Job Satisfaction

Sometimes things happen that make me love my job. In the high school, it is really important to motivate the kids to enjoy learning a language. That is a huge chunk of my job. Today we were listening to 'Thank you for the Music' by Abba as a listening exercise that will next week be a singing exercise. Music is a great way to learn language. I studied German for 1 or 2 years and more or less all I remember is all the words to 'I saw a mouse' 'Ich zeihe ein mous WO? Da auf der cleppe, wo auf der cleppe gans da...' and another song about a horse galloping over sticks and stones 'hop hop hop pferdchen lauf galop uber stock und uber steine'.
So today when one of my classes left the room singing along and giggling (always giggling) to 'Thank you for the music' I felt really happy. It may not last as we have to start hammering them with difficult and largely functionless vocabulary, as is the will of the education system, from next week but I will endeavor to make each lesson have at least something interesting and meaningful in it!
The weather is sunny and warm - finally. I found a picture of Kei and I in a diary from 2 or 3 years ago and it was mid Marach and we were out on our bikes in shorts, sandals and sunvests. This year it was still bloody snowing in March.
TFI FRIDAY!!! Yay for the weekend and all its treats. We will get our new telly in time for the world cup. I bought a magazine yesterday with the tables in it and started getting excited. My intention is to put up the groups in my classroom and chart the progress of especially Japan and England, but everyone. My other intention is to score points with the boys in the class - every little tiny detail counts. With the girls it's easy - just wear a nice necklace or sing a J-pop song under my breath and we are mates. The boys require a bit more work. I have to keep up my interest and working knowledge of football (soccer here) and K1 man fights. It's good to be aware of what's going on in pop culture at any time, not to be cool, but just to drop it in casually every now and then. Of course, I am not cool. I am about 20 years older than these kids and to them I'm just an old foreigner with cute hair and blue eyes (they're green). But if I ever find myself understanding any of their ridicule, I remind myself that while they are at home at the weekend, doing tonnes of rubbish homework, working their butts off at school clubs and wearing trampy clothes, I am out in some of Tokyo's hot spots being fabulous and dancing in time to the music, something they may never do. No school discos here, no youth club. I have just read over the post and realized that I am actually competing with my 15 and 16 year old students and while I know I should immediately erase the shameful rant and tragic trip into the damaged psyche, of a permateen trapped in the education system, I think I shall keep it up as evidence of that. I think I should get up the duff, give me something better to worry about than being cooller than the kids I teach...
I am though. And I'm prbably cooller than you too. So there. PS you stink.

And here I go again on my own...

Today I left the house with a full head of bouncy hair - just washed, just dried I thought it felt and looked fabulous. Then I caught myself in the window of the train. And I infact looked the like the singer from Whitesnake, David Coverdale. Rock on.

70s Kids...

My Mum's mate sent me this, she's about the same age as me and I love it. Although it makes me feel a bit sad. I had a wicked childhood, I could play out when I was really young and we were always doing stuff. And I survived. There were tons and tons of kids around those days. Kei and I were walking around his hometown one holiday and we didn't see a single kid in the streets. He said when he was young there were loads of kids in his neighbourhood. Japan has a major birthrate crisis at the moment. The baby boomers are going to be retiring next year and their kids (me and K) are having kids much later in life, which means the next generation will also be a bit thin on the ground and supporting a huge older population. Anyway enjoy this little bit of nostalgia:

FOR EVERYONE BORN BEFORE 1986!!!

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have
survived, because our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured
lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no
childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets
and it was fine to play with pans.

When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and
fluorescent 'spokey dokey's' on our wheels. As children we would ride
in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat
was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.
We ate chips, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar
in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside
playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and
no-one actually died from this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as
we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one
minded.
We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99
channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile
phones,no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms. We had
friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt!
We fell out of trees, got cut, and broke bones but there were no law
suits. We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from
other parents.
We played knock-and-run and were actually afraid of the owners
catching us. We walked to friends' homes.
We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy
or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard
of...They actually sided with the law.

Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.
For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read
about us. This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it
might put a smile on your face:

And that more or less sums up my childhood!!!

