Happy in full technicolour. Madeleine and me at Universal Studios JAPAN.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Gaijin hunt!
What do you do when you've arranged to meet visitors at your house at a certain time and they've got your house and car keys so you can't get in to wait for them?
You go to your Japanese friend's workplace, drink tea, laugh that you can't really get lost in such a small town and then have your Japanese friend decide to take decisive action- GAIJIN HUNT!
So for maybe 10 minutes Nao chan and I drove around Katsuyama at a snail's pace looking through all the shop windows for an obviously Swedish girl and a tall Australian with strawberry blonde hair. They weren't in the souvenir shops and they weren't at the castle ruins. They weren't in the light shop and the weren't in the brewery. They weren't enjoying the view on the bridges. For the 8th time I tried calling home and suddenly an answer. They'd just arrived back. So Nao chan and I headed back there, the visitors and I discussed plans, and together with Nao chan we headed to Kanba waterfalls, although by the time we got there dusk was almost over so we couldn't see much. We decided to take photos anyway and then headed off to Kuse's YouMe town (big supermarket with other smaller shops) where Jessica and Madeleine further demonstrated their Olympian shoping skills, and then on to Shot Casual Outlet (a clothes shop that sells lots of t-shirts with funny English on). And then back to Wakaba where we ate a similar feast the night before and I surprised nao chan by eating lots of salmon skin (crispy and yum). After a trip to Lawson's we headed home, heppy because it wasn't yet 10 pm, but at 1:15 I was suddenly heading for bed and Jessica and Madeleine were still sorting and tidying.
I wonder if they'll make it to Kurashiki today...
You go to your Japanese friend's workplace, drink tea, laugh that you can't really get lost in such a small town and then have your Japanese friend decide to take decisive action- GAIJIN HUNT!
So for maybe 10 minutes Nao chan and I drove around Katsuyama at a snail's pace looking through all the shop windows for an obviously Swedish girl and a tall Australian with strawberry blonde hair. They weren't in the souvenir shops and they weren't at the castle ruins. They weren't in the light shop and the weren't in the brewery. They weren't enjoying the view on the bridges. For the 8th time I tried calling home and suddenly an answer. They'd just arrived back. So Nao chan and I headed back there, the visitors and I discussed plans, and together with Nao chan we headed to Kanba waterfalls, although by the time we got there dusk was almost over so we couldn't see much. We decided to take photos anyway and then headed off to Kuse's YouMe town (big supermarket with other smaller shops) where Jessica and Madeleine further demonstrated their Olympian shoping skills, and then on to Shot Casual Outlet (a clothes shop that sells lots of t-shirts with funny English on). And then back to Wakaba where we ate a similar feast the night before and I surprised nao chan by eating lots of salmon skin (crispy and yum). After a trip to Lawson's we headed home, heppy because it wasn't yet 10 pm, but at 1:15 I was suddenly heading for bed and Jessica and Madeleine were still sorting and tidying.
I wonder if they'll make it to Kurashiki today...
Going wild in the aisles...
Well from the off it seemed like it was going to be an exciting trip and it lived up to its promise. Rushing to do a couple of errands before getting on the bus for a couple of hours rest before the crazy sightseeing weekend began I felt much cheerier than I had all week, and upon seeing Jessica for the first time in 5 years and meeting Madeleine for the first time outside Osaka's Hep 5 shopping mall I perked up even more. I've never met two people who like to photograph things as much as I do, and we frequently stopped to take a quick snap of something or other as we looked for a place to eat .
Thursday night began with dinner in a small restaurant in the dining area behind the Hankyu Umeda station where the waitress impressed us all with a) her English and b) the food and I impressed no-one with my lack of local knowledge. Although I did know where the shops were...
Friday was when the delirium started to kick in for all of us, so much so that while sat on the train taking stupid pictures of ourselves and marvelling at the fact that we had all selected neon colours to wear without planning, we missed our stop. And it wasn't even me that noticed it. Tour guide loses 1 point. So we changed and got back on track wondering how we'd know which train would take us to Universal Studios. Oh, it'll be that one. The one with Universal Studios written all over it in massive lettering. Universal Studios was chosen as our first trip because it was Madeleine's birthday and we felt the need to do something silly and fun to mark it. So we screamed on the Spiderman ride, ducked and weaved in our seats on the Back To The Future ride, got bored in Backdraft, laughed at our boat's captain at Jaws as she slid down the steering wheel in mock terror, got soaked on Jurassic Park and laughed at the shop dummies in the ET ride. And between every ride we looked around the shops, Madeleine and Jessica crazily planning what souvenirs to buy. Me? I bought a Hello Kitty mug and a wind up Jaws that "eats" it's victim. Lunch was spent in an authentic 50's diner (with authentically bad food and authentically high theme park prices) and after we finished ET with 45 minutes to go till the park shut we went shopping crazy. Except the park didn't shut after half an hour. The shops closed their doors to new customers an hour and a quarter later and eventually the whole thing shut at eight. So we planned to make our way back, but instead managed to trawl the shops outside the park before heading back to the hotel via a lovely izakaya where Jessica ate the first of many diakon salads.
