The Riverside shopping centre, Kokura. Situated directly opposite the castle. I can't tell which is more beautiful...
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down. Except not really. I did feel the apartment move under my hands and knees and thus also under my feet, but fortunately the sky didn't come tumbling down. That may have been too much excitement for one morning. At least two questions I had previously pondered were answered for me, the first being are earthquakes scarier than typhoons? The answer is a clear cut "yes". Yes. Yes. YES. YES. The second question, "will a tremendous shock cure a hangover?" The answer, unfortunately is "no". Although you don't really worry so much about vomiting when things are falling off tables and shelves around you. I will explain this chain of events later ("what's to explain?" you ask- "the earth shook, you shook", but there is more...)
The week had been a good one. No lessons at school, so it was all very quiet. A couple of nights in, and a Thursday night St-Patrick's-Day birthday celebration for AbSlance. I had spent the day indulging in Choclit as did LeeJay as she drove us to Shingo-cho where MsLance lives, and we troughed till the sun went down and beyond. Phil and ChoLyn came too and we had a Japanese smorgasboard (except we didn't really as no such thing exists. We really just ate lots of types of Japanese food) and as I squeezed copious amounts of mayonaise onto my yaki-udon noodles, I realised that a surplus of fat in my diet may be causing the surplus of fat on me. Oops.
Thursday night was a long one as I did not sleep. At all. Whenever I stood up I felt exhausted. Whenever I lay down I felt agitated. Whenever I did a gymnastics/ yoga style bridge, I felt the floor. "What fun!" I didn't think. But I did think, "I can't go to school today" as it was Friday by this point. And so I didn't. And I slept from 9am to 3:50 pm (strangely, 12am to 6:50am UK time. Hmm.) And in the evening LeeJay and AbSlance and I went to RayVon's for a night in.
Saturday was a big travelling day, as I met up with 3 other ALTs from my area, Amy, D and G, and we went to Shimonoseki, where Amy used to live. Shimonoseki is on another Japanese Island, Kyushu, whereas we now live on Honshu. We met up with her friend Yuka, and later also Rod, and started our sightseeing with a trip to a port in Moji where we ate dinner and then to a bar, and then onto a karaoke marathon. Midnight till 6am. Too much drinking, and too much singing later we were at home passed out. I woke up at 10:30 on Sunday morning wondering why I had yet another hangover (gin never did this to me in England) and lay there between sleep and consciousness (or whatever else you call being not asleep). And then at 10:50 it all went very odd. The apartment where we staying (on the sixth floor) started shaking. Badly. And it didn't stop. The five of us were suddenly all looking at each other, each with the same expression on our faces, one that read "what... is ... happening....SHIT!" and we all stayed where we were with pictures sliding off walls and things slipping off tables until it finished. My first earthquake. There's one for the family album. 2 things. (1) Later news reports stated that if that earthquake had happened in Tokyo, 12,000 would have been killed. It measured between 6.4 and 7 on the seismic scale, but fortunately the epicentre was 70km from where we were and was in the sea, although 16 houses on one island were destroyed, one person killed and 400 injured. (2) The apartment we were staying in was Yuka's boyfriend's. His name is Matt and he was away. After the earthquake, Amy picked up one of the pictures that had fallen and showed me Matt. Who I recognised from university. He had dated a friend's housemate for a long time. It's a small world after all...
Anyway, we had to cancel some of our plans (I had vague plans to visit Fukuoka, but all public transport was closed), and to be honest Amy and I were too hungover anyway. So in the early evening we drove up a mountain and saw a beautiful sunset and took photos. And then went to a beautiful temple that was near the seafront and took pictures. Then we went for dinner and saw Bridget Jones 2. And we didn't take pictures. But the next morning, I wandered round the grounds of Kokura castle and took pictures. And then as I took pictures in the Riverside shopping centre (beautifully modern) I managed to delete all the others I'd taken. Bugger.
The drive home was a long one, and we got back around midnight. Another interesting weekend over. Next weekend sees the astonishing return of my old best friend- Choclit. I shall not be reporting hangovers next week, instead it will be minor heart attacks and diabetes as I over-indulge once again. Yay!
The week had been a good one. No lessons at school, so it was all very quiet. A couple of nights in, and a Thursday night St-Patrick's-Day birthday celebration for AbSlance. I had spent the day indulging in Choclit as did LeeJay as she drove us to Shingo-cho where MsLance lives, and we troughed till the sun went down and beyond. Phil and ChoLyn came too and we had a Japanese smorgasboard (except we didn't really as no such thing exists. We really just ate lots of types of Japanese food) and as I squeezed copious amounts of mayonaise onto my yaki-udon noodles, I realised that a surplus of fat in my diet may be causing the surplus of fat on me. Oops.
Thursday night was a long one as I did not sleep. At all. Whenever I stood up I felt exhausted. Whenever I lay down I felt agitated. Whenever I did a gymnastics/ yoga style bridge, I felt the floor. "What fun!" I didn't think. But I did think, "I can't go to school today" as it was Friday by this point. And so I didn't. And I slept from 9am to 3:50 pm (strangely, 12am to 6:50am UK time. Hmm.) And in the evening LeeJay and AbSlance and I went to RayVon's for a night in.
Saturday was a big travelling day, as I met up with 3 other ALTs from my area, Amy, D and G, and we went to Shimonoseki, where Amy used to live. Shimonoseki is on another Japanese Island, Kyushu, whereas we now live on Honshu. We met up with her friend Yuka, and later also Rod, and started our sightseeing with a trip to a port in Moji where we ate dinner and then to a bar, and then onto a karaoke marathon. Midnight till 6am. Too much drinking, and too much singing later we were at home passed out. I woke up at 10:30 on Sunday morning wondering why I had yet another hangover (gin never did this to me in England) and lay there between sleep and consciousness (or whatever else you call being not asleep). And then at 10:50 it all went very odd. The apartment where we staying (on the sixth floor) started shaking. Badly. And it didn't stop. The five of us were suddenly all looking at each other, each with the same expression on our faces, one that read "what... is ... happening....SHIT!" and we all stayed where we were with pictures sliding off walls and things slipping off tables until it finished. My first earthquake. There's one for the family album. 2 things. (1) Later news reports stated that if that earthquake had happened in Tokyo, 12,000 would have been killed. It measured between 6.4 and 7 on the seismic scale, but fortunately the epicentre was 70km from where we were and was in the sea, although 16 houses on one island were destroyed, one person killed and 400 injured. (2) The apartment we were staying in was Yuka's boyfriend's. His name is Matt and he was away. After the earthquake, Amy picked up one of the pictures that had fallen and showed me Matt. Who I recognised from university. He had dated a friend's housemate for a long time. It's a small world after all...
Anyway, we had to cancel some of our plans (I had vague plans to visit Fukuoka, but all public transport was closed), and to be honest Amy and I were too hungover anyway. So in the early evening we drove up a mountain and saw a beautiful sunset and took photos. And then went to a beautiful temple that was near the seafront and took pictures. Then we went for dinner and saw Bridget Jones 2. And we didn't take pictures. But the next morning, I wandered round the grounds of Kokura castle and took pictures. And then as I took pictures in the Riverside shopping centre (beautifully modern) I managed to delete all the others I'd taken. Bugger.
The drive home was a long one, and we got back around midnight. Another interesting weekend over. Next weekend sees the astonishing return of my old best friend- Choclit. I shall not be reporting hangovers next week, instead it will be minor heart attacks and diabetes as I over-indulge once again. Yay!
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Monday, March 14, 2005
Hello God, are you trying to tell me something?
Last week's river-falling-in-while-on-bike incident came as a slight surprise to me, and made me think perhaps someone's telling me not to get too cocky (I'd just emailed an aunt informing her specifically that I could now ride a bike and wave at someone without steering in the wrong direction. Obviously this is now not true- sorry Aunty El!). Now I'm beginning to get what's really going on, although this might start to sound a bit thought disordered and psychotic. Last night while on the phone to me ma, the topic of sleep came up and I said, "yeah, I'm sleeping better than I have done since I arrived here", and as if on cue, I didn't get to sleep until 4am. Whoo. Not. And again today, as I get on my bike thinking I'm fine and biking's not that hard, my foot slips off the pedal and straight into the spokes of the moving front wheel. Ow. Ow. OOOW! I wonder, am I taking things for granted? If so, I figure these must be gentle warnings. If they were harsh warning I'd have broken my arm in the river last week, not slept at all last night and broken my foot this morning. I really don't think it's fair though. I haven't eaten chocolate since 1864 and I certainly am not fornicating (chance would be a fine thing) so I haven't a clue what to do next. Other than stop taking things for granted before my microwave reduces my apartment to a lump of molten plastic and my bike goes kamikaze on the mountain road to Kuse.
Other than these concerns things have been fine. The weekend was a busy one as it was an early celebration of the birthday of AbSlance (a St Patrick's day child, although one that has nothing to do snakes or any other such reptile). Dinner and lots of drinks at the restaurant where we bonded in August and then onto the Red Moon bar in the red light district which was surprisingly nice and had a good, wide range of drinks. We made a show of ourselves (again) by dancing alluringly/ stupidly (depending on where you were watching from) and then drank some more.
Saturday was a busy shopping day for me while the others recovered and our plans to go to the cinema had to be aborted thanks to a huge traffic jam which made me wonder if I was in Japan or at junction 7 of the M25.
Sunday was haircut day when I finally found the elusive/ mythical English speaking hairdresser, who scored instant points by getting excited because I am British and then scored bonus points by giving me the best haircut I've had since I arrived here. And then AbSlance and I made our second cinema trip in Japan to watch the Phantom Of The Opera. I've seen the musical and thought it was great, but I enjoyed the film too. While the musical wins for atmosphere and just sheer force (producing the music live, the stunning effects) the film wins points for having men with not too much make-up on. It also loses points for a large part of the Phantom's hair disappearing and a big strawberry birthmark suddenly extending itself once his mask is cruelly ripped off by that greedy little slattern Christine. I've been dying to use the word slattern for ages.
I think my computer may have recovered from it's sudden hatred of my DVDs and it's desire to kill them all through death-by-scratching. Thanks to my brother's advice it appears that this hatred may actually have been towards sesame seeds lodged in the DVD-drive, but I shall wait and see before I make my final judgment, and if Buffy series 3 disc 2 soon stops working, I shall dash said computer against the rocks. Or maybe buy a new DVD drive. Whichever works out cheaper...
Other than these concerns things have been fine. The weekend was a busy one as it was an early celebration of the birthday of AbSlance (a St Patrick's day child, although one that has nothing to do snakes or any other such reptile). Dinner and lots of drinks at the restaurant where we bonded in August and then onto the Red Moon bar in the red light district which was surprisingly nice and had a good, wide range of drinks. We made a show of ourselves (again) by dancing alluringly/ stupidly (depending on where you were watching from) and then drank some more.
Saturday was a busy shopping day for me while the others recovered and our plans to go to the cinema had to be aborted thanks to a huge traffic jam which made me wonder if I was in Japan or at junction 7 of the M25.
Sunday was haircut day when I finally found the elusive/ mythical English speaking hairdresser, who scored instant points by getting excited because I am British and then scored bonus points by giving me the best haircut I've had since I arrived here. And then AbSlance and I made our second cinema trip in Japan to watch the Phantom Of The Opera. I've seen the musical and thought it was great, but I enjoyed the film too. While the musical wins for atmosphere and just sheer force (producing the music live, the stunning effects) the film wins points for having men with not too much make-up on. It also loses points for a large part of the Phantom's hair disappearing and a big strawberry birthmark suddenly extending itself once his mask is cruelly ripped off by that greedy little slattern Christine. I've been dying to use the word slattern for ages.
I think my computer may have recovered from it's sudden hatred of my DVDs and it's desire to kill them all through death-by-scratching. Thanks to my brother's advice it appears that this hatred may actually have been towards sesame seeds lodged in the DVD-drive, but I shall wait and see before I make my final judgment, and if Buffy series 3 disc 2 soon stops working, I shall dash said computer against the rocks. Or maybe buy a new DVD drive. Whichever works out cheaper...
