I awoke at about 6am or so, to be greeted by the site of Kyoto.. w00t! Except of course Haruka had arranged to meet us at 7, so it seemed like quite a bit of waiting around would be in order. The bus stopped just outside the station and we stepped out into what can only be described as EXTREME COLD with strong as winds…

We therefore headed into the station to shelter for a bit and await the arrival of Haruka.

Maybe an hour and 45 later (go Haruka! ;)) she finally arrived and it was time to go back to her house…

…. except she couldn’t seem to work out how to get there!?!?

Lol… after spinning around and around a few times, she finally decided on a route and we headed up through the station to a different train line platform. But it was all not all done, as again she seemed a little lost and we had to walk up and down a few platforms until we were finally on the right one
The train journey to Haruka’s stop (Makino) took about 30 minutes (it’s about half way between Kyoto and Osaka) but took us out of the city background and allowed us to see some countryside. This was awesome as I am kinda sick up of the “buildupness” of Tokyo and this made a great change - oh how I wish I lived out here instead… ah well…

Makino itself was even better, the station has a massive bowling alley situated next to it, along with a 24 hour Karaoke centre and a McDonalds (so basically everything you need for a night out) - a small shopping arcade just over the street (so you can buy all you need) - but apart from, NOTHING…. so cool! Just mountains in view, and little houses….

After walking about 10/15 minutes from the station, we finally got to Haruka’s place (or room I should say…)

Here you go, welcome to the Home Of Haruka
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Do come into the front room and say Hello!! w00t!

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Again, as with the area, her place is also pretty awesome! It’s certainly not the biggest of abodes, but has everything you need. Kitchen area, shower room, toilet, then the main room (as seen in the pictures) which is both the front room and bedroom. Oh and the rent, about £200 a month!!! (our place is £1300 or so!!) - let me tell you, I was so jealous!!

We were then very kindly cooked breakfast (Yaki Udon) before settling down in various places on the floor to get to sleep (except Helen who had taken a turn for the worse, so had had Haruka’s bed donated to her). It must have been about 12/1 or so, when I was woken by Haruka leaving to go to her part time job - leaving a map and some keys so we could get out.

A few hours later, we were finally ready to head out, with first job being to find an ATM. No mean feat in England, but as I’ve been ranting over the last year - out here, can be kinda tricky. After looking around the local area for a good 20 minutes, we finally found the Post Office and Helen was able to draw some cash (I couldn’t as my card didn’t work there) and we could start out on our journey.

The train took about 30 minutes to deliver us to “Shijo” - a place I remembered well as it was were Justin and I had gone before (in fact, I remembered lots of places due to having gone there before, I suspect Helen got quite sick of me going “ah I went here with Justin”… lol). Here I was able to go in an AM:PM and get some cash out, before we started off on our little tour of Kyoto.

Admittedly we didn’t see so much, as it was a bit late and things were starting to close (all the temples and what not generally shut up shop around 4/5ish) however we didn’t miss everything…

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Timing a little off now, but I think at around 8 o’clock or so (from within the coffee shop “Dotour”) we sorted out the nights plan, to head away from Kyoto to Osaka (and Shinsaibashi) were we would meet up with Haruka and head off on the night out.

We arrived there in good time, and headed directly to Helen’s new favourite haunt - Starbucks Where we waited for Haruka to show… and waited… and waited some more, before finally she turned up (though she did seem quite apologetic) and whisked us away to a nearby izakaya where her friend worked.

Once in, we were introduced to “Yuuka” who worked in the bar just part time, in order to save up some money so she can come to England in July! She’s pretty hot too…. maybe coming home in August isn’t such a bad idea…. haha … lol…

She had to carry on working for the first few hours, so in the meantime we ordered some food and drinks (of which only the food got put through the computer ;)) - including a HUGE bowl of sake for Helen (which unbelieveably she DIDN’T manage to finish :eek:)

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Once Yuuka had finished work, she then joined us at the table, where we chatted for an hour or so (or at least everyone tried to, but more on that later…) until it was time to go. The girls wanted to go to a Drum n Bass event, though it was pretty obvious this would be a bad idea for Helen - so they were “persuaded” against this, and instead we headed down the street to another bar (run by another one of Haruka’s friends) - this wasn’t however, before the manager of Yuuka’s restaurant gave us a discount on the (already “incorrect”) bill …. w00t!

The next place was an “American Style” diner, which meant nice comfy seats - and again, cheap drinks.