As rainy weather had been forecast, Saturday was planned as a day of culture so we headed off to the Miho museum in Kyoto via a small town (Ishiyama) where we took photos of cartoon telephone operators exposing their knickers on a shop front. The museum itself was beautiful, the grounds and buildings designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese gentleman who is apparently a very famous architect. He also designed the pyramids at the Louvre. The consensus was that the building was far more stunning than the artefacts within, although the cafe was superb. The whole thing is tied in with a not very well known religion called Shinji Shumeikai and the museum was commissioned on behalf of the religion. From the giant windows inside you can see the main centre of worship for the religion and a bell tower also designed by I. M. Pei. We decided, as you would, that this was a cult and a very rich one, although as they make such lovely bread they couldn't be sinister in any way.
On returning to Osaka we headed back to the hotel for a rest as the previous night had been a late one and we were starting to tire. So after a shower and a lie down we got back up and headed down to Shinsaibashi and met Saddam in a fast food place which we quickly left to find somewhere more suitable for dinner. And we ended up in a Korean cafe which was lovely, and was also cheap. Keiran came and joined us (he and Sarah and others were in town to go clubbing) and soon we were traipsing the streets to meet others and find a bar to drink at. But when we found a bar, Jessica, Madeleine and I decided that actually we'd rather have a look round on our own and head back to the hotel. So we started wandering around the backstreets of Shinsaibashi, coming across various love hotels, strange bits of architecture and eventually a sake bar we liked the look of. So we went in and, much to the owner's amusement, ordered sake. The sake was very good and made us laugh more and more, and by the time we left we were all feeling a bit tipsy. So we stumbled through America mura (America village) into a Lawson's to buy choclit and then walked back to the hotel which was longer than I remembered, but we were three sheets to the wind anyway so it didn't matter...
Sunday was traditional Kyoto day. Doing the usual tour we headed to Kiyomizu dera (always beautiful no matter how many times you've seen it) where we took our time taking photos and then headed off round the back streets to take in many of the products at the souvenir shops. This led us to the Yasaka pagoda where we saw two Geisha who weren't happy to have their photograph taken (I had asked them politely) and then wandered off to the Yasaka shrine for more photos and ended up watching a man juggling what looked like skittles on fire (as in bowling pins, not "taste the rainbow of fruit flavours" Skittles- that would surely have led to burns and a trip to the hospital). After a quick bite to eat we headed onwards stopping at Chionin temple (but only going up the steps) before we decided we would go to Nijo castle (well, I really wanted to go and Madeleine and Jessica were kind enough to humour me) so we got on a bus at maybe 3:40 and after passing maybe 5 blocks at a pace of 3 miles an hour we got off the bus only to find last entry to the castle was at 4 and it was now 4:30. D'oh! But the length of the bus journey caused Madeleine and I to become a bit impaired and we started laughing at random things, dropping things, squinting at things outside, and at one point turned around to ask the woman behind us what the design was on a kimono standing outside a shop. It was a cat. And then this woman started laughing and we realised she'd been laughing for maybe 20 minutes before at our high levels of impairment.
Returning to Osaka via Lawson's, the Post Office, and an anime display in Kyoto station, we headed to the shops for a carefully co-ordinated 2 hour shopping trip before going for food in another healthy restaurant. All this fresh wholesome food is dangerous. It's making my clothes go pop. By the time we made it to the restaurant we were all extremely tired, particularly Jessica who still hadn't had a good night's sleep, so we ate and left when they closed, and despite our best efforts we got back to the hotel at around 11:45, and with emails and sorting stuff out it was 12:30 before we were in bed.
On Monday I left the girls to their plans (museum and shopping) and prepared to head back to Katsuyama. I made the obligatory trip to Starbucks and was very pleased that I did so as the very handsome member of staff was also very friendly, so we swapped numbers and will hang out sometime (although this being Japan he probably wants to talk about baseball or something equally useless...) Also, I furthered my looking-young-by-dressing-young scheme and bought yellow and blue trainers, although I am worried that this will soon mutate into a looking-retarded-by-dressing-retarded scheme (why do people with special needs always have carers with no fashion sense?) I shall have to be careful.
And after a much better day at Junior High yesterday I went home to finish tidying up and at 8:30 picked up Jessica and Madeleine from the station, whisked them back to my luxury apartment in Janice mark 2 and then we went to local restaurant Wakaba which Madeleine declared had "the best food she'd tasted in Japan". I agree. Everyone should come to Wakaba at least once. And visit me while you're at it...
Thursday night began with dinner in a small restaurant in the dining area behind the Hankyu Umeda station where the waitress impressed us all with a) her English and b) the food and I impressed no-one with my lack of local knowledge. Although I did know where the shops were...
