My parents

It has been almost 2 months since my parents left me, so this post is really, really late, but still worth posting.

September 13th my parents arrived at Narita International Airport.
I hadn't seen them for over a year so I was very excited to see them again. I took them to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nikko and of course my apartment which was a huge mess.

It was their first time outside of Europe and although they already knew a lot about Japan, it's still a completely different thing to actually be here.

I think the first thing they noticed was that it's very, very humid here
. Especcialy during the month they were visiting, which is known to be a very humid month. My dad wore a cap that more than once was completely soaked with sweat. The first week they stayed at a really nice Ryokan in the old centre of Tokyo. The owners were really nice and the area was very beautiful, it was as if time had stopped there since the fifties.

Our first trip was to Shibuya, which is the area most of you will know from photos. Busy pedestrian crossing, lots of neon, tall buildings and lots of people.

After that we explored some more of Tokyo before taking the shinkansen to Kyoto. I've been to Kyoto before, but didn't really have the chance to visit many sights. My view of Kyoto has completely changed after my second visit. It is a really beautiful city with lots and lots of cultural heritage. I added some photos of our trip to Kyoto. (My dad made over 800 photos during their holiday!)

The first 2 are of Kyomizu Dera.
The third one is a photo of a monk begging for money. (They aren't allowed to work for money)
The fourth one is a picture of a monk signing my parents book, which is now completely full of calligraphy from almost every temple we visited. It's like an autograph from the temple.
The fifth is a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony.

Ok, that's it for now, next time more photos and more storytelling.

Gokiburi

Last night I came out of the shower and while i was putting on my clothes to go to bed I could see 2 long antennae coming out from behind my closet doors.
I slowly opened the door and there I saw a big, fat, shiny cockroach sitting on the door. I am not afraid of bugs, but cockroaches scare the hell out of me, I believe that they are pure evil.

After i gathered some strength to confront this minion of Satan I picked up a small, empty box and moved it slowly towards the cockroach. Then I made my move, I tried to scoop it up with the box, but the damn thing was too fast and it fled in my closet ! I couldn't find it anymore!

Now, in Japan they use long wooden chopsticks for cooking instead of wooden spoons, so with one stick in my hand I poked around in my closet, but to no avail. It was already late so I decided to close the doors and worry about it in the morning. I closed the doors and checked the sides for openings through which he might be able to crawl. It didnt seem possible for him to make it to other side, so I relaxed a bit and checked my email before I went to bed. But! After 5 minutes I looked at the door and saw 2 tentacles sticking out of the bottom moving around. I immediately opened the doors but he was already gone.

Sleeping was difficult, knowing that there was a roach inside my closet. But somehow I fell asleep pretty fast..... An hour later though I woke up soaked in sweat because of the heat. It was at that time I heard something. I immediately turned around and saw something move right next to my futon. The evil bastard had somehow crawled out of my closet and was now after my blood !

I jumped up and turned on the light. Armed with my chopstick I tried to stab him to death. But he was just too fast and kept hiding under my pile of clothing (I really need to clean up). Then I opened the backdoor and started poking under everything in my room, suddenly he ran out from under my radio and went outside. My plan had worked. Victory ! ... I could finally sleep peacefully.

The most famous primate in Japan

Pan-kun ! And his sidekick James the dog.

Sharks ! Or not...

I like swimming and 2 weeks ago I found that there is a public swimming pool near my house. Upon entering the pool I felt as if everybody stopped with what they were doing and just started staring at me. Living in a fairly small town I've gotten used to that so I ignored everyone and looked for a location in the shades to lay down my towel.
The first thing I noticed was that there were 7 lifeguards in total for a really small pool. 4 of them were sitting on one of those ladderchairs and the others were walking around. They switched positions every 30 minutes. I was afraid to go underwater, because 1 of them might be thinking I was drowning.

Anyways, after just 10 minutes of swimming I heard an announcement on the loudspeakers. I had no idea what they were saying but suddenly I saw that everybody was leaving the pool ! "Sharks!" Was the first thing that popped in my mind, then realizing I was in a public swimming pool I copied the others and got out as well. Following was another announcement and I could understand something being said about a "15 minute break".

The day after I asked my Japanese friend about it and he told me that in Japanese swimming pools they make everybody get out of the pool every hour for 15 minutes. This is done so nobody wears themselves out by swimming too much and to check if there's no-one dead in the pool. The last 5 minutes is spent by doing this: Radio Taisou

YouTube videos

I uploaded some youtube videos.

These are videos I made at a festival in Chiba:








Yesterday I went to Tokyo Disneyland, to give you an idea of how hot and crowded it was I present you with this video:

Hot, Hotter, Hottest, Japan

I have never been in Japan in August. Last year I was at home during that month, so I missed Japan's hottest month.
It is hot ! Sometimes when I tell people back home that it's 30 degrees celsius they say: "Ow nice!" It's not that nice as it seems. At this moment it's just after 10pm and it's still 28 degrees (82.4 Fahrenheit) as you can see on the picture I attached to this post. The humidty is around 80% which can best be described as someone throwing wet hot towels in your face. Every shirt, pants, sock, towel in my apartment feels moist and when I'm outside I'm sweating bullets. The best thing to do is to just stay inside with the airconditioning switched on.

Visit from overseas

On Monday I met my Japanese teacher from Holland, Masami, together with her children and a friend of hers, Miho. They were visiting their relatives in Fukui (福井) and decided to come to Tokyo. We met in Shibuya and went to an izakaya near the trainstation. I don't know how well she expected me to speak Japanese, but I hope she was satisfied. If not: "Gomen nasai! I will study harder!"

She also brought with her a few gifts for me, stroopwafels from Holland and Castella from Fukui.

It was a little bit tiring for me, because I had to keep switching between Japanese, English and Dutch. I noticed that her children don't seem to have any problem with it. While her son was explaining something to me in Dutch, Masami asked him a question and he quickly replied in Japanese before immediately switching back into Dutch to finish the story he was telling me. I wonder how long it will take for me to reach that kind of level. Thank you for the exquisite evening!