Now the fun and games began …
Of course naturally everyone would sit and chat in a bar. This was fine for me as my Japanese seemed to have suddenly accelerated itself and I could actually hold a conversation, meaning I was able to speak in pretty much straight English. This wasn’t such a good thing for Helen though (obviously) - so the girls did their best to talk in English…

However, it seemed accents caused quite a few problems (much to my amusement, sorry Helen)

It would go like this:

Yuuka or Haruka would ask Helen a question in English.
Helen wouldn’t understand, so it would be repeated a few times.
Finally, after it looked like someone was going to punch someone else, I would repeat it for her.
Helen would then reply (in pretty basic English)
But then neither Yuuka or Haruka would understand.
So I would then have to repeat in Japanese (or in my super dumb English Accent)

It was just bizarre, but highly amusing (well for me at least).

It reminded me of the time Haruka stayed over at Jamie’s the first time she visited, the conversation went like this.

Jamie: What airline are you going back on?
Haruka: ?
Jamie: Airline…
Haruka: ?
Jamie: A-I-R-L-I-N-E
Haruka: ?
Me: Airline
Haruka: Ahh… JAL…

I can only think that due to all the Japanese I have spent time with (both here and in England before) and the fact I have had to practise kindergarden for so long, I can now natually speak on an easy level….. for anyone else involved though, it does seem to be quite frustrating.

We must have stayed at the bar until about 3 or 4am (in which time, I got in like SOOOO much J-practise, it was awesome) until Haruka got a call from her boyfriend to say he was outside and would be able to give us a lift back to the house.

We therefore trekked outside and across the street, to be greeted by the site of what must be one of the smallest cars to ever exist, complete with boyfriend and best mate already inside (and then the four of us) - there was only one option, and that was to go for a complete squeeze. I really wish I had a photo of the car, as it’s quite hard to appreciate just how small the thing was, but suffice to say - there was some serious bone crushing action going on in the back for the hour or it took to get to the first drop off point where Yuuka and then Haruka’s boyfriend’s (Shuuhi) mate… so finally there was room to breath
Haruka’s house was another hour or so drive from Yuuka’s, which left me and Helen wondering where everyone was intending to stay… this became apparent on the arrival home, when extra futons were put out, and it became obvious we were all going to share the single room - to their credit, we did get given the bed, meaning Haruka and Shuuhi had the floor - but it was still very tight and I had to really watch I didn’t roll to the left and end up on top of him!!
Sleep was difficult, due to the massive heat (the aircon was left on) and apparently I then stole all the blankets… sorry!

The next day was another late start, with Haruka once again dissapearing off to work, leaving us with Shuuhi who then gave us a lift to the station when we were all up and dressed - in time for us to catch the express back into town.

Once there, we attempted to get a bit more done this time and headed directly for the guidebook trail.

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We then walked along through the park until we reached one of the major temple tourist attractions… which of course was closed… doh!

Luckily, Helen wasn’t in the mood to waste time, so we kept on going until we found the “old town”, steep streets full of traditional shops (which looked so cool) before finally reaching the top of the hill and finding a massive shrine area. We had to be quick as we only had 15 minutes until it closed, so we rushed around it as best we could…

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Not too much to tell here really, I guess you need more photos to really appreciate the place, so you are going to have to take my word for it that it was nice… but it was
For the evening entertainment, a night club again didn’t seem like such a good idea (due to the having to stay out until 5) so it was instead decided to go to the local Karaoke rooms near Haruka’s house. (where we were joined by Shuuhi) … not before first going to the convenience store to smuggle in some drinks
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I did have some photos of Helen, but she took the camera when I was in the toilet and then deleted them
We must have left karaoke at about 4:08am (that time sticks in my head) - paid our bills, then headed back home - where me and Shuuhi got into a bit of an animated conversation, until rolling eyes from Haruka and Helen made it clear we were to shut up so everyone could go to bed
Sunday and our final day, Kyoto wasn’t on the menu - and instead we were going to visit “Nara” - very famous for a large temple and also having a park full of deer. We were in a bit of a rush as it closed at 5, however left at around 2, leaving us plenty of time….

Or not….

The place was absolutely MILES away involving a drive over what can only be described as one of the largest and steepest hills in the world (so steep infact, it seemed on quite a few occassions that the car just wouldn’t make it over!!)

