Last Spamurai

2008-04-12T21:50:00.002+09:00

Ummmm ... I lied.

Sorry people (using plural is pretty hopeful)... I still intend to kick-start the Spamurai...

... coming soon to a screen near you.

2007-05-03T22:26:00.000+09:00

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.

2007-03-20T01:26:00.000+09:00

This is the last Spamurai post from what's been my home-away-from-home in Japan. Yes, I'm moving out tomorrow morning. I've been too busy to know how to feel, but I'm sure that will follow. Today, amid all the hectic goings-on of preparing to leave, I played golf! Kazuya-san from next door and his elderly friend Habuchi-san made excellent company. We drove for about an hour to get there - a beautiful, straight-forward course in the mountains of Sasayama. I had a great time, although my playing was atrocious. Habuchi-san took honours. He has one of the toughest looking faces I've ever seen -cheekbones that you could carve something with, but by the back nine we were making silly gestures and noises to each other! I was relieved we were able to act like kids - I turned up in very casual attire as per laid-back Aussie golfing (but I did have a collar), whereas the other two were wearing trousers and sportscoats and had a change of clothes to play in! Freak. But it was fine. We virtually had the course to ourselves - staff outnumbering patrons by about 3:1! The service and facilities were incredible. Automatic golf cars that drive themselves, conveyor belts to take you up to the clubhouse, a huge locker room to change in and an adjoining o furo, or Japanese bath, to soak in when you're done cursing a small white piece of plastic all around a fancy park for half a day. It was great - the bath was the best I've ever had.j.. And it was an exceedingly generous gift - the other two shouted me despite my best efforts to decline.

Anyway, gotta stop yabbering - I'm going to be up all night cleaning as it is. My trip to Kyushu is happening pretty much as advertised a couple of posts ago - minus the limestone caves of Yamaguchi. So, catch you next time in/from Australia most likely!

ja ne

2007-03-15T01:55:00.000+09:00

Update: I am currently 2 days into my last week of work. To me that means each day is a series of painful goodbyes to some of the best little creatures in God's good world. Yesterday I said goodbye to Taisei, Haruka, Tomohiro, Kazutaka, Asuka, Risa (at which point I lost it and embarrassed myself by crying in front of 4 very surprised looking kids and 2 of their mothers), Hideki, Satoshi and Kimika. Today I said goodbye to Eitaro, Takara, Honoka, Ami and Maki. This time I sprung a leak saying goodbye to Honoka, my hyper-active little nut of a kid who this year has been wearing a cap and jacket that makes her look like a trucker. She likes to substitute obake (ghost) for anything I ask her to repeat and at times hisses at me like a friendly rabid goose. In other words, often a nightmare to teach. But I love her to bits - this time her mum saw me weeping and asked me if I was OK! Gosh, I knew this week would suck.

After work Kazuya (my friend from the sushi-ya next door) took me to a golf range in order to prepare for our big game next Monday. Yes! I'm going to play golf in Japan! The result of our practice? I am scared witless. Kazuya is good. He drives the ball further than I can see and in a pretty good line. I was woeful. I haven't lost my trademark slice (that's when the ball curves out from you - in my case, to the right) and tendency to sometimes hit the top of the ball and just bounce it along the ground. Thankfully his daughters Sayaka and Asuka came along and tried for the first time for some comic relief. Otherwise I would have been the only comedy there. The range was pretty schmick. The payment system involving a charge card was impressively complicated and the automatically ball-loaded tee that pops up from the ground was very cool. Everyone around us seemed to be really good at golf and slightly peeved at our tomfoolery.

Then we went back for some dinner. They spoiled me rotten with nabe (soup hotpot), some fried dumpling ball things, karaage (fried chicken), fried beef and onion and 2 dishes from their friends' restaurant next door - tompeiyaki (omelet wrapped around pork and sprouts in a barbecue sauce) and fried beef bowel. That last bit sounds gross, but it's delicious. It's presented like squid - curly white pieces with a criss-cross pattern cut into it. It's also similar in its chewiness. I'm not sure how to describe the taste. It's belly good!

As we talked about times we've spent hanging out I asked after Kazuya's various friends that I've met. He rang one guy, Konishi-san, even though it was quite late and I thought that was the end of it. Then about 10 minutes later Konishi-san pops in and joins us! They then basically tell me that we're going to their favourite karaoke bar, Puchi - which is a very loose translation of Petit ...but just for a short time.

Rather than being called a karaoke bar, it's actually a snack bar. For those who know the euphemism, don't recoil in shock just yet. For those who don't, snack bars are sometimes places where young girls offer other services as well. But in the country, the term can also be used for a bar where older women serve patrons and just provide banter. They are very good at conversation and karaoke, pouring drinks, lighting cigarettes and handing you a steamed towel (every time you return from the loo!). At this place there's Mama-san and Yukari-san. Mama-san is about 50 and you can tell she's been working behind a bar for a long time. Her voice and laugh is one achieved through alcohol and cigarettes. She would have been quite a looker in her youth. Yukari is still a looker at age 30. Needless to say, most of the patrons are lonely men, but this place is so innocent that I've seen an older couple and their teenage daughter there. It's a weird type of establishment that just doesn't exist in Australia.

I was coaxed into singing a few songs even though I really didn't feel like it. I murdered Rock With You, did a mediocre Sweet Caroline and then an OK Patience, ala Guns'n'Roses. Kazuya and I finished with a duet of Careless Whisper! He's not only good at golf, but karaoke too. It was nice to just hang out and then say some not-so heart-rending sayonaras to Mama-san and Yukari-san. Yukari said to please comeback on my honeymoon! haha

Well I just deleted the word "Quick" from the start of this post. The quick update has become another bloated early-morning production. I guess with all my weird emotional churnings I needed to vent. Thanks for reading...

Time to pack tissues for tomorrow's proceedings. Night.

2007-03-10T00:58:00.000+09:00

Epilogue

I went to Abe-san's house yesterday (Abe-san is the man I talk about in the post below). His wife was also really nice - no surprises there! She doesn't speak a word of English, but I was pleased to realise I could understand a fair bit of what she said. Her husband filled in the rest. They had me sit in their special living room - walls adorned with fascinating things from his travelling career. He even had the wheel from the ship that he served on. Thankfully I saw a few more hats (with matching miniature uniforms made by Mrs Abe!), but I still feel that I have taken someone's Olympic medal home as a decoration. It was a really special time - they treated me as an honoured guest - I'm not sure I've sipped tea from such a nice set before! When I said it was a beautiful cup they were like "Oh. Really?".

In contrast, they then drove me to a really earthy joint (that word fits perfectly) for some good honest chuuka, or Chinese food. The other clientelle made it seem more like a truck-stop (actually the place next door was hilariously titled BIG MOUTH American Restaurant), but I was in very elegant company with the Abe's. We had some delicious ramen and gyoza, or noodles and fried dumplings. Everything was loaded with garlic - some fairly raw. The gyoza were in large supply and Mrs Abe kept plying me with them with you're young, you can eat them. Please eat them. Eat them all! Please eat them. Like a loving broken record.

Mr Abe made a joke about how I have to go and teach English after this and how my students will suffer the effects of our lunch. The joke was prophetic. By 6pm my breath could slay a behemoth from 100 metres. My lone student walked in to the room adjoining mine and instantly gave me this funky look and slapped her hand over her mouth. When I finally coaxed her into our classroom, I offered to move my desk further from hers. After opening the window to the very cold evening air she then moved her desk until she was backed up against the wall!

haha... a closing poem:

Beware the gyoza, should you want friends. If not... dig in! They're tasty.

2007-03-06T00:19:00.000+09:00

What would you say if a man handed you 30 years of his life in a box?

Would you know what to say? I didn't. I was speechless. This happened to me today. During my Japanese class, one of the teachers, a wonderful old guy called Abe Jiro pulled me aside and produced a paper bag. Inside was a cardboard box. Inside the box was a miniature officer's hat. Abe-san was an International Communications Officer aboard a merchant ship. He travelled the high seas for many years, visiting countless nations (well, actually I think he said 80ish), whilst keeping a wife and children back in Japan. I was intrigued by the beautiful little hat.

I was flabbergasted when he said he'd brought it to give to me as a present. I learned during a farewell lunch for some of us that it was his retirement gift after 30 years of service. Wha? I was dumbfounded. Why did he give it to me? Why me? Someone he hardly knows. A schmuck. A manchild who collects toys and pays taxes late if at all, who can barely get out of bed some days! As a Christian I've heard many stories of grace before - told to illustrate the death of Christ... what God did in giving the life of a blameless man to benefit guilty people. I'm sure it wasn't his intention, but this little hat has made me feel a little more of what that means. I feel so undeserving. And so grateful.

Here we are. My teacher thinks Abe-san gave it to me because he didn't manage to have me over at his house, so he wanted me to have something to remember him by. Far out. He had invited me and I hadn't had the courtesy to make a time to see him! Well, I'm seeing him this Thursday and it's horrible that it's taken all this for me to accept an offer to be his guest.

Another box of grace. This one has been folded together by my first teacher, Mukojima-sensei... yes, she made it out of origami paper! I also recieved this today. I love it.

Inside were some black and white sesame biscuits she baked for me. She is a young, busy woman, so it's not like she was bored! These people are definitely not helping me leave this place. It's overwhelming.

My heart is in 2 countries.

2007-03-03T02:39:00.000+09:00

I concede defeat. I have been trying to keep the Spamurai up to date, but photographically speaking I am still stuck in the world of 2006. I'm up to about December 30th but alas it's already March 2007! Can you believe it? Since I set a definite date to return home time has rocketed into the future. So... I have decided to wave the white flag to time and am resolved to the fact that I will be putting most of the pics-to-come on this blog from my parental home of Epping, New South Wales, Australia... once I get there in a month's time.

So what's with the map? Well, that red line is the trip I'm planning to take as my last assault on Japan - the island of Kyushu. It's not set in stone, but I thought I'd share with you my excitement. Haha... set in stone. I only have one city's accommodation booked - a big achievement if I may say so myself - the website was entirely in Japanese and I had to stick each field of the secure reservation page into a translation website line by line! Took a couple of goes, but I got a confirmation email! Success! That city is Kumamoto - right in the middle of the trip, so up until yesterday I hadn't settled on the direction I'd do this tour in.

Well zooming in, I've decided to tackle things in an anti-clockwise direction (still fighting time I guess). I'll train it to Fukuoka (hopefully after seeing some massive limestone caves in Yamaguchi en route) and then go on to Nagasaki, Shimabara peninsula, catch a ferry and train to Kumamoto (castle town) then on to Aso-zan (the world's largest volcanic caldera) and onto the bath towns of Oita and Beppu. From there I hope to catch an overnight ferry back to Osaka.

All up it'll be about 8 days.

With all I have to do in packing up my apartment, tying up everything at work, saying goodbye to friends from various sources and making sure I have everything covered legally and logistically for nicking off back to Australia, I'm looking forward to this trip with a mixture of relief and high-stress if that makes any sense at all.

Well, winter is officially over, I believe. The plum trees are blooming early and my nose is already onto the fact that spring has sprung. March 1st - bang, I see my first blossoms and snart sneezing. Oh well. I still love spring. And with this weather I'm probably going to see Kyushu in full sakura-mode. Cherry blossoms!

So, with all this going on, the Spamurai may well be more of a ninja int he coming days and weeks. I'll try to update, but as I said - most will be coming from once I'm back on home soil. Not quite as romantic, but whatever!

See you soon...

2007-02-28T01:07:00.000+09:00

A solitary figure paces back and forth across the vast forum of the Tokyo Government Metropolitan Offices. He seemed to be engrossed in a phone call - perhaps doing deals, surrounded by sleeping giants of business and bureaucracy.

One of the government towers. I have to say I love this building. It's a modern classic - can I say that? Mabes or June, please correct me - I don't know the architectural lingo. You can't tell from this angle, but there are 2 towers. Seeing buildings like this make me want to see New York. Ahhh... the Chrysler Building!

Our telephone-drifter continues wearing a groove into the pavers.

This space is a design-marvel. The reflected light from each building, whether or not by design, makes for really cool highlights and shadows.

Well, in my usual fashion I had completely stuffed up and had tried to get into the towers on their day off - a public holiday. (Be warned, traveller: often things here are closed on Mondays, too). But thankfully, the neighbours were more obliging. This is the atrium of the NS building, from where I took the following shots...

It's weird seeing skyscrapers in Japan. There just aren't many around, due to the high cost, I would guess - owing to the incredible engineering and devices needed to counter earthquakes. Kanto, or the eastern region of Japan which includes Tokyo, gets frequent tremors and the odd quake.

Here's a more telling view of the towers. They look so cool. So sentinel-like. Or perhaps mainframish. Kind of scary in that regard - like a giant computer running the affairs of people. Anyway, whatever the statement is, it makes it powerfully! haha... I'm just not smart enough to get it.

As it turned out this would be my next port of call, the Sumitomo Building.

This is a different view of the Metropolitan Offices space. I thought it was the perfect subject for me to try to rip off the technique of Japanese photographer, Naoki Honjo (http://www.taigallery.com/naokihonjo.html). He brilliantly makes real scenery look like a diorama of miniature dimensions, by taking them from high places and then playing with the depth of field (I guess you could say range of focus). Anyway, this shot and the one below are my poor Photoshop imitations.

Did I mention I love the design of this place?

On a completely different scale, this unadulterated photo looks like a giant has left his soft drink can in the street.

Anyway, next up: views of Tokyo and Mt. Fuji from the Sumitomo Building.

2007-02-22T02:49:00.000+09:00

Hmmm... let's see...

- 9State story Encouraging * twin-bedded room Pocket coil bed adoption

Washlet with bus rest room

Okay, bathroom sounds spacious all right. I get to keep the bed?

Victory for Business... ...Potato Haya

Great! Success and a complimentary spud. What the !?

These were just 2 of the room types offered at a hotel website I browsed tonight in my search for accommodation in Fukuoka for my last hurrah next month.

Excuse me while I scratch my head until my brain plops out of the hole.

2007-02-20T00:10:00.000+09:00

This could be a scene from a mountain retreat, somewhere in tucked-away Japan, were it not for the tell-tale frame holding up the powered train lines.

Look at the amazing carved calligraphy on this stone ah... thing!

Just how many Buddhas are there anyway?

Yep, we're in Tokyo, in Minami-Senju which I guess you'd call shitamachi Tokyo - the old side of town. This is one of the most densely populated places in the world... in the Tokyo Bay area, including Yokohama and Chiba, there are about 33 million people. Right next to the Buddhas is a graveyard. A train passes noisily overhead.

This was next to the station of the area I stayed in. It does the trick - cheap, basic lodgings in a pretty convenient location. But no, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. If you can handle walking past old homeless men sleeping, talking, eating wandering and occasionally urinating in the street then I guess you're up for it. But yeah, Ginza it ain't! (Note to prospective wife out there: I'd be willing to upgrade... a little. haha.)

A forgotten little scooter soaking up the morning sun.

There barely seems room for even some pedals, let alone an engine.

When in Tokyo , the Spamurai chooses to stay in a hotel where he can touch both sides of the room at once with his hands. But this isn't it! This is the view looking from it! haha.

Looking straight down I could see the little shrine below had a brand spanking roof of copper on it. I've stayed here twice before, so I knew it was new, apart from the obvious shinyness of it.

Sorry, I love shiny metal things.

Especially copper.

Wasn't quite so keen on this fella. A pair of angry looking dogs guard the way. I'd never quite seen ones like this before. They almost seem a bit Egyptian.

Finally, this is perhaps a big call, but I guarantee that the video below is the funniest thing you'll have seen in a loooonnnnggg time. What's it got to do with Japan I hear you ask? Nothing apart from the fact that I've been seeing it a lot in my local haunt, Dayz darts bar. Master or mashta as we call him loves to play 80's videos in a loop that lasts for about an hour (with the likes of the Buggles, Human League and INXS). So if you stay for the long haul you get treated to Journey's Separate Ways several times. I don't tire of it ever - unintentional comic genius! (Look for the bit where the singer's backing his way through the forklift palettes.) Please enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w44tJDnMzk8

2007-02-16T23:59:00.000+09:00

Using the latest Spamuraivision technology I bring you Fuji-san as viewed travelling at 285 km/h! In other words I've meddled with this picture, taken from my seat on a Tokyo-bound shinkansen, to bring out the features which you can't see with normal, non-Spamurai eyes. The sky was a bit hazy, but still clear enough to be able to see this most famous of mountains. It was my first time, so I was pretty stoked. I've been past numerous times, but at the wrong times - it's always been invisible in the soupy spring/summer air. I think if it weren't for the snowcap, I would have missed it again.

This is how it really appeared. Hazy, but still... it's there! So if you want to climb Mt Fuji come in spring or autumn. If you want to see it, come in winter!

I was really surprised by the size of this thing. It's not that close to the train line, but it fills a good chunk of the sky. I guess if there were a building 3 km high it would be visible from a long way off, let alone a pile of earth that tall. It really makes you think funny words, like splendid! magnificent! subarashii! I believe the hedge things in the foreground are tea.

This is my friend Masato-san. He and I first met at Chatswood Presbyterian, back in Sydney. He lives near a city called Hiratsuka, visible here behind him. We are looking east along the coast of Honshu, in the direction of Tokyo, which is where I was headed. After shouting me to a really nice lunch, Masato-san took me to this very windy, beautiful vantage point. It's a really nice part of Japan.

Masato lives on the other side of the lookout.

I love bay windows and Masato has a really nice one! He became a Christian shortly after we met but this wasn't long before I left Sydney for Japan. So it was good to catch up and talk about our friends back at Chatswood and how it's been living as Christians in this very different culture.

It was a good time.

But, it had to end. Masato took me to the train station, but not until we'd made a slight detour on the way, to get another glimpse of Fuji-san. In one of those Japan-moments that I thought I'd only ever read about we pulled over to the side of the road and looked across rice paddies towards Mt Fuji to the accompaniment of a bullet train hurtling past.

In the coming issues, we'll keep heading east. I was on my way to Tokyo for a couple of days, to be followed by another stay with my friends Tom, Jen and Ruby in their home of Tsukuba, north of Tokyo. As it turned out, Fujisan's shyness waned further and I could see it from Tokyo! You'll see...

In the meantime, this has been a very good week. As you know, Valentine's Day was on Wednesday. I've been reaping the chocolatey goodness of being a male in Japan. Nothing is expected of me until March 14th, White Day... time to reciprocate. I've received chocolates, cookies and a cupcake from some little girls, a couple of teenagers and my manager! Yesterday was particularly good for other reasons - I managed to do a load of washing, talk to my sister, stitch my backpack and take a box to the post office all before work! I do start at 2 on Thursdays, but I usually would be lucky to get two of those things done.

Anyway, g'night.

2007-02-12T23:31:00.000+09:00

This blog entry is brought to you by the letters S, E and the colour gold. The S and the E stand for Sam and Edwin, to whom I dedicate this post as they approach their wedding day next month. Above you can see a typical Japanese wedding envelope. The fancier they are the more cash you can expect to find inside. They usually have a suggested amount printed on the packaging - it would be embarrassing to give less than the "advertised" amount! Gift-giving for all sorts of occasions is an important (and expensive!) part of social interaction for Japanese people. Sorry S and E... you're only getting a photo of an envelope from me for now! haha... I hope that all is shaping up well.

These are decorations for a wedding. I saw these old people making them on TV. It was amazing they way they weave and wind them together. They are understandably expensive.

And now for something completely different, yet similar to the eye...

You may recall similar shots to these on the Spamurai a year ago. In the lead-up to Christmas it was time again for Kobe's annual Luminarie display - to commemorate the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995.

Here we (friends Takashi, Azusa and I) are making our way up the closed-off street. Azusa was a bit camera-shy.

Those black shapes are traffic lights.

It wasn't anything like the year before in temperature (mild, as opposed to freezing), but the display itself seemd to be exactly the same. Having just compared the photos though, I can now see that the designs were quite different, but the overall effect of a tunnel of light is repeated each year.

In the tunnel.

My favourite part - the end where you are surrounded by lights.

We just made it to the end in time to savour it for a few minutes before the lights flicked off - right on time! Everyone let out this "OH!" and then started laughing. It was very funny.

