Before I forget, I thought I'd tell you about a little experience I had at the gym on the weekend. Although not many Japanese go to the gym, they take it very seriously. After almost 10 years living away from Japan, I forgot about the 'indoor gym shoes' policy. I was quickly reminded about it last Saturday.
As I was about to start my gym orientation session, I was asked whether the runners I had on were my indoor gym shoes. Whoops! Japanese take cleanliness very seriously and I had broken a fundamental rule in Japanese culture. Nevermind, I redeemed myself by washing my shoes and turning them into indoor shoes.
Next was the introduction to using the gym facilities. We were all told we had to weigh ourselves at the start of each session and take our blood pressure (to ensure we don't overexert ourselves). I nominated myself as the test subject and was subsequently told 'chotto futtoteiru', meaning 'you're a little overweight'. What happened to Japanese subtlety! :-)
The whole orientation process was very thorough and took about 2 hours. At the end of our session, we were introduced to the massage chairs (a fundamental part of exercise in Japan). Just like the toilets here, the massage chairs are very high tech. I could have easily fallen asleep in them, if it wasn't for the fact that the orientation session wasn't over!
At the end of the session, we received a 'certificate of completion' allowing us to use the facilities. I haven't returned to the gym since!
Thursday, 11 October 2007
Japanese convenience store food
Convenience stores are everywhere in Japan - most are 24 hours and nearly every street corner has one. They are the ultimate in convenience - you can pay nearly all your bills, they all have ATMs, some even have bakeries and they all stock a wide range of cheap, ready made meals.
These cheap, ready made meals have been my diet for much of the last two weeks. I quite looked forward to indulging in them prior to my arrival in Japan - in moderation, they're rather nice. You can get all sorts of combinations - japanese noodles with chicken, pork, beef. Most include pasta on the side, you can even get salads, onigiri (rice triangles wrapped in seaweed with a filling inside) and sandwhiches (but they don't have crusts on them here in Japan, I guess that's why Japanese don't have curly hair :-)
However, after two weeks of eating them almost solidly, I must say it's time to have some home made cooking. The problem with convenience store food is that they tend to lack one essential food group - fruit and vegetables. Often you'll only get one small piece of broccoli or a slice of carrot with your meal. For a growing Australian boy such as I, this is simply not enough. So it's time to cook at home.
This will be a difficult proposition however as I am rarely home of an evening these days! Tokyo is certainly a 24 hour city and there's so much to do, it's sometimes difficult to return of an evening! Apart from enroling in eight subjects at university (I may have overcommitted myself!), I have also joined the local Toastmasters club, joined an outdoor adventure club and have made lots of Japanese and international friends. It's a good thing they only gave me a small apartment, I don't think I'd be here long enough to use a large one!
Apart from catching up on study, this weekend we're going out for our first big night out in Roppongi, celebrating a birthday at a Greek-Japanese Restaurant in Shibuya on Saturday (that will be interesting!) and perhaps travelling to Chiba for a mountain hike and hot spring on Sunday. I hope to get myself a new camera soon, so stay tuned for some great pictures!
Don't forget to keep in touch everyone, it's always nice to hear what's going on back home!
These cheap, ready made meals have been my diet for much of the last two weeks. I quite looked forward to indulging in them prior to my arrival in Japan - in moderation, they're rather nice. You can get all sorts of combinations - japanese noodles with chicken, pork, beef. Most include pasta on the side, you can even get salads, onigiri (rice triangles wrapped in seaweed with a filling inside) and sandwhiches (but they don't have crusts on them here in Japan, I guess that's why Japanese don't have curly hair :-)
However, after two weeks of eating them almost solidly, I must say it's time to have some home made cooking. The problem with convenience store food is that they tend to lack one essential food group - fruit and vegetables. Often you'll only get one small piece of broccoli or a slice of carrot with your meal. For a growing Australian boy such as I, this is simply not enough. So it's time to cook at home.
This will be a difficult proposition however as I am rarely home of an evening these days! Tokyo is certainly a 24 hour city and there's so much to do, it's sometimes difficult to return of an evening! Apart from enroling in eight subjects at university (I may have overcommitted myself!), I have also joined the local Toastmasters club, joined an outdoor adventure club and have made lots of Japanese and international friends. It's a good thing they only gave me a small apartment, I don't think I'd be here long enough to use a large one!
Apart from catching up on study, this weekend we're going out for our first big night out in Roppongi, celebrating a birthday at a Greek-Japanese Restaurant in Shibuya on Saturday (that will be interesting!) and perhaps travelling to Chiba for a mountain hike and hot spring on Sunday. I hope to get myself a new camera soon, so stay tuned for some great pictures!
Don't forget to keep in touch everyone, it's always nice to hear what's going on back home!
Thursday, 4 October 2007
If only you could see me now...
A picture paints a thousand words...pity I don't have a working camera at the moment, so I'll just have to go with the thousand words. What can I say about Tokyo? Fourth time here and each time seems to be getting better and better. Not to mention the trip over here... upgraded to business class, lots of french champagne, can't complain really. Everything worked like clockwork coming over (apart from the farewell, I'll get to that later), we were welcomed on arrival by a guy from the student services association who very kindly gave us JPY25,000 on arrival and then paid for our taxi ride.
We've concluded that they obviously don't have speed cameras over here, the taxi ride from the airport was like being in a car game... he didn't hesitate to fly through traffic at well over 120km/h. We didn't mind though, it was nice to do the 80km from Narita to our new residence in under 45min!
The apartments are modern and well located. We are located on Odaiba island in Tokyo Bay, about a 20 minute monorail ride from central Tokyo. It's strangely quiet on the island as they are still largely developing it and we are basically the only residents on the island (apart from the many hotels, shopping centres and office blocks also located here). It's arguably the best location in Tokyo - lots of parks, museums and shopping centres to keep us students entertained.
We started uni on Wednesday in a very spacious campus in Roppongi (the King's Cross of Tokyo), which makes for interesting strolls both day and night. Our class consists of students from Uzbekistan, India, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Romania, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and not to mention Australia. This will make for some very diverse and interesting debates, I'm sure!
We've already been checking out the many restaurants, bars and shops in Tokyo, but doubt we'll be able to get through them all during the year. Apparently there are over 80,000 restuarants in Tokyo and we'll try our best to get through many of them!
Don't forget to keep in touch and until the next post - genki de ne! (keep smiling!)
The apartments are modern and well located. We are located on Odaiba island in Tokyo Bay, about a 20 minute monorail ride from central Tokyo. It's strangely quiet on the island as they are still largely developing it and we are basically the only residents on the island (apart from the many hotels, shopping centres and office blocks also located here). It's arguably the best location in Tokyo - lots of parks, museums and shopping centres to keep us students entertained.
We started uni on Wednesday in a very spacious campus in Roppongi (the King's Cross of Tokyo), which makes for interesting strolls both day and night. Our class consists of students from Uzbekistan, India, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Romania, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and not to mention Australia. This will make for some very diverse and interesting debates, I'm sure!
We've already been checking out the many restaurants, bars and shops in Tokyo, but doubt we'll be able to get through them all during the year. Apparently there are over 80,000 restuarants in Tokyo and we'll try our best to get through many of them!
Don't forget to keep in touch and until the next post - genki de ne! (keep smiling!)
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