Thursday, March 10, 2005
And it was only after I'd said "Ohayo" and waved hello...
that I realised the front wheel of my bike had left solid ground and was plummeting headfast down a 3 foot drop into water. Oops. Not the way to start a tuesday morning. The reason that I left the pavement and fell into a stream (not my shoddy cycling of course) is that I hadn't slept well, was too slow to make breakfast, and so had to buy something at Lawson's which led me to the Board of Education where I saw the cleaner and waved hello with my left hand and steered off the pavement with my right. That's co-ordination for you. In a shock of movement, I scrabbled off my bike grabbing bag and gloves from the granny basket and landed on the pavement. Still, as I said to my supervisor "the day can't get any worse". And it didn't. I had a great day at elementary. The tumble must have shocked me as I agreed to play with the kids at lunch time (I forgot how much fun it is playing six-year old's games! Up that climbing frame, ho!) and then played funny French sports in clubs after school. And I enjoyed it. Therefore I must have some psychotic disorder and am checking into hospital this weekend.
The week had been a good one too- a few nights out including a trip to karaoke with Christine and LeeJay and then at the weekend, Doll Festival (O-Hina Matsuri- no, it's nothing to do with the Irish).
Dolls are big in Japan. Not in the size way- they're traditional and all girls are given dolls when they are born. A firstborn will get a big set based on the heirarchy of the old Japanese Imperial system- emporer, his wife, kids, servants, courtiers, stalkers, benefit fraudsters, drunken chauffeurs (oh hang on, that's the UK royal family), etc. And my town found a way to milk it! Yay for enginuity! From the 3rd to the 7th of March every year, Katsuyama's shops and houses display dolls in their windows amongst various other places. Many are old (we saw some from the 1930s), many are home made (little cloth ones hanging from trees like rapists in redneck land) and lots are hideous (the bigger they were the more they'd been molded out of plastic using the ugly stick). So with such a tempting proposition facing them, our friends Busty, Cho-Lyn and Claire came to visit Katsuyama.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon to be greeted by traditional spring weather (rain) and we looked around the town. It was great for me and Christine as often the shops appear to be closed, or simply their doors are shut, so we never knew what was going on. But at doll festival we were able to have a good old poke about. Some were great (the light shop where all the shades are handcrafted from metal and glass) and some were crap (the agricultural supplies shop- home to the world's biggest witch's brooms). Well, you can only look at dolls for so long, so we went and had tea in a shop that I thought was a house. And then Nao-chan met us and took us to Kamba waterfall (Kanba no taki). This was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. Still very wintery, it had tonnes of character, not to mention around 200 monkeys which were feeding, fighting and mating (as monkeys tend to do when people go to watch them). And to increase the "isn't it purdy" factor, it snowed thick and fast. Beautiful!
Nao chan then took us to Katsuyama's castle which was shut. It also wasn't exactly a castle, more a sturdy gift shop with old wooden fencing attached. I had been expecting archaelogical excitement and history, so Nao chan laughed when I commented "Is this it? It's not very old." Apparently the fences are 300 years old. My Dad needs to come and investigate. His fences rarely last 10 years. And in our now underwhelmed state we headed to a party at Nao chan's. 6 of us westerners, 5 Japanese and lots of food and drink in a very nice house is now my idea of a good time.
Sunday was a lazy day, LeeJay had tea at mine and then Monday we did revolving sushi and Karaoke. I think the whole cycling into the river may have been punishment for Karaoke on Monday night. I made my friends listen to me singing "no limits" by 2 Unlimited. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't push me in the river themselves...
The week had been a good one too- a few nights out including a trip to karaoke with Christine and LeeJay and then at the weekend, Doll Festival (O-Hina Matsuri- no, it's nothing to do with the Irish).
Dolls are big in Japan. Not in the size way- they're traditional and all girls are given dolls when they are born. A firstborn will get a big set based on the heirarchy of the old Japanese Imperial system- emporer, his wife, kids, servants, courtiers, stalkers, benefit fraudsters, drunken chauffeurs (oh hang on, that's the UK royal family), etc. And my town found a way to milk it! Yay for enginuity! From the 3rd to the 7th of March every year, Katsuyama's shops and houses display dolls in their windows amongst various other places. Many are old (we saw some from the 1930s), many are home made (little cloth ones hanging from trees like rapists in redneck land) and lots are hideous (the bigger they were the more they'd been molded out of plastic using the ugly stick). So with such a tempting proposition facing them, our friends Busty, Cho-Lyn and Claire came to visit Katsuyama.
They arrived on Saturday afternoon to be greeted by traditional spring weather (rain) and we looked around the town. It was great for me and Christine as often the shops appear to be closed, or simply their doors are shut, so we never knew what was going on. But at doll festival we were able to have a good old poke about. Some were great (the light shop where all the shades are handcrafted from metal and glass) and some were crap (the agricultural supplies shop- home to the world's biggest witch's brooms). Well, you can only look at dolls for so long, so we went and had tea in a shop that I thought was a house. And then Nao-chan met us and took us to Kamba waterfall (Kanba no taki). This was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in a long time. Still very wintery, it had tonnes of character, not to mention around 200 monkeys which were feeding, fighting and mating (as monkeys tend to do when people go to watch them). And to increase the "isn't it purdy" factor, it snowed thick and fast. Beautiful!
Nao chan then took us to Katsuyama's castle which was shut. It also wasn't exactly a castle, more a sturdy gift shop with old wooden fencing attached. I had been expecting archaelogical excitement and history, so Nao chan laughed when I commented "Is this it? It's not very old." Apparently the fences are 300 years old. My Dad needs to come and investigate. His fences rarely last 10 years. And in our now underwhelmed state we headed to a party at Nao chan's. 6 of us westerners, 5 Japanese and lots of food and drink in a very nice house is now my idea of a good time.
Sunday was a lazy day, LeeJay had tea at mine and then Monday we did revolving sushi and Karaoke. I think the whole cycling into the river may have been punishment for Karaoke on Monday night. I made my friends listen to me singing "no limits" by 2 Unlimited. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't push me in the river themselves...
Monday, March 07, 2005
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Hey hey hey! Wait a minute!
Isn't it funny how sometimes you really don't know what you're saying. For a long time now I have said "oi oi" as a kind of exclamation (despite my not being Jewish), and this continued in Japan. When people said things I was mildly surpised at, they got an "oi oi". Well, it turns out "oi oi" is also a Japanese phrase meaning "what!? Wait a minute!". Apparently it's a manly term (what else would you expect from me?) but this doesn't help the fact that I've been using it to Japanese people without thinking. I have told my supervisor to "wait a minute" on numerous occassions as well as his boss and his boss's boss. And probably half the town.
Oops.
Oops.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
shiza shistasu, pod-life and rabid labradors
Yay! Mania mania mania!
By the time last Friday came I was worried I would be too exhausted to enjoy the Scissor Sisters concert, having had only 3 hours sleep for 3 nights in a row, 5 the night before that, 3 the night before that, etc... (you get the picture). And then I found out I had to get the bus to Osaka at 7:18am- AM! I nearly cried! So after another crap night of sleep and a 3 hour bus journey I arrived in the city. A few hours mooching around shops and cafes later, we'd all met up and were on our way. Part of the deal with this trip was that it was Saddam's birthday, and she was probably the most excited by far although we weren't sure what to expect. Well, being Japan things were done differently. The concert was in a small club (size- 800 people) and the doors opened at 6pm. Early, we thought. And when we got there we were told that you had to queue in order of your ticket number, so we made a vague attempt to find our place in the queue and then some nice people just let us push in. So we got in, got a drink, started dancing to the really cool music the DJ was playing (all electroclash stuff), bumped into people we knew from the Tokyo orientation (there was a heavy western quotient at the concert) and at 7pm, the Scissor Sisters came on.
Now I'd not heard the Scissor Sisters album before the concert. I had heard their singles way before they were popular and liked them, but somehow missed out on buying the album. And I didn't hesitate in buying it after the show. They were amazing. I thought I'd have a good time, but the two leads, Jake Shears and Ms Ana Matronik were charismatic, cool, and obviously having a real good time. And the small club made it feel like it was one big party. The Japanese crowd was excellent too. A lot of us wondered how they would react, given our stereotyped images of Japanese people, but they were crazy and really got into it.
And then it was 8:45 and it was over. In my head it felt like 11:30, but it was only 8:45. So we went to a cafe place that sold western food (sandwiches, fry-ups, and the like) and it was good. But too small for our group, so many had to stand. From there we went to a nasty bar full of hungry looking western men and western girls dressed like hookers who made an effort to look especially cheap and trashy. No, I didn't like it. And I wasn't the only one. Yay! Then it was onto a club where, it seemed, lots of people from the bar had gone. Fortunately the company was great throughout, otherwise it would have been horrible. A few of us left around 1:45 and headed back to the capsule hotel. This was hilarious. A 6 foot long pod (maybe 3 feet high?) with radio and TV (complete with "adult" channels- and I don't mean CNN when I say that) and a nice roller-blind door. You put your stuff in a locker which contains towels and nightwear (a Japanese robe) and shuffle around in indoor slippers. They have an onsen-bath, showers and a sauna, you can check in at 3 and you leave at 10 am. All for the bargain price of 12pounds and 50pee. Cheaper than a youth hostel. I'll be back.
After a day with Kathleen on Sunday and a sleep filled bus journey, and then 8 hours of sleep in my own bed (hurray! Hurrah!) it was Monday night and time for dance. AbSlance picked me up on the way to Johanna's via Marui supermarket to buy food. Leaving Marui we drove past a restaurant car park where a woman was slumped on the ground and a dog was standing around her, as if protecting her. And people were looking from their cars and doing nothing, so we pulled up and ran, thinking she needed help. She wasn't unconscious, and somehow I managed to ask in Japanese, "do you need an ambulance" while AbSlance started dialing. She didn't. The dog had moved away, but was now barking, and then she said something and it made sense. She was scared of the dog who must have pushed her to the ground and she stayed there to play dead hoping he'd leave her alone. So, realising the dog was far enough away, she stumbled to the restaurant to alert someone. Meanwhile the dog (it was a lovely black labrador) came back wagging it's tail with a big raised strip of hair on it's back. Ooh, it's angry. AbSlance realised before I did that the dog wasn't best pleased- I was too busy smiling at it and making stupid noises. But I think that may have helped because it barked and came right up to me but didn't actually do anything to me and then lost interest when I was walking away slowly. As we got back in the car some men from the restaurant cam out and tied it back up- it had broken free from where it was chained.
After that bit of excitement dance class was a good way to relax. And yay! I slept again! Except I overslept, despite my alarm going off at 6:50am, I pressed snooze so many times it decided it had had enough, and then I woke up at 7:50. Oops! 10 minutes late and feeling exhausted. What a way to start the day!
By the time last Friday came I was worried I would be too exhausted to enjoy the Scissor Sisters concert, having had only 3 hours sleep for 3 nights in a row, 5 the night before that, 3 the night before that, etc... (you get the picture). And then I found out I had to get the bus to Osaka at 7:18am- AM! I nearly cried! So after another crap night of sleep and a 3 hour bus journey I arrived in the city. A few hours mooching around shops and cafes later, we'd all met up and were on our way. Part of the deal with this trip was that it was Saddam's birthday, and she was probably the most excited by far although we weren't sure what to expect. Well, being Japan things were done differently. The concert was in a small club (size- 800 people) and the doors opened at 6pm. Early, we thought. And when we got there we were told that you had to queue in order of your ticket number, so we made a vague attempt to find our place in the queue and then some nice people just let us push in. So we got in, got a drink, started dancing to the really cool music the DJ was playing (all electroclash stuff), bumped into people we knew from the Tokyo orientation (there was a heavy western quotient at the concert) and at 7pm, the Scissor Sisters came on.
Now I'd not heard the Scissor Sisters album before the concert. I had heard their singles way before they were popular and liked them, but somehow missed out on buying the album. And I didn't hesitate in buying it after the show. They were amazing. I thought I'd have a good time, but the two leads, Jake Shears and Ms Ana Matronik were charismatic, cool, and obviously having a real good time. And the small club made it feel like it was one big party. The Japanese crowd was excellent too. A lot of us wondered how they would react, given our stereotyped images of Japanese people, but they were crazy and really got into it.
And then it was 8:45 and it was over. In my head it felt like 11:30, but it was only 8:45. So we went to a cafe place that sold western food (sandwiches, fry-ups, and the like) and it was good. But too small for our group, so many had to stand. From there we went to a nasty bar full of hungry looking western men and western girls dressed like hookers who made an effort to look especially cheap and trashy. No, I didn't like it. And I wasn't the only one. Yay! Then it was onto a club where, it seemed, lots of people from the bar had gone. Fortunately the company was great throughout, otherwise it would have been horrible. A few of us left around 1:45 and headed back to the capsule hotel. This was hilarious. A 6 foot long pod (maybe 3 feet high?) with radio and TV (complete with "adult" channels- and I don't mean CNN when I say that) and a nice roller-blind door. You put your stuff in a locker which contains towels and nightwear (a Japanese robe) and shuffle around in indoor slippers. They have an onsen-bath, showers and a sauna, you can check in at 3 and you leave at 10 am. All for the bargain price of 12pounds and 50pee. Cheaper than a youth hostel. I'll be back.
