New thoughts and long over due visits
Mood:  silly
Ahhh, I'm happy. Got a nice room, in a nice apartment, with some nice Japanese boys. Got the internet installed last week and yesterday one of the boys gave me his old iMac to use so now I can do lots of typing and photo editing. Oh and listen to cds and burn cds. HAPPY. The only thing worth stressing about is the work you want to count for in your life. I decided I want to work harder in Uni. Spend more money on projects and more effort. Make it count. Australia is a laid back country which has it's up sides and down. I think there is a mentality (not with everyone) that they will do their work and produce something that isn't 100% what they are capable of doing and they know it but they just say "oh well fuck it" and they keep this mentality for alot of the stuff they do, time passes and what do they have to show for that time apart from a pile of junk or work that is mediocre. Which they don't respect that much cause they didn't spend blood, sweat and tears on it. I have that kind of mentality and I want to shake it. I think that perhaps there is a stigma in Australia that shuns the idea of being proud about something. I have to respect the fact that everyone here takes pride in their work, their appearance and just everything. They work hard at something and try to make it as best they can. really try. It would be nice to have a life where I could produce amazing things with minimum effort. The effortless fluke technique. But I realised thats not the best way to go about it all.

Anyways, that's what I've been thinking. perhaps thats what has changed about me since being here. Patrick has told me that I've changed in the way of being harder and less tolerant to taking bullshit. Perhaps less timid. Also that I've become abit more professional about jobs. You can be the judge though when I get back. It's hard to tell if I've changed since I'm in a different enviroment.

Radek arrived here last night. We went to Izakaiya and the Purikura(sticker photos) Starbuck to watch the ant like people scurry for the last train, jumped a shrine wall only to be disappointed. Then finally to Red Bar. Radeku wa dai ski deshita. He liked it lots. Suprisingly it was busy for a Monday night. We drank the cheap, good quality, over poured drinks until 3am(maybe, can't remember). This morning he left for sweden. Good fun. He brought over some fetta and sundried tomatoes!!!! AND MY BASSMENT JAXX CD!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm listening to the gold at the moment. music's great!!!! THANK YOU RADEK!!!!! THANK YOU MUM!!!!!!! THANK YOU BIENNA!!!!!!!!

Anyways, until next time!!!

The LONG STORY of ex-housemate Fucker Brenar
Mood:  don't ask
So.....

I've been having problems with my ex House mate Daniel Brenar. I sent him an email saying that I would talk to the property owner if he did not return my deposit money. Cause it's been like 3 or more months since I moved out and he still hasn't returned my money.

Here are some of the emails he sent me...............

I spoke about you with owners,its about 5 people group, one of then lawer.
They said that its not problem if somebody lived with me, because in my
contract I'm allowed to have 1 more person, because there are 2 rooms in this
apartment and its big enough for 2-3 people. The problem is that I didn't pay
rent for 2 month and will have to move out, so they and I thinking that you
have to pay until end of December as you singed in contract, also you
mentioned the contact infromation of your Chinese family and other
infromation and they said if its not correct they want to lay criminal
charges. Now they are very upset and want to hold you responsible too or
somebody! You also didn't clean apartment as you had to do according to the
contract that you singed and you dint stay until middle of December that is
considered to be very big problem in renting!! Recently you are very
unpolite, harrass me by phone, email, coming even your utility bills didn't
arrive. If you did everything by the contract and lived until middle of
December, the amount rom your deposit I have to give you back about 37.000
yen(65.000-minus 2 month gas, electricity,water,(I will show you all
receipts)minus lock change, disenfection after you) Until you moved out you
were very nice girl so I dont really want to make you any problem.I'm
thinking now,if I can I will send you back your money even you stayed only
for 2.5 month,so let me know your address to send your money(by the contract
its said "deposit will be refunded by sending money to your new address in
Japan or abroad" so I want to do everything completely by the contract that
you singed) also give your computer email address so email arrive for sure




LATER............

>you singed that you will stay until middle of august,also didn't wash the
>apartment, harrassed me by email,phone,shouting behind my door.Do you live
>now at Yoyogi?I can take you in court,the lawer advised me, so you cant go
>back for few month.They wanted to talk to you so we can go to see then
>together!.I'm not sure if I will go to court, but its not problem to do it,I'm
>also thinking to call to your parents and other all contacts you gave me.If
the information you
>gave is wrong I will file criminal complain against you and will look for
>your family using melborne telephone book,I'm sure there are not many chinese
>with the same name and calls are cheap using internet!! Before you were nice
>so maybe I will send you remaining about 43.000 or so the money to this
>address?


LATER

you should be just happy if i will not make you all this trouble, i didn't
>even give my owners your information like name,date of birth,nothing. you
>would have to pay about 400000 yen more,go to police, i would call your
>parents and people around you and you stay in Japane for few month!

