Imagine the shock on Monday when I witnessed scenes only fit for late night TV viewing RIGHT OUTSIDE MY FRONT DOOR! Grasping together and in the throes of passion I knew what she wanted, what she intended. She was going to kill him and eat his brains. This was no voodoo ritual, this was no desperate mental illness. This was pure, inate evil driven by a centuries-old hunger. And I was witnessing the start of the event. The look in her eyes was truly terrifying- a blank grey stare, as cold as Sharon Stone and as calculating as Casio. I haven't been able to talk to anyone about it as it's been much too traumatic for a delicate soul like me to handle, only made worse by the fact that the perpetrator and possible future victims keep lingering outside my apartment. I could open my front door at any moment to scenes of death and gore too terrible to describe.
Damn these preying mantises (manti? Mantees? Mantiseseses?) I don't want to see their bloodthirsty lust in the morning, the evening or at night...
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
late nights and early finishes
Well, the weekend held much more promise than the week and lived up to it! Having made lots of plans I headed down to the city on Saturday where money flowed like oil from a sinking tanker. First thing was to meet Fiona for dinner and catch up after her holiday to Malaysia and Singapore ("Did it have anything that Japan didn't?" I asked. "Good shops, a wide variety of foods on offer, many different entertainment choices, English speakers and a mix of nationalities", came the reply. So not much then...) After we had a good feed Fiona headed home kindly taking my bags, and I headed to the Red Moon for a salsa night where, if it hadn't been for the dance classes I attended, I'd have been convinced Japanese people can't dance. The ones at the club couldn't. Indeed, even a conga "circle" managed to not move anywhere. And have you tried conga-ing on the spot? It doesn't work. After chatting a bit with a few people and having a few drinks, I decided that the heat was way too much, so I left to go to a small bar full of people of a similar condition to myself (if you know what I mean). I stayed there till around 2:30 and was quite smashed when I left. D'oh. Saturday was looking like hard work already.
So on Saturday I had to get to Ibara, a place I've never been before. So I asked the attendant at the train station. It's what you would usually do, and usually you get a speedy, efficient answer. Not today. The guy was on his own trying to serve 6 people at once. And once he'd gotten rid of all the others he came back to me. And then wandered off again. And came back. And wandered off. He decided to show me how to use the ticket machines (I already know). But he didn't know how much a ticket to Ibara was, so in very fast Japanese he told me to buy a four hundred yen ticket and pay the rest at the other end. Only he didn't tell me how to get to the other end. D'oh! So after a quick phone call to Rach I was on my way, and having bumped into two of the new ALTs on the train, I was pretty much laughing all the way too. And getting stared at for being too noisy on public transport (any sound louder breathing is too noisy apparently).
Arriving at Ibara we met Amy, Rachel and Dave and Ilana and Ben and headed to the Soundwood music festival (which Ben had told us all about). The festival was held on the side of a mountain where the seating area was the mountain slope, and the stage was on a small area of level ground, but the view was grand. You could see for miles- mountains and trees and amongst them, the low level towns. So, having spent at least 2 minutes admiring this, we got down to the usual business of the day- drinking. Although in the 34 degree heat we were taking it easy. A succession of local bands came on, singing in Japanese and English, and all were really good, until a funk band came on playing Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke". The music was fabulous, but the vocal's were more Geri Halliwell-after-a-stroke than Stevie Wonder. Shame. It was a great day of chatting and socialising and eating freshly made naan breads from one of the food stalls, and fortunately Saddam turned up in time to enjoy at least one whole half hour of it. D'oh! Having been delayed, she arrived at 8, and to our surprise it finished at 8:30, so we all headed back to Ben's for more talk and drink and food. By the time we left it felt like 3am, but it was in fact only 11:30, so Saddam and I stayed up at her's chatting. And then we heard Mark and Soren calling Sarah from outside, so they came up and we ended up talking until 3am. Oops. So we went quickly to bed with a decision to wake up at 10:30.
Well, 10:30 came and I was awake, but not wanting to get up. Two late nights and I felt like my head had been squashed between two bricks. So I decided not to go to day two of the festival. It was the head issue and the three hour journey home that swung it. So after Saddam's place was visited by Kieran and Kelly, we split and I headed home via the city and Starbucks and a shoe shop. Double oops...
But I had a nice early night on Sunday and another on Monday. Tonght I shall be up late to call LeeJay, so I must finish now and catch some zeds (how do you pluralise 'z'?) at school before home time... Cheeky cheeky!
So on Saturday I had to get to Ibara, a place I've never been before. So I asked the attendant at the train station. It's what you would usually do, and usually you get a speedy, efficient answer. Not today. The guy was on his own trying to serve 6 people at once. And once he'd gotten rid of all the others he came back to me. And then wandered off again. And came back. And wandered off. He decided to show me how to use the ticket machines (I already know). But he didn't know how much a ticket to Ibara was, so in very fast Japanese he told me to buy a four hundred yen ticket and pay the rest at the other end. Only he didn't tell me how to get to the other end. D'oh! So after a quick phone call to Rach I was on my way, and having bumped into two of the new ALTs on the train, I was pretty much laughing all the way too. And getting stared at for being too noisy on public transport (any sound louder breathing is too noisy apparently).
Arriving at Ibara we met Amy, Rachel and Dave and Ilana and Ben and headed to the Soundwood music festival (which Ben had told us all about). The festival was held on the side of a mountain where the seating area was the mountain slope, and the stage was on a small area of level ground, but the view was grand. You could see for miles- mountains and trees and amongst them, the low level towns. So, having spent at least 2 minutes admiring this, we got down to the usual business of the day- drinking. Although in the 34 degree heat we were taking it easy. A succession of local bands came on, singing in Japanese and English, and all were really good, until a funk band came on playing Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke". The music was fabulous, but the vocal's were more Geri Halliwell-after-a-stroke than Stevie Wonder. Shame. It was a great day of chatting and socialising and eating freshly made naan breads from one of the food stalls, and fortunately Saddam turned up in time to enjoy at least one whole half hour of it. D'oh! Having been delayed, she arrived at 8, and to our surprise it finished at 8:30, so we all headed back to Ben's for more talk and drink and food. By the time we left it felt like 3am, but it was in fact only 11:30, so Saddam and I stayed up at her's chatting. And then we heard Mark and Soren calling Sarah from outside, so they came up and we ended up talking until 3am. Oops. So we went quickly to bed with a decision to wake up at 10:30.