Thunder and Lightning

Yay for kaiten sushi - the lord of fast foods. Boo to the thunderstorm that started whileI was eating my sushi and drenched me shortly afterwards. The weather in Japan is mental at the moment. Yesterday was hot, sweaty and felt stormy. Thunder would have been no surpeise. Today was chilly as I left the house, cold when I left for lunch and now looks to be brightening up. I seem to have hayfever - my eyes itch and I have a dull headache and feel hungover every morning. This morning I felt a bit of a sore throat coming on and thought I was going to destroy my personal best of not getting a cold all winter - infact I can't remember the last time I had one. I have had a genki drink and intend to fill up on more Vitamin C later. My skin feels really really dry and weird today and I put plenty of moisturiser on. I also feel like one feels when one needs a shower. But I am as clean as a whistle. Strange day. I really hate feeling ill and I take many steps to avoid it - I spit, gargle after every lesson (this washes away any errant microbes that may be hanging round your throat, preventing them from entering the body in great numbers). I drink a tonne of water and I treat food like prevention and cure. I'm going to hit the green tea now. On the up side, I finish early today so can go home and try and sort out the hell hole that is my hone or visit my friend who is convalescing with a big ole bun in her oven!!!

Aaah lazy Saturday

Tomorrow My bezza will be 30!!! Tonight we will go to Legato a nice restaurant in Shibuya for dinner. Her brother and his girlfriend conspired with her husband and arrived in Japan today as a surprise - what a lovely surprise!!! We watched 'Taxi Driver' this week, so Kei has taken to walking round the house saying 'you talking to me' a lot. I think this happens to most people after the first time they watch this film - especially boys. He has also taken to doing jumping push ups as Travis Bickles does. And saying 'suck on this' in the same way that Robert De Niro does as he shoots Harvey Keitel. We watched our wedding video today and it is great!!! Well done Gareth. Kei also watched the Matrix Revolutions for the 50th time today.
So now we are off to purchase champagne and anniversary presents for the Sugimitos before we head round there to start celebrating!

Hot and windy..

Hot sweaty windy rainy - it's a weirdo weather Tokyo day. So I did something new today. I had 2 sessions in the morning then a 3 hour break then 4 more sessions. i would usually sit in the training room surfing the Net, looking at pictures and emailing, but today I went and had lunch - a heartly meal of seafood over rice and hot soba noodles, all for under a fiver, then nipped into Harajuku using the 'new entrance' to Shinjuku station (I was pretty excited about using it - tragic) and purchased my bezza's birthday present. She's 30 on Sunday and it put me in mind of my 30th, just a couple of months after I arrived in Japan. It was a wild night of drinking in Xanadu bar in Shibuya (where the world meets) Karaoke in Shinjuku with the legendary Ralph 'toilet paper' Peterson, our German friend and dancing at Code. In the morning a couple of us from the hardcore drinking unit hit an izakaya and had another beer. I got the train back mith my pal Nick and we fell asleep instantly and ended up in Odawara, the final stop out in the countryside. Nightmare.
Anyway, I just went to Chanel and overcame my fear of the scary lasy who works there who gave me a scary makeover on my hens day. She was poking me, the rudest woman I have ever been served by and kept looking at her watch and muttering that she had an important client coming any minute. I was stunned. I was wearing a plastic Claire's accessory's crown, probably not the image Chanel wanted to give, but still. I hate making complaints but my friends, who were with me love it so they went and complained. Since then we have all had star treatment there. So today I went to by some face cream that I had a sample of and that I liked and I got a bag full of samples too. Moody bird was there, but luckily she came nowhere near me. After the complaint, I had a lovely makeup demo from a french lady who works there who can speak English and she helped me choose my wedding makeup style. So my new thing today was not to feel shame about complaining and to go back to the place and be proud and buy the product I wanted. Sometimes I am confused by how shy and self concious I can be. Anyway my skin is really starting to look ropey these days and I can't find a moisturiser I really like - I tend to brand hop and never find one I want to use regularly, but I liked this Chanel product and my skin needs all the help it can get. Can anyone recommend a good moisturiser with sunscreen for the summer? I like the NARS one, but it doesn't contain sunscreen.

Will the newness never end...

There's a new entrance to Shinjuku Station! The Southern Walk entrance. It is one minutes walk from huge IT company's entrance and it means that now we needn't cross a very busy road, go through the main body of Shinjuku Station and be a part of the tsunami of human traffic that passes throught that station every day. It seems like nothing but when you are going through the worlds busiest station every morning and evening, even the slightest thing can have a huge impact on your day. My clients are mentioning it in the same way they might mention that a very attractive massuer had massaged them for free at their desk all morning. It's the small things that count. So Shinjuku is now shaping up - looking newer, better and by the time they finish everything it will not be the poor relation to Shibuya or Harajuku. It has its own atmosphere, but around the station until now it has been pretty scuzzy to be honest. Hoorah for Shinjuku!

