Archive for category The Penpal
January 30, 2006 – Planning for the Future
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal on June 7, 2016
Today was a typical Monday – I had the day off and caught up on being relaxed. In the evening The Penpal came over after work and we ordered food and hung out.
Since my friend UPS had come to visit, I had been seriously thinking about returning to Canada. I enjoy teaching English, but know it won’t be my career. The biggest problem would be leaving The Penpal behind. We had talked before about her moving to Canada, but tonight we actually seriously discussed the idea. I was happy to hear that she was not only interested, but actually excited about the idea of moving to Canada and living with me!
Japan and Canada have a Working Holiday Visa that allows people under a certain age to work and travel in the other country for up to a year. We decided that when I returned to Canada (likely before the end of the year), that she would apply for a working holiday visa and come with me. That gives us a year to see how we enjoy living together and how she enjoys being away from home before we have to make any other decisions.
She told me that she would talk to her parents about the idea, and we parted ways both happy, excited, and very much looking forward to new adventures together.
January 9, 2006 part 3 – Bubble Tea
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Visitors on January 15, 2016
Disclaimer: UPS is the nickname of one of my friends visiting Japan. This post has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
After spending the day exploring Numazu and Mishima, my friend UPS and I had ramen for dinner. I’m not talking about the instant stuff which is the stereotypical diet of college students, but the real, big bowl of hot delicious noodle soup in a restaurant. If you ever visit Japan, you must eat ramen, preferably in a small shop with a narrow counter. UPS had been wisely practicing his chopstick skills before spending 4 months in Asia, so he did very well eating slippery noodles with sticks.
We stopped in at my apartment to drop off our purchases, and then met The Penpal at the nearby Seiyu for a quick visit. Seiyu has a small food court area where I have eaten a few quick meals before. They also serve bubble tea. UPS had tried bubble tea before, but The Penpal and I hadn’t. We all ordered some and sat down to drink it.
UPS asked The Penpal what she thought of the bubble tea. She said that she liked it, but was very surprised when the balls shot into her mouth. UPS and I, being two mature, educated Canadian men, started giggling uncontrollably. The Penpal looked confused, so we decided to be nice and explain that “balls” could refer to several different things in English. She was embarrassed for a few seconds, and then joined us in giggling and making immature remarks about the balls in our bubble tea. My girlfriend is the best!
January 8, 2006 part 4 – Hanging out in Harajuku
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Tokyo, Visitors on January 12, 2016
Disclaimer: UPS is the nickname of one of my friends visiting Japan. This post has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
After spending the afternoon in Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi park, The Penpal, UPS, and I decided to walk across the street and explore the high fashion district of Harajuku.
Harajuku is filled with trendy stores selling all kinds of expensive fashionable clothing. It’s also possible to find sensibly priced but still fashionable clothing as well if you look around a bit harder. We took our time walking through the busy side streets, checking out some of the displays and small stores. We also took dorky looking pictures with crazy hats.
A full day of walking around had us hungry, so we decided to stop in at a kaiten sushi restaurant across from Harajuku station. UPS had eaten kaiten sushi before in Winnipeg, at a small chain called “Sushi Train”. Instead of a conveyor belt, there was a small electric train that drove around with sushi on it. There are lots of options for sushi in North America, but most of the menu is rolls. In Japan, sushi is dominated by nigiri sushi, which are the traditional looking pieces of fish on a lump of rice. UPS is an adventurous guy who was about to start a 4 month tour of Asia, so he had no problem trying out fish that was not familiar to him.
After stuffing ourselves to the point of pain, we started working our way across the street to Harajuku station. The station area was completely packed, and we had to shuffle our way through the crowds to get to the platform. We took the Yamanote line back to Shinagawa and then took the shinkansen towards Mishima.
Our car in the shinkansen was mostly empty, which is a bit unusual. We were discussing some of the interesting things about Japanese life, and the subject of hostess bars came up. UPS was interested to learn that there was also something called a host club, which was the same idea but with sexy, outgoing men treating female customers like queens (for money of course). UPS asked more questions, and ended up getting The Penpal to teach him some Japanese that he might need to flirt and drink with customers. It was hilarious.
We parted ways with The Penpal in Mishima, then UPS and I continued to Numazu. I was tired after a full day of exploring Tokyo, but UPS, who never seems to run out of energy, wanted to make the best use of his time in Japan. Instead of going home, we went out for drinks with some other English teachers at Speak EZ, the English school and bar in Numazu. After a few drinks even UPS was ready for sleep. It was a long day but a lot of fun!
January 8, 2006 part 3 – Rap Attack in Yoyogi Park!!
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Tokyo, Visitors on January 11, 2016
Disclaimer: UPS is the nickname of one of my friends visiting Japan. This post has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
My friend UPS, my girlfriend The Penpal and I had just visited the spectacular Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. Upon exiting the shrine, we did a quick tour around Yoyogi Park, which is always lively on a Sunday. We saw people playing instruments, actors with kendo sticks practicing fight choreography, people flying kites, and even the famous rockabilly guys who dance near the entrance, although fewer than usual due to the brisk temperatures.
