December 24, 2003 – Christmas Eve
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Marshall, Tokyo on December 24, 2013
My first Christmas Eve away from home was a bit depressing. I went to work earlier than usual and had plans to go to an English language church for a Christmas service in the evening. However, by the time I got home and ate it was too late to get to the church service.
I ended up going with Marshall to a yakiniku restaurant in Shimokitazawa, not too far away from my famous solo double date. The restaurant featured all you can eat and drink for 2 hours. The restaurant was smart and only had two waiters working, which greatly slowed down the delivery of food and drink to each table. I was surprised at how loud drunk Japanese people can be when they want the waiter to come. Shouts of “summisen” got louder and more obnoxious as the time went on. The gaijins in the restaurant had to work hard to keep up.
I ate cow tongue for the first time. It was thinly sliced and delicious.
After drinking many beers and stuffing myself with grilled meat I returned home to open my Christmas presents alone. Afterwards I fell asleep in front of the TV. I miss family Christmas.
December 23, 2003 – Light Steel Blue
Posted by Barniferous in Asako, Life in Japan on December 23, 2013
For the backstory on Asako, check out these posts:
After the awkward romance fail on my last outing with Asako, I didn’t expect to hear from her again. I was surprised to get a text letting me know that her band, Light Steel Blue, was going to be playing at the John Lennon Museum Cafe again. I told her I would be there.
I took the long trip to Saitama, not getting lost like the first time. When I got there, I met Asako and she told me that her band would be on 4th and I could watch from the cafe. I took a seat and nursed a pricey cappucino through the performance. Light Steel Blue played Beatles covers, a few originals and some Christmas songs. The show was great, and I wish I had learned a bit more about the musicians in the band. The singer in particular was fantastic and I hope he is still performing somewhere.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the day. Mostly I just tried to not feel awkward sitting at a table by myself through 4 bands. I was literally the only non Japanese person in the place, and the only person sitting solo at a table. After the show I got a brief chance to talk to Asako who thanked me for coming and said that she had to get going. It turned out to be a “hey friend, come see my band play as a friend, buddy” kind of situation. This pretty much erased all doubt on the state of affairs.
At least I got to hear some good live music, so the entire day wasn’t all bad.
(complete rewrite of original post)
December 22, 2013 – Rumble in the Bronx
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Yokohama on December 22, 2013
Today I had Japanese practice in Yokohama. After that I went to a bookstore that sold English language books and bought Michael Moore`s “Stupid White Men” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle`s “Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories Volume 1”. I swore I would only read them on the train, but I started and finished Stupid White Men in a few hours.
In the evening I watched Rumble in the Bronx on TV. The international version has extra footage not shown in North America (which is standard for Jackie Chan’s movies). The missing footage made the movie better. Also, the dubbing was a bit different and there were some extra bad words that weren’t in the North American theatrical version. Overall it was a much better movie than the North American version.
Interesting trivia: Director Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx, Supercop, Supercop 2, First Strike, Martial Law TV series, etc.) studied at the University of Manitoba. How cool is that?
This is exactly the kind of lazy day off that I would have experienced in Canada, the only difference was the time I spent on a crowded train surrounded by people speaking Japanese.
December 20, 2003 – Half price sashimi isn’t always a good idea
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan on December 20, 2013
50% discount sticker
At about 1:15am, the half price sashimi rice bowl I ate last night decided that it didn’t want to stay eaten. That began a few very unpleasant hours that I will decide not to share the details about.
I woke up early, decided I still felt terrible, and proceeded to call in sick to NOVA. My reason for not being able to work was “I ate bad half price sashimi and was suffering all night”. Apparently having stomach issues due to sashimi was the most common reason for calling in sick at NOVA. I am not sure if they actually believed me or just thought that I drank too much the night before.
After the call, I spent my day sleeping, playing old video games in my room and then sleeping more. Whee!
December 19, 2003 – Depresso, the most depressed kid in Japan
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 19, 2013
In addition to my group kids class, I have to teach a man to man kids lesson. Normally when I ask how a student is, people will tell me that he or she is very smart, a good kid, no problems. The mention of this girl`s name brought comments of “oh no!” and “She`s really depressed! Something is really wrong with that kid!”. Needless to say this didn’t really build my confidence about class. However, my lesson turned out to be better than my regular group kids class, which was a nice surprise.
December 18, 2003 – Robocop 3 is terrible
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Movies on December 18, 2013
In order to fight off my cold, I cancelled language practice and a post work trip to Roppongi. In the evening I decided to drink some cold green tea, because generally makes you feel better when you have a cold. I now know that some kinds of green tea have as much or more caffiene than coffee does. Needless to say I ended up watching late night TV by myself.