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Finally, at about 5:20 (yup…) we arrived to be of course greeted by the main buildings being closed… we were however, able to browse the grounds and run after numerous deer…
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All was not complete doom and gloom though, as upon asking a local guard, we were directed up a hill towards the “observation point” - high up and overlooking everything… even better, we got there just in time for the sunset… finally, something is going our way
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Of course, this good luck wouldnt’ be complete without something going wrong, so it was at that point, as we peacefully looked over the setting sun, that I got a text message from England letting me know the database server was down…. great…. this then shattered all peacefullness, and now all I could worry about what “why”….

I tried my best to push it out my mind (though not very successfully) and we then headed back to Osaka to buy bus tickets, get some dinner, and, go to an internet cafe to see what was going on.

Our last meal with our friends was an okonomiyaki restaurant, where instead of doing a “mix up”, just bought one each. Whilst this was good, i think it’s nicer to get a mixture, so will go the share route again next time.

We then browsed a few UFO catcher shops, before I popped into an internet cafe for about 20 minutes to sort out some company work…

Alas, all too soon it was time to get the bus It was therefore sadly that we queued up in the bus line to get back on (I so wanted to stay) and said a fond farewell to the Kyoto’ers who had looked after us so well over the weekend… before finally climbing aboard (to a now full packed) nightbus, settling down, and starting the journey back….

BENS RAMBLINGS: I just wanted to make some memory notes here, and just to say a few things.

I just remembered back in 2004, when I first got in contact with Haruka and asked if she wanted to come over a stay - everyone thought I was mad, having some stranger Japanese girl over. But, back then we had a great time. Indeed again in 2005 when she came over with Nagisa (thanks Mum + Dad) - again, people were a bit sceptical and were actually talking about “using” me…

But here, it’s all proved wrong! I think the kindness shown to us over the weekend, very much shows that there are some really nice people in the world and it was nice to know I have some good friends down South Of course, the invitation has been given for them to visit here in Tokyo, which I hope they will do sometime soon…. show them how we party in the capital
Will definately look into more homestays when back in the UK…. whenever that might be ….

Wow, now I *really* am behind… two weeks to catch up on. I was debating on whether or not to just let it all slip, but figured I’ll want to look back over this, so should get as much down as possible. I’ll admit though, I’m going to skip some bits as 1) it would take me too long to fill in everything and 2) I’ve started to forget it already anyhow
Ok, so we were off to the station to meet Helen. Usually such a simple task, you arrange to meet, you go there, you can’t find them - you call them. Well, this being Japan and all and with the “no import” phone situations, this wasn’t going to happen. (Indeed the lack of a cellphone cased a number of problems later on during the week). Luckily Helen called me from a payphone, and I was able to advise her to go to South Exit. Again, this wasn’t quite as simple as it seemed, however I trusted her judgement and was sure she would be able to make it there
I wandered around S. Exit a bit until finally we met up. Admittedly it’s usually harder to find her, but with her being the same height as the Japanese, it was still a bit of a chore. Infact, she found me, I was just aimlessly looking around … haha….

First stop was back to mine for a shower (not together, obviously) so we headed on the train back. On getting off at Setagaya Daita and facing the walk back, it quickly obvious her suitcase was made for… well someone her size To pull it on it’s wheels I litterally had to stoop - and with the weight it was, there was no way to carry the thing. Needless to say, getting home took a little while ….

So finally after getting back, the plan was for the quick shower and then to head out. However maybe things god delayed somewhat or so, as we actually finally managed to get out the house at about 3 - this didn’t really give me time to do much, so we went to Shibuya, got some lunch in the local Matsuya then hung out in Starbucks until I had to head off to work, leaving Helen to make her way to Shinagawa to meet her school trip chums.

Work turned into a nice day due to the cancellation of some of my lessons! This meant I was able to work on my “Realia Project” - so I sat in the reception happily cutting out magazine articles when suddenly, in walks Helen! It seemes that the flight had finally taken it’s toll on her and she couldn’t stay awake…. It was left to me then to tentativly ask my manager if she would be allowed to sleep in a hidden section of the sales area, to which he reluctantly agreed - so off she trotted to the seating area, slouched down over a table and promply fell asleep!
3 hours later, when my shift finished, it was time to get the stragler out of the building and head off to meet Seiko, Shiho and Toshi to go to “Bochi Bochi” for Helen’s first proper Japanese meal (a miso soup at matsuya doesn’t count!) We were then later joined by Shimpei, before heading off to “Trouble Peach” to have some after meal drinks Yumi then turned up too, so the circle of friends meeting was complete. Everything ended at about 3am or so, when it was agreed we would meet up with Shimpei the next day to go around Asakusa.

