Fujikawa: motorway services are a cultural bridge?

Where there are motorways/highways/freeways/autobahn, there are 'services'...

Japan's services appear to be a cross between a kombini and a street market (and a coach stop). There are a healthy collection vending machines too of course. On a better day this one has a great view of Fuji ... on a better day ...

Kyoto Roadtrip

Team Reynolds is off on a road trip, Kyoto bound. Six (6) hours away; the very reason why man worked out how to put a TV in a car surely.

Our ridiculously capacious 'car' made the normally vehicle stuffing load look rather underwhelming in the corner of the boot. Surely we have forgotten something. Probably many things. The car is brimmed (re-gyu-raa, mantan onegaishimasu) - yeah, we failed to tackle the self-service petrol station last night, quite a shocking failure of something quite ordinary. Still, full service petrol stations ARE brilliant we think :)

It's raining, I hear the rustle of snacks and I'm very excited to see snow monkeys this week. I suspect there will be the odd temple too ...

Thank you Japan, are you trying to tell us something?

I think it is safe to say that our introduction to Japan has been different than we could ever have expected. To say it has been more challenging than we thought would be a monumental understatement. Though like everything else about this experience in Japan, not for the reasons we were led to expect.

Post-quake, cakes still need eating, Ginza Cozy Corner, Yokohama

Coping with the March 11th earthquake - and the hundreds that followed in the weeks since - rapidly pushed our coping skills to the edge, possibly slightly beyond. I have had a number of experiences in my life that I thought I could say were truly unsettling. Standing over my youngest daughter at 1am while our apartment shakes from side to side, creaking and groaning debating whether I need to do anything other than remain frozen by un-objective fear has proven to be a pivotal point of reflection for me.

The course of the next few days following this couldn't have been predicted before March 11th and hopefully will never be repeated either. I have new scales by which to measure fear, anxiety, relief and regret. I learnt things about myself that will probably prove useful in the future and will certainly have a profound effect on the direction of my life. These are all good things I suspect.

Taxi in cold and rainy Shanghai

A weekend working away from Japan in Shanghai on the 19th and 20th gave me time for my inner ear to recover from the constant motion. A few days working in Nagoya after that, nice as they were, and it was time to get on the Shinkansen back to Yokohama before the weekend.

Pu-dong Airport, Shanghai

Taxis outside Marriott Associa, Nagoya

I'm looking forward to returning to Nagoya and exploring Kyoto, Osaka and Okinawa at some point but not without my family.

All that self imposed disruption to send the girls on an early holiday to Texas, and we were never really in any danger. Things fell, there are cracks in our apartment walls. The news scared us somewhat. The massive extraction of foreigners scared us more.

Even today with the lack of meaningful progress apparent at Fukushima Daiichi it's only caveman brain that has any objections to being here ... but gosh caveman brain is a powerful thing when you're shaken awake in the early hours.

Still beautiful, returning to bustling norm, Yamashita-koen, Yokohama

Still beautiful, international port, Yokohama

The only really scary thing left for me now is thinking how easy I have it and how just a few hundred kilometres away, thousands of people really have something to complain about - but it seems that in true Japanese style few are complaining. Those poor people who lost everything - lives, loved ones, entire families, friends, pets, homes, hometowns, futures - in many cases everything that we think of as important. Some face a unimaginable rebuilding effort. Some face an uncertain future with fears of never returning home safely. How do you start again when you lose everything - not just material posessions? The story of a elderly man losing his wife, children and grandchildren is too desperately sad to forget, certainly too difficult to fully comprehend.

Power saving? Yokohama

When I sat shaking inexplicably after feeling the distant results of another big earthquake near Miyagi on the 7th April, I'm reminded that I've almost never had it so good. It's psychologically difficult and nothing more. Yokohama is as wonderful and safe as ever. It is a testament to Japanese resilience that within days things were almost back to normal. The trains are still probably the best in the world. Take that Britain.

Late in the day, perfect weather, Chinatown, Yokohama

This weekend is perfect timing for seeing the sakura blossoming and if it wasn't pissing with rain there would presumably be at least a few hanami to observe too. Hoping for sun on Sunday, but on reflection it's not really too much of a problem to bear if I have to wait another year.

Looking forward from here the summer is likely to be extremely challenging of course. Electricity restrictions and their inevitable impact on air conditioning means that we might just have to deal with the brutal heat and humidity a little more directly than we had expected. That's a pretty small inconvenience relatively speaking though. I hope not to forget that in July ...

