Quit Your Jibber Jabber, You Ain't Hurt!

Only two weeks to go, and the countdown to the 2007 Shonan-sai (School Festival) is in full swing. Students randomly dance through the hallways, and lessons are almost entirely conducted as though we are all living life in a musical. I even found out today that not only does the festival have its official "English Slogan", but also an official song! Fantastic. Tomorrow Natto have their first stage rehearsal, although our drummer Murakami will be sadly absent.

Until the festival I'll be occupying myself with karaoke and eating out. The second year in Japan is certainly taking on a different pattern to the first- stripped of my initial enthusiasm to "do Japan", I've now settled into the rhythm of life in a home country. While this results in a dearth of blog photos, it does involve a more settled feel that makes me definately consider staying in Japan longer.

Last weekend I had a fantastic yakiniku feast in an excellant Okayama eatery, before singing my heart out till 3am to such classics as (you guessed it), "Rokko Oroshi (Hanshin Fight Song)", "Sakura" and "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid. I even taught Kawa-T the useful English phrase "On The Jazz"- internationalistion at its very best. On sunday I saw Hairspray- an ok film made so much better by the excellent performaces of Christopher Walken and John Travolta as a fat middle-aged woman. While Travolta is certainly a good actor, its a performance that is undeniably creepy... I'm also looking forward to seeing Eastern Promises, a new David Cronenburg film starring Viggo Mortensen. His last film with Mortensen, "History of Violence", is a great film although I wasn't so keen on Crash, one of his others.

Keep your eyes on the prize and- if nothing else- check out the YouTube video of the Snickers advert starring Mr.T! If only that happened when Cristiano Ronaldo went tumbling...