I hate the Tobu Tojo Line

When you finish work for the day and are about to head home, until you find out that your train line has been suspended due to "accident causing injury or death" (人身事故)

Usually when they cite this, there's a pretty good chance it's a suicide. Most stations try to minimize this through the means of electronic gates that open and close only when the train doors themselves open and close so people won't fall (or jump) on to the tracks. The problem is not all stations have this set up, including the Tobu Tojo line. And since I have to go to and from Ikebukuro every week, the suspension of the train line makes commuting home an even bigger pain in the ass. 

Fortunately, I was able to take another train line to get back, which took me to Omiya, where I changed lines and took the Kawagoe line to Kawagoe station, and ended up taking a taxi home, as Tobu Tojo was still suspended more than an hour later. 

Japan is known for its trains always running on time, but that isn't always the case. Train delays happen more often than you think, especially during rush hour
 

Recent activity (No fancy titles today)

So for last 4 weeks or so, I've been sent to work in Okayama prefecture. I won't name the specific city that I'm working at, but I will say that it is a rural port city. I have been filling in as a temporary teacher in this city, and it has been quite fun. For some background information, this city has not had the budget to have ALTs working in their schools for some years, and this year is the first time in a while that the city has the budget for ALTs. Before this, schools were apparently studying English through online teachers. As a result, I have found that the students I have been working with to be very keen and excited to interact with a foreigner, even if their English is far from perfect, but they are willing to try.

For me, it has been a good opportunity to get away from the office, as March and April were incredibly busy, and I had just been assigned to work at one of the company's Tokyo offices, which I did not (and still don't) enjoy. The quietness of this city compared to Tokyo is something I welcome. While I have no problem going to Tokyo for the occasional day trip or holiday, I cannot stand commuting to Tokyo on a daily basis. I find that compared to the rural areas, Tokyo folk are too busy to be polite. Most tourists won't notice, but if you spend enough time in a rural area, and then compare it to Tokyo, you'll pick up on the subtleties.

In terms of the work, it is also a chance for me to brush up on my ALT skills. Compared to the past where I was using Japanese quite a lot with students, I have deliberately minimized the amount of Japanese I use where possible with students. The students will in most cases speak to me in Japanese, or at least attempt to speak to me in English, but in almost every case, I will reply in English.

Since it is unreasonable for me to go back to Saitama every weekend (it costs me nearly 20,000 yen one way on the shinkansen), I have spent some time looking around the town, trying some of the local cafes and restaurants, and even finding time to go to a local gym. While they don't have the franchise gym I'm signed up with, the local community gym has been sufficient for my needs.

On a different topic, my mother came to visit me recently. While I was not able to get all the days off that I wanted from my employer, I was able to spend a full 7 days with my mother doing shopping and sightseeing, and even brought her out to where I was working. On the days that I was working, my mother would either stay at the hotel, or have a look around the surrounding area, before I came back in the afternoon, and we would go out for dinner. However, I noticed that the rural city I'm working in does not have much open in the way of dining outside of franchise/chain restaurants. I noticed that many of the local restaurants and cafes close pretty early. 

It was good to see my mum after nearly 4 years, and she made sure to make the visit count by bringing a lot of snacks and other gifts from Australia. The only regret is that my dad could not come and see Japan for himself before he died a few years back. I'm finally comfortable in saying that out loud after 2 years. Perhaps I will go in to more detail about it in a future post.

New city & Other topics

Just over a week ago, I moved to a new city. While I had no problem talking about the last city I lived in the last 3 years (hint: it was Chikusei), I feel it probably be better not to talk about my current city, especially what I'm aiming for (hopefully) next year regarding the company I'm working for. I will simply say that I have moved to a city that is south of Chikusei, and is about an hour away from Tokyo by train. However, given the whole coronavirus/CCP virus situation at the moment, heading to Tokyo isn't exactly an option right now.

