The Quake

Two weeks and two days have passed since the massive quake and tsunami that have turned parts of Japan into a shadow of its former self. I've been meaning to write about my experience, but as I've been trying to put the whole thing to the back of my mind as well I've put it off a bit.

Anyway, for the quake itself I was at home in my apartment in Kichijoji in the west of Tokyo. I was sitting on my sofa, reading a book, when the shaking started. I'm sure like most people in Tokyo I wasn't overly concerned at first, as little tremors here are nothing out of the ordinary. But the shaking went on and it was soon apparent that this was something bigger than usual. To be on the safe side I took cover under the desk in the living room. I don't know how long the shaking went on, it could have been 3 minutes or it could have been 5 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. The shaking just grew ever more intense and books and CDs started falling off the bookcase, the TV looked like it would also tumble onto the floor but managed to hang on. For a while I honestly thought that the building might come collapsing down around me. When the shaking finally halted I took a look round the apartment and a few plates and so on had fallen and broken, but there was no major damage.

It was a frightening experience and I decided to get out of the apartment for a while in case there were any aftershocks. I headed for the park up the road and on my way passed signs of complete normality. There was a team of construction workers sitting in the middle of the road happily drinking a cup of tea, people were still eating cakes and drinking coffee in the fancy patisserie up the road and when I got to the park people were jogging and walking their dogs as they always do. For a while I thought maybe this quake wasn't such a big deal and not one powerful enough to unsettle the Japanese. But then more people started to show up at the park who were obviously there for the same reason as myself. Some looked a little dazed as they clutched their mobile phones looking for more info on what had just happened, others had the type of emergency helmets that people have in their offices and homes here in case there is a quake.

Naturally, I too was glued to my iphone trying to get in touch with Saori (the network was down but we got in touch through email) and checking the latest news on the quake. At first the details were very sketchy but it seemed to be a magnitude 7 quake near Sendai. We now of course know that it was a M9 and caused a massive tsunami, but until that point I assumed the epicentre must have been near Tokyo as the shaking was so violent. While I was in the park there were several very large aftershocks. One in particular about 30 minutes after the initial quake was pretty severe. At first there was a rumbling, then the birds in the lake took flight, trees started shaking and the water in the lake started sloshing about.

I stayed in the park for about an hour and a half and when the aftershocks seemed to be dying down a bit, I went back to the apartment. On my way back I saw a few garden walls that had fallen over and a few tiles that had fallen off roofs but overall there was hardly any damage to be seen. When I was heading up the stairs I met my neigbour, a middle aged housewife, and she seemed fairly shaken. Just as in our apartment things had fallen off shelves and so on in hers too.

It was only when I got back and switched on the TV did I get a sense that Japan had just suffered a massive disaster. Initial images came of the tsunami and it seemed to have taken cars and even houses as it moved in from the shore. It looked worrying and there were obviously going to be casualties, but the scale of the disaster didn't really become apparent until many hours later.

I was very lucky that I had been at home at the time of the quake. I was able to sleep in my own bed that night (in reality I didn't get any sleep as there were constant aftershocks...) but an awful lot of people, including Saori, ended up spending the night in their offices as the rail system ground to a halt. You can see where Saori was in this YouTube clip. Saori works on the 24th floor of the building on the right. Apparently it was like being on a ship!

Anyway, that was my experience of the quake. Obviously many things have happened since then, but I'm going to save that for another post.

Raw!

As everyone knows the Japanese do like their food raw. And for the most part I'm perfectly ok with that. There's nothing better than a nice bit of salmon sashimi - it just melts in the mouth. But you can find some raw meats, or very close to raw at least, in Japan that would be unthinkable in most parts of the world. One example of this is chicken. Back in Ireland you wouldn't dream of eating chicken that was still pink in the middle; we all know the dangers of salmonella!

But take a look at the photos of the chicken from a meal myself and Saori had at local izakaya (bar-cum-restaurant) recently.

The two above photos are of half cooked chicken and the one below is of duck.
It sounds like I'm complaining but I'm not really. I think it's fantastic that the quality of the food is so good that they can get away with cooking it so rare. Personally I do prefer chicken cooked through but the duck was very good.

Having said that, such is the desire of some people here to eat their food nice and bloody that they do put themselves in real danger. I've heard of hunters eating freshly caught wild boar raw and actually dying. Also I once knew a Japanese girl to whom the sight of raw meat was so irresistible that she devoured a fillet of raw pork she found in the fridge. She came down violently sick but survived to tell the tale.