New New New

I went to a new Kaiten sushi shop todayand it was good. It is in Shinjuku, just a stones throw from the huge IT company where I do business training. It was really good except that the nigiri were a bit big. That means they were a bit rice heavy, which fills you up quicker. But the selection and quality was super. As was the service - in translation it was a bit like this. (I order a type of sushi) "Excuse me - tuna please" the sushi maker dudes between them "Tuna - wow tuna, yeah tuna, tuna? Really tuna yeah tuna Yay tuna - here's your tuna". In a really super excited voice. It was quite a dining experience and the old guys were really funny. In a different mood it could have driven me nuts, but today I smiled every time someone ordered or they put some new sushi on the conveyor belt. Then it was like
Sushi dude #1 "Coming up - delicious eel"
Sushi dude #2 "What - eel???!!!! Great!!!"
Sushi dude #3 "No way dudes - eel. Eel - it's eel!!!"
Every customer in the sushi shop has a little think bubble over their heads that say "Wow that eel looks great - I didn't want eel before but now - now I really want it, here it comes. mmmmm this eel is good. But there is too much rice."
"Eel please!"
sushi dude "Wow eel - no way eel..." and so on
It put me in mind a little bit of a place I used to work. It was the kind of Italian chain restaurant where sweaty youths squeeze plastic packets of Dolmio over overcooked pasta, which is then served by the flotsum and jetson of the University system to unaware diners, who, having seen the prices think there must be someone out the back chopping tomatoes and garlic, listening to Pavarroti and squeezing fresh pasta out of one of those twisty handle machines. In that restaurant we had to shout all the time. We had to shout things like 'Door' 'serving hatch' 'drinks' 'beautiful Paul' in fake Italian. Loud. It was awful, but I had a great laugh and met some fantastic people there, many with whom I am still in touch. We had excellent parties, would play pool until dawn after work, drink, smoke, intermingle, kop off with each other, dodgy deal, compare tips, earn loads of tips, spend more than we earned and generally do the kinds of things you do in your 20s that you pay for later in life in the form of liver and lung transplants and madness. So, to the fake Italian restaurant people I SALUTE YOU!!!

Fuji Trip

Just back from a school trip to a massive centre with rooms and and onsen attached. And 550 15 year olds. It was great. It was my 3rd time and the kids seem great this year. We had a hike to some caves, 3 legged races, early morning exercises (very early), campfire, onsen, running, good food and lounging around. The 1st day was raining but today was amazing and Mount Fuji looked stunning - I have pictures, millions, will try and post them on here but not now because I am pooped. Not millions, just a few. New things included getting the bus home tonight from Fuji kyu Highlands (the trip was one more night, but I had to come home early because of work tomorrow), I also had a perfectly sublime moment. In an outdoor hot tub (rotenburo) I was sat up, it was a perfect temperature, it was early evening and the light was all honey, a gently breeze blew across my upper body while the rest of me was in the bath and Mount Fuji, in all her half snow-covered splendor was right in front of me. If it had been a movie screen, and I was sitting right in front of it, the mountain would have started in the bottom left corner, peaked in the centre and sloped off to the bottom right corner of the screen. I wept. I was heart warming and perfect. it inspired this haiku. "Fuji-san early evening. I weep in the rotenburo. Gaylord." I think that's 17 syllables - correct me if I'm wrong. Beats the rubbish haikus about frogs and ponds. most of them are rubbish. Here's another one inspired by another incident. ' e! terebi desu ka? e! dekai ne? terebi desu!' That one may need some explanation.

Something new

Yesterday I made a recipe from a BBC recipe book that my Mum's mate had given to me ages ago. It was the first time I used it. It is 101 Pasta and noodle recipes. The food was good. Today I didn't do very well really. I got up before 10 - that's good for a Saturday. I had an argument with Kei - not out of the ordinary. I went out to cool off and went shopping. I freaked out because British Vogue May issue is STILL not here. Why not? Elle would suffice but it has a REALLY bad picture of Paris Hilton on the front - no purchase. Red looked boring and had a free scarf, which I hate because I would never wear it, but would hate to throw it away. So I have to wait. I had a (domestic) shopping list and got everything on it - that's pretty good. I came home and apologised to Kei and made friends. Usual. I made dinner. Unusual on a Saturday, but nothing new. Now we are watching Scarface - that's new but also I am not concentrating and it falls under the umbrella of 'watching a video' so not new. I may have to go and dance on the balcony in a bit.
Tomorrow I am off to Mount Fuji with 500 15 year olds for a school trip. This is always strange and fun in equal measures. It is a military operation. Almost literally. I have to get a train at 6.15 tomorrow morning. This is kinda new and I might add unwelcome, but I am looking forward to it. I get plenty of rest time and if the Might Fuji is out, then she is majestic. I am taking 3 cameras - all shonky, to capture the lady of she shows her face.

