Mumsnet Talk

PS, your friends are probably holding back for the same reasons you are - thinking you want your space and not wanting to appear pushy. I would plunge in a try and arrange something else with each. If you're offering them the chance to learn about your culture, speak English and act as a gateway to Japanese culture, tbh they'd probably be super keen to spend more time with you even if you didn't get on (which it sounds like you do!).

Hello, can I crash your thread for a bit, mirai? In my defence, although I'm in the UK, my half-J children seem to currently be functioning on Japanese time and got me up at 4am <yawn>. Plus I did reply with useful info under a previous name back in 2011!

Where are you based? And how long are you planning on being there in total?

Well we thought before we moved here that we'd have this huge social circle made up of the Japanese English teachers, but they all work such long hours that we never see them out of work, let alone be able to invite them round for a glass of wine!

We do have one friend in the village, a chap close to DH's age. Every now and then his family come round for dinner or we go to theirs and it's a lovely night. I'd love us to see them a bit more often but we don't want to come across as needy so it's hard to judge, as to how often we should suggest a drink or what have you. He loves golf and DH likes to play too, they went together once and had a good time but he hasn't suggested it since! It's really hard to decipher if they're asking you because they really want our company or if they're just feeling generous towards the lonely foreigner! So hard.

Finally I do get on v well with one of my teacher colleagues, she's my age and so lovely! We invited her round for a nabe party which was nice but nothing more has been suggested... And again I don't want to push it as they'd say yes even if they meant no and I really don't want to come across as forceful!!

Yes I think the next rainy day will be tomorrow which is sooo annoying after all the lovely hot weather we've had this week! Big YES to the wine and meet up, Japan absolutely needs an MN local branch! Let's make it happen.

hiya

sorry to hear you're feeling low

have you made any Japanese friends? I know its difficult to connect without the necessary language...

erm, about my grand balcony cleaning...it never happened - my excuse was that I needed to give it good scrub with lots of water, but because of the sunny days we had, my neighbour downstairs had all her washing out most days, so I couldn't splash around and ruin her futons etc.

Will wait until the next rainy day (tomorrow?) and set to with the bucket and brush

hope you meet the OU deadline - the final piece, eh? then it will be all over? Good luck!

OK, lunchtime here at work - am starving so will return later if you want to chat more

and MEET UP!
we need to plan one

I did go to the enkai and had a very sore head the next dy!

How was your GW? We went down to a local matsuri, it was good fun but I preferred our little village matsuri in September, much more of a party feeling, the one downtown seemed a little forced? Like they were doing it because it was tradition but not really getting into it, if that makes sense?

Have you been sitting on your newly cleaned balcony? I LOVE sitting outside in the sun. I found some cider on rakuten so have been making the most of the patio set and the sunshine!!

However it's not all been fun and games. I have a hugely important deadline on my final piece of work for me OU course. It's causing me a lot of stress and sleepless nights! Also as you can see from the "homesickness" thread I'm getting a little fed up of having no friends here. We're so remote I can't even go out and meet people and it's getting me down a bit

did you go to the enkai, mirai?

bet it was fun once you got there

yeah, it was Blur I really wanted to see...and Primal Scream...

DD and I were going to go, and she had a few Japanese bands that she was looking forward to seeing so we are both gutted

Oh well

any plans for Golden Week (or at least, the two long Golden Weekends!)?

it is always so crowded at any touristy spots, so we usually don't bother going anywhere special.

We have spring cleaning to do - I am going to get the whole family to declutter (may well be an epic fail, with two teenagers...)

I am determined to reform my balcony, so we can actually sit out there

Enkai tonight and I just. Can't. Be. Bothered!! Especially not with work as normal tomorrow morning!!

Badlad, isn't that wonderful? It reminds me of when DH and I were looking very lost at Tokyo train station and three people (who were all clearly busy and had places they needed to be) approached us to ask if we needed help. So nice

However, am raging on your behalf at the rice cooker incident! Our rubbish rules have changed recently too. We live in the middle of nowhere so buy an awful lot of goods online or in our nearest city a few hours away. For things like batteries the new rubbish rules say we have to return them to the store where we bought them! I don't think so!

Shame about your festival Tante, could you go to one of the others instead, or was it blur in particular who you wanted to see?

We do have one, but he turned his nose up at the rice cooker, which was broken, so not that surprising. When I lived in Tokyo, they also refused to take a TV I wanted rid of.

Oh well. Sorry to hear your Blur gig was cancelled. One of my friends saw Carter USM in the UK recently. Do you remember them? That got me digging out the old Brit Pop CDs.

Did you get to a hanami party? Unfortunately bad weather on both weekends put paid to mine.

Badlad at the person who sent your wallet back

and at the garbage people

do you not have one of those trucks that drive slowly through the neighborhood, playing music and asking if you have any old denki-seihin? Bit like a rag and bone man... They will take things off your hands for free

completely different issue, but I am currently and because the festival in Tokyo in May has been cancelled, and I won't get to see Blur etc.

hope everyone else is fine

last week = in the last week

Two very different experiences last week.