We also encountered a group of young men with a microphone and a speaker who were freestyle rapping for the crowd. Rap is not as popular in Japan as most other types of music, and as a sweeping generalization, Japanese rap is generally not very good. I am not blaming the MCs, it’s the language itself that makes rapping challenging. (Author’s note, French is actually a fantastic language for rap)
UPS decided to record the unique sight of freestyle rappers in Japan with his camera. The lead rapper apparently did not like this, turned his attention to UPS, and then started spitting some derogatory freestyle disses in Japanese.
Yes, my friend got rap attacked at Yoyogi park. No, I never thought I would type that particular sentence.
It took us a few minutes to process what had just happened. Since none of us had ever been rap attacked before, we didn’t know how to respond. If this was a movie and UPS was able to speak Japanese, I assume he would have thrown down an impromptu battle rap session right there in the park. However we just ended up walking towards Harajuku laughing about the experience and wondering what was going to happen next.
January 8, 2006 part 2 – Meiji Shrine
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Visitors on January 10, 2016
Disclaimer: UPS is the nickname of one of my friends visiting Japan. This post has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
After doing some sightseeing in Shinjuku with The Penpal and my friend UPS, we went back to Shinjuku station and took a quick ride on Yamanote line towards Meiji Shrine.
Walking towards the Shrine on a Sunday is always fun because of all of the cosplayers. UPS was surprised to see all of the elaborate costumes, even on a chilly day. We spent some time looking at the costumes, then proceeded to the shrine itself. Like most of the visitors, UPS got a picture taken with some of the cosplayers. He also took the time to get a picture with a nearby security guard who was directing traffic near the busy shrine.
Meiji Shrine should be on everyone’s must visit list if you are in Tokyo, even for a short time. The forest around the shrine is lush and spectacular, and features trees from all over Japan. The shrine itself is a series of sprawling wooden buildings, lovingly restored in the 50s after being completely destroyed during World War II. It was still close to New Year, so the shrine was busier than usual, although thankfully not as crazy as it would have been a week ago. UPS wanted to take in everything, and the Penpal was happy to explain the different parts of the shrine and their significance.
The Penpal showing UPS how to wash his hands at the shrine
As we were preparing to leave the shrine, we noticed a female high school sports team, all in their warm up uniforms, entering the shrine together. UPS thought this was a great opportunity for a picture, and walked up and asked if they would mind getting a picture with him. In summer 2004 I had some other fraternity friends show up in Japan, and it was generally a struggle to get them to talk to Japanese people. UPS had no such issues, and managed to get a hilarious picture (which will not be included here).
Even though I had been to Meiji Shrine several times before, it was still a great experience to see a large space in one of the busiest, most modern cities in the world set aside to remember it’s past. UPS enjoyed the experience, and The Penpal enjoyed sharing her culture with one of my friends.
Next up: return to Yoyogi park.
January 8, 2006 part 1 – Adventures in Shinjuku
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal, Visitors on January 9, 2016
Disclaimer: UPS is the nickname of one of my friends visiting Japan. This post has nothing to do with United Parcel Service.
UPS and I got up early in the morning, and met The Penpal at Mishima station in order to go to Tokyo for the day. I love having a chance to introduce my girlfriend to friends from home. I was hoping to get a chance to do that on a large scale over the Christmas holidays, but she was unable to get the time to travel to Canada.
I wasn’t worried at all about UPS meeting The Penpal. He is one of those friendly people who can have a conversation with anyone. We took the shinkansen from Mishima to Shinagawa, talking the whole way. By the end of our hour long trip, The Penpal and UPS were talking like old friends.
Our first stop of the day was Shinjuku. It’s always impressive to show off the tall buildings around Shinjuku station. Today was Sunday, so we got a chance to look at the buildings without the usual mobs of people crowding us. It was almost a bit spooky to see how empty the streets were. We walked in the direction of the Tokyo Metro Government Building, making sure to pass through the NS building to see the world’s largest water clock. I filled UPS in on my adventures coming to this building two years ago for NOVA new employee orientation. Even though it had only been 2 years, it felt like a whole lifetime ago.
As we left the NS building and continued towards the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, we saw a strange sight; a small ramen stand in the middle of an empty courtyard surrounded by people. As we got closer, we noticed TV cameras, and standing in line for ramen was comedian Hard Gay. They were filming something for one of his TV appearances.
As someone who has lived in Japan for over 2 years, I am now used to the idea of a muscular, leather clad comedian named “Hard Gay”. It took some explaining to get UPS to understand what he was looking at, and I promised to show him some Youtube videos later. UPS took out his camera to capture the moment, but one of the producers came over and asked politely in Japanese not to take pictures. I translated for UPS and he put his camera away, although in retrospect this would have been a good opportunity to forget Japanese and get a picture of Hard Gay in action.