Friday was when the delirium started to kick in for all of us, so much so that while sat on the train taking stupid pictures of ourselves and marvelling at the fact that we had all selected neon colours to wear without planning, we missed our stop. And it wasn't even me that noticed it. Tour guide loses 1 point. So we changed and got back on track wondering how we'd know which train would take us to Universal Studios. Oh, it'll be that one. The one with Universal Studios written all over it in massive lettering. Universal Studios was chosen as our first trip because it was Madeleine's birthday and we felt the need to do something silly and fun to mark it. So we screamed on the Spiderman ride, ducked and weaved in our seats on the Back To The Future ride, got bored in Backdraft, laughed at our boat's captain at Jaws as she slid down the steering wheel in mock terror, got soaked on Jurassic Park and laughed at the shop dummies in the ET ride. And between every ride we looked around the shops, Madeleine and Jessica crazily planning what souvenirs to buy. Me? I bought a Hello Kitty mug and a wind up Jaws that "eats" it's victim. Lunch was spent in an authentic 50's diner (with authentically bad food and authentically high theme park prices) and after we finished ET with 45 minutes to go till the park shut we went shopping crazy. Except the park didn't shut after half an hour. The shops closed their doors to new customers an hour and a quarter later and eventually the whole thing shut at eight. So we planned to make our way back, but instead managed to trawl the shops outside the park before heading back to the hotel via a lovely izakaya where Jessica ate the first of many diakon salads.
As rainy weather had been forecast, Saturday was planned as a day of culture so we headed off to the Miho museum in Kyoto via a small town (Ishiyama) where we took photos of cartoon telephone operators exposing their knickers on a shop front. The museum itself was beautiful, the grounds and buildings designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese gentleman who is apparently a very famous architect. He also designed the pyramids at the Louvre. The consensus was that the building was far more stunning than the artefacts within, although the cafe was superb. The whole thing is tied in with a not very well known religion called Shinji Shumeikai and the museum was commissioned on behalf of the religion. From the giant windows inside you can see the main centre of worship for the religion and a bell tower also designed by I. M. Pei. We decided, as you would, that this was a cult and a very rich one, although as they make such lovely bread they couldn't be sinister in any way.
On returning to Osaka we headed back to the hotel for a rest as the previous night had been a late one and we were starting to tire. So after a shower and a lie down we got back up and headed down to Shinsaibashi and met Saddam in a fast food place which we quickly left to find somewhere more suitable for dinner. And we ended up in a Korean cafe which was lovely, and was also cheap. Keiran came and joined us (he and Sarah and others were in town to go clubbing) and soon we were traipsing the streets to meet others and find a bar to drink at. But when we found a bar, Jessica, Madeleine and I decided that actually we'd rather have a look round on our own and head back to the hotel. So we started wandering around the backstreets of Shinsaibashi, coming across various love hotels, strange bits of architecture and eventually a sake bar we liked the look of. So we went in and, much to the owner's amusement, ordered sake. The sake was very good and made us laugh more and more, and by the time we left we were all feeling a bit tipsy. So we stumbled through America mura (America village) into a Lawson's to buy choclit and then walked back to the hotel which was longer than I remembered, but we were three sheets to the wind anyway so it didn't matter...
Sunday was traditional Kyoto day. Doing the usual tour we headed to Kiyomizu dera (always beautiful no matter how many times you've seen it) where we took our time taking photos and then headed off round the back streets to take in many of the products at the souvenir shops. This led us to the Yasaka pagoda where we saw two Geisha who weren't happy to have their photograph taken (I had asked them politely) and then wandered off to the Yasaka shrine for more photos and ended up watching a man juggling what looked like skittles on fire (as in bowling pins, not "taste the rainbow of fruit flavours" Skittles- that would surely have led to burns and a trip to the hospital). After a quick bite to eat we headed onwards stopping at Chionin temple (but only going up the steps) before we decided we would go to Nijo castle (well, I really wanted to go and Madeleine and Jessica were kind enough to humour me) so we got on a bus at maybe 3:40 and after passing maybe 5 blocks at a pace of 3 miles an hour we got off the bus only to find last entry to the castle was at 4 and it was now 4:30. D'oh! But the length of the bus journey caused Madeleine and I to become a bit impaired and we started laughing at random things, dropping things, squinting at things outside, and at one point turned around to ask the woman behind us what the design was on a kimono standing outside a shop. It was a cat. And then this woman started laughing and we realised she'd been laughing for maybe 20 minutes before at our high levels of impairment.
Returning to Osaka via Lawson's, the Post Office, and an anime display in Kyoto station, we headed to the shops for a carefully co-ordinated 2 hour shopping trip before going for food in another healthy restaurant. All this fresh wholesome food is dangerous. It's making my clothes go pop. By the time we made it to the restaurant we were all extremely tired, particularly Jessica who still hadn't had a good night's sleep, so we ate and left when they closed, and despite our best efforts we got back to the hotel at around 11:45, and with emails and sorting stuff out it was 12:30 before we were in bed.
On Monday I left the girls to their plans (museum and shopping) and prepared to head back to Katsuyama. I made the obligatory trip to Starbucks and was very pleased that I did so as the very handsome member of staff was also very friendly, so we swapped numbers and will hang out sometime (although this being Japan he probably wants to talk about baseball or something equally useless...) Also, I furthered my looking-young-by-dressing-young scheme and bought yellow and blue trainers, although I am worried that this will soon mutate into a looking-retarded-by-dressing-retarded scheme (why do people with special needs always have carers with no fashion sense?) I shall have to be careful.
