(I’m a) Japanese Man in London

Today in London, we had the heaviest snowfall in 18 years.

This morning, as I’d expected, it was a complete chaos in transport – all trains and tube were running with delay or disrupted, or even suspended. And…. No buses at all! It was told that it was the first time in the living memory.

I was watching TV this morning and it seemed most of the employees in London would stay at home, and I was thinking of what to do. Then, I’ve realised the overground train line near me was running, so I forced myself to the office. I’ve actually got stuck on a train on the way for an hour!

When I finally got to the office, I was surprised… Almost everyone was there!

I was already informed from my friend that her office was closed today. The city was apparently quiet. However, my office was as normal

“Is this an office in Japan?”

As there was a severe weather warning and also I’ve already experienced a trouble, I really thought we should go home early. The office finally decided to close at 4 pm. Today, I came in the latest and left first. I didn’t feel like a Japanese today.

Two Lives

It’s already a bit too late, but...Happy new year!

It was the sixth time of visiting Japan since I came to London, but, as always, during the stay it was very difficult to imagine my everyday life in London – I’ve realised (again) Japan is such a different place from Britain and I felt as if I was living in two different worlds. I didn’t think I would easily get back to my normal life in London, particularly to my work.

However, I didn’t feel any difficulty when I dived into the office yesterday morning, just after the day when I came back to London. I’ve found myself speaking just as normal. This might have been the first time I’ve felt that I can speak English just ‘naturally’. Maybe I can be more confident about being a real cosmopolitan.

At the same time, I felt the people in the office were very welcoming. It’s really difficult to explain about the feeling of this but I have to say this is something I would never experience in Japan.

Do You Celebrate Christmas?

This is the question I’ve been asked hundreds of times in the past few weeks. Yes, European people are interested if we do so. As now I’ve almost got used to the same question, I would just answer “Yes, we do, particularly the young people and families with kids. Yeah, it’s a bit funny cos most of us are not Christians at all. I actually don’t care, although I used to celebrate when I was young.”

In fact, this is the very first Christmas for me in the UK! In the past three years I was always in Japan. For some reason, I had to go to the very quiet office this afternoon, and I’ve realised the town was really quiet. Yeah, Christmas is the time people stay with their family.

I just wanted to say that since I came to London, I started feeling strange about the attitude of Japanese people about Christmas. You don’t have to feel lonely even if you’re alone on the Christmas day. Just meet your family in the new year, that’s all you have to do!

So, I’m just having some champagne myself, at home. And tomorrow, I’m gonna visit my Japanese friends living nearby and we’re gonna have some nice Christmas dinner! Yeah, I don’t really care… but I actually care!

Unexpected Bonus

It’s not from my company, but from HM Revenue and Customs. I’ve just realised I’ve been overpaying income tax since I’ve changed my job an year ago!

Due to the huge and sudden drop of British Pound (200 yen to 140 yen in just two month!!) I was now in a very very difficult situation as I’m sending quite a lot of money to Japan almost every month. So, this unexpected bonus is such a good news!

When I changed the job just an year ago, the amount of tax deducted every month had risen very much, but I just thought that was because my wage had risen. However, this weekend, I just happened to see HM’s website and tried to work out why my tax had risen that much. Then, I’ve seen something about Personal Allowance (the non-taxable amount from our salary) and realised I hadn’t got the benefit since I changed my job.

Today I’ve talked with our office manager and he assured he’d try to sort it out. He told me I’ll get some money back with this month’s payment. I’ll also get some money back for the last tax year separately.

Sorry to say this but this is a sort of thing which happens in this country – Japanese people never make such mistakes! But, now I’m really happy with this mess. This is gonna save my life. I’m having a nice wine tonight, first time in two weeks!

(Yes, only two weeks)

get ready for V!

Yes, it’s this weekend! It’s V Festival! And it’s The Verve and Muse!

This is gonna be the first proper music festival to go for me since I moved to London, but will be the second V – the first one was back in 1998, where I saw The Verve just before their second split-up! I’d never thought I’d see them again at V.

I’ve managed to get weekend tickets with camping very luckily on the first release, and was gonna camp with my friend. But…..


He has bloody escaped!! I just can’t get hold of him. I have to go just myself again! I had to give up camping as well, though I was thinking this would be the very last festival with camping. Yes, it’s because of my age.

