It's Monday morning and I'm facing (almost) 9 straight days of working 10am to 9pm. Boo-hoo I hear you hardworkers out there cry. Well when you normally work four leisurely hours a day this can be somewhat daunting! Anyway, the reason I'm putting myself through this is to secure a much-needed two week trip back to Australia starting May 24th.
I can't believe it's been almost a year already. Reading back through this blog has been more than just a little embarrassing but hey, I guess that's what the learning experience is all about.
My Japanese skills are far far below what I'd like them to be but I do feel somewhat confident as a longterm resident here to be able to deal with all but the most tricky of life's day-to-day tasks. I can watch a movie without subtitles and still follow the general idea of what's going on. I won't be laughing at many of the jokes though.
I've been a pretty shit son, an awful grandson, a terrible brother, a pretty lax friend and an overall pretty "shit bloke" to most people back in Australia. This trip will be somewhat of an attempt to rectify all of this (and perhaps make you feel somewhat less crushed when I return to Hiroshima again har har.)
Any specific requests for Japanese goods otherwise unattainable via the Internet, feel free to shoot me an email but please keep in mind that I don't really want to lug a suitcase of panties and "ninja shoes" through customs.
The blog has been dormant for a while now but the Flickr updates continue to happen so check them out if it tickles your fancy.
See you all in about 10 days!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Good PR or just insignificant?
Australia signed the Kyoto Protocol. Australia is one of the world's lowest polluters. Australia has no racism or problems due to ethnic tensions.
For these and many more striking fallacies just like them just talk to your average Hiroshima resident. It really is hard not to laugh when I hear people tell me I'm wrong when I tell them Australia is in the top 5 polluters (per capita) in the world. A quick googling tells me we're actually on the podium in 3rd at the moment, go team!
Is it because this is just an extension of the lack of interest in world affairs that I touched on in my previous missive here? Is it because Australia has a wonderful PR team spear-headed by that adorable little mascot, KOARA-kun? or is it because Australia really doesn't matter squat on the world stage?
I have met the occasional student that has been to Australia (and not just Cairns) and has read a newspaper or two and does know that Australia pollutes a lot for our size. When I ask them how this makes them feel and would they ever consider something like a consumer boycott of the ever-present "oojii beefu" (see http://www.aussiebeef.jp) in order to send their message to Australia? (I realise that may be a stupid idea, I didn't really think it through very hard, it just came up in discussion) The answer is always the standard Japanese noncommittal neutral position so as to avoid any possible chance of inharmonious discord (ie, debate).
Getting anyone to debate a real issue with any passion or sincerity at all is a complete nightmare. Sure, they're using a second language if they're debating with me and I definitely cut people slack for that. However even really high level students are quite difficult to engage in an argument. I have to be pretty careful at work not to get myself in a position where I could endanger my job (the amount of power the student has over the teacher in the world of English schools in Japan is ridiculous). The only time I really got a few students fired up was when I raised the issue of the Imperial family and whether Japan should rid themselves of that institution. I got a talking to quite soon after that about avoiding controversial topics while at work. Fair enough from a business perspective, the school exists to make a buck not facilitate debate and such; it's a business not an educational facility, that's for sure. Still, it's depressing all the same that ninety percent of the time the "free conversation room" swings around to "where do you like to go shopping?" rather than anything remotely interesting.
To round out this, yet again, poorly edited, directionless diatribe I shall return to the topic of Australia. It still is the land of sunshine, barbecues, koalas, kangaroos, "beach parties" and beer. At first I felt a few pangs of guilt when I told people a few of the nasty facts about Australia (after all, every country has its negatives) but I'm pretty much over it now. I don't deny or downplay the good but it's only fair Australia cop its fair share of the negativity that gets hurled at the USA when issues such as the environment or the Iraq war come up.
Oh by the way, thanks to all the budding editors out there who kindly emailed me to let me know about all the errors in my previous entry. I apologise again for the poor standard but I don't intend to change it and you've been given fair warning. Nice to know at least a few people are reading, though!
For these and many more striking fallacies just like them just talk to your average Hiroshima resident. It really is hard not to laugh when I hear people tell me I'm wrong when I tell them Australia is in the top 5 polluters (per capita) in the world. A quick googling tells me we're actually on the podium in 3rd at the moment, go team!
Is it because this is just an extension of the lack of interest in world affairs that I touched on in my previous missive here? Is it because Australia has a wonderful PR team spear-headed by that adorable little mascot, KOARA-kun? or is it because Australia really doesn't matter squat on the world stage?
I have met the occasional student that has been to Australia (and not just Cairns) and has read a newspaper or two and does know that Australia pollutes a lot for our size. When I ask them how this makes them feel and would they ever consider something like a consumer boycott of the ever-present "oojii beefu" (see http://www.aussiebeef.jp) in order to send their message to Australia? (I realise that may be a stupid idea, I didn't really think it through very hard, it just came up in discussion) The answer is always the standard Japanese noncommittal neutral position so as to avoid any possible chance of inharmonious discord (ie, debate).
Getting anyone to debate a real issue with any passion or sincerity at all is a complete nightmare. Sure, they're using a second language if they're debating with me and I definitely cut people slack for that. However even really high level students are quite difficult to engage in an argument. I have to be pretty careful at work not to get myself in a position where I could endanger my job (the amount of power the student has over the teacher in the world of English schools in Japan is ridiculous). The only time I really got a few students fired up was when I raised the issue of the Imperial family and whether Japan should rid themselves of that institution. I got a talking to quite soon after that about avoiding controversial topics while at work. Fair enough from a business perspective, the school exists to make a buck not facilitate debate and such; it's a business not an educational facility, that's for sure. Still, it's depressing all the same that ninety percent of the time the "free conversation room" swings around to "where do you like to go shopping?" rather than anything remotely interesting.
To round out this, yet again, poorly edited, directionless diatribe I shall return to the topic of Australia. It still is the land of sunshine, barbecues, koalas, kangaroos, "beach parties" and beer. At first I felt a few pangs of guilt when I told people a few of the nasty facts about Australia (after all, every country has its negatives) but I'm pretty much over it now. I don't deny or downplay the good but it's only fair Australia cop its fair share of the negativity that gets hurled at the USA when issues such as the environment or the Iraq war come up.
Oh by the way, thanks to all the budding editors out there who kindly emailed me to let me know about all the errors in my previous entry. I apologise again for the poor standard but I don't intend to change it and you've been given fair warning. Nice to know at least a few people are reading, though!
Sunday, March 18, 2007
I'm not dead, but I'm getting curmudgeonly
I'm sorry to have left this dormant for so long. I'm also sorry for returning on a negative note. I'm not sorry at all for what I have to say though.
I've been reading a hell of a lot recently. As you can no doubt imagine, works either focusing on or making use of the "ex-patriot condition" are of particular interest. One book especially has really gotten me thinking about Japan, my time here and how exactly my preconceptions of this country were just so misguided (as I suspect most of the cultural cliches and stereotypes about any nation are); Atomic Sushi by Simon May. It has one of the worst titles and cover illustrations I've ever seen but it really does beg the cliche about not judging them by those trappings alone.
I'll be trying to get my thoughts together on these topics more and more over the coming weeks. For now I'm just going to throw shit up randomly as I think of it. One reason I've resisted attempting anything like this for so long is that I really don't want to come across as some idiotic bigot who doesn't know humility from his elbow. I think there comes a time though where I have to at least begin to try to voice my thinkings on cultural matters and if, as is certainly possible, I look back on these writings in hindsight and fight them to be utterly cringeworthy and ignorant then so be it. I guess I can consider it part of maturing as an adult.
My bone to pick today is the lack of international news and general lack of international news awareness in Japan. This, like all of my observations are bound to be, is of course utterly anecdotal and lacking in any form of proper statistical analysis and control or any scientific method whatsoever. I don't watch a heap of TV, since at my current level of Japanese proficiency, I can only comprehend about 5% of it. However I do get exposed to a lot of it because Yuki watches it on and off throughout the day. I don't think I have ever seen a proper "current affairs" show once. Nothing remotely resembling Lateline or Dateline or The News Hour or anything like that. The newspapers carry some international stories but they hardly feature heavily.
Judging from general conversation with friends, students and the odd stranger, the average person's awareness (let alone opinion thereon) of world issues is staggeringly low. I know I'm not all that average in that I enjoy a huge variety of information sources afforded me by my laptop and extroadinarily fat Japanese internet tube. It just blows me away everytime I mention a news story in passing to some students, even one involving the Japanese Prime Minister, and get blank faces. Mr.Abe has recently done his best to fit both feet right in his mouth over comments relating to the "comfort girls" (a wonderful Japanese euphemism) during World War II. No chance of damaging his reputation with the average Hiroshima resident though. Nobody I mentioned it to had heard about the matter.
I have to stop now as I've just realised its time to get on my bike and head to work. I feel so old and bitter and pathetic having written the above, but I guess there comes a time for any ex-pat when they feel they have to shake off the extremely humble feelings of being a guest in another people's nation and realise they are a part of the fabric of this nation now and entitled at least somewhat to a critical opinion. I'm sure this is a nightmare to read and I don't have time to proof it even once but rest assured there's plenty more to come. Oh goody!
I've been reading a hell of a lot recently. As you can no doubt imagine, works either focusing on or making use of the "ex-patriot condition" are of particular interest. One book especially has really gotten me thinking about Japan, my time here and how exactly my preconceptions of this country were just so misguided (as I suspect most of the cultural cliches and stereotypes about any nation are); Atomic Sushi by Simon May. It has one of the worst titles and cover illustrations I've ever seen but it really does beg the cliche about not judging them by those trappings alone.
I'll be trying to get my thoughts together on these topics more and more over the coming weeks. For now I'm just going to throw shit up randomly as I think of it. One reason I've resisted attempting anything like this for so long is that I really don't want to come across as some idiotic bigot who doesn't know humility from his elbow. I think there comes a time though where I have to at least begin to try to voice my thinkings on cultural matters and if, as is certainly possible, I look back on these writings in hindsight and fight them to be utterly cringeworthy and ignorant then so be it. I guess I can consider it part of maturing as an adult.
