Frances is reborn!

I am not naturally one to believe in reincarnation, rebirth, or even small miracles.

But the rebirth of Frances is something very close to one of these if not all.

S is especially fond of Frances and has nursed her and her mate Pablo from day one. They live outside on our terrace, and through all the seasons have been through some tough days. Momiji (Japanese maples) are not exactly known for being the most invincible of plants, but after waiting for 2 years, one would imagine that at some point they would have some nice, beautiful red leaves. Pablo is close to a lost cause. We left him with GG while we went on holiday, and he had surely undergone some harsh plant abuse while we were away (GG claims he pissed on him everyday but I don't really think it went that far). Anyway, ever since, Pablo has retreated into his own little momiji shell... or else he is one hell of an obstinate plant.

Frances, on the other hand, is a sight for sore eyes. For the first time ever, instead of dying at a momiji's prime time for colour change, she let her leaves turn a beautiful, dainty red, and she's displayed prettily atop our living room shelves instead of outside in the cold of the terrace.

Truthfully, I think she was just sick of taking Pablo's crap and decided to grow to her full potential as all females should :-)

End to the crap

Quick conclusion: My hero (the plumber) came tonight and resurrected my foundation from the toilet completely unscathed. A small miracle, no?!

OH, crap.

What better way to resume blog writing than with a crappy story.

Since I've come back to Japan, I haven't really been blogging. For the most part, it's been due to lack of time and lack of content. I haven't felt like regurgitating the details of the weekends' parties, the monotony of work, and for the most part, I've become so used to Japan that nothing seems to astonish me anymore, no matter how outlandishly weird it is. Maybe I am finally becoming culturally sensitive... or turning Japanese?

In any case, today of all days began with a most uncommon experience punctuated with a crash and loud shout from the bathroom. I was still lying in bed with the awake-o-meter on about 80%. Next thing I know, S is standing in front of me with my make-up bag asking me if I noticed anything missing. At first glance, nothing. At second glance, the brand new bottle of foundation I had opened last night and used one -- note one -- time. I dared to ask what had happened.

Basically, after doing his business, S had flushed the toilet, washed his hands, and while turning around to dry them, knocked over my make-up bag with such force that the contents had gone tumbling into the still-flushing whirlpool inside the toilet bowl. With a valiant effort, he swooped down into the toilet to fish out the bag in time, but missed a 'small white bottle' which is now still lodged somewhere in the depths of the toilet.

I suggested a plunger. He suggested calling his father in France to ask him what to do (apparently they don't plunge in France?). As one friend put it to me, it figures that when I need a man, I get a middle-aged French couple on the telephone...

In any case, the day passed, and finally we decided that my new foundation could not be far inside the pipes because we could hear a funny blockage noise when we flushed. So now onto the hunt for a decent plunger in Tokyo. I look up the word for "plunger" and find that it's, well, "puranjaa," and I call Tokyu Hands to see if they have one.

"Puranjaa??? Pu-ran-jaaaaaa... souuuuu...." is the response on the line. It's one of those foreign words that no Japanese know the meaning of. I try explaining myself but finally give up and read the definition of a plunger from the dictionary, which seems to turn on some lightbulbs. We gather that in Japanese, it is a "thing that fixes the western toilet blockage." Physical description is a "rod with rubber on the end that you put in the toilet to remove the blockage, making a 'gutcha gutcha' sound." Very, very precise.

Japan has not ceased to amaze me, is the realization. It is still and probably always will represent to me the home of challenges and of miscommunication, not only between Japan, its people and me, but also between S and me.

End of story, we found the plunger but it didn't work, so no choice but to hold it (literally) 'til tomorrow.

Sayonara, Jo-Lo in Tokyo

The big departure is tomorrow morning. By 6:30 am I will board the familiar Narita Express headed for a not-so-familiar continent, country, and life. Along with many farewells I have already bid, I must also say sayonara to this blog site, as I will no longer be "Jo-Lo in Tokyo." I will be making a page on this site, entitled "EngRish GiRL"-- because that's what I feel I'll be-- not quite a proper ENGLISH girl, bringing a bit of Japan with me. Give me a few days to set up the site, but it will be

www.EngRishGiRL.blogspot.com.

