Zucchini One, Shoes Nil

We, and even more so our shoes, lost. But only the first round. Lost
the battle, but won't lose the war, as they say. We won't be
defeated, at least I hope so. We can't really afford to. But let's
start at the beginning.

Once upon a time, when Maren wrote our last blog entry, we were in
beautiful Bundaberg (Bundy to it's friends, i.e. not us). Since then
we've been at quite few other places, which you can see if you click
on the new link in the sidebar. All kinds of animals, from Koalas to
Whales, But still haven't made further than Brisbane. Two months in
Queensland, so far. Most imoprtantly, we visited Sonia and Lee, two
friends of mine from college times, who now live in Noosa, and put us
up in their own bedroom and moved to the lounge. Sometimes Ozzies are
just too nice to be true. Finally we were able to show off our
surfing skills, on a borrowed board, which means that now we have to
earn some money to buy our own.

After hanging around for weeks, without doing much travelling, we
decided it was time to find some work. Easier said than done, as it
turned out. After having been told that there were "heaps of jobs"
in Bundaberg (quote Shane, who's number we were given by the
government's "harvest trail" hotline), we rode a few hundred Ks back
up the coast, and waited around in the sun on our campsite, made
loads of phone call. For some strange reason, all these jobs had
suddenly disappeared, the only thing being on offer was working in an
abattoir, skinning and gutting and working towards a long-term
career, which we politely declined.
Finally we were offered a day of picking zucchini on a small farm, in
order to see whether we are made of the stuff that makes a good picker.
Despite all our enthusiasm, apparently we are not.
After about 5 hours the so far unfriendliest Australian I have met
dimissed Slow-Hand Pete and Bud-Slicer Maren (aka The Blind-Arrow)
without even looking at us. Some of the others we were working with
had been growing up picking z... and were for some obscure reason
faster and more careful not destroying the newly growing fruits. On
the positive side our back muscles are now much stronger, the cuts
and spots on our arms have stopped itching and have almost healed,
and the shoes are almost as clean as they were before that fateful
encounter with the evil Z.

Anyways, that made us decide to leave that nasty village and move on
to bigger and better, namely Brisbane (Brisy, BrisVegas...don't ask
me why), and find something that we do well. Sitting in front of the
computer or answering the phone. Preferably something unskilled. What
we do best.
So here we are, 4 km from the city centre on a campsite with WLAN
(for 11 $/day!!!), finally civilisation, very exciting, suddenly
people don't wear muddy boots and crocodile dundee hats....at least
not all of them - that film was my first impression of Australia, I
hope I'm not the only one, and so far it kind of proved to be a true
representation, only it never mentioned the Japanese tourists. I
guess that means it's time to leave Queensland behind. Or stay for a
few weeks of hard and honest work, slumped in a chair in front of a
screen, somewhere in a basement, just like the good ol' times. We'll
see.

...what will happen next? Will our heroes find what they desire? Will
the car battery finally run empty? And are thongs really flip flops,
or was it all a cruel joke?

TBC...

