4000

4000.
four thousand.

sounds like a lot.
I guess it is when you are talking about $4000.
4000 isn't exactly loose change when talking in yen either. I mean I could buy a nice neck-tie with 4000 yen or even go out for a round or two of drinks after work.

but I'm not talking about dollars or yen, or how many times I've been on an airplane for that matter.
I'm talking about watts.
4000 watts.

if your like me and hate numbers and physics and all that, then you will probably have no idea if 4000 watts is enough to light a small light bulb or power-up a generator at a nuclear power plant.

well for your information, 4000 watts is shit all.

on leaving hong kong we had to chuck out lots of our electronic equipment as good old japan would have zapped most of our stuff.

although disappointing as it was to dispose of perfectly good equipment (we did sell some and give away others), the thought of purchasing brand spanking new, state of the art japanese electronics sent a shiver down my spine.
reality soon put a stop to that shiver as we didn’t really have the cash to shop like a Hilton offspring, although we did manage to buy some pretty cool stuff.

“cool" until plugged in I might add.

wham, our mansion (a japanese term for an apartment constructed of reinforced concrete) was thrust into pitch darkness.
wtf?!

turns out my breaker switch had tripped (mmm, do you say “tripped”?)
using the light from my mobile phone I found the big black switch and returned it to it’s ON position.
well whatta ya know, 5 minutes later and we are all sitting in darkness again because I had pressed the “cook” button on the blimmin rice cooker.
definitely not good for the computer to be unexpectedly cut off from it’s lifeline, or for my TV’s hard drive to suddenly be shut off.

apart from kou-chan (who will be 10 months tomorrow!) we were starting to get rather annoyed so I decided to give the tokyo power company a call.
in amazing japanese-style service, I had a charming old man at my doorstep in less than 2 hours!

he ever so kindly explained to the stupid foreigner that my mansion; like most mansions in tokyo, has a watt limit of 4000 watts.
there was absolutely no technical problem what so ever with my breaker but rather a slight issue with my selection of “cool” electronics (errr, not so cool now).
just by turning on our flash new oven I had already used up 1400 of my 4000 watt limit.

…

so with the oven on, the rice cooker cooking our rice, me watching TV while sitting in the warmth of the kotatsu (electric (!!) table warmer thingy), and the washing machine doing its spin, we were in other words trying to use enough electricity to power a small village.
one would think that the young dude at yamada-denki (electronic store) could have hinted that all of these power-hungry products that I was willy-nilly putting into my trolley may just be a bit too overpowering for the standard japanese home. but nope, he was all smiles and gave me an extra discount for my big purchase.

having lived back in tokyo for 2 months now, we have a few little rules in our home.
do not under any circumstance what so ever use the hairdryer while boiling water in the jug.
do not under any circumstance what so ever turn on the aircon while cooking muffins in the oven.
do not under any circumstance what so ever consider enjoying the features of our extensive range of household electronics.

thank god we have an unlimited flow of gas!

whirl wind update

shit, can't believe that it's nearly been a month since I last logged onto my blog.
it's been the craziest of months ever.
I've gone from the warm super relaxed southern hemisphere to the white-washed (ahem; snow) cold of the northern hemisphere.
I've unpacked my life possessions (all blimmin 60 or so boxes) in the space of a week.
I've moved into a new apartment in a quiet residential neighborhood of Tokyo.
and I've started a new job in a trendy spot in Tokyo too.

talk about 2011 being a year of change!
mmm, speaking of which I really should change my blog's graphic thingy. hong kong seems like a long lost dream...

