Back in the loop

The Japanese are astonishingly efficient at some things: trains, vending machines, manufacturing (apparently) but they are preposterously rubbish at others. It took three weeks from my applying to acquiring Internet in my flat.

When they sent the engineer to install the cable he was accompanied by a man with a hard hat, triple luminous sam brown and red flashing baton to stand at the foot of his ladder. In the end, he didn't need a ladder, but the thought was there. A nice touch.

To celebrate, a photo of my lunch.

You can buy these tentacles on sticks from supermarkets. They keep them by the checkouts in large vats of boiling water with various anonymous floating comestibles. In fact rather delicious.

I finally heard from the Internet people by email. They are going to ring me on Friday to arrange a time to visit. So another week goes by without any means of decent communication.

The other day the headmaster gave us an introduction to Japanese caligraphy. Here are some photos.

This was my first one. They got subsequently and sequentially worse.

NB top left

Great sign at a station. Girls really do wear hats
like that with their school uniform here.

Wish I could have had a full frontal of this chap. His trousers were ace.

Typical Japan. A fantastic array of boxers. Every single pair a medium.
I checked each rack individually.

At the theatre the other day I smelt a Japanese fart for the first time. It was in the lobby waiting for the start of the prodigious production of Les Mis the ballet. We were encouraged to look at photos of past performances and, for want of other entertainment, people were loitering around the boards. It was pungent and lingered and smelt foreign. An umamier fart there never was.

Little Update

Within a week of arriving here I had a ticket to see my first Noh production but I was unable to go due to an unexpected meeting. Last week, feeling the need to see soemthing, whatever it might be, I ended up with a ticket to see Les Miserables, the ballet.

This was every bit as bad as it sounds, from the very moment the 30-strong corps de ballet pattered on stage as feisty French fisherwomen. The music appeared to be a specially composed score which veered horribly from orchestral Berlioz for the strident parts to Shostakovichian piano for the frivolous moments, with scenes of high-emotion danced to a warbling Celtic soprano who can only have been inspired by Enya. The choreography was one long enchainment of cliche. If I had had a yen for each time Valjean and Javert clutched their heads in despair/frustration, I might even have clawed back the mighty cost of the seat.

What makes the outing even more frustrating in retrospect is that playing at the same time in Tokyo was a French production of a Moliere I had been ever so keen to see. The daily grind of school and the lack of Internet meant I had completely lost track of the date and I missed the run completely. The play was being performed with life-size marionettes by a highly-regarded French puppeteer and I am gutted not to have seen it.

I eventually returned to the National Noh Theatre to try and pick up some more tickets only to find that all the productions are now sold out until Christmas. The only seats available were for a production of classical Japanese dance which I went to yesterday with Tom. Japanese dance is rich in symbolism (most obviosuly various complex manipulations of fans) but lacking in much accessible aesthetic/artistic value. It was interesting to see but no great theatrical experience for someone not in the know.

Most intriguing was one long set which was more than a little reminiscent of morris dancing: six dancers adorned with bells who danced in various morris patterns (albeit at quarter speed and devoid of joy). They even danced 'on' and 'off' and had one dance which featured those little tasselled sticks. Unfortunately there were no subtitles for the lyrics so it was hard to decipher what was going on although we were informed that one piece was "danced to a song describing the act of collecting sea-water in a bucket". Watching the dance itself was more akin to collecting sea-water in a sieve.

The second half was quite terrific, however, featuring a performance of Kyogen which is a particular style of Japanese drama. This was subtitled and the stillness in both poetry and performance was very fine. The semi-sung delivery was enchanting and it was very rewarding to pick up a few words here and there that I could actually understand. (Very few, mind, and mainly things like please and thank you. Still...) This is exactly the kind of drama I had hoped to see out here so I am extremely glad to have gone. It has already given me some thoughts.

I have signed up for Internet at home but it will take about a fortnight for them to turn it on which is rather tedious.

Hasty snaps

I have a very tight window with a chance to post some photos so here goes... (still no Internet at home)

My main room. Kitchen bit on right, bathroom on left,
big sliding door goes through to bedroom.
This is palatial by Japanese and my friend's standards.
Most of the flats I was looking at were the size
of this room alone.
Only furnishing so far is an inflatable mattress.

My ever-so-modern kitchen units. Need to buy gas cooker
for the slot.

My bedroom. Air-con.

Out of the window. I could keep a chicken here.

I do have a lot of wardrobe space.

The sliding door. Glass not paper. Makes me think of Nanny.
Not quite sure why.

Bathroomette.

Obligatory shoe rack. On my first night I sat on the step to read
since I had no other furniture.

There were three of these in a row. I think it must be the local
nursery's minibus.

This octopus's tentacles were as thick as my arm.

I love the middle warning.

Wouldn't wear this on the tube in London.

No Internet

I shan't have Internet in my flat for a while so posting is hard. Might go quiet for a bit.

First night

Moved in. One of my sempai offered to lend me his inflatable mattress so I had something to sleep on. We arranged to meet at the station but after half an hour he wasn't there which was slightly worrying. I have no phone and no Internet (except at school) so I was heading for a hard night. Luckily another sempai lives nearby and she was in so she called him for me. Turns out he was at the station all along and I was just waiting in the wrong place. So I had some kind of bed, at least.

This morning I nearly threw a wobbly trying to take my enormous suitcase and library across Toyko in the rush hour. Bag was so very heavy. I took everything to school on the metro since it was on the way. After lessons I gave up and just took a taxi the rest of the way.

I bought some fruit.