Von Tieren und anderen Ängsten

Obwohl wir bislang nur einen sehr kleinen Teil des weiten Landes gesehen haben - Cape Tribulation bis Airlie Beach mit Abstechern ins Hinterland - ist die Menge der bislang gesichteten und gehörten Tiere nicht gerade unbeachtlich. Mein Favorit an besonders beeindruckenden Tieren sind noch immer die Wale. Auf dem Weg zu unserem ersten Tauchriff konnten wir vom Segelboot aus zwei Wale in der Ferne beobachten. Zwar haben wir gehofft sie beim Tauchgang noch einmal anzutreffen, doch da zeigten sich uns nur Schildkröten, Blaupunktrochen und ein paar andere große Fische. Alles in allem fand ich aber bislang das Rote Meer zum tauchen interessanter. Possierlich und schoen anzusehen sind Kängeruhs, aber nur wenn sie leben und friedlich sind. Bislang waren jedoch die meisten von uns gesichteten Kängeruhs leider tot am Straßenrand.
In der Regel wird man in der früh von einem Konzert verschiedenster Stimmen und Laute geweckt. Unmengen an diversen Vögeln kreischen, singen, pfeiffen schon mit dem allerersten Sonnenstrahl um die Wette und führen ihre Konzerte den gesamten Tag über fort. Ich kann mich nicht erinnern in Deutschland aufm Land so viele verschiedene und laute Vögel gehört zu haben. Doch geade sitzen im Baum hinter mir drei große, quietschebunte Papageien und sind laut.
Neben diesen schoenen und ungefährlichen Tieren gibt es in Australien eine weitaus groeßere Anzahl an gefaehrlichen und angriffslustigen Tieren. An allererster Stelle sind da die Lace Monitors zu nennen. Diese ca. 1,5m langen Echsen haben uns beim Frühstück im Bush (die meiste Zeit campen wir auf sog. Bush Campsites, ohne Strom, alles ganz öko und dafür sehr billig oder kostenfrei, je nachdem wie ehrlich man ist) schon angegriffen und mich mehrfach erschreckt und von meiner gerade verrichteten Tätigkeit - essen - abgehalten. Ich mag diese Echsen nicht, Peter findet sie jedoch ganz possierlich. Aber er hängt sich ja auch Schlangen um den Hals. Womit ich bei der naechsten Sorte Tiere angekommen bin, die meiner Meinung nach voellig unnoetig und totbringend sind. Wie es laut Murphys Law immer so ist, treffe ich mit meiner Phobie natuerlich ueberraschenderweise auf extrem giftige Schlangen. Die erste beim Bushwalking entlang eines nicht sonderlich oft genutzten Tracks - schwarz mit gelben Bauch, sehr giftig, armdick und fast 2m lang. Ich bin schreiend in die entgegengesetzte Richtung gerannt, die Schlange ins Gebüsch. Die nächste war grellgrün, 1m lang und lag mitten auf der Straße - sehr zu ihrem Pech, denn ich saß am Steuer unseres Busses und konnte/wollte beim besten Willen keine Vollbremsung fuer ein Tier machen und uns dabei in Lebensgefahr bringen. Zwar löste diese Aktion einen kleineren Streit mit Peter aus, aber nach ein paar Kilometern war dieser angesichts der schoenen Landschaft um uns herum wieder beigelegt. Wie beruhigend und versöhnlich eine Autofahrt durch Postkarten-schöne Landschaft manchmal sein kann.
Die naechste Begegnung hatten wir mit einer weitaus gefährlicheren Sorte Tier. Dem Urgestein unter den Tieren. Dem Krokodil! Auf in freier Wildbahn lebende stießen wir bei einer Bootstour auf dem Daintree-River. Mit seinen 5,2m und 1,2t kamen wir selbst im groeßeren Boot nicht naeher als auf 10m heran. Was ich naemlich nicht wusste, Krokodile koennen springen und zwar halb so hoch wie die Länge ihres Koerpers bemisst! Unsere zweite Begegnung war dann etwas entspannter, dafuer trafen wir auf einem Schlag auf tausende Krokos. Beim Besuch einer Krokodilsfarm besichtigten wir diverse Krokos, davon sehr viele kleine, die nur wegen ihres Fleisches und der Haut innerhalb von 3 bis 4 Jahren auf 1,8m gezuechtet und dann geschlachtet werden. In einem weiteren Teil der Farm befanden sich Krokos, die in der Umgebung in freier Wildbahn gefangen wurden und nun bis ans Ende ihrer Tage - so an die 100 Jahre und ueber 5m lang - eingesperrt, dort kein Unheil mehr anrichten koennen. Interessant, aber ganz schoen ungeheuerlich diese riesigen alten Viecher.
Neben diesen ganzen Tieren existiert noch eine aeusserst große Anzahl an Insekten und Spinnen. In der Regel muss ich Peter vor diesen Getier beschuetzen, aber er weiss sich mit 'Fast Knockdown - Insect Killer Spray' gut zu verteidigen.
Vor zwei Tagen haben wir zum ersten Mal lebendige Kängeruhs gesehen - auch noch zum Frühstück! Welch eine Aufregung.
Wir werden weiterhin beobachten, filmen und fotografieren, alles was kreucht und fleucht festhalten und ich bemuehe mich nicht immer gleich erschrocken zu schreien und wegzurennen. Dann sollte eigentlich in kuerzester Zeit eine beachtliche Anzahl an spektakulaeren Fotos in diesem Blog erscheinen.