We eventually got to the Metro Government building, and went to the observation level, located 202 meters above street level. We spent about an hour taking looking at the never ending sprawl of the Greater Tokyo area in every direction. We also got a picture with the cute mascot of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (TOEI). I don’t know why every business and government department in Japan feels the need to have a cute mascot, but maybe that’s because I am Canadian.
We could have spent a lot more time in Shinjuku, but had to keep moving to take advantage of UPS’s short time in Japan. Next stop: Meiji Shrine.
January 3, 2006 – Learning about Uzbekistan
Posted by Barniferous in The Penpal on January 4, 2016
I am still off work after New Year, so once again I got to meet up with The Penpal. Today we went to Gotemba to meet one of her friends.
BTW – I have no idea why Gotemba is usually spelled with an “m”. In Japanese all of the consonant sounds except n have a vowel sound after them (ma, mi, mu, me, mo). Occasionally when there is an “n” sound in the middle of a word, it is written in English as an “m”. Technically the city name should be Gotenba, but since all of the major businesses use an M on their English signs, I will too.
Regardless of spelling, Gotemba is a small city on the east side of Mt. Fuji with some amazing views. It is famous as the home for a US military base and a giant outlet store. The Penpal and I met with her friend Saori, who does traditional Japanese dancing. We had some food and she told us about her recent trip to Uzbekistan.
Before talking to Saori I knew nothing about Uzbekistan, other than it existed and was near some other “stan” countries. Saori had developed a passion for the country, and had recently gone for sightseeing and to educate Uzbeks about Japanese culture. She loved the country so much, that she was planning to return, and had even found one of the few Uzbek speakers in the whole country of Japan to study the language.
It was interesting for us to learn about a country we hadn’t known about before. It’s also always fun to learn about what attracts people to learn about a new place. I originally became interested in Japan because all of my electronics and video games came were made here. When someone says they want to visit Uzbekistan, it’s always interesting to find out why.
I have now gotten to spend three days in a row with The Penpal on this holiday. I am really enjoying all the extra time we are getting together lately.
January 2, 2006 part 2 – Japan in a wheelchair
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, The Penpal on January 3, 2016
Today I spent some time hanging out with The Penpal and some of her friends from NICE (Numazu Association for International Communications and Exchanges). We went to karaoke together in the afternoon which was memorable for two reasons: there was no drinking, and I learned how challenging it could be in Japan for someone in a wheelchair. Since these are two very different themes, I am going to make them into separate posts.
Japan in a wheelchair
One of The Penpal’s friends was a young Japanese man in a wheelchair. I had never really considered it before, but there are a lot of challenges to having a wheelchair in Japan. There are good facilities in large businesses and train stations for people in wheelchairs – elevators and accessible bathrooms for example, however there are a lot of places with narrow aisles, minuscule elevators, tiny washrooms, and lots of stairs. There are some older places that would be difficult or impossible to navigate in a wheelchair, and I can’t imagine what life would be like in a mountain town like Atami where steep streets make bicycle travel only possible for diehard cyclists.
The karaoke place we went to had three steps from the entrance area to the karaoke rooms. There was no elevator or ramp, so the group of us worked together to help move the wheelchair up the stairs. A chair and passenger can be a lot heavier than you would expect! The entrance door to the karaoke room was also just barely wider than the chair, which made getting in a bit difficult.
Japan is not completely inaccessible to wheelchairs, but the experience is very different from Canada where basically everywhere is required by law to provide accessibility.
If you are planning to travel to Japan in a wheelchair, there are some good resources online to help you get around. Check out Japan Accessible at www.japan-accessible.com. You can also find an interesting personal story on lonely planet here.
January 2, 2006 part 1 – Karaoke without beer!?
Posted by Barniferous in Karaoke, Life in Japan, The Penpal on January 2, 2016
Today I spent some time hanging out with The Penpal and some of her friends from NICE (Numazu Association for International Communications and Exchanges). We went to karaoke together in the afternoon which was memorable for two reasons: there was no drinking, and I learned how challenging it could be in Japan for someone in a wheelchair. Since these are two very different themes, I am going to make them into separate posts.
Karaoke without beer
I have lost track of how many times I have been to karaoke since coming to Japan almost two and a half years ago. Karaoke in Japan is great – there are private rooms to sing with your friends, there is a phone on the wall to order food and drinks, and alcohol is usually cheap and plentiful. I rarely touch a microphone without having at least one or two drinks. Most of the time I go to karaoke with other English teachers at the end of a late shift. Today I was out with The Penpal’s friends in the afternoon, and nobody was ordering drinks.
Don’t get me wrong – it is both possible to do karaoke without alcohol, and possible to have fun. However, when you sing sober, you become aware of how terrible your singing actually is. I am not a great singer, but this never usually stops me. Today however, I avoided a lot of my regular songs with notes that are outside of my one octave range. I also was a lot less theatrical; no dancing around or striking rockstar style microphone poses. In addition, I did not pick up the spare microphone to duet on songs that I didn’t really know well.
Overall, it was a very different experience than usual, but I still had fun and got to spend some time with The Penpal and her friends. After singing we all went out for yakiniku, which is a great way to end any day.
Drinking in Japan 
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