My bone to pick today is the lack of international news and general lack of international news awareness in Japan. This, like all of my observations are bound to be, is of course utterly anecdotal and lacking in any form of proper statistical analysis and control or any scientific method whatsoever. I don't watch a heap of TV, since at my current level of Japanese proficiency, I can only comprehend about 5% of it. However I do get exposed to a lot of it because Yuki watches it on and off throughout the day. I don't think I have ever seen a proper "current affairs" show once. Nothing remotely resembling Lateline or Dateline or The News Hour or anything like that. The newspapers carry some international stories but they hardly feature heavily.
Judging from general conversation with friends, students and the odd stranger, the average person's awareness (let alone opinion thereon) of world issues is staggeringly low. I know I'm not all that average in that I enjoy a huge variety of information sources afforded me by my laptop and extroadinarily fat Japanese internet tube. It just blows me away everytime I mention a news story in passing to some students, even one involving the Japanese Prime Minister, and get blank faces. Mr.Abe has recently done his best to fit both feet right in his mouth over comments relating to the "comfort girls" (a wonderful Japanese euphemism) during World War II. No chance of damaging his reputation with the average Hiroshima resident though. Nobody I mentioned it to had heard about the matter.
I have to stop now as I've just realised its time to get on my bike and head to work. I feel so old and bitter and pathetic having written the above, but I guess there comes a time for any ex-pat when they feel they have to shake off the extremely humble feelings of being a guest in another people's nation and realise they are a part of the fabric of this nation now and entitled at least somewhat to a critical opinion. I'm sure this is a nightmare to read and I don't have time to proof it even once but rest assured there's plenty more to come. Oh goody!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
KANCHO!
Yes. I finally got kancho'ed.
(I have no idea how you conjugate a verb like that)
For all of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, check the wikipedia page for Kancho before reading further.
My home branch here in Hiroshima is a bit unusual in that it doesn't offer kid classes. This means that most of the staff there are those who have specifically requested to not have to teach kids. I was just put there by chance but I wasn't really complaining. It's not that I fear teaching kids or worry that I'm bad at it but I just prefer talking with adults. Some of the high school kids can be alright but so many of them spend 90% of the lesson staring at the table.
A few months ago things changed a little. One day of my schedule was changed so that I would be trekking out to a kids-only branch to teach a bunch of kids classes back to back. Talk about jumping in the deep end. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone who'd never had siblings or younger cousins. I still found it pretty intimidating, trying to control a class of kids between the age of 3 and 12 while trying to impart a little English as well. Thank heavens I've had a bit of experience looking after my cousins and baby-sitting. I still think I'm dangerously unqualified to be teaching kids but oh well.
It's certainly taught me a lot of interesting Japanese (which I mentioned in an earlier entry on this blog). In fact that's one of the things I enjoy most about teaching kids. Listening to them chatter away to each other in Japanese. As soon as there is any silence one of the kids will pipe up, it's impossible to keep them quiet unless I'm doing something to distract them. Of course most of the kids assume that foreigners can't speak or understand any Japanese. I've had kids say, upon meeting me for the first time, "wow, you have a strange face" or "why are you so hairy?" in Japanese. It doesn't offend me at all, in fact I love the honesty and relish the chance to learn new vocab (even if it is childish vocab). That sort of honesty is something that is almost impossible to find amongst adults in Japan (huge generalisation I know, so take it with a cup of salt). I'm not saying I really really miss random idiots on Brunswick St telling me to get fucked or they'll happily put their fist in my face, but the odd insult certainly does make you all the more aware of how polite Japanese society is (on the surface at least.)
So onto the juicy details.
It was a kinder class (kids 3-6 years old) and we were part way through singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" (a big hit with these kids since it has easy actions and vocab that they are somewhat familiar with) when I realised I had lost visual contact with the trickiest little girl in the class. I always wondered why she tried to get around behind me. I've known about Kancho for a long time but once I arrived in Japan I somehow forgot all about it. I thought she was just sick of my face and wanted to hide. No, no. She wanted to bury her fingers up sensei's pooper. Luckily for me my suit pants that day were nice, thick, strong, woolen ones. Every other kid in the class saw my facial expression and knew what had happened. They burst into hysterics while I spun around to face my conqueror. She had one of the most evil grins I've ever seen on a little girl. Still clutching her fingers in the telltale Kancho style she backed away from me cackling all the while. I floundered for a moment, not having the faintest idea how to deal with this situation.
Without thinking too hard about the potential consequences I snapped at her and blurted out "DON'T DO THINGS LIKE THAT!" in Japanese which brought a thunderous silence to the room. Amazing how quickly you get some respect when you demonstrate that you can say the same things that Mum and Dad can say. The little girl was stunned for a moment but quickly gained her composure. Much to my surprise she did not resume her usual cheeky, obstinate behaviour but instead bowed a little and gave me a short, obedient "hai".
My schedule is back to normal now so I'm not teaching any kids. I do miss them occasionally but I'll be glad if I can go the rest of my time in Japan without having my anus violated.
(I have no idea how you conjugate a verb like that)
For all of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, check the wikipedia page for Kancho before reading further.
My home branch here in Hiroshima is a bit unusual in that it doesn't offer kid classes. This means that most of the staff there are those who have specifically requested to not have to teach kids. I was just put there by chance but I wasn't really complaining. It's not that I fear teaching kids or worry that I'm bad at it but I just prefer talking with adults. Some of the high school kids can be alright but so many of them spend 90% of the lesson staring at the table.
A few months ago things changed a little. One day of my schedule was changed so that I would be trekking out to a kids-only branch to teach a bunch of kids classes back to back. Talk about jumping in the deep end. I can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone who'd never had siblings or younger cousins. I still found it pretty intimidating, trying to control a class of kids between the age of 3 and 12 while trying to impart a little English as well. Thank heavens I've had a bit of experience looking after my cousins and baby-sitting. I still think I'm dangerously unqualified to be teaching kids but oh well.
It's certainly taught me a lot of interesting Japanese (which I mentioned in an earlier entry on this blog). In fact that's one of the things I enjoy most about teaching kids. Listening to them chatter away to each other in Japanese. As soon as there is any silence one of the kids will pipe up, it's impossible to keep them quiet unless I'm doing something to distract them. Of course most of the kids assume that foreigners can't speak or understand any Japanese. I've had kids say, upon meeting me for the first time, "wow, you have a strange face" or "why are you so hairy?" in Japanese. It doesn't offend me at all, in fact I love the honesty and relish the chance to learn new vocab (even if it is childish vocab). That sort of honesty is something that is almost impossible to find amongst adults in Japan (huge generalisation I know, so take it with a cup of salt). I'm not saying I really really miss random idiots on Brunswick St telling me to get fucked or they'll happily put their fist in my face, but the odd insult certainly does make you all the more aware of how polite Japanese society is (on the surface at least.)
So onto the juicy details.
It was a kinder class (kids 3-6 years old) and we were part way through singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" (a big hit with these kids since it has easy actions and vocab that they are somewhat familiar with) when I realised I had lost visual contact with the trickiest little girl in the class. I always wondered why she tried to get around behind me. I've known about Kancho for a long time but once I arrived in Japan I somehow forgot all about it. I thought she was just sick of my face and wanted to hide. No, no. She wanted to bury her fingers up sensei's pooper. Luckily for me my suit pants that day were nice, thick, strong, woolen ones. Every other kid in the class saw my facial expression and knew what had happened. They burst into hysterics while I spun around to face my conqueror. She had one of the most evil grins I've ever seen on a little girl. Still clutching her fingers in the telltale Kancho style she backed away from me cackling all the while. I floundered for a moment, not having the faintest idea how to deal with this situation.
Without thinking too hard about the potential consequences I snapped at her and blurted out "DON'T DO THINGS LIKE THAT!" in Japanese which brought a thunderous silence to the room. Amazing how quickly you get some respect when you demonstrate that you can say the same things that Mum and Dad can say. The little girl was stunned for a moment but quickly gained her composure. Much to my surprise she did not resume her usual cheeky, obstinate behaviour but instead bowed a little and gave me a short, obedient "hai".
My schedule is back to normal now so I'm not teaching any kids. I do miss them occasionally but I'll be glad if I can go the rest of my time in Japan without having my anus violated.
Monday, February 05, 2007
...it makes my dookie twinkle!
I have finally consumed that which most of you would probably call a waste of cash. To you I say, what trip to Japan would be complete without eating beef worth more per kilo than many people spend in an entire week on food?!
My preparation for these little updates usually involves whatever shit flies around my head on the streetcar ride home. It was tonight that I was trying to recall my most expensive meal ever and I think the title still rests with a large family meal at France Soir (fixed the name. ed.) in Toorak. I don't recall them ever having steak that cost as much as the stuff I ate here the other day though.
It was a completely ordinary Tuesday night in Hiroshima. I was hanging out at Yuki's place in one of Hiroshima's frosty suburbs just watching a man with a fish-eye lens camera ride a rhino around a field while taking photos and trying not to fall off (very tame by TV standards over here). Yuki was cooking (she cooks at her place, I at mine... for the most part) yakisoba (click the link if you don't know it) but she surprised me with an entree first. It was very thinly sliced beef, fried in a dark brown sauce. Beef really isn't a regular item on many people's menus in Japan (or at least those on a teacher's salary) so I got stuck into eagerly. It was amazingly soft, fatty and scrumptious. In fact it was so good that the regular old yakisoba struggled to entice once the beef was gone.
I almost didn't check but since it was my job to take out the trash I figured I'd pass a cursory glance over the beef package's sticker. 3000 yen (34AUD), I noticed... "shiiiiet!" I thought, I'd better make sure the next meal I make for Yuki is more than crappy chicken curry. Then I noticed the weight of the beef that now lay in my belly. 280 grams. "SHIIIIIEEEET!" Yes a quick little calculation will tell you that the beef cost more than 110AUD per kilo.