And after a much better day at Junior High yesterday I went home to finish tidying up and at 8:30 picked up Jessica and Madeleine from the station, whisked them back to my luxury apartment in Janice mark 2 and then we went to local restaurant Wakaba which Madeleine declared had "the best food she'd tasted in Japan". I agree. Everyone should come to Wakaba at least once. And visit me while you're at it...
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Living for the weekend...
Once again it seems the weekend is set to save my sanity. The last three days have been rather busy (after school) thanks to Janice Mark 2 and my newfound ability to zip about the place and the fact that I had been desperately tidying, washing and cleaning before friends arrive from overseas (the launderette is my new number 1 hangout). School has been slightly odd- 2 hellishly boring days at junior high and 2 crazy days at elementary school where screaming kids have almost caused my ears to bleed. But I love 'em. Really. I do!
Tonight I'll piss off to Osaka to meet Jessica (a friend from Sweden) and Madeleine (Jessica's friend from Australia). We will eat and drink and sightsee and then we'll go to Kyoto and eat drink and sightsee and we may go to Universal Studios and a posh museum and do some shopping and such or we may not. As long as it doesn't involve pretending to be a teacher and having to explain vegetarianism I couldn't really care what we do.
Have fun y'all (as some crazy Americans might say. Or not. Again.)
Tonight I'll piss off to Osaka to meet Jessica (a friend from Sweden) and Madeleine (Jessica's friend from Australia). We will eat and drink and sightsee and then we'll go to Kyoto and eat drink and sightsee and we may go to Universal Studios and a posh museum and do some shopping and such or we may not. As long as it doesn't involve pretending to be a teacher and having to explain vegetarianism I couldn't really care what we do.
Have fun y'all (as some crazy Americans might say. Or not. Again.)
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
Quiet night? Not likely...
This weekend past I had planned to rest and take it easy and recover from the previous two weekend's exertion. From the off it was not to be, although Papa-san's birthday turned out to be a less exhausting event than I thought it would be. Nao-chan's parties usually end up with everyone smashed and hungover the next day. This party was the first I've been to where I was the only foriegner but it was, as usual, hilarious with different guests to before and a lot of laughter from everyone. So being in bed by midnight was a surprise, but a pleasant one. Set me up nicely for Saturday.
On Saturday I got the bus down to Okayama (having first witnessed a preying mantis with it's innards whipping about on the doorstep of my apartment). I met Fiona and we hopped on a train to Aeon in Kurashiki where we planned to watch Charlie and the chocolate factory. The showing we wanted was full so we went for the next one and reorganised dinner plans. A spot of Christmas shopping later (may as well get it done now) and we were enjoying the film (which was amaxing). We made it back to Okayama for 7:30 to meet Andrew and Saddam and we went to the red-light district for a lovely curry and a good catch up. Then it was onto the Red Moon which was empty at first and as we drank more and more it slowly began to fill up. With other JETs. Yay! So the night really got going and pretty soon there was much dancing to be done. Saddam headed off early as she was busy on the Sunday and Fiona headed off home around 1 am, but we just kept on dancing. Julia and I were at one point dancing on furniture in the bar (it's been a long time since I've had the chance to do that) and pretty soon the group was deciding where to move onto, so off we headed to Desperadoes.
When a club's called Desperadoes you can only think one thing, and I've heard many people say that one thing about it, but I really, really enjoyed myself. Although all night long we seemed to see a lot of Russians who probably had disreputable careers, the music was great and lord we were dancing. But the bar closed at three and it was time for decisions. Julia and Dylan headed off home, Wendy and Andrew and Kana wanted to keep on dancing and Adam (with a two hour bike ride home ahead of him) decided it was best to get off. I too left and headed back to Fiona's thinking that getting in at 4am wasn't quite what I'd had planned.
It wasn't quite what happened either. A minute after I started walking down a back alley towards Fiona's I heard a massive bang from the main road which couldn't have been anything else but a car crash. So I ran round to see what had happened and a car had smashed head first into a tree, there was smoke everywhere, the driver's head lolling to one side out of the window and no-one else around. So I try and phone the Police, I tell them what's happened, exactly where we are and tell them we need an ambulance. All in Japanese. And the guy starts asking me where I am. So I tell him again. And he starts asking me questions I don't understand when suddenly I spy a man unloading a lorry in the supermarket next door (which had been there the whole time). I ask him for help and he walks off. And more smoke is coming out of the engine. So, while shouting at the Police again where we are and that we need an ambulance I go to the man in the car and tell him we need to get him out. Fortunately he wasn't trapped or really badly injured so he opened the door and, still talking on the phone I help him out of the car to the pavement. I start trying to flag down cars most of which would rather run me down than stop. By now, probably more because of my screaming and shouting than anything else, a woman has come out of her house and I ask her to talk to the Police and she is very helpful and kind and does so and pretty soon a patrolling car is on the scene and an ambulance has arrived and then soon after the fire brigade turn up. Fortunately the car stopped smoking and nothing more happened. The guy must have shocking whiplash as he banged his head really hard on impact (he had blood all over his face). I hope he was alright otherwise. I had to give a statement to the Police and they were concerned that it may have been a drink driving incident. I ended up getting in at 4:40 and Fiona and I then talked till just gone 5am.