Well, 10:30 came and I was awake, but not wanting to get up. Two late nights and I felt like my head had been squashed between two bricks. So I decided not to go to day two of the festival. It was the head issue and the three hour journey home that swung it. So after Saddam's place was visited by Kieran and Kelly, we split and I headed home via the city and Starbucks and a shoe shop. Double oops...
But I had a nice early night on Sunday and another on Monday. Tonght I shall be up late to call LeeJay, so I must finish now and catch some zeds (how do you pluralise 'z'?) at school before home time... Cheeky cheeky!
Friday, August 26, 2005
beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeep
This week has been a shocker, but not in a man-in-a-dirty-raincoat-with-ankle-to-knee-length-trousers-and-dodgy-intentions kind of way. More that it's been slightly tedious. So much so that I managed to watch the entire last season of ER in two nights.
There have been two highlights ("highlights" being moments where something actually happened). Those highlights do not include the feeling of my arteries hardening due a chocolate-and-deep-fried-foods-only diet, but it was this feeling that inspired one of those moments on Wednesday. I have vague intentions of trying to climb Mount Fuji as part of a group in a few weeks time, (I had these same vague intentions last year but backed out to go shopping instead. Oops...) so I felt I should kick-start the exercise regime in an effort to get fit. Unfortunately the effort kick-stopped any intentions I had of continuing a life in the outdoors. I decided to climb one of the local mountains- the same one I climbed in April, thinking it would be good practice, and remembering it wasn't too difficult. I had forgotten that plants grow a lot in summer. So I struggled on up the mountain shouting like a tourette's sufferer as 5billion insects (the like of which I had never seen before) did their very best to dive bomb my face, especially my eyes (and, as I flung my arms in the air and tried not to topple over, I wondered, are insects as mesmerised by blue eyes as elementary school children?). Fortunately I saw no-one on the way, but given my continual swearing and cursing they were probably throwing themselves off the mountain in fear. Eventually I reached the top, having to fight my way through 2 foot high chrysanthemums and avoiding the by now undulating underfoot life (all sorts of I-don't-know-what was moving in the plants). So I quickly turned around. Only to realise that I couldn't see the path back down for overgrown plants. Shit! (Sorry Mother.) But down I made it and carried on walking only to be attacked by a butterfly whose mother was obviously so randy she'd mated with a bat. That's it for wildlife, I'm bloody well over it.
The other highlight was karaoke. It's been 3 weeks since I last went and after Nao chan called me to see if we should dine together we picked up Tara, ate revolving sushi (yes! It was spinning on the plates! Yes! I'm talking rubbish again) and I suggested sheepishly a night of karaoke. So we headed to the Riverside hotel where we were greeted with a chorus of "hisashiburi!" (long time, no see) and they all asked about LeeJay. And they took us to a room with BRAND NEW MACHINES and declared that they were FULL OF ENGLISH SONGS! The new machines had loads more songs, we had two TV screens in the room and we have a whole new repertoire. We all sang a couple of Japanese songs and a couple of English songs, and I threatened Tara with Mariah Carey (she doesn't yet realise this is actually a promise). But it was strange not singing Wilson Phillips or Papa Don't Preach, and sadly the new book doesn't have Band Of Gold (I sense a return to room 11 in the near future). Poor Nao chan was quite upset on the way home. She was very pleased to meet Tara and really likes her, but she misses LeeJay as do I. But thank God Tara likes karaoke as well. I'd look right stupid going on my own every week crying into my plum chu-hai.
There have been two highlights ("highlights" being moments where something actually happened). Those highlights do not include the feeling of my arteries hardening due a chocolate-and-deep-fried-foods-only diet, but it was this feeling that inspired one of those moments on Wednesday. I have vague intentions of trying to climb Mount Fuji as part of a group in a few weeks time, (I had these same vague intentions last year but backed out to go shopping instead. Oops...) so I felt I should kick-start the exercise regime in an effort to get fit. Unfortunately the effort kick-stopped any intentions I had of continuing a life in the outdoors. I decided to climb one of the local mountains- the same one I climbed in April, thinking it would be good practice, and remembering it wasn't too difficult. I had forgotten that plants grow a lot in summer. So I struggled on up the mountain shouting like a tourette's sufferer as 5billion insects (the like of which I had never seen before) did their very best to dive bomb my face, especially my eyes (and, as I flung my arms in the air and tried not to topple over, I wondered, are insects as mesmerised by blue eyes as elementary school children?). Fortunately I saw no-one on the way, but given my continual swearing and cursing they were probably throwing themselves off the mountain in fear. Eventually I reached the top, having to fight my way through 2 foot high chrysanthemums and avoiding the by now undulating underfoot life (all sorts of I-don't-know-what was moving in the plants). So I quickly turned around. Only to realise that I couldn't see the path back down for overgrown plants. Shit! (Sorry Mother.) But down I made it and carried on walking only to be attacked by a butterfly whose mother was obviously so randy she'd mated with a bat. That's it for wildlife, I'm bloody well over it.
