Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The world is a better place
This entry was originally going to start in a faux sexual tone, something along the lines of "soft and pink between my lips", but I am chickening out in favour of saying "Alleluia! The best food in the world has returned to my supermarket shelves!"
So here goes:
Allelulia! The best food in the world has returned to my supermarket shelves!
Yes indeed, the ichigo daifuku are back...
So here goes:
Allelulia! The best food in the world has returned to my supermarket shelves!
Yes indeed, the ichigo daifuku are back...
Monday, November 28, 2005
And I am thankful for... um... er...
Well, the end of another funny (peculiar) week was once again the pinnacle. It started well- on Monday night having dinner with Nao chan at Pinnochio Okonomiyaki restaurant, then staying off work on Tuesday with a heavy cold (a day in pyjamas), busy elementary days on Monday and Wednesday and then a lovely national holiday on Thursday- lovely in the sense that I got to sleep in then went to a crazy freakshow cafe (as if the hotel in 'The Shining' opens a weirdo cafe above a carpet shop in a rundown shopping mall) in Takahashi with Adam, Rachel and Vicki. It also had London prices- £1.75 for a cup of tea!! Although there was definitely 350yen's worth of flavour as the tea had clearly been stewing for about 3 weeks.
Friday was busy baking day as we had our big Thanksgiving do in the Ushimado (translation= cow window) international villa on Saturday. So, after a quiet return to junior high (where I spent much of the day preparing mail and packages to send abroad) I set about going bake-crazy. Thanks to the internet I merged 3 recipes to make a rather successful lemon meringue pie (very sweet pastry, very sour lemon filling thanks to adding three times the suggested amount of lemon juice and lots of lovely sticky meringue) and a chocolate and orange marble cake. Having finished at midnight I left the packing for the next morning, and I finally set off on a motoring odyssey through Okayama at 12pm.
The expressway is a marvellous thing and thanks to high speeds and quiet roads I was in the city in an hour, but it took over an hour to cross through the city and then almost a further hour to meet the others at Oku train. We finally made it up the mountain to get to the Villa at maybe 3:45 although we almost headed straight back down when my Daihatsu Move stalled on top of the ramp outside and decided that it didn't want to stop moving even with the handbrake on and started rolling backwards...
Pretty soon everyone was there and some were cooking, some were exploring, but after a while everyone had their hands in and veggies were being cut and seasoning sprinkled and by 8pm we'd whipped up a storm and were sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner of pumpkin, carrots, roasted vegetables, cabbage, mashed and boiled potatoes, green beans (with butter! And garlic!) and other things. We started dinner by saying what we were thankful for, and then said what we were thankful for in Japan specifically. I thanked God for non-freaky first years and Japanese hair straightening. Desert took many forms- my cake and pie, Rachel's pumpkin pie (mmm), Bob's chocolate mousse (more mmm), Alex's fruit roll-cake and Danielle's Japanese pears. I was worried that I may have had to vomit from over-eating but fortunately it didn't happen. This time...
After dinner we decided to be spiritual and watched a video of the story of Jesus which was American, dubbed into Japanese and to make it even more special, had a man doing sign language in the left hand corner. We were quite keen to learn the sign language for "immaculate conception", "virgin birth" and "massacre of the innocents" but the sign language wasn't as clear as we though it would be. I think we were hoping for mime-like sign...
But we made up for this when, soon after the video tape died (right when it was getting good too) we decided to play charades. But as happens, the tone was soon lowered (for once not by me) and poor Danielle struggled to tastefully mime "anime porn" and "paedophile". Paedophiles aside it was a great way to end the day. The night came to a finish at 2:30, only because we had to be out of the villa at 10am on Sunday.
So we woke on Sunday at 8:30 and after a swift breakfast of leftovers, cake and pudding we were out and on our way and Bob and I were heading to the city. While I had initially had no intention of staying and shopping I realised this was folly, so Bob and I headed out to Toys'R'Us where he bought Christmas presents and I bought "essential" items like "Home Alone" 1 & 2 on DVD.
After a late lunch, our taking in the city view from the top of the Cred building, shopping at Loft and photography by the castle we headed off, had dinner at Bob's while looking at our photos and then given that it was getting too cold and I was wearing only a t-shirt I decided to head home. Which led to today and a chance to prepare for and teach 2 classes at school and help an elementary school teacher with Christmas songs to teach the kids. They'll be singing a Spanish and English song- "Feliz Navidad" and being such an expert at Spanish (I can say taco, burrito and chimichanga) I attempted to teach correct pronunciation. You can only imagine...