Nearby in the Motomachi district is the Daimaru department store. It's impressive by day and beautiful by night. Anyway, I'm slowly creeping this blog into 2007. Next issue will take you to Tokyo and beyond!

2007-02-12T20:49:00.000+09:00

A virtual dog virtually looks on at virtual figures in a very real room. Or are they virtual? In a brilliant exhibition called Geometric Reality artist Kato Toshihiko brings the purely mathematical into the physical realm. He builds figures in AutoCAD or a similar program using polygons - those straight-edged facets that you see in game-characters, ala Playstation and the like. He then prints out the plans of these characters and painstakingly makes them materialise by cutting out each polygon out of artboard and assembling them together like a 3 dimensional puzzle. The dog alone consists of over 800 pieces. This exhibition was held in a very cool independent gallery called Mssohkan (or Muso-kan... there seems to be 2 ways of writing it) which is run by a family near Kobe.

The wall out the front seems to break away accidentally.

But look up and you'll find the rest of the wall on the top of the building! A silver person looks coolly into the distance from behind silver driving sunglasses.

Inside Kato's genius becomes apparent. His static, yet dynamic figures have a strange life of their own, despite their cold, formulaic microchip origins.

The purity of tone on each plane makes them so photographable! They seem to be asking to be taken. I asked the lady on staff - the daughter - if I could take some photos and surprisingly her reply was "Of course!". Later I said I wanted to write a review of some sort on the internet (I admitted the smale scale of my intent) and she was very happy aboout it. Having said that, if I breach any kind of copyright in posting these pictures, I sincerely apologise.

She left me to take pictures at my leisure and went off to make me a cup of tea! This gallery only runs on sales, so the entry was free.

She was very enthusiastic in telling me about the artist and in answering all my questions (she spoke good English - I'm not that good at Japanese!) and seemed truly grateful for my visit which was really humbling considering it's obvious to Blind Freddie that I couldn't ever afford the pieces on offer.

This figure reminds me of the headless girl that dances around outside the cabin in Evil Dead: Dead By Dawn - a movie that is laughable now, but in my youth scared the stuffing out of me!

I'm imagining a whole Playstation Acropolis in Athens.

The relative weightlessness of this medium makes things like this possible. It plays games with the mind in what you're looking at - the type of image that you're used to seeing from behind the glass of a computer screen is tangible, touchable. (But I didn't touch it!)

Check out the way he's done the shoulder joint, the jawline, the ear. Awesome.

In a back room with very chic ship's-style windows (chosen by mother!), I was shown these amazing ceramic sculptures by young artist Hayashi Higeki. http://www.geocities.jp/sheceramic/koten2006ms.html

Hayashi brilliantly draws on the hyper-modern and traditions of Japanese folklore and ceramics-production (he's from ceramics region Minoh, where I previously took photos of a waterfall and monkey) to create these intriguing artworks. These pod contraptions are designed to recall the shape of a rabbit - just as in Western tradition there is a man on the moon, the Japanese see a couple of rabbits, beating rice to make the popular snack, mochi!

Open the pod and you find a baby. If you read the excellent critique in the above link, you'll learn that this baby is the one referred to in the old tale that tells of a baby sent from the moon, to be found by a woodsman when he cut a large stalk of bamboo. I'd seen such imagery before, but had no idea it was a lunar baby!

George Lucas eat your heart out. Remember that these are entirely made from kiln-fired clay.

My host told me that the artist examined over 500 babies' faces in order to come up with an "average" face - an "everyman" baby, if you will. I wish I could have seen the full exhibition of these figures, but I feel priveleged enough to have seen this much... and with a free cuppa to boot! The lady said, please tell your friends! So here I am, doing my best. (I have a feeling that they're kind of well-patronised though, with customers coming from Tokyo and overseas... but like I said, nice of her to welcome a schmuck like me. The baser side of me dreamt of wooing her only to give me the means to do hair-brained art without ever working a regular job again in my life! haha)

So...

If you've got some time to kill in Kobe, make sure you make your way to Mssohkan... or whatever it's called! Definitely worth making the effort.

2007-02-11T00:40:00.000+09:00

This is about a 15 minute walk from my place. There's a busy road behind you here, but it makes for a pretty view.

I promise these are the last autumn leaves I will be posting! Amazing colours.

This is even closer. Everytime I open my front door I see Elizabeth Montgomery in cartoon form on a big billboard facing the traffic. Pretty cool really. Would have preferred Barbara Eden, but I'll take any 60's sitcom lady I can get. It's an ad for a ka- conbini... offering convenience in a car maintenance and "total" shop. Total is a popular marketing word here. You see disturbing ads that sell Total Human Produce.

On the way to the station.

This is from out the front of my place. I snapped this on a particularly clear day. The mountains in the distance normally are completely obscured by haze. I've zoomed in a lot here. The stylised M you can see above a rooftop is an electrical store 25 minutes walk away, so those mountains are a long way off and pretty big.

I'm now taking you to Osaka. This is along the way, at a pretty major stop called Kawanishi Ikeda. I'm not sure who this samurai is, but I like the statue. It's strange seeing it stradling a busy train station and multiple shopping centres. I imagine these guys galloping about near streams and bamboo groves - hard to picture Japanese urbia (can I say that?) as it once was.

This is in the south of Osaka on a typical weekend. Shopping is a sport here. A lot of perfectly good stuff must get regularly chucked here to make way for shiny new things, as the dwellings tend to be on the very small side. Sad really. But recycle shops seem to have a bit of support in my area at least. I love them.

Also in the south, this is in the Dotonbori stretch. I've blogged about this place before. This is one of the many places selling Osaka's famous takoyaki, or octopus balls... little bombs of superheated stuff ready to go off in your mouth/throat and cook you from the inside. I've scalded myself numerous times. Average ones are very average and good ones are fantastic! many people make them at home (fun!) and put things other than octopus inside them. You'll see later...

Nearby is famous Glico Man.

I should never go to Las Vegas. I will get sucked in by the flashing lights.

I don't know what this guy's story is. But I like him.

Lastly, more pearls from Joi Ito: http://joi.ito.com/archives/japanese_policy/

The stories "Japanese Racism..." and "Planning to be Homeless" are particularly compelling. Just if you're interested in the state of things in Japan and its dealings with the outside world.

Anyway... pretty random stuff tonight. See ya!

2007-02-09T23:24:00.000+09:00

Time for some hairless bipeds... aka ningen... aka people... but best known as my friends. Mister Master Masa-sama (aka beatmaster) and I goof it up at church.

Hide and Toshi. This photo sums up their personlaities well! (Although admittedly Toshi and I can barely communicate, but our attempts seem to amuse him a lot. Me too! He just became a dad.)

Strange guy with camera. (I mean him! Not me!)

Well wouldn't you know? It's Eric.

Now it's Christmas time. Well, in the photo, that is. We're at Crossroad Bible Fellowship celebrating the birth of Jesus. The people in the photo are playing the different roles of the Christmas story and singing as the temporary choir.

Christmas didn't seem quite so Christmassy this time round for some reason. Either way, Jesus was born all those years ago and that's what matters! But I tried my hardest in a borrowed Santa hat to be festive. Dinner together was great. That's my manager from work next to me.

This is my friend Namiko, currently in Australia. It's weird to think that my parents have probably now hung out with her more than I have! Hi if you're reading!

She made a great meal for my friend Mika and I. That's Namiko's mum with Mika, who's a church friend. Namiko and Mika met in a sauna! When the subject of going to Australia came up Mika mentioned she had an Aussie friend at church... and you've guessed the rest!

We now move on to Christmas, Nihongo Salon style! That's the name of my Japanese class. It's organised by Sanda International Association. We sat in a big U-shape and watched some performances by students before playing some silly games and then eating a potluck lunch. That's my teacher in the foreground. She's great.

Rosa and Nat warm up the place with a Spanish number. It's been an awesome experience going to this class - the tuition is one-on-one, but there's plenty of opportunity to chat with other students who hail from all over the world. Nat is a super nice and sharp guy from small-town America. Modest too - I knew he could speak some Spanish, but I found out at the party he used to teach it too! I was a wallflower as usual and didn't perform anything ("perform what?" I thought... maybe I should have cracked out a number or two on my comb.)

Well, these two Blue Mountains kids have more creativity and more pluck. Steph and Taylor read out a poem they'd written. They only just went home, but were here for nearly half a year - Sanda City and City of Blue Mountains are sisters, so they have student exchanges. Taylor quickly learned how the cool kids wear their uniforms! haha. They're both cool kids.

Another Aussie connection! David and Nadia also come from the Mountains. They sang about sushi swimming around in their heads. They were nice enough to have me over on Christmas day, along with some others. It was nice to hang out in someone's home and form an impromptu family.

Well, bingo done, food eaten, time for a group photo. I will miss these people.

Another occasion - lunch after class in the Italian restaurant downstairs. The occasion was that Oscar had turned up for class! haha, that's not true. We were saying goodbye to the young-uns.

This is as recent as 2 weeks ago! I spent almost an hour one afternoon after class with these 2 ladies and we ended up sketching each other. That was really cool. Yes, I always look this terrible at class. With a 10 o'clock start time it's by far the earliest start of the week for me!

Well, here's a bunch of no-good beef-eaters. We are eating kobe-gyu - the world famous Kobe beef! It's not normally done yakiniku, or barbequed, but it tastes great to me. I also tried beef sashimi - raw beef! Very nice. This is a really mixed bag of people - from work and local. A friend of a few of us works at this place, so she got us a good deal. It's supposed to be the best beef in the world and I believe it.

I like this photo a lot. Takako and I were with a big bunch from work seeing off our friend Lexie (you can see her in a previous post). Nice photo for such a dive of a place. We were in Pure which is anything but! It's absolutely packed with sketchy people there for sleaze and the nomihoudai all-you-can-drink ticket. Nomihoudai is the first Japanese that some foreigners learn.

Next to us was a little hutch type thing that looked like Yoda's house on Dagoba. On top of it was a girl dancing around a pole - she wasn't doing the mayflower dance. All class.

We didn't last long there - ended up karaoking until first train.

Anyway on that lovely note, (started in church, ended in a seedy club) I must away to the land of Nod. More great people to come.

Buenos noches!

2007-02-03T00:07:00.000+09:00

And you can dance... for inspiration. Come On ...I'm waiting.

I think I am pregnant. I hear that when there's a bun in the oven stange things are craved. Right now I would dearly like to hear Madonna's Get Into the Groove. On that note, something wonderful has happened. I have blogged previously about the muzak they play at the local shopping centre. Come Christmas time there is a respite as they swap CDs in the control room for some Bing or some such other Christmassy dudes. Then, usually the muzak is popped back in and belted out ad nauseum. But, this year there's a whole new world of shopping at Ecoll Lilas (why oh why don't they call it something Japanese people can pronounce!?). I was startled when I first realised I was listening to one of my favourite songs there, New Order's True Faith. Woohoo. It's the small things...

Now, to whinging. Just how cold is it now? Well, it's been snowing on and off today but I came home to a winter wonderland. It was so beautiful - a clear night with an almost full moon casting a bluish light over the white-painted world. I got home, grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I headed for a cool little railway crossing. I had a certain shot in my head of a passing train and set up in anticipation. I got the shot and then tried for another angle - had to wait for the next train. This went on a few times which meant I was standing there for quite a while in 0 to -2 degrees (it's 1 degree in Kobe now and, in the mountains, we're usually 2-3 degrees lower than that). I was bringing back Bird's Eye Fish Fingers instead of hands and they were aching from the cold as I walked home, so I couldn't wait to get inside.

My front door lock was frozen shut, but thankfully only needed a little encouragement. Once inside the blood started flowing to my fingertips, but rather than feel better, the pain intensified. Eventually they felt the way they would a few minutes after dropping a brick on them or shutting them in a door. I almost had tears in my eyes for a while there. After a few minutes the aching subsided and now they still feel a little raw, but otherwise fine. I was wearing gloves. Dang it's cold!

My place has never looked so inviting before.

Beyond the trees you could see the same dusted effect on the far mountains.

I hope you like trains and railway crossings, 'cause you're gonna get 'em...

Catch you next time.

2007-02-02T01:29:00.000+09:00

Lots of pictures and few words this time. I'll let Tofuku-ji speak for itself - easily one of the prettiest places I've ever been to.

2007-02-02T01:02:00.000+09:00

APOLOGY

Gomen nasai!!!! My sincere apologies to all you kind souls who've left messages on my blog in the last 3 months. I've just dug them out of cyber-somewhere by doing I-don't-know-what. I switched to the new Blogger and suddenly I got 18 presents all at once. So a BIG THANK YOU to you if you've written and the same if you're reading this now and have been reading in the past. It means a lot to me!

I have no idea what happened re: the comments (maybe it's because I renamed them devon), but I'm hoping it's all sorted now.

We now return you to the previously advertised program...

2007-01-31T00:11:00.000+09:00

In the last few days I have... a) visited a katana shokujin-san, aka a samurai-swordsmith! b) been to an ice sculpture display! c) seen a batmobile van! d) seen a chrome towtruck with a dolphin-mural! (hmmm... last feature questionable) and e) eaten Kobe beef! I'll post pictures of a) and b) eventually, but for now...

Continuing the tour of Irritable Ian we make our way to the north of Kyoto. On the advice of a 10 day travel-blog set up by www.japan-guide.com for the purpose of viewing autumn leaves I took a couple of trains to an obscure little station - the type so small that you step down from the platform onto the street. I was defeated by my vague map and was directed by a couple of old ladies towards my first objective, Enko-ji - "a small, tasteful, but unpretentious shrine sporting a nice garden" to paraphrase my online advice.

This window was on one of the old streets on the way. The rain was coming down and all I had was my 300 yen raincoat. I think I was almost cheerful though - my beserker fury had subsided and I was pretty philosophical by now... the sense of adventure was returning. (I know, I know... not exactly "extreme" sports we're talking here, but I'm easily excited.)

Like some ancient computer keyboard, these are some of the first printing blocks in Japan - over 400 years old. You wont find qwerty here. I think they're beautiful. They are housed inside Enko-ji.

Tucked at the end of a hallway was this amazing sumi-e screen painting. The economy and deftness with which the ink has been brushed on is incredible - so much detail implied. Well, to the real garden...

This is the approach to Enko-ji.

Once inside and past the indoor exhibits, you step out into the enclosed garden. For it's small size and the inclement weather (Clement had nicked off) there were a number of people here. Had to wait a while to get a clear shot. I wasn't thrilled by this garden but it was a nice place. It seemed very precise and deliberate. Each tree, rock and shrub seemed to be exactly as desired, which I suppose is what a garden is supposed to be... and yet it somehow lacked something for me. I'm sure I am being the equivalent of a Britney Spears fan critiquing Beethoven, but it's my blog so nerr.

A nice lady showed me some pics on her camera of the shrine she had visited that morning. It was on my list but I had ruled it out. It looked like an impressive place. Darn! That thought was to propel me to Kyoto the following Thursday for an early (and speedy!) mission before work. It all turned out well - weather ended up being brilliant - will post pics next post: Tofuku-ji.

Back to this day. It was raining persistently. And yet...

Surprisingly in this weather I took one of my favourite shots ever. I don't know why, but I always think of the planet from Alien where they find the eggs/facesucker/chestburster when I see this photo. That's not why I like the photo, but anyway...

My sister Penny has a nose for these things. (haha... ask her what I mean if you know her... sorry, Penny! muhaha)

This lantern is in the style of the late smurf rennaissance.

The lady who'd shown me her photos and I said goodbye, but when she saw I was leaving, she ran up and pushed 2 mandarins into my hand. "Japanese orange!" she said and then ran back to her husband. There are some really nice people, aren't there?

Well, next door was a graveyard being overlooked by a fiery tree.

Across the narrow road from the shrine's entrance, in stark comparison to Enko-ji's elegance, was this place. Sometimes the sacred places and the ordinary exist right next to each other. That's not lens-distortion, this house was bent with disrepair. For the mostpart Kyoto's quite a bustling city - an ordinary, ugly city amongst which lie pockets of tradition and beauty. They say Kyoto is the Paris of Japan - it's cultural heart. It's hard to argue against that, considering the myriad places there that reek of history and cultural refinement. It can just be surprising where you find them.

Well whattaya know? I thought, up until an hour ago, that I had been to a temple called Shisen-do. But I had, in fact, been to a shrine called Hachidai Jinja, just round the corner! Defeated by maps yet again, so it would seem. I never made it to Shisen-do and it's renowned azalea garden, but I was oh so close by! haha. I should have twigged at the time that I was of course not at a Buddhist temple (no Buddhas to be seen), but at a Shinto shrine (tell-tale zigzag paper hanging from sacred ropes). I didn't know that the "-do" suffix means temple. I forgot that I was looking for a garden! There was no garden. What a dork I am.

A famous samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, is enshrined near here.

He fought one of his most famous duels around this tree. I'm imagining Errol Flynn jumping up stairs and kicking over candelabras. Musashi won the day (i.e. the other guy got horribly sliced up).

I walked right near this mound - it was really hard to see. I shudder to think how it would have gone down if I'd put my foot through it! Anyone know what it represents? I'm told that a raked stone/sand garden represents the universe.

Heading back out now, there was some nice moss. There is a moss garden in Kyoto that has 120 varieties! I will put a link here to some great pics: http://www.phototravels.net/kyoto/zen-gardens-saiho-ji.html . The reason for the link is that I doubt you or I will ever get there... you have to copy out a Buddhist sutra before you enter, which takes over an hour - I'm not sure if that means an hour for a Japanese person or for a novice gaijin like me. Anyway, I'd like to see it, but the photos will do.

I started with a window and I'll finish with a window, just to imply that there is some very deep poetic insight to this blog entry... looking within worlds and without or something like that! Feel free to leave comments like:

Ian, you are so deep.

Stop writing so much and get some sleep, dork!

You couldn't navigate your way out of a paper bag.

Nice moss.

2007-01-23T00:48:00.000+09:00

I lied. I'm going to bed, but first just thought I should share 3 facts I've learned from my junkmail inbox:

Saddam Hussein is alive.
Fidel Castro is dead.
World War Three has started.

Just thought you should know. Peace

2007-01-22T03:16:00.000+09:00

"While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph" is a quote I read recently (Lewis Hine... ever heard of him? ...I haven't). I am going to add my own bit: "...and fiddle with them in photoshop". I silhouetted this scene with my computer, just because I thought it looked better. If it were the stage of a shadow play, can you spot the actor?

Overture, light the lights... here he is ...and he's still black. On bleak looking days like this one in Kyoto, crows really take on an ominous quality. They are big and seem eyeless. I encountered a gang of them (well, a murder to be correct) in the field near my house recently. They made way for me, but they looked so scary... I half expected to see that they were eating a large dead thing, but no. Any Alfred Hitchcock fans about?
Northwest of Kyoto city is a place called Arashiyama. I made a bee line for it to see the autumn colours. I remember writing excitedly about it the night before as I planned my intinerary. Of course, on top of blogging, I stayed up too late and then changed my itinerary on the way there anyway. That, combined with the rain (which I rather optimistically thought would be stopping for me for just the hours I needed ...wrong!) landed me in this beautiful place feeling foul!

The scenery had a soothing effect, yet I was still this petulant child snapping away amazing sights whilst grumbling under my breath about everything. Just a bad Ian day, I guess. (Spot the monk).

You don't see these guys much - occasionally around train stations and I suppose on the odd bridge!

Even if the rain had held off, I hadn't counted on things being shrouded in mist. It was a bit of a tease, as you could tell the trees were really vibrant and varied in colour, yet there was this veil in front of them. My disappointment turned to appreciation as it makes for a different kind of view... but I was still a bit grumpy.

"Damn it, I'm so grumpy. It's the weekend. I'm in Kyoto, doing what I love doing, taking pictures. Look at these fantastic trees. Grrr..."

I'm being a little unfair on myself. But I did become a seething ball of rage when I tried to get a ticket for the "Romantic Railway" - an old diesel that takes a scenic route along a river valley.

The queue wasn't moving as the lady at the window had a lovely time chatting to people as the train came and went. The wait til the next one was 30 minutes. Noone else seemed perturbed. I couldn't understand it. I tried to read the signs around but couldn't. I walked off in a huff.