After a day with Kathleen on Sunday and a sleep filled bus journey, and then 8 hours of sleep in my own bed (hurray! Hurrah!) it was Monday night and time for dance. AbSlance picked me up on the way to Johanna's via Marui supermarket to buy food. Leaving Marui we drove past a restaurant car park where a woman was slumped on the ground and a dog was standing around her, as if protecting her. And people were looking from their cars and doing nothing, so we pulled up and ran, thinking she needed help. She wasn't unconscious, and somehow I managed to ask in Japanese, "do you need an ambulance" while AbSlance started dialing. She didn't. The dog had moved away, but was now barking, and then she said something and it made sense. She was scared of the dog who must have pushed her to the ground and she stayed there to play dead hoping he'd leave her alone. So, realising the dog was far enough away, she stumbled to the restaurant to alert someone. Meanwhile the dog (it was a lovely black labrador) came back wagging it's tail with a big raised strip of hair on it's back. Ooh, it's angry. AbSlance realised before I did that the dog wasn't best pleased- I was too busy smiling at it and making stupid noises. But I think that may have helped because it barked and came right up to me but didn't actually do anything to me and then lost interest when I was walking away slowly. As we got back in the car some men from the restaurant cam out and tied it back up- it had broken free from where it was chained.
After that bit of excitement dance class was a good way to relax. And yay! I slept again! Except I overslept, despite my alarm going off at 6:50am, I pressed snooze so many times it decided it had had enough, and then I woke up at 7:50. Oops! 10 minutes late and feeling exhausted. What a way to start the day!
Friday, February 25, 2005
Oh dear...
As if you needed further prove that I am not playing with a full deck, I have truly out-bizarred myself this week.
I haven't been sleeping well and have thus become mildly irritable. So on Tuesday for some reason I was looking at the Marks and Spencer website (for those non-Brits, M&S is a quality-not fashion- family clothes store that's recently fallen on hard times) and I became very annoyed. Many of the male models modelling knitwear were wearing strong coloured jumpers (sweaters) with nasty white or beige pleated trousers. The jumpers thus looked cheap and dull rather than simple and stylish (Who wouldn't become annoyed at that? Please, don't answer that question). So I emailed to complain. As you would. Having given them my Japan address, I ended the email with the phrase, "so I'm not some mad bitchy foreigner". That must have been the winning point, because two days later I received a reply.
And a very nice reply too, not in the slightest bit narky, just very professional. That's the kind of customer service that all should aim for. I heart M&S. And I bloody well miss their food hall.
I haven't been sleeping well and have thus become mildly irritable. So on Tuesday for some reason I was looking at the Marks and Spencer website (for those non-Brits, M&S is a quality-not fashion- family clothes store that's recently fallen on hard times) and I became very annoyed. Many of the male models modelling knitwear were wearing strong coloured jumpers (sweaters) with nasty white or beige pleated trousers. The jumpers thus looked cheap and dull rather than simple and stylish (Who wouldn't become annoyed at that? Please, don't answer that question). So I emailed to complain. As you would. Having given them my Japan address, I ended the email with the phrase, "so I'm not some mad bitchy foreigner". That must have been the winning point, because two days later I received a reply.
And a very nice reply too, not in the slightest bit narky, just very professional. That's the kind of customer service that all should aim for. I heart M&S. And I bloody well miss their food hall.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Are you some kind of nappy wearing freak...
or is that just a yearly festival you're participating in?
As you can guess already, the end of last week was quite different. Which was a good thing, because, after the excitement of the shiny big city (Hiroshima), the week had been pretty so-so. It had started with a dance class on Monday where at one point I just stopped because I didn't have a clue (no one did, but I was clearly the most clueless), and it didn't help that we were dancing (or not dancing as the case may be) to some drippy Elton John ballad. Then there was an English conversation class on Tuesday where no-one turned up (but at least it meant I got to have dinner with the class' organiser and she's an interesting woman), dinner at Johanna's on Wednesday (always fun, never a chore) and a night in, tidying and cleaning on Thursday (as is becoming a frequent occurrence).
Friday is when the fun started.
Kathleen gave me a lift to Okayama city, (the capital of 'the sunshine prefecture'. It was bloody pouring. And not that fine rain that soaks you through either. It was that bloody heavy rain.) where we met Kathleen's boyfriend Mike, and Fiona. Dinner was Hokkaido curry soup, and ooh it were gorgeous. It had a flavour more akin to Indian curry than Japanese curry, and lots of chunky, chunky veg and rice. Mmm. I could eat it again now. And then we retired to Mike's to watch a video we'd rented. It was called Elephant and was possibly the slowest film I have ever seen. It lasted two hours. If you edit the unimportant bits it could have lasted maybe 14 minutes. And you'd still have time in there to add some sort of proper ending. Crapola.
Saturday was an important day. Having not many any gays since I came here, the chance came to meet up with the gay JETs group. And what situation could have been more fitting than the NAKED MAN FESTIVAL (this is a completely bizarre Japanese festival- lots of men in adult nappies/ diapers chase after a stick that will win them £500). So I met some of the group early and we went for lunch and then met the rest of the group and their friends and we all went for tea. I don't think I've been anywhere before where the waiter asks what drinks people want and someone shouts "20 gin and tonics please". Somehow I felt immediately at home. After about 2 hours, maybe 8 or 9 rounds of gin and some obscene behaviour with a lady called Catherine, we left the restaurant to meet all the other JETs going to the festival. And to buy more booze, much of which was consumed on the half hour bus ride there.
By the time we got there (9:10pm) I was completely plastered, but in an attempt to maintain the spirit of my recent life, I continued drinking, pausing only to glug some water when I thought I might vomit. This caused more problems as, having watched some men in nappies "running" (this is what they called it but they lie- the men walked) through a pool of water I decided I needed the loo. And not noticing that I was stood a metre and a half from one, I went into the night and walked for ages eventually only finding a dark car park, and then on my way back, finding a Japanese gentleman who wanted to and did give me a 40 minute lecture on the history of martial arts in Japan. In Japanese. It's probably my fault for, 10 minutes into the conversation, saying that I did Judo when I was seven. "Black belt?", he asked me. Ha ha ha haaaaaaa. If the alcohol hadn't numbed my senses I'd have been rolling on the floor. As it was I was swaying through the next 30 minutes. I wandered back to the ticketed compound to see in the distance lots of men in high waisted nappies pushing each other depite the fact that they were in a temple with many steep stairs. And I wandered around and talked to a few people and Saddam introduced me to a few people, and Rayvon swapped her pink woolly hat for a bandana with some Japanese men, and then someone said "back to the buses". It was 12pm! And it was 12:10pm when I realised I was lost and had to retrace my drunken stumblings to find people.
The bus back was a much quieter affair, and most of us went back to the hotel to try and sleep it off. And boy did I try. But given that my air con was broken and the room was an oven, when I woke at 6am after maybe 3.5 hours sleep I could not fall back to sleep. And by 9am I was extending kind greetings to the toilet bowl. Again. Checkout was at 10am so I shuffled down to the foyer, mumbled at everyone I saw (at the time it seemed like normal speech) and then ate and drank nothing when we went for breakfast. I would say I was maintaining an image of dietary discipline, but really I just felt like shite.
The afternoon was spent with a similarly ill LeeJay at Fiona's, where we stayed until it was time to go home and crash into bed. And again the week started. LeeJay came to mine for dinner on Monday, tuesday's conversation class had 4 attendees (success? a) and today Nao chan, a very-heavy-cold-ridden LeeJay and I went to tea at Pocketto (cheese in omu rice- mmm.) And everyday I've had to stop myself falling asleep at school. Whoops... I hope I sleep tonight and tomorrow. Must be ready for the Scissor Sisters in Osaka on Saturday (yes, I am showing off now). TTFN.
As you can guess already, the end of last week was quite different. Which was a good thing, because, after the excitement of the shiny big city (Hiroshima), the week had been pretty so-so. It had started with a dance class on Monday where at one point I just stopped because I didn't have a clue (no one did, but I was clearly the most clueless), and it didn't help that we were dancing (or not dancing as the case may be) to some drippy Elton John ballad. Then there was an English conversation class on Tuesday where no-one turned up (but at least it meant I got to have dinner with the class' organiser and she's an interesting woman), dinner at Johanna's on Wednesday (always fun, never a chore) and a night in, tidying and cleaning on Thursday (as is becoming a frequent occurrence).
Friday is when the fun started.
Kathleen gave me a lift to Okayama city, (the capital of 'the sunshine prefecture'. It was bloody pouring. And not that fine rain that soaks you through either. It was that bloody heavy rain.) where we met Kathleen's boyfriend Mike, and Fiona. Dinner was Hokkaido curry soup, and ooh it were gorgeous. It had a flavour more akin to Indian curry than Japanese curry, and lots of chunky, chunky veg and rice. Mmm. I could eat it again now. And then we retired to Mike's to watch a video we'd rented. It was called Elephant and was possibly the slowest film I have ever seen. It lasted two hours. If you edit the unimportant bits it could have lasted maybe 14 minutes. And you'd still have time in there to add some sort of proper ending. Crapola.
Saturday was an important day. Having not many any gays since I came here, the chance came to meet up with the gay JETs group. And what situation could have been more fitting than the NAKED MAN FESTIVAL (this is a completely bizarre Japanese festival- lots of men in adult nappies/ diapers chase after a stick that will win them £500). So I met some of the group early and we went for lunch and then met the rest of the group and their friends and we all went for tea. I don't think I've been anywhere before where the waiter asks what drinks people want and someone shouts "20 gin and tonics please". Somehow I felt immediately at home. After about 2 hours, maybe 8 or 9 rounds of gin and some obscene behaviour with a lady called Catherine, we left the restaurant to meet all the other JETs going to the festival. And to buy more booze, much of which was consumed on the half hour bus ride there.
By the time we got there (9:10pm) I was completely plastered, but in an attempt to maintain the spirit of my recent life, I continued drinking, pausing only to glug some water when I thought I might vomit. This caused more problems as, having watched some men in nappies "running" (this is what they called it but they lie- the men walked) through a pool of water I decided I needed the loo. And not noticing that I was stood a metre and a half from one, I went into the night and walked for ages eventually only finding a dark car park, and then on my way back, finding a Japanese gentleman who wanted to and did give me a 40 minute lecture on the history of martial arts in Japan. In Japanese. It's probably my fault for, 10 minutes into the conversation, saying that I did Judo when I was seven. "Black belt?", he asked me. Ha ha ha haaaaaaa. If the alcohol hadn't numbed my senses I'd have been rolling on the floor. As it was I was swaying through the next 30 minutes. I wandered back to the ticketed compound to see in the distance lots of men in high waisted nappies pushing each other depite the fact that they were in a temple with many steep stairs. And I wandered around and talked to a few people and Saddam introduced me to a few people, and Rayvon swapped her pink woolly hat for a bandana with some Japanese men, and then someone said "back to the buses". It was 12pm! And it was 12:10pm when I realised I was lost and had to retrace my drunken stumblings to find people.
The bus back was a much quieter affair, and most of us went back to the hotel to try and sleep it off. And boy did I try. But given that my air con was broken and the room was an oven, when I woke at 6am after maybe 3.5 hours sleep I could not fall back to sleep. And by 9am I was extending kind greetings to the toilet bowl. Again. Checkout was at 10am so I shuffled down to the foyer, mumbled at everyone I saw (at the time it seemed like normal speech) and then ate and drank nothing when we went for breakfast. I would say I was maintaining an image of dietary discipline, but really I just felt like shite.
The afternoon was spent with a similarly ill LeeJay at Fiona's, where we stayed until it was time to go home and crash into bed. And again the week started. LeeJay came to mine for dinner on Monday, tuesday's conversation class had 4 attendees (success? a) and today Nao chan, a very-heavy-cold-ridden LeeJay and I went to tea at Pocketto (cheese in omu rice- mmm.) And everyday I've had to stop myself falling asleep at school. Whoops... I hope I sleep tonight and tomorrow. Must be ready for the Scissor Sisters in Osaka on Saturday (yes, I am showing off now). TTFN.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Monday, February 14, 2005
A man named Kei
It's probably become a standard that everyone who visits Japan goes to Hiroshima, or at least wants to, and when I first came to Japan on holiday in 2003 I too had the same desire. That time, much of my short stay was spent away from the city in the suburbs of Hiroshima or on the beautiful island of Miyajima, with it's famous floating torii gate. A one hour trip to the Hiroshima peace park and Atomic bomb museum increased my awareness of what happened on August 6th 1945, but it was a visit made in the context of sight-seeing and was ultimately only a cursory one.
