Asian drivers are the best.

Coming from New Zealand, I have been exposed and accimilated to the stereotype that Asians make very poor drivers. Nothing could be further from the truth! During my first couple of days here in Kyoto I saw dozens of ALLMOST crashes, situations that in NZ would have definatly lead to a crash. At first I thought this was indeed proof that they are geneticaly disposed to be terrible drivers until I did the math; while I have seen many near misses, I have yet to see ONE accident - taking into consideration that these near accidents required some nerves of steel and skill to avoid it suddenly all made sense.

The Japanese are fantastic drivers, infact theyr actually too good, they drive in such an extreme way that we can't keep up with them in NZ thus resulting in an accident. Seriously, look at the world rally drivers ranking - the Japs are consistantly among the top group.


The place I have been staying is very nice, the family have been really helpfull in helping me settle in and get to know the area. It was a little uneasy at first as I dont speak Nihongo and they dont speak English, but with the help of a translating son in law who came over to help & one of those talking/translating Japanese calculators everything is going well now. In fact this morning I recieved a Japanese lesson from the younger daughter ( I can't remember her name, I think remembering all the names is the hardest thing) the lesson was pretty basic and just covered different greetings for different locations but it was still really helpfull.

The Shatcho (boss)/ head of family Nakakura has left with Aoki to Korea for around a week pretty much trusting me with the house, he advised me through his son in law that I may eat anything from the fridge etc but I have been buying Bento (pre packaged meals) from the supermarket as I feel they are allready doing enough for me. Bento is really cheap anyway, usually around 300-400 Yen for a good meal sized box with my daily budget sitting around 1500 yen, Iv managed to find enough cheap ways to eat that my daily expenditure is more like 900-1000 Yen now which I'm smug about.

I decided this morning to indulge myself to a bit of Kiwi nostelgia(spelling??) after talking to my Mum & Brother back home on Skype. I really miss good coffee, sure they drink coffee over here but its nothing like a decent flat white in Auckland. I managed to find a Starbucks, which while not the best place for it is the best I can find and ordered myself a Venti (humgunuss) sized Cappacino, I brough my laptop along so that I could sorta surf the web/do emails while I drank it but they didnt have Wifi (which is really rare over here ) so I just chatted to a couple of British girls who joined me. They were heading over to the Imperial gardens and wondered if I was keen to come along, I respectfully declined as neither of them were goodlooking & I have to visit the International Centre to check for cheapbikes etc on the noticeboard.

Which is where I am right now. Its basically a place for Gaijin to come, use free internet on their laptops, drink coffee from a cafe and look for jobs/bikes/apartments or just general advise from the staff and notice board.
I saw a few cheap apartments which I took details down for to pass to Rick, as the other guys coming over may need somewhere like that to stay when they arrive.

On the weekend I visited the Kyodai Judo Club(Kyoto University) but the times have changed from those advertised and I caught the end of the training session. I had a chat with the team captain, who said I can start training with them from the 4th at 0900(Tomorow) as until then they are taking a small holiday for golden week. they also were preparing for a competition they have annualy against Sangyo Uni which the captain believed they would lose as Sangyo is one of the toughest Uni's out.

Aoki also seemed to agree when I discussed this with him, his theory is that as Kyoto Uni is the 2nd best in Japan (out of literally 1000's of Uni's) it is predominantly made up of very very smart people and as a rule of thumb very smart people ( with exeptions of course) are not the biggest & tougest of characters. Wheras Sangyo Uni is a Industrual Uni (kinda like a Tech for Trades) and has alot of big Judo thugs training there.

The players at Kyoto Uni all seemed very tough & most were around my size/slightly bigger so I'm not too sure what to expect from Sangyo. I'm really looking forward to getting into the 6 day a week training schedule from tomorow. Tonight after helping Sensei Rick move into his new house I think we are going to a Dojo at Doisha which I trained at last time I was in Japan. Its a tough Judo dojo which is around 2 meters wide and 20 long (sort of bus shaped) and has imprints in the wall in the shape of human bodies from being being thrown into the walls. This is actually true, infact when I post my first bunch of pics tomorow I will include some of this dojo to prove it.


Yesterday I went for a big run around my region of Kyoto (Sanjo-dori/Horikawa Dori sort of area) which was tough because its so hott & humid, everyday its getting a bit hotter as summer is fast approaching.

J