This time around, I opted to rent an apartment independent of my employer. Again, it's a Leopalace apartment, and aside from a few small things, it's pretty much identical to my previous apartment. Though this time, I'm trying to take better care of this apartment compared to my last one - especially the kitchen. While I didn't destroy the last apartment in any way, I felt I could have done a better job looking after it. Well, it just so happens my girlfriend has been staying over for the past week, so there has been some incentive to keep the place as clean as possible (despite a whole bunch of packing boxes moved off to one side.
The reason she has been staying over lately, has been due to concerns that Tokyo may be put in lock down indefinitely, especially with the number of infections increasing on a daily basis in Tokyo. Combine this with the fact that Prime Minister Abe now has the authority to declare a national emergency. However, with the problem of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to next year, and the potential economic damage such an emergency could do, Abe has been incredibly hesitant to make that call, despite Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike putting pressure on Abe to do so. Also, last week's call by Koike for Tokyo residents to stay home over the previous weekend prompted panic buying from Tokyo folk, clearing out supermarkets and convenience stores. Fortunately, my girlfriend and I stocked up early on food to last us about a month, so we've been living off that. In another stroke of good luck, it seems the panic buying hasn't reached out to this current city I'm in. While some supermarkets here have signs up about limits on certain products, there seems to be ample of products to go around. Unfortunately, we're still waiting on new masks to be produced, given that they've all been bought up since early last month. I have checked on Amazon Japan for masks, I notice that many of the masks on sale are from sellers located in China, which seems to match with China and the CCP's soft power plans to try and profit from this mess that they have spread (whether they caused it is up for debate, but their mismanagement and deception on this matter certainly didn't help in the early stages).

Anyway, I also visited my schools last week. Unlike my time in Chikusei, I will be working in three schools: one elementary school, and two junior high schools. My elementary school will be my main school (three days a week), and I'll be working one day each for my junior high schools. However, I've been told classes will not officially start until the 20th of this month, though I will still be going to school and getting paid for it fortunately. However, it seems that some students may still turn up to school during that time (due to working parents), so it will at least be an opportunity to meet some of the students and get to know them - and possibly join the JHS' art clubs and get back in to drawing, since I haven't done any since moving... and I'm currently waiting on a new touch pen to be delivered soon.

So that's about it for now.

Christmas in Japan 2019

Came back from a two day trip in Tokyo to spend time with my girlfriend. Feels a little strange since I was back home celebrating Christmas last year.

Getting around Tokyo (especially Ikebukuro Station) during that time was pretty much:

On the 24th, we had KFC for dinner - the traditional Christmas dinner for all who celebrate Christmas in Japan. As for the 25th, we went to a small Italian restaurant in Sugamo. I have to admit, I really enjoyed the gnocchi they served, as it also had pieces of sweet potato thrown in to the mix, which gave the dish a surprisingly mild and sweet taste to go with the cheesy sauce. Would definitely have it again if the given the opportunity. On the 26th, my girlfriend needed to work on her thesis for most of the day, so I wandered around Akihabara and Ikebukuro before meeting up to buy each other's late Christmas presents. I bought her an external hard drive, whereas she bought me a HG Char's Zaku II (Red Comet version), and some protein powder.

While we weren't able to spend much time together, due to her having to finish up her thesis for submission by the beginning of next month, I was happy to see her, as it has been about two months since we last saw each other. She promised to make up for it after she's submitted her thesis next month by coming to Chikusei (which she hasn't done in quite some time). While it is a small city, I want to go check out Furispo, as in all my time here, I've never been there, despite having heard about it, and even passing by it from time to time. I guess it's one of those places you'd go with friends rather than alone. Anyway, having her come to visit is something to look forward to.

Spring Break/New school year 2018

Well, it's been a while since my last post, so I guess I should start with a very belated Happy new year （笑）.

With the new school year coming up soon, I should probably talk about my situation for this year. Fortunately, I am still staying in Chikusei. However, while I will be working at the same junior high school as last year, I will be working at a different elementary school this year... to my (and my previous elementary school's) disappointment. Some of my teachers at my previous elementary school expressed that they wanted me to stay on for the next school year, and I also wanted to stay on, as I enjoyed working at there: the teachers and the principal were friendly, the students were pretty good for the most part, and I had my own classroom with plenty of resources to use, including a computer and LCD TV, which were very useful for 5th and 6th graders.
The weird thing, was that I was only told about the change in my last week of the semester (while recovering from the flu, but I'll save that for another time), yet I had heard from other ALTs that they had found out about their school changes much earlier than I did. While I'm not mad at my employer for the change of school, I'm a little bit annoyed that they left it to the last second to let me  know, and as a result, I wasn't able to give a proper goodbye to the students. I was able to give a goodbye to the teachers during morning recess. In any case, I will be going to visit my new school on Thursday. I was told by teachers from my previous elementary school that this school I will be working at is also a good school, so hopefully there won't be too much to worry about there.

