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!
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…
Matt and I have finally arrived in Tokyo. We left Lausanne in different directions on Thursday (Me via Frankfurt and Matt via London) and we met again in our new apartment on Friday. The journey was long and arduous but we made it without paying an extra cent for excess luggage. The trick is to have a bag so fat that it doesn’t fit on the conveyor belt properly.
The weather in Tokyo has been hot, hot, hot and the humidity must be in the high 90’s. We would not have survived these last few days had it not been for the department stores and convenience stores which are simply everywhere in this giant city. The sights, smells and sounds can be overwhelming at times but most of the time they excite us with a new experience.
Japan is a small person’s place. Matt has found this out the hard way when he forgets to duck under doorways and corridors. When sitting down, his knees are almost at his chest. Me, I think everything is just perfect.
Today we went to Shibuya for a stroll and found our favourite store so far. It’s called Tokyo Hands and it sells everything from power tools to quirky Japanese toys. We loved the R2D2 soy sauce bottle and waste paper basket and are seriously considering it for our new apartment.
For all the geeks out there, we found these silly dogs which attach to your USB port. Hey, if you’re in front of the computer like me and not exercising, these dogs might as well do it.
One of the best things Matt and I have enjoyed so far is the food. Not only is it really goooooooooooood, it is much cheaper than we thought. Tonight, Matt and I had a sashimi dinner at home and it cost us less than 15AUD from the supermarket. Lunch at a simple restaurant was the same and we had so much food we couldn’t finish it. PLUS, Tim Tams are available at the local supermarket so life is all good.
Well, jetlag is still in my life at the moment so I’m logging off. Hope the beginning of the school year goes smoothly for everyone. Send us lots of messages and photos!
The Rhein river runs through the city of Basel. This is the same river which I saw outside of my window in Düsseldorf for nearly 2 years. However, there is something a little strange about this river in this town…it has people bobbing in it!
The Rhein is quite a big river and has a lot of boat traffic upon it. In Duesseldorf, I often saw huge barges and ferries going up and down the river. In Basel however, if you are daring enough, you too can throw yourself in and bob along in the fast flowing current next to the pleasure and transport boats. All you need are some swimming skills and enough guts to get yourself out again.
You may be asking the question, ‘What do I do with all my stuff?’ Well the answer is simple. You carry it with you in the river. All you need is a waterproof bag. If you are cheap, then you can improvise using regular rubbish bags. Thankfully for us, I was already carrying a waterproof sack in my luggage and we bought a ‘Wickelfisch‘ to carry most of our belongings. The waterproof bags are great as they can hold your stuff inside, but they also act as a great floatation device for when you want to just lie back and watch the riverbank go by.
When I arrived in Basel, the weather was already unbelievably warm so it was no problem donning the swimsuit and jumping in the Rhein. Surprisingly, the water was not that cold and provided some much needed soothing coolness to the body. Luckily for us, Matt received a waterproof camera from ISL as a leaving gift this year so we took the camera with us and filmed some of our adventure in the river. The following clip has been edited very quickly so you’ll have to put up with the amateur quality. Matt says that he’ll do a proper edit when we get to Tokyo.
Getting in is relatively easy. Getting out of the river is a little more stressful. Firstly, you have to decide which area you would like to finish your ride. Secondly, you have to execute your plan in front of many onlookers. (Don’t forget that we are right in the middle of town here…) The current in the Rhein is pretty fast. I don’t think the footage really captures how fast we were bobbing but it’s pretty fast. There is no one to help you out…you are on your own. Then, there’s the boats, jetties and buoys on the side of the river you need to navigate around. When you find a nice looking set of stone steps on the bank, you have to direct yourself to it and then use your feet to anchor your body on some of the sharp stones on the river floor. As I did this, I struggled for a while to balance as the current was relentless in wanting to push me further down the river. However, I won the battle against the current and was able to climb out (most ungracefully) of the Rhein. (Btw…Matt did too.)
Bobbing in the Rhein was great fun and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone. We have kept our Wickelfish for the next suitable river we come across and can’t wait for the next time. Maybe if you have a great river for us to bob in around your area, let us know.
I thought my place was bad… Matt’s place is worse. It has prompted me to draw up a list of must haves in Tokyo.
1. Dishwasher
2. Decent vacuum cleaner, preferably an automatic one which roams about the place on its own.
3. Less of everything…clothes, crockery, pots, etc….etc…
4. Monstrous plasma TV. This will help the cleaning process by attracting all the dust in the apartment for one-stop cleaning.
5. Central heating. These bar heaters are a bugger to clean!
6. Sink hole in the bathroom floor. Make this area easy to clean. Flood and finish.
7. Sink hole in the kitchen? Do these exist? Same reason as above.
8. Sink hole in the fridge. No comment needed.
9. Shorter shelving. I just can’t reach without balancing precariously on a wobbly chair. It’s either shorter shelving or glasses for Matt to see what he has missed!
Some of these requirements may be unnecessary if we got a cleaner at least once a week. But really…the apartment will be so small and we are 2 capable adults.
The other solution would be to plastic wrap everything. My dad is a professional at this. Matt was shocked when recently he saw that all of our remote controls at home in Melbourne were shrink-wrapped in plastic. Maybe plastic wrapped furniture is the way to go for 2 grots like us…
Welcome to Tokyo Trouble! We hope that you enjoy our stories about the adventures we have in our new home of Japan. Please post comments if you have any requests, suggestions or anecdotes to add.
We don’t arrive in Tokyo on August 1st, 2008 so you will have to be a little patient for the Tokyo stories. However, this summer we will be riding our bikes along the Danube from Donuaeschingen to Vienna so you can keep up to date with those adventures here as well.
Posted by tokyotrouble 
Posted by tokyotrouble 
Posted by tokyotrouble 
