Happy Halloween!

I've been away from the blog for days trying to juggle my last few days at work, my suddenly active social life, and preparing to leave Tokyo!

I'll be working on updates tomorrow. But for today, some Halloween goodies.

BOO! A baby ray from the Okinawa aquarium channels Casper.

Naoko and Miki shopping in Shibuya.

Ice cream shop near Nikko.

They just love the Colonel.

Really, Really Grand

The Aussie made them pay me back the cash. All is right with the universe.

Grand, Really Grand

Over the last week or so I've been packing up my stuff, getting rid of things I don't need to bring home, giving away books, and boxing up the things to send home. In the end, I filled 6 medium-sized boxes and one suitcase.

I did some research (OK, I made someone else do the research. I'm busy.) and it seemed that SAL would be the best way to send back the boxes. I originally wanted to send it via "Sea-Mail" which is literally the slowboat, but it takes minimum of one month, and I got mixed reviews on the condition of the boxes when they arrive.

Little did I suspect that the shipping costs would total a little over $1000 USD. Cash only. My host company here in Tokyo has been strange about any costs that I incur. They make me pay for everything, so sending it through the company wasn't an option, even though they could bill it back to NY.

Honestly, I am not down with forking over a cool grand without getting a great designer bag or some illegal substances in return. (Kidding, people. You know I don't buy designer bags.)

The Aussie was shocked to hear that I had paid that much money. He said, "You need that money for your trip to Australia." Then he promised to make the company pay me back tomorrow. Yea!

Travel Plans

For all who are curious...

I will be home in NYC on Friday, November 18. I leave Tokyo on November 3 for the great Australian Adventure! I'll have my laptop with me in Oz (don't trust shipping it home) so I might be able to keep blogging. Stay tuned.

The Countdown Begins

I can't believe this is my last week on the job. It doesn't seem real. Partially because I am still running a little ragged trying to get stuff done. There is good news on several fronts:

1. They've hired another Australian to take my place (as if!). Smart, funny, etc. Not as pretty as I am, but the Japanese will have to learn to live with disappointment.

2. Social life is buzzing. Lots of people are lining up to buy me lunch, drinks, etc. Woo!

3. The gifts are starting to trickle in. Double woo!

Monday night I went to dinner with Dr. O who acts as a medical consultant for the agency. He's a pisser, that one. He's like everyone's favorite uncle, only less pervy. He had me giggling madly at the nicknames he has for everyone at the agency. My two favorites are Baki-Bu (a combo of a guy's name and "buoy" because he thinks the guy keeps all the other dead weight people afloat) and Tori Baba Hime (Old Chicken Lady Princess, which is not as mean as it sounds).

We went to a local tempura place, where I was served all sorts of unidentifiable sea creatures. Dr. O has one of those electronic translators, but I didn't recognize most of the words in English, either.

I love presents! These are from the Management Supervisor, from his hometown of Kamakura.

The thrilled cook at the tempura restaurant. Actually, he was very sweet, but he only had about three teeth. Hence, the grim look.
I still have no idea what kind of fish this is.

What are YOU looking at?

Baked fish spines, seasoned and eaten like chips. Not as disgusting as it looks.

A Night Out with the ExPats

I let myself sleep a little late on Saturday, but I knew I'd want to sleep all day Sunday so I forced myself out of the apartment in the afternoon to check out the shopping in Ginza and Roppongi.

I met up with Naoko and her friend Ayako early for a glass of wine and girl talk. Naoko lives in a tiny flat in a cute neighborhood in Ebisu. She claims to have chosen the apartment because of its close proximity to the clubs in Roppongi.

Later, I met up with the Aussie, the CD, and a few other ex-Pat advertising people for dinner at a place in Nishi Abazu called Rice Terrace. They were all there before me, so the CD met me on the street with a vodka and tonic. Now, I normally don't like tonic in my drink, but people, let me tell you, it was the pause that refreshes. It became my drink of the night.