Also, my girlfriend recently moved to Tokyo to start her post-grad. It also means it will be a lot easier for us to see each other now, where it's now just a 2 hour train trip away, rather than a 2 hour train trip, plus 2 hours on the shinkansen. We had a chance to spend the day in Tokyo recently, where we went to Asakusa to have some monjyayaki, before we walked along Sumida Park to see the Sakura. Afterwards, we headed to Ueno to look at the National Museum of Nature and Science. There was quite a bit to see, including dinosaur exhibits, space technology, and how animals and the environment evolved over time. We eventually went to the rooftop, where the happened to be a small garden for people to sit around and relax, along with a small vendor for coffee and snacks. We had a bit of a rest and had the chance to take in the view of Ueno from high up, something I've never had the chance to do. After a brief break, we left the museum, and went to a cafe nearby for some cake, before heading to Ameyoko to look around. After about an hour, we decided to call it a day, and I headed back to Chikusei.

So yeah, not much has been happening lately, though I did have the chance to see my girlfriend. I am curious to see how things will turn out at my new elementary school, though I will probably get some idea on Thursday when I go to visit.

三日間の東京の旅行 - Three-day Tokyo Trip

Yesterday, I returned from a 3 day trip to Tokyo, together with my girlfriend. Admittedly we only did bare minimum planning, and as a result the trip was a little rushed, though still fun nonetheless.

We took the Shinkansen from Kyoto station to Tokyo, which took a little over two hours. We were able to get student discount by applying for it at the university, so we both saved a little bit of money for the trip. The other alternative was to take the midnight bus, which would take 6-7 hours, and we would probably get very little sleep on the trip, so we chose the Shinkansen as a result. 

When we got to Tokyo, we headed over to Asakusa-bashi to check in to our hotel - except we made the booking for the same hotel over at Asakusa and not Asakusa-bashi. So after a little bit more navigating around through the Tokyo's train network, and a little bit of a walk, we finally checked in to our hotel just after lunch. For a hotel that cost just under $50, it was a nice room (though not as nice as the one we stayed at in Kobe, but I'll talk about that in another post). My only criticism would be that the bathroom was ridiculously small: so small in that the sink was located next to the entrance way of our room. Anyway, after little bit of a rest, we decided to go to Akihabara.

It had been two years since I had been to Akihabara. Compared to Osaka's DenDen Town, Akihabara is a beast in terms of finding your way around. I remember some of the places that I had been to previously, including some of the game centers, and a few of the anime goods stores. One thing I've found though, is that while there are plenty of stores and buildings around, it is for that very reason that you'll usually get a decent bargain for goods. While in Akihabara, I purchased the Master Grade Exia Dark Matter gunpla for about $40, whereas the usual RRP would be around $50. I also picked up a Figma of Tekkman Evil (or Saber as he was called in the english-dub all those years ago) for about $30, and some MSG weapon accessories also - in order to make Conroy's custom Jegan ECOAS type gunpla once I return home. Interestingly, I also picked up an old Star Wars figure of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker for just over $10. I used to have a lot of Star Wars figures when I was younger, but eventually gave them to my nephews. I found the same figure in Osaka, but cost twice as much, and was fortunate enough to come across this in a Tokyo store. We spent a few hours there, having ramen for a late lunch in the process, before heading to Odaiba.

I have been to Odaiba previously, but never in the evening. As a result, it was a real treat to see the 1/1 scale of the RX-78-2 in the evening. I had a look at the small trailer shop inside, and was surprised to see some new Gundam Front Tokyo exclusive gunpla, such as a HG Gundam Unicorn Phenex, and a two pack of the Unicorn and Banshee Norn, each with exclusive weapons. Furthermore, the Unicorn was a glossy white kind of plastic, with green psyco-frame. The Banshee Norn also had green psyco-frame, though the weapon included is one that can be found in the Gunpla Builder's part accessories products. Furthermore, because it was more expensive than usual, I decided against buying it.
We also had a look at the Gundam Front museum. It was updated this time in that it also featured Gundam Unicorn and Gundam Build Fighters related things on display. Also, compared to my last trip, the exhibition area had changed in that it was now about celebrating the 35 years of Gundam, including showing all the series and related Gunpla that were released in line with each series - though it was only restricted to the main Gundams/mobile suits of the series (though I noted that there was no love for the second season of Gundam 00). Also, they were heavily promoting the soon to be released Gundam: The Origin OVA.
Finally, we went to the cinema area. Again, different from when I went previously. The main features that I enjoyed were the One of Seventy Two short film, and the Shambloo vs. Neo Zeong fight in Odaiba. One of Seventy Two was more or less a fight involving the Sleeves' upgraded Bawoo (resembling Full Frontal's Sinanju) against the Unicorn Unit 2 Banshee, and the Unicorn Unit 3 Phenex. Both the Banshee and the Phenex take on the Bawoo, before the Phenex goes completely out of control, attacking the Banshee and its mothership also. The Shambloo vs. Neo Zeong fight was very interesting - though frankly I think the Shambloo has nothing on Neo Zeong. After that, we had a quick snack before we caught up with one of my friends who I used to work with back in Australia.