I'm on the subway now and nearly at my stop so will call it quits for now.
bear (??) with me as the posts to follow are probably gonna go back and forth between new zealand and japan so you just might feel a bit jet lagged.

tokyo. here i come

man this last week has been a toughie.

mr sekimachihato drove k-chan and little kou-chan to tokyo in search of our new home.
the drive is around three hours so we left nagano in the dark at 5:30am (that's 5:30am as in the morning!!) giving us enough time to stop somewhere for breakfast and a few nappy changes along route.
we made good time to the outskirts of tokyo and then the inevitable happened...
we got stuck in a blimmin traffic jam on one of the many elevated expressways which wind in, out, up, down throughout the concrete jungle of tokyo.
we ended up moving a tad slower than an energetic snail for around two hours...
not nice with a 6-month old bundle of joy strapped into a car-seat.

but hey, we made it safe and sound; that's the main thing.
couple of not good shots from my phone:




now for the tough part.
searching for a place to live.
we had narrowed down our future location to three stations and left it up to the real estate agent to show us the goods. for the amount we had planned to fork out in rent i was kinda disappointed in the condition of some of the apartments.
every time we opened the door and stepped into the empty rooms i couldn't help but flash back to our apartment in hong kong; full sea views from every room, two outdoor swimming pools, indoor heated pool, tennis courts, even a six-lane bowling ally!
instead i was shown apartments which had poky little kitchens, views of "roads" or even a cemetery!, and no glamorous extras what so ever; zilch.
having lived in tokyo before i should have been a little bit more mentally prepared.

but after two full days of looking at apartment after apartment we finally signed a two year contract with a little place in a nice family-friendly environment.
looking forward now to moving into our new place and getting settled.
first things first though. we have to get all out stuff shipped over from hong kong, all 50+ boxes...


shit.
did you know it's december already!

matsutake : マツタケ

ok, i've finally made it back to japan.
still can't believe that my seven years of living in hong kong have actually come to an end...

last week was a toughy.
had a mad few days of sorting out my life's possessions before the removal company came in and wrapped everything in bubble wrap.
even though i ending up selling/throwing out/giving to charity so much stuff i still had over 50 boxes to ship to japan!!

our little family of three spent our last night in hong kong at the marriott hotel near the airport where we splashed out on room service (so not worth it...) but hey, it was our last night.
had an early morning start (5am!) and finally arrived in nagano at 7pm.
why did it take us so long? well we chilled out in the breast-feeding room at ueno station for like three hours as all the blimmin shinkansen (bullet trains) were full due to a long weekend.
you should have seen the look on some of the japanese mum's faces as they opened the door to see a sleepy gaijin dude sprawled out on the sofa.


so i'm now in nagano at k-chan's jikka totally relaxed in the kotatsu eating the highly sort after matsutake mushroom.
to be honest i don't really get what all the fuss is with this mushroom. this year they are in abundance so selling much cheaper than usual but we still had to fork out close to 5000 yen for these. crazy.


off to softbank now; gonna buy a new mobile; iPhone4. yippie!

eating popcorn alone

feel i ought to tell you guys that this will be my last post for a while as packing up all of my worldly possessions life's worth of crap is turning out to be a huge time consumer and i just don't have time to update this blog or even read your great blogs...
juggling this move with kou-chan means that we only get to sort out a draw of stuff before he's crying out for attention. it's a slooooow process.

this move from hong kong is kinda turning out to be more emotional than i thought it would be.
everyday now we are catching up with friends to say goodbye and it really feels like the end of an era in our lives.
sob sob...
can't believe that in less than 10 days i will no longer be a resident of hong kong but one of japan.


before i forget, does anyone out there go to the movies alone?
k-chan is taking kou-chan out for lunch today with some of her friends so i'm gonna be home alone. rather than tackle the task of packing i've decided to go to the movies; alone...
i've never done this before as i've always thought watching a movie should be shared with a friend/lover etc.
after kou-chan was born the cinema has been out of the question until today.
just crossing my fingers that i won't have anyone sitting next to me to steal my popcorn.
mmm, salted or sweet or both!? oh the dilemma!

anyway guys, see you in japan!




* a recent photo of kou-chan.
god, he's just asking for trouble!