I changed my mind, went back and joined the queue again for a few minutes. It didn't move at all. That did it. I was having a Class-A "I don't get this country, how it works, what to say, I can't read anything... etc" day.

They pop up every now and then and you feel as if it's all very unfair that everything hasn't been designed with you in mind. Anyway... I walked off in a bigger huff ...and got lost.

I generally knew where I was, but I couldn't work out where the station I wanted was. I got some help and that made me feel better... until I realised it was about 45 minutes til the next train. haha. I then encoutered some rude overseas tourists and tried to be rude back. Not exactly in line with what I heard recently at church - Christians shouldn't be springs in society, bouncing back anger/insult etc., but rather shock absorbers, taking the shocks of society and softening the effect. My inadmissable defense is that I heard that after this day! haha (I think Jesus kind of said stuff along those lines tho!). Where was I? Oh, "Grrr..."

Anyway, I'm sure you're sick of my whinging, but I hope you're not too sick of autumn trees yet! There are more to come I'm afraid. This post is of places up until I got on the train I just mentioned.

This is just before I got lost, moving into a residential area.

There are some pretty swish abodes in Arashiyama - with some classic luxury and sports cars parked outside one for good measure.

It took me awhile to realise I was down someone's driveway here.

Another driveway shot.

Looking up a street.

A garden (back near the river).

Still in the garden.

A bamboo mill.

I'm not going to bother trying to retrace which little shrine this is. Kyoto has about a squillion (last count). I will, however, next be putting up pictures from 2 shrines and a temple: Enko-ji, Shisen-do (temple) and Tokufu-ji... the first 2 being from the same day as this trip. I think Tofuku-ji has the best pics, but I'm trying to be chronological. Just as I'm trying to do today before tomorrow... but alas I've failed, it's already here... gotta sleep.

Bye bye

2007-01-19T01:28:00.000+09:00

Kaki. Or persimmons. Or oysters. Say kaki with the wrong inflection and you'll order something very different! (I feel ripped off - I was told there are no tones to learn in Japanese! Still, beats Cantonese... is it 8 tones!?). Persimmons are a popular fruit here and you often see trees laden with fruit in backyards and fields during summer and autumn months. I'd never been much of an eater of them before, but after being given about 4 I've discovered they are really delicious. This tree grows in a yard on the path to the station.

Some splashes of autumn colour along the creekbed that I walk past to get to work.

By the station.

This is another view of the mountain near my place. It's appearance is so variable - not just by the change of the leaves, but by the light/air. When it's really misty it becomes this brooding form. When the sun's low it suddenly has a lot of shape to it. When it's unusually clear as above, it looks like a school photo of trees... or rather, a stacks-on.

We're now in Sanda, my nearest city. When I say city, it's more like, say, Sydney's Campbelltown. I have a tendency to try and come up with an equivalent place back home to places I encounter here. They're obviously pretty coarse comparisons, but maybe it's just me making reference points to take in what's around me. Sanda has some variety though, with new-money suburbs like Woodytown and Flowertown that are more similar to say Penrith and Cherrybrook (young double-income families). There is even a neighbourhood called Culture Town which is modelled on American suburbia, utilising real Washington timber! I stand corrected - I always thought culture was listening to classical music whilst drinking out of a vegemite glass... or something like that.

The creature in the photo was sitting forlornly in a playground, which are often pretty bleak - no grass, just dirt. If you cross the river from Sanda station you enter yet another Sanda - a forgotten Sanda. Away from the gleaming monolith which is the Kippy Mall shopping centre, this part of town is more like old Japan - old streets, old style homes. The demographic seems very much older, with very few people operating tiny businesses that miraculously keep alive... although some appear closed - perhaps swallowed by Kippy.

There are great shapes and textures around here. I also had a ball taking pictures of old electric meters and fuseboxes, mailslots etc. in an old part of Kobe on the weekend.

I really hope noone actually lives in that room. It would make my "Leopalace" shoebox actually seem palatial.

Even in these tumbleweed streets, you see evidence of the big English language schools hotly contesting for business. At least 3 different schools duke it out here on this humble bit of closed shopfront.

Another business that's seen better days.

This is a rubber-band gatling gun. Well, of course it is. Also known as a little-boy-magnet. I saw this contraption at a local community festival, held in a sports ground in the middle of nowhere - an exposed spot on a freezing windy day.

I bumped into one of my students, the boy in front. Arata is standing on a pair of stilts, which were hilarious, because they were only about 5 cm off the ground! Nevertheless, they seemed to be very popular. (I am always amazed when I see kids zip around on unicylces here!)

Well, after all that talk of pitched battles fought in the streets over English business, here I am colluding with the enemy! My mate Oscar works for another company and I've also gotten to know a regular bunch of staff and students from his school who get together a fair bit.

Lastly, a shot my friend Lexie sent me - she's a friend from within my own ranks who went back home to Canada. She and her boyfriend Pat came over to teach together and I'm glad they did. They were both really genuine and had a great positive outlook on everything (like the ins and outs of working for our company), which I miss. A bunch of us farewelled Lexie, karaoking until morning. I'm not that keen on singing - but a karaoke place is easier and cheaper than a hotel after the last trains have stopped running.

Next stop, autumn in Kyoto. After almost catching up, my blog is sliding hopelessly to out-of-date mode again. Right now we are starting the second half of winter. It's only snowed twice so far, but that was enough to excite me. This winter is comparatively warm all around the northern hemisphere.

Anyway, well past time for bed! Sayonara...

2006-12-27T22:22:00.000+09:00

Today I'm writing from the home of my friends Tom, Jen and Ruby in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo. It's holiday time as the company closes for 8 days between December 27 and January 4. Christmas was pretty low-key - it's not a holiday here, but it fell on a Monday which is my usual day off. On Christmas Eve we had a service and party at church pretty similar to last year's, but we had a dramatised reading of the Christmas story with songs interspersed throughout which really helped it come to life and put the words of the songs into context. My manager Risa-san came along and really enjoyed it, so that was great.

Well, this is nowhere near Tsukuba - this is Wakasawan, which I was given the opportunity to see in November by my friend Namiko's friend Kosuke-san. He was really generous in driving us and their friend Przemek up to the Japan Sea coast, an expensive trip in terms of petrol and tolls (the latter alone totalling at least 60 bucks), and he refused any offers of payment, claiming the tolls are cheap! He isn't rich, just generous. It was my first time to see the Japan Sea - it lies to the north of Japan's main island, Honshu (where I live) - between it, Russia and the Korean peninsula.

It was raining, but picturesque, despite. Here Namiko is doing what one is supposed to do from the mountain top - turn yourself upside down and take a look. And what do you see?...

Okay, not quite.

Not surprisingly you see something like this. One is supposed to see a ladder/stairway to heaven... maybe I'm a bit dull but I don't get it. Maybe the monkey does.

(Disclaimer: I lifted the monkey pic off the net ages ago and wouldn't have a clue where it came from, so I'm going to claim ignorance when it comes to copyright ...but there - at least I admit that it's not mine!)

If the Spamurai can take you to other dimensions and turn you upside down... it should be a snack to take you back in time. This is how we got up the mountain - as modelled by Przemek. He is the first native Pole I've ever met... maybe the first Pole I've met fullstop. He's from Gdansk - home of the largest brick Gothic cathedral in the world, where he attends mass and was married.

Funny sign.

A break in the rain meant time for photos.

Peace. Word to your mother.

This is now down on the beach near the start of the isthmus. (Never thought I'd be dropping that word into a sentence).

There were some very funky looking craft about.

How's the serenity?

More funky boats.

Okay, now I'm really just writing a caption for continuity.

I don't have a clue what these fruits are, but they're like little characters.

We went for some lunch in a place with a really nice view.

Chirashizushi and a simple soup. This type of sushi is made up of a bed of rice topped loosely with egg, sashimi (raw fish) and ikura (fish eggs). Delicious.

Great company! Don't you think Przemek looks a bit like Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings)?

We popped into a fish market. There were all sorts of sealife for sale, but these squid really stood out! They were about 50 bucks each. Check out the eyes!

Is this guy wanting you to approach him for a drink or just proud?

The crabs here are massive. They look so tasty, even in their shells - how does that work!? I've wondered that about Coke. When you see a vending machine and it looks like a giant red and white can, how does that make you want to drink black, bubbling liquid? My theory is that the pictures of the cans are always covered in drops of water and you buy the Coke subconsciously associating it with the water, not the Coke, because we all know that water quenches thirst far more effectively than Coke does. Perhaps this paragraph is strong evidence for the need to regulate blogs... sorry.

Okay, I think it's the colour. If you could eat the shell, I would.

Some more creatures on offer.

I'd love to see Rex Hunt try and kiss one of these suckers (or should I say biters) when still alive. Yikes.

Well, It's New Year's Eve and the end of 2006. What a blur! Last NYE I was asleep in Gifu city nursing a bad case of the runs (yes, you needed to know) with a whole range of experiences in between then and now. It's been a great year. I hope 2007 is a year of great things for you.

akemashite omedetou!

2006-12-25T00:04:00.000+09:00

Dear (insert your name),

MERI KURISUMASU!

I'm sorry for my terrible slackness - not making the easy trek to the post office to send an actual card. And to my family especially, sorry yours will arrive in time for Easter instead. But I made this picture in thinking of you all. There's no snow here, but it's a nice idea. This winter has been pretty kind so far - kind to me anyway. Today we had a big feed after church - even turkey with cranberry! I was given a big bag of food to take home, so I will be enjoying the taste of winter Christmas for some time yet. It was great to hear a dramatised story of the birth of Jesus at church - an amazing thought that the infinite God of eternity would stoop so low as to be born as one of us into poverty, just to be near to us. I hope that that warms you as it did me today. My manager came along and enjoyed it a lot, so I'm stoked.

Anyway, God bless you... and yoi otoshi yo! (happy new year... or thereabouts)

Love, the spamurai.

2006-12-19T00:08:00.000+09:00

IF YOU LEAVE ME, CAN I COME TOO?

The photos below document the changing of the leaves at the local Shinto shrine over the space of ten days. Of all the expensive tripping around I did in the month of November to see the Big Guy's annual autumn exhibition, some of the best and most stirring sights I saw were at this shrine along the road I walk to work 3 times a week! Only one famous temple in Kyoto had trees to top these ones (you'll see them soon)...

NOVEMBER 12

This was a sunny day... the colours were vivid, but weren't quite going primary just yet. But the gradations are really nice.

NOVEMBER 14

This day was overcast, but some nice orange hues were showing.

NOVEMBER 15

This day was perfect. The signs below announce that it's shichigosan matsuri, or the time to bring your 3/5/7 year old child to be blessed. I explained this on the blog at the time, but I'll reiterate... most are actually 2/4/6 year olds, because in the past a newborn was described as being 1, hence a 1 year old child was said to be 2... etc.

I believe the names chiselled into the stone fence are individuals/families/businesses who have contributed to the shrine. The supermarket across the tracks from me is among the rollcall.

The torii, or gate thing, marks the entrance to a sacred precinct. Naturally, you're supposed to walk through it, not around. Kazuya says many evil spirits hang around torii. Like I said, he loves to try and spook me! The famous one on the water that you saw back in Hiroshima's Miyajima Island is so big because boats had to go through it. In the old days, the whole island was treated as sacred and commoners weren't allowed there. You had to enter the island by taking your boat through the gate, or else you would defile it.

I felt like a creep hovering around this family, taking shots of trees, waiting for the right time to ask for a photo. There was no one else around, so I was more than a little conspicuous!

Some of these little outfits are super pricey, so I'd be miffed if some stranger was able to just come and snap my kids for free after I'd shelled out all that money, let alone raised them for 2/4/6 years. But it had to be done... you can see why, right? kawaii! ... cute.

"Mummy, who's the strange man taking my picture... and ... why are you letting him?"

NOVEMBER 22

A week later... another beaut day, but with a touch of winter... no mixing colours required, just reds and yellows straight from the tube!

The exhibition ended a week or so later - the walls of the gallery are pretty bare now. Fallen ... just like his other masterpiece.

Well, I'm going to bed. There's ice forming outside my front door, but it's nowhere near as cold as last winter. No snow has fallen here yet. No complaints from me! But the first snow will be exciting. Anyway... night.

2006-12-15T23:48:00.000+09:00

You may recall from a previous post I reported nicking off into neighbouring Arima Onsen for a cuppa with a couple of ladies one morning before work. I now provide you with photographic evidence. When I say ladies, they were a geisha and a maiko, no less! Above is the maiko, who I'm guessing would be 20 or 21, as she said she's been an apprentice for 2 years - they usually start at age 19 these days.

I stumbled upon them by complete accident. My aim in going to Arima was to see more autumn colours. From the station, the river forks into 2 as you walk uphill, so I opted for the side I hadn't yet explored, which leads you to Zuihoji Park. Once inside after a little while I came upon a long striped curtain - the side of a pavilion in which tea was being served. I popped my head over the top and saw a geisha! Needless to say I eventually paid my money and went inside to be served tea... expensive for a cup of tea and a sweet, but definitely worth it!

This just seemed to be for show. The tea I drank may well have come from an electric urn! It came from behind a screen anyway.

After I finished sipping and munching I asked for photos and the fact that I was foreign became more obvious. So, we got chatting. An old lady that was collecting the entrance fee was the intermediary - I think generally you don't converse directly to geisha/maikosan. Perhaps she was the maiko's minder - the obaasan (mother figure) of her okiya (house). Maiko become geisha when they either marry or get a sponsor - a rich patron who sets them up on their own.

I really don't know if these ladies were traditional to that degree, but the old lady was insistent that I was speaking to genuine Arima geishasan. I apologised for my ignorance and said that I thought only Kyoto had geisha. They replied that there are about 20 places in Japan that have them. The apprentice was wearing a wig, which differs from what I've read. In Kyoto they style and adorn their own hair and start using a wig only once they become geisha. They are definitely more accessible than their Old Capital counterparts, that's for sure. The old lady asked if I was single and I nodded enthusiastically "hai hai! shinguru!" I said, which is Japanese English for single. I'm pretty sure she was just teasing. Darn. I said that I'd actually met the maiko before, at Arima's summer dance festival. They were surprised I'd been to Arima before and was back again so soon, and so I fessed up that I live within walking distance (a long, hard walk, but nevertheless...), but I said yes, I really like Arima.

I said that I had to go to work and quickly made my way back down to the station, pretty stoked with myself. Perfect weather, perfect timing for the trees, perfect encounter. On days like this it makes any nasty experiences here all seem worth it.

Once inside the train I again saw a poster about which I'd previously been thinking "that looks cool, I should check that out". I then realised it was what I'd just been to. Happy with that!

Arima's history is loooonnnggg. It's Japan's oldest onsen, or hot spring town. The Emperor Jomei enjoyed a September to December bathing holiday here in the year 631! I would have enjoyed views of autumn similar to those he did.

In 1097 a "flood" struck the onsen and the spa collapsed. The source of the spring lay hidden for 95 years until a monk came and restored it, according to legend, obeying a dream he'd had...

The Japanese take their baths very seriously!

2006-12-15T02:42:00.001+09:00

OK. I've been checking out this guy Joi Ito. He's incredible. It's not a great comparison, but he seems to be the Richard Branson of Japan. No, he's more Richard Branson than Richard Branson. He lives in a village that sounds even more rural than my place (without even city water connected), yet he moves and shakes the online world - moves and makes millions and even billions (if you're talking yen). He's right into blogging (as in he keeps a blog, but also probably owns everyone else's) and is incredibly sharp in his observations. He even remarks that Japan must accept and make itself more hospitable to foreign residents or else it will degrade to be a nation of starving old people (kind of follows on from what I was saying about Japan's population problem). He makes really perceptive comments/criticisms on lots of issues that he's actually close to and yet he's also down to earth and young enough to talk about his favourite Doraemon products (Doraemon is a cute blue robot cat that can fly - there's a version of iPod mini available) which he uses, post funny photos or just talk about how he feels - even what he's doing to lose weight. He also writes articles on his blog about points of Japanese culture in a similar vein to mine, only with far greater quality of writing and a Japanese viewpoint. He even leaves his email address and phone numbers for you to contact him and apologises if he hasn't replied! Very compelling dude... will have to read more, but I think I'm a fan. I will add a link to the Spamurai...

2006-12-15T02:16:00.000+09:00

Very interesting article by a Japanese writer reflecting on contemporary Japan's take on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/opinion/07ito.html?ex=1281067200&en=e6b897762b09f727&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The writer, Joi Ito, is decribed as an internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist (!?).

Anyway, just a short entry tonight...

from Ian Young, lint mogul and shopping bag baron.

2006-12-14T00:49:00.000+09:00

Last month I realised that November is my favourite month here. Japan's Autumn is such a great time to get outside - the air has cooled after summer's onslaught, but it's not yet packing the sharp chill that winter brings. The leaves show more colours than the Spring's cherry blossom display and lasts much longer (not so elusive!). I was able to truly appreciate what an awesome place this is - having seen the scenery of better known places in Japan, I think my humble little neck of the woods has views to rival them - often on a smaller scale, but just as scenic. Last month I saw some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. This place is not quite at the top of the list, but it's getting there. You're looking at the view from a trail that goes from a place called Takedao to the afore-mentioned Takarazuka. At the moment we're still in Takedao. Some parts reminded me of the setting of that old TV show, Grizzly Adams. (Thankfully, though, the bears are way up north of Japan).

Oscar and I went straight after Japanese class and hopped on the train a couple of stops to this area. The line we took is the one that goes to Osaka. I'd long wondered what great sights there were to see beyond the train line - it's a bit of a frustrating trip through this region as you are tantalised by amazing valleys and rivers in tiny grabs as you speed between tunnels, drilling through mountain after mountain. So, when I heard someone from class talk about this walk I was determined to check it out - and quickly, seeing as it was the time of kouyou - the changing of the leaves (everything here has a name! Except foot! Same word as leg. I really can't figure that one out!)

Having said all that about wondering what lies beyond the train line, we were actually walking on another. Now disused, we were tracing the path that trains used to take along here. The new line is much more direct. Motorways and railways here do incredible things in mountainous parts - you fly elevated above a valley and then go straight through rock and out over another valley. I guess they pick an optimum height to engineer all those bridges and tunnels, bridges and tunnels, but you often seem to be quite high up. As you can see, in the old days things were more grounded. Here we are exiting the first of four tunnels.

There was a stretch of momiji, or Japanese maples, forming a canopy over us. The colours were brilliant.

Life seems very simple when you're in a place like this.

Sometimes you see things straight out of a screen painting, a woodblock print or a kimono print. It works the other way 'round doesn't it, but you know what I mean! Yesterday morning the mountains along the road to work were shrouded in mist, silhoutteing trees in different layers, and rising from valleys just like in those paintings that I always used to think were stylised. But yeah, you really do see scenes like that.

About a week or so after we went I saw this same view on TV. They were doing a short story on the walk we did.

There were some nice pockets of colour among the evergreens. There's a lot of bamboo, cedars, pines and oaks that make a backdrop of green for the more showy trees.

This tunnel was a bit longer than the one before. I've turned up the contrast a lot to see if there are any ghosts or other spooks, as we were warned! haha... thankfully, no. Funnily enough, back in Australia I have a PS2 game called Project Zero (the guy I bought my console off chucked it in for free), in which you are a Japanese girl in a haunted house. You can only feel the presence of an approaching ghost through the heartbeat-like vibration of the controller. When it gets really strong you look around through your camera, and when the viewfinder lights up you know there's a ghost in front of you. You have to capture the ghost by taking their picure. When you do they become visible for an instant and are often right in your face and really freaky. I hate that game! I've only played it about 3 times. haha

Well, back into the open, we were met by this bridge.

Oscar's a Londoner. We met at Japanese class and have become good mates. His last name should be Wild. He's hard to keep up with and there's usually a point where I see it's not a good idea to try! haha. Despicable but very likeable. Him, that is... not me. Well, ok... I'm very likeable too.

See what I mean? As if he knew at that moment what I would type onto the internet a month later, Oscar gives me the one finger salute as we exit the longest and darkest tunnel. We were tripping over rocks and sleepers at one point. It has a bend so it was pitch black in the middle and after a while we pulled out our phones for some light! I'm guessing from my street directory that it's about 300m long. I got a bit spooked for about a minute - the wall of the tunnel felt a bit wrong.

