So say youve got work in another city from Monday to Thursday. Work has paid for accommodation for 3 nights and given you a train ticket up there on Monday morning and back on Thursday night. This free online course will give you an example of how by taking just one day of daikyuu (time in lieu) on Friday, you can maximise your time in the capital of the land of the rising sun by changing your bullet train tickets to Saturday morning and Sunday night!
Day 1 - Saturday 13 November
Was on the 10am bullet train from Shin-Osaka to Tokyo, which still gave me enough time to have a decent breakfast and with a few discounted sweet breads and onigiri to eat on the train I had bought from the supermarket the night before I was off back to Tokyo for the third time in almost as many months. Don met me at Tokyo station and we headed down to Shinagawa to go to Kurazushi for lunch (kaiten sushi) there was a little bit of a wait but that just gave us a chance to catch up and we ended up with a counter seat and I chowed through 8 delicious plates of sushi. There were having a sale too so each plate was only Y90 instead of Y105 - yay! Sushi lunch for just over Y700 makes me very happy!
That afternoon was pretty chilled as Don had some free time so we wandered up to his place (in the dorm block where Kyle and Tom used to live) and around Meigaku, seeing as we were having a "for old times sake" evening we decided to train it out on the Tokyu Ikegami-sen to Ontakesan to wander around the main street and Jusco for a bit and even had okonomiyaki for dinner at Yocchans - its just a shame I was in Tokyo a week after Reich!
Later that night I caught up with a few friends from my Meigaku Sign Language Group for dinner and drinks at an izakaya and then 3 hours of karaoke so managed to sing pretty much everything we wanted although a lot of the Japanese songs I remember are quite old and they wanted me to sing lots in English too (so the two hours nomihoudai - lit. all you can drink - definitely helped) Takuya did sing Sakura by Kyogo Kawaguchi (check out this video of someone else singing it at karaoke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TArkxLuBLUk) which I hadnt heard in years which was lovely. Ended up picking up some beers from the convenience store and having the ni-ji-kai at his house - hilarious 5 of us squeezing into his tiny Oimachi apartment but had some great chats well into the wee hours.
Day 2 - Sunday 14 November
After a pretty big Saturday night, Sunday morning was pretty chilled until I met Yosuke and Stefan for lunch in Shinjuku. I realise that this sounds normal enough but I think the circumstances coming together like this makes for an interesting story - so heres some background to my Sunday lunch date...
Yosuke was my sempai (senior, year level above me) in my swim team at university over here. He was paired up with Stefan as a buddy (all international students were assigned 1-2 Japanese students who volunteered to help us settle in to university and Tokyo Life). Last time I saw Stefan was when I went to see him in Hamburg in 2007 and now hes living in Yokohama with a Japanese wife (who he meet in Australia) and teaching at a kindergarten. The three of us were having lunch at a Mexican place in Tokyo, the last time we shared a meal would have been over 5 years ago, and a lot has changed since then with Stefan being married, Yosuke engaged (to Tintin - another exchange student at the same time as us - who is at home in the Philippines) and me also doing long-distance with Stuart so the conversation was quite a bit different to last time but had a great long lunch chatting with these guys!
After lunch I headed to Shoko's (who was one of my buddies from my Meigaku days) place to drop my bag as I was going to crash there for the night. We went for a walk around Ginza at night to check out the pretty Christmas lights and had homemade nabe with her Mum and had a nice chilled night just catching up
Day 3 - Monday 15 November
Seeing as I was spending the night in Tsukiji I think it only made sense to go to the fish markets the next morning seeing as I was walking distance. Enjoyed it but was glad I went with Shoko and her Mum otherwise I wouldnt really have had any idea of where to go, wandered around for a bit (I didnt know tuna was such a big fish!) and took a couple of pictures without getting in the way - didnt bother lining up for the sushi breakfast and went for a dango on the way home instead as we both had work to get to.
Caught my train out to Chiba and was there by 9 but my hotel wouldnt let me check in until 2pm so I gave them my bag and just chilled in the lobby attempting to do some study in the morning before my conference started in the afternoon as there wasnt much else to do out at Kaihin Makuhari. Was nice when everyone started arriving around 1-ish and we I had a chance to catch up with Jen (the other Wellington CIR) and Sammy (French-Canadian) who I hadnt seen since the Tokyo Orientation over three months ago. The welcome keynote session was okay but wish we had more time for socialising as everyone was staying at different hotels etc so it was a bit hard. The night was really yucky out but I didnt really want to just stay in my hotel room on my own, so instead headed out to spend the evening at Ikea, and spent a couple of hours wandering around in the warmth looking at furniture (luckily theres not a store close to my house!), taking pictures, and even had dinner there ;)
Day 4 - Tuesday 16 November
Our only full day of conference (the other two were just a morning and afternoon to allow everyone to get there and back within three days) was a little full on with one lecture / workshop after another and as first years we all the compulsory ones were decided for us. The morning sessions were on translating and interpretting and then enjoyed lunch with Jen, Rory (her boyfriend) and Sophie (another 1st year CIR from NZ - Christchurch based in Sendai) at a place that did a nice cheap set lunch with free rice and drink refills for Y600. Afternoon sessions were on answering the phone in the workplace and life after JET (interesting that that was compulsory for first years...)
