Steve Says Kanpai Has Moved!

My Blog Has Moved!

2008-04-23T02:25:00.001-07:00

Yes, this incarnation is over, and I've moved from Blogger across to Wordpress, which I've decided is a better platform.

There are many improvements! And I'll try to blog more regularly about all manner of things.

Continue to catch-up with all things Steve by visiting http://www.stevesayskanpai.wordpress.com

Sayonara

Disaster In Birmingham...

2008-04-20T06:09:00.000-07:00

...a disaster has occurred in my home city, with the shock waves so massive they've reached 5,000 miles across mountains and oceans to here in Japan. Yes, Blues have lost the ding-dong-derby to Aston Villa, going down in an embarrasingly one sided encounter 5-1. I was all ready to declare "there were more fouls than a day out on a chicken farm" (might post that one on the Guardian blog to get yet another mention in their bi-weekly podcast Football Weekly). Yet in truth the game was too one-sided for anyone to get heated up. I'll be honest, I turned the volume down a fair way at 2-0, and stopped listening at 4. It's embarrassing. For all the hoo-haa when Alex McLeish took over from Steve Bruce, he's done little to show he has top class managing qualities. Yes yes he hasn't really had time to "mould" the squad (although having said that Bruce managed to effect change in the January transfer window of our first ever season in the Prem). But he has had time to institute man management and tactical changes. Ridgewell in particular seems looser at the back than a tourist after too much Japanese curry (another one for the Guardian blog).

To ease my heartache, my Dad is visiting in less than a week. Although during the time he's here, we have a potential decider against Fulham- at least we can share in the gloom together if that proves to be our downfall I suppose.

Grrr. I was going to discuss my newly acquired Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens, and my future (in that order of priority). But now I'm gonna go to bed, as I have 60 15-year olds to teach tomorrow, starting at the ungodly hour of 9am.

Oyasuminasai.

Let's Go, Hanshin Taigaasu!!

2008-04-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm finally going to a Hanshin Tigers game at the famous Koshien Stadium near Osaka- hurrah! Our opponents will be the Yakult Swallows, a team that- as well as having a very funny name- are doing surprisingly well this season, sitting just behind Hanshin in second place. It promises to be a good game!

Versus

Kimi No Naka Ni, Boku No Naka Ni...Sakura

2008-04-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Its Sakura season, and I've been busy looking at the blossoms, walking round the blossoms and drinking under the blossoms. Here's a couple of kanpeki photos from this weekend...

In two weeks two members of the Martin clan will be landing on these shores... Papa Martin aka my Dad, and Uncle Bailey, aka...my uncle, Robin. Until then I'm busy with the usual stuff that accompanies the start of a school year; first-year students shouting "harro!!" (if they're male) and giggling incomprehensibly (if they're female), planning the odd lesson, and meeting new teachers. The new kocho at my second school is female, and speaks English (both rarities for a kocho sensei), while the two new English teachers seem very nice.

In other news, the Blues drew 1-1 with Everton today, while Bolton and Fulham both won. The end of the season remains very giri giri as the Japanese say, so be sure to check in for regular updates! Hanshin continue to fight strongly and stay top of the Central League, but all of my attention has returned to where it should be- on the Blues fight for survival!

Teacher Changeover Day!

2008-03-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

Yes it's that time of year again. The blog has grown sparse recently, with neither literary flowers nor weeds being planted in its soil. Yet it would not be right if I didn't make some note of that all important of days, Teacher Changeover Day.

Last year I lost good friends, and this year more are departing- Manabe T is off to pastures new, while Sugihara Sensei has reached the grand age of 60 and is retiring. This means two new English-speaking faces will appear at my schools. It also means that of the many teachers I have taught with in Japan, only one will have remained the same from beginning to end.

With the changing of faces comes a changing of desks, but this time it doesn't include me. I'll remain where I am. Next to the bin. Grrrrrr. It's hard to know whether there's any intended sleight, yet being next to the bin is hardly a position of privilige. Nonetheless I will persevere. Isshoukenmei ganbarimasu! 一生懸命頑張ります！

A Day For The Underdog - Sumo In Osaka

2008-03-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

My first taste of sumo came on the most exciting day of the Haru basho so far, with both Yokozuna wrestlers sensationally beaten by lesser opponents! Young Mongolian Hakuho was swiftly dispatched by Ozeki Chiyotaikai, before "the Daddy" Asashoryu was pushed out by Kotoshogiku. With just three days remaining, all is set up for a dramatic showdown between the two yokozuna on Sunday.