Until then,

Sayonara to

Akasaka, my new home in Tokyo, and all the ojisan I pass on my frantic dash to one place or another

My mama-chari, the best purchase I ever made in Tokyo. 5000 yen (45 USD), which paid for itself 100 times over in saved train fares, minutes on crowded trains, and commutes to the office

Squinting at the sharp sunlight after all nighters in Roppongi & Shibuya, drinking, dancing, and singing at karaoke until dawn

The wind against my face and an excuse to hang on tightly to S as we "scooter" around the city

Thursday nights at Andy's with the freshest, most delicious fish and the best company

Free time on the weekends to brunch, to explore the nooks and crannies of Tokyo, or to relax in a rotemburo shaded by a momiji at dusk

Automatic taxi doors, heated toilet seats, all you could want vending machines, onigiri & bento

Meeting someone for the first time and answering the questions, "where are you from?" "how long have you been in Japan?" "Nihongo jyouzu! why can you speak Japanese?"

Finding all the right sized clothes at too expensive a price

And much, much more.

I'll leave you with a quote that's followed me from my high school graduation (actually included it in my speech) through every big change in my life, and from country to country.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." ~Dr. Seuss

SAYONARA

The weekend was dominated by my Thursday night sayonara dinner & paa-tee, as it took me almost the rest of the entire weekend to recover from this 11 hour soiree. It wasn't such an unusual night after all, but I thought it best to end on a night of familiarity. Thanks to Mx, the party started with a small and lovely dinner at Kaikaya, one of the best fish eateries in town. The night was accented by a bit of fashion, thanks to Matt-o, who titled himself the night's comedian by literally bringing his "party hat." Level of drunkenness: 6.

Next stop was Ruby Room, where more friends joined us, and where too many weirdo Frenchy guys (apart from those in our own party) tried to put the moves on us. But the house was good, the drinks were aplenty, and the night passed on even more quickly. Level of drunkenness: 7.5, the increase reflected by S' not-so-graceful full on fall down the hard wooden steps coming down from the club. The half of our party at the bottom of the stairs burst into "glad it wasn't one of us" laughter at the drunken spectacle... until they realized, "OH NO, it was SAM." Then the laughing got louder! I was coming down behind him and scooped up his broken body from the bottom step... :-) hehe. (See pic of S brushing himself off) Still makes me laugh even now.

The bar hop continued on to Red Bar, the small hole in the wall adorned in red, red, red everywhere, including my face by that point. And, in true Tokyo fashion, the night ended in SHIDAX, karaoke mecca of Shibuya. Level of drunkenness: doesn't even matter, we can't count! And we sang (or shouted? fell off our chairs? took funny pictures?) until 6am, when the place thankfully kicked our butts out.

I doubt I need much more explanation as to why the rest of the weekend ended up in stomach misery 15 minutes after anything I ingested. But it was a superb finish!! A HUGE arigato to everyone who came out to help me celebrate, despite their jobs, friends visiting, early trains and planes the next morning. xoxo

A Last Weekend of Firsts

As luck would have it, my two last weekends in Tokyo include national holidays and are 3-day weekends. This means more time to spend out and about with S enjoying the little time we have before my imminent departure to the dark, cold and rainy side. For once, we successfully limited the all-night parties and subsequent hangovers and saw sunlight from outside the apartment windows.

Saturday, we set off for Mt. Takao on a nice sunset hike. Autumn in Japan has "officially" begun (meaning the date deemed "end of summer" and "beginning of autumn" has passed), and though we are sure to be sweating out another few weeks of humid Japanese summer, the weather was surprisingly fresh and cool. We dodged some spider webs and fallen trees along the way and made it to the top just in time to see a lovely sunset peek through the trees.

After, S treated me to an amazing Japanese dinner in one of the nicest settings I've seen in Japan. Ukai Toriyama was the restaurant, set in a huge, breathtaking Japanese garden complete with turning water wheels and the scent of yakitori wafting from a small pagoda opposite a traditional goldfish pond. Anyway, the photos can explain better than I can.

