Japan

Well, I had two weeks in japan initially in august as a business trip. firstly there was the flight, which due to my darling company having money...unlike all previous companies...hence they fly you business class on virgin, which i have to say is THE way to fly. unfortunately, for a life long economy traveller, was all a bit too exciting! walking into the lounge in heathrow, and seeing this space age room, was a bit cool. sitting at the restaurant looking at all the great food, and wondering why i couldnt see a price list, (apparently its all free!!...who knew???). anyway, lying horizontal watching films for 13 hours is my kind of heaven. unfortunately i had a stinking cold so didnt sleep a wink. flying business class means you get a limo service from your home to heathrow, and a limo from tokyo airport (narita) to the train station. so, i was dumped at the door of tokyo central train station, with streaming cold, 3 huge suitcases and in rush hour was a bit tough. i remember being there with pandemonium going on around me, i felt lousy, jet lagged to hell, and no clue what i was doing. eventually i found the bullet train (shinkensen) ticket office and asked for a single to niigata, and was met with blank expressoin..after 5 mins i had to pull out a sign board that my beloved company had given me which said in japanese, "please help this white english idiot to get a ticket to niigata please" or words to that effect. anyway, i got the bullet to niigata..my new home. i had read that blowing your nose it a big no no here, but i had the most severe runny nose/cold. trying not to offend my new countrymen, i managed to sniff every 10 seconds for 2 hours....work that one out....i wold have killed to just blow my nose once! anyway, my first 10 days here i was in a hotel near work...where there is nothing at all...nothing...just rice fields. my first night in the hotel, i thought id play it safe and went to the hotel restaurant. the hotel was called the washington...so i figured it would be kinda western. so i went in, and was given a menu...all in japanese...no pics..apart from one meal, so after 5 mins of pointing and nodding, i think i ordered food...15 mins later a big bowl of boiling water comes out...ok i thought....finger bowl..nice. then a huge plate of raw meat and another plate of raw veg come out...hmmmm...i know they like raw fish...but raw beef??? unfortunately the retaurant was almost empty, so i couldnt see what to do, o i sat there staring, worrying for a while....after a while i remembered the steamboat thing in malaysia....so boldly (and you have no idea how much nerve this took) i lobbed everything in the hot water..and miraculously it cooked itself, and i was not laughed out or kicked out of the place...so maybe that was the thing to do??? for the next 4-5 nights, i found a burger place which was the only place i could order as they had picture menus...i actually left an italian place as they had no picture menus.....let me get one thing straight....no one, but no one speaks english, nothing, not a word..think about that for a minute....not like malaysia, not like anywhere where you can blag you way out of anything...here...nothing. so burgers it was for a week!
anyroad, towards the end of my first trip i moved into my own apartment, all paid for by my boloved company, inc all bills and furniture etc.....very nice! the apartment itself is a work of art. it doent have keys for the front door...oh no....it has finger print scanners!!!! i kid you not, i put my finger on this plate at the front door, and it lets me in!!! it has floor heating, no taps in the bathroom, just control panels where you type in the temp and depth of your bath and it fills automatically, and even tells you (in japanese) when its full!....and so many controls for the rest of the place i can't describe....needless to say its 'a bit cool'!!
the ity where i live is niigata, its 2 hours north of tokyo by bullet train (shinkensen, or shink). its on the north west coast of japan. the beach is 10 mins walk from my house, and the mountains are very close by, in fact there are 50 ski/snowboard resotrs within an hours drive!!!! beach in summer, snowboarding in winter!!! aparently it can snow up to 4 feet in a couple of days here. snow is from december to march. it is quite rural outside the city, and is an amazingly beautiful place. the sun sets into the sea on the beach near me, truly incredible sunsets. for the footballers in you, niigta stadium is where england beat denmark 3-0 in the 2002 world cup. i live about 30 mins drive outside the city, and about 20 mins local train from the centre. there are about 5 english guys from my work in niigata, one lives upstairs from me, one next door, and the other 3 withing 400 yards from me. there are a lot of english teachers in niigata, and i have the pleasure of getting to know some, which is expanding my social cirlce nicely. for those interested, the company website is www.microgen.com my job is similar to jaguar and lotus, but i am more of a consultant to suppliers here, forget all you have heard about japanese quality....honestly, its a falicy, ive been to half a dozen companies here....most are less developed than in malaysia! trust me, its all a myth outside the auto industry. culturally work is very strange, you have to say and act a certain way when dealing with suppliers..more later on that. i get an interpreter whrn i go out and have one in the factory, which again, is an experience in itself! so, current status...im settled nicely into my apartment, i have a few good friends, from work and my new teacher friends, work is going well, im extremely busy, and am quite busy in the evenings, oh, and ive started japanese lessons....you cannot do anything here without the language, so i have 2 lessons a week....more on that another time!....i have just booked my tickets home at xmas, im back on the 23rd dec, until the 3rd jan....if you are in the uk...then it would be great to see you....right, i promise future entries wont be this long, im still playing catchup at the mo..more concise and entertaining diary entries to come.....its a friday night, and im pretty tired so ill sign off..although its a long weekend this weekend..planning on hiking in the local mountains weather permitting.....cheers, Glen-san