Friday was busy baking day as we had our big Thanksgiving do in the Ushimado (translation= cow window) international villa on Saturday. So, after a quiet return to junior high (where I spent much of the day preparing mail and packages to send abroad) I set about going bake-crazy. Thanks to the internet I merged 3 recipes to make a rather successful lemon meringue pie (very sweet pastry, very sour lemon filling thanks to adding three times the suggested amount of lemon juice and lots of lovely sticky meringue) and a chocolate and orange marble cake. Having finished at midnight I left the packing for the next morning, and I finally set off on a motoring odyssey through Okayama at 12pm.
The expressway is a marvellous thing and thanks to high speeds and quiet roads I was in the city in an hour, but it took over an hour to cross through the city and then almost a further hour to meet the others at Oku train. We finally made it up the mountain to get to the Villa at maybe 3:45 although we almost headed straight back down when my Daihatsu Move stalled on top of the ramp outside and decided that it didn't want to stop moving even with the handbrake on and started rolling backwards...
Pretty soon everyone was there and some were cooking, some were exploring, but after a while everyone had their hands in and veggies were being cut and seasoning sprinkled and by 8pm we'd whipped up a storm and were sitting down to a Thanksgiving dinner of pumpkin, carrots, roasted vegetables, cabbage, mashed and boiled potatoes, green beans (with butter! And garlic!) and other things. We started dinner by saying what we were thankful for, and then said what we were thankful for in Japan specifically. I thanked God for non-freaky first years and Japanese hair straightening. Desert took many forms- my cake and pie, Rachel's pumpkin pie (mmm), Bob's chocolate mousse (more mmm), Alex's fruit roll-cake and Danielle's Japanese pears. I was worried that I may have had to vomit from over-eating but fortunately it didn't happen. This time...
After dinner we decided to be spiritual and watched a video of the story of Jesus which was American, dubbed into Japanese and to make it even more special, had a man doing sign language in the left hand corner. We were quite keen to learn the sign language for "immaculate conception", "virgin birth" and "massacre of the innocents" but the sign language wasn't as clear as we though it would be. I think we were hoping for mime-like sign...
But we made up for this when, soon after the video tape died (right when it was getting good too) we decided to play charades. But as happens, the tone was soon lowered (for once not by me) and poor Danielle struggled to tastefully mime "anime porn" and "paedophile". Paedophiles aside it was a great way to end the day. The night came to a finish at 2:30, only because we had to be out of the villa at 10am on Sunday.
So we woke on Sunday at 8:30 and after a swift breakfast of leftovers, cake and pudding we were out and on our way and Bob and I were heading to the city. While I had initially had no intention of staying and shopping I realised this was folly, so Bob and I headed out to Toys'R'Us where he bought Christmas presents and I bought "essential" items like "Home Alone" 1 & 2 on DVD.
After a late lunch, our taking in the city view from the top of the Cred building, shopping at Loft and photography by the castle we headed off, had dinner at Bob's while looking at our photos and then given that it was getting too cold and I was wearing only a t-shirt I decided to head home. Which led to today and a chance to prepare for and teach 2 classes at school and help an elementary school teacher with Christmas songs to teach the kids. They'll be singing a Spanish and English song- "Feliz Navidad" and being such an expert at Spanish (I can say taco, burrito and chimichanga) I attempted to teach correct pronunciation. You can only imagine...
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
As Betsy said,
I will NOT be re-contracting for a third year. I have been umming and awing about this for a while (and will probably do a bit more, although the outcome I'm sure will remain the same). I don't want to do this job for another year. It would be great to stay in Japan and do something different, but really this does not exactly tick the job-satisfaction box and I can feel more of my brain seeping out of my ear each day. The people I work with are kind, friendly and helpful, but the job is just... boring.
Today seems a bit more irritating as I've had a cold for a couple of weeks and it's now coming out and I have to be really excited and full of energy for elementary school kids. And that's not fun when you'd rather be in bed with a cup of cocoa and the TV for company.
Today seems a bit more irritating as I've had a cold for a couple of weeks and it's now coming out and I have to be really excited and full of energy for elementary school kids. And that's not fun when you'd rather be in bed with a cup of cocoa and the TV for company.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Monday, November 21, 2005
Halfway through year 2? Really?
