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In China, no-one anyone ever overtook me as I walked down the street.  I was the fastest person in the country.

Here I am just too slow.  Everyone runs everywhere, or at least walks very, very fast.  I am not used to being overtaken all the time.  Even in Melbourne, I am usually the overtaker…

Seconds are important in Tokyo.  They aren’t to be wasted.

Trains arrive every minute or so at Shibuya station, though the desperate rush to get up the stairs and push in the door of a carriage gives the impression there isn’t another train coming for at least an hour.  I like to wait for the next train just because I can.

I have actually found that it is quicker for me to miss the train to work and spend the minute casually walking to the end of my platform than it is to take the first train that comes then struggle to get to the end of the platform in Shibuya where there are too many people to get past.

I think I prefer to live in a slow place.  It makes me feel lazy to be the one that dawdles.

I had to teach Patrick the meaning of the word “universe” yesterday, especially so I could tell him that he has the worst taste in movies in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. 

If I spent the time to pick the 5 movies in the DVD store I would most dislike, I could guarantee that Patrick would have already selected those and be paying at the counter.

He falls asleep during my movies, I try not to do myself some sort of fatal injury during his. 

I don’t think thats fair… sleeping is definately preferable.

At the moment, on the screen there is a lot of PC game quality rock music, sweating women in small clothing, men with tattoos, motorbikes, enormously irritating cool last words before scene changes and ex rappers that can’t act particularly well… eeagggh…

Patrick is enthralled.

I am trying hard not to notice the movie and to just blog about stuff quietly but its hard to concentrate when there are so many things to be scoffed at….

….must….. concentrate….

Patrick has been seeing all sorts of interesting things on his runs around the park.  Today he saw a bunch of singing Elvis impersonators and a turntable DJ that could DJ and draw a portrait of a passers by at the same time…

Not fair!  I want to see some weirdos in the park too.

I have seen a few people performing in the street, but they have all been talented and quite normal.

I did watch a stand up comedy competition on TV this evening, which seemed very funny despite the fact I couldn’t really understand… I want to learn Japanese now, even if it is just to understand the variety shows.

I added another irrelevant photo because photo-less posts look ugly. It’s my new Alien Registration card.  I’m a registered Alien. 

Patrick has begun commentating now.  I must leave the room.

Patrick didn’t sneak into the marathon today.  The weather was terrible, so disappointing for the organisers (and the runners I would guess).  He stayed home and watched it on TV instead.  Much more my style of sports participation.

I was doing a lesson on traffic accidents today, and thought it the perfect opportunity to slip in something about train accidents and see what is really going on with all those train delays.  The students assured me these were all accidents involving people… I suddenly didn’t want to know any more so changed the topic… mystery remains.

I do find the classes a good opportunity to get to know this place and its people quite well… 

I was suprised to find that smoking is still allowed in restaurants and in some trains here.  There are ciggarette vending machines everywhere, and advertisements for ciggarettes still up on billboards and such.  So odd for a city that seems otherwise very modern, and has other quite strict rules regarding things like inconsiderate use of mobile phones in public.

I brought up the smoking issue in class a number of times and was suprised to hear that every person, smoker or not, disagreed with the suggestion that Tokyo should take up any strict restrictions on smoking in public places.

Even non-smokers who openly hated the smell of cigarettes felt that smokers should have the right to smoke wherever they liked.  Most students I asked also questioned if smoking really was so bad for the health.

I have a whole new respect for the anti-smoking public education campaigns in Australia now, as I think this view might have been that of many Australians not long ago, but I am sure it is not any longer.  The change also seems to have come over a relatively short period of time…. maybe I am wrong..

I have been too lazy to take photos recently so have been recycling old ones into these posts.

It’s cold and rainy at the moment, so Patrick and I are not spending an exciting Chinese New Year out on the town.

I am glad that I dont have a long commute home, nice short train trip and short walk from the station.  A lot of students complain about their commute whenever given any opportunity in class. 

I have noticed that there seem to be a lot of train delays due to accidents…  The small screen above each door on my line displays information for any delays or cancellations.  Yesterday the delays were all due to “wind” but often, there will be one or even two delays or cancellations a day due to “accident”.

I wonder what classifies as an accident here, because that seems an awful lot to me.  Maybe it just means the driver was late and he didn’t mean it.

Well… Sort of.

Patrick couldn’t resist a go on the cute drumming game.  I started to take a video with my phone as it was very impressive drumming, but I was told off by the guy that walks around the amusement arcade saying stuff into a microphone…

There were lots of lovely things to be won on skill tester machines, but Patrick and I agreed no-one is likely to ever win, so I might just make him buy me some cute things instead…

There was also a skill tester machine of scary horrible dolls that were very strange.  I took a photo with my phone camera, so will upload that next time… Maybe someone else will be able to tell me what they were supposed to be. I hung around it a little, but no-one tried to win any.

Early start and long day tomorrow….

Fingers crossed no children’s classes involved…