It`s fairly mild weather in Tokyo. How abut in your city?? I met AnD actors and friends in Tokyo last night. I visited their training room first and saw what they were doing.

"Budojyo" - Wu Shu room is their training room.

There were 8 people there. They say there are usually around 20 people, but they changed the training time and less people than usual turned up.

Mitsuki and Kazuya are great Wu shu artists!!

They do some ritual stuff at the end of the training.

Jasmine T took a picture for us and gave me an AnD badge.

This is my lovely little treasure now...

and we went to a restaurant together....

with Mitsuki...

with Kazuya...

This is my meal or dessert...

someone next to me is interested in my meal... hahaha...

Actually both Mitsuki and Kazuya are interested in it....

Mitsuki gave me a "secret welcoming dessert" for me....

Thanks to Mitsuki I`m receiving the special dessert.

Now I can eat it...

and then we all received a Valentine`s banana chocolate from Jamine T!!

Thank you all for welcoming me!l!!

AnD in Tokyo with Mitsuki, Kazuya and Jasmine T :-)

I met lovely Mio and Taiga tonight.

I just upload some pictures of food now and go to sleep...

It was a fun time and enjoyed the conversation very much with them :-)

The pictures tell all the story, hahaha.....手抜きーー（笑）

It’s pretty windy and cold in Tokyo, but I guess it’s much milder than snowy London, of course. How is the snow in London?

I’ve just enjoyed Kagurazaka briefly and we moved to another hotel the following day. Actually I was told at 7.40 am in the morning that I have to check out at 8:30am including finishing the breakfast! Oh my God!! As usual, they ask me a challenging thing every time, but what is the first priority to do…. Not much time left…anyway I packed my stuff and went down to the hotel lobby...only one person is waiting there. After we waited for 40 mins, she told me that she was going to go upstairs to see them. And then, she also disappeared..... only me in the lobby. What for?

When I also went upstairs I saw that she was reading a newspaper and other people were chatting. Hahaha.... as usual I guess they changed their mind?? Who knows. That sort of thing is very common here, Well, get on with it. And I just as I started to start up my computer, they knocked on my room door loudly and said "All leaving now!!(Chufa le!!)" いい加減にしろーーー！ま。いつもの事だけどね（笑）  

The next day is another day! We went to Kawagoe to search for a location for the film the following day.

The high street in Kawagoe...hahaha...

We are looking for an authentic Japanese house with a traditional façade.

They say Kawagoe is one of the three cities called “little Edo”. It is comparable to Nikko and Kamakura. Have you been there? There are a lot of Edo style so called "Kura-zukuri" houses like this...

"Kura-zukuri" houses lined up...

This house owner is dedicated to baseball??

a nice small restaurant and shop...

a building, which is now a bank, in a European style...

Japanese house next to a European buliding...

a Japanese tobacconist

I`m like a tourist here...

 “Toki no Kane” so called Bell Tower in this town.

 a souvenir shop...

 a  Japanese rice cracker shop....

another crew was there...

This is called Kashiya yokocho, A small lane of tiny candy shops.

a coffee shop with a big coffee mill...

 a wooden dog??

This is actually a post office.

a pickle shop...

A lot of different pickles for tasting... I tried some...

a kimono merchant

We had lunch here...

Our crew, 10 of us ordered 10 lunch sets and are waiting...

This is the lunch set, soba noodles and rice with fried vegetables...

a yummy yummy lunch finished like this.... my report also finishes here.... :-)

Yes, finally I've finished translating the new script for the film yesterday. Or more precisely speaking I finished at 6:00am this morning!! I was told that I had to finish my translation to make it for a meeting, they had have organised this morning. Apparently, this meeting is a kind of audition for famous Japanese actors/actresses, ( can't say who for the moment!). Of course, they will ask for the Japanese version of the script so I understand it....

But I ended up eating my dinner in my hotel room due to the lack of time. It was only 14 hours left to complete it since I heard about it. By the way I was just wondering where is my sleeping time tonight?? That's a part of the business again in the (mainland) Chinese film industry, of course not in Japan, because usually the popular actors have already booked their schedule for 2 years ahead, especially for TV dramas.