I’m a bit worried about the friend but my friends say this is not unusual for him. So, I was forced to sell the precious ticket. But I’ve managed to sell it through Gumtree to a young English guy. I was pleased to sell it to someone who actually goes to the Festival, not to a tout. His response was only after 5 minutes after I put an ad! Gumtree is really useful. I was actually struggling putting an ad on eBay, but I was rather happy to have sold it with the original price! I hope the guy will enjoy the Festival.

So, well… now that everything is ready! My torn calf muscle is now healed well enough, I believe. I’ve already finished the weekend washing as well. I hope I won’t be too bothered to write about the Festival, see you then!

a new project

Finally, after six months since I joined this practiced and started working on a project, I’ve started with another project today.

It’s almost like a temporary helper for that project as I’ll be on holiday in two weeks time, but it’s very nice to do something totally different from what I’ve been doing. The project is already at the detailed design stage and I was asked to develop some detail designs. Actually, I was feeling a bit nervous about starting with this project as all the members of the project team were new to me. However, it was quite easy as everybody didn’t seem to have as good experiences as I’ve expected, even the project architect!

I know that I should be confident with myself as I’ve got almost 15 years’ experience, but I was pleased with the fact that I could be confident in this kind of situation. I’d like to enjoy the next two weeks!

character of english and japanese seen through the design of toilets

About a year ago, when I went for lunch at a pub with my colleagues, one of them said, “the toilet in this pub is without a entrance door, which is a nice design.” In fact, as he said, a door-less toilet is unusual in this country, even in larger public buildings.

In Japan, nowadays, door-less design for toilets is commonly used particularly for public buildings. As Japan is full of newly built modern buildings, it is understandable that it hasn’t yet happened a lot in England. However, I assume this is partly because of the difference of people’s character in both countries.

It seems that, people in England are more concerned about privacy, whilst Japanese are more concerned about cleanliness. When we design a door-less toilet we have to consider the things such as visibility from outside and soundproof, and if a toilet does have an entrance door you have to touch it even after you disinfect your hands!

I also think the difference is reflecting the reliability on ventilation. In England, generally, mechanical ventilation system is relatively poor and not reliable, so people tend to rely on natural ventilation by opening up the windows. So, probably from the fear of spread of toilet smell, architects may not be keen to design door-less toilets.

involved in london 2012!

Great news came out to our practice. We have won a project for Olympic!! We will be named in the development of Olympic facilities with other prominent architects. We will rather “take care of” them all!

It’s actually a project of sewage plant that will treat the drainage from the Olympic facilities like Zaha’s Aquatics Centre or whatever. Even for such plant buildings aesthetic is usually well considered in this country, not like in Japan, so it will be a very exciting project. Even if I will not be involved in the design team this will be a good memory!

public consultation

Recently, I had a couple of opportunities to attend public consultations for the project I’m currently working on. It is a master-planning project for some developments of housing and some other public facilities in a new town developed in the 1950’s. Same as we do in Japan, the public consultations are organised in order to explain the schemes and to listen to people in the area. They were organised by our client and a developing consultant, and the role of our practice was to present the proposals.

It was actually very tough! And at the same time, it was really interesting and even exciting. I was just doing some supporting works but it was really a good experience. There were some, and quite many at one consultation, very very vocal people. It’s just the same in Japan! The meeting was just endless and impossible.

The people here seemed to express more personal opinions than those in Japan. And they even seemed literally more conservative – majority were keen to maintain the existing living environment. I’ve also realised people here are more concerned about privacy than we Japanese generally are. Some neighbours raised overlooking issues to their bedrooms or even to their gardens. I had already known overlooking issues are very important in this country but it was more than that I had expected. Those opinions were understandable to some extent but seemed a bit too greedy.

I’m still not a project architect for this project, however, I am at least entrusted with most of the planning works of it. I’m really enjoying it and realising how different the urban planning principles are in the UK and in Japan. Particularly, the feedbacks from these public consultations are really important. I’m sure this experience will help a lot to my future work in Japan!

THE VERVE live at roundhouse

Oops, it’s already more than a month ago, but, sorry, I just don’t want to miss this topic out…

The Verve
venue: Roundhouse, London (Chalk Farm)
date: 9th Dec 2007
time: 9:00 - 11:00 pm
support: None




Yes, I’ve seen The Verve! This is just incredible!! I had never ever expected to see them anymore since they split up in early 1999 until their recent surprising announcement of reunion.

