AIRPORT MADNESS, MAKING A HOUSE A HOME, AKIHABARA, CYCLING, RUN IN WITH THE LAW, NTT!

23 May 94

Well, we've been here now for just over two weeks and this has been the first real time I've had to write.  I've actually just gotten over a bad stomach bug which has had me bedridden for the past 3-4 days.  It feels great not to be in pain and to actually have food in my stomach (instead of down the dunny bowl, head first J) !

Farewell at Bribane Airport

Spread Eagle at Brisbane Airport!

Farewell at Bribane Aiport! Best Mates
Andrew, Shiho, Simon

Since we left, probably the most exciting thing that has happened to us, was at the airport before we left!  We're not sure if any of the group of people who were sent to make sure we left the country heard, but Spike and I were paged several times and severely reprimanded for apparently holding up the plane.  We were soooo embarrassed as we were running madly to catch the plane before it left. I still had tears streaming down my face from the many farewells L we had to make, and was dropping bags, left, right and centre.  Spike was running behind me picking them up, as usual being very supportive.  By the time we were actually safely on board every inch of space in out luggage compartment was taken up by other passenger's luggage, so we had to sit with all our many bags and jackets either on our laps or at our feet - not very comfortable for a 9 hour trip.  We were too meek to ask the stewardess to help after holding everyone up for so long, so we just put up with it.  After a while the stewardess took pity on us and packed away one of our bags into the staff locker…. too kind!

We couldn't believe it!  We were sitting on the plane thinking to ourselves, if this is how the rest of our stay in Japan is going to be…. we want out! 

Then, when we arrived at the airport, the next chore was to arrange for our unaccompanied baggage to be delivered.  Unfortunately, we were told that they had never heard of the company we used (they were supposed to be their agents!) and had no idea what we were talking about!  Spike and I just looked at ourselves, totally exhausted, bedraggled, carrying 30 kg bags each and thought…. HELP!  We decided that 10pm was possibly not the best time for clear thinking and agreed to wait till the next morning to arrange for customs clearance.  We still had a long way to go before we could hit the sack.

The next point of interest was after we finally made contact with our transport company, we were told that our 10kg of rice that we were importing (on the recommendation of the vice-consul) had been confiscated by customs!  You won't believe this Shiho, they said it had 'mushi' (bugs) in it!  We were very sceptical.  As far as we're concerned, we feel as if we've provided the customs officers with good quality Aussie rice for a few days! ;-) I hope Mr K fared better with the 100kg's of Aussie rice he was taking back to Japan a couple of days later!

Just hang on a tick, I've got to go and be a good little house wifey (can't get used to this!) and hang out the washing!  What did I say?!  Back again! It’s Friday now and I've resumed the letter at about the same time that I started yesterday (around 2pm).  I'm sitting here watching this wonderfully BAD samurai drama.  If there's one thing Japanese are good at, it's making bad samurai dramas!  Well, if you think about it, we're also very good at making 'bad' tough Aussie drama's like 'snowy', 'rush' etc.  Hey, come to think of it, the music for this film sounds vaguely like the music from 'snowy'! Aahh, it warms the cockles of my heart!  Actually, if you don't watch it and just listen, the only difference (apart from the Japanese language) is, instead of the sound of the horse hooves clip-clopping along, you have the 'ching' of the Japanese swords.

Here's the Kitchen!

We spent the next few days at my host sister's home trying to arrange for our apartment to have the essentials connected.  The only thing that we still haven't been able to do is to get the telephone connected.  It's too damn expensive to buy a new telephone line (around $1400 !!), so we've been waiting for someone to leave NTT so that we can buy one 2^nd hand.   We have a prospective seller, but won't be able to get the line till 3 June… we're waiting patiently.

Trying out the Bath!

When we first saw our apartment we were in two minds.  The rooms are quite big and it's relatively new, but the kitchen and bathroom were a bit of a disappointment.  Also the place was quite dirty, to put it mildly.  After spending days scrubbing out our house in Brisbane before we left, we were less than pleased to find out that we had to scrub this place top to bottom too!  That was a few weeks ago now, so it's all just a bad memory (and a few sore elbows and knees). 

Settled into our apartment!