The other highlight was karaoke. It's been 3 weeks since I last went and after Nao chan called me to see if we should dine together we picked up Tara, ate revolving sushi (yes! It was spinning on the plates! Yes! I'm talking rubbish again) and I suggested sheepishly a night of karaoke. So we headed to the Riverside hotel where we were greeted with a chorus of "hisashiburi!" (long time, no see) and they all asked about LeeJay. And they took us to a room with BRAND NEW MACHINES and declared that they were FULL OF ENGLISH SONGS! The new machines had loads more songs, we had two TV screens in the room and we have a whole new repertoire. We all sang a couple of Japanese songs and a couple of English songs, and I threatened Tara with Mariah Carey (she doesn't yet realise this is actually a promise). But it was strange not singing Wilson Phillips or Papa Don't Preach, and sadly the new book doesn't have Band Of Gold (I sense a return to room 11 in the near future). Poor Nao chan was quite upset on the way home. She was very pleased to meet Tara and really likes her, but she misses LeeJay as do I. But thank God Tara likes karaoke as well. I'd look right stupid going on my own every week crying into my plum chu-hai.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Busy buzzy bumble beeuurrrgh... (Part two)
Hmm orientation...
I arrived at Butsy's on Wednesday evening in time for a meal cooked by Alex, boyfriend of Why-Von who was also in attendance. These two are great. Alex is leaving in a week which is a shame, but WhyVon is hilarious, and has a sharp sense of humour which has you rolling on the floor. We ate and chatted, and then watched "my Big Fat Greek Wedding", having to explain to Alex that the bloke in it was Aidan in Sex and the City, although Alex remembered him from a previous role in "Northern Exposure" and commented that we were all too young to remember it. I should have kept quiet, but being me I had to point out that although I am ridiculously immature I was in fact the oldest present. D'oh. Well, the night finished with me and Busty realising that we still had lots of prep to do and no time to do it. So we left it and went to bed (separately, in case anyone's wondering if I've turned).
On Thursday we were in pairs with another experienced JET and took out groups to compete in a scavenger hunt around Okayama city. Another day of 34 degree heat caused us to leave sweat trails wherever we went, possibly leading other teams to the answers (although this is clearly not true as we came second last. This is despite the fact that the woman who devised the hunt was with me "assisting" out team. Or not assisting, as the case may be).
Every year during the orientation, the AJET group books space at a beer garden for the new people to basically drink and get drunk together. A good, old-fashioned bonding session. And boy did people, er, bond. We had two hours in the beer garden and with Busty and Neil demonstrating how to do it properly, everyone was well and truly trolleyed by the time we left. And do drunk people want to go home when they're having fun? No! So we carried on, heading to the Red Moon and mixing socially and alcoholically. It was a night of dancing and wobbling and toppling over. I have vague recollections of Busty toppling to the floor and of supervisor-types almost passing out and I have a very strong recollection of twisting my foot on the way home (this recollection is so strong that it still hurts now. Double d'oh!).
Unfortunately the alcohol had severed the links between my thought processes and my mouth, so on Friday morning all sorts of unfiltered gobbledegook was spouting out of my mouth. The unfortunate thing was that it continued while I was presenting to the new ALTs. First during our AJET introduction, then during my presentation on food (where I found myself unable to say "world foods" and kept referring to English food as if it was the only other alternative) and then during a talk on healthcare in Japan (where I was reading out info passed to me by another JET and adding my own unfortunate sarcastic comments such as, "Clear Blue pregnancy test kit comes with English instructions, but a blue line's a blue line, so what is there to translate?" and "early term abortions are available in a one-off visit to a clinic. No counselling required... Nice.") I am doomed to never appear professional despite my best attempts.
The evening was a low-key one as everyone was shattered and energy was low. 3 more ALTs arrived in the city in the afternoon, so we went for dinner to welcome them and most of us headed back home for an early night. I moved my stuff from Busty's to Fiona's where I would stay the rest of the weekend, and in fact for half of Saturday (I didn't get up till 11:30- oops!). Saturday was a good day though. I met up with Rachel, a 2nd year ALT from New Zealand and her boyfriend Dave, and we went to see the new Star Wars film (much, MUCH better than the other two) and then I spent the evening walking around the city at night. It was lovely just wandering around the shops until they shut and then having coffee at Starbucks and then...
Finding a GAY BAR! At last! It's been a year, and I've finally found a gay bar in Okayama. It turns out there are 11! Worse than the buses in London! I waited all year and 11 came along at once. Well, it was very nice, the people were friendly and I shall be going again. And they were playing Christina Slagulera when I went in. Yay!
On Sunday I came home having managed to talk to a Japanese woman and a French man in English and Japanese and a Brazilian woman in English (which she didn't understand) and Japanese (which she knew very, very well). Je suis une famille polyglotte. Or something. I felt very cosmopolitan for the rest of the day...
I arrived at Butsy's on Wednesday evening in time for a meal cooked by Alex, boyfriend of Why-Von who was also in attendance. These two are great. Alex is leaving in a week which is a shame, but WhyVon is hilarious, and has a sharp sense of humour which has you rolling on the floor. We ate and chatted, and then watched "my Big Fat Greek Wedding", having to explain to Alex that the bloke in it was Aidan in Sex and the City, although Alex remembered him from a previous role in "Northern Exposure" and commented that we were all too young to remember it. I should have kept quiet, but being me I had to point out that although I am ridiculously immature I was in fact the oldest present. D'oh. Well, the night finished with me and Busty realising that we still had lots of prep to do and no time to do it. So we left it and went to bed (separately, in case anyone's wondering if I've turned).
On Thursday we were in pairs with another experienced JET and took out groups to compete in a scavenger hunt around Okayama city. Another day of 34 degree heat caused us to leave sweat trails wherever we went, possibly leading other teams to the answers (although this is clearly not true as we came second last. This is despite the fact that the woman who devised the hunt was with me "assisting" out team. Or not assisting, as the case may be).