Nice outcrop ne?

Whoops - this is a little too red, but I can't be bothered tweaking it. It was a bit more orange. This was the peacock of the lot, sitting there yelling for some attention. It got it.

Well, we decided not to walk all the way to Takarazuka, as the rest of the path would be in "civilisation" anyway. This is a good example of what I was talking about before. To get an idea of the scale of these overpasses, look at the rooftops around the columns. The scale of public works here is nuts - I've heard things like these roads are often the result of cushy deals between politicians and construction companies - the company gives money to a party campaign, the guy gets elected, he then sees to it that they win the tender for some massive government funded scheme that services very few people. I wonder who will maintain all this infrastructure as the population keeps getting older and the younger people keep getting fewer through low birth and tragically high suicide rates.

Okay, I'm creeping into territory that I really don't know about, so...

g'night!

2006-12-09T01:28:00.000+09:00

Haha I just checked my email and had a message from Buster McThunderstick! Nobody spams the Spamurai! Except maybe about 15 people/robots a day. Here's Buster...

with his nutty friend, Peanut McButterpants. I'm not sure what was going on here - they were visiting a school, that's all I know... but I thought worth a photo.

On a complete tangent, with nothing at all to do with Buster McThunderstick, these are some sights I snapped just wandering aimlessly around Kobe.

I saw Tommy Lee Jones. He is featured on some vending machines in frames from TV commercials (or CMs as they're called here - promounced shee e-moo) for Boss Coffee, my favourite. Why would you have someone lame like Meg Ryan pretending she's just woken up in her log cabin (which are popular here, by the way) drinking Nescafe when you can have Tommy just looking sour and beaten by the world!? I love it. There's another brand here with a variety called Deeppresso! I tried to explain to Kazuya my mirth - what a great name for a pick-me-up! More like a weigh-me-down.

Some banks of vending machines are like a 24 hour outdoor minimarket. They also are handy for lighting the street.

Finally, here's a little experiment I didn't mean to conduct in the "crisper" of my fridge. I think Carrot McCarrot has seen crisper days. I think I have finally, truly earned my bachelor of fine art.

2006-12-05T00:14:00.000+09:00

"Nice to meet you. Say...'aven't we met before?"

(Alvina, do you remember this fella? I can't believe I didn't get a picture of us! Sorry!)

Well, that's drinks, how about food:

---{ TODAY'S SPECIALS }---

Spam a la leftouvres

I'm digging up Takarazuka again. Today on the train I sat opposite one of those disturbing individuals I described last time: a devotee of the Takarazuka Revue. She rifled through her bag of goodies, having just come from the shrine - the Takarazuka Grand Theatre. One by one she pulled out a brochure of different productions, then finally pulled out a highly-produced, glossy mook devoted to one of the actresses. She was of course dressed and groomed conservatively and very properly but proudly nailing her freak colours to the mast.

---{ 400 yen }---

Spam en l'hiver

No, I'm not really cultured, just googled "french for winter"! As Mr Lebowski says in the Young Ones... "I'm not really foreign you know... I just pretend to be to seem more sophisticaaatid". I came home yesterday with ears aching from the cold. This morning I walked past patches of white frost. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (not the one I know, tho! No water fights in the backyard this time 'round!). I tried my new gloves for feet type socks - with individual toes. Feels mighty weird - not sure I'm a fan.

---{ 200 yen }---

Spam a la coupure de coeur

Again, googled "heartbreak". We are currently conducting tests at school istead of running lessons. Towards the end of one a little girl very dear to me looked up at me with nervous, helpless eyes... then stared blankly at the paper in front of her... then burst into tears. For at least 20 minutes. I say at least because when her dad carried her out of school she was still going. I felt like utter crap. I know it's not really my fault - she never does her homework or listens much in class and it wasn't the wisest choice by her folks to get her to sit the optional test... but I still felt so bad for her. I nearly cried too... after work I once again met the bear called beer. Hmmm...

---{ I'll give you yen to take that one off me }---

Well, chef's gone crazy and called it a day. No more spam in the larder... but unlucky you... there's a another batch due in soon...

...'til then

2006-12-01T00:21:00.000+09:00

Today I'll take you from a scary cave (my apartment) to Kobe, Takarazuka, Namaze and Osaka before arriving back at mine. I thought I'd give you some relief after that bonanza of photos of me in Halloween attire and just show you my shirt without me in it. I liked the way the light was shining through it. Oh man, is that sunlight outside? Nuts, I have to go to work.

These are Cabbage Patch children being spawned out of the ground. The man above is looking for the next one to pop its head up. A long time ago I mentioned an excursion of school children coming to see the vege patch out the front of my place. There were several more in September as the season was right for sweet potatoes. Kids love to dig them up, wrap them in foil and then stick them under burning leaves/ash until they are roasted. The fussy kids I teach that I thought only want to eat individually wrapped things somehow don't seem to mind grabbing dirty chunks of sweet potato and shoving them in their gobs. One of my most dangerous students, Asuka, very sweetly brought one to class for us to share. She is most dangerous when she comes to class still wearing her karate outfit, although it was another girl that recently punched me in the jatz crackers... aka balls. I can't believe I came here thinking Japanese children would be a cinch. Poor poor fool. Only now do you understand. You have paid the price for your lack of vision (i.e. that sick feeling just below my belly button).

(note the little girl second from left digging for gold).

Wave to the train! I snuck these photos from the little window of my sleeping loft... yes, I was still in bed. Okay, let's start our journey...

We're actually on a bus here, not a train. I discovered I could catch a bus to Sannomiya (Kobe) that gives a very new perspective of my locale. If you follow that valley around to the right you'll eventually hit my place! We've gone across the massive overpass, Arinogosha Bridge, that cuts across the sky behind my train station, through a mountain and out the other side. When I excitedly told Kazuya of my trip across it he immediately thought to tell me of the suicide jumpers that have chosen it as their last view. Man, what is it with this guy? He loves to tell me stuff like that - I now know a lot of unsavoury things about my immediate neighbourhood. Uh, thanks, Kazuya! Anyway... This view gave me a new appreciation of what a unique place Japan is and what an amazing place it is I'm living in. That dome thing is part of the love hotel near me, called "Snowman's"... with the catchy by-line "What's a snowman's?". Good question.

Getting further from home now, the valley has zigzagged back to the left. I'd never seen this neighbourhood before. Never knew it was there!

Now we've arrived in Kobe. Check out the triple-decker traffic. The amazing Hanshin Expressway connects from west of Kobe though Osaka to Kyoto. Parts of it toppled over in the big earthquake of 1995. You can see anti-tremor devices here in how the spans are attached to the pillars. This is close to the harbour.

We've walked up into Kitano Kobe - the hills where the well-to-do live. Many are ex-pats - Kobe is known as a very international city. Over the roof of this shrine and off beyond the city is the ocean.

I could imagine this photo being from somewhere like Cuba.

The flavour elsewhere is more European. There are old houses you can take a walking tour to see where Europeans in days gone by have set up a home away from home. Kinda steep, isn't it?

Well if USJ isn't your style, maybe you'd like to come here to don some Dutch gear and pose on the artificial lawn in front of a very small windmill.

What's wrong with this picture? It's Oklahoma, but all the players you see are women. This production is by the famed Takarazuka Revue. Takarazuka should be famous principally as the birthplace of Tezuka Osamu, the brilliant creator of Astroboy, or Testuwan Atomu. But alas, it's famous for it's unique form of garish theatre in which all roles are played by women. I guess that's fair, considering traditional kabuki theatre is, just like Elizabethan theatre was, only performed by men (and I guess that is just as weird). In fact, Takarazuka Revue is more than within its rights to exist - kabuki was started by a woman and was originally an all-female line-up until it was outlawed and then nabbed by the fellas (the fact that the touring actors were also often drawing other income from providing other, ahem, services and causing civil disturbances might explain the outlawing part)... so yeah, Takarazuka is the girls getting their own back...

But, there's no accounting for good taste! The actors are supposedly highly trained and only the very best make it to be leading ladies. Once upon the pedestal, the actresses are literally treated like royalty by crazed fans - well-heeled women who club together to make sure their lieges are always in the absolute best of everything. They are worshipped. Wacky ne?

I said that it's unique - there is another theatre in Tokyo, but it also bears the Takarazuka name. The real Takarazuka is about a 30 minute train ride from where I live.

Did I say train ride? This would be the train Darth Vader would catch to his evil work. I haven't been on this, but I WANT to. It's the Nankai Rapi:t. Funky name, funky face. Is there a reason why it should look this cool? Well, no. Is there any reason why trains shouldn't look this cool? Not at all! This was my first time to see one of these up close. Can you imagine Cityrail having ladies with white gloves as train guards!?

I took these shots near Kansai airport. Nankai run a line from the south of Osaka to the airport and further south to I-don't-know-where.

Talk about teasing. Another one pulled up on my platform. I could just pop inside and have a seat if they weren't all reserved. The design reminds me a lot of the original batmobile from 60-odd years ago. Very retro-future. I love it.

While we're talking Osaka here's me commiserating with Aaron, another teacher from the company, and others below, after the Hanshin Tigers game we had tickets to was rained-out. Wah!!! I have been wanting to get to a game for a long time. The fans are something else. At Koshien Stadium they chant, thump, scream and whatever else to egg their heroes on. Each player has their own theme song that the crowd will sing as they come to bat! So after we got the bad news, we, along with half of Osaka, went upstairs from the station to the Tigers shop. I think they made more money being rained-out than they would have had they played! People dressed from head to toe in Tigers gear (literally) were buying even more stuff. Mugs, hats, stickers, clothes, bags, covers for your Frisk mints, ears, puppets, calendars, slippers, inflatable bats, loudhailers... you get the idea. The nutty fans look like they're in pyjamas. I got the 1960-design jersey, back when they were just the Osaka Tigers. Teams here bear their owner's name, like the Yakult Swallows and ...(chortle), this year's national champions, the Nippon Ham Fighters!

Miki on the right knows all the songs for each player.

Moving right along... from Osaka towards home (actually right back near Takarazuka)...

My friend Masashi was keen for me to see a danjiri festival. This is in nearby Namaze, where they live. This is the float I mentioned a while back - worth 70 million yen. Each area has their own rig - the pride of their neighbourhood. This one was being rocked up and down to the sound of raucous music being played as heaps of young people jumped around in front of it. Very rock! You probably can't make them out, but there are guys on the roof that agitate everyone and ride up there as the floats are run through the streets at a fair speed. There many injuries from this 'sport' and occasionally deaths, as they take corners too fast and topple over. If that isn't dangerous enough, in some places when floats from different neighbourhoods meet, they are rammed together in danjiri fights. A few years ago Masashi was in the prized position of being on the roof. Ah, no thanks!

The lower panel was an amazing carving in unpainted wood. The lights flashed on and off to the sound of the drums and cymbals being frenetically hit. Sadly I could only stay for a short time - I hope I get to see one again. If you're interested there are some good shots on this website:

http://www.photokyo.com/gallery2.asp?category=danjiri

Trying very hard to be fresh and dope, here we are on the night Masashi got baptised.

Just after having taken the plunge. You've seen Masashi's family, Eriko and Ryo, before. These guys are great.

This is just outside my place. We had dinner together at Sushihachi, the place behind my apartment that my friend Kazuya runs. I wanted them to meet each other.

Well, we're back home now. What's on telly? If you want to see one of favourite ads here...

http://www.hanakoala.com/main/cm.html click on the bottom tab, marked TVCM.

2006-11-27T00:35:00.000+09:00

*note: the post below this one is newer. I started it before this one and I don't know how to change the date of its publishing... we now return to our regular program...

Missed photo opportunities of the last few days:

A Honda Goldwing bike (big touring bike) covered with flashing lights and playing loud music, being ridden by a middle-aged guy wearing a CHiPs-style Helmet. So that's what Eric Estrada's up to these days. (If you're too young to know who I'm talking about, then boo to you).

A fully chromed dumptruck. Fwoar! Many work trucks here are big and shiny with chromed panels, but this one was completely chromed. They also have very aggressive sounding exhaust systems and extended front bumpers. The crazy, moving neon light show trucks, or decotora, are sadly very rarely seen... well, by me, anyway.

3 Woodytown wagonists hanging tough beside their vans, all white. Yes, that's right - the bad boys of Woodytown! One Estima was about an inch off the ground and had at least 8 LCD televisions all showing the same images. What a waste of money... but kind of cool - the van itself looked unreal. Ok, this time I admit I had my camera in my bag, but would you really want to be seen taking flash photos of the Woodytown Massive?

Well, tomorrow a million photo ops are awaiting. I'm heading to Kyoto to see the autumn leaves which are peaking right now. It's raining at the moment and forecast for tomorrow, but with a hiatus forecast from late morning until 6pm, just when I plan to be there. I'm madly trying to plan my itinerary - there are so many temples and shrines to see. Anyway, what am I doing writing this here? I am currently blog-addicted, if you hadn't noticed. Sorry to be so convinced of my own interestingness...

2006-11-26T23:12:00.000+09:00

HOTRODDING HIROSHIMA

Last time I wrote about missed photos of automotive oddities (see above... the website is posting these two out of order because I started creating this post earlier). Below are some shots I'm really glad I got. We are back in Hiroshima this issue. I stayed in a complex meant for students, but if you have a foreign passport they allow you to stay there. The room you get is basically a hotel room, half price. Sweet! It's also on the same delta between 2 rivers as the A-bomb peace park, so it's only a short walk away. I went out in search of dinner when I happened upon some beautiful creatures sitting kerbside...

A ratrod 1935 Ford Pickup and a 1929 Ford 2Door. Incredible. How cool is the slanted front grill, covering the number plate?

Works of art. The shop they come from is called Pumpkin Sally in Kanagawa. This thing has been pieced together from all sorts of makes and models. The body was sourced from the US, and then chopped and dropped into the stance you see here - a one-of-a-kind nostalgic speed machine. If you want to see pictures of it being made, check out the flash slideshow on the shop's site: www.pumpkinsally.com . They were were en route to a meet in Kyushu - the southernmost of the 4 main islands.

I was picking my jaw off the footpath. Nice pipes - who needs mufflers? How sexy are whitewall tyres!? And semi-gloss black paint! Ah!!! This one is called Heaven's Door.

This is the kat responsible. Tsuyoshi Sato. When I tried to speak to him in Japanese he said "Ah, English, please". When he asked me how long I'd been in Japan and I replied 1 year he agreed that I needed to study harder! haha. I mentioned my favourite magazines here and Sato-san said that they would soon feature the black Ford 2door. Lo and behold, next issues, there they were. And there were pictures of them at the Kyushu Hot Rides meet too. Earlier in the month, Heaven's Door ran a 14.65 second quarter mile at a speed trial - not bad for a car made from scratch using old tech know-how. These guys were looking for a place to stay, so not long after I spoke to them I heard the rods start up and drive past - awesome sounding cars - so raw.

(Click here if you want to hear what they sound like: http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_home.htm )

I continued on after having some ramen (Chinese style noodles) and into the peace park. I crossed one of the rivers and stood before a familiar landmark, although it was presented anew in the eerie wash of night lights...

It is strange to think that had you been there 62 years before, on August 6 at 8:15am, that you would have been vaporised in an instant. The museum gives you a very gritty picture of how it was at that terrible moment - the science of it and then the horror of what immediately and much later followed it. Some stories are heartrending. In less than a second from a nucleus of a single atom a reaction caused a fireball hotter than the surface of the sun to engulf everything within hundreds of metres. Beyond that was the shockwave, the violent wind resulting from air rushing back into the vacuum left by the blast, radiation and secondary fires. Standing there I couldn't imagine it and still can't. It's the sort of thing that you expect to feel when you're there, but it's too much to try and process. I somehow found it more surreal to see a street-car stop called Genbaku Domu-mae (A-bomb dome).

Hiroshima Prefectural Products Exhibition Hall, it's former name, was the only thing left standing at Ground Zero, and for hundreds and hundreds of metres around. The bomb went off 580 metres up in the sky to increase the effect of devastation, but because this building was beneath the blast the force was mainly downward, so many of its walls survived. The dome did too, but you can see the deformity of the metal braces, resulting from the intense heat of the blast.

The building, built in 1915, must have been quite grand in its day.

At night it takes on a more tomblike appearance, although even at 11:30pm there's life around it. It's a peaceful place - I recorded the sounds of people passing by, a couple of friends practising a song with a guitar, the river flowing idly by.

Below ground in the park is a memorial hall - kind of an ecumenical shrine, I guess. The image on the walls is a 360 degree panorama of Hiroshima just after the blast, made up of 140,000 tiles - roughly one tile for each life taken.

An impressively explicit context is given for the dropping of the bomb in this memorial. You won't find such things expressed in Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, that's for sure!

Well said.

A wall of screens show the images of those claimed by the bomb. It was a very hard task to work out who was killed as government records were, along with everything else around, obliterated. Above are just some of those killed with the family name Takeda.

This mound contains the ashes of 70,000 unidentified people.

Life and death for those on the outskirts of the blast were miserable. Many must have wished they had been at the centre of it, rather than endure the pain of burns, radiation sickness and disfigurement.

Bottles melted by the bomb.

Sorry for the morbid details. Life goes on in Hiroshima. It's a beautiful city - I like it a lot.

Is it ironic that it was just near the hypocentre of the bomb blast that I should meet some prime Japanese examples of American kar kulture fanaticism? Nah! (Nice touch with the Rising Sun battleflag on the Pickup. I think Sato-san knew what he was doing there).

Japan, on the whole, looks to America with loving eyes.

The local baseball heroes are called Hiroshima Carp! I caught these guys (just with my camera, that is) in a pond downtown.

This would have to be the wackiest location I've seen for a shrine so far! Not exactly one for the travel brochures. Yes, the city has been rebuilt!

Okay, that's it for Hiroshima from me. What next? Hmmm...

2006-11-26T00:54:00.000+09:00

Welcome to the United States of Japan.

USJ. Well, ok, it stands for Universal Studios Japan. Caroline (from HK), Sue-yen (from Oz), Rebecca (Oscar's gf from the UK) and I went to USJ (how's that for over-use of acronyms). Sue and Caroline are in the picture, Rebecca got accidentally deleted!

Shrek and Fiona were there along with a horde of others. I took a day off work, so it was a Thursday - I can't imagine how the crowds would be on a weekend.

Is that Shmoo from the Herculoids!? (You know what I'm talking 'bout, right Mark Andersen?) No... just a stylish patron.

Kitty and Daniel were there to say happy birthday (tanjoubi omedeto!) to all the little tykes who had them that month. These cats and the Hello Kittymobile were the only evidence you that were in Japan. Well, aside from the many Japanese people, Japanese signs and announcements... apart from that, it was very much a big slice of Americana...

I've never been to America, but do I need to now!? All that was missing from this scene was the Manhattan skyline in the background.

Oh, and 10 million Americans or whatever it is in New York and traffic and skyscrapers and hotdogs and real culture and... ok, it's a stretch to say I've experienced New York... But maybe it's as close as I'll get without leaving Osaka! haha

In little dioramas like this I can understand the Stars and Stripes. But the myriad of them at the front gates to the whole place is a bit much. It looks a bit like the entrance to a temple of the Cult of America. I may have hit on something there. Anyway, I admit... it's good fun.

How cool are these things? I'd love to eat some real American grease in a real one, one day.

I groaned at the sound of a Halloween parade, but it was pretty impressive. The pumpkins were especially good.

Yes, I enjoyed the pumpkins.

There were some very clever costumes. The choreography was also very good.

These guys were great! Very Alice in Wonderland. They'd separate and then form into a caterpillar again.

Bungee frogs.

I'm not sure what danger money the frogs were getting paid, but this guy should have been getting double. Visibility factor... not high! Dancing on the edge of the stage...

Speaking of danger, you can swim again in Amity. Jaws has been taken care of. The ride itself was more funny than anything else. The boat's driver/captain/pilot/whatever was hilarious. She had great reactions and was handy with a grenade launcher, too! Towards the end though, she kept shooting at the shark and nothing was happening. Hammy fun!