Ring Entering Ceremony

Ancient Shinto Stuff

Asashoryu, "The Daddy" of Sumo

The Arena

Our band of five arrived at the arena mid-afternoon, just as the initial juryo matches were winding down, and before the ring entering ceremony of the makuuchi. The arena is fantastically constructed- the clay dohyo in the centre, with a replica Shinto shrine hanging over it, and cushioned boxes gently sloping up on all sides. Japanese, young and old, families and friends, reclined on purple cushions while eating snacks and drinking beer, coming and going while the action continued in the centre. Beyond the boxes are the arena seats where we were sitting, more popular with foreigners (probably because they’re cheaper!), steeply sloped and with a great view of the action. I imagine you could be transported back 200 years and be greeted by a similar setup- sumo remains imbued with the Shinto traditions of Japan, and the way it is played and watched is so uniquely Japanese, unlike other "borrowed" sports that are popular here.

Hakuho in zen-like calm before his bout

Calm Before The Storm- you could cut the tension with a knife!

After the ring entering ceremony, the makuuchi bouts got underway. As the bouts increased in importance, the atmosphere in the arena grew- this is sustained in particular by the 4 minute "face offs" opponents go through before actually attacking. Then it was time for the Yokozuna to make their entrance. First up was Hakuho, who charged straight at his opponent Chiyotaikai, but was pulled down, pushed away and sent sprawling so quickly that a shocked gasp went up from the crowd. Hakuho’s loss gave Asashoryu a great chance to all but wrap up victory in this tournament, if he could dispatch his opponent Kotoshogiku. There was a long build up to the final match- banners displaying the sponsors of the finale were paraded round the ring- before the four minutes of staring and stamping got underway. Asashoryu in particular had real gravitas; his weight and girth being backed up by an eagle-eyed stare and a bullying swagger. When the wrestlers finally crouched down into attack position there was a pause, a moment frozen in time- and then they clashed! I’d decided to support Asashoryu, but as soon as it became clear that his opponent had a chance to beat him, I switched to the underdog. The roars in the crowd got louder and louder as Kotoshogiku shoved his illustrious opponent closer and closer to the edge. He huffed and puffed until finally Asashoryu was out of the ring, shock written across his face, with people leaping up, cheering and raining cushions down onto the dohyo in recognition of the dramatic upset. It was an amazing end to the day, and we were really lucky to see such dramatic action; Asashoryu had held a perfect 11-0 record going into the bout, while Hakuho was 10-1 before his loss. The only downside was that we didn’t get to see Kotooshu, the "David Beckham" of sumo, as he was out injured.

The Moment Of Impact! Asashoryu vs Kotoshogiku

The crowd senses defeat for Asashoryu...

...and the cushions come flying! Yatta!

Welcome to the World of Sumo

2008-03-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

After some thorough and detailed research, here's a brief introduction to the fattest sport in Japan (that will be the last "big fat men" quip, I promise). Sumo, or 相撲 in Japanese, is a contact sport with very few rules and lots of Shinto tradition and ritual. It originated many years ago, and takes place on a circular mound covered with sand, or dohyo. The aim of the game is to force your opponent out of the ring, or make him fall over inside the ring. This is accomplished through a variety of techniques- pushing, grabbing, side-stepping, throwing your opponent off balance etc. Contrary to the initial impression that bigger is better, many sumo who aren't so fat have a large advantage through their agility. The basho (tournament) I'll be attending is the Haru Basho (Spring Tournament), taking place in Osaka. There are six tournaments a year- three in Tokyo, and one each in Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. Each tournament runs for 15 days. Here's three sumo wrestlers to look out for...

Asashoryu, Yokozuna rank (Mongolian)

Asashoryu is one of the most successful, and controversial, sumo wrestlers in history. After gaining fame and fortune through his sumo skills, he become embroiled in controversy when, on returning home to Mongolia to "recover" from an injury, he was spotted participating in a charity football match. Despite weighing over 23 stone, he showed some silky skills on the football pitch. This didn't go down well with the big-wigs at Sumo HQ though, who banned him for two tournaments. That's all behind him now though, and after a strong performance in the January basho he'll be looking to continue his good form into the Osaka tournament.

Hakuho Sho, Yokozuna rank (Mongolian)

Hakuho is the only other wrestler who currently holds the top rank of Yokozuna. Also from Mongolia, he is a mere 23 years old. His real name is Monkhbatyn Davaajargal.

