Anti-hijack checkpoint

The Japanese airport authorities don`t beat around the bush talking about airport security controls... Anti-hijack screening checkpoint, great description!

My crib

In the tradition of MTV`s "My Crib", I`d like to present you my new home here in Tokyo. I stayed in the youth hostel at Yoyogi Park for the first few days after arriving. Although it`s good value since you get a single room for the price you`d normally pay for a private room, it felt a bit claustrophobic soon since the room was small and I had a lot of luggage with me. So I startet researching shared home agencies and beside "Sakura House" from which I rented last time, I found "Create Shared Houses", a smaller agency that is not so much catering to foreigners. It turned out that you get more spacious rooms for less money there. And the service was really good too, the lady helping me spent almost an hour showing me pictures of different available rooms, giving advice on transport and right the next day I could have a look at the most promising-looking place and moved in the next day.
The house is located in the North-West of Tokyo, in the Kita-ku ward. It first looked a bit far, but considering that it`s linked to a major fast railway line, it`s better located than the last place, plus it`s slightly cheaper (which is dearly appreciated considering the very strong Yen) and more spacious. My room even has a little balcony and there is lots of light in it, the furniture is functional enough and the common area is pretty spacious too. It`s situated in a quiet residential area and you don`t hear trains too much either although it`s close to the station. My collocators are two Japanese and a Korean girl, so good opportunity for practising the language. They do speak pretty good English though, so if it gets tricky explaining something in Japanese I can resort to Shakespeare`s language still.
I have moved all my stuff in now. I had left some stuff back in Tokyo last November and brought two big bags plus hand luggage, so there was a lot to carry over. I managed to do it in two runs, completely overloaded in a rush-hour train (the first time) which was pure horror. But it`s done. I went to Muji in Shinjuku and IKEA in Saitama prefecture to buy some storage boxes and decoration and now my room looks pretty nice. Not sure how long the plant is going to survive though...

English with Obama

In Japan there is a huge market for English training. Most want to learn English, most have tried it for years already - with very little success. I had a good laugh recently when I saw one of the social ads on Facebook advertising an English learning method with the label "developed in Japan". C`mon guys, "Made in Japan" is a quality label for many goods. But English training isn`t cars or electronics or healthy food or fashion, it`s something that Japan has hardly any competency in. Everyone learns English for 8-10 years and the only people who speak decent English worthy the name, are those who spent time abroad. I reasonably judge Japanese English teaching methods to be some of the most inefficient on the planet. Yes, English is difficult to learn for Japanese, but so is Japanese for me and I`d be ashamed if after 8-10 years of Japanese classes I wasn`t pretty, pretty fluent in it.
Now the latest craze in the English training market is "Learning English with Obama". The booksstores` foreign language section heavily advertise books and CD ROMs that teach you English through Obama speeches. So what they did was pretty much burning Barack Obama`s campaign speeches and of course the inauguration speech on CD, print fancy looking booklets with the text in written, an English-Japanese vocab section and a pretty Obama picture on the cover and sell it in countless educationally valuable volumes. My favourite is probably the "inauguration speeches over time". It brings the office freshman`s thoughts of Obama and another couple of former US presidents closer to the Japanese learners` community, back to the Gettysburg Address. I am SO looking forward to seeing what kind of English skills this new method will result in... But at least the Japanese are as always fashionable with the Obama mania.

