Day 44 - My Two Wheels in TYO

 

This is my new (but second hand) bike.  It is from Muji and I brought it for an absolute bargain.  2500Yen ($30AUD) from this french guy who is leaving town.  Downside was that I had to ride 10km home and Japanese ride on the footpath so it was mostly a bumpy and slow ride home.  I cracked it halfway and got on the road and that was much faster...So I am looking forward to exploring the city on my new bike.  

SEGOUII (good)

ps. Not a fan that it is white but hey, I guess it matches my ugly phone!

Day 42 - Drinking, Donki and Doner

So after teaching 10 classes on Saturday, I was planning on meeting Eloise and Sophia out for a few drinks and a bit of a dance at Micro Cosmos in Shibuya.  We met at Hachiko Wall at 10:30pm and on a bit of a budget, (still got to wait another month for my first pay from Gaba) we hit the nearest 270Bar.  Everything is 270, gold. Well the idea is gold, until you see the beers and they are half froth, but still, beers are anywhere from 600-1000 out, so 270Yen is a steal....

Day 38 - Sensing Nature

Well it was about time that I got to the 'Sensing Nature' exhibition at the Mori Art Museum...I think everyone has been there but me!  It closes on 7th November and if you get a chance to go, it is a winner.  For 1500Yen, I left feeling inspired.  Sensing Nature - Mori Arts Museum 

The following works is from Yoshioka Tokujin (he did a version of this for Issey Miyake back in 1997, but this one is bigger (and better) I think...

Day 36 - Burnt Eggs

Note to self.  I should not bother cooking. Almost burnt down my kitchen when I was boiling eggs... Forgot about it, boiled dry, pot on fire, smelly.
I am wondering if this even beats the chocolate pavlova frisbee saga...

Day 35 - My New Kokeshi Doll

I am in love with my new antique kokeshi doll.  I found her at this crazy shop down the road from my house, for $12 I think she was a bargain, they had bigger ones too but i think she is cute...
She just needs a name now...

Day 35 - Hamburgers and Halloween

Saturday was my market research hamburger day.  3 burgers in 2 hours at 10;30am, Ouch. I really felt like I should have had a big night out before I came to this. So get there and seven other Australians are sitting around the table.  The company could not tell us why they were doing this market research but there was plenty of speculation... first burger with fries and ice tea down, we went up to the corporate offices for a discussion on what was good and bad about taste, price and presentation.  Same thing with two more burgers. What a great way to spend two hours, sitting around a table chatting eating burgers getting paid $130 to do it.  Pretty much my ideal Saturday morning.  One of the burgers was not really a burger though.  Where there is meant to be bun...it was rice.  Crazy Japanese.   We were all laughing when it came out but it was surprisingly good.  The meat in the middle was kebab style with a teryaki sauce.  Tasty.  About halfway though the 'burger'  it started to fall apart a bit, I lost some down my top.  The company businessmen watching us with a translator were in stitches, as I tried to grab a chunk of rice off my chest in some sort of lady like manner.  Anyways, easy money, hopefully the company that organised it will ask me to do something like that again...

Day 31 - Happy One Month Anniversary

So today was my 1 month anniversary in TYO.  It was going to be a good night when my last student was a no show and I got to finish work early (10pm).  I had planned to head into Shibuya to meet up with Eloise (fashion designer form sydney, has the nice blog called catkin and teasel), So I meet them at the Family Mart convenience store in Shibuya where Eloise and her friends were sipping on Asahi from the convenience store.  We were going to a bar called the 'Trump Room' (pictured) where some DJ was playing. FYI, the girls in this picture are Camille (French) and Sophia (Sydney). 1000 Yen got us entry and 500 Yen beers was a plus.  There was many cameras out that night, mine was not one of them but I remember (vaguely) taking and posing in many photos, who knows who's camera it was.  Anyway, this photo was taken on Sophia's camera and I have saved it from her facebook, I hope that's OK by her...She also has a blog and it is super cute.  Check out www.fashimi.com   All about food and fashion in Japan.  Meanwhile, who doesn't have a blog these days? 

So beers and lots of dancing, Eloise loves a dance so I was very excited to have a buddy on the 'DF', (thanks for the term Eloise, love it).  So I pretty much danced the night away.  No stories, but danced with lots of boys.  The crowd was uber cool, but met some really nice people including an Australian couple that I can't remember their names.  Anyways, it must have been about 4am and feeling pretty wasted, Camille, Sophia and I decided to leave.  Food was first on the agenda.  We went to domo domo for something to eat and kind of decided to wait for the first train home at 5:15am.  So I got the train to Shinjuku but my subway line was not starting till 6am so I wandered home along the canal, and got in a little after 6am, I think the walk was good for me, I was much more wasted than I thought (as per usual).  Anyways, thank goodness I did not have to teach today because my head was still throbbing at 8pm.  Laid around in bed till about 2pm and had to go and pay my rent before I went to work at the pub, (struggled through work) and now after an ice cream, I seem to have perked up for the day.  

So all in all and big celebration for a Wednesday night and a great way to spend my 1st month anniversary meeting new people, dancing and drinking!

xoxo

Day 30 - Where I live

On my way from work the other day I saw these beautiful ladies, I tried to get a sneaky shot but....anyways, so here are some pics of my room and how/where I live, I will add more along the way...

Day 27 - Family dinner box for One

So I know that this looks like I ordered the family dinner box, but this is one set of packaging for a medium cheeseburger meal to take away.  For a country that has such a complex waste system (five bins at my house) then why is there so much packaging?  
I got one bag for cheesy and fries.  
One bag for my drink.  
Then those two bags were put into a carry bag....Wow.

Meanwhile this was my first cheesy in over a month.  Well deserved on my walk home from shinjuku station after a few beers with one of my two friends in shimo-kitazawa (super cute suburb)

xoxo

Day 24 - Working 9 till 5

Well, I am not really working 9 till 5, more like 4 till 11, but you get the sentiment that Dolly is making.  I am working everyday at the moment and yes, I start late in the day which gives me oodles of hours in the morning where I can go out and see Tokyo. That is, if I can be motivated enough to get going...Between the pub and teaching, that is pretty much my life at the moment although there are some things to look forward too, buying a bike (today), tokyo design week coming up, sensing nature exhibition which Lisa and Aiden told me about and pay day!! 

Plus teaching has picked up, I am getting more classes now and the students seem to like me (most of the time).  They have a rating system of 1-5 where the students rate your class.  Out of my 22 lessons that I have taught so far, I have received 11 evaluations.  I was disappointed when I got a 2, but on the bright side I have got six 5's, three 4's and one 3.  So I suppose I have to be happy with the ratio that 9 students out of 11 are happy/more than happy with their classes.

After teaching last night I also got home to discover a one-off job proposal.  About two weeks ago when I was applying for every job in sight, I emailed about the possibility of being a 'Taste-tester' for a new hamburger.  We had to answer questions about what types of burgers we like and from which shop etc...  Anyways, I had totally forgotten about it, but then had an email yesterday saying that I had been selected! So for two hours in a couple of saturdays I will become part of a team to test a new burger, getting paid $125 to do it!  Super curious about which company it is for, but something different to try anyways....

Look at:  My friend Eloise that I met at teacher training has a blog.  She is a fashion designer from sydney and take beautiful photos, check out her blog at:

http://catkinandteasel.blogspot.com/