Winter's gift to me...

A chickeney neck. Cheers.

Police

Yesterday there was a strong police presence around Shinjuku Yodobashi Camera. I saw one policeman intimidating a man - I don't know what he had done, he just looked a bit weird. The policeman was standing with his feet spread really far apart in a kind of cliched pose. Then another policeman ran after a young man like desperate running as if he were about to to solve the crime of the decade and I stopped to look. The young man had one tiny toy handcuff attached to his bag, like a little adornment. The policeman quizzed him about it at length. I couldn't believe my eyes. This single handcuff would have been good for a baby and that's about it - what he thought he was going to do with it I don't know. I was a ridiculous scene of male dominance at work. Tragic really. But maybe by being visible and picking on unasuming folk going about their business that keeps the crime rate down. Alternatively they were incompetent tossers.
This morning I saw, from the bus, half an apple stuck to the end of a branch of a tree. I wondered why. I thought maybe someone had put it there to feed the birds. Then I thought that maybe it was to lure out some creature that inhabits the Ichigaya Nakanocho area. It lives in the grounds of the local temple and the people love to feed it apples from the trees. Sadly, last night it hadn't taken the bait. Or maybe it was full from the bowls of ramen and sushi that other people had put out.

Something new every day

I'm going to try something new every day. Today I went for kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi and tried a type of sushi I have never tried before. It was Toro maki - nothing out of the ordinary, but I never orderd it before. I lalso did something else, but I have forgotten what it was. Or maybe I decided I was going to do something else later and have forgotten what it was.
I remembered - I had 3 Weetabix this morning. I usually have 2. What shall I do tomorrow???

?

I was doing a bit of shopping in a supermarket in Takadanobaba and I was drawn to a big Union Jack. What was I to find under the mighty flag? Rich tea biscuits? Chocolate Hobnobs? No, I found a small selection of Waitrose products. Peculiar. I bought 2 tins of baked beans.

More Pictures...

Martine of Frangipani Weblog has our wedding album on a website now - check it out because it will only be there for a few weeks due the size of it. frangipani.info/photography/v/hanami_wedding/
Also check out her Blog, she made an entry about the wedding. Not only that, but her Blog is good fun - I am a regular reader and that is how we came to meet.
http://www.frangipani.info/blog/
Our entry is under 'Sarah and Keisuke's wedding'.

And a video from our good friend Mr Pym
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.pym/video.html
The video requires Quicktime to play and takes a little time to get going, so be patient. Or download Quicktime.

Enjoy this sonic cyber trip...

Somebody else says it for me...

I was just doing my usual surf of people's Weblogs, a daily event for me and a great way to find out what's going on in Tokyo and how other people amuse themselve's in life and I found this entry http://www.floatingworldviews.com/ look for '2 Years in Japan' entry. This lady really does express exactly how I feel about Tokyo. Sometimes it inspires me beyond belief and other times it just makes me wonder why in the name of bejezuz I am involving myself so absolutely in Japan. But I have never been as contented, as inspired, as energetic as I have in this city. There is a very cynical post brewing in my heart and head right now, on the back of an opening speech at one of my places of work. But I'm not ready to release just yet. Making a post like the one I want to make requires careful consideration, being respectful as well as cynical and true and owning ones opinion takes a lot of thought. I have to wade through my (apparently) inbred orientalism and sift the opinions I feel are valid from those that are just stone throwing. I'm sure that my discomfort at other people's comments and the hurt I feel from the opinions expressed by others has equal validity to those same feelings that are experienced by people who aren't from a nation of imperialist empire building yahoos (Like myself). But I am ginger and therefore know the opression of my brothers and sisters. I own my opinions.

