2nd Japanniversary: Part 1 - A year in numbers

26 January 2020 was our two year Japanniversary. Yes, that’s right, you’ve endured me banging on about living in Japan for two years - well done!
Like last year, I am doing two posts to mark the occasion. For part 1, I am summing up our year in numbers because I love comparing year on year data trends.

Travel

• Number of days outside of Tokyo on holidays and our trip home:
  Wil:  50
  Qiraat: 66
  My total is higher because I was back in the UK for longer and went on a bonus trip with a friend. Our totals for year 1 were 47 and 64 respectively.

  There were also numerous day trips out of Tokyo but we’ve not included those in this total and only counted trips during which we stayed away for at least one night.

• Number of Japanese prefectures visited: We visited 13 new prefectures in the past year. We are on a mission to visit all 47 of Japan’s prefectures and this takes our total up to 45!! We are planning on visiting the last two at the end of February.

  An unintended consequence of this mission is that I can now draw a shockingly accurate map of Japan whereas I’d struggle to pinpoint more than three cities on a map of the UK. For those wondering, they would be Birmingham, London and Bristol at a push.

• Number of volcanoes visited: I don’t care but I just know it was fewer than last year and I am pleased about that.

• Journeys on bullet trains:

  Wil: 24
  Qiraat: 25
  For those of you that know Wil, he is pretty pleased with the total we have racked up as it is a vast improvement on last year when he only travelled by bullet train on three occasions and I did so on five.
  Somehow a big nose is sexy when it is on a train.

• Number of countries visited other than the UK: 
  Wil: Two - South Korea and Taiwan which we visited together.
  Qiraat: Three - I also visited Vietnam with a friend.
  

Life

• Number of UK visitors who stayed with us in Tokyo: Seven. We have a ranking of guests based on the snacks they brought us.

• Number of additional UK visitors that we met with during their visit to Tokyo: 10. This time we simply ranked them on how much we like them.

• Number of visitors who had to cancel their trip to Japan: Three. Muchos sadness.

• Number of visits to the police station: Zero. A drop from last year’s total of three.
  Have we become a lot more law abiding in our second year?

• Number of weddings we could not attend in the UK: One
  Although it is not a wedding, my sister wants it noted that we did miss her 25th birthday. 

• Number of weddings we attended in the UK: One

• Number of sporting events attended: Three. This included two Rugby World Cup matches and one day at the sumo. 
  

Our home

• Number of kokeshi dolls: 43
  Kokeshi are traditional wooden Japanese dolls, originating from the Tohuku region in Japan. I started collecting them last winter and 43 is a big leap up from last year’s total of 10.
  Here are some I added to the collection recently - the ones in this photo are on average about 30cm tall. I have a few around 60cm tall which not only add great decorative value to our home but would also make excellent weapons to clobber an intruder. And if I get bored of them in a few years, at least we will have plenty of firewood.

• Number of darumas: 51
  A daruma is a roundish traditional Japanese doll that is used for setting goals that Wil started to collect when we got to Japan. The dolls usually come with two blank eyes; you colour in the first when you set a goal and the second once the goal has been accomplished. We’re yet to colour in any eyes in two years. What can I say, we are just not goal orientated people. 51 is also a big leap up from last year’s total of 19. Here’s a recent photo of the collection.

• Number of small, ornamental, ceramic Japanese postboxes: Just the one! (No one needs more than one!)

• Number of portraits of Qiraat as presents from talented friends: Two

• Number of Japanese matchboxes: Over a 100
  What can I say, I have niche interests. To counteract the huge, heavy kokeshi dolls I have also started collecting matchboxes because they’re like miniature pieces of art. I am too lazy to take photos of the best ones I have but here are some I had photos of already.
  And you know what, all the matches could come in handy for all the firewood I seem to have collected.

Miscellaneous

• Number of photos taken:

  Qiraat: About 10,000 on my phone. Madness, I know.

  Wil: About 30, 000 on his phone. Hahaha, and you thought I was the mental one.

  And we’ve not even bothered counting the photos we took on our actual camera.

• Number of Instagram posts:
  Wil: 218. Only 218 out of the 30,000 photos he took were worthy of posting on Instagram it seems.
  Qiraat: 370.

• Number of blog posts: 13

• Number of average steps walked daily:

  Qiraat: 9,048 (my average was pulled down by the few weeks I spent in the UK over the summer and did not walk around as much as usual and also by the mornings I binge watched Netflix)
  Wil: 11,086

Setting the scene for as I wrote this blog:

• Location: Mainly at home at our dining table (but finished off in Izumo in Shimane prefecture).

• Weather: The sun is trying to poke out from the clouds. It feels like spring and I probably won’t wear my coat today.

• Soundtrack: Wil is working from home and listening to music on his headphones and I am sitting in silence.

• Bonus fact: Number of concerts we went to: one.