It's still too hot...

We are supposedly coming to the end of summer here in Tokyo - actually according to the traditional Japanese calendar it's already been autumn for a few weeks - and it's still climbing up to 35˚C or so most days. And it's not the pleasant 35˚C heat you get in Spain and from which you can take refuge in the shade, but the pervasive humid kind from which even a breeze provides precious little relief. Most of my experiences of Japanese summers have been much the same, though they are saying that this has been one of the hottest summers on record. I'll be glad to see the back of this summer and a return to more bearable temperatures.

I've been working with the Irish Chamber now for about three months and it's been very enjoyable so far. I've been involved in organising three events so far - one for Minister Ryan, a leaving do for the Ambassador and we had a talk from Patrick Honohan, the Central Bank governor a couple of weeks ago. All of them have gone very smoothly so far. The next big event will be our golf tournament in October, but since I don't play golf myself I'm not feeling overly confident about it. Anyway, the job is part-time so I've still had plenty of time on my hands and not enough cash in my pockets! But I've been getting a nice bit of translation work recently so things are looking up there. And as much as I wanted to avoid teaching, I got offered a handy job in a local little college and could hardly refuse it. I'll be teaching English to classes of mainly Chinese students. I taught Japanese to a few Chinese students in DCU, and they certainly seemed like enthusiastic students so hopefully these ones will have an equal desire to learn.

We didn't get a chance to get away this summer - apart from a weekend in Nikko in July - but we have already booked our flights back home for Christmas. I cannot wait!

New job

I finally had some success in my job hunting a few weeks ago. I had been looking for work as a translator, but then this job as secretariat of the Ireland Japan Chamber of Commerce came up. I went into the interview completely relaxed because I didn't think I had much hope of getting the job -given a complete lack of business experience- and therefore had nothing to lose. But the vibes were good during the interview and, sure enough, I was offered the job the next day.
The job itself consists of managing the day to day affairs of the chamber and organising events, etc. It's all very varied and, although it's early days, I imagine it will be more enjoyable than translating full-time. I'm working alone which is daunting in some ways, but liberating too. It's only a part-time role though, so I'll still need to find other work on the side, and so won't be abandoning translation by any means.
One of the coolest things about the job is the connections I'll be able to make. I've already met the Irish ambassador to Japan a couple of times, as well as plenty of influential Irish and Japanese business people. We had an event with Minister Eamon Ryan a couple of nights ago, but alas I didn't get a chance to speak to the man himself. I did briefly meet the guy who was responsible for the PG Tips chimpanzee ad campaign though!
Another nice thing about the job is that I'm based in Ireland House, along with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, as well as the embassy, which means that I'll be meeting with other Irish people all the time, and not forgetting from whence I hail!

Springtime in Tokyo

So we're well into spring in Tokyo now, and some days it can be lovely and sunny with temperatures into the low 20s, but other times it's damp, cold and miserable. It actually snowed in Tokyo over the weekend. I don't think many people were aware of the snow because it fell in the middle of the night and was washed away by the rain which followed by the time morning came around, but snow it did. That's pretty much unheard of for Tokyo in April.


Spring in Japan means cherry blossom season and hanami, or getting boozed up under cherry trees, is a quintessential part of this. The missus and myself also did a bit of hanami in the local park a couple of weekends ago, but in our case we just had a few rice balls and pretzels from the local German bakery (they really do have everything in Kichijoji!) with some green tea. It was a bit chilly though so we soon left our picnic spot and went for a walk around the park. This brought us into contact with the downside of the public consumption of alcohol. We saw a middle aged guy throwing a young boy, about 10 I suppose, around the ground threatening to beat seven shades of shite out of him. No father of the year prizes there I thought, but then we soon realized that he didn't even know this kid! The kid's father came along then and tried to calm the situation down, but the drunken ogre started squaring up to him then! We moved quickly on before he decided to take exception to the foreigner!


Tokyo can throw up unexpected surprises sometimes. On Saturday, for example, we went to Shinjuku Gyoen, a big park in central Tokyo, for a wander around. While we were walking in the French garden we saw three ladies dressed as French maids posing for pictures. Nothing too strange about this actually, as you can see this sort of thing in the Harajuku district of Tokyo every weekend. But as we approached them we realised that these ladies were in fact fellas. Fair enough - certainly did remind me of Emily Howard though.