Kotooshu Katsunori, Ozeki rank (Bulgarian)

Of the four wrestlers who hold the number two Ozeki rank, Kotooshu is the only non-Japanese. Being a gajin, he has been labelled by the public as the "David Beckham of Sumo", a title he understandably dislikes. He is smaller and lighter than most, and often appears in adverts for yoghurt.

Ok thats it for now- I have been informed we haven't technically got the tickets for thursday yet, but it looks like we will do. So fear not everyone!

Munch in Kobe; Sumo in Osaka!

2008-03-16T05:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend was fairly chilled- shopping over in Takamatsu, chilling with Miki on "White Day" (Japan splits Valentines Day into two, and "Howaito De" is for boyfriends to give gifts), and a day trip to Kobe on sunday to see the Earthquake Museum and the current Munch Exhibition at the Kobe Prefectural Museum.

The Earthquake Museum was small but interesting, and I must admit it shook me up a bit (ahem). I never realised that the earthquake caused so much damage, and a simulation room demonstrated a small fraction of what it must be like to have your world implode for a few horrifying seconds. Around 6,500 people lost their lives in the "Great Hanshin Earthquake", which struck on January 17th 1995, at 5.46am. It lasted only 20 seconds.

The Munch Exhibition was also fairly short, the highlights being the painting in this post- "Anxiety"- and another piece, "Despair", which together with the more famous "The Scream" make up a set meant to be viewed together. Munch's colours are vivid and expressive, and the Victorian costumes in the piece here, together with the ethereal faces, reminded me of the kind of world Tim Burton creates in his films. The people seem to be going somewhere, somewhere they do not want to go, while the bridge they seem to be on is crossing a background that is wonderfully expressive- a beautiful yet unreal sky, and the lake with two boats that is based on a place in Norway, but is changed and given meaning by the wonderful colours Munch chooses to use.

Anyway, moving on, final news is that this thursday I'll be going to see sumo in Osaka!! It's been long overdue, and I'm glad I'll get to experience this unique Japanese sport at least once, as well as take some photos of the legend that is, Asashoryu Akinori! Stay tuned for more on the world of sumo before my impending trip to the Osaka haru basho.

Language

2008-03-07T05:18:00.000-08:00

Languages are such strange and complex things. To pick up the basics, and even become conversational in one takes only the sacrifice of a bit of free time, and a modest amount of effort. Yet to become fluent in one, to truly understand one’s ins and outs, one’s idiosyncrasies, the different mindset a different language requires; that seems an insurmountable obstacle.

In a test one of my students spelt “corn flakes” as “corn freak”, and “sightseeing” as “shatseeing”. That’s not really a great problem. But when you can translate “I might be going to the cinema” in about ten different ways in Japanese, all with a subtly different meaning- well, that is. It would be entirely possible to transform the meaning of a sentence, a paragraph, by translating it in a certain way rather than another. That’s why translation seems to me to be an art rather than a science, a subtle process of weighting the literal meaning with the true intent of an authors work. It’s an art that I have to admire as I struggle through Japanese. If translation is hard, and expressing yourself succinctly and precisely in your native tongue is hard, then imagine combining these processes to speak as you mean in a foreign language. The troubles go further than this- to truly have proficiency in a foreign language surely you have to think in that language- not translate from English in your mind, but construct in Japanese. Sure European languages are hard to master, and Chinese is certainly hard to pronounce, but the Japanese language works in an entirely different way to English. Kanji can be learnt- 2,000 of them may take some time, but the complexities of Japanese grammar could be studied for years and still not mastered. Maybe I chose the wrong language to study!

I think of all these things as I struggle to make the step up from "san kyuu" Japanese to "ni kyuu" Japanese- whether I am willing to invest the time and effort in taking this step, whether my efforts will ultimately pay off. In all honesty if I'm not going to return to Japan it may be pointless. But increasingly I'm feeling like I'll come back here for a while in the future, to live in Tokyo, and if that's the case then maybe I'd better get cracking.

Goethe once said "he who is ignorant of other languages is ignorant of his own". At the very least trying to become half-decent at Japanese has made me realise how insanely difficult English is!

Tsukiji Fish Market, and Conferencing In Yokohama

2008-03-06T00:17:00.000-08:00

Hisashiburi! The blog has lain dormant for a while, but I've been increasingly busy after surviving snowboarding and haven't had time for an update. For the last few days I've been in the Kanto area- visiting the famous Tsukiji Fish Market, the current exhibition at the Mori Art Museum, and then going on to Yokohama for a JET Conference.

