Bilingual? Me? Mochirun!

One little detail I forgot to add yesterday. While at the Japanese-staffed Japanese restaurant with Paul, Kasumi, Juliette and Ashley on wednesday, conversation naturally turned to Japan and Kasumi and I exchanged a very few words in Japanese. And then it came to pay the bill and someone asked what it was in Japanese. Juliette said, "okanjo onegaishimasu" and Paul asked if you could just cross your arms in an x-sign to ask for it. This actually means, "dame!" which is "no!", so I demonstrated the correct finger-x sign for the bill and then called the waiter over with a hearty, "sumimasen". And when the waiter came over what did I do?

Say, "Okanjo onegaishimasu?"
Make the finger-x and say "onegaishimasu?"

No.

I said, "sumimasen, bill please."

D'oh.

Slowdown.

The last few weeks have been a bit slow. The week before last saw everyone in the house get ill- Dad was in a bad way for two days, then he got better and Ma got ill. For two days. And when she got better, I became ill. Still, I managed to go shopping and buy running shoes. When something essential needs doing, not even illness will stop me. Unless that something essential doesn't involve shopping, but you knew that, right?


Anyway, I bought my shoes in Victoria, home of Westminster cathedral, a huge Catholic church. After lots of pictures of Japanese temples, it's only fair I redress the balance. It's a lovely place and has a 300ft high tower from which you can see all the major landmarks across London. 

Whilst there I was going to sing a song I learned about Jesus while I was in Japan, but I am not sure people would have appreciated it. Here it is:

I spent Sunday looking around one of the local parks. Having taken in the hundreds of squirrels and noticed the state of the diseased Chestnut trees I came to the best tree in the park. It's massive and looks a bit mental and had a familiar wooden stake in front of it. I remember that stake! I saw it in Japan! In June! It's a Peace Pole! On further inspection it seemed to have no Japanese on it. The Japanese for peace is "heiwa" (like "hey ya", but a 'w') and is written 平和. I was confused when I found this written back to front, and thought my local council was possibly very stupid. It turns out that this is Chinese. Thus I am a bit stupid.
 

Tower bridge. In London. In the dark. I spent Friday night wandering around looking at things and enjoying my own company. Who shouted "Loser"? 

On Saturday I met up with Adam. He left Okayama in July and has now relocated to London. We spent the day walking around and taking in the sights, as well as sneering at paintings in the National Portrait gallery (well, that might have just been me...) and eating breadless-sandwiches from Pret-a-Manger.0 In case you're wandering what a breadless sandwich is, it's not a slice of tomato on top of some cheese smeared with margarine, it is in fact a salad that could never ever actually be made into a sandwich even if you had three loaves of bread.  

As the autumn weather brings out the autumn crocusses (crocii? Crocarse?), the last bees of the year drag themselves along irritably, awaiting certain doom. Nature in St. James' park. 

A series of photos by Hiroji Kubota are currently on display on London's South Bank. Each photo shows a scene from Japan- on the left are young participants in an Osaka festival, and on the right are the Tori gates in Tsuwano town, Shimane. And in the back? Tower bridge. No, not London bridge. TOWER BRIDGE. If anyone bumps into Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas, can they please let her know? 

I became rather confused while looking at a picture of elementary school kids in Kurashiki's Bikan chiku (the traditional area) while standing on London's south bank.  

People often complain about cities not being very green. Someone clearly didn't understand. 

Yaki saba teshokku setto hitotsu kudasai! The taste of Joyfull at London prices. Unfortunately Gretchen-Maria wasn't there to organise drinks selections, and I didn't get to ask the waitress if she'd a haircut or shout obscene words while the manager was standing next to me. Not quite old times, but with Paul and Kasumi, and Juliette and Ashley, a good time was had at Yoshino's sushi restaurant. And afterwards I got to regale Kusami with tales of how my supervisor used to sit opposite me in the Board of Education and pluck his armhairs with a tweezers and have a discussion about which is better for men: shaving or waxing eyebrows? Clearly not doing either is wrong...  

Gobou: Miracle plant

While googling burdock root (gobou) to find places that sold it in London, I came across numerous facts about this delicious and marvellous root.

Not only does it promote healing of skin and scalp conditions, promote hair re-growth, regulate blood sugars and help with pre-diabetic conditions, IT WAS ALSO THE INSPIRATION FOR VELCRO.

Yes, VELCRO. So, if it wasn't for gobou, fat-footed pensioners around the world would still be struggling into lace up shoes instead of comfy expandable slippers and little kids wouldn't have those cool trainers with the three straps across. In fact the world would suffer a great loss of straps. Which would no doubt make bras more valuable.

I need a job.

I need a job.

This morning at 10:00 am I was running around the garden in my underwear chasing an evil cat with a big piece of wood in order to protect a squirrel and some collared doves. Unaware that my neighbour was watching. I was very aware once she said, "Good morning Christopher", and while we exchanged as much chit-chat as you could when one person's wearing no trousers, one thought ran through my head:

I need a job.

Great Britain? England? How strange...

Urban decay in London. It's the small things that make the difference. In Okayama this would have been an abandoned shack covered in moss and weeds in the mountains. In London it's a single abandoned shoe that has succumbed to moss in the middle of the Popham estate, Islington.

I arrived back on Sunday, AUgust 27th and have been living a comparatively quiet life ever since. The Monday was spent with family- the brother, his wife and their gorgeous baby daughter- in a slight daze, getting confused over the small details.  