You'd be forgiven for thinking that the middle of an an August to July work contract would fall in the passing January into February, but you would be wrong. As was the case last year our mid-year seminar fell in November. Last week to be precise. And what a rumpus it was too with presentations, all-nighters, booze-ups and Starbucks overdoses. I was told by my Board Of Evil Education to take the bus and stay at a hotel for which they'd reimburse me, but the hotels have been booked up for months and the buses to get to and from the conference were cancelled months ago. So with no other choice, I broke the rules and drove. Except it does say I can commute in my contract, but that doesn't apparently mean anything.
The plan on Tuesday was to finally print out the latest edition of the Fuzzy Peach, but once at Fiona's with the laptop and printer set-up I hit print, telling Fiona in my bestest English accent that the printer is marvellous and the toner "never runs out". Until that night apparently. So the bloody magazine got postponed for another day...
Well, Wednesday was the usual round of speeches- were told how the JET programme worked, a Japanese guy who taught in Australia had the cheek to generalise about Australian schools as much as we do about Japanese schools and someone else told us that he was an English teacher who'd never met a native speaker and then proceeded to rattle of a list of all the people he'd ever met who spoke English. Scintillated I certainly was not. But he evening was much better. As the morning had marked the first of our trips to Starbucks, the time after the conference was spent on trips to Okayama's two Starbucks with Amy R while searching for printer cartridges and then Fiona, Saddam and I headed to Cannery Row. This is by far the best Italian restaurant I have been too and this was my second trip (the first being with Betsy, WhyVon and Alex in August).
Thursday was spent in mild panic as I had to do a presentation throughout which I spoke much too fast for the other Japanese teachers to understand and thanks to excessive planning was rushed through with material to spare. But the evening once again made up for the daytime when, having not had breakfast or lunch, we headed to an all you can drink beer garden (really an all-you-can-drink beer bar as it was indoors and there was no grass). It was allegedly all you can eat, but after a smattering of squid-in-wasabi and potato wedges I don't think my burgeoning appetite was sated. But I was more than tipsy and having a whale of a time. Julia and I did our best to demonstrate ghetto culture to Japanese teachers by grinding and shaking and dipping it low. I think the Japanese teachers were impressed. Julia certainly can shake it.
The night was in danger of stalling so Amy DM and I took direct action and headed off to the karaoke where people soon followed, so with Herb, Bob, Patrick, Claire and Amy R we were soon bringing the house down (falling of furniture and such). I cannot recall what time karaoke was OK, but Claire and I headed to the Red Moon despite having been accosted by friendly drunken JETs who warned us it was closed. We'd missed last orders, but they kindly gave us another chance. So after more booze Vicki, Adam and I set off, but I have no idea what the original plan was, just the memory that we walked and walked around Okayama for ages, trolling about combinis, coffee shops, a 24-hour bakery and places I'm not allowed to mention.
All you really need to know is that we were all in bed between 5 and 5:30 and that we all made it to lectures at 10:am on the Friday. Adam and Vicki looked rather sprightly. I looked like a train wreckage 3 months after. And as was suspected, one ALT used the question and answer session to ask questions that should have been dealt with privately... So I went for a soft drink with Fiona, Saddam and some others after the conference, but was barely conscious, so decided to stagger the 55 minute walk home. And lo and behold a vision awoke me. New displays in the GAP window and the promise of bargains made me wave hello and after a minor shopping moment I was in Starbucks again with Vicki, Amy R and Rob. And when a curry lunch was suggested, my banging head and sore stomach pushed me back to Fiona's, to bed. And in the evening I managed to make it out again and spent a good night with Vicki having revolving sushi and then drinking in a couple of bars. My planned 11pm bed-going accidentally became a 2-am bedgoing. Oops. Again.
So Saturday turned into a day of ER where I only left Fiona's for three hours to a) pay for my plane tickets, b) randomly shop and c) hunt for recognisable foreigners, none of whom I could find. So after takeaway pizza and more ER it was midnight and my homing device switched on, and Sunday at home was alazy relaxing day with only a trip out to a) return a CD player and b) randomly shop (nabe here we come!). Although with what feels like a growing cold I could do with a few more relaxing days. Bring on Wednesday's national holiday...
The plan on Tuesday was to finally print out the latest edition of the Fuzzy Peach, but once at Fiona's with the laptop and printer set-up I hit print, telling Fiona in my bestest English accent that the printer is marvellous and the toner "never runs out". Until that night apparently. So the bloody magazine got postponed for another day...
