The victory is ours! We are victorious. Break open the champagne, start the music, smash a few plates on the step, hoist us high in the air on chairs or just get us our very own soap box!
In our first season we've won some silverware. I play for a team called the Tokyo Panthers in the Tokyo Metropolis League, down in the third division, and we just won the FJ Plate Knockout Competition Final. We beat a Japanese team called H-United 2-1. On our way, we managed to knock off teams from the first, second and our third division. Not a bad little feat for a bunch of amateurs! Here's our team photo.

I've been here for almost 2 years and 4 months now. Jen and I have experienced a lot together and then in the last 4 months, I have been basically just saying the same things over and over again. When my friends Sonia and Glyn were staying with me, it occurred to me that I am taking things for granted. There are some really weird, strange, "only in Japan" things out there and I am now a little oblivious to them all. So without any further ado, I would like to start my Top "Ten Quirky Things about Japan" list.

#10 Everyone in Japan seems to be employed. There's this bakery down the road with about 10 spots for cars. Every weekend without fail there are 3 parking attendants working there, complete with little flashing batons, whistles and ties.

#9 Even the homeless people look fashionable. I'm not kidding, they still wear all the fashion accessories!

#8 Japanese people won't sit next to foreigners on trains. Do we smell? Probably better than the typical coffee/BO/cigarette stench arising from the salarymen. Are we taking up too much room? Not anymore room than other Japanese people my size or larger (of which there are quite a few). So what is it I hear you ask? I have NFI. But I do know that the train can be quite crowded and the seat next to me is the only one in the carriage vacant.

#7 Men's hairstyles. Shoot me, shoot me now. No, actually shoot them! I have seriously seen more Japanese guys using the mirror to look at their hair, play with their hair, fix their hair than I will in the rest of my life time. I saw a whole team doing their hair before an indoor soccer game one night. Soccer players on the field constantly fix their hair at half time and some even during the game. Grown men will be looking at a shop window really closely and I'll think to myself "Why is he looking at that poster from 20cm away?" and then I'll see his hands picking at strands of hair and placing them where he wants them. He's looking at his reflection in the glass.

#6 Soccer players in Japan. They dive, the don't tackle and if you ask me, their a bunch of pansies. This is typified when I was reading the team bios of my favourite local team, Chiba JEF United. About 5 of the players from a team sheet of about 15 said one of their hobbies is shopping.

#5 Krispy Kreme donuts. There is a store in Shinjuku and people wait for, on average and i'm not kidding, over an hour and sometimes beyond 1.5 hours to buy donuts. I thought perhaps it was a new thing in Japan so the novelty would wear off but one year on, the lines are just as long. These are just donuts people!

#4 Japanese people and their phones. The Japanese word is Keitai, Americans use cell phones, Aussies use mobile phones. In Japan, it's typically a phone with the ability to call other phones, send emails, take a photo, play games, surf the internet, listen to music and that might be it. But Japanese are just so obsessed with them, they use it in their cars while driving, while riding a bike, while walking, while on the train, while at a soccer game, anywhere! The typically situation is that the train doors open and everyone gets on with phone in hand, they search for a vacant seat and sit down if possible. Either way, the next action is to whip open that phone and start doing whatever it is they do. This craze has actually spawned keitai novels, where authors write their novel on their phone. Oh yeah, and you can now get phones in Japan which you can view TV on...

#3 Warm toilet seats. There's nothing funny about a warm toilet seat. Means that someone has just used it. BUT! A lot of the toilets up here have seat warmers so in winter, they are permanently warm for your little bottom! Crazy but true. These toilet seats also have a little French style bide and a button that you push when you want the sound of the toilet flushing to cover up any bodily function noise.

#2 Fashion. I should just leave it at that but fashion in Japan is pretty unique, some might say peculiar. Women's fashion comes in cycles (knee high cowboy boot season is October and November) and at the moment it is typically short skirts or short shorts with a pair of high heels (pumps) AND a pair of awful knee high stockings. It apparently doesn't matter how short the skirt or shorts are, so long as you're wearing the black knee high stockings, its all good.

#1 Japanese men and handbags. Now this is not rife throughout the male population... oh yeah actually, it is! Men carry bags that can only be described as women's handbags. At first I saw a few guys carrying their girlfiend's handbag and then I saw this being repeated almost every weekend, which in itself is scary. But then I started to see single males walking by themselves with bags that were very feminine. The love em, the feel of a handbag over the shoulder, nothing like it apparently!

I just wish that I had lots of photos to back up what i'm saying. I know what you're saying, easy, just take some. But I can't because, alas, I have become Japanised and people just don't take photos of others in Japan.

Saw this last night on the Canadian station while watching the RED WINGS win Stanley!


Not sure if these sumo wrestlers would get in trouble for doing a 'bikini car wash' commercial, but it sure is funny!

