Keitai edition, part 2 (keitai: that's mobile phone to you Aussies, cell phone to you Americans and handy phone to you English-speaking Japanese... where did that originate from!?). I made a mistake, this is the inaugural 40th post of Last Spamurai, not the last one... thanks for all your complaints, the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree. But hey, the lines are always running hot on the Spamurai. Well, this is me, the very green recruit to the world of English teaching abroad (thanks again for the wonderfully affirming observation Steve {my brother}... "it sounds like it's just a step up from backpacking"). My manager snapped this back in November. Can you still detect my youthful vigour? Watch it disappear photo, by photo...

Oh, but first, this is just before Christmas... my Japanese class' Christmas party... with my buddy Justin cranking out Jingle Bell Rock. What a sport!

Here we have some Christmas hula, courtesy of a teacher and friends. Hula is popular here among ladies, hence my church's practice of it too. I have yet to be luau'ed into doing it.

This is the beautiful Chiaki. We were pen friends for a bit before I came to Japan - this is when we met while I was enroute to my holiday in the snows of Takayama. She lives in Otsu which is right near Kyoto and the shores of Lake Biwa, Japan's biggest. Can you believe we discovered we have lived in the same street in Artarmon, Sydney!? She was there as a semi-professional marathon runner. Now she works liasing with Portuguese-speaking workers for a manufacturer. Oh, to be so multi-talented! We ate lunch looking out over the lake, watching distant snow and rain fall on the far mountains, and then I was persuaded to do the purikura thing... those little photos on stickers that you take in a booth - ours was like a mini studio!

From purikura to karaoke. Taketo cuts loose with a bit of Glay while Sue-yen, her visiting friend Larry and I cheer on.

Lunch with the family of our ex-assistant manager, Yoshiko (the one hailing from the Tender Puppy Dept). She is so hospitable. One of her twin sons is called Genki (means happy/lively/healthy)!

Lunch with some of the teachers from Japanese class. They are really nice and into learning about foreign cultures. It can be funny at times seeing what that means to some people here. I was telling a middle-aged lady something and she proudly confirmed it with "Roger". When I didn't quite react with full appreciation, she fished a little: "That's right isn't it... Roger?" I said that it was indeed, well done, and that it's also a man's name. I didn't go into the other possible interpretation... Our present company were all impressed by this super-radfresh use of English! Let's talk radio!

Love to 'ave a beer with Justin, cuz Justin's me mate! A last brewski before Justin headed back to Seattle. Kampai!

What is it with Seattle and Japan? My new friends Anna and John (just engaged) hail from that same city. The fact that it's on the West Coast makes it closer to Japan and it has a substantial Japanese community, I'm told. This has been bolstered by the importation of Ichiro Suzuki and Johjima (forget his first name) into the Seattle Mariners. Ichiro is a legend over here and actually came from my local team, Kobe's Orix Buffaloes. I am more a fan of Johjima. Anyway, back to people I actually know! Anna and John are sadly heading back in less than 2 weeks... yes, that's the nature of the beast here... a transitory social life. Oscar, from London, is thankfully hanging around and Taro is a local, so that's something. They are cool guys... Oscar's a kak and Taro's, well, cool!

Lastly some pictures that I didn't take, but that were sent to me by my friend Yahata. They are just too cute. Mana-chu...

Sugu-tan...

and evil Mana-chu! kawaii ne!

Oh well, there may be a part 3 to this of just odd stuff before I return to my travel-log.

Til then... mata ne.