Well, Wednesday was the usual round of speeches- were told how the JET programme worked, a Japanese guy who taught in Australia had the cheek to generalise about Australian schools as much as we do about Japanese schools and someone else told us that he was an English teacher who'd never met a native speaker and then proceeded to rattle of a list of all the people he'd ever met who spoke English. Scintillated I certainly was not. But he evening was much better. As the morning had marked the first of our trips to Starbucks, the time after the conference was spent on trips to Okayama's two Starbucks with Amy R while searching for printer cartridges and then Fiona, Saddam and I headed to Cannery Row. This is by far the best Italian restaurant I have been too and this was my second trip (the first being with Betsy, WhyVon and Alex in August).
Thursday was spent in mild panic as I had to do a presentation throughout which I spoke much too fast for the other Japanese teachers to understand and thanks to excessive planning was rushed through with material to spare. But the evening once again made up for the daytime when, having not had breakfast or lunch, we headed to an all you can drink beer garden (really an all-you-can-drink beer bar as it was indoors and there was no grass). It was allegedly all you can eat, but after a smattering of squid-in-wasabi and potato wedges I don't think my burgeoning appetite was sated. But I was more than tipsy and having a whale of a time. Julia and I did our best to demonstrate ghetto culture to Japanese teachers by grinding and shaking and dipping it low. I think the Japanese teachers were impressed. Julia certainly can shake it.
The night was in danger of stalling so Amy DM and I took direct action and headed off to the karaoke where people soon followed, so with Herb, Bob, Patrick, Claire and Amy R we were soon bringing the house down (falling of furniture and such). I cannot recall what time karaoke was OK, but Claire and I headed to the Red Moon despite having been accosted by friendly drunken JETs who warned us it was closed. We'd missed last orders, but they kindly gave us another chance. So after more booze Vicki, Adam and I set off, but I have no idea what the original plan was, just the memory that we walked and walked around Okayama for ages, trolling about combinis, coffee shops, a 24-hour bakery and places I'm not allowed to mention.
All you really need to know is that we were all in bed between 5 and 5:30 and that we all made it to lectures at 10:am on the Friday. Adam and Vicki looked rather sprightly. I looked like a train wreckage 3 months after. And as was suspected, one ALT used the question and answer session to ask questions that should have been dealt with privately... So I went for a soft drink with Fiona, Saddam and some others after the conference, but was barely conscious, so decided to stagger the 55 minute walk home. And lo and behold a vision awoke me. New displays in the GAP window and the promise of bargains made me wave hello and after a minor shopping moment I was in Starbucks again with Vicki, Amy R and Rob. And when a curry lunch was suggested, my banging head and sore stomach pushed me back to Fiona's, to bed. And in the evening I managed to make it out again and spent a good night with Vicki having revolving sushi and then drinking in a couple of bars. My planned 11pm bed-going accidentally became a 2-am bedgoing. Oops. Again.
So Saturday turned into a day of ER where I only left Fiona's for three hours to a) pay for my plane tickets, b) randomly shop and c) hunt for recognisable foreigners, none of whom I could find. So after takeaway pizza and more ER it was midnight and my homing device switched on, and Sunday at home was a
Monday, November 14, 2005
The sky's falling in! The sky is falling in!
Oh no, it's just the roof of our "luxury" cruiser.
So Fiona and I had a leisurely weekend together. She came to mine on Friday night, we rented movies, ate a very late dinner of curry (I needed a rest before cooking having stayed behind at school making the total time spent actually doing work= 2 hours) and going to bed before midnight.
Waking painfully early on Saturday (well, 7:30 is painfully early for a Saturday in my book) we were out of the house by 8:30 and driving through the mountain tops by 9. This was a lovely start to the day as we were surrounded by leaves of all shades and colours. Kind of like the UN of leaf colours. And thanks to a marvellous road system we were in a cafe in Shimane drinking coffee and eating cake at 10:30 (mmm, chocolate torte and orange peko tea...)
Having decided to not bother with the very important shrine on this visit we focussed on Matsue city's famous castle and surrounding areas, so our first activity was the boat tour of the castle's moat system. The boat was a small little boat with a kotatsu (Japanese table with heater attached to it) in the centre around which everyone gathered. As we pushed forwards with our tour guide talking to us and the good humoured group of tourists from Okayama cracking jokes around us in Japanese we suddenly became aware that the roof was lowering. We were going under a low bridge. And the roof was still lowering. We were almost laid flat on the deck of the boat to make it under the bridge, and suddenly everyone was laughing even more. This happened maybe five times, and each time the roof seemed to be that bit closer to the deck...