Ankunft in Down Under

Ich weiss nicht so genau welcher Tag heute ist, aber seit etwas mehr als drei Wochen bin ich nun schon mit Peter in Australien unterwegs. Naja, sonderlich weit sind wir noch nicht gekommen, gerade wenn man sich die zurueckgelegte Strecke auf der großen Landkarte anschaut.
Aber erst mal der Reihe nach. In einer Zeit von drei Wochen kann viel passieren. Und wie das so bei Peter und mir immer der Fall ist, begann schon der erste Tag ereignisreich. Nach ungefähr 30 Stunden Flug, die im wesentlichen aus essen, schlafen, film schauen bestanden, erreichte ich voellig muede und erschoepft am Nachmittag Cairns - ganz im Norden Australiens im Bundesstaat Queensland the Sunshine State - und wurde dort ueberraschenderweise (ich hatte es so sehr gehofft, aber er hat mir nix versprochen) von Peter am Flughafen abgeholt. Noch am selben Abend besuchten wir ein von unserem Herbergsvater veranstaltetes BBQ mit Kängeruh- und Krokodilsfleisch als wohl australische Spezialität für alle Traveller. Netter Empfang, bloß wurde ich zusehends mueder, hatte wenig Hunger wegen der Mästung im Flugzeug und das Kängeruh war mir viel zu zäh. Als Peter auch endlich seinen dritten Teller Nachschlag verputzt hatte (der Arme hat in Japan nichts ordentliches zu essen bekommen und somit bestimmt 20 Kilo abgenommen) hatten wir keine Chance mehr dem nun folgenden allwöchentlichen Spektakel zu entkommen - dem Didgeridoo-Kontest. Fuenf der Teilnehmenden wurden ausgelost und hatten das Glück, sich vor ueber 50 Zuschauern komplett zum Horst zu machen, da natürlich niemand ohne zu ueben ein Didgeridoo blasen kann. Und mit meinem Glück der letzten Zeit oder war es einfach Murphys Law? wurde ich ausgelost und musste mich mit blamieren. Letzten Endes stellte ich mich doch nicht so daemlich an und war so die drittbeste. Eigentlich muesste ich mir jetzt ein Didge kaufen, aber die wirklich schoenen kosten ueber 200 Dollar und ein selbstgebautes aus einem Abflussrohr (jaja, das funktioniert auch) scheint mir wuerdelos. So wird wohl aus einer moeglichen Karriere als begnadete Didgeridoo-Bläserin nichts werden.
Die folgenden Tage vergingen nicht weniger ereignisreich. Nach 14 Stunden Schlaf und Stadt anschauen - schafft man an einem halben Nachmittag, da Cairns unglaublich langweilig und unspektakulaer ist - planten wir fuer die folgenden Tage: Tagesausflug nach Green Island am Rande des Great Barrier Reef zum baden und schnorcheln, Zwei-Tages-Ausflug nach Cape Tribulation im Daintree National Park gefolgt von einem weiteren Zwei-Tages-Ausflug mit dem Segelboot Rum Runner ins Great Barrier Reef zum tauchen. Nachdem uns das Segelboot im Hafen von Cairns wieder wohlbehalten an Land gebracht hat, war seit meiner Ankunft in Australien noch keine Woche vergangen. Erstaunliches Pensum, wenn man bedenkt dass ich eigentlich erst einmal Urlaub machen wollte nach den letzten Monaten in Berlin.
Auf jeden Fall haben wir in unser ersten Woche in Australien schon einiges gesehen und erlebt, Geld ausgegeben wofuer wir jetzt keines mehr ausgeben wuerden und schlussendlich auch die Person getroffen haben, die am Ende seiner Reise angelangt uns sein Auto verkauft hat. So sind wir innerhalb von zwei Tagen zu unserem kleinen, weißen Schätzchen gekommen, einen Ford Econovan, Baujahr 1995. Ausgebaut und voll equipped - Zelt, Bett, Fächer (alles von IKEA), Angelausruestung, 2 Schnorchelausruestungen, 2-flammiger Kocher, Geschirr, Sonnendach, Boogie Board, div. Saegen, Stühle, Tisch, Bibliothek und Büroablage - ist sie (das Auto ist von uns als eindeutig weiblich identifiziert worden) unser aeusserst komfortables Zuhause fuer die naechsten Monate.

Big changes

From now on this blog isn't just mine anymore, but ours, which means Maren and I will both be psoting mails, at least every now and then. This also means, that quite a few will be written in German, so those of you who need a translation can get a rough one from google language tools, from and to pretty much any language. Simply go to google, and click on language tools, choose the languages and then enter the website address you want to have translated. (http://www.google.com.au/language_tools?hl=en)
. Enough about that more about us, we're in Bundaberg, getting closer to Brisbane, slowly running out of money, which means we'll have to find jobs fairly soon. The winter over here is great, hardly any rain and it's almost always warm. You can even sometimes reach us on the phone. Seen most of the animals there are to see, our car hasn't broken down yet, and as long as we don't play cards, we don't even fight too often. And now Maren is going to fill you in on the details:

Slowly Slowly

Maren arrived, safe and sound, and now we're slowly moving down the coast. Today is our third day in Townsville, but hopefully we'll be out of here ASAP. not very exciting place to be. Photos will follow soon, but as there are very few camping sites with W-LAN, we won't be updating this blog very regularly. Anyways, we bought a van, which is currently being inspected and the reason why we spent so many days in this town. If anybody wants to contact us, the phone number on the right should work, although the mobile network doesn't cover most of the places we go to. Text messaging is always the most reliable way to get in touch. To be continued...

Oz

Just a short one, to let everyone know, I safely landed in Cairns, more to come as soon as I get my computer running. Maren is arriving in a couple of hours, so I better get ready to go to the airport. Weather isn't too great, and Cairns is pretty boring, but the surroundings are amazing. Really looking forward to checking out the area ..... to be continued....

Survived!