I'm really glad I only found out after the meal or the psychosomatic price-value effect may have interfered with my judgement. I can safely say the beef was good but it definitely isn't $110/kg good!
Oh, for all of you who don't have any idea what the title of this post is all about, apologies... I'm in a stupid mood and I've been drinking Dr.Pepper with vodka...
My preparation for these little updates usually involves whatever shit flies around my head on the streetcar ride home. It was tonight that I was trying to recall my most expensive meal ever and I think the title still rests with a large family meal at France Soir (fixed the name. ed.) in Toorak. I don't recall them ever having steak that cost as much as the stuff I ate here the other day though.
It was a completely ordinary Tuesday night in Hiroshima. I was hanging out at Yuki's place in one of Hiroshima's frosty suburbs just watching a man with a fish-eye lens camera ride a rhino around a field while taking photos and trying not to fall off (very tame by TV standards over here). Yuki was cooking (she cooks at her place, I at mine... for the most part) yakisoba (click the link if you don't know it) but she surprised me with an entree first. It was very thinly sliced beef, fried in a dark brown sauce. Beef really isn't a regular item on many people's menus in Japan (or at least those on a teacher's salary) so I got stuck into eagerly. It was amazingly soft, fatty and scrumptious. In fact it was so good that the regular old yakisoba struggled to entice once the beef was gone.
I almost didn't check but since it was my job to take out the trash I figured I'd pass a cursory glance over the beef package's sticker. 3000 yen (34AUD), I noticed... "shiiiiet!" I thought, I'd better make sure the next meal I make for Yuki is more than crappy chicken curry. Then I noticed the weight of the beef that now lay in my belly. 280 grams. "SHIIIIIEEEET!" Yes a quick little calculation will tell you that the beef cost more than 110AUD per kilo.
I'm really glad I only found out after the meal or the psychosomatic price-value effect may have interfered with my judgement. I can safely say the beef was good but it definitely isn't $110/kg good!
Oh, for all of you who don't have any idea what the title of this post is all about, apologies... I'm in a stupid mood and I've been drinking Dr.Pepper with vodka...
Monday, January 29, 2007
カラオケ or how I learnt to stop worrying and love the song!
It took me a while, but I finally got my photos from my trip to the Kansai region of Japan over the New Year break up onto Flickr. Have a look and leave a comment if you'd like. For the first time ever I'm actually pretty proud of a few of my photos. If anyone wanted to see the most impressive parts of Japan in less than a week I would definitely recommend the Kansai region (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, etc...). I know I haven't exactly seen the entire country but of the places I have been Kansai really blew me away.
Now onto the main topic for tonight's little update. In case you were wondering, those four characters up there say "KA-RA-O-KE" and yes, oh how the mighty have fallen. Don't worry too much, I haven't started buying SMAP albums (don't google that if you don't know them, just be glad of that fact) or enjoying J-pop or anything crazy like that. However, I have finally learnt just how a mainstream-pop-hater such as myself can enjoy karaoke.
Karaoke is everywhere in Japan (or at least everywhere I've been). There are massive multi-level buildings with many booths decked out with big flat televisions, stereos, microphones and seedy couches. They're almost always busy, whether its school children, young professionals or older people wanting to impress each other away with some slow Japanese ballads. One of the most insane things about karaoke is definitely the cost. From what I've seen the going rate seems to be about 8AUD per person per hour. Lots of the huge commercial places have insane amounts of rules too, such as no drinking (BYE!) and no huffing drugs out of paper bags (yes, they even have hilarious cartoon images to accompany that one, sorry but I couldn't get a photo).
It wasn't until a friend of mine managed to direct a big drunk group of us into a little bar he knew of with a great bar and an even greater karaoke setup that I was finally able to understand what all the fuss was about. Unlike the usual setup which involves private rooms of about 4-6 people singing to each other, this bar had the karaoke setup out in front of everyone. The size of our group and the lack of other customers on that particular night meant that we were able to dominate the machine for a good many hours. At this point I was still highly skeptical and was much more interested in getting a few good glasses of beer in front of me. It wasn't until I realised that this karaoke machine possessed a much much much more impressive collection of English language songs than the usual Japanese karaoke machine.
Quick side note, if you ever wondered where the copyright holders of the music of Billy Joel, BoyzIImen, Bon Jovi, Brian Adams (that's enough and we're still in the B's) were getting all their fat sacks of royalty money from, wonder no more. It is the karaoke bars of Japan! (and probably many other parts of Asia too). The average karaoke joint's collection of English songs really is the worst of the worst of the worst of pop music of the past 30 years with a heavy bias for the late 80s and early 90s.
Anyway, back to "G's Bar" where we were before. I was getting all prepared to down as much beer as quickly as I could until I could safely sit through a Bon Jovi track without wanting to rip my own head off when I heard the beginning thumps and bumping baseline of Another One Bites the Dust. (This song holds a special place in my memory due to its prevalence at baseball games that my old man used to take me to in my much younger days)
There it was, my karaoke yellow-brick road stretching out before me and Freddie was right there ready to take me by the hand. Queen. That's all I need now for any karaoke excursion to put me on a fantastic high (accompanied on "the rocks" by Mr.Osake). Seriously, all the shit, horrible, tragic music that makes it onto the pages of karaoke books only to be discovered by delirious morons who will happily tell you that Bon Jovi really was the world's greatest song writer can just fuck off and keep doing their thing far far away from me. Over here in this corner, we have Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust and Bicycle Race and I defy any person with a musical bone in their body to resist their allure!
For even better karaoke adventures all you need to do is invite your Japanese friends along. I still think Japanese sounds worse than English when sung but when you walk in a karaoke joint you've already thrown the rule book out the window and pissed on it. My Japanese sucks (still... maybe forever) and I can't read enough kanji when I'm drunk to really sing along properly but I never stop enjoying watching my Japanese friends belt out some oldschool Japanese songs. I've got one verse of one Japanese song down pat now so I'm able to join in albeit a fleeting cameo, it's just a pity that it's a power-pop song for a female voice. No worries mate, the falsetto loves the workout.
I would still much rather have the access to fantastic live music that a city like Melbourne affords but there is no way I'm leaving Japan any time soon so while I'm here I'm going to learn to make the best of the poor music situation. So, grab a nice big fat stack of 1000 yen notes and join me in the sake-soaked seedy leather couch and belt out a good hard verse of Bicycle...
you say black
I say white!
Now onto the main topic for tonight's little update. In case you were wondering, those four characters up there say "KA-RA-O-KE" and yes, oh how the mighty have fallen. Don't worry too much, I haven't started buying SMAP albums (don't google that if you don't know them, just be glad of that fact) or enjoying J-pop or anything crazy like that. However, I have finally learnt just how a mainstream-pop-hater such as myself can enjoy karaoke.
Karaoke is everywhere in Japan (or at least everywhere I've been). There are massive multi-level buildings with many booths decked out with big flat televisions, stereos, microphones and seedy couches. They're almost always busy, whether its school children, young professionals or older people wanting to impress each other away with some slow Japanese ballads. One of the most insane things about karaoke is definitely the cost. From what I've seen the going rate seems to be about 8AUD per person per hour. Lots of the huge commercial places have insane amounts of rules too, such as no drinking (BYE!) and no huffing drugs out of paper bags (yes, they even have hilarious cartoon images to accompany that one, sorry but I couldn't get a photo).
It wasn't until a friend of mine managed to direct a big drunk group of us into a little bar he knew of with a great bar and an even greater karaoke setup that I was finally able to understand what all the fuss was about. Unlike the usual setup which involves private rooms of about 4-6 people singing to each other, this bar had the karaoke setup out in front of everyone. The size of our group and the lack of other customers on that particular night meant that we were able to dominate the machine for a good many hours. At this point I was still highly skeptical and was much more interested in getting a few good glasses of beer in front of me. It wasn't until I realised that this karaoke machine possessed a much much much more impressive collection of English language songs than the usual Japanese karaoke machine.
Quick side note, if you ever wondered where the copyright holders of the music of Billy Joel, BoyzIImen, Bon Jovi, Brian Adams (that's enough and we're still in the B's) were getting all their fat sacks of royalty money from, wonder no more. It is the karaoke bars of Japan! (and probably many other parts of Asia too). The average karaoke joint's collection of English songs really is the worst of the worst of the worst of pop music of the past 30 years with a heavy bias for the late 80s and early 90s.
Anyway, back to "G's Bar" where we were before. I was getting all prepared to down as much beer as quickly as I could until I could safely sit through a Bon Jovi track without wanting to rip my own head off when I heard the beginning thumps and bumping baseline of Another One Bites the Dust. (This song holds a special place in my memory due to its prevalence at baseball games that my old man used to take me to in my much younger days)
There it was, my karaoke yellow-brick road stretching out before me and Freddie was right there ready to take me by the hand. Queen. That's all I need now for any karaoke excursion to put me on a fantastic high (accompanied on "the rocks" by Mr.Osake). Seriously, all the shit, horrible, tragic music that makes it onto the pages of karaoke books only to be discovered by delirious morons who will happily tell you that Bon Jovi really was the world's greatest song writer can just fuck off and keep doing their thing far far away from me. Over here in this corner, we have Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust and Bicycle Race and I defy any person with a musical bone in their body to resist their allure!
For even better karaoke adventures all you need to do is invite your Japanese friends along. I still think Japanese sounds worse than English when sung but when you walk in a karaoke joint you've already thrown the rule book out the window and pissed on it. My Japanese sucks (still... maybe forever) and I can't read enough kanji when I'm drunk to really sing along properly but I never stop enjoying watching my Japanese friends belt out some oldschool Japanese songs. I've got one verse of one Japanese song down pat now so I'm able to join in albeit a fleeting cameo, it's just a pity that it's a power-pop song for a female voice. No worries mate, the falsetto loves the workout.