Oh look. I've been back in England for 2 days and I find myself at Kaiten Sushi. Paying an extortionate amount for salmon and tuna and mackerel.

On Tuesday I headed up London to meet Megan, and we spent the afternoon wandering around Japanese shops, CD shops and ending up in pubs. I became very confused because it was still daylight at 7pm and there were no vending machines, no recycling bins and no Lawsons/ Family Mart/ 7-11. 

Wednesday's lunch was soumen noodles, and an attempt to get my family to try something traditionally Japanese. OK, so soumen season is O.V.A.H. over, but it's tasty and nice and I wanted to eat it. And the folks liked it. Next week it'll be oden... 

I like wandering around, so I went into London a bit early on Wednesday and on the way to Lyn's place I stumbled across the Bunhill field burial grounds which I've never noticed before. Lots of very, very old graves. Very peaceful. And it was a great evening catching up with Lyn and hearing about her cruise and travels in Australia. 

Friday was spent in the company of Juliette, a friend from Japanese class in London. We spent the day wandering around Chinatown, Japanese shops and West End stores, stopping to have lunch in a lovely Japanese restaurant. We ate desert in Cavendish square- coffee from Starbucks, kashiwa mochi and Look A La Mode. I AM STILL IN JAPAN! REALLY!  

Not all of London is glamour and money. This is Wentworth Street, home to part of the famous Petticoat Lane market. It is not very pretty and has a large ugly council estate behind it. And beyond this lays the financial district- you can see the Gherkin (a.k.a. the Erotic Gherkin, a.k.a. the Swiss RE tower) in the background. It was monday morning and I was about to start hunting for Japanese food products. 

Japanese food shopping again invariably means going to central London, and what a lovely day it was. The picture shows the view from Long Acre down St Martin's lane with its lovely buildings. It was Monday afternoon and I was wandering towards another bomb scare wondering what I should do for lunch... 

Another day, another moment of pretending I still live in Japan... Monday's luch was sushi while the afternoon was spent searching for gobou (burdock root).  

Last Tuesday I went to a pub quiz in Herne Hill with Megan, Matt, Lizzy and the Ryans. It wasn't a stellar evening. We came last. D'oh.

The rest of the week was rather quiet. I popped up to London on Thursday to visit my old work place, and then Friday became a family day as Sarah and Amelia (sister in law and niece) came to visit, and the evening was spent in Chelmsford celebrating Rachael's 30th birthday. And demanding that my tuna steak dinner be served RAW. Yay! Sushi everywhere! 

Ta Ta For Now!

Just a quick (ha! It's a lie!) recap of the last few days in Japan. Brace yourselves- it's a long one...


On Wednesday night I packed up and headed back to Katsuyama to collect my things from Nao chan's and say goodbyes. In a flurry of activity I took in Nao chan's, the post office, Lawson's, the bank, the post office (again), the old townscape (one street, but hey...), my junior high, the kaiten sushi restaurant (tasty lunch- sushi in Tokyo is often served on warm rice) and Shoko's cafe. And in the evening I was back on the night bus to Tokyo having spent two hours with Nao chan blubbing all the way to the bus terminal. Bye for now Katsuyama! 

Old meets new in Tokyo. On Friday I decided to get my phone upgraded- why waste loyalty points?! So, while I waited for my new mobile phone to be connected, I wandered around Ginza and the Imperial Palace grounds, helping lost tourists along the way. On the left of this picture is the unusual (for Tokyo) red-brick building of Tokyo station, which looks woefully unkempt next to the glossy high-rise office blocks and the relative sheen of the Tokyo Central Post Office (grey in the centre). In a similar way, my old, orange, well loved, albeit slightly scratched mobile looked shabby and old compared to my shiny new model. Yay progress!  

Firday night was spent with Hiroshi and Tomoko, and we started the evening in an Izakaya preparing for my re-aclimatisation to English culture. Which basically means we ordered "the British gentleman's favourite" as the menu stated- fish and chips. This actually turned out to be hash browns and fish goujons... D'oh. So we ate up and went to karaoke where Tomoko and I did our best to sing every Pizzicato Five song in their songbook. 

Saturday was spent seeing a few things in Tokyo. The weather was miserable, but Yuko and I went to the Meiji Jingu shrine in Yoyogi park only to see a huge festival similar to the one I'd taken part in in Katsuyama a year and a half ago. Except it had massive corporate sponsorship and the locals didn't appear to be so drunk and/ or friendly... 

Prayer cards at the Meiji Jingu shrine. I didn't write one as they were 500yen and I was worried about sounding vapid: "I pray for straight hair, hats that fit, culinary skill and money. And something nice for the family. Ta very much God, love Chris xx" 

Having taken time to admire the architecture, buy cards that didn't tell us our fortune as we thought they should have done, and enjoy the serenity of the shrine, we headed off for kaiten sushi on Omotesando. Yay! The rice was cold! After a feast we met Eugene and wandered to Shibuya, stopping on the way for Eugene and I to continue our argument of whose head was largest (I still say it's me) and prove the point in a hat shop. Fortunately one hat fit us both. It suited Eugene, so he bought it. And I ran around maniacally trying to force too-small hats on my head in the hope that a) one would stretch or b) one would contain voodoo-headshrinking powders.  

Oh look! It's the essential Shibuya-lights shot. Not done very well. The busiest road crossing in the world , etc., etc.