday February 6th : Cathay Pacific #CX468 (2000 / 2135)

Which means I get yet another holiday this year, this time in Hong Kong for 5 days - just need to sort out a relatively cheap hotel or hostel and that’s all sorted.

And also sorry dad about the landing time - there weren’t any other flights available, though I’ll understand if it’s too early and you want me to get a train…. honest

Well everyone has been asking about where I live, so I thought I’d make a quick post just to let you see my new house (I can’t write loads as I’ve got too much else to do - and people will shout at me if I stop) … haha …

Anyway - so I now live with 2 mexicans (Victor and Jorge - both great guys, which is cool :)) in a 14th floor apartment located in the Da’an district of Taipei, Taiwan. How did I get here? Well that’s a story for another time …

Here is the Googlemap link for people who *really* want to know where it is

So here it is, the new Maison Griffiths … (click a picture to make it bigger)

Which up from the balcony gives you the following views:

Coming in the front door takes you straight into the lounge

Upstairs is the kitchen and the only fully working bathroom

Downstairs there is another bathroom, but none of the hot taps work, so it’s only really good for cleaning your teeth and going to the loo.

Then the best room of all, my room Complete with new bed covers (woo!) and Ikea furniture … hurrah!

So there you go - the conditions I am currently in. When I get a bit more time, I’ll fix the gallery and go and take some photos of the local area - including the kick ass park just over the road!

Bet you didn’t think you’d hear from me ever again? Lol … after failing miserably to keep my Japanese blog going from last year - I suddenly had a revelation in the fact I really don’t want to forget what I’m doing in the future, so it would make sense to start it back up again.

I’m going to basically import everything from my old blogs into this one, then resume posting … so for the next few days it’s going to look awful and will be edited a lot until all is well … then my loyal followers can return

So what’s happened? Why am I still writing this blog from the UK? Well, for those of you who don’t know yet - I’m not in the UK!!! But “huh?” i hear you say, “but you only went for a year??”…

Well yes, this had been the plan, spend a year in Tokyo, then spend a little time travelling around before blitzing back to the UK to get on with the business with Haroon.

So what changed? Well… basically I felt I hadn’t really made the most of my year here, my Japanese is still very limited and I essentially spent most time in the flat chatting on the phone. This situation was compounded after my visits to Osaka, where I realised there was a totally excellent scene out there - I was just in the wrong place.

I had a problem though, a little piece of a paper known as a visa, it was soon to expire (August) and wasn’t able to be renewed. If I wanted to stay, i had to find a full time sponsor.

It was therefore with, perhaps slight resignation, that I applied to Nova for a full time position - which I was accepted for - thus clearing my problems by supplying me with a new one year visa - yatta! That wasn’t plain sailing in itself as to make the switch I actually had to the return to the UK for 3 weeks (at a plane cost of £800!!! :eek:) - but hey, that’s not what we’re talking about now

I got back here on the 30th of August, working one final part time day in Shimokitazawa before my full time contract started on the 1st September (a friday, which was also my day off - nice :)) - Another (initially) sore point was that Shimo didn’t need any new full time staff, so I’ve been relocated - to Mukogaokayuen no less (where Toshi lives, and the place I really liked - thanks man upstairs… lol)

Another downside of taking up a full time contract is you lose your weekends (boooo!) and infact my days off are Monday and Friday. “Oh no!” I hear you cry, but no fear - i actually requested these… “madness” you shout, but no! My reasoning was as follows:

The weekends are the busiest days, also starting at 10am so I would need a monday to recover. However the next best day to go out in Tokyo is Thursday, thus the friday off. Tuesday is a 1:20 to 9pm shift, with Wed + Thur both 5-9pm (like my original shift) - my wages increase from 195,000 (£975) to 250,000 (£1250) which I will need to save ready for reasons soon to be explained.

So what’s the school like, actually it’s great - i’m actually enjoying working!!! Much quieter than Shimo, with singles and no shows a regularity (hahaha) - the other teachers are also great, very on my level and easy to get on with. Been out for a few “station beers” after work, basically sit in front of the station and watch the girls go by (which is another great point about the location - right near the university) - infact, I’m really sad about leaving….

“Leaving?!?! But you only just started??!” - yes indeed so, however it was all part of my master plan. Switch to full time to get a new year visa, work for 2 months to save some money then move to Osaka!! Yes!! I will finally be able to experience those great clubs EVERY WEEKEND!!! For the first two months, I’m not even going to work, just study Japanese (with Haruka as my teacher) and really get into the society…. I’m pretty excited - so we’ve cancelled the lease here and all set to transfer on the 1st November…. 6 or so weeks to go

So thats the plan, and I’m sure you’re dying to know what else has been going on ….