I would still much rather have the access to fantastic live music that a city like Melbourne affords but there is no way I'm leaving Japan any time soon so while I'm here I'm going to learn to make the best of the poor music situation. So, grab a nice big fat stack of 1000 yen notes and join me in the sake-soaked seedy leather couch and belt out a good hard verse of Bicycle...
you say black
I say white!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Quick apologies... if anyone cares
Judging from the number of responses I received (less than 10) there aren't many of you out there who care much about being able to view my private photos. But in case you are wondering, no I haven't uploaded any photos at all since November. Sorry, but I made the switch from iPhoto to Aperture recently. While Aperture is an amazing program, it has a relatively steep learning curve so I am still unable to export my photos to Flickr. I'll rectify this as soon as possible.
Some people have told me they are unable to see the link to Flickr on the right hand side. I have no idea why this is happening but I care so very little about programming and code in general that I'm not going to try to fix the problem. Suffice to say you can use this link here and then bookmark it.
Again, if you want to see my private photos now you will have to sign up for a Flickr account and then message me with your Flickr account so I can give you permission. I know making yet another account on the internet just to view some idiot's photos is a pain, but I personally reckon Flickr (not to mention people's privacy) is worth the hassle.
When I do get around to uploading some photos I will let you know here.
Some people have told me they are unable to see the link to Flickr on the right hand side. I have no idea why this is happening but I care so very little about programming and code in general that I'm not going to try to fix the problem. Suffice to say you can use this link here and then bookmark it.
Again, if you want to see my private photos now you will have to sign up for a Flickr account and then message me with your Flickr account so I can give you permission. I know making yet another account on the internet just to view some idiot's photos is a pain, but I personally reckon Flickr (not to mention people's privacy) is worth the hassle.
When I do get around to uploading some photos I will let you know here.
LOVE CHRISTMAS!
Things have settled down now post-New Year holiday and all that. I've finally returned to soccer after 4 months or so sidelined with my stupid ankle injury. I played a great return match scoring two goals but perhaps more enjoyable was the fact that my Japanese skills have improved so noticeably that my team mates commented. I still feel like I would put myself in the "cannot speak Japanese" basket largely because my ability to construct sentences is still hopeless. However my listening and reading and writing skills have improved drastically so while I might not be able to answer many questions correctly, I can follow a conversation so long as the topic stays away from existentialism or economic theory.
I want to return to my previous style of relatively short entries on interesting topics, so in that vain here comes a piece on Christmas, Japanese style. I know it's late and it would have been much more interesting and relevant pre-December 25th but oh well.
I'm sure 99% of you are aware that Japan is not a Christian nation. Hence Christmas is wonderfully free from any Christian ties (if they even exist in Australia anymore). It is a perfectly capitalist event now with the almighty dollar (or yen) the only god. Japanese Christmas in a nutshell is more like Valentine's Day with a splash of a strange Santa/reindeer motif. Here are a few pictures I found on Google that might explain it better than my words can.
That there is a bentou (lunchbox) in Christmas style.
Christmas is so unimportant here that it isn't even a public holiday. The most important part of the entire affair is Christmas Eve when couples get together for romantic dinners and walks around town admiring the insanely tasteless Christmas light displays. If you've ever wondered what cherubs, love hearts, mermaids, dolphins, and trains have to do with Christmas, come to Hiroshima next Christmas and take a walk down Peace Boulevard where you will be able to see all the aforementioned and much more in twinkling light displays up to 30m tall.
Another crucial part of Japanese Christmas is the Christmas cake. Ahh, something in common with our own you're thinking. No such luck I'm afraid. This is Japanese Christmas cake.
I'm not sure if you can read the price tags there but they seem to start at around 2,500 yen (-AUD27) for the tiny ones. I got to sample a few and I must say they are entirely unimpressive and bland. Plain sponge cake with generic icing, whipped cream and strawberries on top. There are fantastic cakes available in Japan (especially in Kobe) but the Christmas cake ain't a great example.
Quite a number of my students were generally surprised to learn of the difference between an Australian Christmas and their own. They were particularly shocked to learn that we don't eat Christmas cake anything like the monsters pictured above. The fact that in Australia, one of the only times of the year I eat oysters (at least regularly) is on Christmas day seemed to amuse them.
Being away from Australia and all my family and friends at Christmas made me realise a few things (close window now if you want to avoid personal waffle now). Being an atheist, Christmas has nill religious significance for me but that doesn't mean that I can't or don't enjoy some of the religious music of the season. Furthermore I do think Christmas in Australia is a really nice vehicle for family and friends to get together and have a jolly good time. Christmas changed a lot for me when I moved out of home and being absent from my family Christmas(es - one perk of separated parents is the dual Christmas) definitely made me long for the sight of a table covered in delicious treats and the satisfied post-meal relaxation on the couch. The holiday has clearly been savagely beaten by capitalism and if people want to agree to shift the date for their own family get-together to another time that doesn't coincide with inflated prices and massive crowds then go for it. In one regard this is why I envy the Canadians with their Thanksgiving. From what my new Canadian friends tell me, it seems to be the same family-oriented festival of food but without the tacky trappings of Christmas.
Oh, the title of this post "LOVE CHRISTMAS" comes courtesy of the enormous light display on the biggest department store in Hiroshima. I don't think they mean it so sound like an imperative but that's how it sounded to me since it was positioned above the masses of cashed-up shoppers flowing in and out of the department store.
I want to return to my previous style of relatively short entries on interesting topics, so in that vain here comes a piece on Christmas, Japanese style. I know it's late and it would have been much more interesting and relevant pre-December 25th but oh well.
I'm sure 99% of you are aware that Japan is not a Christian nation. Hence Christmas is wonderfully free from any Christian ties (if they even exist in Australia anymore). It is a perfectly capitalist event now with the almighty dollar (or yen) the only god. Japanese Christmas in a nutshell is more like Valentine's Day with a splash of a strange Santa/reindeer motif. Here are a few pictures I found on Google that might explain it better than my words can.
That there is a bentou (lunchbox) in Christmas style.
Christmas is so unimportant here that it isn't even a public holiday. The most important part of the entire affair is Christmas Eve when couples get together for romantic dinners and walks around town admiring the insanely tasteless Christmas light displays. If you've ever wondered what cherubs, love hearts, mermaids, dolphins, and trains have to do with Christmas, come to Hiroshima next Christmas and take a walk down Peace Boulevard where you will be able to see all the aforementioned and much more in twinkling light displays up to 30m tall.
Another crucial part of Japanese Christmas is the Christmas cake. Ahh, something in common with our own you're thinking. No such luck I'm afraid. This is Japanese Christmas cake.
I'm not sure if you can read the price tags there but they seem to start at around 2,500 yen (-AUD27) for the tiny ones. I got to sample a few and I must say they are entirely unimpressive and bland. Plain sponge cake with generic icing, whipped cream and strawberries on top. There are fantastic cakes available in Japan (especially in Kobe) but the Christmas cake ain't a great example.
Quite a number of my students were generally surprised to learn of the difference between an Australian Christmas and their own. They were particularly shocked to learn that we don't eat Christmas cake anything like the monsters pictured above. The fact that in Australia, one of the only times of the year I eat oysters (at least regularly) is on Christmas day seemed to amuse them.
Being away from Australia and all my family and friends at Christmas made me realise a few things (close window now if you want to avoid personal waffle now). Being an atheist, Christmas has nill religious significance for me but that doesn't mean that I can't or don't enjoy some of the religious music of the season. Furthermore I do think Christmas in Australia is a really nice vehicle for family and friends to get together and have a jolly good time. Christmas changed a lot for me when I moved out of home and being absent from my family Christmas(es - one perk of separated parents is the dual Christmas) definitely made me long for the sight of a table covered in delicious treats and the satisfied post-meal relaxation on the couch. The holiday has clearly been savagely beaten by capitalism and if people want to agree to shift the date for their own family get-together to another time that doesn't coincide with inflated prices and massive crowds then go for it. In one regard this is why I envy the Canadians with their Thanksgiving. From what my new Canadian friends tell me, it seems to be the same family-oriented festival of food but without the tacky trappings of Christmas.
Oh, the title of this post "LOVE CHRISTMAS" comes courtesy of the enormous light display on the biggest department store in Hiroshima. I don't think they mean it so sound like an imperative but that's how it sounded to me since it was positioned above the masses of cashed-up shoppers flowing in and out of the department store.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (Happy New Year)
Yes, a happy new year to all reading this. It is the year of the wild boar now (いのしし inoshishi in Japanese, a word I heartily enjoy) and it is freeeeezing in Hiroshima right now. I went for a walk this morning at 8:30 and it was so cold that my ipod screen stopped working and my fingers went numb. Good times.
Sorry for the prolonged break over the festive season but judging from my web traffic over that time very few of you were checking in so no biggie.
My manager asked me to do a heap of overtime during December so I got an extra five days off making a nice two week period of no work over the New Year period. I spent a hell of a lot of that time reading a heap of books, drinking coffee, studying Japanese and just generally hanging out with Yuki. I visited Mitaki-dera (dera=temple) on New Year's Day which was crazy busy as to be expected. It's an amazing temple, built high up into the side of a mountain with a waterfall running behind/beneath and then out the front of it. It was a beautifully tranquil way to reflect on 2006 and welcome 2007, listening to monks' low, hypnotic chanting over the sound of massive bells being chimed and the gushing of the waterfall. There is a path winding up the mountain that supposedly passes through a bamboo forest filled with Buddhist statues. According to a friend it is particularly quiet and eerie around dusk so I'm going to head up there soon and investigate.
I have a whole heap of topics I need to type up here soon including Christmas (which is particularly crazy in this country) and teaching Japanese kids (who have taught me such awesome phrases as "I peed myself" and "you're ugly" and "you stink", hooray for kids).
I'm uploading a bunch of photos from Mitaki-dera and other recent adventures around the place so check the flickr account for the goods. I have decided to mark most photos with people's faces visible as private so you will have to make a Flickr account and contact me before you will be able to see them. Sorry, but I want to respect other people's desire for privacy.