So I got back yesterday at 5:30, feeling strangely not too tired, but rather pleased with the dancing on Saturday night and at least satisfied that I'd been able to help that man in the car (especially as few others seemed willing to get involved). There's never a dull moment in Okayama. Apart from weekday nights...
On Saturday I got the bus down to Okayama (having first witnessed a preying mantis with it's innards whipping about on the doorstep of my apartment). I met Fiona and we hopped on a train to Aeon in Kurashiki where we planned to watch Charlie and the chocolate factory. The showing we wanted was full so we went for the next one and reorganised dinner plans. A spot of Christmas shopping later (may as well get it done now) and we were enjoying the film (which was amaxing). We made it back to Okayama for 7:30 to meet Andrew and Saddam and we went to the red-light district for a lovely curry and a good catch up. Then it was onto the Red Moon which was empty at first and as we drank more and more it slowly began to fill up. With other JETs. Yay! So the night really got going and pretty soon there was much dancing to be done. Saddam headed off early as she was busy on the Sunday and Fiona headed off home around 1 am, but we just kept on dancing. Julia and I were at one point dancing on furniture in the bar (it's been a long time since I've had the chance to do that) and pretty soon the group was deciding where to move onto, so off we headed to Desperadoes.
When a club's called Desperadoes you can only think one thing, and I've heard many people say that one thing about it, but I really, really enjoyed myself. Although all night long we seemed to see a lot of Russians who probably had disreputable careers, the music was great and lord we were dancing. But the bar closed at three and it was time for decisions. Julia and Dylan headed off home, Wendy and Andrew and Kana wanted to keep on dancing and Adam (with a two hour bike ride home ahead of him) decided it was best to get off. I too left and headed back to Fiona's thinking that getting in at 4am wasn't quite what I'd had planned.
It wasn't quite what happened either. A minute after I started walking down a back alley towards Fiona's I heard a massive bang from the main road which couldn't have been anything else but a car crash. So I ran round to see what had happened and a car had smashed head first into a tree, there was smoke everywhere, the driver's head lolling to one side out of the window and no-one else around. So I try and phone the Police, I tell them what's happened, exactly where we are and tell them we need an ambulance. All in Japanese. And the guy starts asking me where I am. So I tell him again. And he starts asking me questions I don't understand when suddenly I spy a man unloading a lorry in the supermarket next door (which had been there the whole time). I ask him for help and he walks off. And more smoke is coming out of the engine. So, while shouting at the Police again where we are and that we need an ambulance I go to the man in the car and tell him we need to get him out. Fortunately he wasn't trapped or really badly injured so he opened the door and, still talking on the phone I help him out of the car to the pavement. I start trying to flag down cars most of which would rather run me down than stop. By now, probably more because of my screaming and shouting than anything else, a woman has come out of her house and I ask her to talk to the Police and she is very helpful and kind and does so and pretty soon a patrolling car is on the scene and an ambulance has arrived and then soon after the fire brigade turn up. Fortunately the car stopped smoking and nothing more happened. The guy must have shocking whiplash as he banged his head really hard on impact (he had blood all over his face). I hope he was alright otherwise. I had to give a statement to the Police and they were concerned that it may have been a drink driving incident. I ended up getting in at 4:40 and Fiona and I then talked till just gone 5am.
So I got back yesterday at 5:30, feeling strangely not too tired, but rather pleased with the dancing on Saturday night and at least satisfied that I'd been able to help that man in the car (especially as few others seemed willing to get involved). There's never a dull moment in Okayama. Apart from weekday nights...
Thursday, September 29, 2005
How to get out of school lunches
I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but it really is the easiest solution. After explaining to the dinner lady at one of my schools that bacon is meat EVERY VISIT for the last year (that's 3 times a month). yesterday she presented me with a tray of food, declaring it was all OK. One of the day's selections was the most un-Spanish Spanish omelette I have seen in many a year, and there were maybe 8 little nubs of sausage sticking out of the top. I asked her, in Japanese, "what is that?", knowing full well that the answer would be bollocks. "Oh, it's wiener, that's not meat. It's OK". Bollocks. "Wiener comes from pig. It is meat", I continued, "and the soup?" "Oh, that's OK." "What's in it?" "Onion, potato, bacon, garlic..." "Bacon comes from pig. It is meat." "No it's not." "Yes it is. I cannot eat it." Then one of the other dinner ladies says that I am a vegetarian and that I cannot eat meat and that bacon and wiener are meat and the woman who I have explained it to maybe 3000 times says, "I don't understand." To quote Bridget Jones, "GAAAAAH!"
So I did the usual, ate lunch with the kids and picked out the meat, ate a little bit and then this time I started to feel rather unwell. 20 minutes later I was in the loo vomiting, not that anyone would have noticed. If I'd cut off my arm they'd probably still have sent the kids to get me for the next lesson.
So I told them I vomited and one lady was concerned. Another teacher I liked told me in English that to her it was funny. Ha ha. Not. The splashback alone from the Japanese style loo was more than horrible.
Anyway, no more school lunches at 3 of my schools, just 2 more to tackle, but I think that'll be problem free.