How cool is this?

I'm not sure if there's much point in posing beside a movie car you know isn't the real one, but it still must be done, right? The Delorean... The flux capacitor... drool. I'll admit that the Back to the Future ride made me feel quite sick. I'm not made of the same stuff as Marty McFly. I remember as a kid wanting to be him. I wanted his jacket, his hair, his black pick-up truck with yellow fog lights and his girlfriend. Haha!

The Dark Lord himself. But no, not USJ. Back to school! This is Satoshi, who won my prize for best costume during Halloween week.

I'll give ye a taste of me blade. Here I am doing what I've been dreaming of doing for about a year now (just kidding!). We have a soon-to-be-headless-Hideki, a pirate, a ghost, Lord Vader and a kid dressed as a Yusuke who's really bored and way too cool for dress-ups. I think the last outfit was the most convincing.

Now here are some good sports! My manager Risa-san, and teachers Akiko-sensei and Takako-sensei.

Shiver me timbers! It's a wolfman. Awoooooooo!

This is Kimika, the heartbreaker. Well, she breaks my heart, anyway. Maybe I should say she destroys my lesson, but she's a good kid. She can act like you're the best of friends and then turn around and do the whole I-hate-teacher routine. Outside of class she's really cool, but inside she's a bit of a terror. sigh... I will really miss her.

Well keel-haul me and call me a barnacle if it isn't the calendar shot of the month. Look at those cheeks. That cute pose. Now look at the little girl! This is Tamaki. She is awesome. So smart. So happy. So helpful. So willing to repeat everything you say. Wear that crown! Her mum made the dress.

This girl scares me. She is heaps more mature than me. More organised than me. More disciplined than me. Not hard, I hear you say. Nanoka dances 5 nights a week. She doesn't go to juku (cram school), like most kids her age, but she's advanced. She is very patient with teacher!

The girl standing is my youngest student. She just turned 3. Her little sister also came along in her best dress. Too bad I made them walk the plank. Way too cute.

One last Halloween shot. The pumpkins have made way for Christmas paraphenalia. I'm bracing myself for the coming silly season of busyness (yearly tests followed by Christmas lessons) and freezingness, so I've been posting a lot of spam while I can. Til next time...

2006-11-22T01:15:00.000+09:00

I wrote before that crawling into my loft to sleep has a bit of a spaceman feel to it. That's nothing compared to the capsule experience. Yes, I gave the capsule hotel thing a try. The perspective in the photo above looks a bit Picasso-ish because it's about 5 different photos stitched together. I needed a wide angle lens to take in my tiny surroundings properly. The striped part is just a light cloth screen covering the opening where you climb in and out, so sounds easily travel in and out of the capsules. I had my hand over the speaker on my camera to muffle the tell-tale click (I can't read a lot of the onscreen instructions on my camera, so I don't know how to turn the sound off). Everyone else in the place seemed like they were regular capsule dwellers and I didn't want to be noticed as the weirdo taking photos.

I really felt like I was in a place somewhere between a hotel, the spaceship from Alien, a mortuary and a hospital. You may have gathered that I didn't exactly like it. It was depressing. From the time you pay your money and get given a velcro wristband with a locker key and barcode on it you feel sub-human. Then you walk in to the locker rooms where you find your number and open the door to swap your clothes and belongings for a yukata robe to sleep in. You're surrounded by other men (no women allowed) of various ages, but many with the look and smell of having been drinking and smoking, then having had a shower and bath. These are young guys who've planned to go out together past the time of the last trains - and the young and old who've worked late, drunk late and then found themselves a place to crash. One old guy came in with dried blood on his head and clothes. I thought, man... what am I doing here?

The place I went to was right near the various Umeda stations - the northern entry point to big city Osaka - basically the hub of the city. The hotel also had a bunch of different spas on the first few levels, with a sign saying no one with body-markings allowed - to guarantee patrons they would be in a yakuza-free zone. I admit feeling a little afraid of what I was getting into! The reason I stayed there, rather than simply going home was that I met my friend Caroline just after she arrived from the airport and I knew that after finding her hotel that I would be pressed for time getting the last train. The trip is also so expensive that I knew a caspule would cost less than going home and coming back in the morning... we were going to Kyoto the next day and it's only 30 minutes from Umeda. So the capsule hotel, being right behind Caroline's hotel, made sense. But yeah... I think once was enough!

Caroline standing on the top steps of the Kyoto Station building. It's a very modern hotch-potch of styles and shapes - some love it, some hate it. I like the space but it's not exactly convenient to navigate or commute through.

We headed for the golden pavilion - Kinkakuji, to the northwest of the city. We caught it just in time to see the sun glinting of its gilded panelling. There aren't many other things around Kinkakuji so it's a bit of a pain to get to, but it's kind of compulsory viewing if spending any real length of time in Kyoto - it's beautiful.

This is Daimonji-yama just near Kinkakuji where fires are lit to form a huge character of dai (big) during the August Obon festival. Many fires and lanterns are lit to guide spirits of the dead to their homes and then back to the hereafter, but the most celebrated are this one and the bonfires on four other mountains that surround the city, forming other large characters. And guess who started this tradition... the same Kobo Daishi that lit the fire on Misen-zan on Miyajima Island (see a few posts ago). A bit of a pyro, wasn't he?

We move now to Nijo Castle. I really enjoyed this place - it was my first time here. There's no traditional-looking tower with a castle keep - it's more of a complex of single storey buildings with incredible painted screens and ceilings - with all the cool stuff - you know, dragons, pine trees, cranes, tigers, mist etc. Highlights for me were the nightingale floors, designed to sing out a warning as you step on them and the room where the shogun sat and received visitors (with a troop of samurai armed and ready, sitting on the other side of the screen next to him!).

Another highlight was this roof.

Oh, and this gate.

And this roof...

and these bits.

We had some matcha, or green tea and a sweet served to us in a garden tea house. The tea itself is quite bitter, so the sweet goes well with it.

We had a stroll around Gion and speaking of tea - this ochaya or tea house is a famous one. I'm told that should you have the right connections to be entertained here for an evening by maiko, geisha etc, it will set you back about 1 million yen (over AU$11,000).

Another ochaya.

One of Kyoto's thousands of shrines and temples. This temple was near Gion, but I don't know its name. It's tucked inbetween shops in a busy street.

Same place.

This is part of the famous Yasaka shrine of Gion. The Gion matsuri (see post with tall wagon things going through the streets) stems from here.

I like lanterns.

From temples and lights back to tea...

Caroline and I saw this amazing set used for tea ceremony in Kobe. We were on our way to the harbour, going through an underground mall when we noticed an ikebana (flower arrangement) exhibition. The lady curating quickly invited us to sit and have tea.

The whisk is used to make powdered green tea frothy. I really like the canister thing - Japanese lacquer looks so edible!

There was nothing for sale - just kindness given. It really made our day. The tea and sweet were better than the one we'd paid 700 yen for in Kyoto and we were made to feel like honoured guests. A world apart from the capsule experience which was the start of this mini-holiday (i.e. weekend!).

I'm not sure how into flower-arrangement you are, but there were some cool designs. These were my favourites...

Well, next up is my visit to Universal Studios. Somewhere I hadn't planned on going to, but it was a lot of fun!

I went back to the local shrine for the 4th time today (I walk past it on the way to work) and took yet more photos. The leaves were another shade of orange and red and a few trees were primary yellow. Tomorrow is a national holiday (I loooovvveee November in Japan) and I'm off to see some local festivities with my mate Oscar. We're then heading back to see my friend Kazuya who lives behind in the sushi restaurant to then go sing some karaoke!

When in Rome...

2006-11-22T01:02:00.000+09:00

A brief epilogue to the previous 2 posts before beddie-byes...

Funnily enough, apparently Yama-chan isn't very funny.

After an admittedly small survey I have to report that he is funnier to those that don't speak his language than to those that do. Oh well... more power to him, I say... I like his style.

2006-11-17T00:36:00.000+09:00

THE TORMENTS OF YAMA-CHAN

I don't know what the significance of the the number 176 is, but there is a regular segment in which people like Yama-chan must complete a task related to that number. The prize is 1,760,000 yen. Here the picture tells you what the deal is - keep your face in there for 176 seconds!

This is brilliant televsion. What idiot would sit there drawing 12 drawings for every second of animation, when all you need to make TV is a camera, some lights, a creme caramel and a victim? Keep that sucker on hands-free for 176 seconds and you've cleared another stage. This is Yama-chan's partner in humiliation, Shizu-chan. Together they are a comedy team called the Nankai Candies.

Uh-oh. 21 seconds have elapsed and Shizu-chan's got a dessert nesting in her eye-socket.

Well may you laugh Yama-chan, but you're next...

Yama-chan strikes a stylish pose while guiding his creme caramel away from his eyes...

only to find his ear.

Not long now...
woohoo! 2 seconds from victory. But the cash is at least another stage away. I have a feeling they never get their mittens on it. That would be like Gilligan getting rescued, now, wouldn't it?

Well, lastly 2 shots to make a comparison. Is Yama-chan moonlighting at my church, Crossroad?

Hmmm. Nice look from Mister Master Masa-sama.

Well, I have gone out of control, photographically speaking. The Autumn leaves are peaking in their colours and my trigger finger has snapped over 200 photos already this month... and I haven't been to Kyoto yet. The following are what I have taken...

I took detours to the local shrine on 3 different days to try and get the best weather and also to catch kids in their kimonos for the shichigosan matsuri, or 3/5/7 festival - a period when kids of those ages go to the shrine and parents ask for blessing upon their children. However it's more complicated than that - the kids are actually 2/4/6 because according to the old way of counting years a newborn baby was said to be 1. They look soooooo cute. However, I only plucked up the courage to ask one family for a photo. After all, each time I was already dressed for work and having a Japanese-salaryman-looking person want to take photos of your Japanese family might be a bit off-putting.

I also took a scenic walk with my mate Oscar along a disused railway line not far from here. The views were amazing and the tunnels were fun. One was pitch black. After a while we pulled out our mobile phones for light!

Before work on Friday I popped into one of neighbouring Arima Onsen's parks for some tea with a maiko and a geisha under the electric colours of the maple trees. No joke! The maiko was the very same one next to me in my summer festival post. I found out she's real! A real maiko. I won't be forgetting that little chat in a hurry.

Yesterday I was graced with a trip by car up north to the Japan Sea coast - my first time to see it. My new friend, Namiko, along with her friends Przemek and Kosuke, invited me to go and see a famous spot called Wakasawan. Unfortunately it was raining, but very pretty despite. I won't go into more details as I'll stick up some photos with notes soon. The part that I won't be illustrating is the visit we made to an onsen - or hot spring bath! I'm not much of a sport now, am I? (yes Mum, they're segregated, ok?)

(^o^)

2006-11-16T23:22:00.000+09:00

There are people making a very good living in Japan being clowns - the butts of many jokes, face-slaps and the like. I am not talking about myself - although change the bit about very good living and I might possibly fit the bill... This guy has made a career out of being tormented. Welcome to the first of 2 Spamurai TV specials.

He appears on numerous shows and is a comedian, but he is often made to do unpleasant tasks by tougher looking comedians! His name is Yama-chan. The look of apprehension on his face is stemming from the task at hand being explained to him...

Walk up a famous flight of 1000 stairs, with a different fruit sitting on every 100th step. Memorise the fruits and at the top answer the questions of your tormentors. Like, "say the fruits in order", "what was the 6th fruit?" etc. If a wrong answer is given, go back to the bottom and come up again... and again... and again (if need be).

Now the Japanese summer is kind of unforgiving. It's very humid and very hot. So try being Yama-chan in his pink suit and trademark thick bowl-cut and scarf. You can see the sweat soaking through his suit as he embarks on his 2nd or 3rd attempt.

I can't remember if this was a reaction of joy at his success or if it was to one of his failures, but note the relish on the face of the celebrity panel member. Japanese TV can't get away from the inset reaction shot. Some shows have one all the way through the program! Well, more of Yama-chan next time... now for some romance...

Meat. Sorry if you are a vegetarian, because meat is good... I mean because the sentiments expressed in this program would grossly offend you, as you have probably guessed already. As someone somewhere once said "if God had meant us to be vegetarians, then why did he make animals out of meat?". Can you argue with that? Hmmm. I recently had a meal of the world famous Kobe Beef (I mean that literally - that's all we ate... meat) and I must say, the hype is worth it. The whole "melt in your mouth" thing is true. I am yet to confirm rumours that the cows aren't exactly treated well (except for the massage and beer-drinking thing). I thought better to eat first and ask questions later (well, during actually - not me, but someone raised the question... a bit like asking if it's wrong to steal while making your get-away I guess).

Anyway, where was I? Romance. The girl on the left is a beef nut. Disturbing enough that she is dressed as a cow while taking these 2 normal girls on a yakiniku crawl, they earlier showed a tour of her apartment which is completely accessorised in cow print/cow themes. Wanting to be the thing that you love to eat... any psychologists in the house?

It seems strange to me that Japanese people love to watch people eat on national TV and don't mind being watched when it's a no-no in real life. You don't munch on the street or the train or in view of others at work. Well, you can but you'd be viewed as a bit of a slob.

Well, enough romance. Back to the geeks...

Like Yama-chan, this guy and his sidekick get their share of slaps to the head and danger-duty. They are called the Ungirls. I haven't a clue what the say but they're funny regardless.

If you're a guy being ugly can work in your favour on Japanese TV. Not so if you're a girl. All the girls seem to be really good-looking and a lot of the guys are anything but. So the rule is funny guys and cute girls. Beauty and the Geek.

I've only stuck this picture here in order to brag. I walked past this lady in Ginza in Tokyo - close enough to slap her in the head. But Osaka humour doesn't always translate well, so I held back.

I took these shots on my first holiday to Japan in 2003. I had hoped to see plenty more of this action during my living here, but unfortunately this show was a rare jewel.

RIP Matthew. Well, he's not dead, but his show is. You can see Bill Murray on this show in Lost in Translation. This guy is hilarious, but now you only see him on the odd panel show or commercial in a much more subdued form. sniff

Recognise this fella? It's Monkey! Yeah, he's still around the traps and looking darn good for his age. He has a show in which he cooks... with a good looking girl on either side for some banter and shouts of "sugoi!" (wow) and "oishii!" (it's delicious).

This was a show in which delicate tasks had to be performed using an earth-mover. My friend Masashi drives one of these things! They had to make tonkatsu (crumbed pork cutlet) and then slice it, and put shaving cream on a giant balloon and then shave it with a giant razor. I was glued to the telly.

Back to recent times. This is the foreign (shock horror) CEO of Nissan. I really like this short filler program in which he answers viewers' questions from a capsule toy vending machine. He does so with good humour and is a really sharp dude. I like him for 2 reasons. a) He gives intelligent answers that show not only his guile but also his integrity and b) he has nostrils as big as his eyes (and they're not small).

Well, mission control, this is Tranquility base. Last night I watched the first ever live high-definition interview from space. NHK (Japan's equivalent to ABC in OZ or PBS in the US) were talking to the astronauts aboard the Destiny space station and being given a weightless tour. I felt a little strange after that, crawling into my loft to go to sleep. Gravity was definitely working, but I felt a bit like one of those guys both in environment and location. There was a map of Japan flashing on the screen of every channel to warn of the tsunami up north and I was reminded of where in the world I am. Did you know nothern Hokkaido had a bad tornado recently? I had no idea Japan had them at all.

Anyway... I have written far too much as usual. Thanks for making it through (^-^)

night

2006-11-11T00:13:00.000+09:00

No, I have not joined a cult.

No, it's not a pyjama party.

No, he's not crazy. He's a comedian.

This is Katsuura Kaishi. This form of entertainment is called rakugo. It's an old traditional form of comedy, though you often see it here on TV. I'm told you can tell by his name Katsuura that he's in rakugo, just as you can tell a kabuki actor by his theatrical name. I don't know if these comedians are born into it the way kabuki actors are (what if you're just not funny?).

Sanda International Association organised a Rakugo in English performance in September in the Kippy Mall (of heavenly toilet fame). Katsuura's first performance was in Japanese, but included some English as his theme was to do with the perils of being a Japanese person attempting to speak English with foreign people. (Koizumi greets Clinton not with "How are you?", but "Who are you?" to which Clinton replies "uh... I'm Hillary's husband" to which Koizumi replies "Oh! Me too!").

In rakugo the performer plays the parts of two or more characters to tell a story. I was very interested as both a person wanting a laugh and a person who does storyboard art - I want to learn how to tell stories better (being able to draw them or write them is one thing - acting them out is another... unfortunately my charisma factor is equal to a that of a turnip. Katsuura's was brimming). The performer's prop is nothing more than a fan. Here he is using them as chopsticks to eat a steaming hot bowl of ramen - a gag he often repeated. Japanese people love eating and love food - looking at it, tasting it and talking about it. A lot of kids characters are edible friends!

This story (done in English) was of a man trying to find a competent rickshaw driver. He was hilarious. Being able to conjure so many images and actions whilst sitting on a cushion and to keep the story flowing (in a second language) showed his mastery as a storyteller. The bare-bones stage highlighting this, and the gold screen showing how revered this sometimes bawdy form of entertainment is. (He did a gag about being the hentai professor of Kinky University - Kinki being the term for this region of the country.) It really is stand-up done sitting down.

omoshirokatta! ...funny.

2006-11-06T21:16:00.000+09:00

"Welcome aboard the Shinkansen. This is the Nozomi superexpress bound for Hakata." A 700 series bullet train pulls into Shin-Kobe station, ready to whisk me away to one of Japan's 3 best views (I'm on a roll with top 3 things). I was hoping for the 500 series - a sleek, grey and blue rocket-shaped machine that just makes you go "fwoaaarrrr!", but I'm still pretty happy with this one! There are countless train designs in Japan - from local trains and subway cars to special mountain trains to these things - the ultimate in speed and efficiency.

This type goes about 285 km/h. It's fast, but I guess that speed alone doesn't sound overly impressive - like your garden variety V8 supercar or F-1 car. But when you consider the sheer mass of these things - this one stretching 16 cars to just over 400m long, and weighing 640 tonnes - it's incredible. They are just perfect. In a 16 car train there are 48 traction motors each putting out 275kw - that's 13,200kw. (OK, I am today unashamedly Geekus Maximus). They "get you there with time to spare". They are smooth, comfortable, impeccably clean and on time to the second. Yes, to the second. I can't get enough of them! I wish it was just a normal ticket price, but alas it's a rare treat at the prices they sell for. And I wish I was smooth, comfortable, impeccably clean and on time to the second... as opposed to dorky, uncomfortable, messy and late.

Here it is - one of the top 3 views of Japan. Well, at least a photo of the thing that is in the top 3 views of Japan. It's the famous torii of Miyajima Island, just off Hiroshima. The top view usually features it at hightide, surrounded by water. Scroll down for that. At lowtide you walk right out and touch it, but I didn't feel compelled to stick my hands on it.

So when and why are we here? It's September (yes, I'm slowly getting contemporary!) and I'm here for a round-about reason. My friend Sue (see last post - bye bye Sue) had on her to-do list to see Miyajima before returning home. She booked her trip and then got really sick. In her weakened state I grabbed her tickets, pushed her down the stairs to our apartment block, and left her to the frogs and locusts. (I bought her tickets off her and went instead- what a bummer she couldn't go... but it worked out for me.)

Her main reason for going was to see the peace park and A-bomb museum. I went there 2 years ago when I did my crazy whirlwind I-want-to-see-all-of-Japan-and-take-a-photo-of-every-inch holiday. I spent so long in the museum that I only left a short time to see Miyajima the following morning and I'd always felt I hadn't done it justice. So with this little excursion, I was free to see Miyajima properly. There's a collection of shrines and temples there... and...

The world's biggest rice scoop! I would have also liked to have seen the world's biggest bowl of rice. Somehow I don't think there will be many willing to try and take the title off this badboy. It's a nice little piece of Australia really - we love our oversize novelty attractions. Japan, you need giant fruit!

A beautiful painted panel in the rafters of a temple. Can you make out the samurai taking his horse across a river? Cool ne?

