Less than Genki

A sneaking suspicion

2005-04-20T23:52:00.000+09:00

I suspect that my interest in this blog is waning which is lucky as in three weeks time I will no longer live in Japan.

The reasons why I haven't been updating are as follows:

1) I am addicted to MP3 blogs.
2) I am addicted to the gym much to Kerry's annoyance.
3) Kerry's blog is much better than mine so check it out.

I will post some photo's of our final trip in Japan, sometime soon, but don't hold your breath!

A Taste of Culture

2005-04-04T22:01:00.000+09:00

After the first month in Japan I cockily proclaimed that I knew all about Japanese society and the people. One year later, I know that I really don't know anything about Japan. Today I got a glimpse of Japaneseness.

The first was from an older Japanese man who talked about the secret world of Bonsai. Bonsai crazies (his words, not mine) form secretive societies around their hobby, understandably as these small trees can cost upwards of ten million yen.

Then he told me that often old people collect and grow bonsai's and their families are sometimes unaware of the value. When a bonsai crazy shuffles from the mortal coil their "friends" come to the funeral with a large donation and then they ask for a keepsake, of course, they want the bonsai collection.

The second was about Sakura and Bushido spirit, the lady in question also mentioned Samurai, Hari kiri and Kamikaze pilots.

Sakura is cherry blossom and it fits into bushido (which was badly translated as Japanese spirit) a good definition is here. She couldn't quite explain what She wanted to say so I have been looking at the internet to fill in the details. I found this quote about Sakura on the above link:

Is, then, this flower, so sweet and evanescent, blown whithersoever the wind listeth, and, shedding a puff of perfume, ready to vanish forever, is this flower the type of the Yamato-spirit? Is the soul of Japan so frailly mortal?

Today was further proof I will never understand Japan, but I've known this for a while.

Big News!

2005-04-01T19:58:00.001+09:00

Kerry is going to School! Very exciting news although it's still sinking in.

In other news, we bought Paper Tigers by The Caesars, which has been listened to almost three times and I can safely say its great, it includes the ipod shuffle song "Jerk it out."

Spring is most definitely here and we are in better moods! We spent today lazily shopping. As well as the CD I also got an "Engrish" T-shirt it makes absolutely no sense what so ever.

4 Weeks/160 lessons left at work! Its coming around so quick! I'm happy and scared at exactly the same time!

Is the Lack of a Logo a Logo?

2005-03-31T20:12:00.000+09:00

So the particular item that brought this idea to me is the Ad-buster blacksopt sneaker. There are two points here, the first is that these shoes are produced in such a way that the people who make them get a fair wage and that the product is sustainable. I agree that this is something novel and quite exciting. However it's the no-logo chic this product is generating, when it clearly has a logo!

We live in a world of logos, ads, banners, stencils, jingles this is just another that stands against the afore mentioned. Why not make it truly revolutionary? Ditch the logo!

It's easy once you know how it's done......

2005-03-26T21:09:00.000+09:00

Jerk It Out by Caeser's Palace is blaring out of the laptop speakers (a little tinny, but after 12 months without a stereo it's sounding great).

Kerry and I have joined our community gym, I suspect that the initial momentum will keep us going there until the end of our time in Japan, whether or not its a permanent fixture will remain to be seen. Although I would like to keep fit without pounding away on the treadmill for hours, well elliptical cross trainer for minutes.

We are in the final throws of our time in Japan we have had a lot of paperwork to sort out, Kerry got her wedding visa meaning that the marriage is still on! We are both grateful that this weight is off our minds. This means that there is only one thing left to worry about.... Grad. School. Hopefully Kerry will find out soon and she can start sleeping easier at night.

Easter is coming and the chocolate is looking too good!

Where's the fun gone?

2005-03-21T21:17:00.000+09:00

The idea that culture especially video games and films, directly leads to anti-social and violent behaviour is not a new one. Its been in the news again, due to games such as Grand Theft Auto, which reward and glamourise violent criminal acts. The court cases that have tried to demonise these games have only succeeded in increasing their popularity and sales.

It's more fun when its notorious.

Sitting in front of a video game does have an effect on your personality and video games should be regulated more than they are at the moment. Although this isn't really the issue, the point here for me is that games have changed. Now the aim is to maim/kill/destroy. Creativity is dead, where is the unusual or fun?

The answer- its on the web. It's not a backlash but it could be a start, as the last thing the world needs is something like this.

Comic Genius

2005-03-20T23:31:00.000+09:00

Today one of the below mentioned co-workers tried so hard to avoid speaking or looking at Kerry he actually walked into a wall.

The Magnificent Twin Dragons

2005-03-18T23:39:00.000+09:00

This is a huge mural on the ceiling of Kenninji, in Kyoto. Its only a couple of years old and is really impressive.

Kenninji is the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto and is extremely tranquil. We also saw a raked gravel garden, whilst looking at the garden drops of rain fell on the rocky border of the garden. The sound matched the surroundings perfectly, I could have sat there all day.

Geisha, Geiko or should that be Maiko

2005-03-18T23:38:00.000+09:00

Japan is filled with different dialects (ban) and I have the pleasure of living in Kansai, home of the down right dirty Kansai-ban. For most people learning Japanese (not me), books teach Kanto-ban roughly equivalent to the Queens English of Japanese.

However "ban" is slightly more than dialect as it actually has some of its own vocabulary. In Kyoto these girls are Geiko, where I live Geisha means Geiko.

To add to the confusion in Kyoto, there are also Maiko, which I assumed where trainee Geisha who wear a red coloured neckline under the kimono. Today I tried to clarify this matter with a class of high level English speakers, in the end they were more confused than me.

So whatever you call them, I suspect there is a mix of Geiko and Maiko in this picture but either way we got really lucky as even in Kyoto this is quite a rare sight.

A Sinister Plan.

2005-03-16T12:09:00.000+09:00

The Da Vinci Code, is a book about the sinister actions of the Vatican and the Opus Dei. It's not the most sensible book and is a little like Indiana Jones.

The Vatican unsurprisingly are unhappy about this and have responded in the only sensible way by appointing a Bishop to "debunk" the piece of fiction. Check the story out here.

Why not just re-iterate the fact that its a piece of fiction? Unless they really have something to hide....

Bye bye and Bread

2005-03-11T21:29:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, We bought tickets to Manchester.

They cost a small fortune but in under two months we will be leaving Japan. It's sad but I have had a very good year here and not living in the worlds most active Earthquake area will be very nice. If you've never felt an Earthquake you are very lucky, even the small ones are scary.

Recently I had a bit of a strange experience, Japanese food is very sweet, most food that we eat is a lot sweeter than its British or Canadian counterparts. Bread is the worst offender, we ate bread from a good French baker whilst in Kobe. The flavour was quite different to what I have become used to the sweet, soft familiar was replaced with a very hard seedy crust with a dough that was almost too salty for my tastes. I'm not sure if I liked it and I'm worried that some of favourite foods might take a while to get used to again.

In other news I am hankering for a new CD, I am tempted by the new Queens of the Stone age album but I am interested in something a little more mellow, but I don't know where to start. I don't really have a fast enough internet connection to make the most of online radio and haven't read any music magazines for six months. I've hardly seen any new movies this year

Kerry and I have had a great weekend even though I am grumpy about having to return to work. We had a great conversation that really made me think and it was nice to exercise my brain, I feel that this part of me is suffering from speaking slow, easy English.

Going back is going to be great... Blockbuster video here I come!

Recently I got some Gmail invites to distribute, so if you'd like one please post a comment below (including your e-mail address).

Cool Stuff

2005-03-05T22:45:00.000+09:00

Blogging is getting big in Japan and you really get to see some really cool stuff, like this website.

The site is called Riri-no Bento or Riri's lunch box. Its all in Japanese but you really are going for the pictures, which are great.

A thorny topic

2005-03-03T14:02:00.000+09:00

As Kerry will attest, I have a big issue with organised religion and missionaries. I believe in good works not good thoughts, actions speak louder than words.

I don't do good things for a God. I don't do them for praise, I do good things for other people because I can.

However I suspect this Baptist group and I will never be friends.

To quote (but check out the link, you get to see a scary clown).

"Christian Illusion
One thing I did as a clown was an rope illusion trick (there is no magic involved). I explained out God punishes different types of sinners the same. The short rope were mostly good people, the long rope were murderers, etc. But in the end, all are the same in God's eyes: wicked (I made all three appear to be the same size)."

I am sickened.

Mostly good=Murderers

All I can say is...

If your religion is so good, why do you need bribery to make someone join?

alternatively, in their eyes, I have nothing left to lose so perhaps I should go Clown hunting.

The end of February

2005-02-27T23:38:00.000+09:00

Thank goodness.

February one of the worst months is finally drawing to a close.

Its cold and darkness is on the way out to be replaced with the promise of spring warmth, Sakura blossoms and innumerable hanami parties.

Roll on Spring.

2005-02-19T00:02:00.000+09:00

Our Valentines view.

90 000 Yen, Nabe, Valentines and Gmail.

2005-02-18T23:18:00.000+09:00

More of an update, than an entry. This is the last two days.

We had Valentines in Kobe this week. We were planning to go to the aquarium in Osaka but didn't get to go as it was closed. Whilst we were in Osaka I ate a bagel which is the first time for a year and it was good. I have missed bagels a lot.

In Kobe we had chicken nabe (Japanese stew) it was abolutely great definately one of the best meals ever. I also learnt how to cook Nabe (we've been doing it a little wrong) the meal ends with a risotto style rice which is really good.

I found out about the origin of White Day, see below, it was actually invented by marshmallow companies, but has also been claimed by manufacturers of sexy underwear, making it a very strange day indeed.

Today we sent 90 000 yen to Peace Winds Japan, I am happy that with a little (very little) effort we raised a lot of money and will make a real difference to the people in Indonesia. Who will get it as a working wage rather than handout, which is what they need.