The boat tour takes you past many of the sights of Matsue city (the castle, Lafcadio Hearn's residence, a samurai house, some museums) but when we got off the boat we walked back and had a look. Except for the pottery museum which we didn't fancy. The samurai house was interesting with nice displays but smaller than you expected it to be (no TV room) and it seemed to be attached to all the other important old buildings (said foriegner's residence, a couple of shopping alleyways and the pottery museum). Across the road was another stunning sight, with the moat surrounded by autumn leaves.
With the weather threatening rain we trundled on towards the castle looking at pretty bridges and such along the way. And as we got to the main castle area we were accosted by a very enthusiatic and friendly Good Will Tour Guide who seemed very keen to help us. She was brilliant, walking us round the castle and explaining things such as lifting up floorboards to show where soldiers in the castle could attack outsiders... And she had a great sense of humour. Apparently Shimane doesn't get many foriegn visitors, so they are keen to attract as many as they can, largely by offering reduction son all the tourist spots (up to 50% off in some cases) and the people are very, very kind (we had people leaving their shops to show us where bus stops were).
The castle is one of the few in Japan that is original and not rebuilt. Our guide told us it was the 2nd largest although it didn't look very big. It felt bigger once you were inside. The top floor is unusual in that it was designed so that you could enjoy the surrounding panorama. It is all open, no glass, just beams holding up the roof and so it must be deathly cold in winter- the wind was blowing a gale through it while we were up there.
After wandering the castle grounds and taking more pictures we decided to head for the shops. Our plan was shopping, dinner at 6 and then leave just before 8. So we found the main stores (located near the train station) and at first we were rather disappointed, (No HMV, no Starbucks. Frankly this globalisation business is a bit of a let down...) but pretty soon things were looking up when we found the SATY mall with it's MUJI, and it's whole host of quirky shops inside. We still managed to leave by 6 though and after a delicious Okonomiyaki dinner we set off home to watch a video and were in bed by midnight.
Fiona headed back to the city on Sunday morning and I went walking round the riverside in my town, eventually heading home to fetch my bike and do some cycling which ended up in my finding the sites of current mountain repairs (ie tree cutting sites) where I became mildly alarmed that if a) a wild animal didn't bite me then b) a tree would fall on me. So I cycled home. And in the evening headed out through the misty mountain roads to see Rachel in Kibichuo. Those roads are much easier in the dark- car lights tell you if something's coming.
Today I am preparing for a seminar on Wednesday. Me and my best English teacher are presenting a workshop on textbooks. I'm just praying it goes better than my talks on vegetarianism in August...
So Fiona and I had a leisurely weekend together. She came to mine on Friday night, we rented movies, ate a very late dinner of curry (I needed a rest before cooking having stayed behind at school making the total time spent actually doing work= 2 hours) and going to bed before midnight.
Waking painfully early on Saturday (well, 7:30 is painfully early for a Saturday in my book) we were out of the house by 8:30 and driving through the mountain tops by 9. This was a lovely start to the day as we were surrounded by leaves of all shades and colours. Kind of like the UN of leaf colours. And thanks to a marvellous road system we were in a cafe in Shimane drinking coffee and eating cake at 10:30 (mmm, chocolate torte and orange peko tea...)
Having decided to not bother with the very important shrine on this visit we focussed on Matsue city's famous castle and surrounding areas, so our first activity was the boat tour of the castle's moat system. The boat was a small little boat with a kotatsu (Japanese table with heater attached to it) in the centre around which everyone gathered. As we pushed forwards with our tour guide talking to us and the good humoured group of tourists from Okayama cracking jokes around us in Japanese we suddenly became aware that the roof was lowering. We were going under a low bridge. And the roof was still lowering. We were almost laid flat on the deck of the boat to make it under the bridge, and suddenly everyone was laughing even more. This happened maybe five times, and each time the roof seemed to be that bit closer to the deck...
The boat tour takes you past many of the sights of Matsue city (the castle, Lafcadio Hearn's residence, a samurai house, some museums) but when we got off the boat we walked back and had a look. Except for the pottery museum which we didn't fancy. The samurai house was interesting with nice displays but smaller than you expected it to be (no TV room) and it seemed to be attached to all the other important old buildings (said foriegner's residence, a couple of shopping alleyways and the pottery museum). Across the road was another stunning sight, with the moat surrounded by autumn leaves.
With the weather threatening rain we trundled on towards the castle looking at pretty bridges and such along the way. And as we got to the main castle area we were accosted by a very enthusiatic and friendly Good Will Tour Guide who seemed very keen to help us. She was brilliant, walking us round the castle and explaining things such as lifting up floorboards to show where soldiers in the castle could attack outsiders... And she had a great sense of humour. Apparently Shimane doesn't get many foriegn visitors, so they are keen to attract as many as they can, largely by offering reduction son all the tourist spots (up to 50% off in some cases) and the people are very, very kind (we had people leaving their shops to show us where bus stops were).