LATER

>I'm tired of you too! why do you need to call me the previous contract is
>between me and you so actually you are responsible to me! and have to
>appoligize to me a lot!!



So I had a meeting with idiot. Oh My God!!! He is CRAZY. He should be in an assylum. really. Apparently I did not clean my room(bullshit). He couldn't find anyone else stupid enough (besides me) to move in with him. Stupid dumb motherfucker. Then he was emailing me about calling my family in Australia. HE IS INSANE!!!! Not that that would do much damage. I'm sure my family would just hang up on him. He was also saying that if my information that I gave him was wrong he would go to the police calling me fraud!!! All of his emails were misspelled. When I first met him he kinda said he wasn't working with for a company any more and I got the impression they fired him. No wonder with his fucked up English. He has either a strong Russian or French accent. He says he is Canadian. Maybe this is a lie or he is from Qubec. Either way. English can not possibly be his 1st language. So when I was living there I think he was trying to do private lesson. Poor naive Japanese who don't understand that they are learning English from a guy who needs to take classes himself. Anyway, he asked if I was working and he said he couldn't get any students. No wonder.

Anyway, after all of his scary emails I was hesitant about meeting him to possibly recieve money. He was doing this power game of " I think your a nice girl so maybe I will give you your money back. If you are nice and continue to be nice" The idiot was trying to dangle me on a string of doing everything he says. So he said we should meet at his house. I've played his games before. He likes to do business in his house cause he feels like he has more control of the situation. So I said I wanted to meet at a cafe. When he finally arrived he was wearing his cheap suit with some kind of snail trail of lint or wardrobe muck running up the shoulder, that he obviously wasn't aware of. To match his dodgy outfit and bad hair he had super shinny purple tinged Matrix-y sunglasses(it wasn't a sunny day, raining in fact). The guy has a thing for The Matrix come to think of it. So he waltzes in and you can tell he thinks he's looking like Agent Smith or something. You know, that fake air of confidence. Almost painful to watch.

So we get into the cafe and he keeps his sunglasses on while we are trying to talk. At this stage I want to hit him with a mirror.

He keeps on taking his time and being really slow. I told him I had to go meet a student so I wanted to settle it all straight away.

He casually asks where I'm living. "Are you living in Yoyogi?" (I gave him a Yoyogi address of my company) I asked him why he wanted to know. He gave me a "just cause". He thinks I'm stupid. AS IF I would give him my home address.He is a freak.

So when we go settled he said "I don't have to return the money you know. You did not fullfill the contract of staying until December"

ME"I gave 1 months notice as said in the contract. Why would the contract have that condition unless I was moving out at a date different to that of the contract?"

DICK"No that is for when you are specifiying the date of when you will move out"(I am being VERY generous with these represented sentences of his. These are much more articulate than the real thing)

ME"Well that is not what it say in the contract, you should perhaps do a better job writing the contract"

Anyway, it went on a bit and he was talking about taking me to court and I told him it's impossible. He all smug asked "why??" Cause it is impossible to take a minor to court for breaking a contract on which they signed since they are too young by Japanese law to even sign a contract"

DICK"One more time"

I had to repeat that a couple of times. "so you're....19? Well Japanese law varies on what age is legal and......"

ME "No it doesn't"

So he was all, what are you gonna do if I don't give you the money back?

ME"I'll call the owner and tell him your making a profit off deposits"

DICK"I'm moving out anyway. I can't find a housemate, so I must move."

ME(Thinking music)"I'll press charges on you for taking money from a minor" (I'm not even sure if that's a valid thing)

DICK"You shouldn't threaten me. Maybe I should just call your parents. I should talk to them since your a minor"

ME"Go for it."

DICK"You know, you don't have to pretend that you don't care. I know that you don't want me to call them. I know your scared"

ME"Ok, where is this going? Money today, yes or no"

He was all like "fuck you" repeatedly and taking deep breaths. Through out the meeting these weird flips of personality came out. "You know, I like you for some reason. That is why I rented the room to you. So I will give you back your money but lets have a nice normal conversation" So I started talking about why I moved out and the horrible conditions and the nice guy persona vanished.

So out of the \65000 deposit I was trying to do the maths of bills to be finalised. I asked for the bills and he slowly unzipped his ugly wanna be briefcase bag and pulled out this messy folder collection of bill reciepts that must have been 2 years worth (though I was half expecting a gun or knife). "Its gonna take you an hour to go through those" I looked through them briefly trying to sort them and gave up. What were the other expenses??

DICK"Lock change and room disinfection"

ME"Ok, where are the reciepts???"