The dinner conversation was fast-paced and irreverant which made me miss New York even more. Most of my conversations in Japan have to be slow and simple. I miss the rapid-fire discussions that are part of my day to day life at home.

After dinner, we crammed into a cab and went to the Soho Club in Omotesando. The CD claimed it was "the hottest" club in Tokyo, so it was great that we had secured a reservation. Oddly, it was almost totally empty. It was less of a club than a bar, cool atmosphere and good music, but no dancing. You can't have a club with no dancing.

After the group dispersed, Naoko, Ayako, and I headed off to Club Muse for a little dancing. At about 3:00 am, I decided to call it a night. I got into a cab, but the other two went to another club. Kids!

The Ex-Pat Gang

The Rice Terrace, Nishi Azabu

Soho Club, Omotesando CD attacking the girls

This is a totally candid shot.

Again, totally candid.

Almost caught him not mugging for the camera.

With Ayoko at Club MUSE. She spilled a full beer on me moments later.

Club MUSE, out way too late.

Pampered Princess

The end of the week was such a relief. I had given the last of my Advertising 101 presentations and delivered a brand plan to my client. So, I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure at a place called Ami True Nail. It was my first, last, and only treatment of its kind in Japan, not because it wasn’t fabulous, but because it cost $125 USD.

In NYC, the mani/pedi can be had for a song. Competition is fierce, so there’s always a bargain to be had. Not so in old Nihon. I’ve asked most of the girls where I should go to get my nails done and they looked at me like I had just told them I was thinking of running naked through the fish market. One of them actually offered to do my nails for me. That was a little too close for comfort, so I’ve just been doing them at home. The results are poor. A nail technician I am not. Don’t even get me started on the eyebrows. I am starting to resemble Eugene Levy. How I miss my local hole-in-the-wall salons.

But today I am mani’d and pedi’d and feeling fine.

On a side note, this is a picture of the sign outside the ladies room in a department store in Ginza. I was sort of excited to see the bathrooms based on this grandiose sign. It didn’t live up to the hype.

Dinner Engagements

Despite the very busy week, I did find time for social pursuits. On Wednesday, the Pres asked me to have dinner with him and one of the other upper level Japanese managers. Between my multiple presentations, their business with the Aussie, and another minor earthquake, the three of us were so busy that we didn’t leave the office until almost 9:00 pm.

The restaurant, Wanofu (Japanese taste), was close to our office and is the “branch” location of a very popular place in Nabe” style (kind of like fondu), and lots of sake.

The conversation was a little stilted at first, but the sake helped. I think these guys are finally getting used to me. Too bad I’ll be gone in a week!

On Thursday, I met a few friends at Toriyoshi (my new obsession) for beer and wings. I love that place. The highlight was discovering that they have free toothbrushes in the ladies room! Masaaki was disappointed to learn that the men’s room had no such amenities.

Free toothbrushes!

More About Nara

Blogger has been very temperamental this week (bastards!) but I have a few other tidbits about my trip to Nara.

I think I've learned just enough Japanese to be dangerous. On Sunday, I stopped into the local tourist information center to get a map and a restaurant recommendation. The guide directed me to a place that is one of his favorites but first he called ahead to see if I could get a table. As he chatted with the person at the restaurant, the only words I caught were: gaijin (foreigner), josei (woman), and hitori (alone). Nice.

Lumay has mentioned Japanese coffee a few times, recommending it because it is supposedly charcoal-roasted and delicious. I have to say, I have asked almost everyone I've met about this coffee and no one has heard of it. Coffee is really big in Japan (there's a Starbucks or at least a Starbucks clone on every corner), but tea is really more their specialty.

Imagine my surprise when I passed a coffee shop with a huge sign: KOHIKAN: Charcoal-Roasted Coffee. I had to go in. Long story short: it tasted exactly like coffee, only more expensive (see photo below).

Daibutsu-Den: Great Hall of Buddha

This guy is huge.

Kofukuji Temple which has the distinction of being the 2nd tallest pagoda in Japan

Feeding the Deer in Nara Co-enCharms for sale in the temple

Isuien Garden This cup of coffee cost $6 USD. No free refills.

