Early Days of Sano Life

Two weeks have passed since I landed in Japan so it’s probably time to share a bit about what life is like over here.

First of all, it’s seriously cold. When I arrived in my flat bright rays full or warmth were streaming in through the glass doors in my living room, but within minutes of the sun setting the temperature tumbled to the floor…much like what happens to me on a night out.

There’s no central heating in Japan, and the houses have basically no insulation. It’s freezing in winter and boiling in summer (I'm told). My only friend is my air-conditioning unit, which conveniently packed up on day two. I had some stern words, hit it pretty hard a few times, then replaced the battery in the remote and all was OK again by day three.

Having landed on a Tuesday I started work on the Wednesday and set about getting to know my team. Alex is the boss; he speaks fluent English and has a Scottish mother. He’s one of 4 brothers who all have a Japanese name beginning with N, and an English name beginning with A…apart from the youngest, who’s called Quentin. Yep, Quentin Miyaji. Couldn’t make it up.

My new desk...needs some decorating

Alex is the only person who speaks English fully, but there are four other chaps here, one of whom I can converse with reasonably well and the other two we’re managing. There’s also a girl who works part time but we’ve not got beyond hello and goodbye yet so I can’t really tell you much about her I’m afraid.

The two chaps who work for me, who I like to think of as Cricket Ninjas (Crinjas?) are both good lads and we went out for a team meeting on the Thursday. I suggested we get out of the office and go for a coffee somewhere nearby, and before I knew it we were in a car driving 15 minutes into the distance. This might tell you a little about the town of Sano.

By the Friday my old Uni pal Darrell arrived (he who has been living in Japan about 12 years and is basically my lifeline), and I think that weekend deserves a blog of its own, so will come later. Suffice to say that despite our best efforts, there is no denying that Sano is a pretty quiet town. I was fully prepped for that before I got here so am not surprised, and it’ll let me get focussed on training for the London Marathon and perhaps not washing all my hard earned cash down the toilet.

 

The view from my balcony - that's Mt Fuji in the distance

I don’t want to crap on for ages so I’ll cut it there and be back sometime soon.

Cheers folks.

 

Ps – those of you on Twitter can check out the hashtag #SanoLife for general musings about life in the Cricket Epicentre of Japan.