Normal programming shall resume shortly, stay tuned...
Sorry for the prolonged break over the festive season but judging from my web traffic over that time very few of you were checking in so no biggie.
My manager asked me to do a heap of overtime during December so I got an extra five days off making a nice two week period of no work over the New Year period. I spent a hell of a lot of that time reading a heap of books, drinking coffee, studying Japanese and just generally hanging out with Yuki. I visited Mitaki-dera (dera=temple) on New Year's Day which was crazy busy as to be expected. It's an amazing temple, built high up into the side of a mountain with a waterfall running behind/beneath and then out the front of it. It was a beautifully tranquil way to reflect on 2006 and welcome 2007, listening to monks' low, hypnotic chanting over the sound of massive bells being chimed and the gushing of the waterfall. There is a path winding up the mountain that supposedly passes through a bamboo forest filled with Buddhist statues. According to a friend it is particularly quiet and eerie around dusk so I'm going to head up there soon and investigate.
I have a whole heap of topics I need to type up here soon including Christmas (which is particularly crazy in this country) and teaching Japanese kids (who have taught me such awesome phrases as "I peed myself" and "you're ugly" and "you stink", hooray for kids).
I'm uploading a bunch of photos from Mitaki-dera and other recent adventures around the place so check the flickr account for the goods. I have decided to mark most photos with people's faces visible as private so you will have to make a Flickr account and contact me before you will be able to see them. Sorry, but I want to respect other people's desire for privacy.
Normal programming shall resume shortly, stay tuned...
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Resolution to the tooth saga
Alright, so I've been busy again recently. Too busy to even get on Skype with my dear old Mum, sorry Mum. In the next few days I'll endeavour to type up a few of my recent distractions.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what happened as a result of my visit to the dentist. Well, guess what Mum, I've had two root canals done now! Yes, after spending thousands on my teeth in the past year, they continue to be the single most annoying part of my body. I can definitely add this experience to the long list of insane experiences here that have surprised me by showing me my ability to handle difficult situations (particularly of a personal nature) are much better than I thought.
As luck would have it, one of the students at my eikaiwa (English conversation school) just happens to be a dentist. Best of all she is a lovely lady and was only too happy to help me out in my hour of need. Filling out the forms entirely in Japanese was as enjoyable as ever. I'm getting better at writing the characters for my street address here but I still have to look at a card in my wallet to get it completely correct. The receptionist spoke very little English so we had a great conversation in a mix of baby English and Japanese with a whole lot of body language and mime. Actually that's one benefit I can say for this experience, my Japanese vocab now includes such gems as "cavity", "tooth", "dentist" and "appointment" ("pain" and "painful" were already there, thankfully).
The layout of the dental surgery was very different to an Australian one. Consider a hairdressing salon minus the mirrors plus a whole lot of drills and lights and some low partitions between the chairs. The same dentist seems to be performing at least three operations at once, darting between the chairs. This was incredibly disconcerting at first but the army of incredibly polite and cute (as always) assistants were on hand to allay any fears and perform the menial tasks.
My X-ray revealed big troubles in little teeth. Not one but two would have to have root canals performed on them (which the Intertubes tell me is actually called a "pulpectomy"). The dentist delivered this news in a very friendly manner, devoid of any of the concern and condescension that I was so used to from my Australian dentists that I was completely nonplussed. Perhaps all that condescension was lost in translation. Perhaps root canals are pretty par for the course on people my age over here (entirely believable if you've seen the average Japanese person's not-so-pearly whites). Perhaps the Japanese believe politeness transcends the need for stern, frank medical advice. Whatever the case, the operation was under way before I had even had time to really consider the severity of my situation.
It wasn't until big, long metal wires were being thrust up through holes in my teeth right up into my brain (or so it felt) that I began to panic. It took the dentist three times the usual amount of anaesthetic to completely numb my two teeth (or so she said). In fact in the end she had to continue the operation while I still had a small amount of sensation in one of the teeth, an entirely terrifying experience. She only hit the nerve bang on once but it was enough to send tears streaming down the sides of my face.
Once the operation was over, the dentist hit me with the really really good news. I was going to have come back every Monday for the next four weeks in order to get the holes checked and cleaned. Hopefully on my fifth visit she can seal up the holes. So for those of you who maybe didn't put two and two together there, yes, that means I will be visiting the dentist on Christmas Day.
Anyway, continuing on, once out of the chair I proceeded to have one of my most lonely and scary moments in Japan. I used up almost all of the cash in my wallet paying for the day's festivities so I needed to find an ATM before I would be able to purchase the pain killers and analgesics I so desperately required. As luck would have it, my bank UFJ, did not seem to have an ATM anywhere within walking distance. The anaesthetic was beginning to wear off, it was a freezing 5 degrees outside, I was alone and in no state to be trying conversation in a foreign language. I tried my luck with the Post Office ATMs but the bastard machine kept telling me my card wasn't supported despite the UFJ logo being displayed above the keypad. I tried two other banks' ATMs and met with similar results. I was just about to cry for my Mum in the middle of Hiroshima when I bumped into a friend with great Japanese skills. Talk about lucky escape. Armed with his linguistic prowess we managed to retrieve money and aforementioned pharmeceuticals in short time.
The dentist had assured me that the analgesics she prescribed for me were the "strongest in Japan". If that's the case, I truly do weep for this country. Someone teach the government here the joys of codeine and ibuprofen ... and fast. I'd rather not give too much away here, but suffice to say a fellow Australian "helped out a mate" and so I was able to get some decent sleep that night.
So much for keeping these entries short!
I have to run off to work now, so I will leave you with a crappy haiku I typed into my phone one night while waiting for my food at a local restaurant.
I watched a man eat
udon. Slurping, he watched me
wait for mine to come.
Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what happened as a result of my visit to the dentist. Well, guess what Mum, I've had two root canals done now! Yes, after spending thousands on my teeth in the past year, they continue to be the single most annoying part of my body. I can definitely add this experience to the long list of insane experiences here that have surprised me by showing me my ability to handle difficult situations (particularly of a personal nature) are much better than I thought.
As luck would have it, one of the students at my eikaiwa (English conversation school) just happens to be a dentist. Best of all she is a lovely lady and was only too happy to help me out in my hour of need. Filling out the forms entirely in Japanese was as enjoyable as ever. I'm getting better at writing the characters for my street address here but I still have to look at a card in my wallet to get it completely correct. The receptionist spoke very little English so we had a great conversation in a mix of baby English and Japanese with a whole lot of body language and mime. Actually that's one benefit I can say for this experience, my Japanese vocab now includes such gems as "cavity", "tooth", "dentist" and "appointment" ("pain" and "painful" were already there, thankfully).
The layout of the dental surgery was very different to an Australian one. Consider a hairdressing salon minus the mirrors plus a whole lot of drills and lights and some low partitions between the chairs. The same dentist seems to be performing at least three operations at once, darting between the chairs. This was incredibly disconcerting at first but the army of incredibly polite and cute (as always) assistants were on hand to allay any fears and perform the menial tasks.
My X-ray revealed big troubles in little teeth. Not one but two would have to have root canals performed on them (which the Intertubes tell me is actually called a "pulpectomy"). The dentist delivered this news in a very friendly manner, devoid of any of the concern and condescension that I was so used to from my Australian dentists that I was completely nonplussed. Perhaps all that condescension was lost in translation. Perhaps root canals are pretty par for the course on people my age over here (entirely believable if you've seen the average Japanese person's not-so-pearly whites). Perhaps the Japanese believe politeness transcends the need for stern, frank medical advice. Whatever the case, the operation was under way before I had even had time to really consider the severity of my situation.
It wasn't until big, long metal wires were being thrust up through holes in my teeth right up into my brain (or so it felt) that I began to panic. It took the dentist three times the usual amount of anaesthetic to completely numb my two teeth (or so she said). In fact in the end she had to continue the operation while I still had a small amount of sensation in one of the teeth, an entirely terrifying experience. She only hit the nerve bang on once but it was enough to send tears streaming down the sides of my face.
Once the operation was over, the dentist hit me with the really really good news. I was going to have come back every Monday for the next four weeks in order to get the holes checked and cleaned. Hopefully on my fifth visit she can seal up the holes. So for those of you who maybe didn't put two and two together there, yes, that means I will be visiting the dentist on Christmas Day.
Anyway, continuing on, once out of the chair I proceeded to have one of my most lonely and scary moments in Japan. I used up almost all of the cash in my wallet paying for the day's festivities so I needed to find an ATM before I would be able to purchase the pain killers and analgesics I so desperately required. As luck would have it, my bank UFJ, did not seem to have an ATM anywhere within walking distance. The anaesthetic was beginning to wear off, it was a freezing 5 degrees outside, I was alone and in no state to be trying conversation in a foreign language. I tried my luck with the Post Office ATMs but the bastard machine kept telling me my card wasn't supported despite the UFJ logo being displayed above the keypad. I tried two other banks' ATMs and met with similar results. I was just about to cry for my Mum in the middle of Hiroshima when I bumped into a friend with great Japanese skills. Talk about lucky escape. Armed with his linguistic prowess we managed to retrieve money and aforementioned pharmeceuticals in short time.
The dentist had assured me that the analgesics she prescribed for me were the "strongest in Japan". If that's the case, I truly do weep for this country. Someone teach the government here the joys of codeine and ibuprofen ... and fast. I'd rather not give too much away here, but suffice to say a fellow Australian "helped out a mate" and so I was able to get some decent sleep that night.
So much for keeping these entries short!
I have to run off to work now, so I will leave you with a crappy haiku I typed into my phone one night while waiting for my food at a local restaurant.
I watched a man eat
udon. Slurping, he watched me
wait for mine to come.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
When it rains it pours
I'm typing this while looking out on a spectacularly rain-soaked Hiroshima. I'm sure there are much more extreme climates for rainfall, particularly in the tropics, but at least compared to Melbourne this city is pretty amazing. The rain is so dense and the city's drainage systems so poor that it's only a matter of minutes before Hiroshima begins to feel like it is sinking back into the ocean from whence it came. (To the best of my knowledge the city is built largely on "reclaimed land". I assume this is why the rivers running through the city rise and fall at least a metre each day with the tides).
