On January 7, Aki and myself moved into our new place. The move from her old place was aided by Aki's friend who had a truck, his friend, Anthony, Brad and Colleen (who had just arrived in Japan the day before). We were finished in about 3 hours then Brad and I went to watch a rugby game down the road (Anthony's old team were playing). As for our new home, it is fantastic! We are very conveniently located just 10 minutes walk from Yokohama Station and for Aki it is 3 minutes walk to her work. We have a great park across the road where I can kick around the rugby ball. It is one of the very few parks I've seen in Japan that actually has grass!!! Most of them are just dirt. As for the inside, it has been recently refurbished so it looks very new. Aki's Mum was very generous in buying us many new things, while we bought a few things ourselves. The new furnishings include a massive fridge, Queen size bed, curtains, kitchen table, XBox and a 32" Widescreen HDTV.....and I bought myself a cool new cellphone. Lounge and Kitchen
Kitchen and Bathroom
Bedroom and Lounge
Map showing where my new place is.... (the big red thing is Yokohama Station so you can see how central we are!) ....and Liam gets a taste of the rugby ball
....and a little (cellphone) vid of Liam on the train, off to watch a rugby game in Tokyo
After a busy couple of weeks to start the New Year, I can happily say that things have settled down and I can now relax a bit. So, as promised, here's a recap of my New Year celebration and vacation...... Countdown to 2007 Unlike last year, I had half a plan for the big night ahead. Mark joined me early in the afternoon and we began drinking, played a bit of ball and drank some more (2 player Kings Crown is nasty!!!). We cruised into Shibuya at about 10.30pm and met up with Miyuki, then headed into a massive club called "Womb". This place was huge (capacity: 1000 party-heads). The headlined DJ (I forget his name) played a nice set for the crowd. Basically we danced and drank til we couldn't go any more then called it a night. The worst part of the night was the one hour wait for the train in the freezing cold. Overall, it was a pretty cool night but the hangover was just beginning..... Mark "Hunt" smashes some dude on the train; Miyuki, M-Do and Me Inside Womb
Yamanashi I spent the 1st in bed, feeling like crap but I had to get up the next morning at 5am to hit the road to Yamanashi. Aki's family were nice enough to invite me to join their vacation in Yamanashi, near Mount Fuji. We spent the first day at the ski field where I tried skiing for the first time. I was still feeling suspect from the party night so skiing wasn't so fun as it took too much stamina which I did not have. Instead, I found my comfort zone with the kids on the toboggan where I could just sit down, slide and not fall off....much more relaxing than skiing!!! We then drove to Lake Yamanaka where our accommodation awaited. Aki's Mum works for Shiseido and the company has a beautiful place, like a Bed and Breakfast, for employees and families. This place had a Karaoke room, table tennis, pool table, awesome cooked breakfast and dinner, and a view of Mt. Fuji! The next day we went hiking in the nearby hills. A very light snow was falling and the dirt track was very icy. It sure felt good to get into nature even if it was freezing cold! When we got back we were all pretty tired so we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. The final day was a beautiful clear day, so Mt. Fuji was most impressive. We left in the morning and went to Gotemba where there is a big outlet shopping centre. The ladies had a great time shopping, while I was more content just relaxing and people watching. We drove back to Yokohama in the evening and I went straight to bed after a fun but tiring sojourn.
Me and Hajime (Aki's Bro) before skiing; Frozen lake in the mountains
Happy New Year to everyone out there!!! I hope you all enjoyed the festivities and didn't get too hungover! I'm really busy at the moment having just got back from a few days away and I'm moving house this weekend and Brad (yeah, the Brad that slept in our lounge in Hamz for about a year) will arrive in Japan tomorrow and we've only got a few days to catch up before he heads to Osaka and...ok thats all, but anyway, because I'm moving house I won't have any internet for a while (maybe 1-3 weeks?) so if you want to contact me for anything I suggest you do so in the next day or two. When I get settled in with the internet cranking I will give you the full report on my New Years holiday and stuff, but in the meantime, enjoy this video clip of the countdown in "Womb", the huge niteclub where we partied away with 1000 people. This video clip is brought to you coutesy of MSD Entertainment (all rights reserved)