The geeky bit of me got very excited by my gmail invite, I'm sure that in three days I will be bored of it and back to my crappy hotmail account. If we are being geeky, I got to play on a Sony PSP, it was Ridge Racers PSP, it was actually quite good but I definitely don't need one. Especially not when I have travel Scrabble, I got possibly my highest score ever tonight (with hardly any cheating).

2005-02-18T11:21:00.000+09:00

Curry Rice, Just like Mummy used to make

Valentine's Day in Japan

2005-02-14T22:47:00.000+09:00

Unsurprisingly Valentine's day in Japan is a very strange event. Presents are given from girls to boys today, normally its a box of chocolates or some kind of homemade biscuits. Sounds simple? Well, here is the first complication, women also have to give not only to unsuspecting suitors but to bosses and male co-workers.

Sounds good, especially if you're a guy you end with a box of chocolates and possibly a new girlfriend. Japan is a very reciprocal about its gift giving so one month later, on March 14th there is White day.

On White day boyfriends and male co-workers have to return the favour. It seems that most men get away with returning the chocolate or something home made. Not everyone gets off so lightly, some boyfriends will be expected to buy a gift of more than 5 times the value of their Valentine gift. Louis Vuitton hand bags are quite de rigour and one of my co-workers was told by his Japanese girlfriend that She was expecting the afore mentioned gift.

I suspect that Valentines day and White day are scams concocted by the couture companies and the chocolate industry.

2005-02-11T23:52:00.000+09:00

Kerry's in Print! What a great article as well.

Things I am doing...

2005-02-11T23:26:00.000+09:00

I have been travelling around Japan a lot recently thanks to my sister who was a wonderful house guest. I hope one day She returns to Japan to fill the Tokyo shaped hole in her experience. This week gave me some time to enjoy the sites and remember why Japan is cool.

She is quite lucky this year her two vacations are in Japan and Canada! How international.

Recently at work we ran a collection for the Tsunami victims and we managed to collect almost 90,000 yen ($850 US). I feel really pleased and annoyed with the result. I'm happy as it's not a small sum of cash. I am annoyed as two out of the six schools failed to raise anything.

But we will send the result fax to all the schools even those who didn't help.

I have discovered Dominick Dunne's A Season In Purgatory its great but a little trashy and just a little true crime. Although the disclaimer is in quite plain view on the fourth page.

I have also been playing The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap its so great. I am playing it through for a second time trying to fill in the gaps from the first time, these gaps are not insignificant. I have many hours of this game left before its even close to being finished.

The 5 Day Japan tour

2005-02-07T20:52:00.000+09:00

My sister is here we are trying to fill the time with as much cool sightseeing and activity as possible. I am quite tired but have never traveled so much in one week.

I also got to return to Kyoto, its beautiful (in parts, best explored using public transport. Last time I went for Kerry we walked far too much.

Off to Kareoke soon and tomorrow, I'm off to Nara.

This time I'm not buying a 900 yen potato.

Japan Sadness

2005-01-30T01:21:00.000+09:00

Japan has some problems.

Kerry can no longer stomach Japanese food.
I am obviously foreign
Small children gawk at me.
I can't buy shoes
or anti-perspirant.
Kerry has developed an expensive, imported soup habit.
I have forgotten how to use English.
I often forget words.
I have to read the news online.
I haven't seen friends or family in such a long time.

But today, for the first time, I realised that my stay here is ending.

In a little over 3 months, I'll be in England.

I love Japan

This place is where Kerry and I call home.

I am so sad.

Annoying

2005-01-22T20:41:00.000+09:00

Why do we live in a world with stories like this? Why is there even a party with the theme colonials and natives? Prince Harry is quite clearly related to Prince Phillip, idiots the pair of them. I don't dress up as a Nazi everyone I know is aware that this is clearly inappropriate.

Harry is helping my cause lets ditch the Royal family, lets become a Republic. In fact, whilst we are it, lets burn down the House of Lords. I don't fully approve of Tony Blair but I would support an elected head of state rather than a hereditary one.

Marilyn Manson has been at it again, perhaps we should lock him up as well as the 14 year old murderer. This seems a little extreme. I think we should realise that becoming a murderer is not the inevitable result of being interested in Marilyn Manson's music.

Cracking Nuts with a Sledgehammer

2005-01-18T20:20:00.000+09:00

The tsunami was an event of unimaginable horror, the death toll is unbelievable, what's worse is the news are picking over this event and there are new stories about it everyday in the news. I understand these reports go a long way to giving money and making a difference.

But there is a point where it becomes too much this article sums up how I feel about the media quite well. I think that turning off the TV and doing something is the best way to show your support.

So donate, lets show the journalists that there is some hope left for humanity.

Kerry and I arranged a collection at work, I will publish how much we are schools are donating on the 31st, hopefully it'll be several hundred dollars.

Current Fads

2005-01-16T20:20:00.000+09:00

Kerry bought a new computer it is the extremely well designed and elegant. I am jealous to say the least. Its a tiny apple iBook, which makes my Vaio look seriously obese and too massive to be labeled as a laptop.

However Kerry has spent the last two days putting her music collection on to her new baby. Which means I can delete most of her stuff off the PC. Eric Pryd'z terrible Call on me was the first victim. Kevin Little's turn me on will be next.

I am listening to some new music again, but not with any obsessive fever. I am interested in getting the Chemical Brothers album Push the Button and have downloaded some of the Kasabian album which sounds quite harsh but I like a few tracks. I won't be buying it as I have been warned its full of filler.

Last weekend I went to Nara, Japan's first capital it was really great and I really enjoyed it we have some great photos which we nearly lost as we nearly lost the camera. I also got chased by a deer and bought the worlds most expensive sweet potato it cost nearly £5!

I will post some of the photos on Tuesday (probably).

I have really not felt like updating this blog for ages in fact I have spent so much time avoiding doing it, really because I haven't done anything and I was full of hate about going back to work. Week 2 has started well fingers crossed for the next three days though.

I have to go my Fave TV show is on soon and I have to eat some Dairy milk!

New Year

2005-01-05T23:26:00.000+09:00

We went to Tokyo for New year and had a great time. We got to see Meiji Shrine in the dark. The place was packed with people and had a really good atmosphere- this shrine is huge and it left me in awe. We also went to the Emperor's palace which is only open twice a year, its a beautiful area of countryside in the megalopolis that is Tokyo. The Emperor made a speech, which of course we couldn't understand, but we enjoyed the flag waving and actually felt very included which was great.

I also saw the sinister nationalist vans, the vans are painted all black and drive around chanting "Foreigners Out!" as well as other delightful phrases. This is set to nationalistic music. It was all in Japanese so it wasn't that upsetting, but I was disappointed people weren't booing them and throwing rotton vegetables at them.

We spent a few nights at our friend's house. We ate some very good food and drank far too much alcohol. We had a very good time and spent the second year in a row bringing in the New year with a board game. Kerry and I both decided that we hated going out and that we both loved board games. I strongly suspect we weren't just meant to be and in fact we are the same creature.

Kerry went to Miffy world again and while She was there I learnt how to copy DVDs its quite a bit easier than I thought, but it takes hours. I am also intending to buy a Sony PSP but they are sold out everywhere and Sony apologised to Japan for producing so few units, so I doubt that I will be getting one anytime soon.

2004-12-29T12:24:00.000+09:00

My Kanji

Miffy world is coming to town

2004-12-29T11:18:00.000+09:00

Today there is Miffy world in Sanyo department store, there will be a Miffy playground, a Miffy store and of course a Kerry ready to indulge in all things Miffy.

There will also be me feeling slightly awkward.

But in other news we are heading to Tokyo for the new year, although we don't really have any plans. I would have thought that spending new year in a Buddhist country would be completely fantastic, but most people here visit the temple and then spend 10 days with their families, playing board (bored?) games and longing to go back to work.

Even we have time off and that is quite strange as we get almost no vacations. This is leading me to believe that for the next week there will be less than nothing to do.

We are refusing to let go of Christmas as we are still expecting presents to arrive in the post.

Snuffy get out of the picture!

2004-12-17T21:24:00.000+09:00

This photo is of my new shoes (on the right), I wanted to support an ethical company, but when you have size 11 feet and you live in Japan you don't get much choice. To get my new shoes I had to travel for 40 minutes and go to the Nike outlet shop. They had about five pairs of size 11 shoes. I hope that they die the same way my last Nike shoes(on the left) did. On a habitat for humanity build, drowning in concrete.

Also featured is Kerry's mitten (She's knitted and re-knitted this 5 times) She finally succeeded. She didn't keep track of what she did, meaning mitten 2 will take just as long.

And Snuffy just jumped in at the last second, someone will have to go to (cuddly toy) dog school.

No technology anywhere

2004-12-17T21:11:00.000+09:00

When I moved to Japan, I thought I would see wacky technology everywhere. I was very very wrong. Japan is a mixture of 5 years behind and ten years ahead when it comes to this.

Well except for the heated, musical toilet seats that automatically put themselves down.

2 Year Anniversery

2004-12-10T22:51:00.000+09:00

Kerry and I have been dating for two years although it feels as though I have never been without her and its quite puzzling to think back to pre-Kerry days, I can't believe they existed. So this weekend we celebrated. We went to kareoke, ate Italian food and had apple pie, its been a great day.

We had a good day yesterday as well, we met a guy from work and went to Kobe, he took us to a Barbeque restaraunt. It served Kobe beef allegadly some of the best meat in the world, I had to eat a lot of it to check this claim and I'll probably need to check some more in the future. The food was great, but it paled in comparison to the view of Akashi Bridge the longest suspension bridge in the world.

Its been a very good weekend.

Big feet

2004-12-10T22:30:00.000+09:00

You know what they say about men with big feet, Yes they can't buy shoes in Japan. I have US 11's and I'm going to struggle to replace my cement-encrusted shoes. I was aiming to get ethical shoes, but I don't stand a chance.

