marc.vic.max.elliot

I’m sitting in the JAL business class lounge (Air NZ code share partner I guess) at Narita airport and am 2.5 hours into my trip home. The first 2 hours was the bus ride from the hotel to the airport and when I got here I found that I was able to upgrade to business class using my frequent flyer complimentary upgrades – yay! The seats are pretty sweet and as it’s a night flight I’ll hopefully be able to get some sleep. The great thing is that at the end of the month I’ll get two more complimentary upgrades for going to Air New Zealand’s highest level of frequent flyer!

It’s now 16:30 here and 20:30 at home – I get into Wellington at 14:30 tomorrow so only 18 hours to go, sheesh….

It’s only nine o’clock and I’m already back from dinner!

My colleague and a couple of workmates took me to one of Tokyo’s most famous restaurants (supposedly) and treated me to some interesting food.  They asked if I was OK with raw food (yes) and any type of food (yes, I’ll try pretty much anything once)  Here are some things I had:

• Raw sliced chicken liver – squishy!
• Raw chicken breast
• Raw chicken heart with wasabi – surpisingly tender
• Some raw part of a chicken (like liver but we can’t describe it in english)
• Slightly cooked liver – mushy
• Cooked liver – a specific part that was kind of crunchy
• Chicken neck – cooked
• Chicken gizzard – cooked
• Chicken brain – not sure if it was cooked or not
• Chicken heart – cooked on skewers
• Soft chicken bones – the ones that are in the middle of the breast – cooked
• Kimchi
• Seaweed
• Beer
• Sake that was so expensive that I was the only one that had it – chilled

All in all pretty interesting 🙂

Sitting here after finishing the course for the day and I’m waiting to meet a Japanese colleague from my new hire class that was held in March.  Should be an interesting night going out for dinner with some locals (one is the sales manager for Japan!)

One thing that has amused/pleased/worried me is the fact that every toilet seat that I have sat on is a technological marvel!  Every single one of them sprays warm water up your butt to clean it, some have a fan to suck nasty odours out of the way, some are heated (very disconcerting!) and some gently dry your ass afterwards by blowing warm air on it. Ahh the Japanese and their passion for anal hygiene 🙂

Besides that there isn’t much happening.  I’ve been sleeping like crap and still waking up too early so it will be nice to get home and see the family and sleep in my own bed.

My first day of training in Tokyo and I managed to find my way here without a single wrong turn.  It was a lovely 30 minute walk amidst the mass of dark suits and white shirts that is the rush hour in Tokyo 🙂

Not much to say really as I’ve been sitting in class all morning and have managed to get web access via the server we are using for the lab.

I know that asians are stereotyped as being short but the ironing board was so low to the ground I had to put in on the desk! It was also so short that I had to iron my sleeves in two sections – lol!

My one and only free day in Tokyo today! I spent the day walking (damn my feet are sore!) and really only did two things. The first was to visit the Senso-ji temple and the second was to wander around Akihabara, the gadget centre of Tokyo (and I could have spent so much money!)

Here’s some pictures. They were scaled using the crap tools on my work laptop and I have my doubts about the job they did. At least you can tell what they are, hopefully.

I’m not really a night owl but damn body clock has me up at 03:00! Here’s the view from my hotel room and about all I’ve seen of Tokyo so far….

Here I am in Tokyo and not much to say 🙂 I’ve just checked into my hotel after an uneventful 11 hour flight and 2.5 hour bus ride…. Oh, and I discovered that my mobile phone doesn’t work over here – great!

Checking the vodafone website (now-sheesh) it says:

Japan operates a 3G network, so your NZ 3G mobile will work seamlessly. If you only have a 2G mobile, you can rent 3G mobiles on arrival in Japan in which you can place your NZ Sim.

Seeing as I don’t have a 3G phone it wouldn’t have made any difference but it would have been nice to know prior to coming here….

See ya!