Sunday was even more fun I must say, especially since our inability to wake up and start the day for once didn't seem to shorten the time we had to accomplish everything we wanted. We started with a picnic and Japanese macha tea at Hamarikyu garden and then continued on to Odaiba, which I had perhaps unfairly prejudged the archetype of Japanese tackiness-- another sad product of bubble redevelopment. To my surprise, however, I can see how Odaiba has become the prime dating destination for young people. You can sit along the (man-made) beach and watch the boats sail the harbor at sunset, and if you sit long enough, you eventually see the harbor amidst the lights of the distant skyscrapers and scarlet lanterns on the water. At that point, it is easier to forget the reconstructed Statue of Liberty looming behind you. We finished the night atop one of the highest ferris wheels in the world (If you can't beat the corny Japanese couples, you might as well join them!), which was especially fun for S since it was his first time on a "fairy wheel," as he calls it (apparently "ferris" is difficult for a Frenchy to remember).

A perfect day, really, ended with pizza, ice cream, a tummy ache, and a highly recommended DVD -- think the artistic directing and lovely innocence of "Amelie" combined with a war movie-- in my opinion, it can't get better than that!

Every weekend should be so lovely...

Black Beauty... ?

This is me seducing the camera. No, really, I just wanted to see if you notice anything different about me....

HINT: I just finished a FIVE hour session at the hair salon! There is something very wrong when you arrive for your 12:30pm appointment and leave when it's almost dark outside! God, what a process! But it is the last (for a while) of my Japanese beauty experiences and thus had to go out with a bang.

I blogged once upon a time about the Japanese hair salon experience, though since then, I think prices have gone up and my patience has gone down. But anyway, since I am unemployed at the moment, I didn't really mind the day-long washing, drying, doting, sipping tea, reading ELLE, getting "massaji-ed," and making small talk, especially since I was pretty much satisfied with the outcome... (have you noticed anything different yet?)

In addition to the straight perm, an annual must for my wild mane, I went black! Really black. Blacker than I intended (though maybe you can't tell in the photo). Perhaps it was premature-- I feel a bit wintery now... but I've been thinking about doing it for a while, so why not now when my life is taking a new course? Anyway, what do you think?

The faces of Tibet

Stunning. That's all I can say to describe not only the Tibetan landscape, but the people as well. If some of these children had been raised in the West, they would be on TV modeling. Dark skin, rosy cheeks, high cheekbones, gorgeous smiles, and black, thick hair. The only problem is that by the time they reach age 30, they look double their age. I wonder how people so poor can live so happily, or at least appear to, while we often have so much yet think it's never enough. But I guess it depends on what you are exposed to. If you never had chocolate, you would never miss it, right? I guess it goes the same for flushable toilets, electricity, and clean water. Anyway, during the time I spent with those kids, I never missed any of those small conveniences either.

The kids were bundles of energy and wanted to play constantly! We gave them all the piggy-back rides we could-- I strategically chose the smallest one [above] to be my friend, and also in the pic is her big sister, and "the [Swedish] dad" ;-) . After that we hokey-pokeyed and played games with them until the sun went down. It took every ounce of resistance not to stash my little one in my bag and bring a big omiyage home to S. Perhaps we were even sadder to then say good-bye than they were. I think they all brought out the best in us. There I was running down steep mountains with a 4 year old on my back, but smiling like it was the easiest thing in the world. Another little girl got kicked in the mouth during a game, and J. and I wiped her tears away until she stopped crying. It's these little moments that really stick in your heart as well as your mind. I just hope that they too were touched in some way by us, too.

I digress

Ok, so I've already reneged on my "blogger penance," but I had a very good excuse.

T-pan was visiting me for a week, and we were having wild & crazy times, which left me sick and hungover for most of the weekend... however, extremely worthwhile! T-pan was my original partner in crime from the very first of my days in Japan-- back in Nagoya when we were both poor university students living with host families and going through the ups and downs of Japan together. How far we have come!

Here we are embracing Tokyo with open arms...


And then embracing champagne and, ahem, Miles (we are giving him birthday kisses for the big 2-5 ;-) !

We also embraced such things as karaoke with two crooning Frenchies, so much shabu shabu I never want to smell let alone consume it ever again, a psychotic and aggressive heroine addict, matching "Gallant" tank tops, and more ice cream than my jeans care to allow.

Back to the China stories next time, but needed to give proper credit to a stellar week in Tokyo!