Chang, Chang, Chang

2004-12-02T21:48:00.001+09:00

This was the most amazing thing that Kerry and I have ever done. At the end of our trip we went to Elephant camp, sometimes called "Elephant death Camp" by those who didn't enjoy the hikes into the Jungle at 6:30!

However I did and I loved riding the Elephants. Elephants in this setting were playful and cheeky and really loved there food, they were always eating. Riding them was scary, rewarding and especially exciting. Kerry had an epiphany and is probably going to start an Elephant obsession, We might possibly go back for the 10 day course in Spring, but this is for the hardcore and features camping in the Jungle, Eak!

This Vacation was the best I have ever had. All I can hope for is that the next one is even better.

PS Chang means Elephant in Thai for those who didn't guess.

Happy Birthday to me!

2004-12-02T21:48:00.000+09:00

This was a Monkey cake, decoration only thankfully it was a cream sponge and it featured no extract of monkey. So this was brought out to me at my birthday celebration at the Blue Bat the roof top BBQ on top of the Pornping Tower.

This was one of the tallest buildings in Chiang Mai and it had an amazing view, it had a live band and they sang three different versions of Happy Birthday. It was one of the best Birthday celebrations ever.

Best of all I got presents when I got Home. But getting home was no easy task thanks to the 24 hour clock, we were 10 hours late for our flight and spent two extra days on "standby" in Bangkok, I will never do this again. But luckily for us we got to fly back to Japan on Business class, We didn't deserve to be that lucky, but I am immensely grateful to Korean air and I would definitely recommend their business class seats.

The presents I got were two Books, Gamers and Learning to Bow which are both great, a snuffy who is Miffy's pet dog and Aladdin on DVD, which I will be watching again tomorrow, or at least some of the songs.

One too many

2004-12-02T21:47:00.000+09:00

This guy was our driver, he drove our bus between our hotel and the house's building site. Actually "bus" and "drove" aren't right. The " bus" was a pickup truck with benches and a thin metal roof and "drove" is open to interpretation, really swerving between the lanes would be a better description.

Whilst we were in Thailand we saw some terrible driving and safety practices, wearing seatbelts is not required and often you can't find them in the car. When you are on a motorbike you don't need to wear a helmet. It was unsurprising to hear that accidents are the no.1 cause of death in Thailand claiming 50% of all fatalities.

Also drunk driving seems to carry no penalties as this guy drank a little to much homebrewed moonshine and still drove 12 people back to the hotel, luckily I got the other bus.

The house that sweat built

2004-12-02T21:46:00.000+09:00

This is what we built it took around five days and will hopefully make a real difference to its new owner and her children. We did this through Habitat for Humanity it was a great vacation where we spent plenty of time relaxing and sightseeing but at the end of the vacation I felt that I had given a little back. I think, I had an authentic travel experience, as much as this is possible.

Lost in Chiang Mai

2004-11-18T23:58:00.000+09:00

I'm on my Holidays....

In Chiang Mai, the weather is hot but not as hot as the food. The hotel is Ok, but was described by the Rough Guide as "decaying." Thankfully it has beds, hot water and air conditioning and really what more do you need? Also I discovered that you don't need a prescription to buy antibiotics in Thailand and as a result my 9 day sore throat is almost cured.

Kerry has bought lots and has new books, but thankfully stuff here is very cheap.

Wish you were here!

Stu

I'm in Thailand

2004-11-12T09:29:00.000+09:00

I'm flying to Bangkok today, I am very excited. I'll write more in December.

All hail to the thief? pt2

2004-11-05T13:32:00.000+09:00

Ok, so I received a comment on my blog, about the American election. It seems that G. Dubya. Bush may have stolen Ohio, well according to this he did.

Ok, first I can't find anything else on the internet that backs this up. So its validity is definitely in question, but there are some key problems. Spoilt ballots are just that- regardless of who they are for, they don't count. Also an exit poll isn't a true reflection of how people voted; people do lie. But by far the biggest issue is that John Kerry admitted defeat and, as I understand, once this is done the presidency is secured. But even if he hadn't admitted defeat, congress now has a Republican majority, so his position would be weak and he wouldn't be able to pass any resolutions anyway.

I'm sad to say but there are four more years of Bush ahead. America is a democracy; it's what the majority wanted, although I do think the electoral vote system is completely retarded. According to this system, some places are more important than others and if there is a big swing, the people in the west who vote may not actually end up with a say in the election results.
As my Kerry says, politics are for the ruthless and greedy. You shouldn't fall in love with an ideal or a concept. Love should be saved for the tangible and I think that's something that could make the world a better place.

Sony PSP vs. Nintendo DS.

2004-11-05T13:17:00.000+09:00

I am going nuts about this issue. I must get a new hobby.

I found out some more details about the Sony handheld. Its going to have one of my favourite games ever on it. I will be able to get Wipeout pure and Devil may cry. I am so excited and in my reading around the issue. I read several people bitching about Sony, basically accusing them of having no imagination and just giving people a portable PS2.

Guess what.... Sony are in it for the money.

They are giving people what they want, you can't hate a company for doing this. If you want innovation look at the Nintendo DS with its touch screen. A touch screen is a unique feature, some games will use it well but a lot more won't.

You are a consumer, you have power to get your way, you just need to spend your money and companies will give you what you want. This information can be used in innumerable ways;
Demand ethical alternatives, demand an end to dumb Hollywood movies. Hell... If you get enough people together you can ultimately demand anything, even a new US president.

Just an idea.

Super glue, Thailand and a bigot

2004-11-05T11:42:00.000+09:00

Good news for Gary the Gundam, I have finally glued his arm back together, he's lost a degree of motion but he no longer spontaneously falls apart. I think it was the kindest thing I could do.

In other toy news, I am obsessed with the idea of getting a PSP when they are released in Japan and I have now checked the gamespot webpage around a thousand times and I think that I could be legally declared insane.

Today is the weekend before Thailand, I am so excited and I am looking forward to doing something positive, Habitat for Humanity will be the perfect antithesis to the Corporate English School. I am particularly looking forward to leaving the bubble of English teachers in Japan and to meet real "grown-ups." It will be so good to meet people who are like us but at different stages in their lives and aren't doing this as a religious pilgrimage (the trip that we are on is not a religious one as specified by our group leader) but instead to make a difference and I feel that this can only be a positive thing.

I could really do with some juxtaposition as well. Someone at work decided to talk about race differences with me and he spouted some real classics such as "You never see black swimmers as their bones are too heavy." What on earth?! There is 2% difference between humans and gorilla's, you can't determine race by genetics. So how on earth is bone density different across races. He then went on spout about, Asian's eyes being no good in the dark, before moving into the discussion about skin colour, never once thinking that white skin is the aberration. White skin is so humans don't get chronic vitamin D deficiencies when they live in northern climes. Yet he never found anything negative about his own Caucasian lineage. What an absolute bigot, I can't stand these attitudes they belong in the past unfortunately they aren't there. These ideas form the corner stone or race hate and eugenics. Two things that I am passionately opposed to.

I can't wait to get out of the English teacher bubble, I have just finished reading "Girlfriend in a Coma" by Douglas Coupland and it made me think that people really do live in little bubbles and that when the size of your world is limited by English culture, the space you have to think is absolutely miniscule.

The end of this book, is the apocalypse the survivor's spend all there time in there house's watching movies, truly a fantastical event portrayed through completely mundane and predictable actions. In a way the Characters experiences feel like my life here. I know that Mr. Coupland spent time living in Japan and I wonder if his experiences of the culture bubble were used for the end of the world.

Its all too close to call.

2004-11-03T22:39:00.000+09:00

How upsetting the American Presidential race is looking its going the wrong way i.e. Bush is still president. But its only 4 years and probably it will destroy America's power, influence and money. Another 4 years under the "War President" will leave massive deficits and a draft for the military. I don't want either of these things for America but it might take the Super out of "Super Power" and that might not be such a bad thing.

Halloween is offically over we have taken down the Witch but we are now celebrating Thailand and then it will be my Birthday and then Christamas and then New year, the time will fly because we will be having fun.

2004-10-28T20:25:00.000+09:00

Halloween Decorations!

Techno agony

2004-10-28T19:46:00.000+09:00

The PSP is going to be released in Japan in December, ten days after the Gameboy DS is released.

It's essentially a Movie playing ipod, that plays (almost) Playstation 2 quality games. Its going to cost 19,800 Yen, or roughly £100, of course Sony will double the price for the UK release to £200 probably.

Hopefully, it will be region free.

hmm.... Gameboy DS or PSP.

Downloading is Killing the Music Industry

2004-10-26T23:13:00.000+09:00

Have you heard the travesty of a song that is topping the UK top 40?

I hope you haven't, its offensive. Its a song that has taken a sample of a 1981 song, they shouldn't have bothered, its apparently got to the top spot with the lowest ever single sales.

So P2P music sharing is hammering the final nails into the coffins of the music industry. In this case its their own fault, releasing such crap is tantamount to giving us the hammer and holding the nail whilst we hammer the last one home.

If you don't want your product downloaded, make it memorable, make it remarkable, make it worth the cost of the CD but please don't make it an 80's sampling eurodance piece of Shite.

Kerry loves this song, I love most of her musical tastes but she appears to be deaf to 80's eurodance, She is also tormenting me with "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini. Its the Kids bell at our evil corporate school, ughh I have shudders, just thinking about it.

So instead of ending on this note I'll briefly mention a few tracks on an old MD I found, I am listening to it now and I have just heard the beautiful and moving "This is a low" by Blur and "Lotus" by R.E.M. Both are great songs but best of all I think Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue" is on soon.

The Libertines and Bush

2004-10-25T23:12:00.000+09:00

The Libertines sound a lot like Razorlight, the vocals aren't quite as good, in my opinion.

