A Very Nostalgic Day

On Sunday I had such an emotional rollercoaster of a day. It was amazing! I decided to go and visit my old house from last year in central Tokyo.

I left my guesthouse around mid-afternoon and took the Chuo-line all the way to Tokyo station, which takes about forty minutes, and then walked to Otemachi subway station (大手町駅), which is basically right next door. Unfortunately, the Hanzomon line (半蔵門線) is the furthest one from Tokyo station, so I had to walk for about fifteen minutes underground before I actually got to my platform, but it was lovely because I remembered every passageway. Every turn brought about a new bubbling feelings of nostalgia.

I was really really excited to see my old housemates and the area. As I took the subway the two stops to Suitengumae (水天宮前駅) I was trying really hard not to smile.

I took the exact route out of the station I always used to and as I walked out into the sun and walked past the police box on the corner and past the busy intersection, it felt so strange, but so lovely!

I rounded the corner and there it was! My old building.

I took the lift up to the second floor and knocked on the door. I heard a shout of "Hello" from my Chinese housemate and I opened the door. I can't write down how nice it was to see the place again, but take it from me that it was nice!

It felt exactly like last year sitting on the sofa and chatting about random things and looking around the living room. What struck me most was how everything looked the same! Almost nothing had changed, except for maybe the shower head!

All the post-it notes with English vocabulary and phrases I'd written were still up, and some notes my Thai housemate had written were still up too. I looked in my old cupboard and there were even packs of tea I hadn't used! The decaff pack that my family had brought out to me in the Spring was still there, and you can't find that easily in Japan, so I put them all in a bag and took them with me! My umbrella was also still in the rack, but I have a new fold-away one so I didn't steal that back.

I wanted to see inside my old room but there's a Vietnamese guy living there now, and although he seemed really nice, I felt it would be really rude to ask if I could have a look at it, so I let that pass.

We had a bit of time, because we were waiting for a French guy I lived with to arrive, and then we were going to a Monica Wu concert together.

We went for dinner in a restaurant I remembered was good from last time. The name is Don Don, which is very similar to my Chinese housemate's name, so I thought it would be fitting to go there. On the way, I asked if we could have a quick wander round the local area, for old times' sake.

We went to the river (the Sumida River, 隅田川), which is just one minutes' walk round the back of the guesthouse.

Then we walked past the Tokyo City Air Terminal, where I used to take the Airport Limousine Bus to Narita Airport. We went inside to see some of the shops, and I saw the restaurant where I had my 19th birthday breakfast with my family last year. That was such a nice time!

I had ramen with tempura (my favourite) for dinner, and we chatted more about what had happened since I left last August.

I rang my French housemate from the restaurant, and he said he'd be about thirty minutes, so we went for another walk.

We passed the local veg shop.

There's the Daimaru Peacock (the supermarket) tower, which you can see from all around.

Random statue in between Peacock and Hamacho Park.

I didn't see this last time I was here! It's a decibel counter; we tried clapping by it and the numbers went up immediately!

We went into Hamacho Park, which is right by the hotel my family stayed in, and the leisure centre where I used to swim sometimes.

You really can see Peacock tower from all around!

And here's the hotel...

Ahh, Peacock. You and your deals were so good to me.

On the way back to the guesthouse, we passed a group of women in traditional dress. It's the first time I've seen them this time round.

We met my French housemate and got back on the train, me waving goodbye to the building again, and went to Futako Tamagawa (二子玉川) on the Tokyu Denen Toshi line, which the Hanzomon line becomes after Shibuya.

I was worried we might be a bit late for the start of the concert, but we made it with a few minutes to spare.

It was easily the best performance I've seen Monica do. I can't remember how many concerts I've been to, but it's quite a few, and this one stood out above the rest. It might have been because I was in a really good, slightly dazed, mood, but she sang and danced really well, and I really enjoyed hearing her songs, including some new ones. Looking forward to the new album!

I was a bit worried I'd miss the last train, as I had to change at Shibuya and then at Shinjuku before getting on the Chuo-line back home, but it was fine and I made it in time.

I looked back over the day on the train, and I couldn't really believe it. The thing that struck me most was how everything was the same, not just with the guesthouse, but with my housemates. I'm really glad I'm living in Tokyo again and I can see them often. It's going to be a really good year!

Family Visit: An Arrival and A Departure

Okay, it's about time for some catch-up I think! I'm very sorry about the huge gaps between posts at the moment, but things keep happening, and then nothing happens, and then huge things happen!