The Great Wall

Step by step by step... that is how I saw the Great Wall. The place was Simatai, which I highly recommend for the best of Great Wall experiences. If you've gone all the way to Beijing, you might as well get the best view of this magnificent site. At Simatai, apart from the poor farm wives who follow you every step of the climb to sell postcards, t-shirts, or even to lend a helping hand, we were the only ones there! And if there is any site in China that is best seen without the other 1.2 bil, one is most definitely the Great Wall.

When I think of my experience, one of the first things that comes to mind is extreme, mind-boggling, melting HEAT! We hit Beijing during a record setting heat wave, and those steps looked less and less friendly with every breeze that failed to blow. Good thing my buns of steel were up for the challenge.. haha.

It is not cliche to say the Great Wall is one of the great man-made wonders. It is INCREDIBLE! And even better, it isn't even necessary for your jello-jiggly legs to take you all the way to the bottom after the climb up. A zipline was kindly provided for the lazier, though more adventurous spirits in the bunch, to aid our return. Only the two crazy Swedes and I opted to take part in this "at your own risk" activity, and I just can't seem to imagine why, being that the pulley had turned a rusty brown, and the rope could have probably snapped at a sneeze. But if you can't trust the Chinese, who can you trust (!!??) .... The sheer feeling of freedom while flying from the Great Wall with legs dangling over a lake.... the sense of awe while looking back on the great wonder behind you... soooo worth 35 RMB (about 4 USD) ! I heart China!

Post-China Reflections

<----- Me against the mountains.... hehe.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the time or the will to blog throughout my trip, and a summary at this point is virtually impossible. I will let you skim through these photos for a travelogue of the places I went and the things I saw, and to make up for my extremely lazy blogging habits, I will write a post about a highlight of my travels everyday for the next week -- I'm sure it won't be too hard to think of 7 good ones :-) Consider that my penance.

To kick it off, though, I just want to make note here of some thoughts about my life in general after this experience, which I would say was probably at least mildly life-altering for me. After all, the ancient mountains of China and the mystical plateau of Tibet were a mere backdrop for the many experiences I had, which are the essence of what I will carry with me from this trip.

I'll first say that this trip was exactly what I needed at just the right time. I don't think I've felt so much like myself in a very long time as during the past month. Being totally alone and meeting for the first time a group of people with whom I would be spending immense amounts of time with, there was no other way to be but 100% Jo-Lo. And there is not a more liberating feeling than to escape for a while from a society, which, to put it harshly, is stifling at times.

What augmented the fabulousness of freedom was the opportunity to share it with some of the most amazing people ever. I made three friends I will probably be in touch with for a very long time, if not a lifetime, and will sincerely miss every other single person in our group of 12. Everyone was going through some sort of transition in life and was taking this trip purely as an opportunity to see the world and experience a different side of life than the usual. It was the type of experience that you put 100% into, with no hesitations and no holding back, because everyone knew that the chances of it ever happening again were slim to none. I will remember these people when I remember any place or time on this trip.

Finally, I also have a new, or revised, outlook on my looming future in Cambridge. I've gone from being insecure and basically scared out of my wits of going and leaving my comfortable life in Tokyo, to looking forward to another new chapter of my life. The Tokyo chapter will still be open for editing and many appendices I'm sure, but I've realized that there are times in life when it's necessary to let go and embrace something new. There are times when the change seems larger than what you care to handle, and there are people who you love so much you just can't say good-bye. But a boost of confidence makes everything a bit easier (though still not easy), and I guess now I can prepare myself for whatever Cambridge decides to throw at me.

So, this is what I've learned in China (and I swear I haven't teamed up with the Commies to recruit more tourists to visit)...

In Tibet

Now one week into my trip, I've made it through Beijing, Xi'an, and now I am in a small town called Xiahe in the Tibetan province of Andou. I won't go through all the details of the trip until now because it would just take hours, but I am traveling with an amazing group of people and having the most incredible experiences.

We are 3000meters high right now in this town up in the mountains. Tomorrow we will visit the Labrang Monastery, which is one of the largest monasteries in Tibet. But today we left the town to go to a village of people of the Bon religion, which is the original religion of Tibet before Buddhism arrived. We were the only tourists in the village, and it seemed that they didn't get many visitors. We were so close to the clouds and over the mountains it made everything feel so mystical. In the grasslands, which house the Tibetan nomads, I stood about 2 meters from yaks and goats grazing everywhere, and wild flowers were growing in every inch of the grass. It's beautiful.