Wednesday morning and despite attemping to get up early to meet Shimpei, we didn’t quite make it and he left without us - all wasn’t too bad however, as it gave us a bit longer to get ready and head there by ourselves. Once there, we simply gave him a call and he came to meet us. We spent a nice couple of hours looking around and had a very nice lunch, before I had to head to work - but not before Seiko and Shiho had turned up, to whisk Helen away to Odaiba.

After work, I headed to Shibuya to meet up with the girls (by which time the heavens had opened) before we headed to Sangenjaya to get some food and a drink. Unfortunately, it seemed Helens Jetlag hadn’t been jetlag at all, but the start of a very nasty cold - which was now properly starting to rear it’s head. We therefore didn’t stay too late as she was feeling a bit poorly awww…
Thursday was the day we had to go to Shinjuku to buy our bus tickets for Kyoto, however first early morning impressions were not looking too good. Helen was in a terrible state, the cold was really starting to take over and we weren’t sure if going was really gonna be such a good idea. We therefore left off buying the tickets then, but leaving the bus details with Helen, so if she felt better - all she had to do was go to the station and get the tickets.

Mark from Nova was also leaving, so after work was a “get together” drinking session - I knew I had to be careful here as to not stay too late and miss the bus (if we were going) so tried not to get too comfy. At about 10pm or so (I think) I got a call from Helen to say it was on, and that the bus left at 11:20. It was decided I should leave at about 10:30, which I almost did (about 10:35) - however I had neglected to get any money out, so now had to run around Shimo looking for a cash machine (which I didn’t actually find) - I did however have enough money for a train ticket, so gave up and got the train to Shinjuku (arriving very late… ).

Due to my lateness, there was now no time either to find an ATM, so we headed directly to the bus station to find our carriage to freedom… (or something like that :)). Upon getting on, there was one thing that immediately stuck out (well for me anyway)… the height of the ceilings!! They must have been about 5′7″ at most this became even more amusing when it was time to go to the toilet, the thing was only small and it took a lot of manouvering just to be able to climb in the thing in the first place… haha…

What was cool though was that NO ONE else was on the buses ground floor (it was a double decker) - this meant we basically had the whole bus to ourselves In the end, this turned out to be a godsend as the seats weren’t so big and trying to have slept on just one would have been quite impossible.

So the journey started out and Helen had began to worry about where we would stay (bless) - I therefore decided to mail Haruka and see if she could suggest anywhere. After about two minutes a reply came - “No problem, you can stay in my room!”. Awesome! To confirm this, I decided to take the plunge and try calling her (all in Japanese…) - and by jove, I did it We arranged everything over the phone (in Jap) with her even suggesting she would come to the bus garage at 7am to collect us!!! Things were definately looking up!

That then just left me the task of trying to get to sleep, which was now going to be difficult as I was quite exciting and not really ready for bed… however, after an hour or two of playing Tetris, common sense prevailed and, stretching over 3 seats, I was finally able to nod off

So tonite was my weekend, due to having to work on Sunday. I finished work early which was good, so had intended to come home and work more on the site, hoping to have it finally finished, so I could release the new plans to the public.

This didn’t go quite to plan though as some other matters came up, but in reality, this is irrelevant as I was still happy
Seiko finished work at 10 or so and was then coming home, before we were both going to go out. At 11 o’clock (or maybe 10:30, not sure) she came home absolutely trashed - this of course was bad enough in itself, except she had brought someone else home - a big Japanese army guy, who she claimed not to know?!?!?

They were both quite drunk and he was trying to say something, but I didn’t have a clue and wished really he would just f*ck off as I knew by now I wouldn’t be going out, so just wanted some peace and quiet to get on with things. He then proceeded to keep taking me by the hand and dancing with me, in that stupid drunk way everyone does… I just was hoping Seiko would go to her room or something.

Seiko however had other ideas and opened up 2 (yes 2) bottles of wine, which the then poured out (and all over the kitchen) - oh and I’ll point out, it was red wine….

They asked me over to drink with them, so figured one would be ok. However as I was standing in the corner trying to get the cork off the corkscrew, the guy kept grabbing me, and then groping my arse….? Assuming he was just drunk and trying not to fall over (how naive am i) - i ignored it, however he then asked Seiko did I have a girlfriend, and when I said yes, he got down on his knee and proclaimed he was really jealous - ok, so now those warning bells were ringing….