So the rest of the world has their fingers crossed and are rooting for Kerry to win the election but its horribly close, if you're American and reading this (unlikely, I realise) check out these facts about your current administration and vote for someone who won't leave you a laughing stock in four years time.

Happiness Club

2004-10-22T21:58:00.000+09:00

The name of the Japanese home shopping I have stumbled upon. Currently they are selling something called an ultra gear, people are encased in it from the waist down and everyone seems to be enjoying it, in some cases a little too much.

I offically love Japan again and the closure of three downtown shops, isn't even bothering me, in fact the closure of one is quite nice it means we get a nie new convenience store to replace the extremly skanky Lawsons that has just closed. Even the closure of the DVD rental shop is OK, I might get a chance to buy some very cheap ex-rental DVDs. Hopefully something cool (please let it be HMV) will take the premises and there won't be an empty shop front.

Kerry is going for a french test tomorrow to check her level, I am betting 7B (quite low). I have finished yet another gameboy advance game, it was meant to be difficult, I'm playing it for a second time its very easy and I'll have finished it in under 8 hours, annoying! But I have recently become addicted to Nation States, basically the worlds least involved internet game you read an issue, eg public nudity and then you vote your choice effects population, tax, civil rights etc... Here is my Nation the United Socialist States of Stanislov.

Who is Stanislov? Ah, thats the evil pigeon that has taken control of an entire nation and He's planning something big. He was created by Kerry and myself for no real reason. He's not really a pigeon he is part dove and part pterydatyl and his evilness stemed from never knowing his mother... blub blub.

Kerry wants everyone to know inspte of my boring lessons I am good teacher, well as good as a teacher can be when constrained by a lesson management plan.

I must blog

2004-10-21T22:06:00.000+09:00

But, I can't think of anything to say.

Sorry, I'll post something interesting soon.

Sushi for lunch

2004-10-18T23:14:00.000+09:00

Eating raw fish is no longer a queasy experience, my tastes are changing little by little yesterday I found myself eating partly cooked egg (some of the white was still runny) and not even being phased, in fact I quite enjoyed it. I strongly suspect that I will even find myself eating Azuki, red bean paste, in the future.

But nothing on this planet will get Horse sashimi past my lips, yes that's raw horse meat. Its available in most bars. Raw fish is one thing but raw red meat, not a chance. The change in my sense of taste is at the expense of bread, its role in our life is definitely on the decrease and we only eat and 10 slices each in a week. Although this could be a comment on the quality of Japanese bread its white soft and boring its a little sweet and only good for toast.

The difference in food is something that I always talk about at school and I even treat it like a bit of a party trick, I tell them about the Japanese food I have eaten what I like and what I don't, this game of "What will the foreigner swallow?" brings even the shyest students out of their shell.

But why is everyone so shy? It drives me crazy. If I was paying a small fortune to go to conversation school I would make conversation at every chance. This really was highlighted when one student came to the staff room to give a teacher a forgotten pen. How many words of English did this person speak, surrounded by English speakers (of which none speak Japanese), yes he said ZERO.

I think, I'm sick of work its getting quite boring and repetitive, I am sick of asking questions that I know the answers to, in order to make people talk. The other day I taught a really interesting lesson as I got to ask questions that I was interested in finding out the answers to.

In other Japanese news there is a 23rd typhoon coming on either Tuesday and Wednesday, although according to the rumours flying around it could be Thursday, Friday, Saturday etc... and apparently its going to be quite big, blah, blah, blah. Kerry and I will be getting new neighbours, there is a long, thorny, difficult and annoying story about this it hasn't brought out the best in me. I am getting increasingly excited about Thailand and I talk about it in all my lessons.

What a day off!

2004-10-14T20:27:00.000+09:00

I have to work tomorrow, but last month I got to spend 3 days in Tokyo. Its worth it and the occasional shift swap is OK.

Today Kerry went to see Maki and go shopping in Kobe and I was left to my own devices in Himeji, explaining why I went to the arcade to play the drumming game, I got to drum along to a variety of J-pop songs it was great. I also went to Forus its like the coolest department store you have ever seen and on the top floor there is a huge toy section, its mainly anime figures. I have only a little interest in watching the cartoons but the merchandise is amazing. The Gundam stuff is great and the prices range from a 200 Yen to over 10000 Yen. I bought 2 figures, but they were from the 200 yen part of the scale.

I also went to the extremely expensive Starbucks and paid far too much for a cup of coffee, it definitely wasn't worth it. I also went looking as CD's in Tower Records and listened to some nu-metal, something I haven't done for ages I have realised that its not actually very good. My musical taste has definitely softened.

I didn't really see Kerry that much but when I saw here she had bought me a present! A hoodie, which is just in time as Japan is a chilly 21 Celsius today. I realise that if it gets to 21 in England everyone is walking around in shorts but its been high 20s and over 30 Celsius for months and I have got use to the higher temperature. There is one thing about moving to Canada that fills me with dread is the winter where it can get as cold -30 Celsius! Eak!

I wanna be adored?

2004-10-10T23:12:00.000+09:00

Ah, one of the things that is terribly wrong with Japan is the foreigner adoration, basically people want to be your friend because your different and girls like you because of your skin colour. Its an unhealthy situation.

Unearned adoration is not something I deserve.

This idea was catalysed by something that happened at work, I was invited to a students party, and I was quite flattered although this behaviour could get me sacked or at the very least transferred to a different branch. So I was debating about going but then Kerry asked "Name one man you are going to see?" I couldn't answer.

Then she drove the point home, the reason why I was so interested in the party is to have girls standing around hanging on my every word should that read translating? and giggling.

Ego and its indulgence have a place, but need to be kept in check, unfortunately people here aren't critical enough and are more than willing to pander to the undeserving, of course I include myself in this group.

Another Typhoon....

2004-10-08T15:07:00.000+09:00

There is yet another Typhoon coming to Japan... The rain has started already but the wind should appear tomorrow.

Typhoon season "officially" ended last month, hopefully the typhoons should stop very soon. So we are relaxing and enjoying the rainy day, its nice not to have anywhere to go or anything that needs doing. Today has been dedicated to setting up some wedding things, the blog and the invitation design are definitely in progress. We also ate the fried chicken set at the local restaurant, we are beginning to think its a Yakuza strong hold as several large expensive cars and suited men appeared before disappearing into a secret room.

We are watching a movie and one of the characters is called Guru Dave, quite strange.

I got a Legend of Zelda a link to the Past, its a great game and quite difficult, its a little less addictive than the pokemon game. But is quite difficult and is a genuine challenge.

I heard about the sad episode that was screened on Channel 5, UK TV has reached an all time low, a Z-list celeb "collected" sperm from a pig and apparently she was licking her lips whilst doing it.

I will let you know about the typhoon when it arrives.

The morning after always lasts all day.

2004-10-01T21:45:00.000+09:00

Last night was Kareoke, partying and drinking, I went home somewhere between 4-5 this morning and I have felt a bit under the weather all day. But sometimes you need to stay up all night drinking singing and talking and in fact I actually feel quite happy today. Working in Japan can sometimes be like the best days at university.

Work is currently undergoing a bit of a revolution and I'm not sure how I feel, when I get back there will be a new book to teach from (I haven't seen this book for more than 10mins and I've had 80 mins training with NO practical component). Not only this we now have to teach from lesson management plans which sucks as basically we'll be doing the same thing over and over again. I would be enraged, but its just not worth the effort, 5 hours sleep can generate a lot of apathy.

Kerry and I also have a new hobby, we recently bought a white board and we now write cryptic messgaes on it, pretty good fun. We have added yet more decorations to our room/appartment, its looking like a twenty something pad that you see on television. Well a bit similar, just a lot smaller.

I have succesfully done nothing today.

The weekend is here!

2004-09-30T01:45:00.000+09:00

The weekend is here it promises to be full of drinking, Kareoke and relaxing. It sounds very good to me.

Techno Joy

2004-09-30T01:09:00.000+09:00

This post is so geeky, sorry in advance.....

Sony is releasing the PSP (which will carry the following titles Metal Gear Acid and Wipeout Pure)and Nintendo are releasing the DS. The latter is being advertised in Japan in time for a lucrative December release. This is a very strange movement indeed, as the introduction of the playstation caused video games to lose their geeky status and suddenly the target market went from 12 to 21, quite a sensible move this age bracket is the one with all the disposable income. Does this mean handheld gaming will follow the revolution and become the next big thing?

However there is something interesting that has come out of this, which is that the Nintendo DS has the possibility to offer free phone calls to anywhere in the word. A strange feature for a kids toy in my opinion, its something I think most adults would be interested in.

Will I buy one? Which one will I buy?

I fully suspect that the only person who cares about this topic is me.

Endless Summer

2004-09-25T23:03:00.000+09:00

Too much of anything will send you over the edge and that's even the case with Summer. I have been in Japan for 6 months and I haven't yet worn my winter coat, in fact I've only worn a sweater about three times.

I never thought that I would long for a cold snap, but I am seriously missing my duvet.

In unrelated news my interest in J-pop has been piqued by Easy Breezy, a song about a Japanese girl who has been treated badly by a western man. Its quite good actually, granted it's not my usual thing but when you are surrounded by saccharine sweet pop sometimes you succumb. But even after my small lapse in taste, if I had rid the world of one musical style, it would still be in the list.

I would have to choose between; R'n'B, J-pop or possibly Jazz (hmm nice).

Thinking about it.... I would forgoe my choice in favour of having Jay-z, Usher and Nellie shot out of a cannon deep into outerspace.

Things to do list.

1) Become King of the world.
2) Make Kerry's pickling cottage industry a success.
3) Have Jay-z, Usher and Nellie shot out of cannon deep into outer space.

*******Stop Press********

Fatman scoop has just joined the "to be shot out of a cannon," list.