On the island is a mountain called Misen-zan. There's an expensive ropeway you can take to the top and back, or you can go it on foot. I stupidly opted to walk up and take the ropeway back. If you'd offered me 900 yen to do that I would've obliged. If you'd offered me 1800 yen to walk down too, I would've declined. But guess what? I unwittingly took the second offer, missing the last cable car and being left with no other option. Wah! Another 2.5km hike! The sun was going down, so I had to hustle.

When you're close to the top you get to this building which houses the Eternal Flame (of Bangles' fame!? ...or Cheap Trick?). This fire was reportedly lit hundreds and hundreds of years ago by Kobo Daishi - a very important figure in Japan and founder of the Chingon school of Buddhism. He started a very famous pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku to 88 temples that many devotees still reenact today. There is even a mini version around a smaller island with 88 smaller temples! Pilgrimage Lite!

You can hang wishes for all sorts of things on these wooden placards.

Or a plump little anxious dude.

This pile of stones made me feel like I'd climbed Everest or something! I had no Aussie flag to hoist, just my undies.

This was a curious little offering I spied through the lattice housing a shrine near the top of the mountain. Choice!

Well, finally at the very top I was treated to a glorious view. The weather was perfect, so I'm really thankful for that. Not bad huh?

This is for my brag book. I climbed 530m over 2.5 km in 45 minutes - with a cold! (And I'm wondering why I'm still sick. Thankfully work is a little slower again and I seem to be getting better after a long string of colds).

My humble thoughts at the time:

We Are the Champions, my friend, and we'lllll.... eh... what's that siren? ...oh it's coming from the ropeway station...

(a short run later...)

Oh. Crap.

I just missed the last one. (Eject Queen tape from brain. Insert Beck.)

I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me?

One of the top 3 views of... oh I already said that...

Okay, back down the bottom and hightide is up. This tourboat seemed to endlessly hover right in the way of my shot, but in the end it made for a different type of view I guess.

Sans tourboat... sorry, many views to follow...

you feel compelled to take many...

and show many...

last one!

This is the back of my jimbei, as promised. Masashi said "I want you to take it back to your country." He doesn't have another one. Man, what do you say to thank someone for something like that! You can still see summer sweat on my neck. Okay, sorry verbal diarrhoea...

Just a bit more... fresh spam from tonight (Autumn!)...

"baka ne"
"no mother"
"Baka baka baka"
"no mother" (said emphatically)

I was just privileged enough to witness this little exchange next door in the sushi-ya. Mum was referring to her daughter, Sayaka: "Isn't she stupid." Sayaka replying in economical English "you're not my mother" or perhaps "you're no mother at all". "Fool, fool, fool". "No mother!".
This may sound like they have a horrible home life, but you had to be there to feel the love! I was kakking myself (as was ojiisan, or grandfather) - all was said with half smiles and cheeky loving looks between them.
At first I was a bit shocked by the way they speak to each other, but I now kind of get the way they relate! Sayaka's mum would say something like "gomen ne... baka" when her daughter was finding a bit of English difficult (meaning: I'm sorry, she's dumb!). But there's no harm done...
I also saw little Asuka-chan enjoying a hug with mum tonight when Sayaka pegged a wet hand-towel in their faces! No violent reaction - just an amused little tsk tsk type look. Classic. Sayaka's dad Kazuya-san will say of the family "we are fools"! I don't think you get much more salt-of-the-earth type people than the Urakado family of Arino-dai, Japan!

2006-11-03T23:12:00.000+09:00

Peace! Ryo-kun gives 4 fingers up to Sanda matsuri. We only caught a little bit of it but enough to see a little fireworks action in the centre of town. I live about 20 minutes' train ride from here and work in Sanda one day a week. Ryo's parents Eriko (above) and Masashi took me and our friend Koji (above) to see some of my local festival.

Boom! The red one is actually a traffic light. Did you know the go light here is called blue, not green? I've read the official explanation why, but can't recall it now. They look pretty green to me!

Just as snow seems to make the icyness of winter that bit more worth living through, the fireworks of summer seem to make the heat that bit more bearable. We are now at a different display. West of Kobe is a place called Kakogawa. I heard that this one is a biggie, so I forked out the dosh for the train ride and saw what i could see. It was a good night.

Sorry, I know photos are never really up to it, but these are more for my benefit than yours, so there! haha. Kakogawa is a river, so I was among a huge crowd lining the banks. It was a nice community vibe, despite the numbers.

I've done a bit of fireworks display design work, yet I had never actually seen a large scale show up close before! It was great fun.

Tim Storrier would have liked this part (Australian painter rather partial to burning bits of rope. I'm rather partial to Tim Storrier's burning of bits of rope).

These bigger bursts were LOUD! I guess you can tell I'd never been to a big show before.

The crescendo.

The queue at the train station! Wah. I chose to go visit Mr Donut and wait a while rather than fight the hordes.

I said Sanda matsuri is my local. That's true, but a more local festival is Arima matsuri. I donned Masashi's jimbei, ready to fight more hordes.

Woohoo! No hordes, just a chilled little party by the river. Nice, huh? I met with friends Oscar and Taro and we had a nice little night out with some geisha...

Well, I'm not sure what the deal is with these ladies. They look like geisha and maiko (apprentices), but the details don't quite seem to be right. I'm guessing they are versed in traditional dance and the like, but they're not actually working maiko. Either way...

a dream come true! haha. I thought I was borrowing Masashi's jimbei. But later he said it was a gift. Too nice... it has a really cool design on the back - will show you later. Anyway, I love it!

There was dancing...

more dancing...

ladies...

more ladies...

and still more ladies!

You can see the nape of the neck is painted all the way up. I'm pretty sure maiko have a pointy shape around the hairline left unpainted. Is it disturbing I should know that? What was that word again...? Oh yes, sukebe (pervert) !

This lady was particularly graceful.

Her face was haunting.

Well, okay... out of focus! But I like these shots anyway - they do capture the magical quality of the night.

Back to reality. Welcome to my front yard - the path to the station. This is a view of summer. The green of the rice is so cool and inviting but in reality the air of this scene is hot and heavy.

This feels so recent, but it's all gone now. Grain harvested, chaff burned and ground plowed. Pests now homeless hop about being gobbled by bigger things, being stepped on and dying of old age (like a few months of life!).

Some other last views of the August summer. We had a summer event at school. This is me with a student who came with mum and siblings - all in their yukata. Behind us is a mural I did.

This is a shot from summer training. Teachers Miki and Sue-yen. Sadly Sue went back to her home of Perth about a month ago. We were in the same apartment block, so we saw each other a fair bit. Hey Sue, if you ever read this - you're missed!

Miki is a rock chick! At karaoke she doesn't need a mike, her voice is that strong - handy for teaching! She sang in a band for a couple of years and is really good. She even makes Linkin Park sound good!

Osaka's a workin' town! Well, take this lovely view in and recall it next time you're driving though the pristine national parks of Sydney, on your way to the northern beaches. This is the forest you see on the way to an Osakan beach! Ugly. But it always fascinates me.

This is a bunch of work friends from Osaka schools plus Taro. We all headed for a beach way south of the city, not far from the airport. In fact to the right of this shot out to sea you could see the reclaimed island that is Kansai International Airport. Not a bad idea - you never hear planes in Japan.

This looks like the cast of some Coke commercial or a Home And Away style show! haha. I think I'll call the series Baywatch - Osaka: Class of 06

Anyway, I'm writing all this wearing a padded jacket and with cold legs... so summer's a memory and winter's almost here. This morning we had a mild earthquake, but I missed it entirely - was fast asleep. Things are good, life goes on, home beckons.

2006-11-01T02:15:00.000+09:00

LOCK, SHOCK AND 2-WHEELED BANDITS

One, two, buckle my shoe
Three, four, break the door.

Okay, it's supposed to be knock, but I prefer break. Lock would be even better, but in doing so tonight I broke the door. Yes, roughly a year after my first Japanese late-night locksmith call-out, I thought it was about time to do it all again. Woohoo. Well, there were some differences...

a) This time, it was the door at work.
b) This time it wasn't strictly my fault.
c) This time it was only one locksmith, not three (thankfully)
d) This time I got into my apartment by 2am, not 3am.

To expand on these points:

a) A new lock was recently installed on the building's front door. I didn't know that it has an auto locking function.
b) As per usual, I tried locking the door after exiting. The auto function seemed to be acting in reverse, and automatically unlocked the door after I locked it. I tried again and left the key in a bit longer. The auto thing went off and the key jammed in the door. Oh great! I panicked, called my friend Takako, took my phone to the convenience store, walked up to the guy at the counter and sheepishly handed him my phone motioning for him to speak to the person on the other end. He was cool about it and helped us look up a locksmith.
c) A really nice guy turned up much quicker than I'd been warned. He was really cool despite having a Daniel Powter ringtone on his mobile. Although I was having a "Bad Day". He got the door open pretty quickly and then fixed the lock so that it works properly. 13,650 yen later... ittai! (ouch)
d) I got away by 1:30! My last train had already gone so I braced myself for the walk home. It's not really that far, just boringly familiar... well, so I thought. Not this time!

I took about a dozen steps before I was confronted with an exciting little episode. I had been hearing a "car" driving around beeping frantically for a while. It sounded like a car horn, but I discovered it was a scooter. It had settled into the bus bay and was just doing laps honking constantly. Remember, this is at 1:30 in the morning. There were 2 people on the scooter.
I thought, wow, what brain surgeons do we have here? Waking everyone up just for the heck of it is a pretty neat trick. I soon realised that that's not the point. They were drawing out someone to play with...

A standard Echo policecar pulled up in front of me and then waited. Then a Zero Crown appeared a little way off - a luxury patrol car! Then they pounced - the Crown racing into one entrance and the Echo to the outside of the other, to try and head the scooter off. Needless to say, the scooter simply opted for the footpath and cut right across in front of me, a few metres away. They had bandanas over their faces! haha. Japan's a pretty safe place to play the tough guy. Anyway, I assume they got away. As I walked home the police were scouring the streets, sometimes chasing with sirens wailing in the distance most of the way home. Some guys were watching the whole thing in their pimped-out VIP car (a style of car where you basically get a luxury car and put big rims on it and body kits. The extreme examples have amazingly wide home-made wheel arches to cover your fully sick deep-dish wheels!) I couldn't tell if they were friends of the scooterists or just spectators. As the chase went on I heard a throaty car get in on the action, so maybe they joined in too. I think that's pretty risky, but what chance do the police have of catching a scooter? So... do I live in the country or what! Not a lot for bored kids to do.

Well, it's really late, but I wanted to redeem something from my crappy night and tell a bit of a yarn. Yarn was the aim, maybe yawn is the product! Is for me, anyway. Night...

2006-10-27T00:33:00.000+09:00

This is me catching the wagon to work. I'm the guy standing on the roof, doing a move known as the Teriyaki Hoist. Okay... this is July 17th's Gion Matsuri procession in Kyoto, reputed to be one of Japan's 3 "greatest" festivals. These huge things, called hoko, make a circuit through the city and either start, finish or both at Yasaka Jinja, the main Shinto shrine in Gion. This is the geisha district (or geiko in Kyoto dialect). Along the route houses open themselves to the public displaying treasures that have been handed down many generations, like painted screens. The floats themselves are extremely valuable (to give you an idea, I saw a local festival the other night and the much, much smaller and humbler float was worth 70 million yen ...around AU$825,000) - it was a shame we had to see Kyoto's hoko shrouded in plastic, due to rain. I actually only glimpsed all this fleetingly for about 30 minutes, in between trying to find friends after leaving my cell phone at home! It was pouring with rain, which made things miserable. I now wish I'd taken more in, but we quickly opted to head indoors.

Quick note:

I've been pretty quiet due to sickness, visiting friends and Halloween-lesson craziness. The preparation for this unknown-to-Australians event was out of control! Enough pumpkins already! ...I admit, in the end it was a lot of fun. But I will forever hear a child's voice saying "Candy prease!"

Blinkin' big, aren't they? I couldn't get a wide enough shot, but there's a wobbly mast thing that goes up off the roof to a very impressive height. You'll have to take my word for it. I think they must have planned downtown Kyoto's electrical wiring around this event.

As you can see, the rain was bucketing down. They had these cool little launch pad things on the side of the road for the carriages - I was just about expecting an astronaut to get on board. The detailing on these things is pretty awesome... and to think there are 32 of them... the mind boggles at what they must be worth.

I guess this guy is the pit crew?

Well, from Kyoto to...

Ooosaka! Looking along the river in Dotonbori in the south of the city. This wall is a constant flashing, moving assault on the senses.

To the lower left is the running figure of the famous Glico man. Glico is a brand of confectionery here. I'm told he's been running in this spot in different guises for a long time. I really like the energy of this little area - it's amazing by day and dazzling by night. Kind of grimey and a bit rough but go-go-go. Not at all my personality, but I'm allowed to like it, right? It seems like Osaka in a concentrate - exaggerated sights, sounds and characters.

Tucked away amongst the Hankyu Umeda station and shopping complex is a little temple. No they aren't swastikas. The German Nazis, for some reason, made a reversed version of this Buddhist mandala their symbol of all things nazi. So... why have I taken you from Kyoto to Osaka? Well, I referred to Gion Matsuri as being one of Japan's 3 "greatest" festivals... another is Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri. I managed to steal away after work and see some of it. It was a bit of a task finding my way to the right places at the right time. Basically I missed the mark, but it was still a spectacle. The mass of people was pretty crazy, especially when you already feel you are swimming through heavy, humid summer air. But the buzz of a summer festival is pretty nice.

I headed to a bridge, after asking someone which way the river was. I had no idea that I was surrounded by rivers, and that if I'd walked far enough I would've hit water the other way, too. That explains why the crowd seemed to be swirling in all directions (and I thought half the people were going home). Anyway, where I perched myself was a good vantage point for some barges full of merry-makers. I had intended it as a spot to see massive fireworks, but sadly I picked the wrong river. I had to be content listening to them and seeing the occasional plume of colour shoot up from behind a building, or reflect on another. I didn't feel so stupid when I saw I was in good Japanese company - others who had got it wrong. (Anyway, you'll see in a later spam that I eventually got my fireworks hit in a place called Kakogawa!)

I'm not sure what the idea is with the barges, but I believe these people spent the hours earlier in the day making their way through the streets.

For some reason this little boat reminded me of painted images I've seen of the ferry that crosses the River Styx of Greek mythology - taking mortals across to Hades. As my friend Sue would say, random!

I couldn't see Rick Moranis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, or ...the other guys... but the Staypuft Marshmallow Man turned up to destroy the world again! But he didn't stay puffed - he was kind of skinny. I guess he's been eating Japanese portions, as opposed to American portions.

This was the sight that I met when I surfaced from the train station. No matter which way you turned there was a crowd.

There is a great vibe in the city in a festival like this. In stark comparison to Kyoto's rehearsed elegance, Osaka just lets it all hang out - there is a strict observance of things (check out this amazing link if you're really interested: http://www.osaka-info.jp/tenjin_matsuri/main_en.html ...one of the best websites I've ever seen), but it's more of a party vibe. People don their yukata (light summer kimono) and walk around the closed-off streets. It was weird because the closest thing I've experienced to it is walking through Sydney streets in the wee hours of New Year's morning, only in that case 99.9% of your company are staggering through an alcohol haze!

A few blocks from the water I found a street where participants were steadily dancing their way somewhere, making a lot of happy noise to the accompaniment of booming drums and pipes.

I managed to find my way to Tenmangu Shrine where the activity was being sucked towards, like water in a bathtub after you pull the plug. The day's events were drawing to a close. There was one last strange procession of sacred things to be brought into the shrine... things like trees, unidentified shriney objects, umbrella looking things, tapestry type things, banners and flags... and a whole lot of people.

There was even a cow!

The crowd was often more of interest than the procession. Yes, I'm a creep (that's sukebe if you're a local)... I'm a sucker for a yukata and a fan.

Pretty good seats - looking right towards the approach to the shrine.

Well, there seemed to be something going on just inside the gate of the shrine and an air of anticipation - well, we were all waiting for something, weren't we? But alas, I had to make for the trains, as it takes a while for me to get to and from Osaka and the last trains aren't that late here. So I followed the blue line of coppers and headed for home.

Now it's tempting to say that this last section is the last of the 3 great festivals of Japan, but I don't think you're that stupid. You're looking at my church's mission week, with friends from Hawaii (Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay) running all sorts of great events. Hawaiians are rated the friendliest in the world among foreigners by Japanese people! Funny considering Pearl Harbor and all... there are a lot of people of Japanese origin in Hawaii and it's interesting meeting them in Japan. My friend Bruce has lived back here for 10 years now, but is so different to a Japanese man. Yes, it is possible to meet a super-chilled Japanese person! Well, I guess he's more American than Japanese... but yeah, interesting.

I joined the face-painting crew. This lady is one of my victims. Hibiscus were the order of the day.

Here the beautiful Chanelle from Hope Chapel is putting a flower on my friend Eriko. It was a fun day! Heaps of people came and were really touched by the efforts of our Hawaiian friends and people from my church, Crossroad. God's love was tangible to me. I wrote that before, but I can't think of how else to say it. It was a fantastic week.

Finally, I have changed Japanese teachers. My previous mentor, Mukojima-sensei, has gone into shock treatment and rehabilitation therapy after my months of mental abuse. The neglect of homework, the thick-as-a-plank, responsive-as-a-brick utterances of her former student were all too much after her. Nah, she's become a general organiser of the school, Nihongo Salon. So, Uemura-sensei has stepped up to the plate and is taking me on. She's a great teacher and is really patient with me. I think I've made some progress, but yeah, I'm still pretty bad!

We meet in the top floor Community Centre of Sanda's Kippy Mall, which I must note has the best public toilets I have ever ever experienced. They are a joy. So much so, that I made a recording of the sweet bird noises and soothing music that they pipe in to cover any gurgles, farts or excessive splashes. I am having a lot of fun using my new digital recorder - it can sample at twice the rate of CD, so the quality is excellent. Anyway... when I come home you can hear all about the Kippy Mall crapper.

"When I come home"... that reminds me... I am now due home at the beginning of April 07. I've handed in my notice, so it's all sealed. Anyway... see you then. In the meantime, I'll be sending you monster bogs/blogs like this one. Try and hide this splash with a bird!

2006-10-06T00:40:00.000+09:00

What was that I said before about massive insects!? This is the adorable Asuka, my neighbour and friend and her pet kabutomushi, or giant bug. She lives above the sushi shop that her family runs behind my place. We're in the kitchen - you can see mum in a blur behind her, taking some dishes into the restaurant. Asuka works too! She pours beer and chuhai like a pro and delivers it too, holding out a heavy bottomed schooner with one hand. Pretty good for a girl who turns 7 next week!

Children here love beetles. Summer brings out all sorts of creatures. It's now the beginning of Autumn, but some summer arrivals still linger - yesterday morning I was greeted by a large praying mantis sitting on my bike. It really disturbed me... I'm pretty sure the night before I'd had a nightmare involving giant insects! You can pick the season by looking at the front rack displays in 100 yen shops and some conbinis (convenience stores)... in summer there are fireworks, butterfly nets and cases for keeping your new insectoid friends. But Asuka's were actually bought from the pet shop. The one she went to only sells beetles! She has an amazing book which shows all the large beetles from around the world in actual size.

I see Sayaka and Asuka most Mondays. We study English and then they feed me dinner. 2 nights ago I watched their grandfather make it. He's amazingly fast! He made makizushi (the roll-type sushi, wrapped in seeweed) and nigirizushi (the type pressed together in your hand). He's also very deft with his huge sashimi knife - it's like a small sword! I looked along it and its edge is so keen I couldn't see it. They also gave me a soup which is made from the residue left from the sake-making process. It tastes vaguely of sake and is quite rich - a good winter soup.

Here's mum and grandpa too. That's the only way I know to refer to them! Well I guess I could call them Urakado-san, but I never have.

And here's dad - the much referred-to but hitherto never-seen Kazuya! These photos are looong overdue... this family is really important to me. This picture was taken just before I visited Australia, so I was in the same gaunt state! I hope you'll believe me when I say I've put some weight back on... I'm still a praying mantis, but a slightly fatter one. These guys are doing their best to fatten me up.