DICK"I don't have any"

ME"You expect me to pay for lock change. How do I know you've changed the locks???(I made a copy of the key anyway incase) Did a company clean my room? DICK"I did"

ME"And how much is that supposed to cost???" DICK"Well, \5000"

ME"That's it! You have not organised any of the bills and I gave you notice I wanted to see them. There are no reciepts for locks or company cleaning. I want 55000 back.

DICK"What? That's alot of money"

ME"Yeah I know. It is all my money rememeber? Ok 50000"

DICK"45000"

ME"What the hell do you think this is?? It's 50000!"

There was some arguing then he reluctantly got money out. He was counting it really slowly(maybe that's as fast as he goes) and I was wondering what the hell he was up to. He finished counting and said "There 50000" Then dropped his hands with the money on his lap under the table,

ME"What do you think your doing?!!?? Get that money out from under the table and count it again!!" Teacher mode had somehow activated itself. Again tediously slow counting.

Then he wanted me to sign a stupid agreement saying I would not contact him or the owner. "Why does it matter if I contact the owner??? Your moving out anyway" this is the part where his stupidity shines! "Oh, I just don't want you to because it would make bad feeling". I poked at the question to see him squirm more but i was already late for my lesson.

We did this whole nervous and untrusting swapping of signed reciepts and of bunches of money simultaneously. I wonder what the Japanese people on the neighbouring tables thought about the whole thing.

. Then when we finished he pulled a tape recorder out of his jacket pocket. It was small and thin, probably similar in size to his dick(obviously worth much more though). He was very smug about having such an ingenious idea. I would love a copy actually. Anyway, we shook hands and pretended that we had a civil meeting and said good bye. Thank GOD!!!!!!

A life lesson for me perhaps

Not your place, 'My place!!!'
Ok, I'm at a ridiculously expensive internet cafe so I have to be quick. I haven't written in a long time so I'm going to try and bring things up to speed.

Tokyo has somehow turned into a misty, drizzly city and people are actually wearing coats now. Weird! Last week I was at the beach and it was HOT! Apparently it's because TYPHOON is coming!!

Signed a contract with the teaching company the other day. They have only signed me as part-time at the moment. I know what those fuckers are doing. Paying me a shitty rate for two weeks training when they actually need full time people. I haven't even started and I dislike the company. Oh dear...

I've gotten a ton of private students all of a sudden which I guess is good.@Though I'm having trouble remembering who is who and what their jobs are. Or who I agreed to meet when they called at 8:30am.

Went out last night! It was choo fucken omoshiroi! Started with us (perhaps 5) going to izakaiya and managing to rack up a BIG bill. Damn!! By the time we finished there were 8 or 9 of us. So we all went to my house, cause they might aswell see my place before I move out. I swear I'm not going to get my deposit back! The noise! The house mate came home 2mins after we had arrived and didn't reply to anyone even though they said 'hello'. He just scurried into his room like the little STUPID mouse he is.

We left and eventually split off. Naomi and I went to La Fabrique for 'Bikini Night'. The girls get in for free and get free Sky vodka if they wear bikini tops. What do you think Naomi and I did???
It was a very tacky night but the vodka was for free!! But not even the vodka could keep me in that place for long. The place has some good electro nights, but last night wasn't one of them.

So we left and headed for the bar that Patrick, Julian and Mirwai were at. This is the good part.
I fell in love last night.....with the bar. The best. Same size as Rue babs if not smaller. Decked out like Yelza but better. The walls were all velety-felty with HEAPS of old chandlers. Big glass bauble grapes hung from the ceiling and they only sold GARAM clove cigarettes behind the bar. ALL drinks were 500yen. Be it Gordons or Bombay. Old gate keys were bolted to the wall. Glass and Brass everywhere. Met alot of good people there too! The funny thing is the bar has no name. People sit and argue what the bar should be called/is called. I think I will name it 'My Place'. It only opens at 12:30(give or take half an hour). So when I climbed out of the smokey, tangle of alcohol and laughter, the 5:00am morning blue greeted me. With the light drizzle coming down and the temperature being somewhere between cold and warm, it reminded me of somewhere called Melbourne, hooooome!!!
But better cause it's new and fun!
I'll post the blurred photos up soon.
Excuse the spelling mistakes. I'm not perfect.

So there is an update, until next time......
to be continued

The next phase... city livin
Ok....
School has ended today. So I went riding all over the suburbs to each school to tell them that I am leaving. I think I got sun burnt along the way. I think the company I am with is meant to be paying me for holiday time but they're not so I QUIT! As if I could survive for 2 months without being paid. Oh, and the Model Language Studio (kids English school) in Tokyo want me to come to their paid training sessions in August. If there are openings they want to offer me a position. That's good cause they pay a bit more than my current job.