As I wrote previously, I’ve once chased them up to Leeds to see their performance at V98 festival. But it was a bit frustrating one as the guitarist Nick had just left the band before their breakup. Then, finally, they had never come to Japan despite an awfully high demand.

And, this time, it was excellent! It was obviously different from what I’ve seen before. It was massively energetic and devastating, and was even different from the image of the band which I’d been having. I’ve now realised that they were actually a live band! Amazingly, they have played for bloody two hours! They are still young enough to rock.

When Richard Ashcroft walked into the stage, I was knocked out. He was just… cool! So cool!! What a man!!!

Also, the venue was amazing. Roundhouse is a recently remodelled live venue which had been given an architectural award, and it was literally originally a roundhouse. It is not just unusual but the interior was so cool! This is England! This is The Verve!!

To be continued!!

leaving the office

It is chronologically the other way round, but I would like to talk a bit about when I left the last office.

Every time when someone left the last office, the bosses organised an office drink on the person’s last day. Just after I joined the practice an year ago, I have experienced this custom as a woman was leaving the office and going back to Australia. I was actually amazed as the ceremony was impressive and the people in the office were so friendly. She was given nice presents and cards from both the bosses and colleagues, then she gave us a speech with tears in her eyes.

I remember at that time I just couldn’t imagine this would happen to me some day. Particularly, it was very difficult to imagine I would make a speech in English in front of twenty professional architects! Yes, I wasn’t confident with my English at all. Mind you, I’m not saying I am now totally confident, though.

However, as a result, the time has come so soon. When I decided to leave, I was still nervous about the ceremony, but luckily, there was another person leaving on the same day. Also, I was there only for a year, so it wasn’t that emotional thing. I could somehow make a speech.

I was a bit frustrated with my speech. I’ve realised I still have to practice English very hard. But now it seems it wasn’t too bad. Maybe I should be confident about it a little bit.

I’ve got fantastic presents and cards from the bosses and from my colleagues. The boss gave me very nice words. She appreciated my work very much and it seemed to be quite an honest feeling. It was such a wonderful experience, I am really happy about it.

Oh, I just forgot to say, I’ve worked just as normal until just an hour before the end!!

a new start

I had a good start with my new job!

I started working there from last Monday straightaway after I left the last office on Friday the week before. At the last office I worked as normal almost until the end and at the new office I started working as normal almost from the beginning. It was almost like I just changed the place of work but not the work itself. I rather enjoyed my ability to adapt an immediate change of environment.

I tell you what, I didn’t feel nervous at all! It was so very different from the time I joined the last practice. It is true that I was quite familiar with the office as I used to go there for a couple of weeks last summer for helping my friend NY’s own work, who was at that time freelancing there. But I believe that is almost because of my progress. In fact, there are only a few people left since I was there.

I was also lucky to start with the project NY is working on. This must be the reason why I didn’t realise I’ve changed my work.

The first week actually seemed relatively long. I didn’t think I was feeling any stress from moving, but now it seems actually I was. This weekend, I’ve been feeling very tired! Anyway, I’m happy about the fact that I could work as normal at two different places without any break and I had a good start!

samurai spirit

Only two days left at my current office! But, I’ve found myself still working just as normal.

I’ve remembered about when I left the company in Tokyo in March 2005, for which I worked for thirteen years. I’ve actually quit the job by a golden handshake. There were about ten people who retired with that offer. I remember that I was disappointed with the fact that most of them took holidays for two weeks or so at the end of their employment.

In principle you have the right to do it, but I thought it was too practical. I thought they should’ve thought about why the company had to reduce the employees – of course it was because of the company’s seriously bad economy. If you felt like thanking the company or your colleagues for your experience even for a bit, wouldn’t you feel like contributing to them to some extent? How much did you get paid for extra?

For a cost saving purpose, the office has in fact moved to a new place just before we quit. However, most of the leaving persons didn’t even help it. I just couldn’t believe it.

In the UK, when you quit a job, the condition is a bit different. You will normally get paid for the rest of your holidays, so you don’t really need to think about taking holidays at the end of your employment. However, some people seem to lose their motivation towards the end. Even so, I’m still trying to deliver the same quality of work until the very last minute, thought I think it’s just normal.