Last week we bought a few of life's essential items - you know the kind of things you just can't live without - like TV, video and stereo J!  We've spent quite a bit of money on these items, hoping that these will be with us for years to come.  We paid extra to get a multi-system TV and video so that they can be used anywhere in the world.  I feel right at home now, and have been watching many of the Red Dwarf tapes we brought with us….. I was going through a bad period a while ago having RD withdrawal symptoms.  Spike's also in 7^th heaven as he can now finally borrow some 'anime' videos!  Just today we joined the video store across the street (literally) and spike borrowed Dragonball Z and I borrowed…. yep you guessed it…. a Monroe movie!  Nothing new there!

Spike at the entrance to our apartment.

Spike and I finally have two bikes now and I zip around everywhere.  Spike rides to and from work which only takes him 5 minutes.  The other day I had a funny thing happen to me on the way to the shopping centre… when we first moved into our unit we were using my host mother's two bikes to get around.  They're both about 20yrs old and looked it.   The other day I had a run in with the local law enforcement.  I bowed to the nice policeman, as I usually do when we ride past the local police box on the way to the shops or station.  It happened to be at changeover time and the two policemen were out front.  As I rode up to the box I looked at them and said 'Good morning'.  One guy replied and quickly afterwards the other yelled something at me.  Once I stopped, he walked casually over to me all the time eyeing off my bike.   I was concerned that he might think I had stolen it.  'New bike, huh!'  he said to me casually.  I replied 'yes' and he asked how much I had paid for it.  I told him $150. I was wondering if he might ask to see a receipt for it or something.  The he replied ‘Oh! That’s cheap.’  I told him I wanted the cheapest I could get since we were only here for 2 years.  He then said, ‘Well, It’s a good bike anyway....look after it won’t you!’  I said ‘Yep! And he laughed as he walked away. I couldn’t believe it, he just wanted a chat! I’d almost wet my pants!! J

I’ve also made friends with the local bus director (for want of a better word).  He’s the guy that stands around at the interchange waiting for the buses to arrive and then directs the traffic around them as they leave.  This is just a minute walk from our apartment.  The apparatus he uses while doing this is a glow in the dark baton and a whistle.  He blows on that thing like his life depended on it!!  Since it’s only just round the corner and this goes on till midnight at least, he drives us crazy while we’re trying to get to sleep!  We always say g’day to him on the way to and from the shops, and these days he’s taken to saying ‘itterashai’ and ‘okaerinasai’ to us.  These terms mean ‘off you go’ and ‘welcome back’ and are usually used by family members seeing off and welcoming someone back home.  Very cute!  The other night Spike went out on his own, and he started chatting to him in Japanese, not realising he couldn’t understand him.  Spike said he had no clue as to what he was saying and felt very embarrassed.  He was able to tell him in Japanese that he didn’t understand, and the guy just laughed.

That happens quite a lot when people speak to me in Japanese and then start speaking to spike, assuming he understands as well.  Spike doesn’t like it at all and it upsets him that he can’t speak Japanese yet.  Well, it’s only be a couple of weeks, so I don’t think he should worry yet! 

Staying Cool!!

With the money Spike gave me for my birthday, I went shopping yesterday and bought some CD’s.  Oh yeah, when we were walking to the station from my first host family’s house, we stumbled across a great bar called the ‘Soul Kitchen’.  It plays all the kinds of music we like and has a great atmosphere.  As we walked by we stood out the front looking at the price board, when a half tanked Japanese guy raced out and started saying something like ‘come on in’ in a bad Japanese accent.  He also carried a guitar he was just playing on.  We hadn’t planned on going in, but were eventually convinced.  I think that they thought it was good to have a couple of Gaijin in their bar for their image.  Anyway, in the end we talked to the owner about where to buy the type of music we like and what radio station to listen to. He was very helpful, hence my new CD’s.  Anyway, the reason behind this story is to let you know how damn cheap they are here! I bought imported ones and they were only $20!!  There were some imported ones there for about $10!!  The most expensive one I saw was around $25.  I guess our CD Collection’s going to do some growing here!