Never get your cooking advice from your students...

2004-09-25T21:46:00.000+09:00

....especially when they have been learning English for three months.

So Japan is getting colder, its only 26 Celsius today, so people are all talking about the winter things that they like to do and eat. One these is sukiyaki, which was explained as soy sauce, sugar, vegetables and meat cooked together in a pan, sounds easy eh?

Well this is the recipe for sukiyaki.

Needless to say the meal I cooked didn't resemble this at all.

I finally bought some new clothes, I went to the GAP which is incompatible with my ethical purchasing drive, but my trousers were beginning to get comical. So I bought some khakis and my old trousers were shipped to clown school were they belong. The great news about living in Japan is that I have lost a whole bunch of weight, I attribute that to the lack of bread, and the 30 gallons of green tea I drink a week. Although its more likely the absence of hash brown and bean cobs that I was eating daily, whilst I worked at Siemens.

Kerry has (yet) another new hobby, pickling, the pickling mix smelt great but the results two days in are looking a little strange. Kerry's desire to start a small company called pickle me this may be suffering a small set back. Although there are no shortage of staff, I have been informed I am a volunteer (Hello, Pickle me this, Stuart speaking) although Kerry's new friend, Katch, is also keen!

Ethical Shoes?

2004-09-21T20:59:00.000+09:00

So the time is coming to replace my increasingly battered Nike airs and I am begining to realise that I should put my money where my mouth is and start supporting ethical and sustainable practices and Nike doesn't cut it, they have child labour in their factories. I really stumbled into this topic by searching for "Ethical Footwear" on the web and it produced the hit for Blackspot trainers, which aren't what I was interested in but certainly caused me to look around and thats why I'm going to be buying New Balance check out the code of conduct.

If you are interested in this you should check out ad-busters. This is a magazine, which often looks like an amazing art project. Its website contains a lot of interesting facts about companies such as McDonald's and Monsanto. Its sensational, but interesting and we all knew these companies don't have our best interests at heart. Of course no-one should live by one opinion alone especially when its posted on the web, but hopefully sites like this help maintain a critical mind, and therefore it has a place in my internet favourites.

The site contains Ad-busters' banned TV ads. These are 5 short sharp shocks about the culture we live in today, my favourite could be the one about beauty. Which leads to their section of common ads that are reinterpreted, they often focus on cigarette and fast food, which relates to one of Kerry's magazine habits, the devoutly feminist magazine Ms. Which rather than criticise magazine adverts it merely publishes them under a no-comment header which encourages you to see whats wrong for yourself.

Critical thought is a tool that is so easily brushed aside whilst ads and media stream at us in our magazines, TV and our internet. So living in a country where media is so inaccessible gives you a little more distance. Although more likely living in one of the most capitalist countries in the world gives you a little more chance to rebel.

2004-09-18T23:12:00.000+09:00

Tokyo is truly a megalopolis

2004-09-18T22:41:00.000+09:00

Senso-Ji
A place where people come to breath and bathe in the healing smoke. I'm not sure how many people really believe and how many are hedging there bets. It has a beautiful and calming atmosphere.

2004-09-18T22:04:00.000+09:00

Possibly the worlds most delicous and expensive cream tea ever.

Cream tea in Tokyo

2004-09-18T21:55:00.000+09:00

I am back in Himeji after spending a great three days in Tokyo.

We saw a lot of sights and got to see some of the "Lost in Translation" parts of Tokyo. We visited the exclusive Park Hyatt where Lost in Translation was shot, we didn't stay there overnight, its not quite at the budget end of the accommodation that we normally prefer. Well in fact it nowhere near budget end, especially when you consider it cost 3000yen for cream tea. This cream tea will be one of the highlights of my time in Japan, we were sat in the lap of luxury on the 41st floor, it makes you realise how big Tokyo is. When you look out of the window and realise that Tokyo is a city that stretches for as far as you can see in every direction.

So one of the highlights of Tokyo, for me was Shinbuya, which is featured in every movie where they show Tokyo, its the large street where the are intersecting cross walks. Like all places in Japan it has enough interesting and entertaining ways to separate you from your hard earned Yen. There were some very cool shops and I think, if you couldn't buy it in Tokyo, you can't buy it anywhere in the world.

We saw some very unusual fashions, to me some of these people look like they were dressed by Disney, but they were interesting and it made me wonder how they fit in with ultra-conservative Japan. This kind of tour of Tokyo would never have been possible without Kerry's friend, Tokyo's subway and train system is truly bewildering, but so efficient if you want to travel in Tokyo the only way is by train anything else would just be too crazy.

It was quite surprising I thought that Tokyo would be depressing everyone said it would be dirty and terrible, this wasn't true we found it to be clean friendly and it even had some trees! The people spoke a lot of English and were keen to try it out, it definitely wasn't dirty and depressing.

Tokyo is also home to 2 Disneylands, and although the question I was asked the most today was "Did you visit Disneyland?" I would say the most amazing part of Tokyo is the city itself or possibly the cream tea.

I loved Tokyo its definitely one of the best places I have ever visited!

Back from Tokyo

2004-09-17T23:10:00.000+09:00

I had a great time this weekend, I am too tired to post properly. So tomorrow there will be photos some are almost "Lost in Translation."

Tokyo

2004-09-14T08:42:00.000+09:00

Today I have to go to work (yawn)

Tomorrow I have to go to Tokyo (Hooray)

2004-09-09T18:24:00.000+09:00

The worlds smallest Kitchen, Neh?

Addictions...

2004-09-09T17:59:00.000+09:00

We are addicted to green tea! This is possibly the most healthy addiction in the world.

Don't tell Kerry but the meal I am cooking tonight is quite experimental, I think I read about it on the net but I'm not sure.

Better get back to the stove....

The other side of the typhoon...

2004-09-07T19:03:00.000+09:00

I am home after working all day in the English school. I had to teach during the hurricane and I had no free lessons.

But there was some Justice....

The trains stopped running and a lot of these people who got the day off work and decided to spend it at English school rather than with their friends and family got stranded so.....

In the style of the Simpsons....

HA HA

Rock and Roll

2004-09-07T09:00:00.000+09:00

Well Rock is certainly the word I would use, in the last ten days our tiny appartment has been shook by a typhoon and two earthquakes.

We are expected to have 5 days of aftershocks

Also there is the most powerful typhoon (read hurricane) since 1973 is due to pass by our city in the next few hours, it is stronger than last weeks typhoon which knocked out the power in most of Japan.

Well on the upside, at least we don't live near a volcano, but I am getting very uneasy about all of this.

I will blog tonight

See you later!

Expendable?

2004-08-31T20:00:00.000+09:00

Last night, there was a typhoon that hit Himeji, it caused most companies to close four or five hours early, and these are Japanese companies, so there is a reasonable chance the end of the world was coming. However our company stayed open...

They were kind enough to send us home as soon as we had finished our lessons, except by that point the trains had stopped running due to a tidal wave so teachers were left stuck away from there homes. It took Kerry over three hours to get home and it several points the taxi she was in had to swerve to avoid debris that was flying all over the road.

So this got me thinking would a UK company do this? Immediately I thought no way, they wouldn't dare. Hang on, lets look back to my last corporate experience.

In my last job people were expected to walk for 5 minutes in the dark to the bus stop (there were several muggings) and by the time I left, several months later, nothing had changed, well except unaccompanied women got an escort if they waited for the 65 year old security guard.

Why did I think "they wouldn't dare?" that's definitely not right. Of course a large multinational company will risk sending you into mortal danger into a typhoon, if they can get away with it, and in Japan they can.

I've suspected for a while that my future doesn't lie entwined with any company unless it really is making an effort and valuing its employees, but how many jobs really exist like this? Also the dumbing down of careers is showing that a person is just another replaceable part of the machine, in my last job I seriously expected that if management had to chose between the IT and the people it would need several meetings to decide.

Why should we be an expendable part of a company?

Are you expendable to those people who love you?

I for one am sick of being a cog and I definitely want out of the 21st century ethic-lite machine.

2004-08-29T21:54:00.000+09:00

He takes requests and managed to play Holst's Jupiter on a three string snake skin Okinawan guitar.

A small snack

2004-08-29T21:30:00.000+09:00

After living in Japan the word snack will never mean the same again, to me it now means a hostess bar, i.e. a place where salary men go to drink and for the company of women (of course at a price) this isn't normally prostitution.......well sometimes it is.

So us gaijin normally avoid these places, especially when you realise the prices aren't fixed and are variable on the bar/night/owners mood so it can be pretty expensive. Also you have to remember that they are normally sat in the "entertainment district" read as Yakuza-controlled red light districts.

So last night we went to a snack, however I don't think we were in danger our extemely nervy landlady took us there as she knew the bar owner. So the night started strangely and continued to get weirder. First we went to a Okinawa themed restaurant, except this place was so small it had space for about six people and seemed to be run by a nice okinawan man (Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972 and now seems to be the place people here go for boozey beach holidays). The food was great and the tofu was actually quite good, the salt pork was extremely salty and the total salt content of the meal must have been near lethal, possibly to promote the Okinawan beer we drank, which was great and needed no shameless scamming.

The meal reached a natural conclusion and our landlady suggested we moved to stage two of the evening, Karaoke in Eri-chan's snack. Eri was a middle aged Japanese lady who was wearing a red ballgown and escorting a man (who didn't seem to be her American boyfriend). She came over to the table and brought the best sake I have drank to the table. Although after a couple of drinks it was all gone and Eri was looking a little worse for wear, a hostess drinks on the job.

So the night was very strange and the snack seemed to live up to its name as we were served a tray of "snacks" some of which I noticed where from the "topvalue" line of our local supermarket, nice. So the next weird thing that happened was a young(ish) Japanese man appeared and suddenly sat with our landlady, I have no idea why this was passed off with no comment or explanation, I think this is weird in any culture. Was he a birthday present from Eri? Either way I doubt the answer will ever be revealed and he soon scooted back from where he came.