And so the opportunity came to return to Hiroshima. Sarah was going to meet her friend Lucy, and Johanna and I wanted to go as well, so we trundled along together with Lucy's friend Suzanne and made our way to the World Friendship Center, a house 20 mins from the memorial area which offered bed and breakfast and lots of other services. The centre is run with the cooperation of the A-bomb survivors and many organisations that work for peace, and they aim to educate people about what happened and what the bomb meant for it's victims. One way they do this is through organising meetings between A-bomb survivors and civilians, usually tourists or foreigners like us. So, on Saturday morning, having spent time on Friday in the museum trying to learn what happened, we went back to the museum to meet a survivor. A man named Kei.
Keijiro Matsushima (Kei to his friends) is 76 years old, born and raised in Hiroshima city. His family consisted of five members, for whom 1945 was a terrible year. His two brothers were fighting in the war; his father was seriously ill and with the city under continual threat of bombing, Kei's mother and father evacuated to his father's old home 40kms north east of the city. In the month following their evacuation, Kei's father died.
As a 16 year old just starting high school, Kei was one of the many school students drafted to work pulling down houses to make firebreaks (the city's housing stock was largely wooden, and should fire break out it would spread rapidly), or to work in munitions factories. He was living in a dormitory where, like everywhere else, food was short and they were always hungry.
At the beginning of August it was decided that some students should return to classes for a short period of schooling, and first graders at high school were among this group. And at 8am on August the 6th, 1945, Kei was sat in his second floor classroom at his desk next to the window in a maths lesson, 2 kms away from where the bomb was to explode. Kei feels lucky that school started so early, commenting that "if school was to start at 8:30, I might have been in the street-car and barbecued".
It was 8:15 when Kei looked out of the window to see only 2 of the three B-29 bombers that were in the skies over Hiroshima. It was 8:15 when he saw the flash. And then felt the heat. And the shockwaves. At the epicentre, temperatures of 4,000 degrees had killed all living organisms instantly, leaving no traces other than shadows. Shockwaves destroyed nearly everything standing in their path. Kei didn't know this and, like everyone else, thought a bomb had gone off outside his building. In an instant he had jumped under his desk, covering his eyes and mouth and heard a huge noise. He is still uncertain whether it was the explosion or the sound of buildings collapsing with the shockwaves.
Kei started to crawl towards the exit, and soon realised that he was covered in blood from shards of glass from the shattered window. He thought of death, and he thought of his mother, and he started to pray, chanting Buddhist sutras. Unaware of how long had passed, Kei made his way down the spiral staircase to witness scenes of horror and destruction in the streets outside. With so many students injured, Kei felt he should help, and started to assist a friend in getting to the hospital. As they walked into the city, they were met by many people shuffling away from the flames. Kei describes these people as looking like "smoked and broiled pigs... damaged, swollen up and disfigured so badly." They marched with their arms held out in front of them, their clothes burnt and singed with faces like baked pumpkin (in Japan, pumpkins are green and the skin blisters and bubbles when cooked). They had no voices, there was no crying and screaming. Around them houses were smashed and power lines fallen, and when they arrived at the hospital they saw the crowds awaiting help, among them many of the doctors and nurses themselves badly burned and wounded. Kei and his friend turned back to the school and his friend was picked up by one of the first rescue trucks. He also survived.
Kei decided to make his escape from the city, and his first stop would be his dormitory to collect his belongings. But his dormitory was ruined and nothing was salvageable. He continued on his way and on reaching the Miyuki bridge he stopped momentarily. Noting that stones from the bridge had fallen in one direction only (those of the north side feel to the pavement below and those of the south side plunged to the bottom of the river) Kei recalled an article about America's new weapon he had read in a magazine for boys. He realised that there must have been only one strong blast and perhaps the Americans had invented an atomic bomb.
Looking at the city from the bridge Kei saw many places he remembered from his youth. Now they were destroyed and covered in thick grey smoke. He recalls feeling ready to make a kamikaze attack, that he would have committed suicide in order to protect Japan and injure the enemy, but in hindsight he calls this stupid, and that "education is a great thing."
Kei finally made it to the train station at 5pm, almost 9 hours after the bomb dropped. He finally reached his mother's home at 12 midnight, and she was surprised, glad and relieved, having seen the flash and heard the boom from the paddy fields where she was working. Everyone around her had been certain that there were no survivors.
For the next week Kei was bedridden with diarrhea and fever, both symptoms of radiation sickness, a fate that faced many relatives of the victims who entered the city the next day to search for relatives. Many survivors died the night of August 6th, many days later and many over the following months and years of a myriad illnesses such as cancers and leukemia. Kei himself suffered further illness, with stomach problems and cancer of the kidney. Fortunately both were operable, but the frequency of such illnesses is much higher in survivors of the A-bomb.
Six days after the 2nd bomb had fallen in Nagasaki, the Emporer was heard by the people for the first time in history. To the people of Japan, the Emporer was God, and the Emporer was Japan. He spoke on the radio and declared that Japan would surrender to the enemy. Kei describes feeling both relieved and disappointed. Relieved that bombings would be over and that he would be able to sleep better, but disappointed because during the war, students had been educated that they should live and die for the Emporer and thus for Japan.
Kei went on to become a Junior High school English teacher, and worked in the US in 1966 teaching in various schools.
Now Kei works for peace. He, and many other survivors and inhabitants of Hiroshima work in the hope that the nuclear weaponry should never again be used on this earth, and that all nuclear weapons will be destroyed. The Mayor of Hiroshima is tireless in his work as representative of his town, writing continuously to governments and nations whose activities threaten to break agreed treaties on the reduction of nuclear arms. It is thought that 140,000 people died in Hiroshima in 1945 as a result of the atomic bomb.
Hiroshima itself is now a magical city, both welcoming and surprising. The city was rebuilt completely, and important historical monuments such as Hiroshima Castle and Shukkei-en gardens (a landscaped park originally constructed in the 1600s) have been rebuilt to reflect their former glory. The modern city is vibrant and joyous. People are friendly, such as Machiko, the lady who ran the Okonomiyaki restaurant and entertained while she cooked, and the waiter in Opium bar, who asked us to write english slogans on a pair of jeans and then gave us free cake as a thank you. But among the newness that surrounds you are constant reminders of where this city came from. Plaques and stones dotted along pavements and hidden in backstreets commemorate those who died, and those family lines that were ended by the bomb. Hiroshima is a city that does not want it's past to be in vain, and it is a city that has a very bright future.
And so the opportunity came to return to Hiroshima. Sarah was going to meet her friend Lucy, and Johanna and I wanted to go as well, so we trundled along together with Lucy's friend Suzanne and made our way to the World Friendship Center, a house 20 mins from the memorial area which offered bed and breakfast and lots of other services. The centre is run with the cooperation of the A-bomb survivors and many organisations that work for peace, and they aim to educate people about what happened and what the bomb meant for it's victims. One way they do this is through organising meetings between A-bomb survivors and civilians, usually tourists or foreigners like us. So, on Saturday morning, having spent time on Friday in the museum trying to learn what happened, we went back to the museum to meet a survivor. A man named Kei.
Keijiro Matsushima (Kei to his friends) is 76 years old, born and raised in Hiroshima city. His family consisted of five members, for whom 1945 was a terrible year. His two brothers were fighting in the war; his father was seriously ill and with the city under continual threat of bombing, Kei's mother and father evacuated to his father's old home 40kms north east of the city. In the month following their evacuation, Kei's father died.
As a 16 year old just starting high school, Kei was one of the many school students drafted to work pulling down houses to make firebreaks (the city's housing stock was largely wooden, and should fire break out it would spread rapidly), or to work in munitions factories. He was living in a dormitory where, like everywhere else, food was short and they were always hungry.
At the beginning of August it was decided that some students should return to classes for a short period of schooling, and first graders at high school were among this group. And at 8am on August the 6th, 1945, Kei was sat in his second floor classroom at his desk next to the window in a maths lesson, 2 kms away from where the bomb was to explode. Kei feels lucky that school started so early, commenting that "if school was to start at 8:30, I might have been in the street-car and barbecued".
It was 8:15 when Kei looked out of the window to see only 2 of the three B-29 bombers that were in the skies over Hiroshima. It was 8:15 when he saw the flash. And then felt the heat. And the shockwaves. At the epicentre, temperatures of 4,000 degrees had killed all living organisms instantly, leaving no traces other than shadows. Shockwaves destroyed nearly everything standing in their path. Kei didn't know this and, like everyone else, thought a bomb had gone off outside his building. In an instant he had jumped under his desk, covering his eyes and mouth and heard a huge noise. He is still uncertain whether it was the explosion or the sound of buildings collapsing with the shockwaves.
Kei started to crawl towards the exit, and soon realised that he was covered in blood from shards of glass from the shattered window. He thought of death, and he thought of his mother, and he started to pray, chanting Buddhist sutras. Unaware of how long had passed, Kei made his way down the spiral staircase to witness scenes of horror and destruction in the streets outside. With so many students injured, Kei felt he should help, and started to assist a friend in getting to the hospital. As they walked into the city, they were met by many people shuffling away from the flames. Kei describes these people as looking like "smoked and broiled pigs... damaged, swollen up and disfigured so badly." They marched with their arms held out in front of them, their clothes burnt and singed with faces like baked pumpkin (in Japan, pumpkins are green and the skin blisters and bubbles when cooked). They had no voices, there was no crying and screaming. Around them houses were smashed and power lines fallen, and when they arrived at the hospital they saw the crowds awaiting help, among them many of the doctors and nurses themselves badly burned and wounded. Kei and his friend turned back to the school and his friend was picked up by one of the first rescue trucks. He also survived.
Kei decided to make his escape from the city, and his first stop would be his dormitory to collect his belongings. But his dormitory was ruined and nothing was salvageable. He continued on his way and on reaching the Miyuki bridge he stopped momentarily. Noting that stones from the bridge had fallen in one direction only (those of the north side feel to the pavement below and those of the south side plunged to the bottom of the river) Kei recalled an article about America's new weapon he had read in a magazine for boys. He realised that there must have been only one strong blast and perhaps the Americans had invented an atomic bomb.
Looking at the city from the bridge Kei saw many places he remembered from his youth. Now they were destroyed and covered in thick grey smoke. He recalls feeling ready to make a kamikaze attack, that he would have committed suicide in order to protect Japan and injure the enemy, but in hindsight he calls this stupid, and that "education is a great thing."
Kei finally made it to the train station at 5pm, almost 9 hours after the bomb dropped. He finally reached his mother's home at 12 midnight, and she was surprised, glad and relieved, having seen the flash and heard the boom from the paddy fields where she was working. Everyone around her had been certain that there were no survivors.
For the next week Kei was bedridden with diarrhea and fever, both symptoms of radiation sickness, a fate that faced many relatives of the victims who entered the city the next day to search for relatives. Many survivors died the night of August 6th, many days later and many over the following months and years of a myriad illnesses such as cancers and leukemia. Kei himself suffered further illness, with stomach problems and cancer of the kidney. Fortunately both were operable, but the frequency of such illnesses is much higher in survivors of the A-bomb.
Six days after the 2nd bomb had fallen in Nagasaki, the Emporer was heard by the people for the first time in history. To the people of Japan, the Emporer was God, and the Emporer was Japan. He spoke on the radio and declared that Japan would surrender to the enemy. Kei describes feeling both relieved and disappointed. Relieved that bombings would be over and that he would be able to sleep better, but disappointed because during the war, students had been educated that they should live and die for the Emporer and thus for Japan.
Kei went on to become a Junior High school English teacher, and worked in the US in 1966 teaching in various schools.
Now Kei works for peace. He, and many other survivors and inhabitants of Hiroshima work in the hope that the nuclear weaponry should never again be used on this earth, and that all nuclear weapons will be destroyed. The Mayor of Hiroshima is tireless in his work as representative of his town, writing continuously to governments and nations whose activities threaten to break agreed treaties on the reduction of nuclear arms. It is thought that 140,000 people died in Hiroshima in 1945 as a result of the atomic bomb.