Well, my first friday back, I went with Keiko to Ueno zoo to see the Capybara’s - however, due to the torrential rain, most of them stayed in their house, with just one staying out, though he wasn’t in such a friendly mood and wouldn’t turn around… SUCKED - so I will go back again on a nice day to retake …

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There you go, a Capybara - the largest rodent in the world - basically a large guinea pig - I wish beavis could have met him …..

Another amusing story, have a look at this photo…

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I’m not sure why, but in this photo I thought Keiko looked like a prairie dog - not sure exactly why, just the pose…. anyway, for this reason we went to see the prarie dogs so Keiko could meet her family…

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Cute - however then we spotted the “information sign” - which caused quite a shock….

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“Black-tailed Prairie Dog” - nothign special, until you look at the Japanese translation which reads “Oguro Prairie Dog” - “so what?” - Keiko’s surname ….. yup…. Oguro!!! Spooky, or just proof she originally from a rodent?

Saturday was my first day in the new job, which started well enough, but I started to get a bit croaky throughout the day - this got worse and worse until we hit Sunday morning when my voice pretty much went. I sooo should have stayed home, but due to Nova not paying for sickness, I had to go in. The day was a complete struggle but I made it through by drinking through all the classes (not allowed - dunno why) and croaked my way home, where we rented some dvds and set to watch them.

At the end of the first movie (MI) - I turned to Keiko to say something… but couldn’t?!?! My voice had completely gone, like TOTALLY … it’s funny, but i was trying to laugh, but i kept having horrible “flashes” that my voice was gone forever… lol… This unfortunately meant I had to stay home monday (we were supposed to go to Disneysea) to recover, with luckily all being fixed by Tuesday ready for work.

It’s now Sunday night and Seiko has just got back from Iran, very tired…. I’m going to try and sleep early tonite so I can get my haircut tomorrow and post Gowry’s birthday card, but little else planned for my day off (booo!) - think it’s time to get on with a bit of programming….

So there you go, up to date for the start of my second year. Hopefully thursday i’ll be off to Roppongi, so some good photos and stories should be ready for Friday (when I might go to the beach… mmmmm… jchix in bikinis :D)

Go Go Otaku!!!

I’ve been getting bugged to update this - and now I must be 5 weeks behind. Writing a complete run down will be impossible. So let’s just do a summary….

Week one - went to Roppongi (see slight update below)
Week two - went to Disneyland with Keiko
Week three - went to Osaka to see Haruka
Week four - took Keiko for her first trip to Roppongi

Below is a run down of week one.

Welcome to the weekly update Yes, another week has passed, and once again there are many things to say, been quite eventful (and expensive) the week just gone, but all in the name of fun - so no worries
First up, say hello to my new language exchange friend - Keiko, as per usual, her english is pretty good - but not so fantastic enough that I feel too shy to use Japanese. She does always reply in English though, so whilst I get to practise speaking, my listening isn’t really going to hot up too much.

We met up on Friday after work and went to an izakaya in Shimokitazawa, where basically we just talked and drank until about 12:30 when it was time for her last train (don’t get me started on the transport system again :D)

I got home at about 1:30am or so, and after doing a little bit of company work, went to bed. Only to be woken at about 4am by Takashi (Seiko’s guy from last week) calling. I wasn’t in the mood to answer (nor do I think I could have, he didn’t speak English) so ignored it. A few minutes later, it rang again, and then again and again….! Eventually I just turned it off - come the morning, I spoke to Seiko and he had indeed been ringing her too, then calling me when he couldn’t get through.

Nor does the story end there - throughout Saturday we combined received a total of 37 more calls!?! By now, Seiko had of course decided she definately didn’t want to see him again (duh!)

Dinner time arrived and we headed to Shibuya to grab a curry at the *good* Indian curry place (making sure we didn’t overstuff outselves as we had last christmas) before doing the usual of jumping into a taxi (yes, trains are no good for us anymore :D) and heading off to Roppongi.

Now I know every week, we post we are bored of doing the same old things over and over, and of course this weekend was no exception. So we actually decided to do something about it! Shock horror! Whilst looking up and down the street, a sudden inspiration came to me…. why not go to TGI Fridays, but just sit in the bar?? Of course, this would normally be an expensive night out, but wait!!! We are in Roppongi where the drinks cost more in the normal bars anyway…

So wait a minute, we can sit in a top quality bar, decent music, awesome cocktails AND yummy food - for CHEAPER than going to a a trashy r’bar….. just WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST YEAR?!?! haha…. it will therefore come as no suprise to you that a few minutes later, we were perched on some bar stools watching bar tenders juggle bottles, spin cocktail shakers and generally having a great time.
Of course, the night could not go perfectly - and there was a slightly dicey moment when Takashi appeared outside and sat down outside the window on his phone! Should he have turned his head, Seiko would probably have been in a little bit of trouble But after we stared the opposite way for a few minutes until he had finished his call - he eventually left
………. DOH!