Back in (Tokyo) town

So, this is after a 3-months break that this blog becomes alive again. Meanwhile I`ve travelled to Kiwiland, spent some more time in Australia, did a stopover in Bangkok and then spent a few weeks in Europe, at my mum`s place and spent a few days around New Year`s in Wroclaw, Poland to visit my friends from Fukuoka, Anja and Joanna and also finally had the chance to visit (snowy) Dresden which was just as great as I`d imagined. I had to stay longer in Switzerland than planned, so I had to skip going back by Transsib overland and instead booked a BA flight.
Now I am back in Tokyo and starting to settle in again. I have to say that the first few days here were not too spirited. I was extremely tired and I spent Monday basically sleeping for 24 hours. Even the next days I felt the urge to go to bed at 6pm, which is strange because timewise it`d be much earlier in Europe.
Besides jetlag I was struggling with some other issues. My laptop`s hard disk crashed. It had announced itself earlier, but I hoped the thing would make it another couple of months. I run all the system checks in the backup menu to see what the exact error was. I checked the result on a couple of IT webforums and the unisono answer was that calling DELL support for that kind of error is a waste of money, they can only sell you a new hard disk. Considering that I don`t have the old set-up CDs anymore and would need both a new Office Package and the hard disk, this would be expensive. So I decided to buy a new webbook instead. It was annoying anyway, except for expensive internet cafes I was cut off for a few days and had one more headache...
I stayed in Yoyogi youth hostel for a few nights. It`s pretty decent considering that you get a single room for the usual price of a dorm. But the room was super small and with all that luggage I brought it was claustrophobic. I checked Sakura House again, the agency that I rented from last time. I finally found something with another, smaller agency that does not so much cater to foreigners and you therefore get larger rooms for less.
The last thing I was still annoyed about was the fact that I haven`t managed to get the trainee visa. I had a marketing internship lined up before I came, but the company told me I had to organize the visa on my own. It`s a bit strange, because generally the company that hires you needs to sponsor your visa and apply for the documents in Japan. It was a German company and they obviously know how to get visa for Germans, but the situation seems to be a little different and also this visa type is generally only for students and fresh graduates. Now I was told that since I didn`t manage to get the visa (which isn`t surprising if you lack the necessary documents), they will look for someone else for this particular position. But they encouraged me to keep on trying to get the visa and then they`d hire me for another internship position. We will see, but I don`t see a good chance to get the visa after what I`ve heard at the Japanese embassy in Berne, unless I`d enrol as a student somewhere. But first of all it`s mid-semester, so no chance to enrol now and I would also have to pay the semester fee right away, so that is no option. I will keep on looking for a job of course.
Anyway, apart from all the above trouble I am now in my new place and ready to start my life in Tokyo again. 　

Bye bye Switzerland

This post is kind of late and I date it back, so it doesn`t appear in a totally strange place... Nevertheless, I just had a look at the cool pictures from the party and felt compelled to write a post about it.
Despite having had a big Japan party last June already, I felt there`s nothing wrong with organizing another one when I`m home for holidays in Switzerland. I booked the famous "Pfadiheim" (scouts` house) in Oberbipp in October already and sent an invite over Facebook (what else these days ;-).
I came home from my New Year`s holidays in Poland and Dresden only a couple of days before the party, so all of a sudden I was confronted with all the remaining logistical stuff. Let`s say I`m a bit carefree about the details usually, I tend to think that things will somehow work out anyway, no matter how poorly organized I have been... So coming back from　Dresden I started thinking that I was missing a driver to get things there, I was missing a beamer to show the J-Pop videos I wanted to show, I didn`t have those either yet and I didn`t know how to play the music in such a big room, I didn`t even have a simple radio anymore.
Well, one of my friends volunteered to drive things there and I downloaded video clips from YouTube. The beamer was more of a problem, but last minute my cousin offered to borrow me the one from his office. And then there was the music problem. I had been to Solothurn to see whether I`d find cheap boxes to click on to my laptop. Nothing cheap at all and the iPod boxes were too weak for the big room. The quote from the local electronics store in Wiedlisbach for boxes was outrageously expensive. On Friday evening, so the night before the party, I went to ask my mother`s tenant in despair and he gave me the phone number of a start-up music equipment business that rent out the stuff for a reasonable price. Ufff....
Saturday, the road up to Pfadiheim which is in the forrest and on a hill, was still so frozen that it was impossible to drive up there. We had to carry everything up there. Luckily the guy with the big boxes had a 4x4. After arriving I made a fire immediately, it was freezing cold. This is a skill I`ve learned during my volunteer stay in Graubuenden, with a mountain farmer... Some decoration and setting up of the technical stuff and ready I was for the guests.
I had asked everyone to come in a Japan themed outfit. Well, not too many actually showed up in such (still very pleased to see them). One of my friends had priorly asked me whether he had to show up with a Japanese style oufit and complained about it being so difficult. I had said yes, he had to and he came up with a simple solution - a white shirt with a red circle stuck on the front. It can be so simple... My sister`s boyfriend made probably the best job out of everyone. His Japanese male fashionista style was really well done! I felt like back in Shibuya... My sister and my friend Corinne showed up in the same "Hallo Kitty" nightgown which was funny too. Especially Corinne is usually not much the "Hello Kitty" type...
The party was fun, about 30 people came and I was busy talking to everyone. My sister hid in the kitchen, doing secret stuff. The J-Pop videos were well received. I showed some favourites that I had posted in this blog before and some other, more quality stuff too. YamaPi was not only there on video, but I had brought his poster from a Harajuku store. Someone begged me for the poster and later got it for her birthday... I also showed pictures from my stay in Japan. Thanks to my cousin the visual part of the party worked too.
It was fun to see everyone. Some of the guests I had not seen for quite a while, especially those from the Youth Parliament. There were two couples busy with exchanging wedding plans among them too. Luckily nobody had tried to drive up the frozen road, I had blocked it to prevent that. I know the adventuresome nature of some guests who would also try to drive on the army truck circuit a few years ago...
After almost everybody left, the three of us staying got down the mattresses from the upper floor (it was just too cold up there) and slept in the parfty room. It soon got very cold too though when the fire went out and my sleeping bag was just made of cotton. Well, we eventually survived the night.
P.S.: Oh yes, I was wearing an original maid outfit from Harajuku. And the secret stuff my sister was doing in the kitchen was letting everybody write in an album for me, as a goodbye present. Thank you again!!!　

