Hello.

Yes, it breathes! It lives! "It" being either the creature typing these words known as Ian or the blog known as Last Spamurai... take your pick. Ian is alive and well in the balmy Great Southern Land. Today it reached into the high 20s which was nice (depsite the dire warnings of global warming), considering I'm looking down the barrel of yet another winter (albeit a milder one than my last 2 in Japan!). This will be my 4th winter in 2 years.

But really, did you really come here to read about the weather!? We all know what the Spamurai is about. It's all about...me. (Yes, I have become that self-obsessed). Well... actually, this blog was always about me in Japan... and now I'm... well... not in Japan. So that leaves me with the question of what to do with the Spamurai. Is it time to shelve the lunch meat for good? Is it time to change to a diet of fresh, healthy alternatives to Spam? My conclusion for now is... (because I know you've all been losing sleep and holding your breath on this one)... I will at least finish posting about the main things I did in Japan and I might even trawl through my holidays in Japan of 2003 and 2004. Beyond that I'm not really sure my life is that interesting in and of itself! I'm not really one for daily listing the number of Weet Bix I ate, the quality of my bowel movements or my thought of the day (often the last 2 are the very same thing). But yeah, I'll let y'all know what will become of the Spamurai.

So for now... a rare interview with a close friend of the Spamurai... that would again be... me.

LS: Tell us, what are you doing now and how does it feel to be back?

IY: Well, it's been weird. I am working back at the place I was at before, doing the things that I was doing before! Storyboarding for an animated TV series. Weird in that Sydney life feels surprisingly normal in a lot of ways but I feel that I'm a bit different now.

LS: Do you mean in a worldly-wise "I've been everywhere man" way, or something else? Prease exprain.

IY: No, I don't fancy myself as now being particularly knowing in any greater sense (despite trying to grow a seasoned-traveller beard... result was more like pathetic angry velcro), but I feel like I was a different person in Japan, leading a different life and now I'm back in the old camouflage of pre-Japan life, and yet Ian Young's stripes feel a bit out of kilter with the walls and carpets of suburbia-to-urbia-and-back-again-to-suburbia daily humdrum.

LS: So home seems horribly borish now? Your family and friends are uncool compared to your hip Japanese pardners?

IY: Not at all. Life in Japan was often also a humdrum thing, albeit a different brand. No, I am loving seeing those dearest to me again (...and yet realising how dear the friends I've left behind are to me). I'm also liking my surrounds of where I grew up. It's been developed but the geography's still the same. It's nice being with Mum and Dad, too. I haven't lived with them for almost 6 years I guess. I'm enjoying the freedom of Aussie culture - there's that great egalitarianism and friendliness that you can still find. But Sydney culture seems odder than ever before. The look-at-me-ness. The aggressive eyeballing of each other and driving like it's DeathRace 2000. The apathy and comfort and the aspiring to have even more. I guess those things are in Japan too, but it's not as much of a competition there, at least as far as I experienced it. Sydney's beaut, but yeah... there seems to be a whole lotta haughtiness around which I find UGLY.

So, I love being back despite seeing some things in a poorer light, but I also miss every one of my friends in Japan terribly. I'll visit as soon as time and money permit.

LS: Ohhhkay. Nice soapboxing! What have been some adjustments? Let's end on a lighter note!

IY: When commuting I still expect anyone I glance at in a suit to be Japanese. I still get surprised at seeing newspapers in English on the train. I still prick up my ears when I hear the word "Australia". I'm still eating hamburgers like I've been in Asia for a long time where the closest thing available is a plasticised McBiscuit. I still think of anyone non-Japanese as a foreigner and think things like "aren't their noses big and their bums are so..."

LS: OK! Our time's up. Catch you next time. We apologise for the delay in transmission. Our technical team has been trying to source a good provider for fast connection to the Spamurai Nerve Centre - where all our visual material is kept. Ian Young kept rambling but we decided to terminate this interview in the interests of your health and his safety. May you be in good measures of both. His last words were: Sayonara sucker.