The Aquarium
We went to one of the many aquariums in the Tokyo area on the weekend. This one was only 30 minutes away from where we are staying and in the middle of some large hotels and shopping centers. Once inside the aquarium it was easy to forget that you were in the middle of this huge city.


There were dolphin and seal shows in huge auditoriums and a walk through arch full of sting rays and sharks. The pengiums were a favourite with huge Perspex windows to see them swimming around underwater. There were also tanks full of fish and jelly fish.

When the dolphin show finished they ushered in a wedding party with the bride and groom getting married on the edge of the dolphin pool. Of course the dolphins jumped and clapped to celebrate the wedding as well as “singing” congratulatory songs to the bride and groom.


It was amazing to hear the bride go down the “aisle” to the first verse of Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion and even stranger to hear the first verse of Cyndi Lauper’s Manic Monday as the tune chosen to leave as man and wife.








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Japanese meat pies
I went down to the local patisserie to get something to eat for lunch during the week. One of the things I never expected when I came to Tokyo was the amazing number of French patisseries – every train station and shopping district seems to have at least 3.



When I was looking around the shop the Australian fussion influence on the Tokyo based French patisserie became obvious – a curried meat pie (with a soft boiled egg inside for good measure).


Getting into the Japanese way I took a few pictures before I had my lunch. One thing about these shops is the way that they wrap each of the pastries individually in paper and plastic before they go in the big plastic bag.











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The Ueno zoo
So opening weekend of the trout season happened in the Snowy mountains and as my attendance at this annual event would be somewhat questionable we ended up going to the Ueno zoo in Tokyo and it only cost ¥600 (about $8) to get in.




The weather was a little on the damp side, it was opening weekend after all, but this kept the number of people down to a manageable level and access to the animals was very easy. The zoo is only a 15 minute train ride away from where we are staying and is located in the heart of the urban jungle with museums and art galleries in the same precinct. However, as we are learning the designers of this city are able to take what little green space is available and make it feel like you have many acres of space.




There were apartments overlooking the zoo and you can only imagine what it would be like to be living in one of the most populous cities in the world and waking to the sound of lions roaring, elephants trumpeting and monkeys screeching.







There was a huge range of animals in the zoo including all the usual suspects and a little something else for others.



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Dominos pizza becomes a luxury item?
You may have heard that living in Japan, and Tokyo, is prohibitively expensive. Well there is no denying the fact that, compared to Australia, it is expensive to buy food here but nothing that is way too expensive and falls into the “luxury” class.


There was a hankering in the household last night for some pizza, so I headed out to a domino’s pizza store and picked up a couple of large pizza’s (sounds so easy when you write it in a dozen words).



Now while the pizza was good, especially with beer, and the I didn’t realise how much I was missing melted cheese until the smell of the pizza’s hit me on the walk home some quick calculation highlighted that each of the pizza’s was approximate 35 Australian dollars. Not unexpected for a “gourmet” pizza in Australia but this was a domino’s pizza with no goats cheese, prosciutto or artichoke hearts in sight. But of course, when the need arises, we will be getting some more!
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Sumo (and one of those moments)
Undoubtedly one thing most people think of when they think of Japan is Sumo.



Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Sumo. In one of “those” moments I was sitting in this box at the Sumo and thought if someone had asked me 1 year ago what I would be doing in a year’s time “going to the Sumo” would not have been in the top 500 things I would have responded.

These are seriously big boys – one of the guys on the program was 203cm tall and 175 kilos! Most of them were around 180 cm tall and 150 odd kilos.

There are any number of “stables” around the country all with their resident sensei (master) and a surprising number of foreigners involved (there were Sumo from Greece, China, Mongolia, Georgia and Russia in this tournament).

There are only 2 high level tournaments held in Tokyo per year. Each tournament runs for 2 weeks. In the whole of Japan there are only three cities that hold tournaments.


We were lucky enough to be sitting in one of the boxes closer to the action. The box is an area about 1.5 meters square and thin mats on the floor (did I mention that each session runs for about 3 hours?). The guys in the box beside the one I was in were all 80+ and really got into the beers, by the end of the night they were yelling their heads off and screaming at the Sumo. However, they did take a little longer than me to stand up once the bouts were over.

Before a series of bouts begin they parade the two sides of the draw in front of the crowd and introduce them to the crowd (and give you some idea as to the size of these guys).

Once they get into it the night seems to go incredibly quickly. There is a large amount of routine and spirituality tie up in the Sumo bout that I will not even begin to try and explain. Suffice to say that after attending the night I have a new found understanding and appreciation for this sport (I had found myself watching an hour or so of the Sumo on the television at night and being fascinated even before there was a chance to go along and see it for myself).


These guys are intense, they spend way too much time getting into the right head space, staring each other down across the ring and slapping themselves around he face. Before they even get into the tournament they spend a stupid amount of time training. It is the most explosive, anaerobic sport I think you can imaging. Try and picture 300 plus kilos of guys throwing themselves at each other trying to push the opponent out of the ring or down to the ground. Some of the bouts were over in seconds with others going for up to a minute or more. There was a saying that I heard in relation to boxing “a good little man will always beat a good big man” – this doesn’t seem to hold true in the world of Sumo, big is definitely better.
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Keep out of the bushes.
The first sign was a little alarming.


The second sign was confusing.

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How to stop being stared at (fitting into Japan)



The first magazine that I read on arriving in Japan contained a column by an expat on how to fit into Japan and not be stared at. He had three points to avoid being stared at on trains, on buses and on the streets. May be number 4 should be get your legs cut off at the knees?



1) Speak the language. While survival language training in Australia was good it was limited and that became obvious very quickly when we were out and about at the local shops. Funnily enough with limited language you can get by in almost any situation and the only place I have been truly frustrated is trying to order coffee in McDonalds. I don’t know if it deliberate but I always get blank stares where as in starbucks, tullys and other cafes it does not seem to be a trouble.

2) Buy yourself a “man bag”. Now this one threw me a little and I was obviously not so sure what they meant by a man bag so when I saw this couple I just had to take the picture. Could you see this fashion taking off at home?



3) Grow your hair and get it cut like the Japanese do, all well and good but the amount of product required to get this look and maintain it would burn a serious hole in the ozone layer.



*trendymenhaircutstyles.blogspot.com








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Fishing in Toyko?



We went for a trip to the “beach” on the side of the Tokyo bay and while running around after the kids I spotted a group of very dedicated anglers lining the shore of a rocky break wall a short distance away. As you can see there were a number of people there with all sorts of amazing kit. The size of the fish? About 3-4 inches long.




And then there was this? (why not?)









In the afternoon we headed to a park near where we are staying and found a pond that was ringed with fishermen, loaded with turtles and a wonderful brown colour. It quickly became apparent that the reason the pond was such a colour was the amount of burley being hurled into the water by all the fishermen. We did see one old guy catch himself a small carp on a classic bamboo rod that was mounted on a hand carved rod holder.













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