I dropped my wallet in town. This being Japan, I filed a report at the local Koban, hoping to get it back.

What actually happened was that someone found it, looked inside, found the alien registration card and takkyubinned it back to me, at their own expense!!!!

Inside was a little note. Please enjoy your time in Japan. Fantastic!

This morning I have been on the phone to a garbage company, wanting them to come and take my broken rice cooker away.

They want 8000 yen for it. 8 thousand fucking yen.

It really is astonishing here that you have more chance of getting your lost valuables back than anywhere else in the world, but the services industries will rob you blind without batting an eyelid.

Don't know why there are so many yes's there, clearly I am in an agreeable mood today!

Hi! Ahh, I saw that book recommended on the other thread. Think ill download it now - I have four hours to fill and my kindle is fully charged, so why not!

We missed the cherry blossom entirely as we went back home for a couple of weeks. It was amazing and we had a wonderful time, but yes I hear you on the exchange rate! Could have cried at the forex place. It's not very good news for us as we want to stay at least another year and send money home, obviously with Abenomics going the way it is I am getting worried about how much money we're losing every time we send some home

Anyway apart from that, yes things are going well, they seem to be happy with us at school, we recently moved house and feel a lot happier there so yes it's all good!

oops missed your p.s. about North Korea

they would be mad to try and attack

but they are a mad bunch, so who knows?

not too worried, as any missiles will likely be intercepted, but it will be interesting how things turn out in NK - the Chinese and South Koreans will not be able to cope if the country collapses entirely, and millions of NK refugees flood over the borders.

just finished reading "Nothing to Envy" about life in NK - highly recommended

Hi mirai

I know, I find I have missed this thread, even after I recommend it to others (sorry, highlandco ) hope your trip was fun!)

no spring hols for me - except that I didn't have to get up and make bentos for the DCs because THEY were on spring break, so it was nice.

back to the grindstone with bentos this week though...sigh...

DD started High school yesterday - so a new beginning for her! Excited and nervous in equal measures, I think

the cherry blossoms arrived so early and then we had various storms/rain on the weekends, so I didn't bother with hanami. I admire them on the way to and from work

Hope you are well - staying for another year?

we are off to the UK in the summer for a visit - not booked flights yet, but no doubt they will be expensive and then we get fewer pennies for our yen when we get there.

oh well - will be nice to see family and friends. Really hope it doesn't rain all summer in the UK like it did last year.

Also, I meant to add, how are we feeling about the situation with Korea? Do you think they could/will actually fire a missile here??

Ahhh I really need to sort out my threads I'm on so that when this gets bumped, I see it! You'd think I wouldn't miss new posts given I'm on here every day, but apparently so!

Anyway, highlandcoo, I hope you had a lovely time visiting your son. Tante, how was your spring holiday (if you had one)? Did you mange to fit in any hanami?

Hi everyone!

Thought I would post a message today, the 2nd anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Remembering the 15,000 people who lost their lives in the terrible earthquake and tsunami, and the on-going tragedy of the Fukushima disaster

Sorry I didn't get back to this thread, highlandcoco - I guess you are in Sendai now, maybe? Hope you are having a lovely time with your son. Sendai is a great city.

bump <hopeful>

Hi Japanese MNers and thanks to TanteRose for pointing out this thread

I am so excited to be travelling to Japan in March to visit my son who's a JET in Sendai. It's great that he's able to take a week off to have a holiday with me and my husband and after a couple of days visiting his school and looking round Sendai we're planning to head to Kyoto for three nights and then end up in Tokyo for four nights before flying back. I'm lucky to have a friend who lived in Tokyo for 5 years and has given me some great suggestions for what to do but more ideas from you all would be fantastic.

Yesterday I started my "Learn Japanese in six weeks" CD. A fairly optimistic title I fear and in reality we will probably find ourselves being lead around by our son but I'm giving it a go!

Look forward to hearing from you if there's anyone still there

Happy new year all! I am really suffering this week. We went away for Christmas and then decided to come home the day before we started work again. Bad idea, the jet lag is keeping us up all night and soooo tired in the day. I really want to start BIWI's low carb Bootcamp but right now I can't even think straight let alone be regimented in what I'm eating! And we still have lots of Christmas goodies left over

How was your Christmas Tante and Plastic?

Akemashite omedetou! I'm not in Japan any more, but lots of people I follow on Twitter have been tweeting all through kouhaku, so I almost feel I was there for all the NYE stuff...

Hope it's a good, safe, uneventful year in Japan.

Happy New Year to all MNers in Japan!! Here's hoping 2013 brings fun and happiness to Japan :-)

Hi Tante, I didn't see your 3rd December post but I just came on here to write a message! Glad you are ok. Was just a faint tremble here but didn't it go on for a long time? I so hope everyone up north is ok.

We have a very busy weekend ahead full of Christmas shopping and kampai-ing, so hope you have a good night! Might make some mulled wine now!