You might think this is another whinging update but the truth is far from it. I love a good downpour, especially when observed from the comfy couch of a cafe with hot coffee (I wish I could use "great" instead of "hot" but it is Japan after all). People of all walks of life continue to commute on their bicycles even when the rain is coming down so hard that it makes motorcyclists think twice. Women in business suits, high heels and burdened with LV handbags continue to pedal away with perhaps a thin plastic poncho their only protection.
If you're desirous of some resolution to my last post, I shall indulge you shortly. However now I must head off to work (at the leisurely hour of 3pm, oh yes).
You might think this is another whinging update but the truth is far from it. I love a good downpour, especially when observed from the comfy couch of a cafe with hot coffee (I wish I could use "great" instead of "hot" but it is Japan after all). People of all walks of life continue to commute on their bicycles even when the rain is coming down so hard that it makes motorcyclists think twice. Women in business suits, high heels and burdened with LV handbags continue to pedal away with perhaps a thin plastic poncho their only protection.
If you're desirous of some resolution to my last post, I shall indulge you shortly. However now I must head off to work (at the leisurely hour of 3pm, oh yes).
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
A dark place
Maybe it's the painkillers. Maybe it's the alcohol (an incredibly irresponsible combination I know). Maybe it's the fact that it's 2:30am and neither of the aforementioned seem to be doing the slightest to quell this throbbing, aching, agonising pain coming from my front right tooth.
This is by far my darkest moment in Japan thus far. I spent well over $2,000 on dentists before leaving Australia (removing wisdom teeth and other such maintenance) SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like the one in which I am now festering.
"Everything looks good" they told me.
"Come and see us when you get back" they said, laying the foundations for my false hopes; that all would be merry in my mouthful of money pits.
Now, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that Japan is devoid of painkillers that do ANYTHING at all related to "killing pain". Not even when I went to the hospital with a busted ankle, gritting my teeth as my friends helped me limp in the door, did they give me anything strong enough to be even detectable let alone useful. There are products for sale with little pictures of stylised men clutching their heads and throats which I'm beginning to believe are more intended to indicate your behaviour post-consumption rather than pre.
"You've gotta take about 8 of them at once." one expat here told me. Thanks for the advice, dear, and while I may be stupid and reckless enough to mix my painkillers with whiskey, I won't go shoving half a packful of something down my throat when I can't read a single word on the packaging.
I really don't understand it. Maybe it's because Japanese have a lower average body mass and just like they get drunk quicker, the analgesics have more effect at lower dosage. Maybe it's a cultural thing, pain builds character. "The will of the samurai" or something like that. Whatever it is, right now I would sell a kidney for a crate of codeine and ibuprofen. Stupid cliche I know, but you really don't know what you've got till it's gone. Deprive people of their usual analgesics and I bet you'd have riots and/or a booming heroin trade before morning.
So tomorrow (well later today) I have to go and find a Japanese dentist. If you'd seen the average person's teeth here you would have to doubt their existence but luckily the Hiroshima city website insists they do. From what I can understand of my private health insurance arrangements I have to pay 100% of the private health system costs up front and then wait months and months for reimbursement. Oh rapturous joy. Still, being broke sounds like a piece of cake compared to this agony I'm in now.
I realise this entry is probably quite embarrassing, both for its puerile tone of self-pity and its utter lack of points of interest for anyone reading it. Well, consider this me jumping the shark. Or maybe I'll come back and delete it once I've returned to sanity's shores.
This is by far my darkest moment in Japan thus far. I spent well over $2,000 on dentists before leaving Australia (removing wisdom teeth and other such maintenance) SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like the one in which I am now festering.
"Everything looks good" they told me.
"Come and see us when you get back" they said, laying the foundations for my false hopes; that all would be merry in my mouthful of money pits.
Now, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that Japan is devoid of painkillers that do ANYTHING at all related to "killing pain". Not even when I went to the hospital with a busted ankle, gritting my teeth as my friends helped me limp in the door, did they give me anything strong enough to be even detectable let alone useful. There are products for sale with little pictures of stylised men clutching their heads and throats which I'm beginning to believe are more intended to indicate your behaviour post-consumption rather than pre.
"You've gotta take about 8 of them at once." one expat here told me. Thanks for the advice, dear, and while I may be stupid and reckless enough to mix my painkillers with whiskey, I won't go shoving half a packful of something down my throat when I can't read a single word on the packaging.
I really don't understand it. Maybe it's because Japanese have a lower average body mass and just like they get drunk quicker, the analgesics have more effect at lower dosage. Maybe it's a cultural thing, pain builds character. "The will of the samurai" or something like that. Whatever it is, right now I would sell a kidney for a crate of codeine and ibuprofen. Stupid cliche I know, but you really don't know what you've got till it's gone. Deprive people of their usual analgesics and I bet you'd have riots and/or a booming heroin trade before morning.
So tomorrow (well later today) I have to go and find a Japanese dentist. If you'd seen the average person's teeth here you would have to doubt their existence but luckily the Hiroshima city website insists they do. From what I can understand of my private health insurance arrangements I have to pay 100% of the private health system costs up front and then wait months and months for reimbursement. Oh rapturous joy. Still, being broke sounds like a piece of cake compared to this agony I'm in now.
I realise this entry is probably quite embarrassing, both for its puerile tone of self-pity and its utter lack of points of interest for anyone reading it. Well, consider this me jumping the shark. Or maybe I'll come back and delete it once I've returned to sanity's shores.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Kindness
Japan can feel like a cold country sometimes, especially for those who don't speak the language. Many expats here will be able to tell you what it feels like to sit on a train/street-car/bus and have people choose to stand for the whole journey rather than sit next to a foreigner. Stories like that are common so I've decided to post a positive little missive to provide contrast.
Less than 3 hours ago I was eating lunch with a friend in one of our regular little haunts, Nakau (click for photos). The food was cheap and tasty as usual although a group of 8 office girls in their early to mid 20's wouldn't stop staring at us and giggling which makes it a tad difficult to eat. We finished up and took off in the afternoon winter sunshine. A few blocks away we heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching us from behind so we spun around. There in front of us was a very flushed Nakau staff member clutching 580 Yen in her outstretched hand.
"You left some money!" she told my friend in Japanese while politely bowing.
No sooner had my friend accepted the money when the staff bowed again and took off at top speed back towards the restaurant. It definitely gives you a warm feeling to know that people in this country will not only NOT take your money when given the opportunity, but they will run a good 300m or so to return it to you!
On a very related note, this same friend left their ipod in a netcafe connected to a computer. A staff member caught up to them a good 500m away from the netcafe while my friend was waiting to cross a busy street. Out of breath but no less polite, the staff member dutifully returned the ipod to my startled friend. I assume being a 185cm tall white woman certainly helps these staff members in tracking down forgetful foreigners.
Less than 3 hours ago I was eating lunch with a friend in one of our regular little haunts, Nakau (click for photos). The food was cheap and tasty as usual although a group of 8 office girls in their early to mid 20's wouldn't stop staring at us and giggling which makes it a tad difficult to eat. We finished up and took off in the afternoon winter sunshine. A few blocks away we heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching us from behind so we spun around. There in front of us was a very flushed Nakau staff member clutching 580 Yen in her outstretched hand.
"You left some money!" she told my friend in Japanese while politely bowing.
No sooner had my friend accepted the money when the staff bowed again and took off at top speed back towards the restaurant. It definitely gives you a warm feeling to know that people in this country will not only NOT take your money when given the opportunity, but they will run a good 300m or so to return it to you!
On a very related note, this same friend left their ipod in a netcafe connected to a computer. A staff member caught up to them a good 500m away from the netcafe while my friend was waiting to cross a busy street. Out of breath but no less polite, the staff member dutifully returned the ipod to my startled friend. I assume being a 185cm tall white woman certainly helps these staff members in tracking down forgetful foreigners.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Autumn is stunning in Japan
I've uploaded a bunch of photos from my very recent trip to Sandankyo with my girlfriend, Yuki. The colours really were amazing, quite often so bright they seemed artificial. I'm beginning to feel pretty limited with my little Canon IXY70 but it's just so convenient and portable that I couldn't part with it.
Enjoy the red leaves over on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa-e-mo-n/
Enjoy the red leaves over on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/sa-e-mo-n/
Monday, November 27, 2006
Let's try something new...
Alright, so through careful consideration of the mountains of feedback I've received from all my dear readers (one skype call from my brother Nick) I have devised a new system here. For want of a better label we could call it "random musings". Yeah, hardly unique on the Internet. I'll still write up lengthy recollections of events and happenings but I shall intersperse this with much shorter musings on a more frequent basis. More accurately perhaps, I'll still intend to write those long posts and invariably fail to deliver. I think the shorter musings will have a much higher success rate. So without further delay here's the first:
Japanese highways.
Expensive.
Magnificent engineering feats.
I can still remember my bus ride out of Tokyo (much cheaper to get home to Hiroshima on the highway bus, 11 hours, than the bullet train, 4.5 hours) which left the very central Tokyo station and, after only a few city blocks, rose up onto a highway/expressway (I never know which is the correct term to use) and proceeded to glide out of Tokyo without having to stop at a single set of lights. Pretty incredible, although understandable considering it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and there was no shortage of government money when they were trying to pull their economy out of recession.
For those readers of mine who have played any of the Need for Speed games of late (which I suspect is a worryingly high percentage) you can picture the highways of Japan as being very much like in that game. Huge concrete rivers that allow cars to whip around the city uninterrupted. The only downside is the insanely high tolls. Driving between Hiroshima and Kobe (about 450km I think) would cost you over $100 in highway tolls, or so I have been told by friends here.
