Japanese Communal Narcolepsy

The long working hours (sometimes coupled with the excessive weekend drinking) can often take its toll on the Japanese and it is very common to see people asleep in almost any situation.

The following examples are courtesy of fellow intern Juan (all were captured in the space of a few hours!).

Juan points out the problem
Nice manbag
Nice shoes (back home they would have been stolen by this point)
A nice comfy girder


Don't miss your train!My personal favourite, is he sleeping or practicing yoga?

Farewelcome BBQ Party

As a big welcome to Tim (USA), Marek (Poland/Germany) and Levi (USA) as well as a farewell to Brian (USA), Young-ki (Canada/Korea), Hung-lun(Singapore) and Alex (Canada - Quebec), not to mention Randy (Netherlands) and Hung-lun's Birthdays we organised a massive BBQ party by the Sagami river. We had fireworks, food, drink and merry times to the backdrop of a distant lighting storm until the wee hours. :)

Base of operations!

Alex managed to get some cool, artistic long exposure shots

Writing Kanji with a torch

Some not so inventive!

Getting stuck in...

Young-ki and Brian

Usually its the other way round...

lots of people :)

Much healthier than western BBQ's

Hung-lun (right) actually split this melon with his bare hands

Picking something nice...

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SECTION CONTAINS EXPLICIT MATERIAL ;)

Of course when having a party by a river it is only a matter of time before it descends into the realms of skinny-dipping...

Wading in...

Available for Hire at a host bar near you

A friendly game of frisbee

An painful attempt to do a landshark!

Fuji Consolation Party

We had arranged a group venture (24 people) to climb Mount Fuji. We hired a bus and got all our supplies ready. However, on the day we were presented with a violent storm of hail, heavy rain, winds and lots and lots of lightning. In the end we decided to cancel at the price of our bus deposit. We discovered later that a resolute climber was actually killed by lighting that day so I guess we made the right decision.

As we could not even leave the youth heim, we decided to have another common room party. This time it started in the morning!

Juan breaks out the Shisha pipe for breakfast while I try to wake up in the background.

Brian pondering...

Tim listens intently...

Juan just can't keep himself to himself.

Brian displays the "Torment of Mankind" through the medium of himself.


Atsuko and Marco

Tim "Ayyyyyyy"
In parties in Japan, its never long before the costumes appear. Brian in his signature Nurse outfit.
This is me as a shadow

What can I say.....?

Marco as the evil shadow (not me!)
Hung-lun looking the part
I donned the kilt for the rest of the night ;)
Marek in his element!

Pikachu's career went downhill after the alcoholism took over...

Atsugi Ayu Matsuri Festival

Every year Atsugi has a big festival to celebrate the river and the Ayu (small sweet-fish). It is held at a point on the River where Atsugi meets 2 other big cities. All together more than 500, 000 people were in attendance.

There is a massive fireworks display and everyone comes dressed in Yukata (long robes) or Jimbe (pyjama-like summer clothes). Of course I joined in and got my own Jimbe to wear :)

The fireworks were incredible, easily the best display I've ever seen. They were really big and some were quite complicated, exploding into shapes or Kanji characters. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, but I think I would have been to mesmerised to take any anyway.

Afterwards we had a party with a few fireworks of our own, here are a few photos courtesy of Alex and Randy-:

Just some of the people on the Atsugi side.

Many of our colleagues get Alex and I confused with each other so we decided to compare. Can you tell who is who?

Hung-lun playing safe

Everybody loves sparklers

Group photo:
(back) Me, Atsuko, Pedro, Juan, Levi, Young-ki, Hung-lun, Rumi, Tim
(front) Alex, Maiko, Marek, Alex's Friend(?), Alex's Friend's Friend(?),Kinya

Family Visit - Kyoto 1

After staying in Tokyo for a few days we caught a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto. Here we swapped the hustle and bustle of Tokyo for the more tranquil traditional temples and gardens.

The view from our room

Enjoying cocktails at the fancy hotel bar...until the bill came!

A really nice little tempura place

:)

Alan shows off his Yukata (summer robes) left for us in our room.

Me in Yukata :)

Mum and Dad taking in the Zen

Alan leaves a menny.

The guestbook for the little garden