Yep, we made it up Mount Fuji, only from station 5, about halfway, that it was still quite a climb, starting at about 2300, and going up to 3776. First of all, Dan and me (Photos will follow soon) took the bus directly to the 5th station, which was already full of foreigners, and half of them in shorts and t-shirts, which we had been told by a couple of our housemates is kind of suicidal, as the temperature drops to about 0 degrees every night, and quite often you spend quite a while in the middle of the clouds, which, surprisingly enough, are not particularly dry. However, we were well prepared and John and Ruary let me borrow some of their things. The flashlight and the snowboarding jacket were quite essential. Stephen and his brothers had failed to reach to top a few weeks ago because they were wearing shorts, t-shirts and rainjackets, which meant that they had to turn around just before getting to the top, cos they were freezing to death, and that was during the day...
We started the climb at about 22:30, and after going a bit too fast, and even after slowing our tempo down a bit, we were still way too early to reach the summit in time for the sunrise. So we waited at each of the stations on the way, talked to some of the other gaijin we met. The higher we got, the more crowded it was getting.
The Japanese seem to love queueing, maybe even more than the English. It ended up being a "take few steps, wait a few seconds" kind of ascent for the last few hours! Luckily it was a weekday, I wouldn't wanna queue up that mountain on the weekend.
Then Dan started to get a headache, and didn't look too good anymore, and when we reached the top (beautiful sunrise, a few hundred meters above the clouds, lots and lots of people still coming up, at least a few thousand, and all kinds of souvenirs, food stalls and even beer, which wasn't more expensive than beer in Tokyo) after having a bowl of ramen/ udon, Dan had to lie down for a bit. That gave me the time to round the crater, try and make a phonecall, which didn't work, but only because I didn't have any credit, really good reception up there, and take a few more pix (soon) with my great disposable camera.
Then I woke Dan up, but his altitude sickness was just getting worse and worse, so we slowly started our descent, Dan starting to feel nauseous, while we were crawling down the mountain. A few hundred meters and some painkillers later things started to look a bit brighter. In the end, Dan was almost jogging down, while I was trying to keep up, so that we could still get tickets on the first bus. Which didn't quite work out. The first 2 busses were already sold out, so we had to wait for more than 3 hours, during which we slept a bit on the stairs next to the bus stop. Und wennse sich nich gestorben sind, dann wartense noch heute....something like that anyway

Parkside

That's where I'm living. The house. The documentary is only slowly making progress, but you'll be the first to find out when it's ready, and I have to finish it before I leave. But who cares, we're all having a good time, drinking in the Park on the bridge across the lake (though it's too dark to see the water), hanging out at the house, watching films, going to bars and karaoke. It all feels like being on school trip, a very long one, where it's no problem to get hold of alcohol and everything else we need. The teacher, or manager (Minami-san), pops in every now and then to remind everyone to be quiet. And to only smoke in the smoking room. Well more photos of my housmates to follow, or on the photoblog, and loads of good stories in the documentary. I present the Parkside bike gang: Stephen (UK), Joel and Ravvi (Oz).

And now I've gotta go, gonna climb Mount Fuji tonight, will hopefully get to the top tomorrow for the sunrise, so more to tell and maybe a few nice photos when I get back!

What have I been doing...

In my spare time? haven't really been working too much, and as I already quit my job (leaving Japan in 10 days!), I now have even more time to somehow waste.
Well, for a start, I've been
pretty lazy, not doing too much sightseeing, been to a few museums though, the most interesting was definitely the Yushukan war memorial museum, next to the Yasukuni shrine, which even the people who don't knwo anything about Japan might have heard about. This is the shrine the current prime minister (Koizumi, who is going to quit his job in the next few months) is visiting on an annual basis, which apparently is one of the main reasons for the bad relationships between China, Korea and Japan as a few "class A war criminals" have been enshrined there sometime in the 70s. The shrine was built to honour those wo have died for their country, and a couple of million people are enshrined there. I guess if Germany was to build something in honour of Addi, Goebbi and a few of their mates, and Angie would come for a visit once a year and maybe put some flowers down at the memorial, it would a have a similar impact in Europe. So I guess I can understand the rest of Asia being a bit pissed off.
Anyways, even more interesting is the museum, which shows the long history of wars that were waged in and around Japan, from the Shogun fighting the emperor, to fighting the barbarians (Europeans and Americans) to the wars with China, Korea, Russia and obviously the WWs. What's interesting is the perspective, quite different in some cases to what I learned in school. And although a lot of it is supposedly very toned down in the English translation (obviously I couldn't really tell), some of the suggestions and "truths" about e.g. WW2, such as Germany not really having a choice but to attack the rest of Europe, Japan only trying to establish peace when they invaded China or that the US forcing Japan to attack Pearl Harbour where a bit worrying. I'm sure there is a bit of truth in these aspects, but whoever built this and is responsible for the texts on exhibition, has definitely a very different way of dealing with their past.
Most Japanese I've met here have never been to the museum and have no intention of ever going there for precisely these reasons, and because they know what to expect, so I'm not saying that this represents Japan as a whole, but quite a large number of people must still see it this way, and quite a few of them seem to be in power. Though a few of the new canditates for the post of the prime minister are already distancing themselves from the shrine. So I guess there's hope.

On a lighter note, I also went to Disneyland with Ayako, who's still working there. Hope she'll send me some pictures.
And to Kamakura, which used to be the capital of Japan around 1200. And that's where the big Buddha is. Bought myself some disposable cameras, so from now on there'll be a few pictures every now and then. I'll also upload a few more to my photoblog. They also have a few hundred shrines in Kamakura. Or at least that's what it felt like. After getting a bit bored of those, and going on a little hiking trip with a Canadian guy (Alex) I met on the way there (also waiting for him to send me some pix), we just went down to the beach and watched the surfers. Obviously we didn't watch the girls. And I managed to take a beautiful little picture. In the background the guy with the tiniest speedos I've ever seen. Pretty hot!

Leaving already!!

Just an old pic, but better than nothing.....