Every year during the orientation, the AJET group books space at a beer garden for the new people to basically drink and get drunk together. A good, old-fashioned bonding session. And boy did people, er, bond. We had two hours in the beer garden and with Busty and Neil demonstrating how to do it properly, everyone was well and truly trolleyed by the time we left. And do drunk people want to go home when they're having fun? No! So we carried on, heading to the Red Moon and mixing socially and alcoholically. It was a night of dancing and wobbling and toppling over. I have vague recollections of Busty toppling to the floor and of supervisor-types almost passing out and I have a very strong recollection of twisting my foot on the way home (this recollection is so strong that it still hurts now. Double d'oh!).
Unfortunately the alcohol had severed the links between my thought processes and my mouth, so on Friday morning all sorts of unfiltered gobbledegook was spouting out of my mouth. The unfortunate thing was that it continued while I was presenting to the new ALTs. First during our AJET introduction, then during my presentation on food (where I found myself unable to say "world foods" and kept referring to English food as if it was the only other alternative) and then during a talk on healthcare in Japan (where I was reading out info passed to me by another JET and adding my own unfortunate sarcastic comments such as, "Clear Blue pregnancy test kit comes with English instructions, but a blue line's a blue line, so what is there to translate?" and "early term abortions are available in a one-off visit to a clinic. No counselling required... Nice.") I am doomed to never appear professional despite my best attempts.
The evening was a low-key one as everyone was shattered and energy was low. 3 more ALTs arrived in the city in the afternoon, so we went for dinner to welcome them and most of us headed back home for an early night. I moved my stuff from Busty's to Fiona's where I would stay the rest of the weekend, and in fact for half of Saturday (I didn't get up till 11:30- oops!). Saturday was a good day though. I met up with Rachel, a 2nd year ALT from New Zealand and her boyfriend Dave, and we went to see the new Star Wars film (much, MUCH better than the other two) and then I spent the evening walking around the city at night. It was lovely just wandering around the shops until they shut and then having coffee at Starbucks and then...
Finding a GAY BAR! At last! It's been a year, and I've finally found a gay bar in Okayama. It turns out there are 11! Worse than the buses in London! I waited all year and 11 came along at once. Well, it was very nice, the people were friendly and I shall be going again. And they were playing Christina Slagulera when I went in. Yay!
On Sunday I came home having managed to talk to a Japanese woman and a French man in English and Japanese and a Brazilian woman in English (which she didn't understand) and Japanese (which she knew very, very well). Je suis une famille polyglotte. Or something. I felt very cosmopolitan for the rest of the day...
Monday, August 22, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Busy buzzy Bumble bee (Part 1)
That's me!
For the first time in a long time it's been crazy mad here with things going on and things to do. Fuzzy Peach, new ALT orientation, weekends away, so much has been going on that I forgot to update my weblog for over a week. Oops. Still, I'm going to try and keep it short and keep the yawn factor down (I usually fail, so don't get your hopes up...)
Last week was fairly quiet, revolving sushi with Tara on wednesday and then making chirashi sushi at school were the basic highlights (thanks to the school secretary and the caretaker lady for their expertise!). Evenings were spent planning and preparing the new edition of the Fuzzy Peach as well as my presentations for the upcoming new ALT's orientation. Well, I decided with all this hard work I needed a break, so I headed to Okayama city on Saturday to meet with Besty and some of the new ALTs from her building, Ping, WhyVon and her boyfriend Alex. We headed to Korakuen for an evening of Jazz at their summer music festival (which consisted of a week of concerts in the evening). It was lovely too- the weather was great, the conversation was flowing, but the Jazz was strangely absent. There was a group of old men playing music, and they were very proficient at what they were doing, but it really, really, wasn't Jazz. It felt like we were at a 1920s garden party at one point, but without the refined manners and polite conversation. We ended the night with a meal at Lux:G, a restaurant and bar in the city, and prepared for the next day's trip to Onomichi. When I say prepared, we just decided what train to catch...
Onomichi was good. It was about 34 degrees, as it was Obon weekend (Japanese festival where people go home to see their families) everyone was out, so the ramen restaurant that was recommended to us had queues that were longer than a child's face on an empty Christmas morning. We ended up heading to different restaurant (which closely resembled someone's front room stuffed with chairs and tables) and we each ate a soma-inducing pound of rice. Not the way to start a long walk. So we took the cable car up the mountain (big hill really, but that's not so impressive-sounding) and walked round Senso-Ji and various other temples and shrine complexes and then decided it was too hot and that we should go home. Oops... But we did go out to eat again at the best Italian restaurant in the city (I feel like I've been to most of them by now...) And it was super-smashing-marvellous. They had a salad bar (!?! The first I've seen in Japan) and it was packed to the brim with lovely iems such as garlic fried string-beans (French beans, whatever the long thin green ones are called) and pasta salad, and garlic mushrooms and mmm. So we gorged ourselves for less than ten English pounds each for the meal which included two (yes,2! Not one, but 2!!) deserts before leaving.
I returned to Katsuyama on Monday to continue preparations, although I ended up demonstrating an aversion to the task in hand and spent much time cleaning and sorting. My excuse is that I needed this time to mull it all over. Fortunately for me and the new ALTs, on Tuesday and Wednesday I managed to get down to it (as opposed to "get down on it" which would have meant I was dancing around the apartment to Kool and the Gang, something which I'm sure none of the other ALTs would comprehend, let alone the locals) and finish the Fuzzy Peach. And on Wednesday afternoon I headed back to the city to stay at Betsy's and prepare for the orientation. But that's a story for the next post. Which I'll probably do later as it's quite quiet at school today, and I'm quite bored...
So things are back to normal then.
For the first time in a long time it's been crazy mad here with things going on and things to do. Fuzzy Peach, new ALT orientation, weekends away, so much has been going on that I forgot to update my weblog for over a week. Oops. Still, I'm going to try and keep it short and keep the yawn factor down (I usually fail, so don't get your hopes up...)
