Off to tokyo again

Needed clothes, needed shoes and needed a weekend out of Niigata and as luck would have it Shizuka had a rare weekend off. She also wanted to go and see what i can only describe as a motivational speaker/life coach thingy with her friend, Che (far right).

So we found a place in Shibuya that sold mens clothes and then they left me to my own devices, which is not terribly sensible with me and clothes. This was demonstrated early on when I bought a t-shirt that they wouldn't let me try on (hygiene reasons), It was a large so it should fit... went to the next shop tried a few other shirts on (with some success) then though I'd try on my t-shirt, only to find I could bearly get my hands through the arms let alone my arms. Ah well! The rest of the shopping went quite well though, except that I mananged to buy the most expensive shirt of my entire life (£100) but it fitted me. Anything less than a XXL in Japan is a bit dodgy for me - my work shirt is a XXXL.

Afterwards we went to see Lohi, a Chinese friend of ours that works a bar in Tokyo while she studies. Nice place, Italian, on the 5th floor of a big building just out of Tokyo station, you know the exit begining with M... yes I was my usual attentive self.

This is Lohi's coffee art thing, Impressive as the coffee was still hot, unlike it would be if I did it!

Ooh ooh, found the firework setting on the camera

After my dismal attempt at taking pictures at the Niigata firework festival, I thought I would give my newly discovered firework setting a try out. As you can seen the results were pretty good, but there again, so were the fireworks!

These were taken at the Katagai festival, about an hours drive south west of Niigata. This a special festival, Katagai is the town where they make fireworks, so it was always going to be a bit special. You know when you're at a display and at the end they send up a big one that's really loud? Well that's how this festival started.

So how do you end the ultimate firework display? With the largest firework in the world of course! This isn't the actual firework but its similar. It's over 40in in diameter and requires a huge mortar barrel to fire it. I think it costs in the region of £10,000 a pop, takes months to make and the resultant explosion is over 1km wide, when they work.

This is what it looked like.

Caught her at it again

Another feastival and Shizuka and her family do another performance. This was a couple of firsts for me. First time to see Shizuka do the ladder thing and also the first time I met Shizuka's father. The was pretty short, basically because he still doesn't I'm Shizuka's boyfriend. He must of thought it odd though that I knew all the rest of the family!
So the festivities start with a bit of drum and flute playing, helped by little Masato. Here is Masato again. Masato is Shizuka's nephew.

And this is his mother, Hanami doing her performance.

And I think this is Shizuka's eldest sister, Itsume.

and this time, the video

I was amazed I managed to keep the camera still, but I found looking through the camera was less scary than looking directly at what was going on.

It was even more discomorting that someone died this year doing the same thing.

eating that flip over noodle thingy

I discovered a new eating experience in Japan, it's called Economeachi, though it probably isn't spelled that way. Basically it's a blend of pancake mixture, noodles, bacon, salad and eggs. You fry them altogether yourself on a hot plate sunk into the table. Actually the Japanese have at least 3 styles of DIY cooking, Korean BBQ, Shaboo Shaboo and Economeachi, all of which are delicious.
Helpfully they provide a set of instructions - pictures too!

And now the all important toss...
The finished article

Scuba diving, the Verdict

The first part of our PADI training we did in the instructors shop, read the manual and did a simple test. I realised then that when Shizuka said she would like to go scuba diving she didn't realise it was so involved. Not that that put her off at all, but it's good to emphasis that it is not without some risk and there are a few things you have to do before you jump into the wide blue yonder and start finding Nemo.

We drove to a little community center by the beach. This was a reasonable sized room, with a tv, some exercise machines, a small kitchen, toilets and showers. You can tell you're in Japan because a) it's left unlocked most of the time and everything is still there, b) it's immaculate. Not many places you can say that about.

First thing you have to do is find some gear that fits. That's not easy for me in Japan but the instructor found something that sort of fitted - even if the knee pads were hanging out. Got all the rest of the gear on ok then set out to achieve neutral buoyancy.
Normally you would do your practice training in a swimming pool, but we did all our practice dives in the shallows of the coast.

I don't really like water, or the prospect of wading out with so much extra baggage (I mean the scuba gear). Every time I waded out my heart was really thumping and I had to fight against the feeling of panic. However, as soon as I was actually swimming I felt completely at ease. Bizarrely, I had problems with sinking and had to add an additional 10kg of weight but had so many problems remaining still on the bottom. The big problem with this was that every time your flippers brush the sea bed, clouds of silt make looking at the instructors signals very difficult.

So we went through all the drills, the hand signals, getting neutral buoyancy - nearly managed to drown doing the simulated loss of regulator. Shizuka took to it really well. Alarmingly, she used half as much air as I did. During one off my practice dives I nearly ran out.

Our final dive was a boat dive and we got to do that backwards fall of the boat, which was surprisingly easy - not the actual falling off bit, but it wasn't as disorienting as I expected. This dive was to 18m and was great. Ok it wasn't the great barrier reef, but as an experience if was wonderful. That was until I got some water in the nose of my mask I couldn't seem to clear and then actually running out of air just as I got to the surface - not a problem you would think, but you are supposed to keep the regulator in your mouth while swimming back to the boat. Not at all pleasant and when I got back to the boat I nearly threw up and then spent the rest of the trip back trying to recover.
A shame it had to finish that way, it really spoiled my experience. I want to do it again, but will definitely only do it with an instructor.

Please give generously...

Me on Sado island with Mount Yahiko on the main land in the background, seemingly suffering from Elephantitis of the arms. This was taken out side our 'Hotel' which was more like a family home with a few extra rooms. Open plan, with sliding doors and Tatami mat floors and a feast fit for a divers table. Apart from the obvious crab, the mean consisted of battered shrimps, home group pickles, octopus and fish sashime (raw) some shell fish (didn't go near that) and of course what meal would be complete without unlaid octopus eggs? Tried those, verdict: 'interesting'

Scuba diving on Sado Island

So as mentioned before, Shizuka's birthday present was actually to go Scuba diving and I decided to go the whole hog and do the whole PADI training course thing. As luck would have it the day after she had expressed an interest, Greg introduced me to a scuba instructor who just happened to wander in to Immigrants that night.

So, Shizuka had to sort things out, and gets all the books and copies of the tests you have to do before starting - a good thing because it meant we could spend more time in the water when we got to Sado. For those of you who don't know where Sado island is...




The big green bit is Japan.

You will notice that Sado is an Island and therefore the first problem is actually getting there. There are two practical methods, the ferry and the Jet boat - and before you get too excited, the jet boat isn't quite as glamorous as it sounds - but it is considerable faster than the ferry (though considerably more expensive)