DVDs and CDs

Yesterday we bought some new stuff. I got some music - I decided to go for some new things. usually I go for natsukashi stuff, but I managed to fend off the urge to buy Eurythmics Greatest Hits and went for Goldfrapp and Arctic Monkeys - apparently the talk of the town these days. I'm half way through Goldfrapp - fun. Haven't listened to the other one yet.
Also got 3 classic movies and one other one. Scarface, Taxi Driver and Easy Rider. And Love Actually. Which is utter utter shite. Kei wanted to watch something cheerful last night, so I suggested Love Actually as it is quite a 'feel good' film. But throughout he was cringing at the cheesiness, the cliches and the insult to the British sense of Humor. At the end - he said it was the worst thing he had ever seen and he was irritated actually. I'd have to agree. How many times can you mention Shakespeare, be self depreciating and have just the biggest cheesy cliches in one movie - it is drivel. I still cry though. I hate the wedding scene only marginally more than the scene where Egg off This Life has big cards with stuff written on it. In the wedding scene Egg has sneekily found out that half the bride's and half the groom's family can play trumpets, trombones and saxaphones (because if they weren't family then the bride and groom would be like - who the F"#k are all the strangers dotted throughout the congregation) and stand up at the end to sing and play one of the worst Beatles songs ever - 'All you Need is Love'. Then a man gets up in the pulpit playing electric guitar in a way that looks like air guitar. It is hideous, disgusting and horrible and I hate it. Yet still I weep. I used to cry if someone got a gold run on Blockbusters too, so...
So it's officialy worse than The Brown Bunny. 'I'm dead Bud'.
Martine just sent me the first stages of the wedding album and it looks ACE!!! Can't wait to see everything properly.

Sunday Morning

We were lying in bed (futon) this morning, reading Mixmag and listening to an 80s radio station online and 'Every Breath you Take' by the Police came on. And I realised that, while it use to move me, it is boring and I like the Puff Daddy tribute to the Lard Lord of Gangsta Rap, Biggy Smalls way better. 'I'll be Missing you.'

We tried...but we failed

To get married today. We nipped up to the local city office and tried to get married. This is roughly equivalent in speed and efficiency to cashing a giro. Sadly, we didn't have the requisite 2 signatures from Kei's family to say it is OK for us to wed. We only had one. That's Ok because in Shinjuku City office, or any main ward office, they are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so I reckon we hit karaoke one night, stumble into the ward office and get married on a day that sounds good. We could even go with our other 2 mates who also went for ceremony before paperwork, like us. Only they did it in Thailand. I think that would be a right laugh, having a couple of pints then heading off to the ward office together to get married, then having a celebratory bowl of ramen or something romantic.
Getting married in Japan is really easy. It is just a case of getting a couple of signatures and that's it. I had to get a certificate from the British Consulate to say I was single, but that was real easy. Kei told me both parties don't even need to be there and that there have been cases of women not knowing they were married, because stalkers went to the ward office on their own with fake stuff and married them. That's wild isn't it? As wild as the other popular stalker passtime of stealing knickers off washing lines. We went to a thanksgiving dinner at my friend's house last year and in the room we were using were some undies hanging from the light switch. When we asked why they were there, she said because just the week before, she and her houseys had had all their undies halfinched off the washing line by a local perv. They had to replace it all so were taking no chances. As well as being pretty unsettling, it is bloody expensive replacing all your pants and bras.
Goodnight - I have to be at school for 8.20 tomorrow - A SATURDAY. For the opening ceremony. I have to introduce myself and be visible. Hopefully I can come home before lunchtime because I am super mega tired after staying up til 3 last night chatting and net surfing with Jus, then getting up at 6 to see them off. I did of course go back to sleep for an hour or two, but this last week has been tremendous and an endless champagne and cocktail fest. I need to detox, start exercising again and chill brother. Love to everyone.