The thing that really blows me away every time I travel across Japan is the enormous numbers of bridges and tunnels. The country, or at least Hiroshima prefecture, is so mountainous that the highways look like the engineers just said "fuck the mountains, we're going in the most direct route and that's that." They just draw an imaginary line between one city and the next and just dig tunnels or construct bridges to fill that line with highway. On a recent trip to Sandankyo (a small town in the NW of Hiroshima prefecture) we went through so many tunnels I lost count. One of them was at least 3km long according to my rough calculations. It all adds up for a pretty spectacular driving experience although it can feel strangely claustrophobic, especially in areas where the highway is bounded by enormous soundproof walls.
You would think that with all these amazing highways that you could get some nice high speed driving done. Well scratch that thought, the limit on all the highways seems to be 80km/h! It just doesn't make sense, the roads are in such amazingly good condition they could be 200km/h autobahns. Maybe its a conspiracy between the government and the Japan Rail companies that operate the shikansen (bullet train). Faced with the choice of a 11 hour drive to Tokyo that would cost me at least 200AUD in fuel and another 200AUD in tolls or a 4.5 hour train ride in big comfy seats with refreshments that costs about 200AUD I know which I'd choose.
Oh here's some highway vocab for those of you who care. "Intersection" in Japanese is インター which is "intaa" in katakana (the alphabet reserved for foreign words and names). It really is amazing how many English words the Japanese have adopted.
That's about enough for a random musing. Let me know if you liked it and I will keep it up.
Japanese highways.
Expensive.Magnificent engineering feats.
I can still remember my bus ride out of Tokyo (much cheaper to get home to Hiroshima on the highway bus, 11 hours, than the bullet train, 4.5 hours) which left the very central Tokyo station and, after only a few city blocks, rose up onto a highway/expressway (I never know which is the correct term to use) and proceeded to glide out of Tokyo without having to stop at a single set of lights. Pretty incredible, although understandable considering it is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and there was no shortage of government money when they were trying to pull their economy out of recession.
For those readers of mine who have played any of the Need for Speed games of late (which I suspect is a worryingly high percentage) you can picture the highways of Japan as being very much like in that game. Huge concrete rivers that allow cars to whip around the city uninterrupted. The only downside is the insanely high tolls. Driving between Hiroshima and Kobe (about 450km I think) would cost you over $100 in highway tolls, or so I have been told by friends here.
The thing that really blows me away every time I travel across Japan is the enormous numbers of bridges and tunnels. The country, or at least Hiroshima prefecture, is so mountainous that the highways look like the engineers just said "fuck the mountains, we're going in the most direct route and that's that." They just draw an imaginary line between one city and the next and just dig tunnels or construct bridges to fill that line with highway. On a recent trip to Sandankyo (a small town in the NW of Hiroshima prefecture) we went through so many tunnels I lost count. One of them was at least 3km long according to my rough calculations. It all adds up for a pretty spectacular driving experience although it can feel strangely claustrophobic, especially in areas where the highway is bounded by enormous soundproof walls.
You would think that with all these amazing highways that you could get some nice high speed driving done. Well scratch that thought, the limit on all the highways seems to be 80km/h! It just doesn't make sense, the roads are in such amazingly good condition they could be 200km/h autobahns. Maybe its a conspiracy between the government and the Japan Rail companies that operate the shikansen (bullet train). Faced with the choice of a 11 hour drive to Tokyo that would cost me at least 200AUD in fuel and another 200AUD in tolls or a 4.5 hour train ride in big comfy seats with refreshments that costs about 200AUD I know which I'd choose.
Oh here's some highway vocab for those of you who care. "Intersection" in Japanese is インター which is "intaa" in katakana (the alphabet reserved for foreign words and names). It really is amazing how many English words the Japanese have adopted.
That's about enough for a random musing. Let me know if you liked it and I will keep it up.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Sheepish photo update
Yeah, so really, it's pretty ridiculous the amount of material I've had to write about but just been too distracted/unmotivated/lazy (take ya pick) to do so.
I've really forgotten just how much I've actually written up here, but as far as I can remember, the following has so far passed without record:
- I sprained my ankle badly during a tournament match with my soccer team and hence got to experience the Japanese hospital system first-hand.
- I had a really decent week-long trip to Tokyo with my sister, Eleanor.
- I've managed to hook up with a beautiful Japanese girl who just happens to have impeccable English.
- I visited the 3rd most famous landmark in all of Japan, Itsukushima shrine on the island of Miyajima (where I'll be heading back this coming weekend with any luck, to take in the breath-taking Autumn leaves.)
- I've had some really decent nights out, even got to see Adam F when he came through Hiroshima recently.
- I celebrated my birthday at a fantastic restaurant with a great group of friends and even got some presents to boot!
- I missed out on one of the most famous sake festivals in all of Japan (in Saijo, just east of Hiroshima city) because I was sick that weekend, major bummer :(
I'll get around to writing proper entries eventually. Hahahaha; seriously. In the meantime enjoy the 50 or so new photos over on my Flickr account. (The link is over on the right navigation bar, mum)
I've really forgotten just how much I've actually written up here, but as far as I can remember, the following has so far passed without record:
- I sprained my ankle badly during a tournament match with my soccer team and hence got to experience the Japanese hospital system first-hand.
- I had a really decent week-long trip to Tokyo with my sister, Eleanor.
- I've managed to hook up with a beautiful Japanese girl who just happens to have impeccable English.
- I visited the 3rd most famous landmark in all of Japan, Itsukushima shrine on the island of Miyajima (where I'll be heading back this coming weekend with any luck, to take in the breath-taking Autumn leaves.)
- I've had some really decent nights out, even got to see Adam F when he came through Hiroshima recently.
- I celebrated my birthday at a fantastic restaurant with a great group of friends and even got some presents to boot!
- I missed out on one of the most famous sake festivals in all of Japan (in Saijo, just east of Hiroshima city) because I was sick that weekend, major bummer :(
I'll get around to writing proper entries eventually. Hahahaha; seriously. In the meantime enjoy the 50 or so new photos over on my Flickr account. (The link is over on the right navigation bar, mum)
Friday, October 20, 2006
Happy Birthday... me!
Alright, so this bout of homesickness brought on by my birthday (October 19th fuckers, thanks for the inundation of messages) has brought me out of blog retirement.
In my usual style I've left it until the early hours of the morning when I am slightly soaked in sake and in no mood for writing.
I've uploaded two photo sets, one from Miyajima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyajima) and one from the first three days of my trip to Tokyo with EP. I'll go through the remaining 3 days worth of Tokyo photos and finish uploading the highlights soon.
Tiny summary until I come back and write properly: Life is going well. I cannot stress how enjoyable life is when you only work 20 hours a week and your hours are 5pm to 9pm. It's not the most convenient shift for socialising with people who work a 9-5 job, but ahh well.
It's funny, I always feared that life in the daily grind would kill my soul and that, until retirement, I would trudge zombie-like through my working days. Well fuck it, I don't need to be a rich man, I'm perfectly happy living modestly and enjoying loads of free time for doing interesting things in a foreign country.
Who knows, maybe I'll "grow up" in a few years and realise that 9-5 really isn't that bad. Until then, enjoy the rat race people, I'll have another sake for you and then sleep it off in the dappled sunshine under a tree next to one of Hiroshima's many beautiful rivers.
In my usual style I've left it until the early hours of the morning when I am slightly soaked in sake and in no mood for writing.
I've uploaded two photo sets, one from Miyajima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyajima) and one from the first three days of my trip to Tokyo with EP. I'll go through the remaining 3 days worth of Tokyo photos and finish uploading the highlights soon.
Tiny summary until I come back and write properly: Life is going well. I cannot stress how enjoyable life is when you only work 20 hours a week and your hours are 5pm to 9pm. It's not the most convenient shift for socialising with people who work a 9-5 job, but ahh well.
It's funny, I always feared that life in the daily grind would kill my soul and that, until retirement, I would trudge zombie-like through my working days. Well fuck it, I don't need to be a rich man, I'm perfectly happy living modestly and enjoying loads of free time for doing interesting things in a foreign country.
Who knows, maybe I'll "grow up" in a few years and realise that 9-5 really isn't that bad. Until then, enjoy the rat race people, I'll have another sake for you and then sleep it off in the dappled sunshine under a tree next to one of Hiroshima's many beautiful rivers.
Monday, August 14, 2006
SUMMER IN JAPAN IS TOO MUCH!
Enough fucking about, its high time I put some words on paper and i think this blog is going to lose its PG rating.
Apologies in advance to any relatives who would rather remember me as the young innocent teenage Simon, but the masses are emailing me and telling me they want more dirt. I will not be offended at all if you would rather not read on.
Summer here really is hell on earth. I don't know how the hell the Canadians and Scots put up with it because it's close to sending me completely mental. More than 5 minutes outside at ANY time of day even 4am will have you dripping sweat in no time. If I didn't like Hiroshima so much I'd seriously consider applying for a transfer to Hokkaido.
I went to the baseball yesterday evening on a whim and ended up drinking about 8 cans, sweating so much I looked like I'd just been for a swim and generally making a filthy mess of myself... Baseball is an awesome sport for just pissing away a Sunday evening with some friends, you only have to pay attention maybe 50% of the time and the Japanese lllove a good beer or 10 at the game. The Carp got destroyed by the Giants 11-6 with some of the worst pitching I've seen since I got here, including an accidental walked run... that pitcher didn't get pulled until 2 innings later!
Alright its been over a month since I last put anything proper up here... let me cast my mind back.
I've been on a few proper trips around Hiroshima prefecture now, once to Onomichi and once to Iwakuni. Japan is pretty damn easy for a traveller sans car especially if you have some basic travel-vocab down.