Vomiting is such a useful skill...
So I did the usual, ate lunch with the kids and picked out the meat, ate a little bit and then this time I started to feel rather unwell. 20 minutes later I was in the loo vomiting, not that anyone would have noticed. If I'd cut off my arm they'd probably still have sent the kids to get me for the next lesson.
So I told them I vomited and one lady was concerned. Another teacher I liked told me in English that to her it was funny. Ha ha. Not. The splashback alone from the Japanese style loo was more than horrible.
Anyway, no more school lunches at 3 of my schools, just 2 more to tackle, but I think that'll be problem free.
Vomiting is such a useful skill...
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
Non-stop, nonstop, non-stop to TOKYO!!!
After a decidedly underwhelming three days which featured dinner at a fancy restaurant for Christine's birthday, possibly the worst lessons known to man at school and being patronised by people who who I thought knew better, my sanity was restored by a whirlwind visit to Tokyo. Having planned to spend time with Eugene I was looking forward to the change of scenery, the buzz of the city and the opportunities for excitement.
And it was pretty much like this all the way. Last Thursday at 10pm in Tsuyama I boarded the cocoon-like nightbus (all grey and brown curtains with subdued lighting and more curtains to make your seat feel like an enclosed space- a mobile capsule hotel perhaps) where I was soon falling in and out of sleep and wondering what the other passengers were going to get up to in Tokyo. The best thing about the bus is that it drives through much of Tokyo before it gets to it's drop off point, so on Friday morning, albeit at 6:20 am, I was able to start enjoying the Tokyo scenery (tall buildings, blue skies, tall buildings, ginkgo trees, even taller buildings) and get excited about being a real city...
I made my way to Eugene's via a real bakery in Shinagawa station which sold beautifully crisp crusty bread (it's been a long time) and we caught up and discussed our plans and options for the weekend ahead. The first stop for me was predestined as I had arranged to meet friends from London, Paul and Kasumi, in Harajuku, so after a quick shower and change of clothes I headed back onto the trains.
Now, although we only saw a few people who looked like escapees from a time machine accident where some 80's goths had been sent to 2005 via the 1800s, Harajuku was still fun and cool and trendy. With unfathomable shops and strange architecture and bizarre shop signs and posters it is certainly unique. We talked and walked and walked and talked and headed to Shibuya via a wild toy shop, a sophisticated cafe and a lunch stop at a trendy cafe (where I got confused over cutlery- where are my chopsticks?) and the condomania shop which was obviously hilarious but was also had the best soundtrack of any place we'd been in (a healthy dose of SalSoul and a Loleatta Holloway sound-alike. Maybe it was her?) Paul and Kasumi are great company and it was a treat to be able to spend time with them having not seen them for over a year, but with them being on a two week holiday they had lots of other people to meet, so they trundled off to see a friend of Kasumi's perform in an all Japanese Gospel chorus. I would have loved to have seen that.
Back to Eugene's with a stop on the way to buy some more bread, and at the stop I almost fell over myself. Eugene told me which bakers to go to- a 3 minute walk from his house ("it's called 'Paul'", he said) and my mouth fell open when I saw it. Paul's, the same as the French patisserie in Covent Garden and probably in France and elsewhere and with beautiful, glowingly tasty cakes. Once I'd picked up my jaw and wiped away the drool, I bought bread and headed off, making plans to have at least one of their lemon meringue pies before I left Tokyo.
I'd told Eugene I wanted to eat Turkish food and he found us a restaurant for dinner. We cycled from his place to the centre of Shinjuku, largely on the roads which was slightly dangerous as I was soon becoming mesmerised by the lights of the shops and buildings. But the restaurant was gorgeous. It was 'Bosphorus Hasan' in Shinjuku's sanchome area and we missed the belly dancing but didn't care because the food was so good. Yuko has recently been to Turkey and thought the food was better at this restaurant. And after filling ourselves on Meze, grilled fish, bread and with lamb for Eugene and Yuko, Eugene and I headed out to the next part of our night, Club Loose in Kabuki cho.
We were a bit stupid for not understanding the clue in the title, but fortunately due to dilly-dallying on the door we were let in without cover charge. The club was a bit rubbish. It became clear we'd come to a gaijin bar, and it also became clear that it would turn into a meat market (if any "meat" would have bothered to show up- they all had more sense). So we had a few drinks, waited until we realised it clearly couldn't get better and went home.