Not really too much time to think about it though as by now Seiko had swung her arms around and thrown red wine all over the wall and floor! I started to mop it, at which point matey thought best to help my hands along
I now decided it would just be best to try and ignore them, so went across the room to the computer and pretended to be on the phone. This kinda worked, but I could see in the background Seiko had opened another bottle of wine?!?!

There’s no point me going into detail here, but for the next hour or so, cue just noise and them just coming in my room and rolling on the bed and stuff… including the guy starting to try on all my clothes, then takign my new jumper and dragging himself along the floor all around the apartment in it? No wait, Seiko gave him the jumper, yes thats right - she took it and gave it to him, then he started to roll around the floor in it.

Damnit, I’m so angry - I bet this writing is terrible - but at least it’s written with passion
So finally Seiko passes out, so I assumed the guy would leave, but no, he just sits in the frontroom and starts going through my Japanese folder. I dont know what to do now, i just want him gone, but it’s obvious he’s not going to.

So I keep typing, when wham! He has opened up Seikos packet of salmon (like the whole thing) and thrown it onto my bed!?! Like WHAT THE F*CK?!?

I ring Shimpei to ask him what to do, but I guess in reality there was nothing he could do - he did offer to speak to the guy, but i wasn’t so sure this would be a good idea…..

You know, there was like loads more, but I’m so angry I can’t fully remember - the upshot was, as soon as he finally left the room, I turned off all the lights - he came back in, sat around talking to himself for sometime and now has finally left.

However - I now have another god damn dilema - if Seiko doesn’t know who he is, surely he shouldn’t be sleeping with her?!? I don’t know, I jsut don’t know - she also is supposed to be up early tomorrow to go on some boat cruise somewhere, so what will happen to him?!!??

This is insane.

Just when things were starting to get better - but now I just think, “I came to Tokyo for Seiko and so far she has f*cked up my house, f*cked up my new year (which was a big BIG deal to me, though i didn’t show it, whats the point) and now there’s these other issues with her just getting trashed - I could have taken JET, been earning £19k a year and have access to loads of Japanese people…. but I turned it down to be with her, and its just not getting me anywhere….

Helen, I apologise for ever having any problems with you - now I have found Seiko, you are just like a little angel
I will read over this again in the morning, see if I have missed anything, but now I just want to go to bed - try and forget it ever happened. And then begin my 7 day week….. fantastic - thanks a lot.

Hehe… I write to you now as once again Yumi has fallen asleep on my bed, and I don’t have the heart to wake her up just yet and send her back into the cold (its freeeezing outside) - I figured I might as well come back on here and write something, rather than just waste a load of time doing nothing.

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So what did I do today, well, most of the day was spent updating the iNETFX site and working on the new server. I’m happy to say all is now complete - the main focus of my work today was to build a “server status” page, which updated with live information….. and all done
Click here to see it in action

So what does it do, well, just basically connects to all the server services and makes sure they are working. Also allows me to update the “urgent news” page in real time. The whole point is, this is a seperate machine to my normal one, so if there is trouble with machine one, it can be posted up here (machine 2) - without this method, any problems and people would just be left wondering … “whats happened!!!”.

So that took me quite a lot of the day, the rest of the time was spent planning Gowry’s new website and watching episodes of Family Guy.

I’ve now also managed to grab the whole of the movie “Kokurisan” - a supposed really scary J-Horror, so I might watch that tomorrow.

Also spent an hour or so on the phone to Gowry, who wasn’t in the best of moods, however this time - i wasn’t to blame So in a funny way it was really nice, just her letting off steam to me - made me feel like I had some worth again I miss her telling me everything, though she has promised to start calling me more - w00t!

An unfortunate side effect of things going right - something didn’t like my skin and I seem to have some nasty and painful spots on my neck - grrrrr….. i wonder if it’s the washing powder … hmm… hopefully they will be clear in a day or two though, so not too much of a worry….

Well, it seems Yumi isn’t going to budge as she has now wrapped herself up in the covers - so it’s the matteress in the front room for me … doh! It’s so cold, and we only had a little spare rug thing…. plus of course she is getting up at 6:00 to go catch her plane, thats 3 hours sleep then before I can get back in my own bed …. hurrah!

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Reminds me (though I’m not sure why) - I really need to call Helen, miss her antics (though I now have two Japanese replacements - they’re about the same size too) - except actually, Helen never falls asleep - which is a shame as I think she would stay out of so much trouble if she did haha….

I’ve been waiting up all night for the call from home, but I think it’s got a bit late now - no one loves me - so sorry Uncle Jack that I didn’t get to say hello, but I need to get some sleep …..

Until next time - hey - be careful out there