The castle is one of the few in Japan that is original and not rebuilt. Our guide told us it was the 2nd largest although it didn't look very big. It felt bigger once you were inside. The top floor is unusual in that it was designed so that you could enjoy the surrounding panorama. It is all open, no glass, just beams holding up the roof and so it must be deathly cold in winter- the wind was blowing a gale through it while we were up there.
After wandering the castle grounds and taking more pictures we decided to head for the shops. Our plan was shopping, dinner at 6 and then leave just before 8. So we found the main stores (located near the train station) and at first we were rather disappointed, (No HMV, no Starbucks. Frankly this globalisation business is a bit of a let down...) but pretty soon things were looking up when we found the SATY mall with it's MUJI, and it's whole host of quirky shops inside. We still managed to leave by 6 though and after a delicious Okonomiyaki dinner we set off home to watch a video and were in bed by midnight.
Fiona headed back to the city on Sunday morning and I went walking round the riverside in my town, eventually heading home to fetch my bike and do some cycling which ended up in my finding the sites of current mountain repairs (ie tree cutting sites) where I became mildly alarmed that if a) a wild animal didn't bite me then b) a tree would fall on me. So I cycled home. And in the evening headed out through the misty mountain roads to see Rachel in Kibichuo. Those roads are much easier in the dark- car lights tell you if something's coming.
Today I am preparing for a seminar on Wednesday. Me and my best English teacher are presenting a workshop on textbooks. I'm just praying it goes better than my talks on vegetarianism in August...
Friday, November 11, 2005
Craig David- Seven Days
If Craig David lived here his seven days would go something like this.
I went to Lawson station on Monday.
And again on Tuesday.
Met a girl I couldn't talk to on a Wednesday.
and Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I went to the city and spend lots of money (and got shitfaced. Oops.)
I don't like Craig David. But that's not got anything to do with the price of fish.
This week has been an example of how to achieve nothing in a foriegn country. I sat indoors every night feeling too lethargic to do anything beyond watching episodes of South Park and packaging things to be posted out. But tomorrow I am, with Fiona and possibly Saddam, heading to Matsue in Shimane ken to look at old castles, eat noodles and possibly travel a bit further to see the shrine where all the Shinto Gods holiday. That should bring back my motivation. And soon I must to return to dance class and find all sorts of things to fill my time and get me mingling in Maniwa city...
I went to Lawson station on Monday.
And again on Tuesday.
Met a girl I couldn't talk to on a Wednesday.
and Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I went to the city and spend lots of money (and got shitfaced. Oops.)
I don't like Craig David. But that's not got anything to do with the price of fish.
This week has been an example of how to achieve nothing in a foriegn country. I sat indoors every night feeling too lethargic to do anything beyond watching episodes of South Park and packaging things to be posted out. But tomorrow I am, with Fiona and possibly Saddam, heading to Matsue in Shimane ken to look at old castles, eat noodles and possibly travel a bit further to see the shrine where all the Shinto Gods holiday. That should bring back my motivation. And soon I must to return to dance class and find all sorts of things to fill my time and get me mingling in Maniwa city...
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Such a drag...
So after a quiet night in on Friday (where I managed to stay up till 2am probably annoying the neighbours by playing Kylie and Sinitta and Christmas songs dead loud on the stereo) I decided to head to the city. The drive on the saturday afternoon was rather lovely what with the expressway being set in the tops of a lot of mountains and it being autumn (lovely leaves and such). And I almost suffered from a low-level of road rage when the slowest lorry and car in the world (both going under the speed limit all the way) actually sped up when we got to an overtaking lane which happened to be on a hill. This was a big problem because my Daihatsu Move simply wouldn't. Move, that is. And I ended up stuck behind them again. Gah! But the next overtaking lane was on flat land so I managed to get up to 130km/h in third gear. Yay for manual control!
Anyway, I left the car at Fiona's and we drank tea and then I left to sort out my ticket home for Christmas (yay! Home on 22nd December, leave the UK on the 8th January) and then Fiona came to meet me. We bumped into Maricar, another second year ALT, and had coffee together before surprising ourselves and actually both wanting to eat Japanese food. (Coming to the city is usually a chance to have something different.) So we went to the Izakaya and dramatically overordered. Oops.