Hiroshima itself is now a magical city, both welcoming and surprising. The city was rebuilt completely, and important historical monuments such as Hiroshima Castle and Shukkei-en gardens (a landscaped park originally constructed in the 1600s) have been rebuilt to reflect their former glory. The modern city is vibrant and joyous. People are friendly, such as Machiko, the lady who ran the Okonomiyaki restaurant and entertained while she cooked, and the waiter in Opium bar, who asked us to write english slogans on a pair of jeans and then gave us free cake as a thank you. But among the newness that surrounds you are constant reminders of where this city came from. Plaques and stones dotted along pavements and hidden in backstreets commemorate those who died, and those family lines that were ended by the bomb. Hiroshima is a city that does not want it's past to be in vain, and it is a city that has a very bright future.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Doo be dood'ne dooby doobe doo be dood'ne
doobe dood'ne dooby doo. Words of wisdom once sung by Diana Ross. And often, it seems, spoken by the locals round here. Or at least that's how morning meeting sounds every day, reinforcing my belief that perhaps my Japanese language ability hasn't grown as I'd hope it would. Although I now know the kanji for aubergine (茄) which as you can imagine is useful in most daily situations. Oh well. Small steps and that.
In fact much of last week was taken in only small steps, thakns to the snow that seemed to go on and on with only inconvenient effect. Tueday truly was a winter wonderland, so much so that we cancelled conversation class, and LeeJay came to mine for tea. I decided to be considerate (never works for me) and rented a Spanish film as Leejay is bi-lingual (I said LINGUAL). The film had the kanji for English on the back, and looked like it had English subtitles. D'oh. We start watching the film (which fortunately I have seen before) and it has no English subtitles or spoken track. All it had was an English spoken commentary by the director which really would have ruined it for both of us as opposed to just me. But Leejay wasn't taken with it anyway, so we made up our own story and made obscene comments throughout the film's more serious moments.
Wednesday was similar, so we also didn't attend dance class and I watched Phoenix Nights on DVD and brushed up on my Northern accent (too many Californian-isms have been slipping in lately. That will sound so wrong when I return home...)
Thursday was a surprisingly good evening. LeeJay, Nao chan and I went to dinner (where I decided that perhaps the old testament is right after all. Gays should be stoned. Oh no, wrong page. I mean, shellfish shouldn't be eaten). Prawns (shrimp if you're American) are big in Japan (even the small ones are meaty) and they actually have loads of flavour. Loads of horrible flavour. Couple them with scallops and you have a recipe for evil. I can't think of a nice thing that comes out of a shell. Apart from Mars bars that you get in the shop when you pay for your petrol (mmm, Mars Bars). But it was OK, as after dinner we went to karaoke in Ochiai town in the Riverside hotel. This hotel has a wedding chapel, a hot springs (onsen), golf range and all sorts of other posh amenities. But the karaoke really rules- clear sound, walls that are solid, up-to-date songbooks with a beautiful selection of English songs (including "Never Ending Story" and "Let's Hear It For The Boy") and surround sound, so that the horror truly is everywhere. LeeJay and I were both drunk by the time we left. For me it was a warm up for Friday.
Having finished a busy school day where I took 3 lessons on my one, I rushed to the salon for emergency hair-straightening (I was being likened to a **young** Keith Richards). Yay! Now I know I'm not allergic to straightening chemicals. A while ago Kapo-san, the lady who organises our English conversation club, planned to start translating menus in local restaurants, so we decided to all do it together, I met her and Christine in town's best restaurant. Translation was interesting, and we got to try some new and tasty dishes. We also learned which ones to avoid- cows intestines, old (as in mature) chicken and other horrors were on the menu. I offered the opinion that there was no point putting these on the menu as very few native English speakers would really want to be eating these things...
After a while we had enough and headed to the yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant where I ate tofu (thank God tofu is good here). We also met some new people. This group of 4 Japanese people started talking to us, and they were funny and friendly. They were also asking strange questions- do I love any of my students, do I think it's OK, etc. No. Not. No. No. It's wrong, and even moreso when the oldest of my students is 15. I will not be dating any of my students, although they are all nice human beings. That seemed to please them and they bought us loads of drinks. Christine and I were soon drunk and having bizarre arguments about Africa where we both managed to offend each other, but we soon got over it and drank more. And then the people went to Karaoke and Kapo san and I joined them.
I was still drunk on Saturday morning when I awoke at 8 to catch the bus at 9:30 (that's two weeks in a row now...) as I had to be at the Doctor's in the city early. Bum. But I made it ok having sobered up on the bus and then met Fiona and we wandered round the city We went to Japan's 3rd most beautiful gardens and then to the prefectural museum where I struggled to decipher the Japanese signs and Fiona simply read the English underneath them. This was a nice, cheap day out. Both of us have decided to try and stop spending, so we went to the supermarket and pigged out on cake and choc and I made kimchee fried rice for dinner (not in the supermarket mind, I cooked at Fiona's. I dread to think what they'd have done if I whipped out a frying pan and camping stove in the middle of the freezer section.) And Fiona joined the video club so we rented Nausica (a Japanese anime film, which was brilliant) and Flashdance, which was slightly less brilliant, but extremely hilarious in an "oh dear" kind of way.
Sunday was a quiet day. We woke up late and went for breakfast at an almost 24 hour restaurant near Fiona's. The food was good, and when I made my selection and asked the waiter if it continued meat, he confidently said "no". And then confidently came back 3 minutes later and said, "yes". So my next choice was a "yes", and the next, and then a firm "no". I no longer trust firm "no"s or bacon bits. In England, bacon bits are made of soya, so they can be enjoyed by pensioners, children, Muslims and Jewish folk alike. In Japan they are made of pig. And they had sprinkled pig all over my breakfast. And not having the vocabulary to argue (nor the motivation) I did my best to remove said animal, but have been feeling a bit piggy since.
Monday was my first visit to the local elementary school since before Christmas, and was a busy school day (yay!), but due to the weather (rain and poor visibility and ice) we didn't go to class in the evening. So I went to LeeJay's, she cooked dinner, and we watched her box set of the Golden Girls for, ooh, 3 hours. Yay! Top notch sarcasm and bitching. It felt like home...
In fact much of last week was taken in only small steps, thakns to the snow that seemed to go on and on with only inconvenient effect. Tueday truly was a winter wonderland, so much so that we cancelled conversation class, and LeeJay came to mine for tea. I decided to be considerate (never works for me) and rented a Spanish film as Leejay is bi-lingual (I said LINGUAL). The film had the kanji for English on the back, and looked like it had English subtitles. D'oh. We start watching the film (which fortunately I have seen before) and it has no English subtitles or spoken track. All it had was an English spoken commentary by the director which really would have ruined it for both of us as opposed to just me. But Leejay wasn't taken with it anyway, so we made up our own story and made obscene comments throughout the film's more serious moments.
Wednesday was similar, so we also didn't attend dance class and I watched Phoenix Nights on DVD and brushed up on my Northern accent (too many Californian-isms have been slipping in lately. That will sound so wrong when I return home...)
Thursday was a surprisingly good evening. LeeJay, Nao chan and I went to dinner (where I decided that perhaps the old testament is right after all. Gays should be stoned. Oh no, wrong page. I mean, shellfish shouldn't be eaten). Prawns (shrimp if you're American) are big in Japan (even the small ones are meaty) and they actually have loads of flavour. Loads of horrible flavour. Couple them with scallops and you have a recipe for evil. I can't think of a nice thing that comes out of a shell. Apart from Mars bars that you get in the shop when you pay for your petrol (mmm, Mars Bars). But it was OK, as after dinner we went to karaoke in Ochiai town in the Riverside hotel. This hotel has a wedding chapel, a hot springs (onsen), golf range and all sorts of other posh amenities. But the karaoke really rules- clear sound, walls that are solid, up-to-date songbooks with a beautiful selection of English songs (including "Never Ending Story" and "Let's Hear It For The Boy") and surround sound, so that the horror truly is everywhere. LeeJay and I were both drunk by the time we left. For me it was a warm up for Friday.
Having finished a busy school day where I took 3 lessons on my one, I rushed to the salon for emergency hair-straightening (I was being likened to a **young** Keith Richards). Yay! Now I know I'm not allergic to straightening chemicals. A while ago Kapo-san, the lady who organises our English conversation club, planned to start translating menus in local restaurants, so we decided to all do it together, I met her and Christine in town's best restaurant. Translation was interesting, and we got to try some new and tasty dishes. We also learned which ones to avoid- cows intestines, old (as in mature) chicken and other horrors were on the menu. I offered the opinion that there was no point putting these on the menu as very few native English speakers would really want to be eating these things...
After a while we had enough and headed to the yakitori (grilled chicken) restaurant where I ate tofu (thank God tofu is good here). We also met some new people. This group of 4 Japanese people started talking to us, and they were funny and friendly. They were also asking strange questions- do I love any of my students, do I think it's OK, etc. No. Not. No. No. It's wrong, and even moreso when the oldest of my students is 15. I will not be dating any of my students, although they are all nice human beings. That seemed to please them and they bought us loads of drinks. Christine and I were soon drunk and having bizarre arguments about Africa where we both managed to offend each other, but we soon got over it and drank more. And then the people went to Karaoke and Kapo san and I joined them.
I was still drunk on Saturday morning when I awoke at 8 to catch the bus at 9:30 (that's two weeks in a row now...) as I had to be at the Doctor's in the city early. Bum. But I made it ok having sobered up on the bus and then met Fiona and we wandered round the city We went to Japan's 3rd most beautiful gardens and then to the prefectural museum where I struggled to decipher the Japanese signs and Fiona simply read the English underneath them. This was a nice, cheap day out. Both of us have decided to try and stop spending, so we went to the supermarket and pigged out on cake and choc and I made kimchee fried rice for dinner (not in the supermarket mind, I cooked at Fiona's. I dread to think what they'd have done if I whipped out a frying pan and camping stove in the middle of the freezer section.) And Fiona joined the video club so we rented Nausica (a Japanese anime film, which was brilliant) and Flashdance, which was slightly less brilliant, but extremely hilarious in an "oh dear" kind of way.
Sunday was a quiet day. We woke up late and went for breakfast at an almost 24 hour restaurant near Fiona's. The food was good, and when I made my selection and asked the waiter if it continued meat, he confidently said "no". And then confidently came back 3 minutes later and said, "yes". So my next choice was a "yes", and the next, and then a firm "no". I no longer trust firm "no"s or bacon bits. In England, bacon bits are made of soya, so they can be enjoyed by pensioners, children, Muslims and Jewish folk alike. In Japan they are made of pig. And they had sprinkled pig all over my breakfast. And not having the vocabulary to argue (nor the motivation) I did my best to remove said animal, but have been feeling a bit piggy since.
Monday was my first visit to the local elementary school since before Christmas, and was a busy school day (yay!), but due to the weather (rain and poor visibility and ice) we didn't go to class in the evening. So I went to LeeJay's, she cooked dinner, and we watched her box set of the Golden Girls for, ooh, 3 hours. Yay! Top notch sarcasm and bitching. It felt like home...
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Whiteout!
Dig in kids ‘cause the snow’s coming thick and fast and I don’t have enough choc to get me through. It’s gonna get rough, it’s gonna get nasty, but these are the days we’re livin’ in. Or something. Yeah, it’s been snowing for 12 hours, and we have about 15 centimetres of snow. Might sound like a lot, but it’s half of what was expected. Although at one point this morning you couldn’t see out of the window for snow falling and it’s still going, so who knows what we’ll end up with. As long as Lawson’s stays open I really don’t care.
The weather has been quite random all week. Tuesday night was cold as usual, and when you go into the room for English Conversation class and someone whacks up the aircon to the highest setting you wonder why you haven’t got flu. Again. Wednesday was similar as we consoled ourselves from missing the second part of the most enjoyable dance classes yet, and Johanna made me tea.
Thursday was also a cold day, but the evening hotted up as Kathleen came to Katsuyama for tea with Christine, Johanna and I and we stuffed ourselves with whatever we could recognise off the menu, and with some stuff we couldn’t. And then we went to the Katsuyama shanty town style karaoke salon (where the walls are held together with gaffer tape and the roof is carefully balanced so as not to fall on passers by). The booze continued to flow, except for Kathleen who was driving, and we extended from our initial one hour slot to 2 (oops), but had a great time scaring the locals and shouting inappropriate phrases into the microphones, thinking that no-one outside of the paper and lint walls would hear us. Double oops.