Wedding

Well it has taken me all week to sit down and start to write the highlights of the wedding - would be way better if I knew how to insert photos into the Blog, but I'll learn that another day.
1 It was a beautiful day
2 The blossoms were in full bloom
3 The hairdressers was a good laugh and 3 of my friends joined me for hair dos
4 My hair looked lovely - well done master stylist Masako-san at Sinden.
5 Jus and April helped me get dressed in the hotel room with Martine, our photographer who was very relaxed and fun to have around.
6 I was really happy with the way my dress looked with everything
7 We had a laugh putting makeup on together and taking loads of pictures
8 We picked up the flowers and the bouquet was amazing - sakura and tiny orchids - well done Watanabe san at Jingu Garden, Harajuku.
9 We cabbed up to the park and it was beautiful, sunny and perfect.
10 We were congratulated by every person we passed - it was a great experience.
11 Jus and April went ahead to our party to drop stuff off, give Kei his button hole and warn them.
12 I stayed with Martine and felt so happy that I cried, then I saw Jus and April come towards me and they looked so happy and beautiful I realised I am the luckiest girl in the world and my friends are tremendous.
13 Unlucky for some, but not me. We picked our way through the park and found our little gathering, Kei was being shielded from me, but as my friends came into view I was elated - it was ACE. I also knew that a nice glas of champagne was not far away.
14 I walked up the metre long aisle between the plastic sheets and joined Kei - he looked handsome and smiley and we smiled a bit then our celebrant, Manolo did his thing.
15 The ceremony was short, sweet and special. We said a few word, exchanged rings and drank champagne.
16 THEN...things went a bit lunatic. As the other people in the park realised what was happening slowly but surely people started surrounding our party and clapping.
17 They were shouting 'KISSU KISSU' and they were drunk (not all of them!)
18 Darth Vader had climbed a tree and was sitting in it.
19 The crowd roared as we kissed.
20 A group of very zealous young men picked Kei up and threw him in the air, like at the end of baseball match or something. This was Kei's highlight of the day.
21 We hung out for an hour or so drinking champers
22 My excellent friend, Rach, who had been calling me frequently from Kobe throughout the previous weeks had a surprise for us. She loves this story http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060311p2a00m0na036000c.html read it!
23 In the tree above the ceremony were 3 daikons - me, Kei and our future gutsy child. She had even brought a trowel so that we could bury the little blighters and see how gutsy they were! (Not very - they were gone by Monday - I had hoped they would flourish)
24 We buried them in an exciting and unexpected twist to the Park element of the day. This was ridiculous and fabulous fun - kei got straight in there and dug 3 holes while the cameras furiously clicked away.
25 Another tremendous friend (I'm running out of adjectives to superlative my friends) Gareth recorded the whole thing as our cameraman.
26 Martine looked like she cold not believe what she was photograohing throughout proceedings.
27 My dressmaker, Pinn came along and had made me the most beautiful bag that she had made as a gift. It matches the patchwork on my dress. It was just perfect.
28 Drank more champers
29 Chatted to friends, kids, babies and everyone looked gorgeous.
30 We eventually headed toward the Exrealm - the cafe for the reception.
31 We marched through the streets of Harajuku as Martine took pictures and Gareth videod. This was one thing we were really looking forward to - getting shots of us in Harajuku.
32 We took pics off the bridge, on the bridge and around and about.
33 We took some very cheesy pics on a staircase near the restaurant, but they actually turned out OK!!!
34 We got to the restaurant and the flowers (all sakura) Gareth had ordered were spectacular - really amazing. You can see them on the pictures.http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigsyintokyo/
35 Kei and I were ushered up to a little room where we had a rest and Kei changed into his night outfit as the guests arrived.
And that is where the evening began...

Drinks

Me and Ms Hookes and her bitch (Chris) and my bitch (Kei) went to the New York Bar in the Park Hyatt, Shinjuku and spent a couple of hours supping cocktails and chatting. Kei and Jus were talking about the middle aged gentleman and his female companion who were supping opposite us and commenting on how they had probably just been in a love hotel all afternoon doing stuff (Kei thought 'bumming' I have no idea why he had thought of something so specific) Just after that I drew to their attention that it was infact Paul Smith, the British designer and that he probably hadn't been in a seedy hotel all afternoon at all and probably had been designing something wavey liney or something.

I'm so busy.....

I have a list of things to catch up on the length of a really long thing, so I decided to sit around for an hour or so looking at other people's Blogs. In the absence of TV shows I can understand I do this a lot. So I implore you to check out this guys Blog - more specifically the following posts:
http://www.conbinibento.com/2004/10/
I can really think of nothing more to say. Nothing - check them out espesh the bitch slap video.

No Impediment to marriage has been shown to exist!

Yay, I just answered the door and it was our certificate of non impediment from the British Consulate. This means that we can now legally get married this week or something. This will involve nipping up to the local council offices, probably in our lunch break, signing a piece of paper and that's about it.
For those of you who are a bit confused - Saturday's ceremony in the park, hosted by our friend and attended by half of Tokyo was not actually legally binding. That was our (first) celebration as we are rolling out our marriage bit by bit.

Photos

I have just uploaded a load of photos tp my Flickr account - you can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigsyintokyo/

THE BEST DAY EVER!!!

Yesterday surpassed all expectations - it was amazing, really amazing. From start to finish it was incredible, fun and bizarre. Very very bizarre!!! Will give highlights, but I can tell you that Kei and I were interviewed for Finnish TV in the park. We knew we would draw some attention, but it was truly amazing what happened. More later, but now I am posting some photos onto Flickr - so checke them out!!!