But the really huge huge thing is my family's visit last week. The original plan was for them to come to Japan for my birthday (9th April) but because the Church decided that Easter would be early this year the school holiday didn't coincide (for the second time in my entire life!) with it. Of all the years to make it early!

But anyway, they booked the holiday, having to miss my birthday by a mere four days. It still worked well, as it was very close to the halfway point through my trip, and split it into two bitesize pieces of being away.

The morning they arrived, another of my housemates moved out. It was very sad as I like him a lot. I had gotten him a small leaving gift, because he always chatted to me when I was feeling down or homesick, or just felt like talking to someone! And he never complained when I babbled away for hours about nothing in English, and asked for random translations to Japanese. I think that deserves knighthood, but unfortunately that gift wasn't at my disposal so a book had to do!

After saying my farewell (he has visited since then and still lives in Tokyo so I will meet up with him again), I headed out to Narita Airport to meet my family.

I took the Keisei line, which originates from Tokyo as the Toei Asakusa Line and then transforms past Oshiage station into an above-ground train. This was a hideous mistake. There was no direct train to Narita Airport, and I ended up changing train four times along the route until I finally found one that could actually take me there. It was ridiculous. On the way back to the airport when my family left we used the JR Sobu line from Tokyo station, which was direct. But if you want to use the Narita Express (N'EX) then you need to reserve. There is also a Skyliner from Ueno station.

My mum rang me when I was two stops away saying that they were waiting in the Arrivals Lounge and the plane had arrived half an hour early. Surprisingly, her phone worked in Japan as it was quad-band and 3G. I don't think any other phone types work in Japan at the moment.

I arrived at the station (the train stops at Narita station first but this is the town, not the airport, then Terminal 2, and finally Terminal 1, which is called 'Narita Airport') and a sign said that my bags would be inspected at a checkpoint, but they just asked for ID. Passport or Alien Card is okay.

I had a choice between North or South Arrivals Lounge, and naturally I chose the wrong one. I walked round to the other and ambushed my family. I saw my mum first, and ran forward to give her a hug. She told me that my youngest brother, Dominic, was waiting at the entrance downstairs, and I should go down and see him.

I found him, then we went to find my middle brother and dad. It was so incredibly surreal, and so incredibly amazing, to see them in Japan.

Just like me, none of them had slept on the plane journey over but they were all wide-awake with excitement. We had a bit of lunch in the airport, but I couldn't eat anything because my stomach was so jumbled up with emotion.

After that, I bought our Limousine Bus tickets from the counter, and we wheeled the luggage out to the front. It was exactly like my first day in Japan, which added to the surrealism.

We didn't have news to catch up on, as we email and Skype each other regularly, so we chatted about random things, just like normal. I was the guide right from the off, translating signs and annoucements, pointing sights out from the window of the bus.

We hit bad traffic on a road into Tokyo and my brothers and mum closed their eyes to get some energy back but my dad was busy reading the travel guide and asking me questions about the language. During our conversation he pointed at me as he said something, like people do naturally, and I was shocked to find that I was really taken aback by the forwardness of the gesture. I have been careful to always use open hand gestures when indicating direction or a person. If you want to point to yourself, you should point to your nose, and never use a direct motion towards another person. So that was interesting as I hadn't realised how 'Japanised' I may have become.

The journey from Narita Airport to Tokyo City Air Terminal (TCAT) was meant to take 55 minutes, but I think it must have been more like 90. I live very close to TCAT and my family's hotel was about 15 minutes walk from there. They stayed in a new Toyoko Inn, which was surprisingly cheap, and very convenient as it was so close to me.

I took them to the hotel, pointing things out from my local area as we went. They couldn't check into their hotel until 4pm, and it was only noon or something. Getting up early makes the day a lot longer!

We left our luggage at the hotel, and went to find some lunch. We went to my local supermarket, Daimaru Peacock, and bought some ready meals. This is not as bad as it sounds, Japanese ready meals are surprisingly good quality.

Of course, it started to rain as soon as we sat down outside, but we didn't care. We were together!

After that, I showed them my local shrine, Suitengu Shrine. My mum got her fortune from the fortune telling drawers. You put Y100 in the slot, and then shake one of the wooden cylinders full of thin wooden straws, then tip it upside-down until one comes out. Then you match the number painted on the stick to the right drawer (the numbers are in kanji) and take a fortune slip from the drawer. If it's bad then you can tie it to a string nearby and give it back to fate, but you can keep it if you like it. Unfortunately, I couldn't decipher my mum's so we don't know if it's good or bad!