Tsukiji was really great; despite waking up at 5, I was able to spring around gleefully at the sight of all kinds of weird and wonderful seafood, huge tuna being power saw-ed and samurai sword-ed, and even some less than politically correct bloody whale steaks. What really struck me about Tsukiji though was the scale; this is no normal market, but a serious shipping operation, with fresh cargo delivered daily, prepared (either through cutting or flash freezing), then shipped off to high class restaurants all over Tokyo and the surrounding area. The food here is literally as fresh as you can get- one young worker was gutting and de-heading fish that were still flapping their tails around! Understandably then, our sushi breakfast was a little pricey- 3600 yen for a platter eaten in a sombre sushi-ya, more akin to a temple than the usual "kaiten zushi" restaurants that I frequent. Sombre it may have been, but I've never had toro sushi quite so succulent, or such a range of fresh seasonal sushi perfectly balanced by just the right amount of wasabi. The Tsukiji experience was wonderful, but sadly I didn't get many good photos as you're constantly on your toes dodging tuna, angry workers and trucks!

Vending T-shirts in Harajuku

Record Shop, Harajuku

I also saw the current exhibition at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi while in Tokyo; it was very good, and afterwards we watched the sun setting over Tokyo, with Mount Fuji off in the distance, visible on the horizon! For those not in the know its very rare that you can see Fuji from Tokyo- only on the clearest of days- and its meant to be very lucky (I may have just made that up though).

Fuji-san! Yatta!

If seeing Fuji was a sign of clarity to come, it certainly didn't reveal itself at the"JET Returners Conference", a chance to hear from 'working professionals' in all range of fields, in an effort to sort out the general confusion of life. I ruled more things out than in- banking, finance, corporate business and the general immorality of the private business sector. This leaves me with a range of options- academia, journalism or publishing, government work or other public or non-profit work that relates in some way to the big wide world. Any suggestions greatly appreaciated- my current plan is to become the Guardian's Tokyo correspondent, although I guess this requires a bit of serious effort and planning (not to mention the violent overthrow of the incumbent journalist, the very personable Justin McCurry, who I met at the conference).

Yokohama's Chinatown- the Biggest in Japan! Beware of the gyoza...

Anyway, moving off Tokyo for a moment, today was Shonan Graduation Day. Although I know the 1st and 2nd year students far better than the third, my drummer (Natto's drummer) Murakami was graduating, and it was great to see him. Despite coming from a poor family, having to work in a factory part-time while attending school, and going to a school which never sends any students to Uni, he's managed to get a place at Okayama Daigaku (a good uni) studying economics. I'm so pleased for him- he's a really nice guy, and deserves all that hes worked to get. A long lunch with Kawahara and Toda was followed by an afternoon off work, leaving me to go for a run and write this long update. Thats all for now!

Back On The Piste!

2008-02-20T04:42:00.000-08:00

That's right! Last year it was skiing with Georgina and Yukiko, and this year its snowboarding with Hayase, a guy who works in the Shonan school secretary office, and his mate.

Hopefully I'll be doing ollies and 360s all over the place as I descend the slopes of Hiroshima Prefecture before coming to a safe stop (without killing any Japanese people on the way down). We'll be leaving at the insanely early time of 7am (although this was only after fevered negotiations managed to put it back from 5), and travel up past Nimi across the border into Hiroshima. Then we'll spend a few hours on the piste.

Which is harder, skiing or snowboarding? I honestly have no idea, although I guess the more pertinent question is "Can Steve do either?" I'll find out on Saturday...and if you don't hear from me again, well, its been a good life.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

2008-02-13T03:56:00.000-08:00

For the last few days I've been in Hokkaido, Japan's second largest island, and the only one that until now I hadn't visited. It truly is a wondrous place; a winter wonderland, replete with ice sculptures and snow statues, frozen lakes, sea ice and the coldest temperatures I've ever experienced, as well as some of the most beautiful vistas. In 6 days I managed to cover a lot of ground, mainly in my friend Pete's car. We were in Sapporo for the Snow Festival for two days, then drove up to Abashiri, Japan's Alcatraz, home to a scary prison and perhaps the most amazing thing I've seen in Japan; drift ice. From there we went back down to Asahikawa, visiting the snow festival before driving into the mountains to Pete's home, Shirataki.

