Ok, so Japan is an unusual place for foreigners…or aliens as we are officially known. We do have our Alien Registration cards! I was channel flicking on Japanese TV the other day…a hot bed of genuine weird shit at the best of times. Came across the kids TV show, cute little hand puppets, filmed in a school, by terrorists!
How scary is this guy! Extreamist Islamic puppetry?
Tokyo fetish bar??
Signs in and around Tokyo are fantastic. They like to use English all the time, but like in many Asian countries it often gets Lost in Translation… or does it? Here is a prime example.
Came across this the other night. “Hairy Sugar Tit” Not quite sure what goes on in there or what is being sold, but I sure do want to find out!
Just one melon please...
I actually thought about buying this melon…I thought the Godzilla action figure came with it. It didn’t. At current exchange rates this is a AU$152.00 or 80.00 Euro melon! One bloody melon! How good can this taste!!
For that knid of money not only do I want an action fugure but I want it finely sliced and fed to me while I recline on a sun lounge while having my feet massaged by a super model!
The longer I have my iPhone, the more I love it. Just the other day, I downloaded the Stars Wars lightsaber application and it is simply the best!!! Move over Vadar, here comes Machine Chan.
I have a minor thyroid condition. However, it means that I need to have check up every year or so. The Japanese system here is sort of similar to the German system in that your General Practitioner doesn’t do everything for you and usually you need to find the doctor who specialises in the field of your illness.
So on Saturday, I went to the famous thyroid hospital here. About 6 hours later, I emerge with $300 AUD less in my wallet and a sore arse from sitting down all morning. Talk about a great way to spend the first day of the weekend. (The same procedure took less than an hour and around 5 Euros in Germany…I guess that’s why I paid such high taxes there!)
There were literally hundreds of people at the hospital. The waiting room was packed and it was standing room only if you didn’t fight for a seat. Lucky for me, I had anticipated some sort of a wait and had brought a book. However, the queuing system was a bit out of whack too because although I had a number (508 and I was there at 9am!) the order that the patients were called was not in numeric order so after each paragraph, I had to look up for 10 seconds to see if I had been called.
However, I found another way to entertain myself. If you’re familiar with thyroid conditions, you know that there are particular physical traits that go with too much or too little thyroid hormone. Having studied Pathology at university, I remembered some of these and amused myself by counting how many people had signs of their illness.
Actually, there wasn’t anyone with a huge goiter but moving my way around the hospital, I thought I was being stared at by a lot of people who had the “intense staring” eye condition.
Unfortunately, I have to go back in 2 weeks for my results. If this kind of costs continue, I think it would be worth flying home for the tests. It would essentially be a $300 discount on my airfare.
Being sick in a new country is poo. Not only do you have to locate the chemist but then you have to try and decipher the packaging to make sure that you are;
1. purchasing the right medication.
2. taking the right dosage.
3. administering it in the right way.
I am hoping that the cold and flu tablets I bought yesterday are similar to Australian and German brands. One lady tried to sell me bottles of elixir for my chills and aches. I was not convinced. Especially when I don’t think she really understood what I was trying to say at all.
Also, where is the doctor? We haven’t found a doctor yet. So if one of us falls really ill, we wouldn’t have a clue who to see. (And will they give me a week off for a little nose drip like the German doctors do???) And also, we haven’t registered with a hospital yet. Apparently if you don’t register with your local hospital they can choose not to treat you. Are they going to leave me there to convulse and vomit on their doorstep???
Maybe I am just being negative because I have the Being Sick Blues…
Finding a nice place in Tokyo is not difficult…that is if you have the cash!
If you want to find a cheap place in the city, it will be the size of 6 toilet cubicles.
If you want to find a cheap and roomy place, you will need to move way out of the city.
If you want to find a cheap and new place, you will need to live in industrial or commercial zones. These places are like ghost towns after 8pm and on weekends.
We have actually been quite lucky. We now live in Meguro which is considered inner Tokyo. We are 2 stations from Shibuya and another 1 to Harajuku. Shinjuku is only 10 minutes by train as well, so we are fairly well situated.
Our place is just under 93 sqm which is huge compared to places our colleagues are living in. We have given up newness (still 1990) for convenience. We have plenty of restaurants and shops in our neighbourhood and the train and metro is only 4 minute walk away. What more can you ask for?
Our place has 1 large bedroom, a study, a tatami room and a living / dining combination. We also have a couple of balconies and Matt is in the process of making a grilling contraption to put out on our larger balcony for our barbies.
One of my favourite rooms in our new apartment is our bathroom. There is a Japanese tub for bathing (shorter but deeper than Western tubs) and a large space for showering in. Basically, you can have 2 people dancing in the shower at the same time and still avoid the spray. It is that roomy. I like to get soap suds everywhere and then hose the whole thing down. If I ever build a place from scratch, I must have a Japanese shower room.
Setting up our apartment has been a bit of a chore. I have previously only moved into fully furnished apartments so trying to set one up from scratch is time consuming and expensive. We were fortunate enough to have accumulated lots of things from a previous teacher but we have had to buy large furniture items and a TV. We do st
ill have cardboard boxes everywhere but hopefully they will be replaced soon.
If you are visiting Tokyo, we have enough room to house 3+ people. Just let us know well beforehand that you will be coming.
I said to Matt at the start of this blogging escapade that we were lazy people and we won’t update our blog regularly. In fact, he hasn’t done since he posted the first blog! But to our credit, we have had the following obstacles in our way.
1. Homeless for months. It’s hard living out of a suitcase and stealing internet. We have now found an apartment and internet was installed on the weekend! So now we don’t really have an excuse anymore.
2. School. Tokyo would be bloody fantastic if it wasn’t for the fact we had to work. It has been a really hectic 2 months for the both of us and combining the new school factor and living in and out of hotels, we have not had the energy to blog. School is going well though. I think my Grade 1s are finally getting the routine.
3. Moving in together. Tokyo is the first time Matt and I have lived together. It has been surprisingly easy although there are some issues with the constant mess that we both make and both refuse to clean up. We also seem to veg out more when we are together and therefore instead of being more efficient, we are actually worse together.
Anyway…we have no excuse now hopefully Matt will post something up sometime soon.
Sorry to all our fans! (Colin especially because he is always on my case!)
Posted by tokyotrouble 
Posted by tokyotrouble 
Posted by tokyotrouble 