For the record, Robocop 3 sucks. I am not talking “is just bad”, it really, really sucks. They took out a lot of the violence and dark sense of humour, then added a robot ninja and Robocop with a jetpack. Seriously. Bad.
December 17, 2003 – The Canadian Ambassador has arrived
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 17, 2013
Why yes I do always travel with a Canadian flag and a laminated map of Canada.
Today I had my special Canada voice class. I got two class periods to talk about and take questions about Canada. I wish I had more time!
After a brief introduction, I ran through comparisons of Japan to Canada (population, area, GDP, exports, etc.) and took questions. After the break, I showed off some of my pictures from Canada, including lots of snowy winter pictures. Then it was time for “Canada: Myth or Fact”, where I gave some popular stereotypes about Canada and the students had to decide if they were true or not. Some examples include “Hockey is Canada’s national sport”, “Canada doesn’t have an army” and “All Canadians leave their doors unlocked”. (all myth BTW).
Basically I got paid to talk about Canada for 80 minutes today. Life is good.
December 16, 2003 – Comparisions
Posted by Barniferous in Kawasaki Nova, Teaching English on December 16, 2013
I taught a special Club 7 voice on comparisons tonight. Yep, 80 minutes of the proper use of comparison words. Whee.
(2013 Update)
Club 7 is a regularly scheduled 2 class voice session just for the lowest levels of English students. The idea is to give the lower level students a non threatening place to speak and listen to English. Usually there is a topic appropriate for the group to help build English skills. In addition to comparison words, other popular topics are family words, prepositions, adjectives and verbs. With some more experience I could have really had some fun with comparison words. It would have been better than the lesson I taught at the time (see what I did there…)
Life in Noborito – The Stoop
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Lux, Shenanigans on December 12, 2013
Other than the common living room area, there was one more hub of social activity at Hello House: The Stoop. The Stoop was the unofficial name of the front steps from the street to the main entrance of Hello House East.
Since smoking in a room with a tatami mat floor is very bad idea, the stoop was the de facto smoking area for Hello House. In addition to smokers, other people would hang out and chat, watching the residents come and go. I spent many nights hanging out with Lux on the front steps.
My favourite Stoop story involved a night where I was hanging out with Lux and likely a few other people. Hello House was down the street from a Hostess Bar that catered to middle aged business men. It could be argued that most Hostess Bars cater to middle aged business men, but this one definitely captured a 40-55 crowd with almost no exceptions. On one particular night, the hostesses were saying goodbye to a group of about 3 very drunk business men. The men were walking down the street towards Hello House, when one of them stopped to pee on the wall across the street.
Public urination is not entirely uncommon in Japan, especially among drunk businessmen (or English teachers). However, usually most people will take the time to go down an alley or somewhere away from people. Not this guy, he decided he was going to relieve himself directly across from a group of English teachers who were sitting outside. Lux decided that this was not appropriate behaviour and decided to loudly let the man know.
“HEY! That’s disgusting! I don’t come and piss in front of your house! Yeah you! I know you can understand me!!”
This didn’t slow the man down at all. If anything it gave him a little bit of a swagger when he shook out the last few drops and walked away.
Most of the time hanging out on the stoop didn’t involve entertaining public urination, but it was still a fun place to spend some time and chat with the other Hello House residents.
A note about the picture: I took this picture during a visit to Noborito in 2006, right before I left Japan. I am glad that I did, because not long after Hello House East and West were sold and flattened to make room for a new development. Goodbye Stoop! You are gone but not forgotten.
December 8, 2003 – High pressure sales in Shibuya
Posted by Barniferous in Life in Japan, Tokyo on December 8, 2013
I went wandering around in Jiyugaoka and Shibuya today, doing some sightseeing and early Christmas shopping. The area around Jiyugaoka station is full of classy, stores and restaurants. Shibuya is simply crowded and insanely busy.
While wandering around Shibuya, I was approached by a friendly African guy who spoke English. He literally dragged me into his nearby hip hop clothing store. Being the only customer in a store while the owner is watching over you hoping to make a sale is pretty awkward. He was prepared to offer me a 30% discount “just for me”, but I had no money and the clothes just weren’t my thing. He actually looked pretty sad when I left.
Shibuya is a confusing maze. It took me over 30 minutes to find my way back to the station again, where I got the pleasure of riding the most crowded train in the world, and then transferring to the most crowded train in the history of existence. Not a fun shopping trip.
(partial rewrite of original post)
Drinking in Japan 
Recent Comments