Also, the people are so so lovely! I played with all the little kids in the village-- they seemed to really like me, maybe because I am near their size and look morelike them! But anyway, I gave them my camera, and this little girl was acting like a photographer taking photos of everyone! Then we had lunch in the house of one of the monks in the village-- just different types of bread and yak milk tea. Can't wait to upload all my photos, but it won't be until I get back to Tokyo.

Next onto the small village of Langmusi, another town in the grasslands, before moving on to Sichuan.

Until then...

Fuji Rock & Rain

It all started with a shower and ended with sunshine. Unfortunately, all of the concerts were during the shower part-- the showers that started and never stopped all day and night Saturday. As you can see, though, it didn't stop the people from coming. Over the course of the weekend, 120,000 people were said to have shown up-- and these are the Japanese who don't go ANYWHERE in the rain!
It was a fun time, but the weather most definitely put a damper on things. The cost of one day at Fuji Rock was 18,000 yen (including a camping pass), and the train was another 12,000 or so, which brought the cost to around $300, plus a pair of muddy Pumas which will never recover. For that cost, I spent my night in a tent wet, freezing and miserable.

We did see Fatboy Slim, as you can see in the pic, and though it was a great show, I decided I didn't feel like wearing my bulky rain gear anymore, and stripped down to normal clothes-- hence the freezing cold by the end of the night. Another great new band who I heard of thanks to S, is Asian Dub Foundation-- a band of "21st century MIDI warriors" whose favorite quote seems to be "Son of a Bush!" They are kind of a cross between rock and hip hop, and I found myself in the middle of a huge mosh pit having more fun than I thought possible for being totally trampled on. Good thing I had my 3 Frenchy bodyguards with me or for sure they would have been scraping up my bits blood and bones off the ground.

Maybe everyone should try this Fuji Rock thing once, but our group agreed, next year the attendance number will be minus 119,990, minus the 10 of us. Of course next year will probably be the first year of all-weekend sunshine... Anyway, the rest of my first and LAST Fuji Rock!

Whatcha readin'?

In typical Jo-Lo fashion, though I have little time to read, while idly internet surfing at work, I ordered two books from Amazon.com. The first, to no surprise, was the latest Harry Potter, which I am now about half-way through. It's a good read, of course, and requires little thought, which is welcoming for a Jo-Lo stressed by thoughts of a big trip, then a big move, studies and a long distance relationship, but having read 5 Harry Potters before, I can't say it is anything earth-shattering thus far.

I am more anxious, perhaps, to finish this Harry Potter so I can move on to my second purchase, which I came upon by chance through a review written up in the Japan Times. The book seemed to fit exactly in my area of interest, even being dubbed (perhaps on the back cover of the book) as an extension of Edward Said's critique of the Orientalism theory, and ever since, it seems I just keep finding more and more commentary about this book. Perhaps I have a slight bias since I found out the author received a B.A. in international affairs from George Washington University and did her Masters at Cambridge, but she seems to have approached a topic academically that for the first time has gone mainstream by book: Asian exoticism.

For Asians and Asian Americans who have been looking for some methodological academic research on "yellow fever," "traditional" Asian wives, and relationships between Asian women and Western men, this seems to be the book. Too bad I didn't get around to writing it first...

300 more pages of Harry Potter and I'll give you a better review.

All shook up

Tokyo hit by strongest quake in 13 years, at least 27 injured
200500:23 Kyodo NewsEnglish(c) 2005 Kyodo News

Tokyo was struck by the strongest earthquake to rattle the capital in 13 years Saturday afternoon when a magnitude 6.0 temblor shook eastern Japan, injuring at least 27 people and prompting the prime minister's office and police to set up crisis management task forces.
The 4:35 p.m. quake measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

It is the first time since February 1992 that the capital, excluding its tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean, has been hit by a temblor of that grade, which the agency defines as being strong enough to make unreinforced concrete-block walls collapse and most dishes in a cupboard fall.