Skipped out on the last session and enjoyed the sunset looking out towards Tokyo from Makuhari Beach and then continued the thirs wheel romantic evening with Jen and Rory and made the most of my second night in the area by going to Disney Sea - seeing as it was only a few train stops away and they have a special "after 6" deal for the evenings which is only Y3100 (NZD$50) so why not. Using the single rider lines (available on three of the biggest rides) we managed to get on everything we wanted and even catch the Christmas fireworks, have some milk tea flavoured popcorn, and do a bit of shopping before the park closed at 10pm
Day 5 - Wednesday 17 November
The final two sessions of the conference were a little more discussion based which I liked, and I got a few more ideas about event and lesson planning. Said goodbye to the few people I knew - checked out of my hotel in Chiba (left) and into my hotel in Tokyo (right) before heading into the Tokyo office for a few hours to practise the presentation for tomorrow
After we'd done as much rehearsal as we could handle for one night, we had dinner at an izakaya and then I went to visit Junyas work (as thats the only way I can see him these days as our schedules are opposite) to get some study done over a pint and a dessert
Day 6 - Thursday 18 November
Finally the day of the presentation was here. I enjoyed my third hotel breakfast in a row, killed some time in the lobby (between checkout and the time I had to meet everyone - that has seemed to happen a bit on this trip...) and then headed off the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Gaimusho). Background - the presentation was 10 minutes, with a powerpoint, in English to a bunch of representatives from all the Embassies in Tokyo about our area as part of the Regional Promotion Seminar and there were booths with samples of local goods etc afterwards too. I went to watch the last round in September and they were torn over a Japanese person presenting it (in Japanese English) or a CIR presenting it (but not a native of the area) so we decided to take a bit of a risk and did a conversation-style presentation between a workmate and I - which thankfully went down really well.
At each seminar there are five towns / regions represented - the other 4 were Mie, Kobe, Yamagata and Sendai. Luckily most of the other stands had CIRs there as well (bar Sendai but thats okay because I had caught up with Sophie at the conference) so I had a great time meeting some other people from around the country and enjoying whatever wine or sake was left at the end of the session - great vibe and made more contacts in 3 hours than I had at 3 days of conference!
Day 7 - Friday 19 November
This was probably the busiest day of the whole trip, but I had taken a day off so its only fair to want to make the most of it right! Met up with Rory and Jen again (they were making the most of the conference by spending the weekend in Tokyo too) and went for a wander through Meiji-jinju. There were lots of gorgeous kids dressed up for the 7-5-3 festival and some random vegetables around for a Harvest Festival they would be having a few days later
Went for a wander down Takeshita-doori, its much less crowded in the mornings than in the afternoon and celebrated my presentation going well with lunch at Sweets Paradise - 70 minutes of all you can eat for Y1480 - salad, curry, spaghetti, udon, ice-cream, shaved ice and of course as the name suggests lots of sweets, about 30 different styles of cake and a chocolate fountain! Paradise! Time afterwards for a bit of shopping and of course purikura (sticker pictures!) before heading back up to Meigaku
Turns out today was Meigaku's advent service and Don was going to be conducting the choir for one of their songs so he invited me along - its was a great chance to get back up to the school (and into the chapel as Id never been before) to enjoy some Christmas songs (in Japanese of course) and also catch the tree lighting ceremony afterwards - nothing better to put you in the festive mood!
After that I met Shinobu at Ikebukuro Station and we headed out to Nerima to spend the night with Kayo and her new (2 month old) baby Sho-chan. Had a great night out there just hanging out with two wonderful girls who came all the way to NZ to visit for a week in November 2005 - brilliant to catch up and just relax spent the night looking through wedding and baby pictures - super cute!
Day 8 - Saturday 20 November
Knowing that I was heading back home tomorrow Saturday was a little bit more chilled but spent a wonderful afternoon / early evening out in Sakuragicho with Kiyomi. Havent seen her since I was in Japan last time on a whirlwind visit on the way to Michaelas wedding in 2008 so it was great to catch up. Did a bit of window shopping while enjoying the numerous Christmas trees in the malls and looking into planning her New Years trip to London/Edinburgh before heading outside and across to Akarenga for a very civilised tea and cake
Day 9 - Sunday 21 November
Before I had to catch my shinkansen back to Osaka at 5pm, there was time to catch up with one more person - Sarah (who I went to primary school with in Palmerston North) is living in Japan with her fiancee at the moment, the last time we caught up was on my way through Sydney heading home from my OE in Nov 2007. Had okonomiyaki for lunch in Shibuya, did some shopping, wandered to Harajuku for crepes, more shopping and a coffee was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Course Summary
Of course having people in a city definitely helps to have a futon to crash on, or someone to have a coffee with but Im sure it is possible if you dont know anyone in the city where your business trip is too. Book into a youth hostel for a few nights and youre sure to meet a few like minded people who are just trying to make the most out of every day too - and you never know, they might just become life long friends. If you liked this please keep an eye out for the next edition in this online series "How to survive life as a Japanese public servant 101 - Making the most of your Public Holidays > Long Weekends" coming in February 2011.
Oh what, no video of you singing karaoke? :P
ReplyDeleteTheres a video of my friend singing karaoke, but you know I prefer to be behind the camera ;P
ReplyDeleteI do have some videos I want to put on here though but for some reason its not letting me ;(
ReplyDelete