So the night was drawing a close the gaijin comfort threshold was being tested. Especially by the man sat at the bar attempting to out kareoke Kerry. Who got offered a job as a hostess, for her Kareoke talents. Eri wasn't content with getting pissed as an egg, offering people jobs as hostesses then proceeded to ask a whole bunch of unusual questions my favourite being the one about me and Kerry having separate rooms in our one bedroom apartment. I have been told that living together in Japan is taboo but such rules don't usually apply to foreigners.

The night definitely left me with more questions about my landlady's life and a serious puzzlement about snackbars, which I will continue to avoid.

2004-08-27T20:08:00.000+09:00

Kerry and Doreamon

The problem with the new Q and Natto

2004-08-27T11:59:00.000+09:00

The new Q looks like Heat and is recomending songs to download rather than albums to buy.

Kerry is eating Natto again.

Natto is fermented soybeans that smell like rotten beans and look like spider webs due to the mould. Eugh.

Today, I am making my own lunch.

DIY rice balls, Free MP3's and a surprising cover

2004-08-26T20:37:00.000+09:00

So tonight we tried to make onigiri (stuffed rice balls) we didn't do as well as the ones that you can buy in the shops or get made. They were still good and although ours were messy I am full of rice and tuna.

I have just got last month's issue of Q which could be entitled Every song you forgot to download and could be Q's effort to bankrupt the music industry. Best of all, it includes lists of resources from where you can download music, the most surprising was Amazon.com, this is a website which doesn't need to be linked to. So I got an Aimee Mann song which is great as I am definitely not interested in getting the album. But it did remind to seriously consider buying the Buzzcocks single collection and I am currently listening to "ever fallen in love" by the Buzzcocks definitely one of my favourite songs.

As we are talking about music, I can't resist talking about BBC Radio 6 Music, well I think that what they call themselves, but its pretty great and it has a lot of good music and no annoying pop. I especially like the Craig Charles Show as they play a lot of great old funky music. So currently music is of increasing importance in my life. I miss my CDs, I am missing so many good albums, I definitely miss The Chemical Brothers stuff as its music that is so good for traveling, its upbeat and involving, but not as consuming as rock music. These albums let journeys drift by. My musical tastes are extremely faddy, so recently I am getting interested in Tricky again and I was extremely surprised when I discovered the song "Black Steel" is in fact a cover. I prefer the Tricky version. It does show that politically charged music can be great, I especially love Rage against the Machine who are sadly no more, but I am interested in what the former front man of the band is doing now, if anyone knows, as I can't find anything on the net about him.

Its just gone 9 and soon we are meant to be heading to a party, but I have no energy or money. Kerry spent the last of my money on her desk, its times like these, that I have to remember she is a writer and needs the proper tools. In the future she will support me in the manner that I have become accustomed to living in i.e. waiting three hours for Kerry to make her Summer minidisc, before I can use the computer. This last paragraph sounds nastier than intended, we share everything now and its making life better. I feel happier about our shared money system it removes the bickering that we used to have.

The destruction of Tokyo

2004-08-26T00:53:00.000+09:00

The pokemon game is finished, which is sad as I really enjoyed it. Kerry however is thrilled as it means I have returned to the world of normal people and have picked up books again.

I have finished a book and the end was the destruction of Tokyo, weird eh?

Free of pokemon addiction

2004-08-24T23:31:00.000+09:00

Beat the pokemon game, I am just left with the task of collecting them all, which ain't going to happen.

At last I have my normal life back!

The end is nigh....

2004-08-22T21:15:00.000+09:00

Well for the pokemon game at least, which is a relief for Kerry who has been fearing for my mental health for several days. Life is still good, I am suffering for stage 2 of culture shock which consists of being grumpy and then getting over it. It sounds dramatic but being alien recently has been a little irritating. Also the near endless summer is begining to wear people down, people are getting sick due to the heat and humidity.

Currently I am reading, Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami which is a little strange but very enjoyable, I am really enjoying the kind of weird futuristc Japanese environment, its also one of the best translated books I have read, although I haven't read that many!

So my culture shock is also affecting my ability to write, well, except for a lot of bad words and names I would add to my death list, if I had one.

Typhoon Season

2004-08-17T21:37:00.000+09:00

In class I am always told Japan has four seasons.

Yeah right, I have been here six months and I have had

Spring (Hot)
Rainy season (Hot and Humid)
Summer (Very Hot and Humid)

and now I am about to enter

Typhoon season (Very Hot and very wet)

Apparently Typhoon season stops in November and then becomes Autumn and then Winter.

4 Seasons eh?

2004-08-13T22:47:00.000+09:00

This is the Summer Sonic main stage. We saw Avril here!

2004-08-13T22:43:00.000+09:00

The new toy shelf!

Three days-off later....

2004-08-13T11:09:00.000+09:00

It pains me to admit this, but I am not bothered about going back to work tomorrow if anything I am a little excited as there are new people and I haven't really spoken to them. But more than that, I have learned that for me a sense a purpose is fundamentally important to my well being. I need to be doing something or I get anxious and grumpy, I am a six year old! This is why a beach holiday would be the worst thing in the world for me and its now why I am excited for the habitat for humanity trip. So my mental state is similar of that to a small child's.

I have been a little bored today and I have finally broken (not in the Optimus Prime on Christmas day sense, I need therapy for that tragedy) the pokemon game and I think I am freed from the addiction, I don't want to disclose the number of hours I have spent on the game, its a little upsetting, but its not unexpected, as I behave the same way with any new game, but it should be finished within the week.

This website made Kerry laugh (for about 2 hours), until she cried, you need sound for the full experience so you should check it out. It won't amuse anyone sane for more than about two minutes.

I bought the Razorlight CD which wasn't copy protected, which was nice, its the best CD I have bought in ages, you should go and buy it and support the band. I also ate the curry udon as recommended by one of my students and it was completely great and my eyes have been opened to another lunch time option. As for finding a pool in my neighbourhood its proving to be a little more difficult than I thought, I am some what hampered by my complete inability to read Japanese. I feel quite good and I have had a value for money weekend.

Summer Sonic and Undisclosed evil...

2004-08-10T21:09:00.000+09:00

Hmmmm Work is a funny old place one day everyone is getting along nicely and then all of a sudden someone gets offended! It wasn't my fault, but this guy is making mine and Kerry's work life as chilly as my air conditioned flat. I finally have a weekend although everyone in the world seems to conspire against me getting it, I have been asked to work for GLOVA (like my job, but with more work) and a person asked me for a shift swap and a felt terrible turning them down for it. As this is the usual way we arrange time off.

I went to Summer sonic and what I saw was great but the way the line up was arranged it was impossible for Kerry and I to see all the bands we wanted and the Darkness cancelled (bastards) but to be fair Razorlight were amazing and I would have missed them if the Darkness were there so I have three days off and the plans are to relax as much as possible which I feel like I need and to possibly find a public swimming pool so I can exercise.

The Pokemon game which is aimed at small children is proving to be impossibly difficult I am really struggling, even to the point of checking on the internet, but the stages I am up to just have minimum advice and it says this should be no problem! AAArrggh I am turning into a grown up I can no longer play video games.

Tomorrow I will buy the Razorlight Cd, try and go swimming, maybe eat Curry udon noodles and try to sleep in. I will also try to get past this Damn Pokemon level....

My first day off in seven days and a hangover.

2004-08-06T12:45:00.000+09:00

I have been working a long week and its over.

Last night was a bit of a celebration (for no real reason) two of our friend have moved into our appartment building so there was drinking and kareoke. I got home at 10 and then cycled erratically back there erratically at around 4 this morning via Max Value a 24 hour supermarket. The police where throwing drunk people out of it and we had to be on our best drink gaijin behaviour. We weren't doing anything wrong but try explaining that whilst drunk in Japanese so we kept our heads down (relatively) .

Kareoke is great you have to love a place where there is all you can drink booze 24 hours a day.

Recently my PC became victim of a computer virus, it prompted me to look at the alternatives to Internet Explorer, there aren't really any. There is something called Firefox, which is meant to be pretty good, but is a bit erratic with blogger and stuff. I hate people who write viruses.

So this morning I feel a little lethargic explaining why I am sat on the ground and have spent an hour playing Grow possibly one of the most surreal and slightly relaxing games on the internet and worth checking out if you are bored.

2004-08-04T00:16:00.000+09:00

Kerry at Himeji castle.

Like Buses...

2004-08-03T22:56:00.000+09:00

... you wait ages for one and then two come along at once.

So I am quite far through my 7 days at work its quite painless and I have no reason to complain people at work occasionally work 20 days+ when trying to build their days off for holidays.

So the thorny issue of wedding organisation has reared its head again, as you know I have been having materialism issues recently and these have been highlighted by wedding presents. At the moment the plan is to live in Japan and then marry in England and move to Canada, although the final location is not settled and it gets kind of difficult to carry presents, especially when your life has a weight limit of around 35kgs when you have already given up 5kg for a laptop (or in Kerry's case 7Kg for CD's!).

Taking a toaster halfway across the world seems a lot of hassle. So what to do?

Sweet Charity, We are leaning toward getting donations sent to charity possibly Habitat for Humanity, of course this will depend on our habitat trip. Which once again I am excited for and it means that I will spend my Birthday in Thailand, which will be very different. Also according to the unofficial birthday rules in our relationship, I can claim a Japanese Birthday as well! Its like being the Queen except with no Corgis or hats.

This isn't a final decision, you wouldn't believe the power John Lewis has over Kerry!