Where was I? In the middle of my "girly day" receiving a pedicure in a stuffy 2nd floor room of a shaky Takeshita-dori building. With just 3 more toes to go, I felt some pretty big tremors. Fortunately the my beauty guru was not applying any polish at that exact moment, but in the front of the shop, a clock had fallen off the wall, and several bottles of nail polish fell from their shelves. I had my 3 toes finished and left in a hurry.... only to find that the subway was stopped. Luckily S was out and about on his scooter and able to pick me up and deliver me to a safer and less shaky location.

Rice, spare, sea and samurai...

can come close to yet far from encapsulating our long weekend getaway.

S and Gilou, rented car, GMS and I somehow made our way to the beautiful sites of the Western Japanese coast--Noto Peninsula, and finally Kanazawa, ironically, the first place I "lived" in Japan three years ago now for my study abroad orientation. Seems like light years ago, literally, since I could barely remember places I had even been before. Perhaps one's first week in Japan and one's 80th or so week in Japan don't necessarily feel the same...


Escaping Tokyo's labyrinth of concrete and lights for a weekend can really make you appreciate the lesser developed parts of the country, that's for sure. Never in my life have I seen so many shades of green in one place. The deep green of the tree tops makes the verdant bright green of the rice paddies stand out that much more. We were lucky our GMS navigated the way through some of the most isolated country roads.





The weather was in our favor, but unfortunately the road was not. While driving on one such country road, surrounded by only rice fields and more than one hour from the nearest town, S turned a curve about a tire's width too close to the left. Into the irrigation ditch (also known as "gaijin trap") we went. Fortunately we were following our other friends, who turned around when they realized we weren't behind. They were able to find a thick rope wrapped around a random fence, S was able to find a small tree, and one hour, a spare tire, and some frustration later, we were able to haul the car out of the ditch.


So in addition to the rice fields and farm houses, Noto is of course a peninsula, so it also offers some of the most beautiful rocky coastline in Japan. I thought I would be "beaching it" for most of the weekend, but really there were very few nice beaches. We hit one on the way back to Kanazawa (click for more pics), and we managed a nap and a swim in the sea, but otherwise I would not recommend the Sea of Japan coast for beachfront property.






We finished the trip in Kanazawa, the "little Kyoto," with some sightseeing in Kenroku-en, deemed one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan, a tour of the "Ninja Temple," which was actually named such just because of the maze of hidden passageways and staircases inside. It was one of the few buildings that remained after WWII, and it is the original structure from the 1600s. And then we explored Higashi-chaya and Nishi-chaya (where this pic is), which were the old geisha teahouse districts, kind of like Gion in Kyoto.

Anyway, the rest of the photos are magnificent, so have a look for yourself!! This will probably be one of my last travels in Japan for a while, so I went a little picture crazy. But for good reason, of course!

Packing the schedule

Just thought I would let you all know my schedule over the next few months, as it’s changing more rapidly than I’d like.

August 9: Last day of work!

August 11 – September 3: China trip. Actually it’s a different trip than the one I posted before. I found a more affordable one for a longer time with a better itinerary, so I opted to go with G.A.P. The itinerary looks something like this:

Day 1-3 Beijing

Day 4,5 Xi'an, home to one of the greatest archeological discoveries of our time - the Terracotta Warriors.

Day 6-8 Xiahe, through the Yellow River valley up to the edge of the Tibetan plateau.

Day 9,10 Langmusi, the remote magical Tibetan monastery town.

Day 11-13 Jiuzhaigou, passing through vast grasslands and across beautiful mountain passes

Day 14,15 Chengdu, characterised by markets, traditional teahouses and spicy Sichuan cuisine

Day 16-19 Yangshuo, cycling off the beaten track amongst the backdrop of imposing limestone karsts, rising dramatically from a lush rural landscape.

Day 20,21 Hong Kong

And I will be going it alone... I figure a month trekking around China should definitely toughen me up for those hostile drunk Brits.

Sometime in late September: The big move to Cambridge.

My Cambridge schedule:

Full Michaelmas Term: Tuesday, Oct. 4th - Friday, Dec. 2nd
(Break 1: Dec 3 - Jan 17)

Full Lent Term: Tuesday, Jan. 18th - Friday, Mar. 18th
(Break 2: March 19 - April 24)

Full Easter Term: Tuesday, Apr. 25th - Friday, June 16th
(Finish research: June 17 - August 31, or whenever complete)

Count on a one-week trip to the Caribbean in December, some scattered stays back in Tokyo during the breaks, and regular short trips around Europe. I don’t intend for this year to pass without adventure. Anyway, you people need something to read about!