Saturday started slowly with a trip to Paul's where I gorged on a lemon meringue pie, and from there the three of us went on a walk around the imperial palace gardens, through the craft museum, around Tokyo station and the Central Post Office (at my request, although I don't think anyone understood why I was so adamant about going to the central post office. I'm not sure I understood either...) and then to Ginza where Yuko took us to the best food hall and we tasted lots of cakes and I bought 4 Godiva chocolates for 1,200 yen (6 British pounds! And I wonder where my money's going...) Well, we tasted them over a coffee at Starbucks and then headed further into Ginza to a tea shop called Mariage Freres where we sniffed and oohed and aahed at many different teas. Then onto Shinokubo, Tokyo's Korea town. Now, having been told that Korean's are louder and more brash than Japanese, I was expecting a night of harsh service from waiters and people shouting in the street, but it was nothing of the sort. The restaurant was recommended by a Korean friend of Yuko's, and the company was great. Lot's of Yuko's friends came and I'd met some of them before at Yuko and Eugene's weddings. I was especially pleased to see Nao who is such a funny and warm person, but everyone was friendly and talked to me, and I'm not sure what happened, but my Japanese ability suddenly increased because I was able to talk right back to them (albeit with the wrong verb forms and lots of gestures). It was a really fun night with some memorably spicy food and strong drink, and as all good nights do, it ended with Karaoke! Yoshi, his girlfriend Kiyone, Eugene and I ended up in Karaoke until maybe 4am and had a great time. Yoshi and Kiyone love all the Japanese music I love and introduced me to loads more stuff- they even offered to take me on a Shibuya-kei tour of Tokyo on my next visit (Shibuya-kei is a style of music made famous by Pizzicato Five, Flipper's Guitar, Cornelius, Round Table, Capsule and FPM). Such good people!
Sunday was a quieter day but again a good one. Eugene and I headed off to Asakusa to see the famous temple (I've been before and I LOVE it!) via Paul's as I was demanding to eat more lemon meringue... Asakusa was busy as always, but our first stop was a paper goods shop where Eugene bought some gorgeous printed paper as presents for people and I bought some beautiful writing paper. We were walking around the temple, taking in the hustle and bustle and wafting ourselves with incense for good luck when we spied a couple on a rickshaw (or whatever they call them in Japan) who had just gotten married. So we joined the crowds and I took photos and we clapped when we were supposed to and then one of the wedding party started talking to Eugene thanking him for clapping and was very polite. They continued talking for a while and then she handed him some photos as a present. This seemed rather nice, if odd, as the pictures appeared to be of a family. It must be the newlywed's family I thought. I was wrong. Eugene pointed out to me that it was the Imperial family. This seemed even more strange. Why would a woman have an envelope full of pictures of the Imperial family? And why would she give themout like that? Still, it was friendly gesture and she was very polite and pleasant.
We headed to Shinjuku for a late lunch in a rooftop cafe whose name I can't remember and then we parted ways as I headed off for a skulk around the gay district of Tokyo, and then headed back to Shinjuku for a skulk around the bright lights of the city after dark.
Dinner at Eugene and Yuko's was a home made extravaganza of Japanese and Italian dishes and was finished with a taste and compare session on Japanese chocolate where Eugene suggested the Cho-Pan chocolate was boat like and would float and I agreed. Until I put it in my cup of tea and it sank. D'oh. But fortunately Yuko was on the ball and noticed the time was getting late so I had to rush and get to the station to catch the night bus back.
And what a nice way to start the journey. I love the Tokyo tower, especially at night, and we seemed to be driving past it again and again, getting closer then further, then closer. And after an hour of this (which saw me trying to take pictures unsuccessfully from my bus seat) we finally headed out of Tokyo. We arrived in Tsuyama at 5:45 just in time for my train back to Katsuyama and I started my new school at 8:20. It was a perfect, if tiring way to end the momentum of a big city break.
And it was pretty much like this all the way. Last Thursday at 10pm in Tsuyama I boarded the cocoon-like nightbus (all grey and brown curtains with subdued lighting and more curtains to make your seat feel like an enclosed space- a mobile capsule hotel perhaps) where I was soon falling in and out of sleep and wondering what the other passengers were going to get up to in Tokyo. The best thing about the bus is that it drives through much of Tokyo before it gets to it's drop off point, so on Friday morning, albeit at 6:20 am, I was able to start enjoying the Tokyo scenery (tall buildings, blue skies, tall buildings, ginkgo trees, even taller buildings) and get excited about being a real city...
I made my way to Eugene's via a real bakery in Shinagawa station which sold beautifully crisp crusty bread (it's been a long time) and we caught up and discussed our plans and options for the weekend ahead. The first stop for me was predestined as I had arranged to meet friends from London, Paul and Kasumi, in Harajuku, so after a quick shower and change of clothes I headed back onto the trains.
Now, although we only saw a few people who looked like escapees from a time machine accident where some 80's goths had been sent to 2005 via the 1800s, Harajuku was still fun and cool and trendy. With unfathomable shops and strange architecture and bizarre shop signs and posters it is certainly unique. We talked and walked and walked and talked and headed to Shibuya via a wild toy shop, a sophisticated cafe and a lunch stop at a trendy cafe (where I got confused over cutlery- where are my chopsticks?) and the condomania shop which was obviously hilarious but was also had the best soundtrack of any place we'd been in (a healthy dose of SalSoul and a Loleatta Holloway sound-alike. Maybe it was her?) Paul and Kasumi are great company and it was a treat to be able to spend time with them having not seen them for over a year, but with them being on a two week holiday they had lots of other people to meet, so they trundled off to see a friend of Kasumi's perform in an all Japanese Gospel chorus. I would have loved to have seen that.