I didn't really expect it, nor plan it, but my stay here will be a lot shorter than anticipated. Not such a bad thing.
What happened? Well, for a start, Maren decided not to got to China, after finishing her degree, which she is now pretty close to achieving. For those of you who don't know, she's studying "City and regional Planning", or "Urban Planning", or whatever you wanna call it, and now has only one oral exam left, her "Diplomverteidigung". So far so good. As we were planning to meet up in Australia sometime before the winter starts, as winters in Tokyo are suposed to be horrible, even worse than the summers, we basically decided to meet up a bit earlier. I will have spent 3 months here, mainly in Tokyo, which is obviously not long enough to learn the language, or do enough travelling, or really get to know the country or the people. But flying out to Cairns on the 11th of August, Maren arriving on the 14th, then hanging out on the beach, doing a bit of diving, buying a car and then crusing down the coast towards Brisbane, Sidney, Melbourne and maybe trying to learn how to surf and do a bit of work on the way doesn't sound too bad.
And long distance relationships, as we all know, are a pretty stupid idea. We should be able to survive the last couple of weeks, but six months or maybe longer might not have been so great.
Well, that's "the plan", if you can call it that. Hope we'll find sopme good jobs on the way, maybe a place to stay a bit longer, and mainly I'm waiting for Maren to kickstart her career, so I can concentrate on surfing. Well, we'll see.
While I'm waiting on the island for my plane to get ready, I have a few weeks left to do some more sightseeing. More about that later though, when I get a few more pictures from other people.

Lazy Bastard

OK, I've been pretty lazy. At least about writing my blog. That has also to do with nopt having a photo camera, so from now on, it'll mostly be pure text entries. Unless I receive a few more photos from people I meet. Like this really great one of me and two of my students...I guess also the first one of me and my new amazing even younger haircut. Well, apart from that, I've been working pretty hard (2 days and 2 evenings a week!!!), teaching English to all kinds of people from 7 to 70. A lot easier than teaching German. And I can work whenever I want. The best lessons are generally with adavanced students, as they mostly end up being conversations on any kind of topic, from comparing Berlin's and Tokyo's electronic music scenes to preparing presentations about Java and Java beans (the programming laguage, that is). One of the reasons why I realised pretty quickly that this isn't really the country I want to live in, is the incredible amount of time peple spend working. Pretty much all the school children are going to cram school for the summer, and before coming to my additional English lessons, they have to learn for other subjects or do sports or go to music lessons. "Homework is my friend!", is how Ayane put it. She's about 10, and the other things she can say in English are things like "I like Stitch!" - from "Lilo and Stitch". I guess paying about 50 to 80 Euros a lesson is really worth it. Not that I'm receiving all that money. Almost all my more or less adult students work until about midnight at least a few times a week, and getting four to five hours sleep a night seems to be the average.
The Gaijin (foreigners) in my house in contrast seem pretty much the opposite. Somebody's always ready and willing to keep everyone else awake, as the weekends are different for each person. Which is mostly good fun, maybe not for everyone ... for example when Dom found a little Casio kind of keyboard and decided that 4 in the morning was the right time to check out the preset rhythms, improvise a bit and sing along beautifully. There were other people present, I just couldn't tell who it was.

However, soon enough you will be able to find out more about my lovely housmates, as Ben and I have decided to shoot a little documentary about Parkside House. We finished shooting a few days ago, and are now starting to view all the footage, about 8 hours, in order to edit a little 20 minute piece of art, which it will surely turn out to be! Don't know if it'll be interesting for anyone but the people in the house, but I'll put it up on the net as soon as I can. We have about 2 weeks to finish it.
Why?
Read the next mail.....

Career....

well, maybe not quite what I'd call it, but anyway. All depends on your ambitions.
I'm not really that interested in a career in teaching languages as such, but over here it's a good way to earn a living.
Let me start with the beginning. Emmett, one of my American housemates, went to Germany on Saturday. For the worldcup. He actually managed to get tickets for the three US football matches. "Soccer" is what he calls it, but then the Americans don't really know what they're talking about, as anyone who saw the US play the Czech Republic would know. Anyway, football is another topic, sometime soon, when it gets a bit more exciting.
He went off, and asked me to be his substitute at one of the language schools, that he's teaching at. So yesterday was my first full day of teaching English. It's a lot easier finding English teaching jobs than German ones. And it's a lot easier to teach, grammar and all. It was mainly small groups of elderly housewives, who like travelling. Emmett had already taken me along to a few of the classes, so could meet the students, so this week everyone had a few questions about Germany, food, how the reunification had influenced my life (has it? well, I guess otherwise I wouldn't have been able to live in Friedrichshain or meet my sweet Ossi-girl....), what I thought of Japan, why I had come here, what I was doing here, whether I had a girlfriend. And in almost every group there was someone who wanted to introduce me to their daughter... Teaching wasn't really very difficult, everyone's motivated, and it's mainly conversation. A bit of grammar and a few excercises. And I'm even earning more than I was at J****