Communications professional in Japan ?

VOMIT VOMIT VOMIT. How are Japanese ever going to take public relations seriously when THIS is what they read about? Perhaps I should just start applying too much make-up and thinking with a pea-sized brain, and then I can publish my own book on PR too...

Livedoor's 'beautiful face' launches book of work tips

Ayako Otobe, a public-relations official for Internet company Livedoor who attracted attention as the "beautiful face" of the firm during a recent takeover bid, has published a book of essays on her work policies.

Two hundred people were invited to a bookstore in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills on Tuesday for the launch and signing of the book, whose title translates as "Livedoor public relations, Ayako Otobe -- 40 hints on positive work techniques."

Besides essays, the book includes color photographs of Otobe, including a shot of her in a bathrobe sold on Livedoor's Internet shopping site. The 16 pages of photographs appear at the front of the book.

"I like the natural shot that Horie took of me inside the company," Otobe said.

The essays explain Otobe's work policies since her encounter with Livedoor President Takafumi Horie, using simple language. She explains the care she takes with fashion and makeup as someone who has to publicly represent the firm.

Royalties for the book will reportedly go to Livedoor, not Otobe.

"If you believe in yourself as you proceed, your dreams will certainly be fulfilled. I want lots of people to read this and feel happy," she said.

Otobe gained attention as the face of Livedoor, which operates an Internet portal site, during its battle with Fuji Television Network for control of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. Livedoor eventually reached a settlement with Fuji TV. (Mainichi)

Mama-chari gone awry

As if the broken washing machine hasn't been bad enough, my mama-chari brakes are failing me. Believe me, I've tried getting them fixed at gas stands, bike shops, and any other place that just might service a mama-chari. But in this country, apparently bike shops only service real bikes, not bikes with baskets and without gears, so I have been told to go back to the shop I bought the bike from, which happens to be more than hour ride away these days.

So, I've continued riding my squeaky bike to the office everyday, still cutting my commuting time down by 10 to 15 minutes. However, it's recently become almost too embarrassing and too dangerous to ride! These brakes make THE most obnoxious screeching noise, so much so that I'm sure everyone in a 2-kilo radius thinks that hell has emerged from the depths of the earth and swallowed them. THAT LOUD! So, as to avoid making such a scene every time I want to come to a complete stop, I've been trying to take it easy on the brakes. I slow down until the point where I can reach the ground and stop the bike with one foot. Annoying but way less embarrassing.

However, there does come a time when brakes are necessary, particularly after a hard rain when the ground, the bike, my feet-- are slippery. I was riding on the street in the "buses only" lane and went to hop a small curb to get back on the sidewalk. I was going a bit too fast so I slowed down, but perhaps put too much pressure on my rear brake and not enough on my front. I skidded and the side of my front tire hit the curb, toppling me over like an unsteady domino. I hit the sidewalk face down on my hands, knees and chest, brushburning one and all of them. Close to tears (of frustration more than hurt) I quickly got up, brushed off, and continued to walk my mama-chari for a while before building the courage to climb back on.

It is quite embarrassing to fall on one's face with too loud a squeak, but perhaps even more appalling is that in the massive swarm of Tokyo rush hour, not one person stopped to ask if I was ok. I am sure that in the U.S., guys in particular would run over to see if a damsel in distress was hurt. But in Japan, are people too reserved or too self-absorbed to ask? Ignoring my stinging knees, I was fuming all the way home at all of the faces that certainly turned at the spectacle, even sometimes with surprise, but then kept walking without a word.

Word of advice: you do not want to run into a Jo-Lo fuming on a bike in slippery conditions with squeaky brakes. One girl almost did on the rest of my treacherous ride home-- almost crashed right into me in fact-- and then glared at me. Had she understood English, I surely would have just blown my fuse at that point, but lucky for her, my Japanese isn't angry-sounding enough. I continued the rest of my ride home swearing to myself.

In my distress, S was kind of enough to make me dinner. Can we all look at how domestic he's become and say AWWWWW!? I am such a good influence !