My current battle with materialism has taken a huge blow, as I have ordered a pokemon game from the internet, cue the next three weeks of me trying to "catch 'em all." Even worse I wandered into Paul Smith, lured by a red t-shirt which I picked up and then realised it cost 8400 yen (ouch) and then rather than scarpering, I stood there and mused "is £40 too much for a t-shirt?" Then I came to my senses and left the shop, well until Friday at least when I may have to walk past the shop again....

I have managed to go two days without calling Kerry fat.

The End

Have I finally made the MD of my dreams?

2004-08-03T22:08:00.001+09:00

Well if not its pretty close I have everything from N.E.R.D. to PJ Harvey and everything in between including Canadian folk!

Here is the playlist in all its Gory detail....

Dumpweed - Blink 182
This is Love - PJ Harvey
Flip Flop Rock - Outkast
Scorpio Rising - Death in Vegas
Eye for an Eye - Unkle
Try Again - Aaliyah
Li'l Suzy - Nerd (feat Kelis)
Every You Every me - Placebo
London Callling - The Clash
Sunrise - Norah Jones
Alleluia - Dar Williams
Evolution Revolution Love - Tricky
Summer in the City - The Loving Spoonful
As Cool as I am - Dar Williams
Bobcaygeon - The Tragically Hip
Dracula's Wedding - Outkast (feat Kelis)
More than a Woman - Aaliyah
Big Exit - PJ Harvey
Tribute - Tenacious D
Morning Glory - Oasis
Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
Get me Off - Basement Jaxx
Jumbo - Underworld
Jus 1 Kiss - Basement Jaxx
Could be well In - The Streets
Reset - Outkast (Feat Cee-lo)
She's my Baby - Faithless

Hmm.... prehaps it need some Pixies, so its nearly perfect, prehaps the best MD ever part 2 will solve these problems!

The Customer is like a God

2004-07-29T22:57:00.000+09:00

This is the Japanese version of the customer is always right, they have completely taken this to the next level and this truly is a country for the consumer. The shops are designed to separate you from your money and they certainly do just that, If you want something its probably here.

This is consumerism and its not the most positive force in the world its about making the most money and accumulating the most stuff. Its probably the human characteristic that will destroy the world. Dramatic? More than likely.

But strangely, I think about this topic, and attempt to write about it, sat in my house at a laptop which is more than I need. I have a TV, a mobile phone, access to the Net, DVDs, CDs and numerous other things. So for me to sit here and claim I hate consumerism is a bit like calling the kettle black. What makes me want everything I don't need, from the biological perspective what increases my ability to survive by having a MD player? A small part of me feels that you can't analyse everything in terms of biology, but a large part of me knows that small part is wrong.

This post has been in my head for weeks and is being nightmare to produce and I'm still not happy and this relates to what I felt when the retail bug had me in Kobe.

What's the alternative to Consumerism? Communism? That wouldn't work even in a perfect world. We all know that not all the animals are equal. This is work in progress, so in the coming weeks you will see another attempt at this topic, hopefully I can make my ideas clearer next time.

Copy protection, a tiny apartment, a new Gundam, delicious England and.....

2004-07-25T20:11:00.000+09:00

What's the deal with Copy protection on CD's? Its so annoying, I won't be able to play them or copy them to MD to listen to. The music industry has gone too far (again). Its the same old arms race that goes on everywhere a company spends a whole bunch of cash protecting their rights and CDs what happens is a lot of people get upset and a lot of people take up the challenge and break the copyright just to say they did and the music industry goes back to square one and just has to spend more cash. This is what has happened since the beginning of time, its an "arms race" it drives evolution. A plant gets poisonous an animal overcomes it and then the plant gets even more poisonous and so on.... So that's all that will happen this wave of CDs will be overcome and then a new wave will be introduced etc, etc....

What a boring topic but everything in Japan seems to be going that way and I can imagine England is the same at the mo.

So I finally moved house and I now live in the smallest space ever but its extremely well organised there is space (just) for two peoples possessions, which is cool the house is full and pretty funky and exciting. the sleeping loft would be great if the temp was a little cooler its been over 30 degrees for a while now and everything is looking pretty baked, and the loft is sauna esque (take note British rail the trains are still running on time). The Kitchen is a corridor with one burner (no grill and no oven) and the bathroom is only just bigger than those you find on jumbo jets, yet I love this place its kind of cool and feels like our home. ****Stop Press***** We just had our first house party/warming and it was the funnest 3 hours and Kerry sang "Why are the Kinder so Evil" I laughed until I cried.

Blatant consumerism still has me in its grasp and for no real reason I bought a new toy, its a small gundam. Kerry is deeply puzzled to why I have this robot obsession, although she was willing to play gundam with me although rather than saving the universe we renamed them Beryl and Tango and it almost ended up as a tea party, you have to love someone who is willing to indulge your craziest behaviour. So now I have two ornaments and we definitely need something more to balance out the Blythe and Boys stuff. Hmm if only we had more vinyl animals....

Also today a student lent me a book called "England is Delicious" I have read 40 pages and it just slags off English cooking so far, apparently our food has no taste, no texture and is too salty, I disagree and everytime I talk about cooking Shepherds pie everyone in class drools and everyone who goes to England loves roast dinner. Its not like Japanese food is the most exciting I mean they don't even cook their fish. However it doesn't make it less tasty, I now love octopus sushi (octopus is cooked though as when its raw it can make you very sick.

So most of the things that I write on my blog are irrelevant and just to get a laugh, but this is a little more serious, on June 18th 2005 at 11:15 I am getting married to Kerry, hey who else would put up with Gundam, bubbles, vinyl animals, tiny flats, moving around the world and hundreds of habits that verge on socially unacceptable.

So this is for Kerry, my best friend, future wife (not Fiancee), muse and of course my (Suntory) life partner.

Is Fonzie Cool?

2004-07-21T23:12:00.000+09:00

Just surfing the net and I found this...

The reasons why the Fonz is cool....

1. He could turn a jukebox on by hitting it. That is awesome!
2. He wore leather jackets. Everyone knows that people who wear leather jackets are cool.
3. He jumped over a shark. While that kind of sucked in the context in the show, really stop to think about it. THE MAN JUMPED OVER A SHARK! That is some kind of cool.
4. He appeared in a Weezer video looking like he has not aged a day in 20 years.
5. He said "eeeeeehhhhhhh".

So the reasons why he isn't cool.

1. Turning the jukebox on without paying is theft and ultimately this is why Al went out of business and ultimately became the worlds oldest rent boy.
2. The leather jacket helped him pick up chicks, although they were different each week and ultimately the Fonz probably picked up VD and probably had burning piss and went insane through Syphilis.
3. Jumping over a shark, JUMPING over ONE shark, loser. A real man would swim through a tank of them.
4. Weezer marketed that video with Windows 95, showing Fonzie as a pathetic corporate whore, getting the money he needs together for his next does of Syphilis medicine.
5. eeeeeeehhhhhh, the sound poor retarded child makes.

So is the Fonz cool, please leave a comment!

And Until next time, Be cool.

From a Mansion to a Palace

2004-07-21T21:45:00.000+09:00

Japan is a crazy place apartments have become mansions and bedsits have become palaces, trust me its undeserving of a capital letter. We are moving to a palace (read loft apartment) However it takes us out of a place where our employer owns.

Today I have spent cleaning the "mansion" and now I am feeling it I am half asleep and its not even finished nor is our packing. For everyone who knows Kerry I realise that this doesn't come as a surprise, best of all we have to be out by noon and we are having an inspection at 3:00 to check we have gone, hence the insane cleaning, the corporation has been giving out hefty cleaning bills to everyone who has left their control.

So the weekend officially starts tomorrow after we have moved house for which, despite my initially negative comments I am excited to move even though its smaller it will be better, we don't use the space we have Kerry and I spend all our time in a 6 foot radius of each other all the time.

I will post some photos of our Leo Palace tomorrow but if anyone can't wait there is a link to the English Leo Palace website you want to look at Con granzia the tiny one with a sleeping loft.

I will have broardband! Hooray!

I will blog again tomorrow.

Am I suffering from dumbing down?

2004-07-19T09:08:00.000+09:00

Recently my taste in media has completely changed I am enjoying trashy Hollywood movies and throw away books rather than much more than serious media. Recently I watched Prozac Nation, possibly not available in the UK due to Wurtzel's inappropriate 9/11 comments.

Christina Ricci plays Elizabeth Wurtzel and She acts up a storm, there is even a Jason Biggs playing yet another teenager except this time there were no pies in sight. The plot follows the book which I thought was ok, the movie is better. Although the entire time Kerry and I had our fingers crossed that the lead character would do herself in. Probably not what the director intended. But then last night I watched Charles Angels: Full throttle and I thought it was ace it was so much fun and just so entertaining all through the film I was cheering on the good guys and just really enjoying myself.

So am I shallow? I am a bit worried that my movie choices recently are restricted to "Blockbusters" and if it doesn't feature at least one exploding helicopter it doesn't seem to make it onto my rental list. As for my book choices recently they have been appalling, the high point in the last few weeks has been Jurassic Park. So its safe to say that I am eating an all pop-corn media diet, and I think I know why....

When you go on holiday you don't take media that taxes your brain, you take an "electrifying thriller." But not just that I have a hugely restricted range of films and books at my finger tips. In Japan you are lucky to find a book shop with one shelf of English books and they are really geared to people with English as a second language. They have toeic scores stuck on the front the higher the better, we could read a book with a score of about 900 and we would probably have to look up some words in the dictionary. Lord of the Rings is 840. there are novalisations of movies (which I haven't looked at) So its not really for the native speaker, but why would it be? But then there is Amazon of course but as my Japanese bank account is basic I really have no easy way of buying stuff online.

So that's books explained, why has my taste in movies taken a dive, I suspect that my taste in movies has always been terrible, I enjoyed Waterworld I have seen it three times (once intentionally twice by accident) . I have terrible blind spot for cartoons and Jurassic park which I love. So what's my excuse? Well the rental video shop has only blockbusters there are arty movies but not that many movies . Also movies are realeased slowly Finding Nemo was released here a few weeks ago, The Return of the King still isn't out, so it takes time to translate in to Japanese. Also not every movie makes it, only the ones that stand a chance of making a huge profit get to the cinema.