I also had an interview at GABA, the second biggest language chain school, one-on-one teaching. Managed to go through that and through 2 days of training last weekend. And now I can pick my schedule and work any time I like. As long as it's weekends or evenings. During the day it's not very likely to get enought students. So at least for a start, I'll be working every weekend and maybe 2-3 evenings a week. See how it goes, be starting on Saturday. I'll keep you updated, if I'm not too lazy. Fucked up my camera, so for now, there won't be any new pictures. Hope I can get it repaired quickly.
Working weekends is actually OK, in Japan, there's not much of a difference between weekdays and weekends, as all the shops are always open, as are the bars and even some clubs. But as clubbing is so expensive (between 30 and 50 euros just to get in, then another 6 maybe for a beer) I won't be doing too much of that.
I'll rather be "helping people to achieve their most audacious goals". And who can claim to do that. Definitely not J****. Teaching will be really strucured, just follow the designated book, do one lesson in 40 minutes, give some feedback, do whatever the student wants to do. Every booth in the "language studio" (not school! very important!) will have a laptop, which has informations about the student and his aims, bio, level, preferences and hobbies. Also, there are additional exercises and grammar explanations. Everything already prepared for you. Easy as pie.......don't know where that came from....
Well we'll see on the weekend, I'm sure I'll still be a bit nervous. The most annoying thing about the job is that it's suit and tie only. For the summer I don't necessarily have to wear a jacket and tie, as it'll be close to 40 degrees soon, but as soon as autumn comes, I will have to. See if I'll hang around that long.
Looks like my planned holiday didn't last as long as I was hoping, but I just had to take the opportunity to work. Money gets spent very quickly in this town. You can quite easily save some, especially if you work a lot, but it's even easier to spend it.
So I figured if I started work now, I might still have some left, when I leave for Australia, or Thailand, or Indonesia, or wherever we're gonna go next. Hopefully Maren will finish with her exams in time, the dissertation is already done, so I'm pretty confindent, and then she'll turn up here, and we can do a bit of travelling in Japan first. We'll see. It looks like China's not an option anymore, but anything's possible and nothing is decided.

Oh, and finally, thanks to all those, who are writing to me, I'm not that good with replying to emails, one of the reasons for starting this blog, but I'm always happy about hearing (or rather reading) the latest gossip or anything at all from all of you!

Taicoclub

After getting up at seven in the morning to meet the people, who would take me to the festival, I met up with Gen, and then the two of us waited for the other three for almost two hours. Finally, we managed to leave Tokyo at 12, rather than 9, which was originally planned. Kind of the opposite of standard Japanese behaviour, maybe some form of protest? Nice driving, took us about 5 hours and 5 coffee and smoking breaks to get to the festival site. I decided right then that I'd try anything to find another way of getting back to Tokyo. ....well, now football's on, I need a beer, and I'm really hungry, so more to follow soon...The festival turned out to be quite nice, fairly small, especially if you consider the line-up and the amount of money they must have invested in bands and DJs. Good fun though. We managed to get our backstage passes, so basically the whole night consisted of hanging out on the side of the stage, drinking free beer and eating all kinds of great Japanese food, and trying to find some other form of alcohol. But on the whole festival site there seemed to be nothing available, except for beer. After a few hours of searching we found some Sake, but vodka, whiskey, wine, champagne or anything else just wasn't available. Pretty disappointing.
But we found out why, soon enough, when we later found one of the Japanese girls, that had been assigned to Monika and Christin as artist management, passed out behind a dumpster. I think she had about half a bottle of champagne. Had to take her to the first aid station, where she was allowed to sleep for the rest of the night, while the rest of us kept walking from one stage to the next and back. They only had 2 stages...best performance was definitely by Tucker, if anybody's going to the Sonar festival, check him out, he is going to be there, I think.
The whole thing ended at nine in the morning, on the second, pretty strict timetable. Quite short if you consider the price. When I turned up at the tent, my Japanese companions where fast asleep, though Gen had earlier said, that he was only quickly going to check what the situation at the tent was. Never returned. Luckily, I was able to go back to Tokoy on the artist s' coach. And Christin had organised some entertainment. 99% pure chocolate, for Stefan (Koze), who wasn't too happy about the present, but made everyone try anyway. If any of you ever come across this stuff, give it a try, it's going to be an experience you're not likely to forget. And when the Germans (all 4 of us) in the back of the bus had finally relaxed and calmed down a bit, everyone was able to go to sleep. Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind dann feiern sie noch heute...
Nathan Fake and his entourage