The next day, we went to Disney Sea. It's actually the first time in 20 years that I've been to a Disney theme park, so it was quite an interesting experience. We decided to take advantage of the Fast Pass, and used it for the rides with the longer waiting times - which we were able to check regularly on their site via my phone, which meant we were able to make the most of our time. We ended up using the Fast Pass on the Tower of Terror, and one of Indiana Jones rides. My experiences of rides when I was a kid was certainly different to how I felt about them now. They really weren't that scary - it was more like driving a car; that I had no control of, and was going really fast. But it was very exciting nonetheless. The Tower of Terror, however, was a different story. I've never ridden on any drop-style kind of rides before, so I didn't know what to expect. Compared to what I've seen before, this ride is mostly done in the dark - so you rarely see anything - only the feeling of free fall, which was really scary. It was scary, but exciting as well - it's very hard to describe.
Aside from the rides, we also ate snacks as we walked along, trying various flavours of popcorn, including black pepper, orange marmalade, strawberry, and - my personal favourite - curry flavoured popcorn. We also tried Mickey Mouse shaped churros, and I had maple balls and icecream, along with some coffee to help keep me going. We ended up having dinner there also - it wasn't anything spectacular, but I did particularly enjoy the sauce and the rice that was served with the meal for some reason.
We stayed all day to watch the final show, along with the fireworks before leaving Disney Sea.

The final day, we went to Asakusa and Tokyo Sky Tree. Because it was the weekend, it was incredibly busy at Asakusa. It was a really different experience compared to Kyoto. As a result, I just did not enjoy it as much as when I came for the very first time. I also found that food shops have introduced new rules that whatever you buy from them, you need to eat it either in front of their stall, or around it. My girlfriend explained that this was something that was introduced a few years back, certainly after my first trip in 2008. I'm not entirely sure about the reason however. I also find that some of the shopkeepers to be a bit rude to me, maybe because I'm a foreigner and he had to deal with a lot of foreigners - but he just assumed that I didn't understand when he told me the price of the food (in Japanese). I was searching through my wallet for adequate change after he said the price the first time, before repeating in English and showing the price on his calculator. Ok, fair enough, that I'm foreign, but when I reply with "はい" after you've told me the price the first time, assume that I understand what you just said. It was a minor gripe, though my girlfriend told me that Tokyo station staff seem to be a little ruder compared to those in Kyoto when she asked them questions on which lines/platforms to take to get somewhere. Maybe they're just finding being polite in Tokyo to be too tiring?
Anyway, after Asakusa, we caught up with another one of my friends for pie and coffee at Tokyo station. All three of us certainly had a lot to talk about, including life in my hometown (as she had worked there for a year, and that was how we met), and my friend seemed to be really happy to meet my girlfriend. After about 2-3 hours of hanging out, my friend had to leave for another appointment, and we headed over to Tokyo Sky Tree.

Admittedly, we were pretty tired by the time we headed to Tokyo Sky Tree. We were planning to go up the tower, but because of the rather long line, and the cost of getting in, we decided to give it a miss. However, there was a small ice skating ring set up right next to the tower, and we both decided to do a little ice skating. It had been a little while since I last ice skated, so I was little rusty at first, but quickly got back in to the swing of things. My girlfriend on the other hand, had never ice skated at all, so I helped her out and showed her the basics of how to move around, and generally just making sure that she didn't fall over. For someone who had never ice skated before, she got the hang of it pretty quickly, and the fact that she did not fall over even once (without me holding her) is pretty impressive. After a little while, we decided to stop, and take a look around the shops some more, before we finally decided to head back to Tokyo station and head home by Shinkansen.

All in all, it was a fun trip, albeit a little poorly planned on our part. If we had the money, I would definitely like to stay for a week, but no more than that. I find that compared to Kyoto life, Tokyo life is just so damn busy. I also remembered that there was a time that I envied Tokyo for being covered completely in high-rise buildings, but when I went there on this trip, I found it really overwhelming. I commend anyone who is actually able to live in Tokyo and able to manage the busy life, as I don't think I could take it.

I have been meaning to post about my Kobe trip from a few weeks back, so expect my next post to be about that (hopefully).