Last week was fairly quiet, revolving sushi with Tara on wednesday and then making chirashi sushi at school were the basic highlights (thanks to the school secretary and the caretaker lady for their expertise!). Evenings were spent planning and preparing the new edition of the Fuzzy Peach as well as my presentations for the upcoming new ALT's orientation. Well, I decided with all this hard work I needed a break, so I headed to Okayama city on Saturday to meet with Besty and some of the new ALTs from her building, Ping, WhyVon and her boyfriend Alex. We headed to Korakuen for an evening of Jazz at their summer music festival (which consisted of a week of concerts in the evening). It was lovely too- the weather was great, the conversation was flowing, but the Jazz was strangely absent. There was a group of old men playing music, and they were very proficient at what they were doing, but it really, really, wasn't Jazz. It felt like we were at a 1920s garden party at one point, but without the refined manners and polite conversation. We ended the night with a meal at Lux:G, a restaurant and bar in the city, and prepared for the next day's trip to Onomichi. When I say prepared, we just decided what train to catch...
Onomichi was good. It was about 34 degrees, as it was Obon weekend (Japanese festival where people go home to see their families) everyone was out, so the ramen restaurant that was recommended to us had queues that were longer than a child's face on an empty Christmas morning. We ended up heading to different restaurant (which closely resembled someone's front room stuffed with chairs and tables) and we each ate a soma-inducing pound of rice. Not the way to start a long walk. So we took the cable car up the mountain (big hill really, but that's not so impressive-sounding) and walked round Senso-Ji and various other temples and shrine complexes and then decided it was too hot and that we should go home. Oops... But we did go out to eat again at the best Italian restaurant in the city (I feel like I've been to most of them by now...) And it was super-smashing-marvellous. They had a salad bar (!?! The first I've seen in Japan) and it was packed to the brim with lovely iems such as garlic fried string-beans (French beans, whatever the long thin green ones are called) and pasta salad, and garlic mushrooms and mmm. So we gorged ourselves for less than ten English pounds each for the meal which included two (yes,2! Not one, but 2!!) deserts before leaving.
I returned to Katsuyama on Monday to continue preparations, although I ended up demonstrating an aversion to the task in hand and spent much time cleaning and sorting. My excuse is that I needed this time to mull it all over. Fortunately for me and the new ALTs, on Tuesday and Wednesday I managed to get down to it (as opposed to "get down on it" which would have meant I was dancing around the apartment to Kool and the Gang, something which I'm sure none of the other ALTs would comprehend, let alone the locals) and finish the Fuzzy Peach. And on Wednesday afternoon I headed back to the city to stay at Betsy's and prepare for the orientation. But that's a story for the next post. Which I'll probably do later as it's quite quiet at school today, and I'm quite bored...
So things are back to normal then.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Push bang guzzle crack bang
That was the weekend. No, it wasn't a film of "adult" entertainment, rather it was a three day event with festivals up and down Okayama some of which I managed to attend, and some of which I wasn't quite up to. And plans to meet the new ALTs went a bit awry, although we at least made contact...
I caught up with Tara on Thursday soon after she arrived, and spent a short time at hers. She is living in LeeJay's old apartment, so it was odd going in without LeeJay's things being around and Tara having not had the chance to make it hers yet. She's going to be good company next year, although it will definitely be a very different year.
On Friday I legged it out of school to make the train to Niimi so I could get my connection and arrive in Okayama at 7. A group were meeting to go and see the start of the Momotaro festival (Momotaro is Okayama's mascot- he was a boy born in a peach and he faught a monster or something- I can't remember! It's better than George and the Dragon anyway). So with Fiona, Saddam, Rachel, Andrew, Saddam's new neighbour Mark, and other ALTs we made our way to the Asahi prefectural office picking up more ALTs on the way. Only to then lose them all in the crowd. This was partly due to the fact that no-one had really eaten dinner and we all started drinking so we were trolleyed in a fairly short time. And our choice of firework watching location was far from choice. All we could see was a big tree with fireworks behind them. So Saddam barged through the crowd and we set up post a short distance away only for the fireworks to move to a new location. Behind another tree. Well, we grew tired of it quickly and in our slimlined group of five (Saddam, Fiona, Andrew, Mark and me) we headed to Fudge bar, drinking more on the way. The end of this extrememly enjoyable night has an aura of mysticism about it, mainly because I was so plastered I woke up the next morning to think certain things happened in a dream. I thought I'd dreamt up a whole email from RayVon but it turned out to be real (thank you RayVon!).
The next day turned into a bit of a shambles. Fiona and Saddam left for Malaysia and I was unable to say goodbye because I was quite disorientated at 7am. I was still disorientated at 11:10am when I only had 35 minutes to shower, shave, dress and get downtown to meet Busty for lunch before a meeting. Having only just made it, we went to the meeting, and Busty having also "enjoyed" the fireworks the night before wasn't feeling too good throughout. I soon wasn't either and cancelled a planned trip to Niimi to see the fireworks there. I wandered through town and stumbled upon the start of the Okayama Jazz festival whereupon for the first time in my life, alone, I bought a beer and sat, alone, in the afternoon, drinking beer. Alone. Something's changed... The music was good though, and within a short time Busty and I had planned our quiet evening. We would have pizza at hers and watch a film.
The film was called "Vera Drake" and was deadly serious, about a woman in London in 1950 who used to give abortions to girls with unwanted pregnancies. But the thick London accents and the slang were unfamiliar to Busty so we put the subtitles on but ended up rolling around laughing at Busty's attempts to mimic the characters and my rather unpleasant comments about Vera's one-sandwich-short-of-a-picnic daughter Ethel. And then we watched my new Bananarama hits video which of course was perfect excuse to laugh some more.