Visitors

After meeting up with Ernie (old friend from school, who lives over here as well) on Wednesday (sorry no pictures) Christin came over from Berlin for the weekend, working for Monika Kruse, DJ gig etc., here's just the first picture from the Shibuya Excel Hotel (Lost in Translation was shot here? not sure) where they stayed. Anyway, more to follow later, tonight probabably.
Well, wasn't quite the same night, but hey, better late than never. The story goes:
After Christin arrived, we went off on a little shopping spree in Shibuya, there wasn't really a lot of time, 'cos we had to meet the others for dinner, so we just stayed in that area. I guess it's quite a good representation of Tokyo. Probably one of the craziest areas, but also one of the most famous. And all you can do there is go shopping, drinking or partying.
Which is exactly what we did.
That's one of the rare pieces in street-art, for some reason in German, which Christin and me found that afternoon in Shibuya. I guess the police are a bit more present here than in for example F-hain, Berlin. It's now almost starting to become some kind of a routine, izakaya, lot's of drinks, weird food, though this time I wasn't the tourist, or at least not the only one. Starting to feel at home. Well, maybe not quite, still can't read the menu, but at least I recognize most of the food that turns up when someone else orders. Later on we went back to Womb, supposedly one of the best clubs in town, but nobody was really up for partying, so we only stayed for a drink. Had to get up early anyway, in order to make it to Nagano, where the festival would be the next day. Just realised I didn't really explain the reason for the visit. That group of tourists on the picture consists mainly of DJs and organizers, actually everyone except for me. Taicoclub is the name of a one-night festival in the Nagano prefecture, not actually the city, somewhere up in the mountains. And that's where we all went the next day. I went with a friend of one of the guys from my house, who had a spare seat in his car, but more about that soon.

Tucker at Kodama no Mori

Tucker at Kodama no Mori
Video sent by pmirecki

best live performance ever....the final, more to come...the other files are still to big to be uploaded, but as soon as I'll find a way, you'll see them here

Moved

Been a bit lazy, at least blogging -wise, sorry for that, so here's a little update of what happened last week. First of all, the people I was hoping to move in with, took someone else, I guess they wnated someone who'd stay a bit longer thatn just a few months. Fair enough, so I moved into
a guesthouse near Inokashira-koen park.
The coordinares for google earth are:
Latitude: 35°41'36.82"N
Longitude: 139°34'55.16"E
Just add a new placemark and input the coordinates, it's the big house with the blue roof.
I have an address now as well, just check my profile. You're all welcome to send me presents, postcards, anything really, or just come over and visit.
Really close to Kichijoji, which is not extremely central, but a sort of center itself, lots of music, bars, restaurants, shops etc. About 25 people in the house, only 2 Japanese, as far as I can tell, and most others are Americans, some Australians, French, Canadians, English, Scottish.
Whch basically means speaking English all the time, hardly any Japanese at all. It seems I will have to study on my own. And go out to meet some Japanese. Here are two pictures of my room, just after I moved in. Hasn't changed much since then, since I don't have any furniture. More pictures of the house soon, maybe even a video. Really nice people in the house, some have been living here for six years. Went out for one of the guys birthday and some drinks obivously on my first and second night. After that I decided to stay home for a bit. Feels like everyone is on a really long holiday, though pretty much everyone is teaching English, but that only seems to be incidental.
My room's about 10 sq.m. big, which is enough, and the rent is below 400 euros, which I think is pretty amazing for Tokyo. Plus electricity. Since then, I haven't really done that much, met up with Mayumi, but didn't take any good pictures, maybe next time, and went to an English class with Emiko, just to find out some more about English teaching. Shouldn't be too hard it seems. Now I just have to start applying for jobs and get some proper clothes. Shirt and tie seem to be the standard. Anybody's got any stylish ties?
Well, I guess I'll have to go shopping again...
More stories and videos of my fellow inmates (bit of a strange and sterile school/prison flair here) will follow soon. Some interesting people in the house.

Senso-ji temple

Mikoshi at Sensoo-ji temple
Video sent by pmirecki

A mikoshi (the thing they're carrying) is basically a portable shrine. This festival actually took place near a Buddhist temple, though right next to ist, there's a Shinto (traditional Japanese religion) shrine. The two religions and their rituals seem to blend together somehow, I'm still can't really tell the diffenrences, but I'm learning. Well, religion wasn't really the reason for coming over here.

live musik
Video sent by pmirecki

live music and story-telling, didn't really get the story though. maybe there wasn't one.
you can also see everything from my point of view...kinda high up, compared to everyone else...

Burning incense
Video sent by pmirecki

Burning incense and then covering yourself in the smoke apparently prevents accidents. I figured it couldn't hurt, so I did a bit of smoke-diving too.

Getting hot

I guess now the summer is about to really start, went looking at 2 flats again, and was covered in sweat as soon as I left the house. Nice first impression. Both houses were quite nice, only about 5 people living in each of them, mix of foreigners and Japanese. Definitely better than the guesthouses, though I might have to stay at one of those for a few weeks, til the rooms become available. Still waiting for an answer on my first choice room in Yuutenji. Hopefully tonight. But just driving thru the city, hopping from train to train, getting lost in every second station, not really my thing. I guess I still have to find my area, and then stay there. Like Berlin, where I never really left, the east, except for maybe Kreuzberg. Today I'm staying inside, maybe I'll wander around for a bit later on, but for now I really can't be bothered.
Went to a (religious) festival as well yesterday, Asakusa again, but this time soemthing like 1 billion million zillion people. So I left again pretty quickly.
And I started to listen more to stuff on my iPod while travelling on the underground, gives me bit more space somehow, at least in my head. For some reason my bloody external hard-drive with all the music on it won't start up (currency problem maybe? Definitely the power supply, which should work with 110V, but no light coming on), so I'm stuck with one music playlist and a few audio books. Oh well, have to figure it out soon. After I've moved. Now I better get on with my Japanese studying. Haven't really started, not much time so far, though I'm learning something every day. Need more self-discipline. Maybe some "corporal mortification"? A whip?
...started listening to the "Da Vinci Code", which I don't really like, but can't stop anyway. I hate books like that. So that's the news for today, not particularly exciting, sorry, and I doubt much more is going to happen today. Well, check out the pictures I'm about to upload.