Recently, Kanda University of International Studies held the annual KUIS Cup which featured a brand spanking new artificial turf ground to play on; and boy, was it heaven! It was soooo soft and smooth compared with the
a) dirt grounds that are fast and hard, or
b) grass grounds with knee high tufts every couple of steps

Usually this event is held over two days and of course on the Saturday night, we go out and have a few drinks. Maybe a few drinks is a gross understatement. We usually go to a restaurant that offers a $10 all you can drink so needless to say our performance on the Sunday is very ordinary. This KUIS cup was played over one day only and as such we improved our performance. Our team, ELI FC, came a very respectable 7th which incidentally involved two wins and two losses. This was the ELIs best ever result and boy did we celebrate! First we had a few tinnies outside the local convenient store, then moved onto the all you can drink place, followed shamelessly by a bar that people only go to because it is open till late.

From a personal standpoint, I also did alright. I scored from a long range strike against China in our 1-0 win and also scored a penalty kick when our game against Iran went into penalties.

From the top:
1. Our team photo. The local press likened us to the all conquering Liverpool team of 2004. Some have even asked Barcelona scouts to come and see our next game to replace the has beens of Ronaldihno and Marquez.
2. Me and Saki, one of my best students who was the manager for the Russian team. Apparently they all had a shot of vodka before one of the games and forced poor Saki to have one too!
3. Ben FS about to level us at 1-1 with a header against Iran.
4. Me about to take the spot kick.
5. The ball in mid air
6. GOAL!

One last sunset..

After 6 weeks helping my parents out in the Bahamas, it was time to leave my mojitos and margaritas behind and move on to MI where the weather hasn't been nearly as warm and pleasant. On my final day in the Bahamas, I finally got my mom in the water, which she says she's always too busy to do! We went snorkeling and saw a huge barracuda and a manta-ray swimming around near the dock. We had a delicious last meal together where we ate surf and turf and lobster mornay. Nick's been jealous of all the good food I've been eating while he's stuck in Japan cooking for himself! Thankfully now that I'm back in MI, I've joined Bally's on a 2 week trial pass that's free! And when the 2 weeks is up, I'll go scam my way into another gym :)

A long but appropriate subject. I have now completed four "hikes" in Japan and two were walking up concrete steps. Now I didn't know at the time that I would have been walking up steps but others sure did! Some girls were still in their high heels, no problems! Some Japanese folk were dressed for the occasion, hiking boots, hiking pants, hiking hat, hiking shirt, hiking sweat cloth, hiking stick... the list goes on!
So, I went with Dwayne and Erik, two of my mates from the uni and we had a good time. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say the view on the top was postcard perfect. I reckon the photo i took with the cherry blossom tree in the foreground are spectacular! I am becoming more humble as I age...


Check out more of the photos here.

So it is that time of year again when the Japanese Marketing department at the university where I teach likes to take a photo of all the foreign teachers. I liken it to being a mannequin in a shopping window. Anyways, I took this photo and thought about it and came up with the following question.

How many Japanese people does it take to take a photo?

Since I was leaving, Nick and I decided to go all out at no expense and do something that we have really never done! That is...until now. Yes we did in fact do the splurge and order PIZZA!

Now pizza in Japan is like fine Italian cuisine at an expensive Italian eatery in New York. Ok, not exactly, but you're going to pay the same. It's crazy how expensive pizza is from Dominos, Pizza Hut or where we ordered from Pizza La.

We got two medium pizzas and a measly box of popcorn shrimp for the a whopping $50! Yes that's right 16 pieces of pie and 5 shrimps for $50! Was it worth it? Well, the pizza was pretty delicous and we got to sit back watch a movie and celebrate our 2 years here in Japan with a bottle of Champagne the Nick's dad gave us...so yes it was worth the splurge.

Here are some pics of our gourmet delivery. Oh and you should've seen the face of the delivery guy when Nick told him to keep the change (about $3). Usually this is not customary to tip anyone in Japan and actually from what I heard they find it rude if you try to. Usually they won't except it and will try to give it back. Nick tried to explain in Australia, we tip, here..take it....it's just $3!

Our favorite sushi restaurant in Japan has been a place called Kappa Kappa Sushi. It's a sushi train where you can pick off the conveyer belt the sushi you want until you stuff yourself silly. The best part, while it might not be the top notch sushi being served in Tokyo, is that it's cheap! About a dollar a plate. This is something I will miss back in the US, where sushi costs much more than just a $1 :) We visited one last time with fellow Kanda teachers Al, Tara and Julie. Farewell Kappa Kappa Sushi

On Saturday Nick and I headed in to Akihabara to check out some skype phones, but all we found was the following picture of men taking pictures of girls dressed up in their maid costumes, pretty typical for this area of Tokyo. But this one was different as it was a group of Gaijin! Otherwise known as foreigners and we swear they were like 12 years olds. Nonetheless, they were creating quite a crowd taking pictures of them




After Akihabara we headed to Ueno which was packed! This was the big weekend for cherry blossom viewing and hanami parties. Plenty of Japanese people pack Ueno Park, bring a picnic and what appeared to be plenty of alcohol! Now contrary to popular belief that Japanese are quiet and polite people....they sure can let loose when the Sakura trees are blooming. here's some pics and a movie for our last trip into Tokyo for me (Jen)