I often think that I should blog more though I’m not completely sure why.  I don’t think that people care that much if I blog or not but I have a desire to communicate and sometimes I do this through writing.  I have noticed that when I am travelling all the extra time I spend talking gives me very little time to write.  Those conversations I have with other people are more important than the one I have here.  In the past week I have had long conversations with strangers on planes.  I have been told tales of life in the Middle East, of life in Japan in the 90s, and of growing up in America during the Cold War.  Even though everyone I spoke to came from a different culture their stories were threaded with experiences of life and family that I could relate to.  Thanks to them my long journeys were not boring.

I will be travelling until the 9th December.  Today I am in the Netherlands.  So far it has been a perfectly peaceful morning.

I have been trying to get into a routine of exercising everyday.  I thought I would try to exercise for at least 30 minutes for 30 days and I have managed to do that.  I have been using a pedometer to monitor my walking and yesterday I broke my step record and walked for 46,012 steps (21.52 miles) taking my 7 day total to 152,522 steps.  I had wanted to walk further yesterday but my feet let me down.  Between blisters and having someone stand on one of my feet by accident it was not sensible to try to walk the 30 miles I had planned, but I’ll certainly try that walk again once the weather gets cooler and I have better clothes to wear.

Seems that Midtown has a new guest this month.

 

On Saturday evening, as part of Obon, we walked down the river to see the release of about 2,500 floating candle-lit lanterns.

Japan Times described the event as:

A hauntingly beautiful sight, the peaceful custom is a gesture of respect for those who have passed away and gives participants a moment to think about their ancestors, loved ones or even past pets.

It is easy to imagine that thousands of floating lanterns would be a peaceful sight, but the event wasn’t really like that.  When we arrived there were thousands of people in Asakusa.  I had expected things to be more sombre but the atmosphere was much more relaxed with a party feel.  If you planned to release a lantern you had to queue for quite a while as they were released one at a time down what looked like a mini aqueduct.

We never got to see large number of lanterns on the river but it was still beautiful and I found the event fascinating and would certainly go to see it again.

The best viewing point for the event is on the Azuma-bashi Bridge and after watching the release of the lanterns we considered joining the crowds there.  Once we got closer we released that people were only watching the lanterns approach the bridge and that the other side of the bridge was mostly empty.  We went to the empty side as we assumed that we could watch the lanterns continue on down the river towards the sea.  But no, there were very few lanterns there.  In hindsight it made sense that these lanterns would be considered rubbish that would pollute the river but it was a little shocking to see groups of people in speedboats catching the lanterns in nets and putting them out.

People often ask me questions about my life in Japan with the sound of excitement in their voices.  “Oh it must be fantastic to live there”, “your life must be so interesting”…  When really my life is full of normal things that become difficult because of culture and language.  Today I tried to go to the gym.  It really should not have been difficult but I only know of one way in and it’s via an elevator which was not working.  After pushing buttons a number of times like an idiot I finally worked out that the recorded voice was telling me that the elevator was not going to the 3rd or 4th floor.  Once I got outside the lift I saw a printed sign with instructions on how to get to the gym if the elevator was not working.  I was too embarrassed to spend 5 minutes reading this so I took a picture and wandered off to somewhere less public to read it.

After working out the meaning of the instructions I did eventually find my way into the gym only to discover it was closed for Obon.  I’m aware that the festival takes place at some point in the middle of August but it’s not a national holiday and it never occurred to me that lots of businesses would close for the week.  So 30 minutes after I left the apartment building I went back to use the small gym there.  But first I had to rest because I was so hot and sticky from the humidity outside.   The gym in my building is not great.  It contains 3 treadmills, 3 bikes, and an area for stretching with gym balls, mats, and stretch rollers.  I spent an hour on the treadmill and 20 minutes on a bike.  It was not easy in the heat and I sweated most of my life force away in order to burn around 500 calories.

I had wanted to go to the gym to lift weights but I still had to do something when that failed.  I’m really making an effort with exercise as my thyroid function is continuing to decline and my medication has been increased again.  I was told at the hospital yesterday that it’s going to be incredibly hard for me to lose weight with my current hormone levels but I’m going to keep trying.  It will take at least 6 weeks for the change in medication to have any effect but I really don’t want to gain any more weight.

I met Marty for coffee this afternoon and was surprised to discover that Roppongi Hills has been invaded by 66 Doraemon.

 

I am back in Tokyo and the heat has turned me into a slug – or at least some sort of slow moving sticky creature.  The heat index yesterday claimed it felt like 40 C (104 F) in the city.  I just know that it’s horribly hot.  I dislike the humidity that helps it be hot morning, noon, and night.  We do have air conditioners but they are not reacting well with my chest cold.  I can’t decide if I’d rather dissolve in the heat or be cooler and coughing.  The other nasty thing about the heat is that blog posts end up being whiny like this one as I can’t think of anything much beyond being uncomfortable and hot!

YAPC::EU is taking place near the end of August in Sofia.  I keep finding myself looking at flights so obviously there is a part that would like to attend the conference.  I missed last year’s YAPC::EU because it was awkward and expensive to get to and it looks like the same is true this year.  I am aware that since I live in Japan I’m not the target attendee for this conference but I will keep hoping that it moves to a European hub at some point in the future.  It also ends four days before YAPC::Asia, so the timing is not great for me.

I miss the European Perl Mongers.  Mind you at the minute there are only 52 committed attendees for the conference and the Perl Mongers group with the most committed users is Houston.pm.  I imagine that the number of attendees will double once the speakers are announced at the start of August, but it will be interesting if the country with the highest representation at the conference turns out to be America and not one in Europe.

When I’m travelling I’m often asked about life in Japan and one of things that surprises people most is the cost of fruit.  Not all fruit in Japan is incredibly expensive but fruit given as a gift or fruit that’s just come into season is.  I had told people in Orlando that I expected pears to arrive in the stores soon and that they would probably be around $5 each but the first pears of the season are just over $7 each this year.

My local department store also had a gift fruit section that contains mangoes that cost around $40 each. As you can imagine I won’t be buying pears or mangoes any time soon.

Yesterday afternoon I got to experience one of the more annoying things about Japan – rules. I have sat many exams but I have never sat exams with as many rules as the ones run by the Japan Foundation and Japan Educational Exchanges and Services.  The three papers lasted 2 hours and 5 minutes in total and another hour was spent listening to rules.  No-one could have that many new rules – this was much worse.  It was the same 15 minutes of rules read out 4 times during the afternoon.  The rules were exciting things like –  do not speak during the exam, if your phone rings you will be given a red card, if an alarm goes off on your watch you will be given a red card, if you do not put your pencil down when instructed you will be given a yellow card, you can place an eraser on your desk but it must be taken out of its box, if you blah blah blah…   A yellow card was a warning, two yellows equaled a red, and being given a red card meant you had to leave the test centre immediately and that your paper would not be marked.  I had to stop myself from laughing at the way they held up the card and paused each time they read out a rule that invoked the use of one.

The most confusing rule involved an envelope that was on each desk.  You had to place your mobile phone inside the envelope.  I thought this meant that they were going to collect them but they just wanted it placed in an envelope and put on the empty desk beside the one you were sitting at.  At first I think many people were just going to ignore the rule and leave their phones in their bag but if you were caught doing this you would be given a red card and would have to leave the test centre immediately.

We only had one rule breaker.  There was no clock in the room so I think that people were surprised by the  “pencils down” command when it was given at the end of the first paper.  One student continued to write, but he was given a yellow card for doing this.  I was pleased that the rules were upheld.  I would have been so annoyed if we were allowed to break them after having to listen to them so often.