Kazuya is hilarious. But he's also far more than that. I've learned a lot from him, but he says he's a fool. He works seven days a week. He says he has a "chicken heart" but I've seen him go next door and break up a fight between some young guys who were drunk and then sit and talk with them. He takes brilliant photos of scenery (some in remote locations in Japan), but he says they aren't very good. He says the food they give me is "low-grade" but I always love what they serve me. He's a legend.

Also long overdue are these photos of the friends I made sitting in Kazuya's restaurant early on. They often eat here, so we've seen each other numerous times. From left to right from Kazuya are Yuko, Hiroshi, Yoko and Norihiro. Hiroshi is the one who drinks water through his nose. They all are in the dental trade... well, they don't sell teeth, they fix them.

This night we went to Yoko and Norihiro's for dinner. I haven't seen them for a while now. Yoko is expecting, so life has gotten busier for them! Yuko and Hiroshi once went in Japan's Cannonball Run... and won! They drove a Subaru WRX STi. Hiroshi loves cars... currently he has a Chevy Astro van and a Mitsubishi 4WD that looks just like an old Jeep Renegade.

Well, lastly 2 shots for the brag book. Me and the harem of pretty girls - the usual story, huh? If I was smart I wouldn't say anything about this and let some story or legend grow in your mind about my animal magnetism... haha. Another karaoke night - there were others present, but just thought this was a good promo shot. The lady on the far right is my manager.

This is about as much love as I'm really getting... a fake kiss from a monkey. Well, not even that... I'm kissing it. There's my animal magnetism: I'm attracted to monkeys. Sniff...

2006-09-30T22:16:00.000+09:00

No, it certainly ain't Japan! With sand like that, that's for sure. You're looking at Sydney, Australia. Home sweet home. I went back for a week in June - the timing was so that I could see my mate Eggins tie the knot/cut the cake/get hitched (pictures below). I'm sure the beaches in Okinawa are comparable, but otherwise, the sands of Japan seem more like grit or gravel. The muggy air and typhoon-slowing concrete break-water things also tend to kill any scenic quality Japanese beaches have.

More specifically, you're looking at Watson's Bay. If you're not from Sydney, it's a harbour city with many bays, coves and waterways. I'm a little biased, but it's an awesome place. I love it... now more than ever.

This is my sister Penny, brother-in-law Mark, and my niece Sarah. They took me for a drive to Doyle's to have fish and chips. It was really great to see them and for them to cater for what I've been missing. But stuff like food and nice places aside, seeing my family was tops. I think you will know what my parents look like by now, so I don't have another photo of them here, but it was especially great to see them.

This is me saying hello to my nephew, Aled, for the first time! With us are not-so-little, but oh-so-cute Reuben and my brother Steve, and my sister-in-law Jo. It would seem that Reuben (tear-away knievel) and Aled (placid) couldn't be more different, but both great little kids.

Here's Penny and Sarah again and the fairly-new-to-school, Rachel. She's growing up so fast, I feel like a real old-timer saying that... but it's true. My nephew Joel wasn't too comfortable about being in photos, but needless to say he's a little champ, too! They're bright kids.

Here's another family of mine - the Chatswood Presbyterians. You'd think with all those Asians making peace signs that we were in Japan, but no... Bravo's of Crows Nest! Good for a gelato. Fish-lips in dead centre is my old flatty, Janey. Gee I miss your vege lasagne! Oh, and you too!

Here we are after church in Chatswood, post-crepe-eating.

Catching up with dear friends Andy, Cass and Mike after the wedding. Oh... the wedding!

And now the feature presentation!

Eggins and his bride, Sharon.

I love this photo of my old friends, Nick and Emma. The reception was at Church Point in Pittwater and just across the water, behind them is their house on Scotland Island.

Next in line - my old housemate, Souter ("turn down the music!") and his soon-to-be-bride Lou. All the best guys!

3 of the best smiles in rock... Kim Deal, Nick Ives and Matty Cohen. It was so good to see old favourites. (Sorry if you're reading, Nick... that's the 2nd time I've used the word "old" in reference to you... don't get a complex... you know what I mean!)

Nice work. It was fantastic to see such a happy man in my friend Eggins, and to see such a great woman at his side on his wedding day.

What a different world it is back home. Looking at these photos again and telling you about them has reminded me of that. Sometimes life here feels like reality and my notions of home seem surreal... but when I was visiting it was the other way around. I came back to Japan feeling pretty disoriented and out of the "groove". All points of reference were spinning around me. I'm not one for the jet-set life I think - that's a different breed... I like being home. But now I can almost say I have 2.

You know the song... "I still call Australia home" ...that's true. But if I may, I'll follow quoting Peter Allen with quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger... Japan, "I'll be back".

(Oh, yeah. I gotta leave it first.)

Sorry... rambling fingers. Good night.

2006-09-28T23:43:00.000+09:00

Hi, thanks for dropping in. I have been writing a lot and posting a lot of pictures from events long gone. Time for some more current affairs. It is now Autumn in Japan. In the space of a few short weeks the temperature has dropped - most noticeably at night. I've gone from coming home in a sweat to going home wearing a woollen vest. During the day though it still feels summery at times. The massive insects of this land seem to be slowly retreating along with the crabs, frogs and snakes around here. I only managed to see one snake - almost ran over it on my bike! It was only small. I was visited by my first typhoon, but I can hardly say I experienced one. We were on the very outskirts of it and the hill next to my building protected us from the wind, but in the distance I could see some bamboo getting a pretty thorough wind-whipping. Way south in Kyushu and further in Okinawa it wrought serious havoc and some loss of life. They tend to fritter themselves away into "tropical depressions", but when that happens seems to be a guessing game... and what direction they take. There was an earlier one that was making a bee-line for where I live but it then hived off towards Tokyo (I think we are up to number 15. The season for typhoons is ending). Anyway, I'm a little disappointed I can't say I lived through one, but I would most likely regret wishing for it if it did come.
Japan has a new prime minister as of yesterday. Koizumi handed over the reins to Abe, the first PM to have been born after the war (something he himself pointed out in his inauguration speech).
There have been some horrible crimes and accidents involving children. That seems to be a pattern in Japan. I guess the accidents are indiscriminate, but the crimes... ? I think there is a cult of youth - well, you could argue that the world over I guess - the celebration of youth, the disdain for the old, the excessive marketing geared towards the young, cashed-up generation. But here cute, or kawaii, is a real commodity. Children are often doted on, adored and idolised. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, but it seems a bit overboard oftentimes. I guess the flipside of that veneration is that kids can become targets for dark minds. I'm sad to say that my musings about the makeshift shrine on the bridge that I ride across most days were pretty accurate. Apparently someone had struck down a child in their car a few suburbs away and then decided to dispose of the body from the bridge. How horribly sad. Kazuya, my friend next door told me about it. "Kowaii. Kowaii", he said. Kowaii, as opposed to kawaii, means dreadful, horrible, frightening. He said that in the past things like that didn't happen here. But now he says there are many twisted people in Japan. I'm happy to say I've met some of the best, nicest people ever here... and Kazuya and his family are top of the list.
Well, on a much lighter side, but not totally unrelated (speaking of youth-worship), is the rise and rise of Hankachi. I wrote before about the national high school baseball championship and about its star pitcher, Saito Yuki. Saito-kun is now referred to as Hankachi, in reference to his habit of wiping away sweat from his face with a light blue handkerchief. Well, the mania surrounding him has gone ballistic. A press conference was called for this 18 year-old to announce what his plans were for after finishing high school! Amazingly, he said that he is immature as a baseball player and immature as a person and so he'd like to go to uni before taking on the challenge of pro-baseball. You can believe he would have had some pretty lucrative offers already. So, with such modesty, talent, poise and youth-appeal, females from those in school uniforms to post-middle-aged housewives are swooning over him. When he arrived victorious from a tour of the US there were legions of girls and women snapping away with digi-cams at the airport. Kind of like when I arrived here. I saw on the news tonight that at the baseball you can get a packed lunch complete with his trademark blue hanky! Out of control! I'm not sure what you'd get in a lunchbox dedicated to me... maybe some mouldy cheese?

2006-09-07T23:29:00.000+09:00

No, there hasn't been another earthquake in Kobe. This is a part of the foreshore that the city has kept in its upheaved state, following the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, to give a sense of the devastation. Kobe is a port city and very attractive at that - leaves Osaka looking pretty gross in comparison. There is a video display near the water that explains what happened that fateful day. The area that receives all the shipping was shaken to bits as some of the huge cranes that lift containers from ships toppled over, and semi-trailers fell into huge ditches that appeared as expanses of tarmac dropped metres. Elevated sections of the Hanshin Expressway fell over, as did some buildings. It seems strange, considering I've been here almost a year and never felt a quake (well one, but it was in Tokyo). There have been times when I thought I've felt something, but so slight I could have imagined it. This isn't such a good thing, as no movement means that the stress is only building more and more as time goes on 'til the next big one. But that is supossed to be years away.... hmmm.

Kobe Port Tower is a symbol of the city - it's basically a tourist observatory and radio transmitter. It looks good at night as its orangey-red frame is lit-up. Meriken Park in general is a really nice area.

No, the martians haven't invaded. This is a high-speed concept ship on display outside the maritime museum. I haven't been inside the museum, but this thing is pretty groovy. I want to know if it works! It looks like it's been used. The metal thing on the edge of the picture is an example of the type of engine used - looks more like a jet than a boat engine.

What's big, metal and looks like a fish? A big metal fish. Sorry, that's about as enlightening as I get.

An old building surrounded by new ones. See what I mean? I guess I should write something pithy about the relentless march of progress or old Japan/new Japan but I'd be talking out of somewhere that's not my mouth. I think I might be already... I should go to bed.

This guy makes me feel a lot more comfortable about my collection of toys.

Now we go west of Kobe to Suma for the All Kansai Combined Churches Beach Party. There was a whole lotta hulain' going on.

Little Minori, my pastor's daughter, is a great little dancer.

Next to me is my friend Eriko and the little boy is Ryoya, her son - I've mentioned them before when I talked about going to Sanda matsuri (festival). What 5 year old poses like that!? Can you see his face? He cracks me up.

Speaking of crack-ups, here's another culprit, Eric. I've mentioned Eric before too - he's a writer, actor, father, English teacher and encourager, among other things.

Ogi is a friend who was at my church until about May, when he had to move to Kanagawa. So, it was great to see him again at the party. All up there about 250 people there! And about 25 of them took the plunge...

Now you've probably seen Asian people sitting on the beach before, fully clothed - at least, I have in Australia. No, they don't swim fully clothed! There's a baptism going on here. Taketo decided it was time to express his commitment to Christ.

To the left is my friend Masa and to the right is our pastor, Fumi. Another guy at our church got baptised on Sunday, after coming to church for only a couple of months! That is a really short time for someone to become a Christian anywhere, let alone Japan. People here seem to think about things like that for years before taking a position on it.

Anyway, I'm going to bed! See ya

2006-08-31T00:13:00.000+09:00

Not far from my place is an incredible toy museum. It specialises in tin toys, automata (animated toys) and German wooden toys - especially nutcrackers. It seems strange that Arima, a famous onsen town, would be home to these beautiful little objects... but seeing as I'm only a few kilometres away, I'm not complaining!

This exhibit shows the process of making the body of a tin robot. It's surprisingly involved and makes the sometimes exorbitant price of even new tin toys understandable. Then there's also the antique value added if it's an old piece. I've seen a little Japanese fighter plane in a store (I'd guess from the 50's) for over 200,000 yen - that's over $2300 Aussie dollars.

Here's an amazing old battleship. Seems cute, but seeing it reminds me of my Dad's memory of coming over to Australia on a ship as a little boy, with lights out at night to avoid the attention of Japanese warships. Why do violent things make such cool toys!?

This is an example of automata. They involve winding a handle to make a scene come to life - often with humorous results. This one isn't funny, just quirky - sometimes it's just the uncanniness of the action that captures your attention. I want to try and get into making these things.

Here's a beautiful nutcracker from Germany, complete with nut in open jaw! Sorry if that's obvious, it took me a while to notice it.

Okay, maybe I'm going a bit overboard with the manhole covers, but just suffer one more... this one was on the walk to Arima. I was interested because it has Koshien Stadium on it (the one where the high school baseball was held) - showing that I'd crossed into Nishinomiya City. I live right near the boundary between it and Kobe City. Anyway, nothing earth shattering, but it was news to me as I made my way to Arima. I tried to bike it there, but was defeated by a whopping big hill, so I opted to park the wheels and continue on foot.

Once in Arima I saw this little scene and really liked it for some reason. I think maybe it's the letters and the bike. There are heaps of really cool old bikes like this here - it makes me want to learn to ride one. You'd expect to see all the whiz-bang modern Japanese bikes, but they seem quite rare... maybe because of the price, but I suspect the older style is more popular anyway. Now we're closer to the part of Arima that the tourist buses come to. It's nestled among steep, heavily wooded mountains. They make for nice scenery, but are a bit of a pain to walk around for too long! Lots of sloping paths and flights of stairs.

Did I mention that there are mountains and trees?

There was a kid practicing pitching his baseball against the stone wall just to the right of this shot. Nice little scene.. it seemed really natural but also incongruous at the same time, if that makes sense. I wonder how old this place is?

Not happy, Jan!

I'll leave you with this and to ponder why I would have taken this photo... (chortle)

2006-08-24T23:30:00.000+09:00

Seeing as I finished the last post with a manhole cover, I thought I should start this one with another. "A good manhole cover deserves another" or something like that... stick it on my headstone if you like! This one is from Tsukuba Science City, about an hour north of Tokyo. That is it's offical name - there's a big replica rocket in town, real ones a little way off somewhere, a whopping big university and a high energy particle accelerator. It's also now home to my friends Tom, Jen and baby Ruby, who I stayed with for about 5 days. Jen had a party and I talked to a nuclear physicist. He tried to explain the "Strong Force" to me, which sounds about as techinically impressive as Australia's proposed VFT... Very Fast Train. Maybe they've been taking their cues from the Chinese restaurant back home: Excellent Seafood Restaurant.

Everything in Tuskuba is more scientific. The headwear is eons ahead of the rest of Japan, and therefore light years ahead of the rest of the world. Tom is sporting the latest model. Yellow is the new red, or didn't you know? 30 is also the new 20 (a great justification for a decade of irresponsible living in one neat sentence - I can't even use it anymore, now that I'm... 32!). Oh and I've read that as far as hair is concerned here, black is the new black. Stocks of black hair dye will run perilously low as all the suave boys and garus switch their coloured hair back to black. Black hair on Japanese people? It just doesn't seem natural. Where was I?...

The babies in Tsukuba are also more advanced, due to years of experimentation. Here's a batch being carted off to the laboratory.

Fish fly in Tsukuba too.

More fish. They aren't just hanging around because they look great, although they do... they are to mark Children's Day, kodomo no hi. Traditionally it was Boy's Day and the carp kites (koinobori) were put out as symbols of the parents' wish for vitality and strength in their sons as they made their way through life, just as the carp struggling upstream must have power.

One kite is put out for each member of the family: Mum, Dad and each child - I'm pretty sure girls are included in this now. Pretty big family... maybe Catholics? ...or maybe this is a commercial display of some sort.

Yet more fish.

No, not fish. Tom, Rubles and their place. Is this Japan? A large house, front and backyard, English speaking neighbours and a party next door the first night I spent there! It's also a very flat area with wide tree-lined avenues and beautiful parks. Definitely another Japan from the one I'm living in. I wonder how many there are. Japans, I mean.

Biking around with the O'Leary family. Tom fixed up a funny little unit to ride on to allow for me to ride his normal bike. He looked pretty funny on it. Unfortunately this is the only pic I got of Jen this time around! That wasn't very smart. Oh vell...

An altogether different mode of transport! The shinkansen I was in is reflected here in one of the buildings surrounding Nagoya station - maybe about 2/3rds of the way home. Dad got this same shot when we were coming back from Tokyo together. Anyway...

That's all for now... just trying to get this blog more current with piccies! We're still in May, so there's more to come... til then, byee.

2006-08-24T11:23:00.000+09:00

This is my first manager, Mayo, and my former fellow-teacher, Naoko. Back in May I went with a group of colleagues, past and present to visit Mayo in her hometown of Minoh on her lunch break before doing some sight-seeing...

Not so far from where we ate you can see a monkey or two when out walking! Some furry inhabitants live in the woods surrounding a famous waterfall. (Taro, who lives locally said that monkeys have been spotted in our area on very odd occasions!)The picture above is a fair bit cuter than the real thing... as I was eventually to discover.

The waterfall itself is justly renowned. It's not huge, but it's very picturesque. It was really nice when Naoko sent me a message saying "let's meet, I'll drive - we can go anywhere you want!". I'd heard of Minoh, so we settled on it as it's a perfect daytrip from us.

To get to the waterfall you walk along a long path that often has a canopy of maple leaves. I think it would be worth revisiting in Autumn!

It's nice seeing natural streams here - too often they are concreted on both sides or are basically just a canal between a street and buildings. I've gotten lost before looking for a river that's on a map, only to realise that the festering canal I've been pacing back and forth across is it!

This beautiful white koi was just moseying along - I'm not sure if I've seen one wild before (well, as wild as a carp gets). Did you notice his companion (feeling coy)? They were pretty massive. I think it would be a better idea being the same colour as the creekbed, especially with some of the visitors that come here...

Grrr!!! Is it a monkey? No, but getting warmer - not a fish, at least... has fur!

"Oh great, there's a monkey on my car". No, it wasn't our car but I'm not sure what I'd do to get rid of this guy if it was. By the time we saw him/her I'd forgotten all about the possibility of seeing them. We'd seen one on the path going up to the waterfall, but it was long after when coming back that we encountered this chap. Naoko warned me not to make eye contact as they get rather aggressive. Tough guys, huh? I think he looks like a slim, furry Ron Perlman.

See you, Minoh!

2006-08-21T17:04:00.000+09:00

I'm spending the second day in a row in my apartment, holed up with a runny nose. On the telly is the final of the summer national high school baseball tournament between Komadai from Hokkaido and Waseda from Tokyo. Sounds very amateur, but it's far from that. Obviously it's not professional, but the standard of play, the media coverage and the level of interest is on the same plain. At first I was surprised to see that the matches are held at Hanshin Koshien Stadium, home to the Hanshin Tigers, Osaka’s baseball heroes. But then I read that Koshien was actually built in 1936 for the very purpose of the national high school competition. Even though the Tigers call Koshien home, they must give way to the high school kids if necessary.

Take note of the name Saito Yuki. Saito-kun is the star pitcher for Waseda Jitsugyo and, I imagine, a future star of Japanese pro-baseball…and who knows? Japan has exported several players to the American Major League – most famously Matsui of the New York Yankees and Ichiro of the Seattle Mariners. Modest and cool-headed Saito-kun has been consistently pitching fastballs at the same speed as the pros (at times, almost 150 km/h) for 5 days straight. In yesterday's match he only gave away one run from 170 pitches. Today’s game is actually a rematch after yesterday's drew out to 15 innings with still only 1 run a piece. So, the other team's pitcher, Tanaka Masahiro, is also one to watch. These guys, only 18, are now national celebrities, with news stories devoted to their pitched battle. Amazing performances, considering the weight of expectation with millions watching (ratings peaked at 37%).

I ummed and ahhed about going to the game today (Koshien would only take about an hour 15 mins to get to) but I now regret to say that my "better" judgement won. The atmosphere coming from the TV is almost electric, so I can only try and imagine what it’s like there… 45 odd thousand people chanting, including fanatical legions of fans keeping up a constant chorus of frenzied singing (a lot faster than English soccer singing) with brass bands, drums, cheerleaders… and because it isn’t professional, good seats are cheap and outfield seats are free! But, the thought of sitting in the open on a 30+ degrees day with a cold made me rethink… I wish I hadn’t been so sensible, it looks so amazing! But yeah, I don’t get sick leave and I have no holidays left, so I can't afford to stay sick. (Did you know it’s poor manners to blow your nose in public in Japan? Very frustrating when copped with hayfever or a cold… yet occasionally I see people pick their noses on the train and once or twice urinate in the street!)