Onomichi is an incredibly picturesque little town on the Seto Sea about 75 minutes east of Hiroshima on the JR Sanyo line. I spent an agonisingly hot but beautiful 5 hours walking the temple trail through the town which takes you past at least 30 different temples and shrines. Didn't see one other gaijin the entire time in Onomichi which made it feel much more isolated. Despite going there with absolutely zero planning I managed to end up finding a "rope-way" (Japanese English for "cable car") to the top of the biggest mountain in the town where a supurb little lunch cafe served the town's speciality "tako ramen" (fried octopus with ramen noodles in a tasty broth) with panoramic views of the nearby islands in the Seto Sea.
Mt.Senkoji is beautiful in quite a peculiar way. It's not spectacular but it has some odd little magic moments. Clearly this is well known since at almost every one of these spots an artist was sketching/painting away.
While I think of it, odd observation time. Japanese tourist groups, as in Japanese tourists being lead around by Japanese tour guides, definitely live up to the stereotypes. They power along at a crazy pace with cameras going full speed. Normally there's a very attractive girl in a uniform with a tiny skirt and a neck scarf holding a flag/standard with the tour company's logo up the front of the group. They speak way too fast for me to catch much from my eavesdropping but they do seem to drop in a lot of "keep moving please, this way please"... time is money on these tours I guess!
I plan on going back to Onomichi sometime when its not so damn hot and riding a bike the entire length of the bridge that spans all the islands from Onomichi to the major island of Shikoku. I was talking about it with some British guys who run a bar here called Spud Love (yes they all have adorably cute Japanese wives, such is the way here) and they said its a terrific weekend plan. Cycle on Saturday, end up in Matsuyama which is right near Dogo Onsen (the most famous hot spa in all of Japan apparantly) and kick back all day there Sunday until you have to leisurely catch the ferry back to Hiroshima in the evening.
Time for another segue... how awesome is some directionless, unedited writing? self-indulgence thy name is "Internet Blog".
I've dropped my stupidly hostile behaviour of trying to avoid other expats here, sure you meet some morons but there are also some great people over here. I should explain, I got sick of hanging out with expats when a few of them began Japan-bashing in ridiculously cliched, unintelligent ways but I've since met enough great people to have my faith restored. I've met quite a few expats who run bars or nights at clubs here, they will not shut up about Hiroshima being the best city in Japan (they've lived in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka amongst other places) but I'm still looking forward to making my own mind up first hand.
One great thing about this city (and living so close to the centre of downtown, with its gorgeous parks and rivers) is how many random encounters you can have just walking around on your own. I went to buy a Sega Dreamcast for $35AUD off a guy who advertised on Gethiroshima.com. I expected it to be a 2 minute exchange but it ended up (through pure chance) with him, two of his friends and I all drinking beer/chuhai and shooting the shit for about an hour in the muggy evening in the Peace Park overlooking the A-Bomb dome.
I've got to head off to the Yakitori place under my building now to meet up with a bunch of people. I've got heaps more I've started to remember that I'll try and put up here later tonight. I don't think this ended up being anything other than G rated again... mmmm too bad, maybe my mum and dad really did raise me with too many manners, or maybe I don't want to kiss and tell to the entire Internet with all those prying eyes...
You know what, if you're reading this and you want me to continute updating it (or you would like to give some constructive criticism - NO more requests for photos of girls, the internet has enough porn for you already) then please EMAIL ME. swfenton at gmail dot com.
Apologies in advance to any relatives who would rather remember me as the young innocent teenage Simon, but the masses are emailing me and telling me they want more dirt. I will not be offended at all if you would rather not read on.
Summer here really is hell on earth. I don't know how the hell the Canadians and Scots put up with it because it's close to sending me completely mental. More than 5 minutes outside at ANY time of day even 4am will have you dripping sweat in no time. If I didn't like Hiroshima so much I'd seriously consider applying for a transfer to Hokkaido.
I went to the baseball yesterday evening on a whim and ended up drinking about 8 cans, sweating so much I looked like I'd just been for a swim and generally making a filthy mess of myself... Baseball is an awesome sport for just pissing away a Sunday evening with some friends, you only have to pay attention maybe 50% of the time and the Japanese lllove a good beer or 10 at the game. The Carp got destroyed by the Giants 11-6 with some of the worst pitching I've seen since I got here, including an accidental walked run... that pitcher didn't get pulled until 2 innings later!
Alright its been over a month since I last put anything proper up here... let me cast my mind back.
I've been on a few proper trips around Hiroshima prefecture now, once to Onomichi and once to Iwakuni. Japan is pretty damn easy for a traveller sans car especially if you have some basic travel-vocab down.
Onomichi is an incredibly picturesque little town on the Seto Sea about 75 minutes east of Hiroshima on the JR Sanyo line. I spent an agonisingly hot but beautiful 5 hours walking the temple trail through the town which takes you past at least 30 different temples and shrines. Didn't see one other gaijin the entire time in Onomichi which made it feel much more isolated. Despite going there with absolutely zero planning I managed to end up finding a "rope-way" (Japanese English for "cable car") to the top of the biggest mountain in the town where a supurb little lunch cafe served the town's speciality "tako ramen" (fried octopus with ramen noodles in a tasty broth) with panoramic views of the nearby islands in the Seto Sea.
Mt.Senkoji is beautiful in quite a peculiar way. It's not spectacular but it has some odd little magic moments. Clearly this is well known since at almost every one of these spots an artist was sketching/painting away.
While I think of it, odd observation time. Japanese tourist groups, as in Japanese tourists being lead around by Japanese tour guides, definitely live up to the stereotypes. They power along at a crazy pace with cameras going full speed. Normally there's a very attractive girl in a uniform with a tiny skirt and a neck scarf holding a flag/standard with the tour company's logo up the front of the group. They speak way too fast for me to catch much from my eavesdropping but they do seem to drop in a lot of "keep moving please, this way please"... time is money on these tours I guess!
I plan on going back to Onomichi sometime when its not so damn hot and riding a bike the entire length of the bridge that spans all the islands from Onomichi to the major island of Shikoku. I was talking about it with some British guys who run a bar here called Spud Love (yes they all have adorably cute Japanese wives, such is the way here) and they said its a terrific weekend plan. Cycle on Saturday, end up in Matsuyama which is right near Dogo Onsen (the most famous hot spa in all of Japan apparantly) and kick back all day there Sunday until you have to leisurely catch the ferry back to Hiroshima in the evening.
Time for another segue... how awesome is some directionless, unedited writing? self-indulgence thy name is "Internet Blog".
I've dropped my stupidly hostile behaviour of trying to avoid other expats here, sure you meet some morons but there are also some great people over here. I should explain, I got sick of hanging out with expats when a few of them began Japan-bashing in ridiculously cliched, unintelligent ways but I've since met enough great people to have my faith restored. I've met quite a few expats who run bars or nights at clubs here, they will not shut up about Hiroshima being the best city in Japan (they've lived in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka amongst other places) but I'm still looking forward to making my own mind up first hand.
One great thing about this city (and living so close to the centre of downtown, with its gorgeous parks and rivers) is how many random encounters you can have just walking around on your own. I went to buy a Sega Dreamcast for $35AUD off a guy who advertised on Gethiroshima.com. I expected it to be a 2 minute exchange but it ended up (through pure chance) with him, two of his friends and I all drinking beer/chuhai and shooting the shit for about an hour in the muggy evening in the Peace Park overlooking the A-Bomb dome.
I've got to head off to the Yakitori place under my building now to meet up with a bunch of people. I've got heaps more I've started to remember that I'll try and put up here later tonight. I don't think this ended up being anything other than G rated again... mmmm too bad, maybe my mum and dad really did raise me with too many manners, or maybe I don't want to kiss and tell to the entire Internet with all those prying eyes...
You know what, if you're reading this and you want me to continute updating it (or you would like to give some constructive criticism - NO more requests for photos of girls, the internet has enough porn for you already) then please EMAIL ME. swfenton at gmail dot com.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Patience please!
I've just uploaded a stack of photos to Flickr.
I know I am really overdue for a proper update here, I'll try and set aside enough time to do so tomorrow before work.
For now you can enjoy some photos of Iwakuni (a town 40 minutes south west of Hiroshima), home of the famous Kintaikyo bridge. Also included are photos of August 6th's Peace Memorial Day activities. It's been quite a day, beginning with a speech from Prime Minister Koizumi at 8am and finishing with an unauthorised drum'n'bass party into the early hours of the following day.
I know I am really overdue for a proper update here, I'll try and set aside enough time to do so tomorrow before work.
For now you can enjoy some photos of Iwakuni (a town 40 minutes south west of Hiroshima), home of the famous Kintaikyo bridge. Also included are photos of August 6th's Peace Memorial Day activities. It's been quite a day, beginning with a speech from Prime Minister Koizumi at 8am and finishing with an unauthorised drum'n'bass party into the early hours of the following day.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Where the magic happens
I know I'm well overdue for an update, but ever since I bought myself a MacBook the inspiration just hasn't been forthcoming!
Just in case you're curious, this is a photo of my new toy.
You can see there some of my favourite things here in Hiroshima when trying to live on the cheap. Big Cup Noodle, I don't think that needs an explanation. A can of Asahi is hiding behind the noodles. To the right of that is a 1L carton of delicious iced coffee with cream. To the right again is a Carona (normally I wouldn't go near them but they were so cheap the other night at Lawson's that I couldn't pass) that comes with a little sachet of lemon in true ultra-convenient Japanese style.
I'm really not feeling the creative flow here so I've just uploaded a whole bunch of photos. I'll put a proper update here another time when the brain worms are functioning properly.
Just in case you're curious, this is a photo of my new toy.
You can see there some of my favourite things here in Hiroshima when trying to live on the cheap. Big Cup Noodle, I don't think that needs an explanation. A can of Asahi is hiding behind the noodles. To the right of that is a 1L carton of delicious iced coffee with cream. To the right again is a Carona (normally I wouldn't go near them but they were so cheap the other night at Lawson's that I couldn't pass) that comes with a little sachet of lemon in true ultra-convenient Japanese style.
I'm really not feeling the creative flow here so I've just uploaded a whole bunch of photos. I'll put a proper update here another time when the brain worms are functioning properly.
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