2011 Suzuka F1 (A Retrospective)

Even before being accepted onto the JET Programme last year, I had convinced myself that I was going to attend the 2011 Japanese F1 Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit.  Obviously, living in Japan made that goal so much more realistic to achieve and so it was in August that I bought my tickets for the October race.  Shortly after my tickets arrived however, I discovered that the race is held on the same long weekend as the Hiroshima Sake Festival (another big event that I was super keen on attending with a great many other JETs from Tokushima).  Conflicted though I was, motorsports won out and it was with great excitement that Phil and I made our way from Awa to Tokushima City to Osaka to Nagoya to Suzuka and finally to the circuit to watch the race!


Having been to a number of Grand Prix' in the past, I thought I knew exactly how it'd work - turns out I didn't factor in the Japanese element though...  Vendors sold quality food to customers patiently waiting in single-file lines at regular retail prices.  People separated their trash into one of about 7 different types of rubbish bin according to the local City regulations.  Families laid down blankets in the shade, with parents taking turns on staying to watch the kids or sitting on the super-expensive bench-style grandstand seating watching the race.  But most surprisingly, NOBODY jumped the barriers to run onto the circuit at the end of the race!


I didn't get too many pics of the action - truthfully I was too busy watching it all unfold or lining up for more beer - but here are a couple of pics that I did take...

Falling in Love with Kobe (A Retrospective)

In September 2011 I first visited the magical port city of Kobe, and found it to be such like my beloved Melbourne that I promptly fell in love with the place.  To say that I haven't been back there since, saddens me though I take great delight in putting it on the hitlist of places to see when my Dad arrives for his holiday in August.  Here are a few pics taken in the gorgeous cosmopolitan that is Kobe...

Kobe is full of beautiful public artworks, many of which feature the naked female form.  You'll find these bronze statues scattered around the city, the ladies striking various poses.

 This was the only picture I bothered to take in Chinatown.  This street vendor was adorable!

Fellow Melburnian Jarryd (left) and his colleague Fergus.

Hungover purikura pictures on my last day in Kobe.

Kei Cars and Other Small Things

For the most part, cars in Japan are tiny.  These little beasts are called keicars - they have the smallest wheels you'll ever see on a four-door car, yellow number plates and an engine no bigger than that of your average Aussie lawnmower.  Naturally, they are cheap as chips to run and so when I arrived in Awa-cho renting a keicar was high on my list of priorities.

I have been lucky enough to lease my car from a company called Auto and Pal.  The guys in-charge are super friendly despite my complete inability to communicate and in exchange for 15,000yen per month (approximately 180AUD)  they keep me in possession of a perfectly maintained little white Suzuki Wagon.  I don't have to pay for oil changes or mechanical failures.  I don't replace tyres or pay for licensing.  I just have to take out an accident insurance policy and worry about my own fuel costs (approximately 8000yen p/m and 4000yen to fill up, respectively).  Easy.

As much as I love my deal though, I don't really love my car.  It's small and boxy and lucky to get to 100km/ph with my foot flat.  It's plain white, terribly nondescript and makes me miss my Lancer a whole lot more!  That said, this tiny little car is my lifeline here.  She helps me to get out of the inaka (countryside) on a regular basis and on the inside is surprisingly roomy enough to fit a carload of passengers.

But keicars aren't the only tiny things in Japan...  Roads are tiny!  Pre-packaged foods at the supermarket also come in tiny packets.  Tea cups are tiny.  Clothes and shoes - tiny!  Omiyage (or edible souvenirs) also come in individually-wrapped tiny packets.  Sunscreen comes in tiny bottles and you can even buy 1/4 sized cans of Asahi beer!

I've never felt particularly tall, but in comparison to many of my Japanese friends or co-workers I am gargantuan.  I can only imagine how some of the 6ft+ guys in our prefecture feel...  This is a pic of a few of them with Liz (who is only marginally shorter than myself) - from left to right: Mark, Tadgh, Mike, Simon and Broc.

Adventures in Tokyo - Part 2: Nomihodai (A Retrospective)

So Japan has this awesome concept at most restaurants and the like, called NOMIHODAI.  Nomihodai essentially means all-you-can-drink and for a set fee you can do just that within the limits of a pre-agreed-upon timeframe.  My first experience with nomihodai came on my second night in Tokyo, with a small group of fellow Melburnians in an underground basement izakaya...

After setting out from the hotel looking for a place to have a few post-dinner drinks, we met up with one of Michael's Japanese university friends', Daisuke, and found ourselves splintering from the pack (who wanted to head to some Irish Bar).  We spent some time chatting to the restaurant reps that line the Shinjuku red-light district streets, trying to find a place to grab a drink.  One young tough-looking guy talked us into a 1500yen/2-hour nomihodai deal at his establishment (note: that's roughly 20AUD for 2 hours worth of ALL YOU CAN DRINK) and we followed him downstairs to our smoky, dimly lit table.