Well, I'm not sure about living with Doby. He doesn't air the apartment out so it gets all dank and smelly. I open my window all the time so it doesn't smell in my room. I'm keeping my eye out for a new place if something better comes along.

Two weeks ago I went bowling with this French Canadian guy called Martine from Quebec. I met him out the front of Design Festa and we swapped details cause there is no harm having more friends in Tokyo. He slightly reminds me of Pierre. Mainly because of the slight French accent and he wore sleeveless tank tops. Similar hair and he also likes to wear cowboy hats. But this guy turned out to be such a fucker. We went bowling and that was kind of fun. Mainly cause bowling is fun, no matter who you're with. We finished at 1:00am and I said I had to go home soon. Then he casually mentions that he has missed the last train home. So I ignore the fucker and tell him I'm going to go get something to eat. He tags along with me. While I eat I don't say much to him cause I'm shitty that he assumes he can stay at my place. I finish and tell him I'm going home. He asks "Could I stay at yours tonight?". I say "no", that I wouldn't feel uncomfortable sharing my bed with him. He says he can sleep on the floor, I say there's no room. Then he comes out with "well it's either that or Yoyogi Park for me cause I can't get home" MOTHERFUCKER. What I should have said was "Well that's your dumb arse fault for missing your last train. Don't expect that you can just waltz into my room and try your sleazy shit on me. Go sleep with the drunks!" but instead I said "FINE!" not trying to hide that I was not impressed.

I got ready for bed and was lying in bed on my stomach replying to an email, when I feel his hand on the small of my back. I ask, "What are you doing? I don't want anything more than friendship" (which was a lie cause I didn't even want that anymore). He goes "Oh sorry" and gets back to his corner. Later I turn the lights off and am dozing off when I feel his hand touch my ankle. I let out a pissed off unapproving grunt, let my foot back down and 2 seconds later, again I feel his hand. "Martine, don't fucking touch me, I mean it!" Martine: "Oh sorry, ok, sorry". So in the morning I woke up and forced him to wake up. He got dressed and just sat there so I said, "Are you waiting for something? You can go now" and he finally got out. I'm never letting that shit happen again. It'll be a big "FUCK OFF" next time.

Hmmm, not having much luck with male friends. I meet them but they usually want more than friendship. Need to make some girl friends.

I went to the beach last week. Kamakura. It was terrible. Being Australian makes me spoilt for beaches. But this one was gross. I would rather swim at St Kilda. The sand was brown and yucky.
Some of the schools I was working at are FUNNY! There's this one school that I teach at on Fridays and this kid call Yuta Yamaguci, he's only 6, keeps following me around and hanging in my office. I keep on asking him why he isn't in class and he’s like “It’s alright" I was trying to keep him busy while I was relaxing so I told him to go look outside at the view. I’m on the 5th floor. So I open the balcony door (the balcony runs the length of the school). I turn my back for two minutes. Then I hear this weird "Waaahhhhhhhh!" noise that gets louder. Then I realise the little shit is running the length of the building hitting the windows and screaming as he goes. Turns out he has A.D.D. So it's funny. I talk to him in English and he talks to me in Japanese but we get the jist of what each other are talking about. When the other teachers come looking for him he locks my office door on them. I'm sometimes tempted to ignore the teacher banging on the other side.
He ran away last week and the principal went looking for him. They found him in a neighboring vegetable field pulling up vegetables. Just like Peter rabbit or something. He's kind of tubby too.

I went back to my homestay to visit and learnt how to make Tempura. Oishii!!!!yay! Well I guess it's not that hard really.
I got to go eat, I'll write more.
Talia

So Here's How It goes....
About to move out my home stay, and move in with Mr Daniel Brenar. Or Doby (Harry Potter) since he has a thing for referring to himself in the third person.
He smells! Step one, stock up on things that will either eat up his smelly odor or cover it. The other steps don't really have any importance after that one. Actually, I need to do some hardcore shopping. It's Mega sale season here and I can't hold back any longer.

I'm also dying for a hair cut. I've been putting it off cause I know the language barrier is going to be a bitch to get over. My only option is to bring a photo and point, and point again.

The weather here is really nice but it's almost like you can't properly enjoy it cause you get stared at if you where a singlet or short skirt. The beaches aren't the nicest. The parks are crap too. No where to relax in the sun. I've decided I'm going to go to the roof one of my schools and enjoy some lazy time there.

On to more personal matters, it seems like Patrick and I are breaking up. Seems like our relationship has received a few bumps too many to keep travelling smoothly.

The school summer holidays start on the 20th of July. Need a new job! Ifm thinking of applying at an architecture firm as admin assistant. Thatfs a far shot though. Ok, my thoughts are bare. Ifll write something worth reading later.