A taste of Oz

I left Japan from Nagoya, the cheapest gateway to Australia. The shinkansen ride there got a bit exhausting, not having been able to secure a reserved seat, I ended up standing in the corridor for 2 hours. Nagoya airport was nice enough though for a last coffee and goodbye calls to my friends in Japan.
JetStar is Quantas low-cost subsidiary and is flying from Nagoya to various destinations in Australia. I had opted for Cairns, for a taste of tropical Northern Oz. The flight was an uneventful 6-hours and brought me from chilly Japan to warm and sunny Australia.
I spent the 2 days in Cairns relaxing mostly. Cairns is a pleasant, smaller town with a distinct tourist character. I stayed in a budget hostel right on the beachfront which is made up of numerous restaurants, tour operator offices and budget accomodation to suit backpackers tastes.

There are a lot of trips on offer, from simply coach tours to 4x4 adventure tours to Cape York or sailing trips, but they were all pretty expensive packages and some too long for my short time budget as well. So I explored the vicinity of Cairns by public bus and spent some time relaxing on the beach in Palm Cove. I met a guy who used to live in Japan as well, Tom and we cooked some Japanese curry together and went for a dip in Cairn's public swimming pool on the Esplanade late at night which resulted in being told off by the security guards. I also enjoyed some hearty Aussie meals and noticed how much bigger portions are in that part of the world compared to Japan (also more expensive).
After this short 2-day glance I headed off to Kiwiland via Brisbane to Christchurch with Virgin Blue, one of the regional low-cost carriers. I'll be back in Australia in late November.

The sad word goodbye

I am about to head off for the airport now. And I can't say that I am too happy about leaving right now, although I tell myself I should be excited for the holiday in Australia and New Zealand that is lying ahead. But in these past four months in Japan I have really enjoyed being here and having taken the decision to come back here and try to live in Japan for a while, I don't feel like leaving. I'd rather focus on networking and job search onsite right now and really establishing my life in Tokyo. But it is what it is.
I am flying from Nagoya to Cairns tonight. I'll spend two days there and will then head over to Christchurch in New Zealand where I meet my sister. I'll go back to Oz after a 3 week holiday in NZ and will spend around 2 weeks there before flying back to Switzerland from Sydney. Actually sounds like a nice plan, eh?
So that's the plan for the next weeks, then I'll settle my stuff in Switzerland, say goodbye to everyone and head back around Mid-January. No, I don't have a job yet (my search hasn't been to intensive yet either), but I am sure I want to try this. Considering that the worst-case scenario is running out of money and having to go back to Switzerland, I think I can take the risk. I've wanted to work abroad for a long time already and this is the perfect time to do it. I didn't think it would be Japan, but since I feel really at home here and am going through the "pain" of learning this language, I want to give it a shot. It certainly isn't the best and easiest place to look for a job as a foreigner with limited language skills, but again, I won't give up before having tried it... I am ready to head off for the uncertain and trade in Swiss stability, good money and well-known surroundings and a great social network for something new. I have been thinking a lot about plans for the future during these past months and I've met some inspiring people too and I've come to realize that I fear remaining stagnant and being bored more than whatever challenge lies ahead of me trying to settle down somewhere new for a while.