Later that evening I headed out to Club Actron. I walked there because buses stop at 9:52 pm (such a great city...) but felt the better for it and had a great night dancing. It was a very peculiar night because they had drag queens doing performances (and they were hilarious and brilliantly entertaining) and then after a bit more DJing a drum-kit, some bongos and a didgeridoo appeared on stage and someone started doing live percussion and for a short while it was all very odd. But as the percussion got faster it all got better and more danceable. And in keeping with the fact that it may theoretically have been a gay night I kept up my traditions and made friends with a girl. D'oh! But she is very friendly and lots of fun and it;s always nice to mix things up a bit.
Anyway, we left at 3:30 to get coffee and I eventually got back to Fiona's at around 5am. Waking up to hear Fiona in the kitchen I looked forward to at least 3 hours more sleep until I realised it was actually 12:40 and Sunday was mostly over. Gah! So we got up slowly and at 2:30 I left to go and met Bob in the city for what turner out to be a minor shopping exhibition.
His place is on the way back to mine, so after a pasta dinner (again, I had Japanese style spaghetti which means it was served with Japanese radish, seaweed and probably fish stock) we headed off. And after dropping Bob off I celebrated having four wheels by driving through misty, foggy one lane roads to see Rachel in Kibichuo, stealing most of her stock of Nutri-grain bars and drinking her Darjeeling (the Champagne of teas!) before heading back out into the murky autumn night.
And what fun, taking narrow bends at 60km/h! Driving is much more fun than I thought it would be here. And at night it's even more enjoyable.
Well, yesterday and today were spent in a state of tiredness (no change there then) and I now stink thanks to an irritating Japanese bug that decided it was scared of me and secreted stink juice al over my jeans. Not being one to suffer in silence I wore them to Eikaiwa and I had thought no-one noticed, but if I think about it one woman did spend much of the hour with her hand over her mouth. A life of glamour is clearly not for me...
Anyway, I left the car at Fiona's and we drank tea and then I left to sort out my ticket home for Christmas (yay! Home on 22nd December, leave the UK on the 8th January) and then Fiona came to meet me. We bumped into Maricar, another second year ALT, and had coffee together before surprising ourselves and actually both wanting to eat Japanese food. (Coming to the city is usually a chance to have something different.) So we went to the Izakaya and dramatically overordered. Oops.
Later that evening I headed out to Club Actron. I walked there because buses stop at 9:52 pm (such a great city...) but felt the better for it and had a great night dancing. It was a very peculiar night because they had drag queens doing performances (and they were hilarious and brilliantly entertaining) and then after a bit more DJing a drum-kit, some bongos and a didgeridoo appeared on stage and someone started doing live percussion and for a short while it was all very odd. But as the percussion got faster it all got better and more danceable. And in keeping with the fact that it may theoretically have been a gay night I kept up my traditions and made friends with a girl. D'oh! But she is very friendly and lots of fun and it;s always nice to mix things up a bit.
Anyway, we left at 3:30 to get coffee and I eventually got back to Fiona's at around 5am. Waking up to hear Fiona in the kitchen I looked forward to at least 3 hours more sleep until I realised it was actually 12:40 and Sunday was mostly over. Gah! So we got up slowly and at 2:30 I left to go and met Bob in the city for what turner out to be a minor shopping exhibition.
His place is on the way back to mine, so after a pasta dinner (again, I had Japanese style spaghetti which means it was served with Japanese radish, seaweed and probably fish stock) we headed off. And after dropping Bob off I celebrated having four wheels by driving through misty, foggy one lane roads to see Rachel in Kibichuo, stealing most of her stock of Nutri-grain bars and drinking her Darjeeling (the Champagne of teas!) before heading back out into the murky autumn night.
And what fun, taking narrow bends at 60km/h! Driving is much more fun than I thought it would be here. And at night it's even more enjoyable.
Well, yesterday and today were spent in a state of tiredness (no change there then) and I now stink thanks to an irritating Japanese bug that decided it was scared of me and secreted stink juice al over my jeans. Not being one to suffer in silence I wore them to Eikaiwa and I had thought no-one noticed, but if I think about it one woman did spend much of the hour with her hand over her mouth. A life of glamour is clearly not for me...
Friday, November 04, 2005
Barking dachshunds and alcohol...