Anyway here I am. I completed one tough mission and slept for a few hours from this morning to noon. In a way I thanked the Chinese production for the lack of organisation beforehand, because I'm being trained by them in this way and I can stretch my limits and ability every time! It was the first time for me to finish translating a film script in just 6 days. Yeah, I was working for almost 24 hours in the last day, so it's not exactly 6 days, but now at least I know I can do it. I usually stop translating things when my brain starts to refuse to work. Yesterday was the exception. I had to complete it by the deadline and I've done it!!

and... I went for a walk nearby and came to Kagurazaka 神乐坂.

 I haven't been out of the hotel for a few days. I was just walking between my hotel room and a Chinese restaurant downstairs in this hotel. I needed fresh air today.  

Surprisingly, I never came here when I lived in Tokyo for 7 years. Very nice atmosphere, a bit like Asakusa. It's like a traditional area but pretty fashionable and  convienient to eat. There are a lot of earthy restaurants and bars.

and what I found was a shrine...

and a lot of people are gathering somehow...

Did you know it's "Setsubun" aka "Bean Scattering Day" today in Japan. It's a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil of the former year and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come by scattering beans by priests. People are waiting for the beans!!

some of the performers sing on stage before the ritual, they say...

I noticed a lot of people are gathering inside the shrine...

They are handing out a free amazake, which is a sweet alcohol made from fermented rice.

Wow, such a big iron pot.....

a nice sweet taste....

very atmospheric....

I was waiting for a bean, but they announced the show will start in an hour's time and the bean scattering will be after the show. Oh my God!! I thought it was lucky to bump into and participate in the Japanese traditional ritual while I was just in Japan, but I won't wait here for a hour...... Well, I've taken some pictures here and will go back to the hotel now, maybe next year if I'm in Japan........ :-)

I left a rainy city, London and flew off from Heathrow Terminal 5 for the first time.

There was a big fiasco when it opened a few months ago, so I was a bit worried about the terminal.

But it was very smooth and unexpectedly more efficient than other terminals. So I had plenty of time to work on the script at the airport......

The BA007 took off more or less on time and soon after we had a nice chicken teriyaki. It's very funny that Japanese chicken teriyaki is becoming a more ordinary choice of food in Europe.

I started working on the script after the meal and I found out that the new script, which I received just one day ago before my departure from London, has been completely re-written and I have to translate it asap for the shooting. But how?? Where is the time?

I saw the beautiful mountains from the window....

I'm very happy that I was served my favourite yoghurt on the plane the following morning. Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep at all ....as usual...I always try to sleep less the night before the flight and make myself tired so I can sleep on the plane, but it still didn't work.... :-(

Does anyone sleep well on a plane?? If so, tell me a tip!!

It was rainy Tokyo..... Not much different from London :-(

"Yokoso! JAPAN" - I was welcomed by Japan at least....hahaha...

The director and the other members of staff were supposed to arrive from Beijing an hour later so I was waiting for them at the same airport, but it turned out that I had to wait more than 2 hours. But it doesn't bother me at all, I'm in a Chinese film crew now. I'm totally relaxed. All my time has already been given to them anyway..... if you are in the filming business, you are just waiting, waiting and .......waiting....sometimes we have no idea what we are waiting for....but we have to wait. This is absolutely a part of the business.

Finally 12 people including the director arrived from Beijing and we left Narita airport for a hotel in town.

After arriving at this hotel, I found it's unique! The receptionists are all Chinese and the signs are written in Chinese. We had a Chinese meal in a restaurant downstairs. And I received a Chinese (mainland style) service from the waitresses.....

Me: "Where are the chopsticks?"

Waitress: "The chopsticks are there (on another table), you take it from there by yourself!"

Thanks a bunch! I'm already ready for that sort of working environment anyway...

"a little China in Tokyo" - this is my new working space now. The city of Tokyo is in front of me, but I'm stuck in "a little China" like under house-arrest and I can't go anywhere. The translation of the new script is my top priority right now.....