Zoo, Driving and IKEA...

It's been a week since my last post and we have been quite busy since then. Our trip to the zoo was enjoyed by all, especially daughter 2 who's favourite animal was definitely the bear! The lions and chimpanzee seemed a little sad in their small enclosures but the highlight of the trip was most definitely the petting zoo, Japan style! Mice, guinea pigs and chicks are roaming around on small tables, the children take a mat, a brush and a small animal, sit down on the benches provided and pet... none of the animals tried to escape and no-one got hurt, bitten or scratched!

The rest of the week passed in a bit of a blur ending with a trip to the drivers licence office on Friday to obtain a Japanese drivers licence. After a very early drop off for daughter 1 with a school friend we braved the rush hour train through Yokohama station to Futamatagawa with daughter 2 in her pushchair! We were just very glad that the millions of people crammed in the train with their faces pressed against the window got out before we had to get on. The wait at the office was almost exactly what we were expecting 3.5 hours, and with much help from a lovely japanese lady we left with two japanese drivers licences :o)

Saturday then meant we HAD to go driving in our new car so feeling pretty brave we headed out to IKEA! Although we had a few hurdles on the way... firstly we had no petrol... found the petrol station, managed to convey what we wanted and now have a full tank! secondly we had to program the japanese satnav... good job Benn was paying attention to the lesson he had. We arrived at IKEA just after opening and had a surprisingly enjoyable trip and delicious meatballs for lunch returning with almost everything we went for!

Feeling pretty brave I headed out into chinatown and the day ended with o-mochi kaeri (take out) from our local chinese restaurant... YUMMY :o)

A nice week

A good week in Japan.

Daughter 1 enjoying school, daughter enjoying being pushed everywhere in the pushchair and mummy getting fit pushing the pushchair up the hill to school twice a day!

With the help of some lovely people I have managed to find the big supermarket, although daughter 2 wasn't so happy about that trip! had a lovely lunch with the ladies at the country club and we are now awaiting the arrival of our first official guests for a drink this evening.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the Nogeyama zoo, looking forward to seeing the petting zoo...

NEVER touch the taxi door.

Not much to say today... life currently consists of lots of walking back and forth to school although did get to see a kimono demonstration at the school ptsa meeting today which was very interesting.

I did remember another thing i had noticed in Japan - Never open or touch the taxi door, it opens and closes automatically.

Tomorrow playgroup :o)

Interesting observations...

We have had a pretty interesting and exciting 'first' week in Japan, yesterday we had a new year party with all our neighbours where we got to eat curry, drink beer and chat with all our new neighbours.

Friday probably best not mentioned i think, lets just say there was an incident with some 'beer' which turned out not to be beer at all but fermented soy beans... needless to say Benn was not pleased with my purchase and we have had to go on another beer hunt today :o(

Saturday saw the arrival of our air shipment, lots of summer clothes which probably aren't going to be very useful now and none of the kitchen implements that we would be very grateful of... lets hope the sea shipment isn't too far behind!

Sunday... best day of the week, another trip to our favourite shop! got myself a very nice hairdryer and the girls had fun playing with all the toys. We bravely ventured downstairs to the food court and tried out the noodle bar, after putting loads of money into a vending machine outside the restaurant you press the buttons showing the dish you want and out prints a ticket which you hand in to the waitress... excellent food, and we got what we were expecting so yey!!!

I also wanted to start writing down a list of the interesting things we have noticed that are different in Japan:

1. When you pay by credit card they always ask you how many instalments you want to pay in.

2. Everyone queues nicely on the left for the escalator but push madly to get in the lift, a few ankles have been run over by the pushchair today!

3. You have to shove your way off the train as people try to get on before you've gotten off.

4. If you can't use chopsticks you better learn the word for fork!!!

5. They don't use knives, even when offered a fork or spoon you rarely get a knife.

6. Zebra crossings have lights, NEVER cross unless the man is green!

7. Cars can turn when the green man is on but have to wait for people to cross.

8. Despite their normal reserve many Japanese people stare and laugh at westerners.

9. Many supermarkets don't take credit card

10. The Japanese love children, always wave and smile, and even have plastic bowls and cutlery in the most unlikely of restaurants

11. Ticket Machines at the train station can be converted to English but the map is only in Japanese.