Well, I didn't sit on a tube and watch people, nor did I sit in a tree and watch the bears go by (too scared of nature's beasts being a city boy an'all). My previous post was written after a day at elementary school where over 100 over-excitable students were being more exuberant than ever. So much so that at one point it felt like they were there disco dancing, break dancing and finally doing the Hustle on my last nerve. From having been told I'd had a perm (naturally curly hair is not natural in Japan) to shouts of "afro!" I was initially amused, but the nerve dancing finally peaked when during a game of fruit basket the students at either side of me started rubbing my fuzz-like hair and bum chin. Again. Bum-chins mesmerise the kids here. And that includes Junior High children who are just a bit slyer about commenting. This led me to make a sharp exit at four, and fortunately I had a dinner date at Nao-chan's, although I was wondering how I'm manage to muster up the energy to be a good guest to always excellent hosts. And so I wandered around Tsukida in search of chocolate, taking in some of the lovely old architecture and beautiful autumn leaves and talking to people I bumped into.
I selected a suitable shop from which to purchase choclit, I walked in to find it unmanned (as they often are in the middle of nowhere) and upon calling out "kon'nichiwa!" who should enter the shop but Kiyoe chan (Nao chan's friend who always come to parties) and the two of us sat down and chatted for an hour or so, and her friends who popped in to the shop also joined in. And her little miniature dachshund seemed very happy to see me. It wouldn't stop barking...
And soon it was on to Nao chan's where I met her youngest son (22) who was visiting and we all ate a massive dinner of nabe and sashimi with Oji san and Papa san, and then Kiyoe chan and Kayo chan who joined us at 8. With Nao chan's son continually filling my glass with beer (and mine his) I know I was getting drunk and fortunately Nao chan gave me a lift home so that I wasn't in too bad a state for speech contest the next day.
Well, speech contest wasn't the happy event it was last year. I only had 4 girls competing this year (13 last year) and none of them got placed despite all the judges saying they liked two of them a lot. And one of them is one of the best students in her year and she took it hard, so I'm hoping that she doesn't lose heart. After the contest I gave a (terrible) short speech to the assembled people and then the Rotary club (who organise the day) took us out for a fancy lunch at the area's number one hotel, the Riverside hotel, Ochiai. The same place where the good karaoke is, but it was closed. Hot damn. So after an evening in and then a quiet day at work I am sat indoors trying to produce the next issue of the Fuzzy Peach but seem to be utilising many avoidance techniques such as updating weblog unnecessarily.
Really, I know I live in a lovely place and I'm made some very good friends and there are many more kind and friendly people living nearby. Sometimes it hard to remember this when you just want to be lost among the throngs, but I am very lucky to have met the people I have- they make my time in this town much more fun and interesting.
I selected a suitable shop from which to purchase choclit, I walked in to find it unmanned (as they often are in the middle of nowhere) and upon calling out "kon'nichiwa!" who should enter the shop but Kiyoe chan (Nao chan's friend who always come to parties) and the two of us sat down and chatted for an hour or so, and her friends who popped in to the shop also joined in. And her little miniature dachshund seemed very happy to see me. It wouldn't stop barking...
And soon it was on to Nao chan's where I met her youngest son (22) who was visiting and we all ate a massive dinner of nabe and sashimi with Oji san and Papa san, and then Kiyoe chan and Kayo chan who joined us at 8. With Nao chan's son continually filling my glass with beer (and mine his) I know I was getting drunk and fortunately Nao chan gave me a lift home so that I wasn't in too bad a state for speech contest the next day.
Well, speech contest wasn't the happy event it was last year. I only had 4 girls competing this year (13 last year) and none of them got placed despite all the judges saying they liked two of them a lot. And one of them is one of the best students in her year and she took it hard, so I'm hoping that she doesn't lose heart. After the contest I gave a (terrible) short speech to the assembled people and then the Rotary club (who organise the day) took us out for a fancy lunch at the area's number one hotel, the Riverside hotel, Ochiai. The same place where the good karaoke is, but it was closed. Hot damn. So after an evening in and then a quiet day at work I am sat indoors trying to produce the next issue of the Fuzzy Peach but seem to be utilising many avoidance techniques such as updating weblog unnecessarily.
Really, I know I live in a lovely place and I'm made some very good friends and there are many more kind and friendly people living nearby. Sometimes it hard to remember this when you just want to be lost among the throngs, but I am very lucky to have met the people I have- they make my time in this town much more fun and interesting.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
A little bit hmm...
Today is one of those days when you want to walk around the city alone with your headphones on and ride the tube and sit in a coffee house watching the hordes of people go by.
AND I LIVE IN THE BASTARD MOUNTAINS!
Gah!
AND I LIVE IN THE BASTARD MOUNTAINS!
Gah!
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
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