This kind of attitude may be an old Japanese way of thinking. But the thing is, if a Japanese behaves just as she or he is, most of the European people won’t blame it or make fun of it but they would rather appreciate it. You just need to try to speak more but don’t have to pretend as you were a European. This might be one of the most important things I’ve learnt in London so far.

I am the only Japanese in the office, so how everyone thinks about Japanese is really depending on my attitude. So, I will just continue as normal until this Friday 6 pm!

'october 2007'

This is the first and last note of this month. In fact, I could’ve written everyday – there have been so much happening. My life has dramatically changed only within one month.

One important thing is that I’m changing my work from 12th November. I sometimes wrote about some of my frustration at work on this blog, but I’ve finally decided to leave my current office. I felt the need of changing the environment. I thought that’s the best thing I can do for now in order for the achievement of my plan. Very fortunately, I’ve managed to find the next place so soon. That’s the place where my best English friend NY is working.

At the current office, I was certainly getting better and feeling much more confident than before. Maybe I should rather say I was ‘recovering’ as I was getting used to the work in this country including the use of English. But, at one point I started feeling difficult to change the ‘atmosphere’. Even though I’ve changed quickly, people didn’t seem to have changed how they treat me accordingly.

Particularly, it was really difficult to make my boss have a proper understanding about my career. When I spoke with him lately, I was so disappointed – he said, “I know you have very good experiences in Japan. You were working for a construction company, weren’t you? What can I say!?

Also, I’ve found the fact that I tended to adapt the ‘atmosphere’ and even sometimes forgot about challenging. I thought that if I change the work, I would be able to make a new start from a higher position and, at the same time, I could put more pressure on myself.

I thought it is a nice idea to work with NY as he has the best understanding of me. As a result, in the interview with his company, they understood about my career and what I intend to do very well. I believe NY’s recommendation of me to the company helped a lot for this. They are offering me a good condition with more responsibility. This means, I am now stepping up to the next starting point!

ERASURE LIVE at Royal Albert Hall

This was one of the most important events for me this year – the first ever chance to see Erasure’s full concert and first time to visit Royal Albert Hall!

Erasure ‘Light at the End of the World Tour 2007’
Date: 25 Sep 2007
Venue: Royal Albert hall, London
Support: one two

Since I was fascinated with their song ‘A Little Respect’ in 1988, I have been a huge fan of them. However, after missing their concert in Tokyo in 1989, I had never had a chance to see them until I came to London. Luckily, I’ve finally managed to see them at their acoustic live last year. The show was fantastic and I was so happy. But to be honest, I wasn’t a hundred per cent convinced as it wasn’t a normal live. So, then, the time has come!


Another special feature was the venue. Royal Albert Hall is not a highly acclaimed architecture but I quite like its appearance, probably because I’ve come across it on the very first day of my visit to London in 1993. I sometimes happen to see some classic concerts at the hall on TV, and every time I was dreaming of going there.

The show was very simple. The most interesting aspect of the concert was the band… Basically, there was no band but a small computer set. All the music was played by Vince with a Mac Book, a little keyboard or something and a little bit of guitar. The singer Andy loves karaoke, and in a way the concert was rather like a karaoke show. I thought it was rather honest as they are an electric pop band.

I enjoyed singing too, to their hit tunes mostly from 80’s and 90’s. As I used to sing them at home or in my car so many times, I remember most of the lyrics. I believe there’s no other Japanese who can sing Erasure songs like me!

When they started playing A Little Respect, I couldn’t help crying! I’ve realised this song is really very special. Of course, everyone was singing!! If you haven’t heard of it, you’ve gotta listen to it!!

'did you have a good time?'

As I wrote in the last topic, the stay in Japan was wonderful. As I’ve totally adapted the life in Japan, while I was there my life in London seemed even like a dream. So I was a bit worried that it might be difficult to re-adapt this life and the environment in the office in London, and about the use of English as well.

However, there was nothing difficult. I was a bit nervous when I returned to the office, but after having some chat with my colleagues I could easily settle down.

I rather felt very comfortable to be there again, because many people warmly welcomed me. This is just a general custom but everybody asked me about my holiday. Particularly, I was glad that LR welcomed me kindly with many smile. I’ve realised that this kind of people’s attitude is one of the good things in Europe. I think this was also one of the factors which made me interested in British and European culture long time ago.