You Can Put Me in Prison, But You Can't Keep My Face From Breaking Out

I'm sitting here watching the coverage of Saddam's trial. He and the other 7 men who are on trial with him are being kept in "cages" that really just look like huge playpens.

That, combined with his sudden petulant refusals to state his name when asked, just make me want to give him some warm milk and put him down for a nap. Murdering dictators are so cute when they're sleeping!

Deer Me

Back to my weekend in Nara:

Once I finally regained consciousness and it stopped raining, I went out exploring. Nara Park is one of the main attractions in town due to its many temples and shrines but also for the thousands of deer that roam free on the grounds.


I entered the park and did my duty as a tourist: I forked over $1.50 for some shika-sembei (rice crackers) to feed the deer. These animals are shameless. They hang out right around the sembei vendors and hustle the tourists for food. I got a little nervous when one of them stuck it's big schnoz into my purse and started snuffling around.

Some of the bigger ones have antlers that have been sawed off in a strange event appropriately called "Deer Antler Cutting." It's sort of a cross between a rodeo and turkey shoot. All around Nara there are posters featuring a vengeful-looking buck who really, really deserves to be wrassled to the ground in front of a cheering crowd and having his head mutilated. (As horrifying as I think it is, I guess it would be worse to be gored by one of them while feeding them overpriced cookies). There was a huge line to get in, but I skipped it.

Finally Getting Some Sleep

On Saturday morning I got on the train to Nara, which is about 30 minutes from Kyoto. Several people recommended it (as do all the guidebooks) so I wanted to make sure I fit it in before I leave Japan.

When I got into Nara at about 1PM it was pouring. In the cab on the way to the hotel, the driver said, "Typhoon. Very bad." Oy.

The good news is that the tragically bad weather gave me the perfect excuse to snooze the afternoon away in my hotel room.

The Nara Hotel

I woke up in search of food. Once I realized that the Nara Hotel specializes in unimpressive, overpriced food ("Hamburg Steak" = $30USD), I ventured out into the rain. I was the only customer in Masagoya, a cute little place owned by a sweet married couple. I had a great meal and they gave me a present before I left: a beautiful photo of one of the temples in Nara.

Masagoya Owners, Nara

Had to get one of me in there, too.

The Meal.

Later, I went back to my cave-like room and watched Japanese kids shows before falling into a coma.

Thank God the box step is alive and well in Japan.

I just love the daisy dukes.

Advertising 101

The company I'm working actually consists of three businesses: two "advertising agencies" and one medical education agency. There is a major restructuring going on here, featuring the Aussie and a supporting cast foreign interlopers, that is meant to make the place more competitive in this market. So, part of the process includes me giving a presentation about How An Advertising Agency Works to every employee.

Of course, no one likes being told (however indirectly) that what they have been doing is not exactly 100% what they are supposed to be doing. So, the reactions of my audience have ranged from stony silence to poorly disguised disgust. But, at the end of every presentation, they clap politely and say, "that was very interesting, Colleen-san."

Insult to injury, we can't get them all in a room at the same time, so I've had to make the same presentation six times in the last two weeks. Yesterday I had to go to Osaka to present it. And you know how I feel about Osaka.

Today, we had a meeting about How to Figure Out What Everyone Does All Day Long which spawned two follow up meetings: What Do You Mean They Don't Have a Traffic Department? and Maybe We Should Create a System For Keeping Track of Active Projects. Naturally, this led to sidebar discussions: Isn't There a Form For That? and How Are We Going To Get This All Done Before Colleen Leaves?

My little brain hurts.

Um. Awkward.

My first job in pharma was working as an admin at a major pharma company, which was launching a major brand that gained major attention because of its major effect on major woody.

As anyone who works in the pharmaceutical industry can tell you, we talk about all kinds of disgusting and embarrassing stuff on a daily basis. It's just part of the job.