From L-R: Me, Daisuke, Jacqui, Michael and Jarryd.

Coathangers hung from hooks on the wall and after hanging up our coats/cardies, we jumped straight into ordering drinks.  This was done by pushing a little button on our table that summoned a waiter.  Luckily, a few people at our table could speak/read Japanese and so the process ran both quickly and smoothly each time.  Our choices weren't limited - we could order beer, wine, sake, cocktails, whiskey, soft drinks, juices , anything we wanted!  We were also served little plates of food along the way, mostly random nameless Japanese entrees, but also cute little bowls of fried rice and the ever-present basket of edamame for the table.

I can't remember just how many nama biru's, cups of sake or umeshu roku's (sweet plum wine on the rocks) I had, but by the end of the nomihodai I was just a little bit trashed and predictably talking the ear off anyone who'd listen.  During our drinking session, I had also been taught the ever-useful, all-purpose word "sumimasen" and for the entire walk back to the hotel this is the only word I would utter to passersby.  Though much of it was a blur, I do recall our group stopping at a conbini (24-hour convenience store) to buy cigarettes and a lighter, posing for a photograph with a drunken group of female co-workers and dancing through the streets of Shinjuku to the bemusement of the salarymen passing by...

Day Two in Tokyo?  Nomihodai FTW.

Adventures in Tokyo - Part 1: Shinjuku, Harajuku & Shibuya (A Retrospective)

Landing for the first time in Tokyo, Japan is a bit of a crazy experience.  The mental cache is loaded with images drawn from every film you've ever seen and the sensory overload seems inevitable.

Narita Airport was a pretty tame affair.  Still feeling pretty green, all of us Aussie JETs stuck together, navigating our way through the airport like a pack of stunned mullets.  The JET Programme had put together a vast contingent of helpers, all decked out in bright pink shirts, to show us the way to the waiting buses.  Boring though it is, the only things I can really remember about this leg of the journey is needing to pee really badly (and therefore getting to experience the ubiquitous electronic toilet seats in this country for the first time) and the overwhelming humidity as we stepped outside.

The bus trip to the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku passed in a blur of form-signings.  Our sempai (elder) JET at the front of the bus did his best to explain to us the intricacies of our health insurance policies and the expectations placed upon us at Orientation.  I can recall staring out the window and being surprised to see a semi-rural landscape, instead of skyscrapers and flashing neon lights.  This was not the Tokyo I had imagined, though all in good time...

Check-in ran smoothly with my new roomie, Nellie, and I unpacking and sussing out the room.  We'd been placed in a twin room on the 17th floor - the view was amazing!  Delightfully due to the relative lack of time difference, the Aussie JETs were the first to arrive in Japan and so a number of us met up in the lobby to go for a wander and grab some lunch.

My first okonomiyaki (savoury Japanese pancake) meal in Shinjuku was delicious, though in retrospect sharing with a fellow JET was a poor choice.  Michael knew how to cook it properly at least, though I think we both left wanting a second round.  The nama biru (draft beer) hit the spot though - despite the fact that it was still only 11am!

After lunch our group decided to check out Harajuku, which apparently is always busy and good for people-watching on a Sunday.  A few of the JETs who'd been to Japan before, led us through  the labyrinth that was Shinjuku Station (which is actually one of the busiest in Tokyo, processing roughly 2 million passengers per day) and I hopped on my first Japanese train.  Harajuku was a short ride away and we got off to an empty platform overlooking a long and crazy alley-street.

The crowds in Harajuku were swarming and often rather bizarrely dressed!  Gothic Lolita girls in towering platform boots walked alongside school students still in uniform.  Trendy hipster guys wearing black-rimmed glasses held hands with their petite micro-mini wearing, Barbie look-a-like girlfriends.  And it seemed that everyone, including ourselves, clutched at a Harajuku crepe as they sauntered along the alley.

In the midst of such excitement, I managed to become separated from my friends and so having been in Japan for only a matter of hours, I found myself alone, disoriented and without any means of communication - right in the middle of downtown Tokyo!  Not to be phased, I spent some time trying to get my bearings (streets often have convenient "you are here" locator maps scattered along them) and began walking in the general direction of Shibuya.  I was determined to stand at the famous multi-directional crossings and soak up the Tokyo vibe.

Eventually I made it to Shibuya (see picture below) and as expected, I stood on the roadside watching the thousands of people gather, wait and then simultaneously cross the road, all under the glare of the giant TV screens and flashing neon.  I don't know how many light changes I stood there for, filming the scene with my digital camera and smiling stupidly at anyone brave enough to catch my eye.  Oddly, I found that most people were too polite to do so and would instead go to great pains to avoid 'ruining my video' by ducking out of the way or apologising as they passed by.

