Back In The Hanshin Groove

Another weekend gone, another week of work ahead. Ach. Recently my spirits at work have plummeted faster than a Mourinho-less Chelsea. I spent thursday and friday sitting in a room all day, listening to back episodes of the wonderful Guardian Football Weekly Podcast, presented by that great man James Richardson, of Channel 4's Football Italia fame. Yet despite this diversion, for all the world I could have sat in a small cardboard box for two days and achieved as much. Lessons have stopped for a mere two weeks this time, yet the spare time drives me insane- believe it or not, I want a job where I actually have to work!

Still, on the bright side, I got shockingly drunk and ended up in karaoke once again on friday, after attending the Shonan "Wakamonokai", or young teachers enkai. This basically entailed skipping the usual "1st party", with all its formalities, and going straight to the 2nd party of drunken revellry. In total there were 12 teachers, ranging for the tender age of 22 all the way up to 28. I was the 3rd youngest there. We arrived stylishly late in Nishi-T's suped up Nissan, but weren't actually the latest- at a normal enkai, being late would result in some seriously evil stares. After going to 3 or 4 bars the crowd thinned as people had to get the last trains, but due to our 4-wheel transport, courtesy of Nishi-T, we hung around till the early hours singing all manner of things from "Like A Rolling Stone" to Kobukuro's "Sakura", and many many songs I didn't know, as well as- obviously- the Hanshin Tigers Song! :) This was followed by an impromptu street performance afterwards, which drew crowds of applause (well, crowds at least). Excellant stuff!

PS- Not only am I back in the Hanshin Groove, but Hanshin are back in their groove, having finally won 2-1 on friday night! Hazzah!! (I should point out though this was quickly followed by a 6-1 defeat on saturday).

"Do You Know The Way To Sign Jose"

I thought I’d turned a corner. After years of suffering as a Birmingham City fan, I decided my baseball fan-status should be characterised by two words- "glory supporter". But no. Despite my best efforts, my "glory" team, the Hanshin Tigers, are currently on an epic 7-game losing streak, having sunk to 3rd in the Central League (a league of 6), and facing the daunting prospect of 2 playoff matches to get into the Nippon Series- against the Chunichi Dragons and the Chelsea-of-Japan, the Yomiuri Giants. The dip in form- following an epic winning run- has been so dramatic that the kyoto-sensei of Seishi (vice principal) had to take a day off work to rest and recover. Even my normally ebullient singing of "Rokko Oroshi" in the Shonan smoking room has been reduced to a quiet hum.

At least the world of football has been there to cheer me up though. First I see the Blues gain a decent point away at Anfield, watched in a pub full of Liverpool fans- ha ha! Secondly, I stumbled across this quote from Martin Jol on f365.com. As some of you may know, I have a great fondness for the Jolly Dutchman, and have even composed a little ditty in his honour (soon to be available via mp3 download). Times have not been very jolly of late though, but Martin keeps on trooping on, recently declaring- in response to Spurs fans booing-

"I don't think it's about booing me - because a minute later they are singing my name. . .I'm not someone to fear things. They say in Holland 'have no fear, 'Jolly' is here'. "

Jolly is here! Hee hee. The only thing that has pleased me more in the world of football recently eminated from Jose Mourinho’s last press conference as Chelsea manager. Facing questions about the form and focus of his team, he responded by invoking the spirit of that great supermarket Waitrose in explaining the problems Chelsea faced:

Mr Mourinho name-checked the supermarket in an analogy about the quality of teams and players.
He said: "If you have no eggs, you have no omelette. In the supermarket, you have class one, class two and class three eggs.
"Some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So, when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot get there, you have a problem."

Even more exciting than the quote is the egg ad ran by Waitrose that followed it, shown in its full glory below...









Ah Waitrose, I do miss you. And with that I'd better get back to the baseball game on Tv- Hanshin are currently losing 3-0...

Joe-san and Timmy-chan Conquer Japan, Part 3

Tim and Joe's stay in Japan ended in the best way possible- a long weekend drinking our cares away in one of the world's greatest cities. We whiled 4 days away drinking in Shibuya clubs and woeful Roppongi bars, as well as watching the Blues pick up a credible point away against Liverpool in Ebisu's Footnik pub.


Having already seen 90% of what we visited over the weekend, I was surprised by how happy I was to see it all again- more of Harajuku's small town "Camden" feel, Ginza's bright lights and shininess, Shinjuku's skyscrapers (minus the Park Hyatt this time), and the requisite singing in the middle of Shibuya crossing at 6am. We also went to some places I hadn't visited before- Tokyo National Museum, slap bang in the middle of Ueno Park, and Odaibu, a strange offshore development, where we had some great Hawaiian burgers.

It was sad to see Joe-san and Timmy-chan leave, but we had three great weekends of drinking and sightseeing in Osaka, Okayama and Kobe, and Tokyo, and I think they saw some of the best
Japan has to offer.


























Odaibu View- Paris, Tokyo, and New York all in one shot (in a way).














"I've Never Felt A Pain Like This Before..."- Tokyo Life Takes Its Toll















Newfound Friends in Senso-ji, Asakusa

I Think He Needs A Hug...

Joe-san and Timmy-chan Conquer Japan, Part 2

After spending all of saturday in bed, we decided that sunday should be spent doing something more productive. In the end we plumped for a visit to Takamatsu, during which I decided I would try to capture Timmy's escence through my new zoom lens...











The results, I think, are quite successful. By 5pm we will still taking it easy in Takamatsu, and our only options for the evening seemed to be a nice meal and a few drinks, or Tim and Joe heading off to Kyoto. Thankfully we chose mystery option C, and charged off to Kobe, arriving at 10pm before checking into a capsule hotel and racing out in search of fun! We found many bars, parks to drink in, and a club which meant we avoided karaoke for one evening (probably a good thing). Around 6 we crawled back to our capsules, and then woke up 4 hours later for our journeys onward- I spent a wonderful hour in the onsen before heading off on the local trains back to Okayama, and Tim and Joe took the bullet train to Kyoto. Finally, here is a sunset seen from a train heading back to my apartment.

Joe-san and Timmy-chan Conquer Japan, Part 1

A formidable pair, as you can see. For the last week amigos Tim and Joe have been treated to the best Japan has to offer- fantastic food, karaoke-tastic times, and- of course- the famous nomihodie. After introducing them to such things last weekend in Osaka, we spent this weekend continuing the education in Okayama and Kobe. On Friday we went to Wabisuke in Okayama and had a 9-course dinner. We met many new friends and sang much karaoke! I sang a couple of Japanese numbers （六個卸、これが私の生きる道), which led some of our new friends to declare that I have the "samurai spirit". Hurrah!

Best of all was the repeated singing of my new favourite song, Rokko Oroshi, the "fight" song of the Hanshin Tigers. Listen to it here! http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zm2m-okmt/rokko.wav.

Drinking till 6am did mean that we failed in our plan to clumb Fuji though...

Sayonara Abe, Come Back Junichiro!

Now that Shinzo Abe's disastrous tenure as Japanese PM is over, let's all campaign to bring back Junichiro "The Lionheart" Koizumi!

I was going to write a vaguely political post, but - feeling rather lazy - let's just focus on the Elvis loving legend that is...

He's so cool!