I brought some sweets from Japan to the office. This is also a common thing in the office, which is almost the same as Japanese. But the different thing is the way people appreciate it. As soon as I opened my sweets called Yatsuhash, made in Kyoto, many people gathered around and curiously looked at them. Even the graphic on the box has amazed them. Yes, this is exactly what I expected! Finally, TQ asked me if he could bring one home for his girlfriend with the box. I was very happy as everybody enjoyed it.

summer holiday 2007 in japan

Yesterday, I’ve just come back to London from two weeks holiday in Japan. Yes, I had a great time! I was too busy for meeting friends and I didn’t even have time to write from Japan…

Thank you everyone, who came to meet me during my stay. I’ve met thirty people in total, but I couldn’t meet everyone I wanted to meet. The stay seemed like a month as I met different people almost everyday, but it was still too short! Sorry to those who I missed. Let’s make it next time, definitely!

two years

Yesterday, two years have passed since I moved to London. When I descended upon here, I never imagined I would still be here now. I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to complete the university course. So, now I’m very happy about the fact that I am working here and somehow feeding myself.

But I’m not satisfied with what I’m doing now. This is not just an unusual experience in my life, but it’s meant to be a very important part of my career. I need to do what I should do now and what I can do now. Lately, I’m thinking that that’s actually not my own fault, but it’s just because of the current situation which I am in. It seems that I need to have a fairly clever think in order to change something.

I always think I am lucky. I should say I was lucky that I’ve got a chance to come to London, probably at the right time! There were also many good lucks happened before, which are now helping me live and work in London. Just before I left Japan for London, a friend of mine said to me that I am actually not lucky but I am just able to make good lucks happen. Since then, I sometimes think that the important thing is to believe. If you do not stop believing, something will happen. So, I would never stop believing that the time will come some day!

we will rock you must go on

I went to see We Will Rock You a while ago. It was the second time after I saw it five years ago when I went to London for holidays quite soon after its launch. I’ve been planning to go again since I moved to London as I thought it’s worth seeing twice.

I remember the first time, it was not just a musical but a concert as well. It was absolutely magnificent. Although I couldn’t follow the language very well, I could enjoy it so much. Unfortunately, this time I was very stressed from my work as it was in fact the day before a deadline and I was a bit too tired to enjoy the show. Even so, when the band started playing some of Queen anthems like Killer Queen and Somebody to Love, suddenly my eyes became watery.

I started remembering about last time I was in this theatre. At that time, each song made me emotional and I kept crying almost throughout the show. I didn’t have a clear idea of what made me so. Probably, it was because the band was fantastic and was as if the real Queen members were playing. Even this time some songs made me so and I’ve realised how Queen’s music is special. There’s nothing like it.

The show itself was of course fantastic. It is such an enjoyable musical. In the story, Freddie Mercury is very much praised as a legendary rock star, and the audience clap and cheer for it. Literally, this ‘ritual’ is happening every day for more than five years. Also, the cast have been doing the same thing. This is incredible!

'GORE let it out'

It seams I’ve written about quite serious matters lately, so today I’m gonna write something about British English.

But, what is British English? Is it the so-called Queen’s English or is it like David Beckham’s speaking? It seems there’s no definition. An English teacher has said, there is no ‘typical language’ in English. After living in the UK for nearly two years, I’m realising gradually that there are several different ways even only in terms of pronunciation.

I’m getting able to have some idea of from where a person comes from her or his speaking. Now I can somehow recognise cockney accent and also sort of northern accent.

Recently, I’m quite interested in the northern accent. One of the reasons is the TV drama Life on Mars, which I’ve reviewed on this blog before. The story was based in Manchester and the people’s speaking was very difficult. For example, the “o” sound is more like “or” i.e. “hole” is similar to “hall’. If you listen to some Oasis songs carefully you will notice it. When Liam sings ‘Go Let It Out’, the “go” sound is like “gore” (does it make sense?).

As I still sometimes get confused with “o” and “or” sound, this was an interesting discovery. I’ve listened to many northern English bands like Oasis and the Verve, so this may be why the “o” sound still confuses me.
In other words, it doesn’t really matter even if I confuse with “o” and “oh” sound, as most of the people will understand anyway.

This is just one example of the many aspects of the diversity in British English that I’ve noticed. I would like to keep on talking about it sometimes.