I am surrounded by Hollywood, I miss The Broadway in Nottingham, were you can see a great film everyday and its not troubled by the "exploding helicopter" style movie. Hmm... What are the chances of Fahrenheit 9/11 reaching Japan?

But the upside of living in Japan is that for all the good movies that I am not watching, I'm certainly watching no TV and I can safely say this is my second summer that has been Big Brother free. That's the silver lining I was looking for.

Retail Therapy

2004-07-16T21:17:00.000+09:00

Sorrry About the lack of posts I have worked an extra day.

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit tired and out of sorts so we went to Kobe for a look around Kerry went to GAP (again!) . But this time I was tired and grumpy and went and ate a ham and egg bagel instead of shopping. We were paid yesterday so the retail bug had us in its grip.

But it drove me crazy, at the moment in live in a very temporary place and buying stuff is a waste, of time and money, but to get paid and then not buy anything is to upsetting. So we went to Kobe and yet again I didn't buy anything and just walked around until my feet were ready to explode. Then we came back to Himeji and I bought a rice cooker, its like cooking rice in a pan but so much slower

The weather here has been hot for weeks and one of my co-workers told me that it wouldn't be cool until September, Ugh. I have no energy and just want to lie down and do nothing, I hate the heat it is like walking around with a duvet strapped on. Its been over 30 celsius, for weeks.

This post is rubbish! I will be funny and entertaining in September.

Drunk Gaijin and Earthquakes.

2004-07-12T22:00:00.000+09:00

I have just felt my first Earthquake it was very strange it was little and felt like a truck was driving outside the front of the house, but not many trucks rattle a 10 story building. Its crazy that this is under our feet all the time and is something that is quite dangerous.

Last night we went to an all you can drink beer garden which had BBQ. Which came with all you can eat meat, this is why I had the strangest dreams ever last night. It was great though, but only in Japan do they let you have unlimited alcohol and expect you to serve yourself and there not be a riot. Can you imagine what would happen if they opened something like this in England? Especially considering the price which was about £15.

So last night 30-40 foreigners headed to one of these places and it was quite good fun I am convinced that I ate something raw as I had drunk several beers. Also Japanese alcohol is roughly the same quality as rat poison, and the hangovers that you get the next day are quite horrible. Please feel free to try it for yourself get hammered on "Asahi Super Dry" and you will feel like death merely 8 hours later, however in Japan if you don't stretch to the "premium beers" you can get Asahi RED which isn't classified as beer (officialy its some sort of beer flavoured alcoholic cocktail) but it actually gives you a hangover as you drink it, hmmmmm smooth.

So I sat there like a cabbage for yet another training session and I am scared that one day I will have to use this "experience" that I got through my hangover. I was such a mess that I actually got the easy mock test wrong.

I really have to get some sleep.

2004-07-09T23:18:00.000+09:00

Miyajima's famous Torri

Hiroshima and Miyajima

2004-07-09T22:48:00.000+09:00

This weekend was filled with travel and adventure. It was my first time on the Shinkansen which travels at about 155mph and is so comfortable it puts British rail to shame. It is the first time I can say that I was sad to get off a train. It could be the greatest way to travel

Hiroshima is a large Japanese city which as you all know was destroyed by the Allied forces on August 6th 1945 using a new weapon, 140,000 people died and the city has a fitting number of memorials. The museum really brought home the horror that happened. Its very very sad and for me the most tragic thing is that the Mayor of Hiroshima sends a telegram to the consulate of any country that tests a nuclear weapon. The letters are plastered on the wall and its harrowing. It was so sad, I nearly cried at several points and felt sick for 90% of the tour there are real images of people who died due to the effects of the bomb and it makes war very real. I think the world would be a better place if everyone went there.

If you see this museum there is no way you can support nuclear weapons and sleep at night. There has to be a better way of solving the worlds differences than with blood.

Hiroshima has been rebuilt and its beautiful in a typically Japanese way, however we spent most of our days in Miyajima an island of the coast. It's Temple is famous it has a red gate that stands out of the water, these gates are called Torri, its quite big and is beautiful. The photo above is one of my favourites already, 2 mins after this photo the heavens opened and we got our first Japanese thunder storm. Which lasted until we left the island and managed to stop us both from going swimming. So we went the next day and saw the Torri again and went swimming also we needed to be cheered up after the museum.

Also on this trip we stayed in a business hotel so no danger of a Disney themed room! Also our hotel room was upgraded for some unknown reason and was quite comfortable apparently it was a lot bigger than the one we should have had. It was still the size of a shoe box, although a very luxurious one.

We also got to go out in Hiroshima with my friend from Siemens Deadly Ed Lee it was a good night especially spending some time in a Gaijin haunt most people had English as there first language and the bar staff spoke English as well. It had cheap international beer and I got to drink a couple of Corona and lime and I felt very homesick for Nottingham, I drank this drink everal times in bars on the Nottingham canal front.

I had such a good weekend but I feel thoroughly knackered and I have a horrible rash from swimming in the Japanese sea and I'm fat as a house as I ate the Hiroshima specialty Oknomiyaki.

However, I wouldn't have done any of this without Kerry who I love dearly and is a great inspiration for me to do things that broaden my world perspective and probably become a bit more interesting. As you have probably guessed from my blog so far, She is a bit crazy but in all he ways that make her perfect for me.

The future....

2004-07-06T22:59:00.000+09:00

The weekend is approaching and I am going to Hiroshima, I am quite excited and I can't wait to get out of Himeji. The coming month is filled with shift swaps and I will be working quite irregular weekends.

Still its not all bad, We finally finish paying back the Nova loan this month and get into our own accommodation at long last. Although we are giving up a lot of space the freedom we are getting in place of it is worth it.

I will post something interesting after Hiroshima.

The Cooking Audition

2004-07-02T17:21:00.000+09:00

I haven't mentioned this that neither Kerry or Myself can cook. We can both make a stir fry but thats as good as it gets and we both struggle to make anything new for the first time.

Yet somehow Kerry got herself involved with the Canadian cooking team for the Himeji international festival and today had to do her cooking interview. She had to prepare pancakes, Noth American style not the English crepe/pancake.

She got very nervous and wanted me to go to boost her confidence. I was sceptical and thought she didn't need my support after all there would be only one Japanese lady and Kerry and I would be a gooseberry.

How wrong can you be.

There were 12 Japanese women and Kerry. It was a bit uncomfertable especially when Kerry produced pancake mix. Which was greeted by big smiles and people saying to each other Mix? Why Mix? I thought that the Japanese people were meant to be extremly non-confrontational? This isn't the case, people got quite uppity when Kerry produced Honey coloured maple syrup (bought from the local supermarket). People refused to beleive that it was maple syrup and the room was filled with comments.

However it gets worse...

After the cooking (Kerry only burnt one pancake) we had to sit down with the Japanese ladies and drink tea. There questions were asked in a hydrid of Japanese and English and definately kept us guessing. At one point they asked us were we lived and we both answered the third floor of the Lions Mansions in Kyo Guchi. They then asked how many other teachers live there and began to speculate on the nature of our relationship. Living together in Japan is still taboo. There was drinking of tea and then a few stares at Kerry's tattoo (she was wearing short trousers and it was on display.

I was worried that we wouldn't escape without a lynching.

But in a moment of genius (or more likely dumb luck) Kerry produced a bag of Canadian flags and the mood lightened as everyone in the room received one.

We were then allowed to go probably leaving a large variety of questions and doubts to be voiced in the room.

The air conditioning is on so its time to blog.

2004-06-30T21:45:00.000+09:00

Its the weekend and its two days where I get to relax and chill out we are not planning to go anywhere, which will make a nice change. We will just laze around sleep too much and bitch about people from work.

Foreigners in Japan avoid eye contact with each other. We never say hello to one another in the street. This puzzled me, but also the strange feeling that you get when you see another Gaijin has been a source of puzzlement for me. Why do we turn away?

Then Kerry said something that made complete sense and explained it for me at least. When we see another foreigner or a tourist it is a reflection of ourselves and that is why we turn away we see how stupid we look in comparison to the standard that is all around.

When we see another Foreigner, we see our own stupid mistakes reflected back at ourselves thats why we turn away.

In Japan we do things differently

2004-06-28T22:44:00.000+09:00

How do you make the perfect mix tape?

If anyone knows the secret please give me a hint, every MD I make has some serious flaws.

I didn't go to the football last night. Instead I went out for a kebab and then I went to kareoke. Yes I know its in the wrong order. Kareoke was hilarious again. We got quite drunk and sang for 2 hours this time we went with two friends from work and we were dancing on the sofas. There was a sad state of affairs, I spoke the most Japanese and got the dubious honour of having to speak to the Kareoke clerk. However I have learnt a new phrase, basically "what's that?" and I nearly got to have the blue drink (that I always want), which tastes chemical and alcoholic rather than Cassis soda, which tastes chemical and alcoholic. But something went wrong with the order and cassis soda became my drink again!

Kareoke ended the usual way and Kerry and the two friends from work ended up attempting to break dance in the street, and Japanese people looking puzzled at the slightly insane Gaijin.

Japanese people keep telling me that "In Japan we do things differently" probably explaining why it was kebab and then alcohol. I also keep getting told that "Japan has 4 seasons." Then they act surprised when I tell them that so does every other country in the world. Also this apparently this explains why a melon costs around £20 an apples are a pound each.

So in Japan we do things differently this is why fruit costs a fortune, cute is big business, print club is rife and everybody is always asleep on public transport.

PS This is not Japan bashing.

2004-06-26T23:25:00.000+09:00

This is Juxtaposition...