Escape from Tokyo

First time out of Tokyo, on Saturday actually. Really nice and sunny that morning, so Yoshi suggested we visit Mount Fuji. At least go soemwhere nearby with a nice view. Luckily, he's got a car, so the 3 of us got into his Golf, and of we went. As soon as we left Tokyo, the whole landscape changed, or rather appeared. Everything was suddenly green, and not just hilly, but full of moutains. Motorway going right through this. About 70% of Japan are mountains, so no surprise that everyone's crowding into the big cities. Stopped for a picknick on a lakeside, and took quite a few pictures. The climbing season hasn't started yet, the governement advises, that the mountain should only be climbed in July and August, I think, as then, there's very little or no snow. I think I'll definitely give it a go sometime in the summer. Just the altitude that can make it really hard and tiring.
My guidebook (Lonely Planet) said, that the mountain is covered in clouds almost all year except for early mornings, and maybe if you're lucky in spring or autumn, most of the time you can't see the top from a hundred meters away. But for some reason as we arrived at the lakeside, the cluds around the peak cleared off completely. Only lasted about 1 hour, and as we were about to leave, clouds started covering up the mountain, as well as everything else, and it started to rain again. Pretty lucky.
Next off to a nearby shrine, from where the trail up to mount Fuji starts. Not sure whether I want to start from there, as it's about 17 km, all the way up to almost 4K. Might take the short route, startin about halfway up the mountain.

Then we went off to some caves in the area, which have all been created by the eruptions of Fuji-San. The last one was almost 300 years ago, so hopefully it'll stay dormant , at least while I'm here. One was the Ice Cave, which was used to store ice for the emperor during the summer. I don't think they still do that anymore, he's probably got a freezer like veryone else for his caipirinhas. Although there was lots of ice still down there, so who knows...The second one was the Wind Cave, used to be used for storing ice as well as silkworm eggs.
And as if that wasn't enough we went to an Onsen, natural hotspring, kinda like a few big bathtubs, natural water what with loads of minerals coming straight from the ground. Bathe naked, men and women were seperated in this one. Sadly, the beattery of my camera was flat by this time, so no pictures of Yoshi and me in the bathtub. Next time maybe, or maybe not.
One was at about 42 degrees, the other one a bit cooler. So it's kind of like a sauna, though the others were a bit surprised when I had a cold shower afterwards. Not something the Japanese do, but otherwise I would probabaly have collapsed as soon as I got out, low blood pressure and all the rest. Pretty busy day. I'm starting to realise how the Japanese can do Europe in a week. Had some local speciality, noodles, soup etc. I think there's a different type of food evry 50 km or so, something you won't get anywhere else. Or at least not as good. I'll have to do some more travelling, and if it's just for the food!

Bad Fortune?

Met up with Ayako yesterday, and we went to another shrine, this time in Asakusa. Here I paid 100 yen (about 75 cent) in order to randomly pull a stick out of metal box. The number on the stick told me which piece of paper to pull out of one of the drawers (for pictures have a look at the photoblog), which in turn told me my fortune / future. Kind of like a fortune cookie, a bit more detailes, but about as vague. Didn't sound too good, don't know if you can read it, sorry for the blurry photo.
The good thing is though that if it's bad fortune, you can fold the paper up and tie a it to the metal bars in the red wooden frame on the second picure and that should reverse the prophesy, which I obviously did. So I hope I'll be OK.

later we went on a little boat trip, crappy weather, but nice view anyway. Arrived in Odaiba, which where the next picure was taken, actually a few of them I stitched together, not very professionally. Tokyo skyline in the rainy foggy weather that seems to normal around this time of year. So now it's almost rain season, after that comes the really hot and humid summer, and then it's typhoon season. And then autumn and winter, a few earthquakes and maybe if I'm lucky a tsunami or two thrown into the mix. Great place to be, will definitely not get boring.

The Fuji Television Network Building was also quite impressive, and we wandered around a kind of exhibition in there, sets from all kinds of TV shows I'd never heard of. When we came out it was already almost dark, went of to Roppongi, the place with what seemed like the highest percentage of tourists. Nightlife, bars, restaurants, clubs and so on. Have to check it out in more detail some other time, when I'm less tired. The best thing about the whole day was (sorry Ayako), that she was at least as lost as I aalway am on the underground. Didn't know which line to get, which map to look at, which ticket to buy and into which direction to walk as soon as we were underground. So it's not just the language and the writing, it's just a confusing system for everyone who's not used to it. I am starting to accept now, that, wherever I go on the trains, I will get lost somewhere along the way. In some underground station most likely. I'm a lot more relaxed now travelling. Probably not the best solution, but I doubt there's any other way.