On Friday I started collecting sponsorship money for the big bowling event on Saturday in aid of the Tsunami. My junior high school teachers were so generous, I was really impressed. And after school, Kathleen drove Christine and me to Okayama, from which point onwards I may as well have just handed out my pin number to all comers and said, “help yourselves” while leaving my card in the cash machine. I’m not quite sure where the money went, but it went… OK. I do have a vague notion. It went on food and lots of drink. Chad and I hit Kurashiki, but after we drank two bottles of potato sho-chu (Japanese vodka type drink) between us and about 6 gins each, we were a bit the worse for wear. So much so that I had no recollection of anything Chad said to me when he woke me at 9 am on Saturday, and when I went to read my emails at 10am, I found I’d lost the ability to read. And for some reason I was spinning and- oh dear, I have to get to the toilet…. You can imagine what followed. I went to bed and stayed till 1, at which time I began to feel almost alive. Almost. With my liver providing much needed central heating, I made my way to bowling wearing only a short sleeved polo-shirt. And once there I demonstrated my complete lack of ability to bowl. No change there then. But Abby and I won 3rd and 2nd prizes respectively for fund raising and then we all went for a curry and laughed a lot like they do at the end of old He-Man cartoons.
And we laughed even more when we realised we’d done it again. Our group has a slight reputation for not doing what all the other ALTs are doing, and not going to all the organised functions. So we decided we would. And we made up our minds to go to Club Jam. Only at 3000yen entry, LeeJay, RayVon, AbSlance and I wanted to get our money’s worth and rolled in at 10pm. And, oops, we rolled into the wrong club. Club Actron is next door to Club Jam (literally in the same basement) so we thought we could cross over (like the girl in the telly in Poltergeist). But they said no. And then we realised the music was probably better and that it was ironic in an Alanis Morissette way (ie not actually ironic, just unfortunate) that we’d missed everyone else again, but we laughed anyway like they do at the end of old Thundercats cartoons.
We met some very friendly Japanese gentlemen who told me I looked like “Tom Cruise” (not the first time this has happened, although this time it was a very dark club) and his friend tried to pull RayVon by typing a message on his mobile phone that said, “I am a big penis. You are my angel. Let’s make fun tonight.” RayVon didn’t make fun with him, although we applauded them for being brave enough to try and chat up western girls and then laughed a lot like they do at the end of old Scooby-Doo cartoons.
Sunday was another day spent half in bed, and then with a subdued journey home where tiredness caused us to laugh like they do at the end of EastEnders episodes (ie not at all, because they’re all miserable in EastEnders) we went our separate ways, to mentally prepare for school.
Monday was OK at school, three lessons, and then jazz dance in the evening. Which was better this week, because the soundtrack was Paula Abdul. Although I don’t think it will be again after the noise we made. But like the kids from Fame (ie badly dressed and lacking style) we tried. And we will try again tomorrow. Brave soldiers looking on. Or something…
The weather has been quite random all week. Tuesday night was cold as usual, and when you go into the room for English Conversation class and someone whacks up the aircon to the highest setting you wonder why you haven’t got flu. Again. Wednesday was similar as we consoled ourselves from missing the second part of the most enjoyable dance classes yet, and Johanna made me tea.
Thursday was also a cold day, but the evening hotted up as Kathleen came to Katsuyama for tea with Christine, Johanna and I and we stuffed ourselves with whatever we could recognise off the menu, and with some stuff we couldn’t. And then we went to the Katsuyama shanty town style karaoke salon (where the walls are held together with gaffer tape and the roof is carefully balanced so as not to fall on passers by). The booze continued to flow, except for Kathleen who was driving, and we extended from our initial one hour slot to 2 (oops), but had a great time scaring the locals and shouting inappropriate phrases into the microphones, thinking that no-one outside of the paper and lint walls would hear us. Double oops.
On Friday I started collecting sponsorship money for the big bowling event on Saturday in aid of the Tsunami. My junior high school teachers were so generous, I was really impressed. And after school, Kathleen drove Christine and me to Okayama, from which point onwards I may as well have just handed out my pin number to all comers and said, “help yourselves” while leaving my card in the cash machine. I’m not quite sure where the money went, but it went… OK. I do have a vague notion. It went on food and lots of drink. Chad and I hit Kurashiki, but after we drank two bottles of potato sho-chu (Japanese vodka type drink) between us and about 6 gins each, we were a bit the worse for wear. So much so that I had no recollection of anything Chad said to me when he woke me at 9 am on Saturday, and when I went to read my emails at 10am, I found I’d lost the ability to read. And for some reason I was spinning and- oh dear, I have to get to the toilet…. You can imagine what followed. I went to bed and stayed till 1, at which time I began to feel almost alive. Almost. With my liver providing much needed central heating, I made my way to bowling wearing only a short sleeved polo-shirt. And once there I demonstrated my complete lack of ability to bowl. No change there then. But Abby and I won 3rd and 2nd prizes respectively for fund raising and then we all went for a curry and laughed a lot like they do at the end of old He-Man cartoons.
And we laughed even more when we realised we’d done it again. Our group has a slight reputation for not doing what all the other ALTs are doing, and not going to all the organised functions. So we decided we would. And we made up our minds to go to Club Jam. Only at 3000yen entry, LeeJay, RayVon, AbSlance and I wanted to get our money’s worth and rolled in at 10pm. And, oops, we rolled into the wrong club. Club Actron is next door to Club Jam (literally in the same basement) so we thought we could cross over (like the girl in the telly in Poltergeist). But they said no. And then we realised the music was probably better and that it was ironic in an Alanis Morissette way (ie not actually ironic, just unfortunate) that we’d missed everyone else again, but we laughed anyway like they do at the end of old Thundercats cartoons.
We met some very friendly Japanese gentlemen who told me I looked like “Tom Cruise” (not the first time this has happened, although this time it was a very dark club) and his friend tried to pull RayVon by typing a message on his mobile phone that said, “I am a big penis. You are my angel. Let’s make fun tonight.” RayVon didn’t make fun with him, although we applauded them for being brave enough to try and chat up western girls and then laughed a lot like they do at the end of old Scooby-Doo cartoons.
Sunday was another day spent half in bed, and then with a subdued journey home where tiredness caused us to laugh like they do at the end of EastEnders episodes (ie not at all, because they’re all miserable in EastEnders) we went our separate ways, to mentally prepare for school.
Monday was OK at school, three lessons, and then jazz dance in the evening. Which was better this week, because the soundtrack was Paula Abdul. Although I don’t think it will be again after the noise we made. But like the kids from Fame (ie badly dressed and lacking style) we tried. And we will try again tomorrow. Brave soldiers looking on. Or something…
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Ooh, you know who you remind me of?
If anyone said that to me right now, I'd have to ask if it was Marilyn Monroe. Not because I'm a blonde with shapely pins (rather an ex-temporary-blonde with increasingly fat pins and waistline), but because I have a seven year itch. At least last night felt like 7 years, as I lay there at four o'clock scrabbling for any medications I could find that would knock me out (sometimes I regret not keeping gin in the house). It ruined what had been a successful day with two lessons at school and the first dance routine I could manage in it's entirety at dance class (think top of the pops 2002).
In fact it has been getting more and more irritating, even though I now know there are even more people with the same inexplicable ailment (their doctors have as little idea as mine as to what's going on, although I think lying to her and telling her I didn't itch in England may have made it seem like it could be an allergy).
Last Monday started promisingly, dance class was rock hard (Jazz dance) and I couldn't manage it at all. Couldn't even do the turns properly. I was moving like a spinning top. A broken spinning top. That can't spin. Hot damn. And that night I slept for two hours, and thus spent most of Tuesday trying told my head more than three inches from my desk at work. Due to this extreme tiredness (I nodded off at one point, to be woken-thankfully- by the world's most unpredictable and noisy photocopier) I didn't go to conversation class, instead falling head first into a pit of snide comments from a person whose opinion means about as much to me as something that doesn't mean much to me.
Wednesday was a good day at elementary school, where I earned extra gay points through my choice of which club to attend (not that I can cash in these gay points here, I shall have to wait till I return to England and hope they haven't expired). When offered a choice of sports club (football and foot baseball- say what? Say no...), shogi club (Japanese chess with more rules than there are kanji characters), cooking (no, I attended that last time, so it wasn't really a choice), craft club (knitting) and science club (today, chemistry), I chose chemistry. Except they couldn't explain in English what they were doing, so I had to make an alternative choice. Knitting it is then, and they were all very surprised when I said I was good at it as a child (in hindsight I think this may not have been true) and from then on I proceeded to ruin a ball of wool in the name of club activities... And because Monday had been such a hard session, we couldn't be bothered going to dance class on Wednesday, and instead LeeJay and Abslance came to mine and we had tea and watched Mean Girls (not so much a movie, more a way of life).
Should full stops be inside or outside of bracketed statements? Grammar please.
Thursday must have been a lie because I can't remember it, and on Friday I got a lift to Okayama with Kathleen, which took approximately half of the time of the bus. I finally bought curtains for the front room, although thanks to a useless salesman (because obviously it wouldn't be my flawless Japanese at fault) I nearly bought only one curtain. There's something to be said for whipping it out and having a look before you pay. I then met Fiona who took as little persuasion as I do to start shopping and then we had our tea at Busty's. Busty had real cheese. It was amazing.
Saturday was a slightly busy day, where I went to the doctor's first thing and then after a brief period of birdwatching and being brainwashed by the Tivoli park theme song while waiting at the back of Kurashiki station, I met Chad at Norio's bar which has an incomprehensible name based on some old rock track with the same incomprehensible name.
Lunch was served and then I split to meet Philip and Cho-Lin with whom I went back to Kuse for dinner at Leejay's, albeit it a slightly tanked up dinner having had a few cans of alcopops (alco j-pops?) on the way. We were all way gone by 10:30 and in bed by 1. Oops.
Sunday was a slow day, and Johanna came to mine for tea where I experimented on her with Korean fried rice. It didn't contain Koreans or house pets, just some spicy pickled veg and some egg. Yum.
And today I'm pondering what to do in tonight's English conversation class, and whether they'll find my head lolling about the table very acceptable. Well, bugger them if they don't. It's not like they pay me...
In fact it has been getting more and more irritating, even though I now know there are even more people with the same inexplicable ailment (their doctors have as little idea as mine as to what's going on, although I think lying to her and telling her I didn't itch in England may have made it seem like it could be an allergy).
Last Monday started promisingly, dance class was rock hard (Jazz dance) and I couldn't manage it at all. Couldn't even do the turns properly. I was moving like a spinning top. A broken spinning top. That can't spin. Hot damn. And that night I slept for two hours, and thus spent most of Tuesday trying told my head more than three inches from my desk at work. Due to this extreme tiredness (I nodded off at one point, to be woken-thankfully- by the world's most unpredictable and noisy photocopier) I didn't go to conversation class, instead falling head first into a pit of snide comments from a person whose opinion means about as much to me as something that doesn't mean much to me.
Wednesday was a good day at elementary school, where I earned extra gay points through my choice of which club to attend (not that I can cash in these gay points here, I shall have to wait till I return to England and hope they haven't expired). When offered a choice of sports club (football and foot baseball- say what? Say no...), shogi club (Japanese chess with more rules than there are kanji characters), cooking (no, I attended that last time, so it wasn't really a choice), craft club (knitting) and science club (today, chemistry), I chose chemistry. Except they couldn't explain in English what they were doing, so I had to make an alternative choice. Knitting it is then, and they were all very surprised when I said I was good at it as a child (in hindsight I think this may not have been true) and from then on I proceeded to ruin a ball of wool in the name of club activities... And because Monday had been such a hard session, we couldn't be bothered going to dance class on Wednesday, and instead LeeJay and Abslance came to mine and we had tea and watched Mean Girls (not so much a movie, more a way of life).
Should full stops be inside or outside of bracketed statements? Grammar please.
Thursday must have been a lie because I can't remember it, and on Friday I got a lift to Okayama with Kathleen, which took approximately half of the time of the bus. I finally bought curtains for the front room, although thanks to a useless salesman (because obviously it wouldn't be my flawless Japanese at fault) I nearly bought only one curtain. There's something to be said for whipping it out and having a look before you pay. I then met Fiona who took as little persuasion as I do to start shopping and then we had our tea at Busty's. Busty had real cheese. It was amazing.