Sunday was the day of Gongo matsuri in Tsuyama. Gongo is Tsuyama's local name for a mythical animal called a Kappa that lives underwater and has a dish on it's head. If it comes out of the water and the dish dries up it dies. It also likes to scare people. In this sense it's not unlike England's Kappa-slappers, girls of easy virtue who wear head to toe kappa tracksuits that like to scare pensioner on the street by stealing from them and who drink hard, thinking that if the cider bottle empties they will die. Allegedly. (I may have to remove that last bit later) Anyway, with Tara in tow we headed to Tsuyama meeting Aya (ex-ALT Phil's ex-supervisor) on the train. And in Tsuyama we met Andrew and went to watch the fireworks. Aya knew the best spot, so we headed right up close to where the 5000 fireworks were sited. This meant we got a great view of the hugely impressive 1 and a quarter hour display. It also meant that we got covered in ash from the fireworks (we all got ash in our eyes, although this was more pleasant than the usual bugs in our eyes).
School on Monday was fun as it was somen day- somen is a type of noodle eaten in the summer and some of the staff were preparing somen dishes for the teachers. So I joined in and learnt how to make a somen summer meal. It was really good fun- everyone tries so hard to explain things- and the school nurse (who has great English skill) showed me how to prepare cucumber so it looks pretty. Summer at school could be more fun yet- the caretaker lady is going to teach me how to make Shirashi sushi on Thursday (another tasty summer dish). I may be able to open my own Japanese restaurant in London if this continues...
I caught up with Tara on Thursday soon after she arrived, and spent a short time at hers. She is living in LeeJay's old apartment, so it was odd going in without LeeJay's things being around and Tara having not had the chance to make it hers yet. She's going to be good company next year, although it will definitely be a very different year.
On Friday I legged it out of school to make the train to Niimi so I could get my connection and arrive in Okayama at 7. A group were meeting to go and see the start of the Momotaro festival (Momotaro is Okayama's mascot- he was a boy born in a peach and he faught a monster or something- I can't remember! It's better than George and the Dragon anyway). So with Fiona, Saddam, Rachel, Andrew, Saddam's new neighbour Mark, and other ALTs we made our way to the Asahi prefectural office picking up more ALTs on the way. Only to then lose them all in the crowd. This was partly due to the fact that no-one had really eaten dinner and we all started drinking so we were trolleyed in a fairly short time. And our choice of firework watching location was far from choice. All we could see was a big tree with fireworks behind them. So Saddam barged through the crowd and we set up post a short distance away only for the fireworks to move to a new location. Behind another tree. Well, we grew tired of it quickly and in our slimlined group of five (Saddam, Fiona, Andrew, Mark and me) we headed to Fudge bar, drinking more on the way. The end of this extrememly enjoyable night has an aura of mysticism about it, mainly because I was so plastered I woke up the next morning to think certain things happened in a dream. I thought I'd dreamt up a whole email from RayVon but it turned out to be real (thank you RayVon!).
The next day turned into a bit of a shambles. Fiona and Saddam left for Malaysia and I was unable to say goodbye because I was quite disorientated at 7am. I was still disorientated at 11:10am when I only had 35 minutes to shower, shave, dress and get downtown to meet Busty for lunch before a meeting. Having only just made it, we went to the meeting, and Busty having also "enjoyed" the fireworks the night before wasn't feeling too good throughout. I soon wasn't either and cancelled a planned trip to Niimi to see the fireworks there. I wandered through town and stumbled upon the start of the Okayama Jazz festival whereupon for the first time in my life, alone, I bought a beer and sat, alone, in the afternoon, drinking beer. Alone. Something's changed... The music was good though, and within a short time Busty and I had planned our quiet evening. We would have pizza at hers and watch a film.
The film was called "Vera Drake" and was deadly serious, about a woman in London in 1950 who used to give abortions to girls with unwanted pregnancies. But the thick London accents and the slang were unfamiliar to Busty so we put the subtitles on but ended up rolling around laughing at Busty's attempts to mimic the characters and my rather unpleasant comments about Vera's one-sandwich-short-of-a-picnic daughter Ethel. And then we watched my new Bananarama hits video which of course was perfect excuse to laugh some more.
Sunday was the day of Gongo matsuri in Tsuyama. Gongo is Tsuyama's local name for a mythical animal called a Kappa that lives underwater and has a dish on it's head. If it comes out of the water and the dish dries up it dies. It also likes to scare people. In this sense it's not unlike England's Kappa-slappers, girls of easy virtue who wear head to toe kappa tracksuits that like to scare pensioner on the street by stealing from them and who drink hard, thinking that if the cider bottle empties they will die. Allegedly. (I may have to remove that last bit later) Anyway, with Tara in tow we headed to Tsuyama meeting Aya (ex-ALT Phil's ex-supervisor) on the train. And in Tsuyama we met Andrew and went to watch the fireworks. Aya knew the best spot, so we headed right up close to where the 5000 fireworks were sited. This meant we got a great view of the hugely impressive 1 and a quarter hour display. It also meant that we got covered in ash from the fireworks (we all got ash in our eyes, although this was more pleasant than the usual bugs in our eyes).
School on Monday was fun as it was somen day- somen is a type of noodle eaten in the summer and some of the staff were preparing somen dishes for the teachers. So I joined in and learnt how to make a somen summer meal. It was really good fun- everyone tries so hard to explain things- and the school nurse (who has great English skill) showed me how to prepare cucumber so it looks pretty. Summer at school could be more fun yet- the caretaker lady is going to teach me how to make Shirashi sushi on Thursday (another tasty summer dish). I may be able to open my own Japanese restaurant in London if this continues...
Monday, August 08, 2005
Okayama beauty pageant. Only natural beauties need apply...
Starting the parade is a lovely yellow-and black smock-wearing spider. About the size of a child's hand. Nice.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be...
The future's not ours to see, unless you're a clairvoyant at a funfair and I'm crossing your palm with silver. Well, Tuesday morning had been coming for a long time (well, a week really- it was only the week before that LeeJay's flight details were confirmed) so we had time to prepare and do those important last things together.