By this stage wearing heels seemed like a bad choice and as the evening approached I was pretty keen just to get back to the hotel and chillax for a while before dinner.  I hailed a cab (the door automatically opening for me) and handed the driver a Keio Plaza business card.  At the time 5000yen didn't seem like much, though since my time in Tokyo I've learnt that spending roughly the equivalent of 65AUD on a 30 minute cab ride probably couldn't be called anything but expensive.  Getting back to my room, kicking off my shoes and settling down for a short nap was worth it though...

Nellie and I had dinner together on this first night, at a tiny little izakaya (Japanese tapas-style pub) just around the corner from the hotel, on the border between Shinjuku's business and red-light districts (see the picture below).  Nothing fancy, just some karaage chicken (deep-fried boneless chicken pieces), a sashimi platter, edamame (cooked, cold, buttery Japanese beans) and a few nama birus.  We made it an earlyish night on account of having to start Orientation the next morning and stumbled back to our room, thoroughly exhausted by the day.  Little did we know that we'd both experience our first earthquake that very night and wake up to a 6.4 tremor shaking the crap out of everything in our room!

Day One in Tokyo - done!

10 Things You'd Never See An Aussie Teenager Agree To...

It goes without saying, but life here in Japan runs a lot differently to life in Australia.  At the most fundamental level, mutual respect is not earnt (as is often the case at home) but rather inbuilt.  This translates to a vastly different school environment here in Japan.  Just imagine asking an Aussie teenager to do any of the following...


1)  School assemblies in Japan are a solemn affair that feature an inordinate amount of 'ceremony'.  Students file into the gym, in their class groups, in silence, stopping only to take off their regular indoor shoes and replace them with specific gym shoes.  Each class follows their student leader, single file, to the front of the gym and then every student simultaneously raises their hands out directly in front of themselves to measure the gap between them and the person in front.  The students at the back shuffle backwards until the right spread is achieved and at the direction of the class leader they all sit on the floor.  Oh, and did I mention that rows are separated by gender for each class?  Furthermore, the students are silent for the entire assembly.  And they bow to anyone on stage that bows to them - yes, even while sitting on the floor!


2)  Japanese students are responsible for cleaning their own schools and time is allocated to this very task EVERY DAY.  For 20 minutes each afternoon students go to their assigned areas in the school, armed with cleaning products (don't be fooled - nobody uses spray'n'wipe or bleach in schools here, we're talking straw brooms, flannel washcloths and buckets of cold water all the way) and clean.  Some students are responsible for dechalking the dusters (yes, they still use blackboards here), others must sweep the driveway of leaves, some wipe windows with a wet washcloth, while others lay their hands down on their wet cloths on the polished cement floor and  run from one end of the hall to the other "mopping the floor"...  Effective?  Not really.  Expected?  You betcha.


3)  When a lesson starts in Japan, the entire class (at the direction of the class leader) must stand up and bow to the teacher (aka "sensei").


4)  Similarly, when a student is called upon to answer a question in class, the general practice is for them to stand up, push their chair in, stand behind it, answer the question, wait for the teacher to approve and then sit back down.  Every time.


5)  95% of students ride their bicycles to school every day.  Rain, hail or shine - hell, even when it's snowing!  Amazingly, absenteeism is virtually non-existent in Japanese schools too.


6)  Students are not allowed to bring food to school.  A daily school lunch is paid for as part of the yearly school fees and students must collect, serve and eat this together as a class.  No-one has a choice with regards to the menu and in the lower grades it's compulsory to eat what's put in front of you before you can leave the classroom.


7)  Each student owns several pieces of monogrammed school uniform that must be worn for different occasions.  It is not uncommon to see the students getting changed for such occasions as a group in their classrooms - you'd be surprised at how practised they are at maintaining modesty.  Every girl owns both a summer and winter uniform.  Everyone has a specialised sports uniform, colour-coded gym and indoor shoes (according to grade level) and makeup/other adornments are strictly forbidden.


8)  All students must announce their entry into the staffroom or other rooms that they might enter in order to confer with a teacher.  They must also back out of the room when they are finished, excusing themselves as they go.


9)  Upon enrolment into Junior High School, each student must choose a club to belong to.  These range from sporting clubs like soccer, softball, baseball, tennis, table tennis, basketball, volleyball, kendo or judo etc to "academic" clubs like brass band or art club.  Clubs meet every day after school and usually also on weekends.  Often, students don't leave the school grounds until 7 or 8pm in the evenings when their 'training' is finished for the day.


10) At school sports day recently, I had the joy of watching the entire student body arrange themselves into perfectly symmetrical columns and rows in order to complete a 10-minute calisthenics routine set to music.  No-one complained, no-one opted out.  Instead, they performed the exercise in perfect unison without saying a word.  See it happen in Australia?  I think not.