Saturday was a slightly busy day, where I went to the doctor's first thing and then after a brief period of birdwatching and being brainwashed by the Tivoli park theme song while waiting at the back of Kurashiki station, I met Chad at Norio's bar which has an incomprehensible name based on some old rock track with the same incomprehensible name.
Lunch was served and then I split to meet Philip and Cho-Lin with whom I went back to Kuse for dinner at Leejay's, albeit it a slightly tanked up dinner having had a few cans of alcopops (alco j-pops?) on the way. We were all way gone by 10:30 and in bed by 1. Oops.
Sunday was a slow day, and Johanna came to mine for tea where I experimented on her with Korean fried rice. It didn't contain Koreans or house pets, just some spicy pickled veg and some egg. Yum.
And today I'm pondering what to do in tonight's English conversation class, and whether they'll find my head lolling about the table very acceptable. Well, bugger them if they don't. It's not like they pay me...
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
You've been internationalised
Is this the true meaning of internationalisation? I can understand 95% of what Leejay and AbSlance talk about (the other 5% consists of sports references and I don't get those in England). However, proving it's not just a one way thing, while referring to Princess Diana in conversation (I'm beginning to think I'm obsessed with this old hag of an ex-princess) Johanna asked, "Do you mean Princess Di? Princess Di... Princess Dead" and although we were in a car, we did our best to fall about laughing. I have truly made a difference.
Once again, I am proud. I was also proud of Latina Turner, but that's a whole other story...
Once again, I am proud. I was also proud of Latina Turner, but that's a whole other story...
Monday, January 17, 2005
Things will never be the same again...
Oh, hang on, they will. And they are. Except for one thing. I've taught almost as many lessons at Junior High in the past week than I had in the previous three months. What's going on? Don't ask me. I sense a Princess Diana like conspiracy...
It feels strange that I've been back in Japan for almost two weeks now, as I feel pretty much as I did before I left and any post-trip blues have gone. For a brief moment I missed the London life, but that has passed. For the first couple of days back I was full of snotty flu and spent 3/4 of the day under my quilt in front of my computer watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Dallas DVDs (I had forgotten what a wonder Pamela Ewing was. It was a shame she had to phone Bobby on her car phone while driving and end up under the bottom of a lorry in flames having to have major plastic surgery that left her looking like a completely different actress, so much so that she felt too self-conscious to return to Southfork and her irritating fugly child Christopher. Still, that's life eh?)
At the weekend Ab Slance ferried me to RayVon's where we had our Christmas party (with LeeJay, Saddam and Fiona) although fortunately that didn't involve a)movement or b) leaving the house. I continued to demonstrate how not to be the life and soul of the party by taking frequent naps and going to bed and then getting up and then going back like a yo-yo with a bad attitude.
School started on the Tuesday and the first day of doing nothing was followerd by dinner at Wakaba with LeeJay and Nao chan, my Japanese friend. It was reassuring to eat foods I liked in Japan as the lure of roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding was almost too strong, but kimchee cha han (korean chilli fried rice) and agedashi tofu (deep fried tofu with ginger and fish flakes in soup) brightened me up no end. In fact, any instance of not having to cook for myself brightens me up no end...
Back to school on Wednesday and lessons began for me. By the end of the week I'd done 6 lessons (which doesn't sound like much for 4 days of work, but for here it was like a bonanza).
Wednesday and Friday nights gave me necessary opportunities to make a fool of myself as we went to dance class and I appeared unable to stretch any muscle in my body to at all. How I laughed when the instructor demonstrated putting his feet behind his head. How I cried when I actually tried it. How I damaged myself when we tried the splits. In fact Friday's warm up consisted of 2 Japanese women doing it perfectly, AbSlance and Leejay getting it wrong and me rolling round the floor groaning like a pensioner with cystitis.
The weekend was party time and all the gang came to Katsuyama (the gang sounds a bit crap doesn't it, like something your Mum would say trying to be cool.) Nao chan and her husband, who we call Papa san, were holding a party for my and Johanna's birthdays. So with everyone together we first went to the Samurai House in Katsuyama, but it was closed. However, the lady who ran it was kind enough to show us around the gardens (duration: 4 minutes) and explained about things in Japanese. And as I had the best knowledge of Japanese there, it became my turn to make appropriate noises and pretend to understand. I don't think I fooled her though...
The party was crazy. There were the six of our group, Nao chan and her husband, Oji san, their 72 year old friend, another couple and their neice who spoke very good English. So much food had been prepared and so much alcohol purchased it was unbelievable. We drank and drank and drank, by 8pm everyone was drunk and Leejay and RayVon definitely surpassed the rest of us storming round the house all night, flashing Saddam and Fiona when they had gone to bed. They flashed me too, but I refused to look on the grounds it was pointless. Why do I want to see breasticles?
Well, Leejay was suffering on Sunday, as was RayVon who looked fit to chuck and had a two hour bus journey home. Leejay stayed with me and we watched DVDs and ate lots of crap (which seems a good way to spend a Sunday).
Today I have been hugely busy, having taught in all 5 sessions. And tonight? More dancing. If the no pain no gain thing is true then I must be friggin' wonderful now. I may be too wonderful to walk by the end of the night...
It feels strange that I've been back in Japan for almost two weeks now, as I feel pretty much as I did before I left and any post-trip blues have gone. For a brief moment I missed the London life, but that has passed. For the first couple of days back I was full of snotty flu and spent 3/4 of the day under my quilt in front of my computer watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Dallas DVDs (I had forgotten what a wonder Pamela Ewing was. It was a shame she had to phone Bobby on her car phone while driving and end up under the bottom of a lorry in flames having to have major plastic surgery that left her looking like a completely different actress, so much so that she felt too self-conscious to return to Southfork and her irritating fugly child Christopher. Still, that's life eh?)
At the weekend Ab Slance ferried me to RayVon's where we had our Christmas party (with LeeJay, Saddam and Fiona) although fortunately that didn't involve a)movement or b) leaving the house. I continued to demonstrate how not to be the life and soul of the party by taking frequent naps and going to bed and then getting up and then going back like a yo-yo with a bad attitude.
School started on the Tuesday and the first day of doing nothing was followerd by dinner at Wakaba with LeeJay and Nao chan, my Japanese friend. It was reassuring to eat foods I liked in Japan as the lure of roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding was almost too strong, but kimchee cha han (korean chilli fried rice) and agedashi tofu (deep fried tofu with ginger and fish flakes in soup) brightened me up no end. In fact, any instance of not having to cook for myself brightens me up no end...
Back to school on Wednesday and lessons began for me. By the end of the week I'd done 6 lessons (which doesn't sound like much for 4 days of work, but for here it was like a bonanza).
Wednesday and Friday nights gave me necessary opportunities to make a fool of myself as we went to dance class and I appeared unable to stretch any muscle in my body to at all. How I laughed when the instructor demonstrated putting his feet behind his head. How I cried when I actually tried it. How I damaged myself when we tried the splits. In fact Friday's warm up consisted of 2 Japanese women doing it perfectly, AbSlance and Leejay getting it wrong and me rolling round the floor groaning like a pensioner with cystitis.
The weekend was party time and all the gang came to Katsuyama (the gang sounds a bit crap doesn't it, like something your Mum would say trying to be cool.) Nao chan and her husband, who we call Papa san, were holding a party for my and Johanna's birthdays. So with everyone together we first went to the Samurai House in Katsuyama, but it was closed. However, the lady who ran it was kind enough to show us around the gardens (duration: 4 minutes) and explained about things in Japanese. And as I had the best knowledge of Japanese there, it became my turn to make appropriate noises and pretend to understand. I don't think I fooled her though...
The party was crazy. There were the six of our group, Nao chan and her husband, Oji san, their 72 year old friend, another couple and their neice who spoke very good English. So much food had been prepared and so much alcohol purchased it was unbelievable. We drank and drank and drank, by 8pm everyone was drunk and Leejay and RayVon definitely surpassed the rest of us storming round the house all night, flashing Saddam and Fiona when they had gone to bed. They flashed me too, but I refused to look on the grounds it was pointless. Why do I want to see breasticles?
Well, Leejay was suffering on Sunday, as was RayVon who looked fit to chuck and had a two hour bus journey home. Leejay stayed with me and we watched DVDs and ate lots of crap (which seems a good way to spend a Sunday).
Today I have been hugely busy, having taught in all 5 sessions. And tonight? More dancing. If the no pain no gain thing is true then I must be friggin' wonderful now. I may be too wonderful to walk by the end of the night...
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Important retraction
Details in the previous post were, it seems, hugely wrong. In an apparent display of taste, my Mum has declared her horror at being associated with a Harvester restaurant. In an email entitled: "Harvester. WHAT HARVESTER?" she explains the situation, demonstrates her horror and makes me look stupid all at the same time. Here is the comment:
Hi Christopher,
I've just read your interesting web log & I thought I should tell you an amendment is in order.
WE DID NOT EAT IN A HARVESTER RESTAURANT.You should have known by the menu that it wasn't a harvester.
I am proud.
Hi Christopher,
I've just read your interesting web log & I thought I should tell you an amendment is in order.
WE DID NOT EAT IN A HARVESTER RESTAURANT.You should have known by the menu that it wasn't a harvester.
I am proud.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
What I did on my holidays...
I did a lot you know. Yes! A lot. I woke up and fell asleep every day. I ate and drank every day and I did walking too. And I did toilet and dressing and I spended money. I had big holiday in big city and I did talking to lots of people.
I arrived in Heathrow on 22nd December to parents who were sure they wouldn't recognise me as having hair straightened is akin to having plastic surgery it seems. But the familiar sight of me purchasing an excess of Ferrero Rocher and Toblerone at the last chance Duty-Free counter jogged their memories and we made our way home via a busy pub where I carried my luggage up a flight of stairs and felt very dizzy. I was very tired having managed only 2 hours sleep the night before and therefore the rest of the evening is a blur.
The 23rd was also a bit of a blur, and I took in some familiar sights- the Doctor's (where I was informed that I had never been to Japan before this trip by a Dr I've never met before), Toni and Guy Essensuals in Covent Garden (only the best for me! Hair cut by Michael, very nice), popped in to the CityLit for about 3 hours to visit old work colleagues, 2 thirds of whom were on hols (hot damn, but thank you and hello to all who were there) and then met Jo Attwooll for tea in Food For Thought on Neal Street (v. tasty veggie restaurant). Then met Juliette at Covent Garden station and we went to the Globe pub to meet Chika-san (our Japanese teacher in England) and her Mum at the pub and some of her friends. Except we were the first there and Chika-san was the last and we didn't know any of her friends so we were confused for a long while...
The 24th didn't quite go to plan. I had to do Christmas shopping (I'd bought some bits from Japan, but not enough) and then meet people, so I dodged into Marks's in Moorgate and grabbed many nice things before being delayed by loons on either side of the cash tills. From there I went on to meet Megan and Dhanusha in Camden where they tried on lots of clothes and Dhanusha announced that she is to be wed. Yay! And proving we are similar, she tried on a dress which didn't fit, and bought it anyway because it was too nice and someone should wear it.
Kofi and Karen joined us and did pretend fighting and we went for a pub lunch which was very tasty and then we went home. Having not made it to the pub in the evening to meet Neil and Rachel and Roland and Kat due to time constraints, Ma and Pa and I headed to Midnight mass which was preceeded by a diabolical carol service. The carols themselves weren't diabolical, but the performances were. It was like Helen Keller without the vocal training. Next year I'm bringing a portable tape player and a nice Christmas CD to drown out the din.
Christmas day was lovely and quiet and my brother, his lady wife and her lady mother came to ours for dinner and tea and we all watched Peter Kay on DVD. And then on Boxing day we did pretty much the same, but at my brother's house.
On Monday the 27th I headed up North and saw some snow along the way. I was going to Manchester to see friends and babies! Yay! So I arrived and was picked up by Sara and her Mum in the middle of the city (which just gets better every time you go) and Sara and I went to see Emma who looked well. Penny, it turned out had gone to Newcastle with Robert (her baby), and I realised I'd forgotten to reply to an email somewhere... And we chatted and caught up for a while and then left and it was only in the morning I realised I'd forgotten to see Emma's baby. Still, she showed me a lovely photo...