By the way, Spike is pretty happy now that we’ve got the telly, cause he can finally start playing video games.  He’s champing at the bit, to go out and buy some new games.  They’re also cheap here!  We bought one the other day, just to test the system out for around $8!! We almost fainted!  In OZ we paid $100 just for one!!  I don’t know if Spike’ll ever want to leave Japan at this rate! J

We’ve been having Japanese food nearly every day while we’ve been here.  Spike didn’t like it so much initially, said it was too heavy, too much rice, but now is quite happy about it.  I’m having fun at the moment playing the little housewife role.  It’s fun trying to come up with a new menu every night.  I’m having a lot of trouble though reading cooking instructions on packages of food!

This weekend (Fri) we finally start to get a little of our money back, refund for our tickets, living expenses and pay etc, from NTT. Spike says we’ll be millionaires!! Wow, pity it’s not ‘dollar’ millionaires! J

I’ve just re-started this mess after a break of a couple of days.  Last night Spike and I were witnesses (after the fact) to an assault on a lady out the front of our apartment on the other side of the road.  We heard screaming at about 6pm but thought it was a couple mucking around.  When the screaming didn’t seem to stop and sounded more panicky, we raced over to see a woman crying talking to a guy who she’d pulled over at the side of the road.  There was a bike lying on the ground about 25 mts away and then we saw a guy walking in the other direction.  He appeared to be a little drunk, but was not running or panicking in any way.  We got a good look at him and then went over to see if the girl was ok.  She was hysterical and was crying lots.  We eventually had a group people who had gathered and eventually the police were called.  Spike was mad at himself for not running after the guy when we had the chance, but at that time we really didn’t know if he was involved or not, or what really went on.  Anyway, we gave the police a description of the guy and then were dismissed.  We were so shocked to see this happen in one of the safest countries in the world and also on a main road, well lit and around 6pm.  I’ll definitely be on the lookout now.  Although I’m rarely out late without my bodyguard, Spike said every time someone new arrived at the scene, they stared accusingly at him!  I’m not surprised though, those deep dark eyes, long unkempt hair and that bushy beard!! I’d be worried too if I wasn’t married to him!! ;-)



Tokyo Friends - Minami-san, Akemi, Yoko, Ken.

Spike’s enjoying work at the moment. Everyone in his office speaks English and are very nice people.  Two weekends ago, a group of us, about 7 went to Nikko, in the mountains north west of Tokyo, to visit the hot springs.  We went up in two cars and I was the only female in the group. I wasn’t really looking forward to going for that reason. The guys were looking forward to relaxing in the hot springs together chatting to each other, but I’d be alone in the women’s section, so had decided not to go in.  When I got there though, I changed my mind and thought I’d come all this way and not to jump in was silly, so I did.  It turned out well though, as the locals were really friendly.  It was good for my Japanese too, sitting stark naked in a huge bath with a group of women aged from between 2 yrs and 82 yrs, does wonders for your confidence and they are always keen to speak to a Gaijin.  They loved to chat and so did I in the end, and they were very kind with their compliments (which gives me even more confidence!)  We chatted the arvo away!  The guys ended up waiting for me to finish! 

You wouldn’t believe what just happened.  As I’m sitting here writing this, I’m watching a Japanese parliamentary broadcast and as they go for a break, the station puts on a filler, which happens to be shot in NSW!!  There were scenes on a wheat farm, sheep station, cattle station, a mob of kangaroos in the bush and then they showed a koala park in the Blue Mountains.  The scenes looked beautiful...all that open space and blue skies!  There’ve  only  been a couple of days when we’ve seen blue skies since we’ve been here.  On a very clear day and when we went to Nikko outside of the city!  Also today I went looking for pot plants to make our apartment a home, and came across a blue gum plant!  I was so shocked and felt so homesick, I just had to buy it.  I think I’ll use it as our xmas tree this year, its only about 1/12 feet high.  It’s so cute!  I’ve attached one of those koala bear clips to one of the branches. That’ll keep those Japanese guessing, they already think we’re pretty strange.

Well, I guess if I don’t send this soon, we’ll be back in OZ before it arrives!  So many things keep happening that I want to let you guys know, that it’s hard to know when to stop writing and send this mess.  I guess this is as good a place as any to stop. 









Love to you all.  Maria and the Hairy One! Xx