Sapporo (札幌)

The original reason for me going to Hokkaido at this time of year was to visit the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri, a snow festival held every year for one week. It didn't disapoint, with ice bars selling champagne, huge snow sculptures and a row of ice sculptures in Susukino, with brilliant names such as "Paradisue (sic) of Swan" and "Goldfish of Play". The snow sculptures featured all of Japan's favourite characters- Anpanman, Hello Kitty, Totoro, Doraemon, and even Kojima Yoshio! We went to an amazing bar called Brits Beat Club, with a live band that played Britpop and 60s stuff. We were with a large group of JETs, but me and the other 2 Brits there were singing along to everything (you can see our enthusiasm in the photo on facebook). The singer, Kaz, was a cool guy. You can check out online performances at http://www.brits.jp/. After leaving Sapporo we drove up to Abashiri on the north east coast, and it was only then that I realised how vast Hokkaido is. Flat rice fields covered in snow stretched off into the distance, before mountains took over, and the sky seemed huge compared to down here in Honshu. It was Japan, but totally different to the Japan I know. We left Sapporo sleep deprived and hungover at 10am, and got to Abashiri at about 7pm after stopping off at the Asahikawa Zoo, and some frozen lakes on the way.

Ice Walking on the Sea- Abashiri (網走）

Easily the most impressive thing I saw in Hokkaido was the Abashiri 流氷, or drift ice. Every winter frozen ice leaves the mouth of the Amor River in Russia, and drifts south to the coast of Hokkaido. Its an massively impressive sight, and walking out onto the sea is a bizarre experience. When I was there the conditions were perfect- crystal clear skies, and ice as far as the eye could see. It was unbelievably cold though, especially on the boat. But what an amazing place!!

Matsuri in Asahikawa (旭川）

After visiting Abashiri we made our way back down to Asahikawa, staying again at a friend of Pete's place, then went to the Asahikawa Matsuri the next day. We had lunch in Cocopelis, the best Italian restaurant I've been to in Japan, situated in a log cabin about 45 mins drive from Asahikawa. The views from this remote restaurant were spectacular, out across the plains with the mountains in the background, and the food really was great. After that we went to the Snow Festival, where Pete was dancing in his towns Yosoki ソーラン　team, which was very entertaining. After staying the night up in the mountains in Pete's home town of Shirataki, all that was left was the long journey home.

Sankyuu Beri Muchi!

2008-02-06T04:14:00.001-08:00

やった！日本語ペラペラだよぉぉ！Yes after a few months of waiting I finally got the results of my JLPT test today, and I passed! Hurrah. My score of 310 comfortably cleared the 240 I needed, the only downside being that Georgina somehow managed to get 311! One mark more! God dammit!! Still, both very respectable scores out of 400. Grrrr.

Having planned on making this my last Japanese qualification, I've decided to "ganbare" for the next level, 2, which I can take in London this year or next. Why not eh. Only another 600 Chinese characters and, err, 4,500 words to learn. Hmm.

The title, by the way, is a cheesy Japanese joke, or おやじギャグ that got a lot of laughs today. You see "sankyuu" is the level of the test that I took, level 3 or "san" in Japanese. But sankyuu is also the way (some) Japanese people say "thankyou". Hee hee. Ahem.

Anyway tomorrow I'm off to the grim north of Hokkaido; with temperatures that rarely break above freezing, it will easily be the coldest place I've ever visited. If I survive the trip, expect magnificent photos and fantabulous words to appear on this blog after I return.

じゃね。

明瞭

2008-02-01T18:59:00.001-08:00

Around eight months ago I encountered a Japanese-English magazine, produced to an extremely high standard, concerning the history, people and culture of my Japanese home city, Kurashiki. Its name is Krash Japan. After being given a copy of the free magazine at a second-hand clothes store, I emailed the editor- who lives in the same area of Kurashiki as me, Kojima- to see if I could get involved. His name is Akahoshi Yutaka, and he introduced me to the person whom this post concerns, artist and craftsman Masahiro Kawabe.

To make a long story short, and to paraphrase Krash Japan itself (which relates the details of Kawabe-san's life far better than I could), Kawabe is an artist who lives and works in Shimotsui, an area of Kojima adjacent to the Seto-Ohashi bridge. He has lived there since birth and works on stainless steel nuts, such as the one pictured above. He turns these nuts into rings, works of art shaped over months by the simple process of filing day-in, day-out. Kawabe never commits a design to paper, and uses no machines when creating these rings; instead he holds the idea in his head as he shapes the material in front of him. All that he does ask for when he creates these rings, specially to order, is a theme. So continues Krash Japan...