The Tuesday was another day of plans going awry, where Charlotte picked me up from Sara's and I spent a lot of time trying to get in contact with Susan and Lyndsey with whom I was supposed to be staying. Well, we did a bit of shopping and a lot of chatting and for lunch headed to a pub in Sale where I was meeting Suzanne, my old flatmate, and her new partner Rob. And it was here that both Suzanne and I walked past each other, not recognising each other with our new barnets (perhaps my parents were right about hair changes being akin to plastic surgery). And it was also here that I heard from Susan with whom it wouldn't be possible for me to stay with due to unforeseen circumstances. Oops! So I arranged to stay with Sara again and had a nice lunch catching up with Suzanne and chatting with Rob and Charlotte. And then I headed into town for an aimless afternoon of wandering. And I did my usual looking round and saw all the new bits no-one tells you about (it is looking rather grand these days). But the day wasn't in vain as I made the acquaintance of an Argentine model called Frank we spent the afternoon chatting and then bumped into Kofi while we were in Velvet.
On the wednesday I left Sara's and Manchester and headed back to London and an evening visit to Lyn's, where we chatted and ate more good food...
I left my house as late as posible on Thursday and made my way to Shepherd's Bush Empire to pick up my ticket for New Year, but I got it wrong as tickets can only be collected on the night, doh! So I headed to my rendevous point with Vezza Lezza/ Dorothy Brody/ Verity (delete as applicable, all are same person), where we shopped and went on to discuss the finer points of the City Lit, food overseas, alcohol and vomiting in inappropriate places (much to the pleasure of the people sitting next to us in the Greek restaurant I'm sure).
New Year's Eve. All my friends were doing exciting and cool different things. So I thought, "sod that" and went off on my own. I was going to see Saint Etienne at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Prior to this I met with Neil and Rachel and Roland and Kat and we had tasty pub tea (potatoes) and took the piss out of the locals in an Ilford pub.
Saint Etienne was ace. They had two support bands- the Magic Numbers (the ugliest band I have ever seen, but their music was ace) and the Concretes (a slighlty odd Swedish combo who used many, many, many different instruments. Their album is very good) and then after their show they had DJs until 3. I sometimes forget how much I love Saint Etienne. They played most of their hits and some new songs, and the highlight for me was definitely "Who Do You Think You Are" with it's opening "ping" sound. I met lots of nice people, including one girl who was to be married who asked me if I would snog her friend and didn't think my being gay was an issue as it was New Year's Eve and I should make an effort. Needless to say I didn't make the effort. But I danced alot anyway...
New Year's day was a day of recovery from arriving home at 4:40 and getting in bed by about 5:30. We (Ma, Pa and me) went to Romford and had Pizza Hut tea. Mmm...
I had decided one thing I needed to buy while home was jeans, so on the 2nd January, JeanQuest began in earnest. And then stalled as I realised to my horror, that I had not only put on the half a stone where your clothes feel a bit tight but no-one else can see the difference, I had also put on the other half a stone where everyone tells you you look really well (about 8 times) and your size doesn't fit you anymore. So I left TopMan pondering a 32 waist, and wondering what it means to be square on your lower half (32 waist, 32 inside leg), and headed for Brixton to meet Lizzy and Matt and Lawrence and Oliviera for some food (Matt made 2 masterful curries- Indian and Thai) and then to a pub to see a friend of Lawrence's singing (Alice McLoughlin- she really was very good) and then to the cinema to see the House of the Flying Daggers which was a beautifully filmed nonsensical love story. Suspend that belief... And I forgot that all the tubes finish early on Sunday and nearly had to spent the whole night getting home, but fortunately caught the last train at Liverpool St.
My last day was spent feeling rough as I had started coughing in a flu like fashion in the cinema the night before. And due to the urgency of JeansQuest I had to cancel a planned trip to Essex and head to London, and back to TopMan to buy square jeans with low waist and bootcut/ flared leg with the support and assistance of a post-birthday Megan (January's a busy birthday month). A bit more wandering and some coffee and we parted ways as I headed home to prepare for a family dinner in a Harvester restaurant (have you ever been to a harvester before?) Fortunately they had renovated both the restaurant and then menu, and the food was gorgeous. I had to stop myself ordering food as I felt I was on my last meal before execution. Prawn cocktail, swordfish steak with new potatoes, breaded mushrooms, sticky date and toffee pudding with custard, uuuuhhh....... Excuse me while I wipe the drool from the keyboard...
Anyway, Tuesday 4th was spent packing and buying toiletries that it turned out wouldn't fit in my suitcase and then going to the plane and this time appearing hard-faced in front of a weeping family not because I wasn't upset, but because I was too ill to register what was going on, and too weighed down with bags to have a clue (how I got on the plane with 4 peices of hand luggage I'll never know. I looked like I was taking a week's shopping back with me...).
Having changed at Seoul, I bumped in Kathleen (the Ochiai JET - 2 towns from me) and her boyfriend Mike, and also Peter and Jen on the plane. Kathleen is lovely and offered me a lift home which I accepted, and then passed out once I arrived indoors.
I miss you England! And all you people I left behind!
I arrived in Heathrow on 22nd December to parents who were sure they wouldn't recognise me as having hair straightened is akin to having plastic surgery it seems. But the familiar sight of me purchasing an excess of Ferrero Rocher and Toblerone at the last chance Duty-Free counter jogged their memories and we made our way home via a busy pub where I carried my luggage up a flight of stairs and felt very dizzy. I was very tired having managed only 2 hours sleep the night before and therefore the rest of the evening is a blur.
The 23rd was also a bit of a blur, and I took in some familiar sights- the Doctor's (where I was informed that I had never been to Japan before this trip by a Dr I've never met before), Toni and Guy Essensuals in Covent Garden (only the best for me! Hair cut by Michael, very nice), popped in to the CityLit for about 3 hours to visit old work colleagues, 2 thirds of whom were on hols (hot damn, but thank you and hello to all who were there) and then met Jo Attwooll for tea in Food For Thought on Neal Street (v. tasty veggie restaurant). Then met Juliette at Covent Garden station and we went to the Globe pub to meet Chika-san (our Japanese teacher in England) and her Mum at the pub and some of her friends. Except we were the first there and Chika-san was the last and we didn't know any of her friends so we were confused for a long while...
The 24th didn't quite go to plan. I had to do Christmas shopping (I'd bought some bits from Japan, but not enough) and then meet people, so I dodged into Marks's in Moorgate and grabbed many nice things before being delayed by loons on either side of the cash tills. From there I went on to meet Megan and Dhanusha in Camden where they tried on lots of clothes and Dhanusha announced that she is to be wed. Yay! And proving we are similar, she tried on a dress which didn't fit, and bought it anyway because it was too nice and someone should wear it.
Kofi and Karen joined us and did pretend fighting and we went for a pub lunch which was very tasty and then we went home. Having not made it to the pub in the evening to meet Neil and Rachel and Roland and Kat due to time constraints, Ma and Pa and I headed to Midnight mass which was preceeded by a diabolical carol service. The carols themselves weren't diabolical, but the performances were. It was like Helen Keller without the vocal training. Next year I'm bringing a portable tape player and a nice Christmas CD to drown out the din.
Christmas day was lovely and quiet and my brother, his lady wife and her lady mother came to ours for dinner and tea and we all watched Peter Kay on DVD. And then on Boxing day we did pretty much the same, but at my brother's house.
On Monday the 27th I headed up North and saw some snow along the way. I was going to Manchester to see friends and babies! Yay! So I arrived and was picked up by Sara and her Mum in the middle of the city (which just gets better every time you go) and Sara and I went to see Emma who looked well. Penny, it turned out had gone to Newcastle with Robert (her baby), and I realised I'd forgotten to reply to an email somewhere... And we chatted and caught up for a while and then left and it was only in the morning I realised I'd forgotten to see Emma's baby. Still, she showed me a lovely photo...
The Tuesday was another day of plans going awry, where Charlotte picked me up from Sara's and I spent a lot of time trying to get in contact with Susan and Lyndsey with whom I was supposed to be staying. Well, we did a bit of shopping and a lot of chatting and for lunch headed to a pub in Sale where I was meeting Suzanne, my old flatmate, and her new partner Rob. And it was here that both Suzanne and I walked past each other, not recognising each other with our new barnets (perhaps my parents were right about hair changes being akin to plastic surgery). And it was also here that I heard from Susan with whom it wouldn't be possible for me to stay with due to unforeseen circumstances. Oops! So I arranged to stay with Sara again and had a nice lunch catching up with Suzanne and chatting with Rob and Charlotte. And then I headed into town for an aimless afternoon of wandering. And I did my usual looking round and saw all the new bits no-one tells you about (it is looking rather grand these days). But the day wasn't in vain as I made the acquaintance of an Argentine model called Frank we spent the afternoon chatting and then bumped into Kofi while we were in Velvet.
On the wednesday I left Sara's and Manchester and headed back to London and an evening visit to Lyn's, where we chatted and ate more good food...
I left my house as late as posible on Thursday and made my way to Shepherd's Bush Empire to pick up my ticket for New Year, but I got it wrong as tickets can only be collected on the night, doh! So I headed to my rendevous point with Vezza Lezza/ Dorothy Brody/ Verity (delete as applicable, all are same person), where we shopped and went on to discuss the finer points of the City Lit, food overseas, alcohol and vomiting in inappropriate places (much to the pleasure of the people sitting next to us in the Greek restaurant I'm sure).
New Year's Eve. All my friends were doing exciting and cool different things. So I thought, "sod that" and went off on my own. I was going to see Saint Etienne at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Prior to this I met with Neil and Rachel and Roland and Kat and we had tasty pub tea (potatoes) and took the piss out of the locals in an Ilford pub.
Saint Etienne was ace. They had two support bands- the Magic Numbers (the ugliest band I have ever seen, but their music was ace) and the Concretes (a slighlty odd Swedish combo who used many, many, many different instruments. Their album is very good) and then after their show they had DJs until 3. I sometimes forget how much I love Saint Etienne. They played most of their hits and some new songs, and the highlight for me was definitely "Who Do You Think You Are" with it's opening "ping" sound. I met lots of nice people, including one girl who was to be married who asked me if I would snog her friend and didn't think my being gay was an issue as it was New Year's Eve and I should make an effort. Needless to say I didn't make the effort. But I danced alot anyway...
New Year's day was a day of recovery from arriving home at 4:40 and getting in bed by about 5:30. We (Ma, Pa and me) went to Romford and had Pizza Hut tea. Mmm...
I had decided one thing I needed to buy while home was jeans, so on the 2nd January, JeanQuest began in earnest. And then stalled as I realised to my horror, that I had not only put on the half a stone where your clothes feel a bit tight but no-one else can see the difference, I had also put on the other half a stone where everyone tells you you look really well (about 8 times) and your size doesn't fit you anymore. So I left TopMan pondering a 32 waist, and wondering what it means to be square on your lower half (32 waist, 32 inside leg), and headed for Brixton to meet Lizzy and Matt and Lawrence and Oliviera for some food (Matt made 2 masterful curries- Indian and Thai) and then to a pub to see a friend of Lawrence's singing (Alice McLoughlin- she really was very good) and then to the cinema to see the House of the Flying Daggers which was a beautifully filmed nonsensical love story. Suspend that belief... And I forgot that all the tubes finish early on Sunday and nearly had to spent the whole night getting home, but fortunately caught the last train at Liverpool St.
My last day was spent feeling rough as I had started coughing in a flu like fashion in the cinema the night before. And due to the urgency of JeansQuest I had to cancel a planned trip to Essex and head to London, and back to TopMan to buy square jeans with low waist and bootcut/ flared leg with the support and assistance of a post-birthday Megan (January's a busy birthday month). A bit more wandering and some coffee and we parted ways as I headed home to prepare for a family dinner in a Harvester restaurant (have you ever been to a harvester before?) Fortunately they had renovated both the restaurant and then menu, and the food was gorgeous. I had to stop myself ordering food as I felt I was on my last meal before execution. Prawn cocktail, swordfish steak with new potatoes, breaded mushrooms, sticky date and toffee pudding with custard, uuuuhhh....... Excuse me while I wipe the drool from the keyboard...
Anyway, Tuesday 4th was spent packing and buying toiletries that it turned out wouldn't fit in my suitcase and then going to the plane and this time appearing hard-faced in front of a weeping family not because I wasn't upset, but because I was too ill to register what was going on, and too weighed down with bags to have a clue (how I got on the plane with 4 peices of hand luggage I'll never know. I looked like I was taking a week's shopping back with me...).
Having changed at Seoul, I bumped in Kathleen (the Ochiai JET - 2 towns from me) and her boyfriend Mike, and also Peter and Jen on the plane. Kathleen is lovely and offered me a lift home which I accepted, and then passed out once I arrived indoors.
I miss you England! And all you people I left behind!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