Monday night was a busy one for LeeJay- she had time off to pack, then had to move all her stuff to mine so that she could go back to school and drop off the house keys and then return her car to the people from whom she'd been renting it. And then we had to go for a final dinner at the izakaya. Only she was so efficient, (and we ate so quickly) that we were done at the izakaya by 6:40, managing a couple of drinks each. So we headed off early to our 7:30 karaoke appointment. And as it was a quiet Monday evening, they let us in early, not even saying which room we were in, rather saying "the usual". And we told them it was LeeJay's last night, so halfway through our time they brought us some snacks and requested that we sing a couple of songs for them- of course we obliged, and all of us danced to a-not-very-Whitney version of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "Eternal Flame" and later "Karma Chameleon". It was hilarious. They were really kind and generous but we were, probably, their best customers.
After our 3 hour marathon (we could have carried on, but we felt it improper) we returned to mine by taxi and LeeJay finished the packing and we watched Mean Girls again.
Now here comes the tricky part. Only a clairvoyant could reveal the next part to you, because officially I was at home in bed having not slept all night. I shall tap into the netherworld and attempt to reveal the truth of what happened...
On Tuesday morning, 2 ladies, one perhaps called LeeJay, the other called Nao chan and a devilishly handsome and mysterious gentleman all went to the airport together. The mists are telling me that they left an apartment like mine very early and arrived at the airport in good time. I believe the three then went to eat in the restaurant at the airport and had an expensive breakfast of egg and toast while listening to saxophone led piped music, which included bossa tracks and a surprising version of "Never Ending Story" (coincidentally mine and Leejay's karaoke favourite). I am feeling that all three were very shocked and felt this was a sign from above. LeeJay had told me that her plane was to depart at 9:45, so I guess she went through security at around 9:25. The spirits tell me Nao chan was terribly upset, as was the devilishly handsome gentleman, but I can feel a strength and resolve, a certain British stiff upper lip may have been demonstrated at this time by the man. And they watched the plane fly away, waving their hankies and recalling millions of parted lovers throughout time, even though none of them were in any way lovers.
Of course none of these details are clear to me as I was at home in bed having not slept the night before and phoned school at 8:16am to tell them so. Not sleeping is a terrible thing.
Tuesday night and Wednesday night were both incredibly quiet nights. The days at school pass as ever, but everyone has time to chat and I do feel like I am finally getting to know the teachers in some way, so it's pretty good. LeeJay called me yesterday, and we chatted on the phone, her in San Francisco and me in the staffroom, talking and cursing quickly so no-one could understand anything we said...
Bye for now Johanna Chiong-Masis! Now that you're gone, all that's left is a band of gold...
Monday night was a busy one for LeeJay- she had time off to pack, then had to move all her stuff to mine so that she could go back to school and drop off the house keys and then return her car to the people from whom she'd been renting it. And then we had to go for a final dinner at the izakaya. Only she was so efficient, (and we ate so quickly) that we were done at the izakaya by 6:40, managing a couple of drinks each. So we headed off early to our 7:30 karaoke appointment. And as it was a quiet Monday evening, they let us in early, not even saying which room we were in, rather saying "the usual". And we told them it was LeeJay's last night, so halfway through our time they brought us some snacks and requested that we sing a couple of songs for them- of course we obliged, and all of us danced to a-not-very-Whitney version of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", "Eternal Flame" and later "Karma Chameleon". It was hilarious. They were really kind and generous but we were, probably, their best customers.
After our 3 hour marathon (we could have carried on, but we felt it improper) we returned to mine by taxi and LeeJay finished the packing and we watched Mean Girls again.
Now here comes the tricky part. Only a clairvoyant could reveal the next part to you, because officially I was at home in bed having not slept all night. I shall tap into the netherworld and attempt to reveal the truth of what happened...
On Tuesday morning, 2 ladies, one perhaps called LeeJay, the other called Nao chan and a devilishly handsome and mysterious gentleman all went to the airport together. The mists are telling me that they left an apartment like mine very early and arrived at the airport in good time. I believe the three then went to eat in the restaurant at the airport and had an expensive breakfast of egg and toast while listening to saxophone led piped music, which included bossa tracks and a surprising version of "Never Ending Story" (coincidentally mine and Leejay's karaoke favourite). I am feeling that all three were very shocked and felt this was a sign from above. LeeJay had told me that her plane was to depart at 9:45, so I guess she went through security at around 9:25. The spirits tell me Nao chan was terribly upset, as was the devilishly handsome gentleman, but I can feel a strength and resolve, a certain British stiff upper lip may have been demonstrated at this time by the man. And they watched the plane fly away, waving their hankies and recalling millions of parted lovers throughout time, even though none of them were in any way lovers.
Of course none of these details are clear to me as I was at home in bed having not slept the night before and phoned school at 8:16am to tell them so. Not sleeping is a terrible thing.
Tuesday night and Wednesday night were both incredibly quiet nights. The days at school pass as ever, but everyone has time to chat and I do feel like I am finally getting to know the teachers in some way, so it's pretty good. LeeJay called me yesterday, and we chatted on the phone, her in San Francisco and me in the staffroom, talking and cursing quickly so no-one could understand anything we said...
Bye for now Johanna Chiong-Masis! Now that you're gone, all that's left is a band of gold...
Monday, August 01, 2005
The last days of Disco
Or rather, the last days of LeeJay. She doesn't leave till tomorrow morning, but it's necessary for me to document the past 4 days together now so I don't get all maudlin writing it out tomorrow, breaking my computer by weeping over the keyboard.
Our week of dining experiences continued on Wednesday with a barbecue at Nao chan's where she prepared an absolute ton of food while Papa san prepared the barbecue and Oji san collected his Karaoke machine from home. Nao chan was very worried that there wasn't enough food despite the fact that LeeJay ate three cows and a pumpkin and I ate one month's supply of vegetables. It was deee-licious. With beer and chu-hai and some bizarre songs on Oji-san's Karaoke machine (including a Japanese version of YMCA- we were very confused) it was a great evening.