I'm working on a project for one of our clients requires me to research magazines and websites that will appeal to a certain target audience. We had a bunch of magazines in the office that were, of course, all in Japanese, so I asked my interpretor to flip through them with me and translate anything that looked interesting.

Be careful what you wish for. Most of the magazines were typical fluff: gossip rags, fashion, house & home. Then there was An An.

Not only was the whole issue dedicated to you-know-what, but it included photos, illustrations, and lots of helpful tips for gals on the go. My poor interpretor turned an odd shade of green when she got to the section that was so graphic that it was sealed. I told her that no translation was necessary.

A Weekend Away

Saturday and Sunday

I met Yuki and her two friends early Saturday morning. We were heading off to Nikko to see the famous Shogun shrines and relax in the hot springs at Fukushima. It was a strange trip, mostly because Yuki's friends spoke very little English, so the burden was on Yuki to play translator between us.

Fujio and Junji are married and have a car, which makes them godlike in my eyes. They were also very happy to plan the whole trip because they had visited Nikko and the surrounding areas a few times. So, I was saved from having to schlep my stuff on and off trains and from having to make hotel reservations on my own. The downside, of course, was the traffic that plagues this great land. We spent a large part of our 48-hour trip in the car.

One particularly painful stretch was spent on our way up a mountain to a "cute" little town that Fujio and Junji has discovered a few years ago. What they didn't know was that it was recently featured on a TV travel program, so many other people were trying to discover it, too. The worst thing about the traffic was finding out that the cause of it was a single, well-intentioned, but deeply flawed man. He was directing traffic in and out of the only parking lot in the town. The lot was full, so he just stopped the cars and instituted a "one out, one in" policy. And so we waited.

It was this guy's fault.

The "cute town" is called Ouchijuku (ouch is right) and it is literally one street. The people who live there each have a business in the front of their home (restaurants, produce, souvenirs).

It was very quaint, but not quite worth the three-hour journey (including the two hours spent crawling in traffic).

Yuki modeling the latest fashions.

Lest you think it was all bad:

Nikko was really very interesting. The weather wasn't so good (rainy) but it didn't keep us from exploring all the temples and shrines in the Tosho-gu area. This is where the famous "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys are carved over the entrance to one of the buildings. One of the great Shoguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu, is buried there.

Shogun Tomb

To get to his tomb, we had to pass under the shrine of the sleeping cat and climb a very steep series of stairs. There's a landing with a sign that says, "Your burden is heavy and life is short. Take a rest." (Which we did.)

Sleeping Cat

The hotel was fun, too. They had 6 different kinds of hot springs, both indoor and outdoor. They also had a karaoke box, but we didn't participate. We just watched the old men in their yukatas serenade their wives. Dinner was particularly interesting. There was a tray of various foods common to most Japanese meals (sushi, rice, tofu, pickles, etc) but the main course was prepared in the irori (hearth).

Irori.

The meat and veggies were delicious; the fish that stared at me with it's one dead eye was not my favorite.

But the shiatsu was fabulous.

Friday Night Recap

Friday night I had drinks with M. and a gang of people from the office. We met at the Old Imperial Lounge at the Imperial Hotel. It's an old fashioned bar, but I liked the vibe. There were lots of older non-japanese businessmen. I feel like there was major 2nd or 3rd wife potential. (Can I be a trophy wife?) Maybe on my next low self-esteem day.

M is a recent Tokyo re-transplant (via New Jersey) and is acclimating to life in the bullpen. We all laughed knowingly and sympathetically when he complained that he has to share a very small workspace with several other people (damn you, loud typing guy!) and is actually expected to occasionally answer other people’s phones (stand your ground, M!).

Unfortunately, I completely forgot that I had my camera with me, so there are no embarrassing pictures of anyone. I only remembered it when I was in the lobby of the Imperial, fending off old goats and waiting for a taxi to take me home.

By the way, I shared a cab with one of my co-workers and the driver had free snacks and drinks for us! That's what I call living the good life.

Abandoned sweat towel, 11:30 PM, Imperial Hotel.