Back to Eugene's with a stop on the way to buy some more bread, and at the stop I almost fell over myself. Eugene told me which bakers to go to- a 3 minute walk from his house ("it's called 'Paul'", he said) and my mouth fell open when I saw it. Paul's, the same as the French patisserie in Covent Garden and probably in France and elsewhere and with beautiful, glowingly tasty cakes. Once I'd picked up my jaw and wiped away the drool, I bought bread and headed off, making plans to have at least one of their lemon meringue pies before I left Tokyo.
I'd told Eugene I wanted to eat Turkish food and he found us a restaurant for dinner. We cycled from his place to the centre of Shinjuku, largely on the roads which was slightly dangerous as I was soon becoming mesmerised by the lights of the shops and buildings. But the restaurant was gorgeous. It was 'Bosphorus Hasan' in Shinjuku's sanchome area and we missed the belly dancing but didn't care because the food was so good. Yuko has recently been to Turkey and thought the food was better at this restaurant. And after filling ourselves on Meze, grilled fish, bread and with lamb for Eugene and Yuko, Eugene and I headed out to the next part of our night, Club Loose in Kabuki cho.
We were a bit stupid for not understanding the clue in the title, but fortunately due to dilly-dallying on the door we were let in without cover charge. The club was a bit rubbish. It became clear we'd come to a gaijin bar, and it also became clear that it would turn into a meat market (if any "meat" would have bothered to show up- they all had more sense). So we had a few drinks, waited until we realised it clearly couldn't get better and went home.
Saturday started slowly with a trip to Paul's where I gorged on a lemon meringue pie, and from there the three of us went on a walk around the imperial palace gardens, through the craft museum, around Tokyo station and the Central Post Office (at my request, although I don't think anyone understood why I was so adamant about going to the central post office. I'm not sure I understood either...) and then to Ginza where Yuko took us to the best food hall and we tasted lots of cakes and I bought 4 Godiva chocolates for 1,200 yen (6 British pounds! And I wonder where my money's going...) Well, we tasted them over a coffee at Starbucks and then headed further into Ginza to a tea shop called Mariage Freres where we sniffed and oohed and aahed at many different teas. Then onto Shinokubo, Tokyo's Korea town. Now, having been told that Korean's are louder and more brash than Japanese, I was expecting a night of harsh service from waiters and people shouting in the street, but it was nothing of the sort. The restaurant was recommended by a Korean friend of Yuko's, and the company was great. Lot's of Yuko's friends came and I'd met some of them before at Yuko and Eugene's weddings. I was especially pleased to see Nao who is such a funny and warm person, but everyone was friendly and talked to me, and I'm not sure what happened, but my Japanese ability suddenly increased because I was able to talk right back to them (albeit with the wrong verb forms and lots of gestures). It was a really fun night with some memorably spicy food and strong drink, and as all good nights do, it ended with Karaoke! Yoshi, his girlfriend Kiyone, Eugene and I ended up in Karaoke until maybe 4am and had a great time. Yoshi and Kiyone love all the Japanese music I love and introduced me to loads more stuff- they even offered to take me on a Shibuya-kei tour of Tokyo on my next visit (Shibuya-kei is a style of music made famous by Pizzicato Five, Flipper's Guitar, Cornelius, Round Table, Capsule and FPM). Such good people!
Sunday was a quieter day but again a good one. Eugene and I headed off to Asakusa to see the famous temple (I've been before and I LOVE it!) via Paul's as I was demanding to eat more lemon meringue... Asakusa was busy as always, but our first stop was a paper goods shop where Eugene bought some gorgeous printed paper as presents for people and I bought some beautiful writing paper. We were walking around the temple, taking in the hustle and bustle and wafting ourselves with incense for good luck when we spied a couple on a rickshaw (or whatever they call them in Japan) who had just gotten married. So we joined the crowds and I took photos and we clapped when we were supposed to and then one of the wedding party started talking to Eugene thanking him for clapping and was very polite. They continued talking for a while and then she handed him some photos as a present. This seemed rather nice, if odd, as the pictures appeared to be of a family. It must be the newlywed's family I thought. I was wrong. Eugene pointed out to me that it was the Imperial family. This seemed even more strange. Why would a woman have an envelope full of pictures of the Imperial family? And why would she give themout like that? Still, it was friendly gesture and she was very polite and pleasant.
We headed to Shinjuku for a late lunch in a rooftop cafe whose name I can't remember and then we parted ways as I headed off for a skulk around the gay district of Tokyo, and then headed back to Shinjuku for a skulk around the bright lights of the city after dark.
Dinner at Eugene and Yuko's was a home made extravaganza of Japanese and Italian dishes and was finished with a taste and compare session on Japanese chocolate where Eugene suggested the Cho-Pan chocolate was boat like and would float and I agreed. Until I put it in my cup of tea and it sank. D'oh. But fortunately Yuko was on the ball and noticed the time was getting late so I had to rush and get to the station to catch the night bus back.
And what a nice way to start the journey. I love the Tokyo tower, especially at night, and we seemed to be driving past it again and again, getting closer then further, then closer. And after an hour of this (which saw me trying to take pictures unsuccessfully from my bus seat) we finally headed out of Tokyo. We arrived in Tsuyama at 5:45 just in time for my train back to Katsuyama and I started my new school at 8:20. It was a perfect, if tiring way to end the momentum of a big city break.
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