Thursday was a constructive day as I managed to spend a fair bit of time talking to teachers at school, was allowed to leave early, ran errands and then went to dinner with Johanna, Christine, Jeremy and Kapo. It was Johanna's first and last time at Shirakabe (Katsuyama's Chinese restaurant) and you could easily say we made the most of that fact, ordering lots of dishes to share and then a big plate of noodles each. Mmm.
On Friday LeeJay and I headed to Kasaoka for LeeJay's first and last visit to Saddam's house. Saddam lives the furthest away from us of all our close friends, so we usually met at Fiona or RayVon's. Well, we got there, and in true Saddam style she got delayed (not her fault- it usually isn't) so she recommended a karoake place to us. We were so surprised as it had a far bigger list of English songs than we're used to. And we were even more surprised when we put in the numbers and random Japanese songs came up instead. Maybe one song in five was the one we wanted, and often we didn't really want that one, we'd just become desperate and were putting in anything we could. I ended the hour with the Destiny's Child ode to commercialism at Christmas ("The 8 Days Of Christmas"- they were too lazy to write another verse and finish all 12). Back to Saddam' s where we drank more, chatted and caught up and then it was Saturday.
Leaving the others in bed I headed to the city to run more "errands" (the new term for shopping) and did my best to meet Betsy, but she was unexpectedly busy helping out the new JETs who arrived on Thursday (more coming this week) and we met in the afternoon. From there it was lunch with the girls at the CRED curry house (more mmm), then 2 hours with Busty, followed by breaking my back carrying a printer to Fiona's and sweating enough to fill 3 rice paddies after which I showered and changed and went to the Aussie Bar to meet Amy, Aya and some new ALTs. Only 2 showed up as well as Scott (a third year) and Claire. We had a good night altogether and Amy and I stayed back chatting.
Sunday was a day of being unexpectedly busy as Fiona had stayed with Saddam on Friday and hadfallen over in Mr Donut, hurting her wrist quite badly. So we went to the hospital on Sunday where they proved they know how to do A&E very efficiently and quickly. Within an hour we'd been seen, Fiona had been X-rayed, reviewed, paid and we were out. Such worry warranted a cake and a trip to Starbucks afterwards, and with an hour till muy bus left we wandered round the shops berating Okayama city as has become habit. There's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not Kyoto. Or Osaka. Or Hiroshima. Or ... (you get the picture).
So I got the bus and got off early to help LeeJay cancel her phone contract. We dined at the BigSushi restaurant (the best kaiten-sushi I've been to) where the owner was very good to us and then guess what we did...
Karaoke! One hour at the Riverside in preparation for our final blast tonight. LeeJay and me rockin' out all the (s)hits for no-one else's pleasure but our own. My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. Indeed.
Our week of dining experiences continued on Wednesday with a barbecue at Nao chan's where she prepared an absolute ton of food while Papa san prepared the barbecue and Oji san collected his Karaoke machine from home. Nao chan was very worried that there wasn't enough food despite the fact that LeeJay ate three cows and a pumpkin and I ate one month's supply of vegetables. It was deee-licious. With beer and chu-hai and some bizarre songs on Oji-san's Karaoke machine (including a Japanese version of YMCA- we were very confused) it was a great evening.
Thursday was a constructive day as I managed to spend a fair bit of time talking to teachers at school, was allowed to leave early, ran errands and then went to dinner with Johanna, Christine, Jeremy and Kapo. It was Johanna's first and last time at Shirakabe (Katsuyama's Chinese restaurant) and you could easily say we made the most of that fact, ordering lots of dishes to share and then a big plate of noodles each. Mmm.
On Friday LeeJay and I headed to Kasaoka for LeeJay's first and last visit to Saddam's house. Saddam lives the furthest away from us of all our close friends, so we usually met at Fiona or RayVon's. Well, we got there, and in true Saddam style she got delayed (not her fault- it usually isn't) so she recommended a karoake place to us. We were so surprised as it had a far bigger list of English songs than we're used to. And we were even more surprised when we put in the numbers and random Japanese songs came up instead. Maybe one song in five was the one we wanted, and often we didn't really want that one, we'd just become desperate and were putting in anything we could. I ended the hour with the Destiny's Child ode to commercialism at Christmas ("The 8 Days Of Christmas"- they were too lazy to write another verse and finish all 12). Back to Saddam' s where we drank more, chatted and caught up and then it was Saturday.
Leaving the others in bed I headed to the city to run more "errands" (the new term for shopping) and did my best to meet Betsy, but she was unexpectedly busy helping out the new JETs who arrived on Thursday (more coming this week) and we met in the afternoon. From there it was lunch with the girls at the CRED curry house (more mmm), then 2 hours with Busty, followed by breaking my back carrying a printer to Fiona's and sweating enough to fill 3 rice paddies after which I showered and changed and went to the Aussie Bar to meet Amy, Aya and some new ALTs. Only 2 showed up as well as Scott (a third year) and Claire. We had a good night altogether and Amy and I stayed back chatting.
Sunday was a day of being unexpectedly busy as Fiona had stayed with Saddam on Friday and hadfallen over in Mr Donut, hurting her wrist quite badly. So we went to the hospital on Sunday where they proved they know how to do A&E very efficiently and quickly. Within an hour we'd been seen, Fiona had been X-rayed, reviewed, paid and we were out. Such worry warranted a cake and a trip to Starbucks afterwards, and with an hour till muy bus left we wandered round the shops berating Okayama city as has become habit. There's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not Kyoto. Or Osaka. Or Hiroshima. Or ... (you get the picture).
So I got the bus and got off early to help LeeJay cancel her phone contract. We dined at the BigSushi restaurant (the best kaiten-sushi I've been to) where the owner was very good to us and then guess what we did...
Karaoke! One hour at the Riverside in preparation for our final blast tonight. LeeJay and me rockin' out all the (s)hits for no-one else's pleasure but our own. My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. Indeed.
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