Another surprising thing this weekend was the discovery of a field of hens about an hour's walk along an old canal near here. I mean ok the odd vegetable patch here and there in suburban Tokyo is nothing exceptional, but seeing a field full of hens was most definitely a bit out of the ordinary. At the roadside there was a vending machine selling eggs from the aforementioned hens, and even though they were more than double the price of the factory farmed eggs in the supermarket, I couldn't resist and bought half a dozen. I made a scrumptious blue cheese and spinach omelet out of them!

Meiji University

For the last couple of months I've been working in Meiji University in the centre of Tokyo. It's been a great experience, but unfortunately it's just a temp job so I'll be finishing up there in a few days.
My main duties there have been to check outsourced translation work to see that it was up to scratch (it very often wasn't...) and to translate news and events and so on happening at the university. You can see some of my work here Naturally anything that's rubbish isn't mine though!







Anyway, as well as the translation experience it's been good to get used to working in a Japanese office environment. I was expecting everyone to be over polite and jumpy as hell, but they're fairly relaxed and enjoy a laugh at work. One Japanese stereotype that does ring true though is the amount of overtime people do. February and March tend to be very busy anyway as it's the end of the fiscal and academic year, so I suppose it's not always like this, but it hasn't been unusual to receive an email from a colleague with a 10pm time stamp. Luckily for me, since I've just been temping, there's been no need or expectation of me to do overtime, so the latest I've ever needed to stay was until 6pm.


Anyway, Meiji University is pretty damn big, compared to any of the universities in Ireland anyway. It has about 30,000 students spread over three campuses. The campus where I've been based couldn't be more urban, and because of that it lacks that college vibe. Although the students have been on holidays during the duration of my stay there so that's a big factor!

The campus is based in Ochanomizu, an area of Tokyo I've always liked. There's loads of colleges and universities located there so it's a fairly lively place with a plethora of music shops, a profusion of book shops and piles of great little restaurants. There's some great Thai and Indian places, as well as Japanese, so I've really enjoyed my lunch hours. Also, when the weather has been nice, I've enjoyed going for a walk around the area and taking some photos after my usual curry. The camera on the iPhone isn't up to much so they're not great.



Not that I'm a petrol head but one thing I've noticed about the area is some of the fancy cars you can see. No, not that boxy looking thing in the above picture! I've seen an Aston Martin, an Audi R8 and, almost every morning there's been this little Lambo parked outside the university.
One day instead of the silver Lamborghini (Gallardo?) there was an orange one instead. I wonder if the owner has a collection, or if Lamborghini will loan you one of theirs while you're having the oil changed in yours!

Paddy's Parade, Tokyo

So myself and Saori met up with an Irish friend and his son today at the Tokyo St. Patrick’s Day parade. You’ll note Paddy’s Day comes early to Tokyo! It was my third time at the parade, the last time being back in 2001. Surprisingly, it’s not the only Paddy’s Day parade in Japan. There’s loads of them after springing up all over the country, in places you’ll probably never have heard of like Tsukuba and Ise. And yet when people ask me where I’m from, they’re more likely to confuse it with Iceland or Scotland, than know the capital is Dublin. So despite all these Paddy’s Day parades, it’s still a very minor thing and most people would have very little knowledge of Ireland.

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures most of the people in the parade are in fact Japanese, not Irish. There’s only about a thousand Irish people in Japan and the vast majority of us couldn’t be bothered getting involved! So there’s some people connected with Enterprise Ireland, the embassy, some universities, as well as U2 fans, Irish pubs, etc. Actually in the photo below there’s a group of students from DCU, several of them my students from last year on their year abroad in Japanese universities. If I were sound I would have joined them under the DCU banner! Would’ve been nice to catch up with them actually but didn’t see them after the parade.

Another major presence at the parade were people with Irish dogs! There were a couple of groups with Irish setters and Irish wolfhounds. You’re probably more likely to see a leprechaun than a wolfhound in Ireland though!

After the parade we headed to Yoyogi Park where my friend’s son did his best to drive us to distraction by throwing leaves at us and hitting us with sticks! He’s a cute little fella though so we’ll forgive him. Anyway, while we were at the park we saw the Tokyo Rockabilly Club strut their stuff. These guys are hilarious! They’ve been coming to the park every Sunday for at least 20 years to prance around to all the choons from the 50s. And here you can see them in a Peter, Bjorn and John (of whistley song fame) video.