Everyone was pretty tired after that, so I took them back to my guesthouse via a Doutor coffee shop and showed them my home. It was really nice to be able to show them my life, so they could have an image to attach to the information and stories I'd told them.

After a bit of recovery, we went back to the hotel and had some dinner, and sorted luggage out. Everyone then went to bed, except my dad because he was still hungry and went to a ramen (noodle) restaurant nearby.

My family had difficulty sleeping that night due to jetlag and maybe a bit of excitement, but I slept quite well.

The next day it was time to start the itinerary I had made for the holiday. Everyone needed to be well rested because it was very full!

Snow in Asakusa

I woke up this morning to the sound of cars on a wet road. Oh no! Rain!, I thought. But no, snow again! Tokyo's second day of snow this winter. It probably won't get another because it has relatively dry winter months, it does get cold enough.

This is the view from my window.

I wanted to go somewhere that would look nice in the snow, as it settled, and come on - I'm in Japan! Things look pretty in the snow! I studied my list of places to see and asked a couple of housemates where they thought would be nice, and I finally thought of Asakusa.

On the way, I stopped at my local shrine, Suitengu Shrine.

It was only four stops up the Toei Asakusa Line to Asakusa, and the main temple I wanted to see, Sensoji Temple (popularly called Asakusa Kannon).

The temple complex starts on a main road with the impressive Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate).



Then the road leads up through stalls that have been selling things to pilgrims here for centuries.

You could find everything from traditional foods...

... to expensive jewelery...

... to commercialised rubbish.

This street was particularly atmospheric. There were pipes and drums being played nearby somewhere. While I was taking shelter under a roof to read my travel guide, a middle-aged woman approached me with a camera on a tripod and spent several minutes trying to ask me something. She kept saying: "You. Moderu." "Me? Model?" "Hai, hai, hai". "What? Now? By this building?" "No no. Iie Iie." Eventually she gave up. At first it seemed like she wanted to take a picture of me in front of one of the buildings, but she said that wasn't it. I was very confused, but maybe I'm better off not modelling for this woman.

Asakusa is part of the shitamachi (low-city) area of Tokyo, and still retains a lot of the charm of the Edo period.
Very impressive! A sight I've seen in guidebooks several hundred times, and today I was there.
A five-storied pagoda.

By this time, the snow was beginning to melt and the ground was turning to slush. As I was taking a photo of the pagoda, several people were hammered down by a cascade of snow and ice sliding off the roof of the temple. I'm surprised no one was hurt.

This gate lead into the courtyard in front of the main temple.

The main temple wasn't actually as impressive as the gates before it. But it was still very nice.

I was dwarfed by the pagoda. Not often I'm dwarfed by something here.
People wafted the incense over themselves using their hats and hands as they prayed.
People throw money into here and then pray for good fortune.

There are gardens adjacent to the temple, which were very nice to stroll through.

More fish!

Sensoji Temple is a Buddhist temple but there is a Shinto shrine, Asakusa-jingu, next door.

The water in the pond didn't freeze and I wondered why, until I saw the hot bubbles bursting on the surface in the corners. Hot spring!

Thankfully, not a Nazi symbol, but a Buddhist sign of peace.
This stone has three haiku poems carved into it.
This sign accompanied the rock.

There were several tombs in the temple grounds. Here is one of them.

A snow cat! I couldn't resist...
This is to the left of the main entrance.

Here's one for all the geeks out there! Although I think it's probably only me and one other individual who gets the reference.
Then I wandered through some of the backstreets of Asakusa, getting a taste of old-Tokyo.

What a building! I'd seen photos of it before, but I didn't know where it was. Inside, there are cafes and an art gallery.
They do river trips up and down the Sumida River from here too.

By then, my fingers and nose were feeling more than a little numb, so I headed back to the subway station and did my weekly shop at Daimaru Peacock.

On the way I passed a Y105 shop! I've been looking for one of those! I must go back there and see what kind of stuff they have. Y105 is about 50p.

On the walk back from shopping, I accidentally dropped one of my bags and immediately the closest person picked everything up for me and put it carefully back in the bag. How nice!!

Asakusa was lovely, I'm glad I saw a nice sight in the snow. Tomorrow is a big day - my demo lesson with a private student and going to my Gaba school to see what it's like, and maybe do a lesson there too! I'm gonna be tired!