When working on a given theme, he does not begin for at least a month. He goes on with his regular daily activity. However, the theme is constantly in his mind, waiting for the moment when an obscure image suddenly appears. The image can be visual, a tone, or in other forms. Once an image comes to mind, it is put into concrete form. Everything is done inside his head, up to the final design. He leaves nothing on paper. He faces the hexagonal nut with file in hand, only when he can picture the final design in his head. "I only ask for a theme and not a visual image. I have created what I myself have imagined from that theme. It is a selfish way which I have no intention of changing. I am, therefore, grateful to the people who order based on that understanding."

Kawabe is personable, kind and has a great sense of humour. Earlier this week I was at the cafe hangout of Kawabe and Yutaka, in Kojima, and he related a story to me about how the local yakuza boss came to visit him, after a ring! Kawabe's rings have become increasingly well profiled, his work fetching several "man yen" (around 100 pounds each) in fashionable Tokyo and Osaka stores. Yet Kawabe is modest and friendly, the exact opposite of what you would expect from such an "artiste". He does however possess an entirely individual style and manner.

I feel honoured that Kawabe has decided to make a ring for me, in exchange for an unspecified "interesting item" from the UK- he could have charged me the 100 pounds or so his work regularly fetches, yet was intrigued by the idea of receiving an item bought in a flea market 5000 miles away from where he has always lived. In making a ring for me, Kawabe asked for a theme. The theme I gave him was 明瞭, "meiryo", or clarity. It's my hope that in wearing this ring the clouds of confusion that currently hang over my future will clear, and I'll have a better idea of what to do with my life. The ring will take several months to make, and I look forward to receiving it- an item that, far from being made from precious material, will be treasured due to the time, energy and thought put into it by a truly gifted craftsmen.

Photographs nicked from Krash Japan website, taken by Kunitoshi Yabe.

Please visit Krash Japan at http://www.krashjapan.com/

Three Japanese Songs- Enjoy!

2008-02-01T07:20:00.001-08:00

To get them to load, start them then pause them, and let the whole video download first. Then play.

1. Yuzu - Natsuiro (Not A Great Video, But A Great Song)

2. Kobukuro - Sakura (Another Karaoke Classic, Beautiful Words)

3. Hikawa Kiyoshi Live- A Taste of Japanese Enka! It's So Great!

New Steve Says Kanpai!

2008-02-01T06:49:00.001-08:00

Hello and welcome to the third and final incarnation of "Steve Says Kanpai!", complete with new black background, red writing, and the ability to display weird and wonderful videos straight from YouTube!

To welcome you all, here is a selection of bideo's (as we say over here) from my wonderful country, Japan!! If they load slowly pause them, and let them load first, before playing.

Enjoy...

1. Tarako

The Tarako phenomenon that swept Japan in 2003... all started with an advert for "Tarako" pasta sauce, a sauce made from fish eggs.

2. Rokko Oroshi!! My Karaoke Classic

Hanshin, Taigaasu!! Fure, fure fure fure!...

3. Sonna No Kankee Ne!

Kojima No, Kojima No Tetsugaku!...Kojima Yoshio was a big hit in 2007, replacing "Hard Gay" with his catchphrase "sonna no kankee nee", basically meaning "who gives a f*ck". It caught on all over Japan, with small children jumping around copying his arm thrusting actions and "Oppapi"s.

- Click here for the most popular videos

Since Getting Back From Holiday

2008-01-22T19:25:00.000-08:00

What have I done since getting back from holiday? Well, for one I've got extremely sick! Disaster! At the moment I'm running a fever, have a headache, nausea and am unable even to play Football Manager- its a miracle I'm typing this, although after all of yesterday lying in bed groaning I had to attempt something today. I guess, looking back, its all entirely my own fault.

The culprit is pictured to the left- Spirytus, a 95% spirit (yes, I also though that would leave you blind, but here I am with full sight) which I had two shots of neat on Saturday, before and after drinking all manner of other things for Kawahara T's birthday. If my alcohol tolerance has slipped since being in Japan I'm doing my utmost recently to get it back on track. I'm an extremely busy man this week, so sadly I'll have to go into work on friday come what may. At least I can rest up until then I suppose...

Aaarg, the pain of being ill! Ok thats it for now, I'm going back to bed.

I Want My Camera Back!