Anyway, I'll finish with the final score once I know it:
Sugoi!!! Amazing!!! Waseda won in the 9th innings, 4-3. The last pitches saw Tanaka-kun face Saito-kun, but he struck out. Saito-kun had been cool as a cucumber until their victory lap – then he started crying. People have been crying all through this competition, from the stands and the field, winners and losers. I’m not crying, but here’s my verdict: possibly the best game I've ever watched. Why didn't I go!? Loser!

2006-08-16T00:48:00.000+09:00

I went to Summersonic on Sunday with friends Oscar and Takashi. Was great. I saw a wide range of acts, but the highlight for me was meeting Naoko, the singer and last remaining founding member of Shonen Knife!!! I was very excited when I realised they were on the bill (couldn't read the kanji of their name on the printed ads, so I only realised they were playing a couple of days before while watching a TV special). Anyway, I caught Naoko some time after their show at the T-shirt stand and did some dorky fan talk and photo-taking. This Decemeber will mark 25 years of 3-chord style special girl punk from Osaka. It was really cool to hear the words, "minna-san, konnichiwa, shonen naifu desu." (Hi everyone, we're Shonen Knife) at the start of their set. I especially liked hearing E.S.P. (extra sensory perception... she has special powers!).

Metallica were awesome. I think they're pretty silly people, but they are incredible to behold on stage. And I saw a special treat - they played the entire Master of Puppets album (celebrating its 20th anniversary) and other old stuff. Japanese crowds are good - I comfortably got much closer to the stage than I could dare to at a Western show. Anyway... Kirk Hammett is a guitar freak! James Hetfield seems to have stopped adding an annoying wah! or yah! on the end of every line, so all in all... great! He seemed bemused by Japanese audience participation (or lack thereof) ...at one point when the audience was lit up he said: "Wow, there's a lot of people here... ...and it's really quiet... ... weird".

Also saw: Deftones, Ugly Duckling, Puffy Amiyumi, Kururi, M-Flo, The Feeling and a tiny bit of the Charlatans. Due to clashes unfortunately I couldn't see The Flaming Lips, Daft Punk or Devendra Banhart. Daft Punk (who dress like robots) or Metallica was a tough choice, but I'm glad of my decision. After 2 hours of sleep I headed off to work...

Just got back from 2 days of training on Shikoku island, in Naruto - the place with the whirlpools from my very first post. It was a strange time. It encouraged me, frustrated me and overall left me wanting to quit working for this company.

There was some useful stuff taught and some necessary drivel about business plans and strategies and then there was a whole lot of wasted time going over stuff that I've either already been told, or I've had to figure out myself over the last 10 months. I guess it's good for the new teachers though. It was good to meet a lot of the other people doing this caper and hang out more with established friends - quite a diverse group... but the overall community really got to me by the end of today and I was itching to leave.

It became a lot like school with petty clique-forming ... you know, the "cool kids", the clowns, the jocks, the dorks/ugly ones etc. Just like at school, I tried to avoid being in any of them and just mingle with whoever... I'll leave it to you to decide what category I fall under! As you can tell, I was less than thrilled about the training itself, but I was still put off by the whole air of people having a big laugh about their jobs. The company president is a demanding, angry gnome but he is right to demand that we do what we're paid for!

Having said that though, we were made to watch a rather comical speech of his on a large telly... I've never been so fascinated and bored at the same time. It was 90% unintelligble (but he was speaking English) and the remaining 10% seemed to be saying that we're not performing well because we haven't kept the bottom line squarely in our sights... PROFIT! If we don't do so we will "disappear". He exudes a certain something - charisma I guess, but yeah he speaks in a very fragmented, eccentric and undecipherable way. Beeezarre. I admit I did crack up when given a copy on VHS to take back to my school for safe-keeping.

So, in all I just found the whole thing a bit draining. On one hand I have the despot saying "make me more money!" plus the rigid mechanism set up in his image to do that ...and on the other hand I have the wearing cynicism of all the other foreign staff, having a laugh about everything, whether it deserves it or not. In the middle are the great Japanese teachers and managers who work so hard and complain so little, the rare inspiring foreign staff who really seem to care about what they're doing (hi Ian, if you're reading) and of course, above all that are the kids I teach. I think as much as I really like the kids, the end of this year will be long enough for me. I want out. It's been good and I wouldn't rule out spending more time in Japan, but yeah... enough!

When I'm done I'm thinking of seeing a bit of Kyushu (Nagasaki and Fukuoka) and maybe even a little of South Korea (a teacher at training told me that you can take a ferry from Fukuoka to Pusan in no time for a quick look around).

Anyway, I'll keep you posted...

2006-08-09T01:42:00.000+09:00

There's been a lot on telly this week about Hiroshima, being the anniversary of the dropping of infamous Little Boy. I don't understand the vast majority of the commentary that goes with the vision, but the images themselves often convey a lot. On one channel you see smoking battleships listing in Pearl Harbor and on another, an old man recounting his story. You see Prime Minister Koizumi visiting Yasukuni Jinja, the shrine where class 1 war criminals are enshrined... and then images of protesting youths in China, cursing Japan for the blood it shed. I saw one show where a Japanese reporter went to visit the relatives of U.S. servicemen and asked them about their experience - thankfully for me it wasn't dubbed, as is often the case - they just had subtitles, so I could listen and follow!
In this land where so much is unsaid and, I suspect, untaught, it is strange, but heartening to see all this discussion and depiction of the war. I might be naive not knowing 95% of what is being said, but that's my impression. My friend Hiroshi-san said that he heard one of the pilots of the Enola Gay ( the B-29 Superfortress that delivered the bomb) say, when questioned on how he comes to terms with what he did: "Remember Pearl Harbor". Hiroshi said "I can understand that. Saying that to the people of Hiroshima though, I cannot. I can't understand that." I don't think I've ever seen Hiroshi that earnest before.
From the cute adventures of Astroboy, the little nuclear-powered hero, to Godzilla's dual role of menace/saviour, to Akira's post-apocalyptic NeoTokyo (realising what never happened in WWII - the threatened nuclear bombing of Tokyo that the Emperor feared...well he might have - he lived there)... the holocaust of Hiroshima has left an indelible mark on Japan's psyche. Having been to both Yasukuni shrine, it's museum and the Hiroshima peace memorial and its museum, I can see that there are differing feelings about Japan's role in the war and about war in general. In the approach to Yasukuni is an imposing column topped by a figure of the guy who brought about the modernising of Japan's military in the Meiji Restoration - replacing disjointed groups of samurai with a conscripted, offensive and mechanised army - ready to make war with Russia and China. The yakuza-linked uyoku far-right groups make sure you've got the idea by doing laps around the block in shiny black vans and trucks bearing the gold chrysanthemum of the Emperor, blaring nationalistic anthems and propagangda through loudspeakers. I've seen one of these trucks once at Sanda station. That's one sentiment...
Then I was very impressed by the museum in Hiroshima - it presented a very balanced view of things. It didn't cry "victim!" - it squared up to the fact that Hiroshima was, apart from being a city, a military base - from which troops that ended up in Nanking/Nanjing were despatched. It looks beyond nationalism and just laments war in general - but as a start makes a strong plea to stop nuclear proliferation and to reverse it.
From the sweeping scale of all that to the domestic stuff that usually occupies the news bulletins here - tales of corporate scandal, negligence, child abduction, child murder... the human heart remains the problem, right? Whether the weapon is a harsh word, the desire to dominate another, the shape of a blade or the size of a warhead.
Sorry to soap box - I'm just reading the account of a Jewish guy who escaped Auschwitz, so it's probably not great timing! But yeah, I'm convinced more than ever that humanists have their heads in the sand. We need fixing! I do anyway... Come Lord Jesus

Night

2006-08-06T00:37:00.000+09:00

Back in April, this is is Mum, Dad and I onboard the shinkansen heading back west from Tokyo. After a couple more nights at my place, it would be time for my parents to fly back home.

One last shot on the bridge at the station as they headed to Sannomiya (Kobe) to get the airport bus. The tree behind put on a good show of sakura. I really like this photo.

Kyoto Station. When we went to Kamakura (the festival I showed you a few posts ago), we were joined by my friend Laurene, visiting from Australia. A week or so later, she headed over to Kansai and so she and I were able to meet up again on my day off in Kyoto.

Laurene and I discovered we are both a bit obsessive about taking photos, so we looked around at a similar pace, snapping away. It's interesting to see what different people want to take photos of in the same spot. I often take details and never manage to take an overall picture to remember how they all fit together!

We headed to the eastern side of Kyoto to a place called Arashiyama. It was my first time and I wasn't disappointed - it was beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect.

There is a really nice, dense bamboo forest that Laurene was pretty excited about. I've seen photos of it at night where they up-light the "trees" along the path. It looks awesome. Hard to believe it's grass! When the wind blows through the grove some of the stalks knock together and it sounds really cool... I imagine it would be very creepy at night.

I seem to remember that inside this shrine there was a really great piece of contemporary sculpture on temporary exhibition, and beyond it was an idyllic garden. I was sad to be told that photos weren't allowed. You're looking back to the one of the gates at the front of the shrine.

This is the famous shrine called Kinkakuji. The entire thing is laid over in gold leaf. It's one of the classic views of Japan. This building is actually only about 50-odd years old as some crazed monk burned the last one. You see buckets of water positioned around all temples and shrines in case of fire.

The water can seem to be liquid gold as the shrine is reflected on its surface.

Haha, yet another maiko pic. This one was taken by Laurene. She was keen to see the girls of Gion, so it's not like I go there every weekend and hunt geisha... but... I admit I did tag along quite willingly.

Sanda matsuri started today. It's the local version of what are a myriad of summer festivals, with fireworks going off all over the shop. Some of the biggest, like in Osaka, are measured in the 10s of 1000s of explosions. I saw some tonight - some were pretty big and loud. Masashi lent me his jimbei, but didn't wear his! He did, however, bring his wife Eriko and their son Ryo with them, which was a really cool surprise. They are just about the best looking family I've ever seen. Ryo is a riot of a little dude, I love him to death. His English is phenomenal, especially considering he's only 5 years old. Anyway, we didn't see much of the actual matsuri, but it was a top time - I'd enjoy going anywhere with those guys. Anyway, now that I've finally finished posting photos of the trip back in April, I should have some more recent stuff to put up. Til then, sayonara!

2006-08-01T00:43:00.000+09:00

Aloha! I seem to be having trouble sticking photos on here tonight, so nothing to see, just some thoughts. I'm really behind with what I've been showing and telling - so much has happened in the last couple of months. Most recently I've had a great time with new friends... and sadly already said goodbye to them. God has been really amazing in laying paths across mine so that I have met such nice people. So who are they?

Well, for starters in the past week our church had a team of 7 from Hawaii come and do lots of great stuff in the Nishinomiya area - outreach programs for people of all ages. They were truly special people and from what I saw they lived and breathed the gospel they preached. The whole church really got into the program as far as each person could and the vibe was really great. A friend from church became a Christian! I was very encouraged by what I saw/was able to help in... I realise not everyone who's reading this cares for what I'm talking about, but it helped me a lot to see what's important and what's just not. I think my vision has become pretty skewed and I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself for too long over stuff that just doesn't really matter. So, if you are one who prays, ask God to keep moving people's hearts in this part of the world and to keep us and the Hawaiians in this mindset and momentum of trying to share Jesus' love with the world... something that was quite tangible this weekend. Kamisama sanbishimasu! I praise God.

I also bade farewell to lovely friends Anna and John, English teachers that live nearby. Tomorrow they head home to the States. We spent a lot of time in the short couple of months that we were aware of each other meeting up to eat noodles, going to karaoke and doing some other fun stuff. I met Anna at Japanese class. Bye guys! Anyway, another changing of the guard...

Last week I went to a concert by Utada Hikaru. It's something that I'd really hoped to be able to see - only her 2nd national tour since her first 6 years ago. Pretty girly, but hey, whatever. She ranges from pop (debuted at age 16 and sold 8 million records) to more experimental dance music (recent stuff). Great, unmistakable voice, but I discovered she can't improvise very well! Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed having my ears and eyes assaulted by the Osaka Castle Hall's massive sound system and the impressive video and light display. My next excursion will be Summersonic in Osaka in a couple of weeks.

This coming Saturday I'm going to Sanda's own matsuri... it should be nice soaking up the summer heat with my friend Masashi in our jimbei robes (well, they're both his... I'm borrowing one!) under the fireworks near the river. He hardly speaks English and I hardly speak Japanese, so it should be fun! I met Masashi through his wife Eriko. Eriko brings their son Ryoya to church and Masashi is slowly starting to come more. He's very cool... actually all 3 of them are!

Well, I'm being stoopid as usual and spending sleep time writing this, so I'm going to sign off. If you're reading this from Hawaii, thanks again so much for coming and putting so much into our church and into me. Aloha!

2006-07-22T01:18:00.000+09:00

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.

2006-07-20T00:12:00.000+09:00

His name is Shintaro. On this occasion he produced some custom-cut disposable chopsticks from his pencil case - custom-cut for the purpose depicted above. If only he had applied such ingenuity and fore-thought to his English! Oh well, in the life of a 12 year old going on 16, study is often going to be the casualty - I've since lost this bright spark to his love of basketball. I will miss his antics.

This is the inaugural 40th post of Last Spamurai - as promised, an all keitai issue... no quality lenses were used, just the little pinhole in my phone, hence the underwater charm... enjoy!

Her name is Tsubame, or 'swallow'. She was barely a few weeks old in this photo. She's being held by her cousin, my student Kokoro (means 'heart'). I smile every time I see her - she's tops.

Sadly this was one of the last times I saw Haruka. Her mum wasn't too happy with the company's pricing and procedures. I don't blame her! The amount of money some parents spend on their kids' extra-curricular activities is astronomical. One 12 year-old boy I teach goes to juku (cram school) 3 nights a week. A girl I teach dances 5 nights a week. Another boy I taught did speed skating 4 nights a week. Some families are very wealthy, but others are more working-class and take out loans.

Siblings Mei, Rui and Ryuho. I teach all of them in separate classes. Ryuho is a great little artist. Mei is very good, but a little too precious (likes to have a good whine) and Rui is a specialist at drooling, lying down at inappropriate moments and being cute. Their mum is a legend, despite her 'Selfish' brand sneakers. (Her T-shirt, "I'm gonna hold the dog" is somehow more befitting of her nature... maybe she bought it at the same store that our ex-assistant manager bought her "Tender Puppy Dept" T-shirt).

This is where I teach Thursdays, in the north of Kobe. It was a goodbye photo of the boy, Sena. He was super-smart. Tamaki, the girl, is super-cute and repeats nearly everything you say (a conversational language teacher's dream! ...well, it sure beats sitting in a room for an hour with kids who won't speak at all!). And now some student-drawn whiteboard art...

I think we can safely read the word 'cool' inbetween the lines here... Or am I having myself on?

A lot of kids here are really visually literate. Not all kids can draw, but some are really good... I particularly like this offering. No wonder the markers keep running out of ink.

I could really learn from the economy of this little picture. The girl who drew it was trying to explain why she was sleepy - the reason was that she had taken a cold tablet. I think it's perfect.

What a great little character!

We recently (7/7) had the festival called Tanabata. It celebrates a Chinese legend that tells of two lovers, the stars Vega and Altair, who are separated by the Milky Way as a punishment (Is that where the term "star-cross'd lovers originated!?"... oh hang on, that was that English dude). Anyway, their one night when they are allowed to be together is the 7th of the 7th. Hence, children write their wishes on paper and hang them off branches of bamboo on the night of fulfilment.
I wouldn't mind this on a T-shirt.

Inside this curtain is an incredibly smart, but cheeky thing called Ami.

This is her drawing illustrating my weakness in comparison to her superior strength. How like me, being hassled by an 8 year-old girl! She's hilarious.

2006-07-13T00:57:00.000+09:00

I like the disembodied, angelic quality that the overexposure gives to these two kimono-clad festival-goers. Entirely intentional of course...

So where are we?, I hear you ask. Kamakura, one of the former capitals. The Kamakura period lasted from 1192 until 1333 and heralded the start of Japan's feudal middle ages - the imperial court remained intact, but largely as an ineffective, ceremonial showpiece. True power lay in the hands of the shogunate. I have no idea what the meaning is of these pole-objects, but it was really cool how they twirled them around.

I think I should space every photo with a comment, for the sake of aesthetics... John Howard really shoud do something about his eyebrows.

These little girls' outfits looked very Chinese to me. The children in the procession were very disciplined in the way they paraded, especially the high school marching bands. One of them was exceptionally good. I wish the kids in my classes were as disciplined - although I suspect the kids in the picture above would probably also go birko in my classroom... and my kids would be just as earnest in a performance.

This is an ancient fairy-floss machine, obviously still in good working order. Japan invented fairy floss, Turkish pizza and the soccer goal-nets used in the World Cup. Note: only the last of the above statements is true... they were designed and made in good ol' Osaka. Now... back to the festival...

The real action was to be found in the main street, as many mikoshi, or portable shrines, were hauled towards the main shrine. These mikoshi are believed to house Shinto deities. Some have amazingly beautiful gold fixtures and that Darth Vader black lacquer. The people doing the hauling and cajoling were a sight in themselves, in their happi coats and yukata. I love the designs and motifs of Japan's festivals.

Not sure if you can see the face of the guy in the middle too clearly, but it's classic. He would easily get jobs going for mad scientists' assistants... I guess this is his day off, so he just may be one.

Little details like this guy's watch remind you that these people are normal members of society - that this is a community event. This guy could easily be driving your bus on another day, or doing your tax return.
...you can get it haulin' a shrine... for a hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer...

...and the best cold beer is Vic...

...Victoria Bitter!

This guy may as well have been singing that song (cool ad, terrible beer), that's how good my Japanese is these days...yes, room for improvement.

Really running out of things to say now...

I hope by now you're not feeling as sedated as this rebel-rouser.

Okay, change of pace. I have a litlle bit to say on this: it's Kamakura's Daibutsu (basically means Big Buddha). There is another, larger daibutsu in Nara (closer to where I live), but it is generally agreed that the one shown above is artistically superior. I am of this opinion. I saw it about 3 years ago on my first trip to Japan, after managing to get totally lost. It was raining and I ended up walking through waist high grass on an obscure track, soaking my pants. I plonked out onto some lady's driveway. "Dr Livingstone, I presume," she said. No, not really... she looked at me with slight alarm and then I tried to show I was friendly by smiling and saying "Excuse me, where's the Big Buddha?" Anyway...

This time around it felt strange to see it as I'd just read an account of it in an excellent book called Samurai William, which tells of the life and times of the first Englishman to make it to Japan's shores in the 1600's, William Adams. He went from being a poor working class Briton to nearly dying from hostile people and tropical diseases, to being a friend and adviser to the Shogun, with lands and titles to boot. He saw out his days in Japan. Anyway... some of his debauched countrymen from other ships managed to get inside the Kamakura Daibutsu and bang around and holler, finishing off their act with some graffiti. All class! I resisted the temptation to follow suit.

Next... perhaps an all keitai issue... yes, I have the technology... have worked out how to get photos from my phone into my computer... so it's nothing exciting really, just the promise of fuzzy crappy random pictures of whatever took my fancy at the time. Same bat time, same bat channel...

2006-07-07T01:11:00.000+09:00

In Asakusa (part of the city that is supposed to have kept some of the old Tokyo charm - i.e. hasn't yet been megapolised... yes, I just invented that word) is a strip of shops that sell catering supplies to the restaurant trade... while I'm making stuff up, I'll call it Kitchen Row. KR has some places that sell those impossibly tasty-looking dishes of resin and plastic - and they're not cheap. The different effects of texture, translucence etc. are quite impressive.

Some of the locals in Ueno park.

It would be cool if this building was a Transformer - can't you imagine all those blocks sliding and turning into something else? Like, maybe a normal building?

Near Ueno Station. Lots of stalls selling all sorts of stuff from L.A. gangwear to the biggest octopus tentacles I've ever seen... the whole thing must have been ginormous! Lots of people, lots of buzz... my references to crowds in Tokyo are beginning to sound like my references to snow in Takayama. There are a lot of people in Tokyo! (33 million in the Bay area I've read, which includes the cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki and Chiba).

Anyway, no reflections on life and death tonight... just some snapshots before sleep...

Night.