2008-01-15T06:40:00.000-08:00

On saturday I went in to "Kitamura", the camera shop from which I bought my camera. It seems to have a scratch on the inside mirror, which doesn't appear on any pictures but does come up on the viewfinder every time. I wanted to get it fixed. The lady at the shop seemed oblivious to my desires. When I finally coaxed her into taking a look through the viewfinder, I got a grudging "aah" from her.

She then decided to speak in crazily complex Japanese, and when I didn't understand, write down what she had said in kanji. Like that would help. Anyway she then got me to write down my name and keitai number, and informed me the camera would have to be sent to Osaka for an estimation. "An estimation?" I confirmed in Japanese, double checking the Japanese she had declared as meaning "estimation" rather than "confiscation" or something else. "Yes", she replied. She took my camera and stared at me as if I were an intrusion on the face of the planet. Eventually I harrumphed a bit, and left the shop.

I am now sans camera and waiting for a call. Damn woman. I want my camera back! Especially as I've been inspired and want to take many photos this weekend. Which I now can't do (unless I use my compact, which obviously isn't the same).

In better news my new kakkoi shoes will be arriving on saturday, and I have another drinking party, so I probably won't be in any fit state to take photos anyway. Still. Grrrr.

:(

Long Post All About Winter Holidays!

2008-01-13T04:05:00.003-08:00

Please visit my flickr page for all the best photos- http://www.flickr.com/photos/70255654@N00/sets/72157603643665948/

Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore are three countries that we ended up combining by chance on this trip, yet there are a lot of similarities. All contain (well, two are) big shiny cities, as well as noticably less shiny areas. While Hong Kong is now under the control of the PRC, Malaysia is noticably more democratic, and is trying to integrate its diverse ethnic population in the 50th year of its independence. Singapore has been run by an autocratic government since 1965. In each place we encountered a large mix of people- Indian, Chinese and Malay in Malaysia and Singapore, and a huge mix of people in the Chungking Mansions! (Chungking was voted "Best example of Globalisation in Action" by TIME Magazine, 2007).

Hong Kong

First up on our trip was a return for me to Hong Kong! Last time I was there Tim had selected the excellently named "Wang Fat" for us to stay at, but this time I decided we should try the infamous Chungking Mansions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions). Chungking was every bit as edgy and intruiging (or dirty and dangerous as Georgina would probably put it) as I’d expected, and a night there was well worth it (or a complete mistake, as Georgina would probably say). We also toured the HK housing estates, where much of the population lives- I got some interesting photos of the less shiny-shiny side of the territories.

After just one night in HK we flew to Malaysia, getting upgraded to business class (!!), and thus spending the 3 hour flight sipping free champagne and tucking in to tubs of Haagen Dazs.

Langkawi

Langkawi was great! Quality beaches, good weather, cable cars, good Indian and Malaysian food (even a curry on Christmas Day!). We stayed in the Zackry Guesthouse, owned by Mr. Zackry who was very moody. A great place for Christmas though!

Kuala Kangsar

After Langkawi we headed by bus to Kuala Kangsar, to visit the Ubudiah Mosque. After a boat trip and 2 buses we made it there in one day, as hoped, and saw the mosque the next morning before heading to KL. I managed to catch the Chelsea-Villa game (4-4, what a match!), which I watched behind the reception counter of the hotel we were staying in with the manager (a Man U fan). He explained to me some interesting things about Malaysia, a truly multicultural country. Malaysia consists of three main ethnic groups, the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians. All speak their own mother languages (Malay, Chinese and Tamil), and most of the latter two also speak the national language, Malay. Religion is clearly a big issue, and the Indian/Hindu hotel manager clearly harbored several grudges against the Muslim population of the country- I explained Birmingham, my home town, was a very multicultural place, and he launched into a tirade about how Muslims are trying to "take over the world". Apparently he would have to convert to Islam before he could get married in Malaysia. Throughout the trip, speaking to various people, all displayed antipathy toward other ethnic groups in their country, be it Hong Kong, Malaysia or Singapore.

Kuala Lumpur

KL was an interesting place- bustling, busy and dirty. It has lots of character, but is light on truly impressive sights save for the magnificent Petronas Towers. Inspired by Muslim architecture, the towers are one of the most impressive buildings I’ve seen- beautifully designed, and something Malaysians are justifiably proud of. We were also very lucky with food, stumbling on the colonial Old China Café, a magnificent early 20th century café that had great food, and Kopfi, an interesting coffee shop where they have all kinds of "mad-scientist" devices for brewing excellent coffee. On the last day in KL I went to the Batu Caves, large caves complete with a big golden statue and loads of evil monkeys. In the evening we ate street food in Kampung Baru area, and I spotted a guy in a Blues shirt! Fantastic stuff.

Singapore

Singapore was undoubtedly the highlight of the trip- it had both modern, shiny shopping places (including Topman and Japanese department stores) and dirty Chinese street cafes. The Chinatown was head and shoulders better than KL’s. We were judased by the hostel we were meant to stay in, which led to us spending 3 nights at 98SG hostel. The place was run by manager Eric, a true legend who’s laid back approach frustrated everyone until they got to know how cool a guy he was. It was great watching new arrivals get irked by his absent mindedness, or frequent long lunch breaks as we did when we first arrived! I played him at chess, and he praised my "powerful chess skills" despite being so woefully inept I couldn’t help but win. On New Years Eve we went out with a bunch of ppl- Michelle and Lisa from England, Kristina from Australia, Flo and Flo from Germany, and David from Spain. We met many random people as me and Kristina embarked on a "friend war", trying to make as many friends as possible. I also got into a long animated discussion about Rafa Benitez with a random Malaysian guy. We eventually got the first metro home at around 7am. Other highlights of Singapore include the famous Night Safari (lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes!), the nice waterfront area, excellent Ya Kun Kaya toast breakfasts, chicken rice at Boon Tong Kee (thanks to the recommendations of my Singaporean friend in Japan, Penny), and more football to watch live alongside lots of Chinese people! Singapore was so impressive I’d love to live there for a while- people speak Chinese and also English, perfect as I could slowly learn Chinese but opt-out and take the lazy English route whenever I wanted!

Hong Kong

After Singapore we got a bus back to KL, then a flight to HK for another two days there. By this point we had very little money, so I had to rely on my credit card when we found…a H&M!!! Mwah ha ha! We went up the Peak, and did the other usual touristy stuff before living off bread and water on our last day. I kept my nostalgic reminiscences to a minimum (I avoided the dodgy club in Wan Chai this time), and enjoyed revisiting places I’d be too two years earlier, despite being eaten by mosquitoes.

A Touch Of Politics

2008-01-09T05:39:00.000-08:00

Bored as I was today at work, I knocked out a piece on the US primaries for the blog. Sadly almost everything I wrote I've changed my mind on since watching the news tonight. Clinton won in New Hampshire, while McCain, who I was going to recommend backing at the excellent price of 11/2 (for the general), seems like a bit of an egit. Still, they elected George Bush didn't they?

What sparked off this politics malarky was looking at an interesting selection of head-to-head polls for potential general elections. You can check out these polls at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national.html, and here are a few interesting points-

- Clinton looks fairly comfortable against all Republican challenges except John McCain, who maintains around a 5 point lead against her over a long period of polling.

-While Clinton looks to have the edge over others, Obama has a far greater lead in potential head-to-heads; against Giuliani, Clinton is +1-6%, while Obama is +3-10%, similarly against Romney and Huckabee he holds a distinct "electability" advantage.

-Interestingly, Edwards has a strong chance against any possible Republican candidate; he would probably be the best candidate to run against McCain, but it’s highly doubtful he will get the democratic nomination.

Basically nothing is clear, there’s still a long way to go, and anything could happen. McCain seems in a strongish position to take the Republican nomination, but with Obama taking Iowa and Clinton just winning New Hampshire today the Democratic race could go either way. Edwards could decide it by endorsing one of the two frontrunners when his campaign eventually runs into the ground, but the best chance for a Democratic victory late this year is for Obama to get the nod.

Anyway, here are the best odds available for those who want to have an educated punt…

Obama EVENS
Clinton 7/2
McCain 11/2
Giuliani 7/1
Huckabee 10/1
Romney 16/1
Edwards 33/1

My Bet- still take McCain at the excellent price of 11/2. Not only will you make some money if he wins, it will soften the blow of having a Republican in the White House for the next 4-8 years in that eventuality.

Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong Photos!

2008-01-05T22:31:00.001-08:00

Before I get round to blogging up my travels, with fun photos and all, here are a few of the arty shots from the trip-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70255654@N00/sets/

Enjoy!

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-18T04:39:00.000-08:00

In what will almost certainly be my final "holiday within a holiday" from Japan, I today booked flights to head up to the grim north of Hokkaido in February for the Sapporo Snow Festival. This massive celebration of snow and ice runs for a week, and as well as seeing bits of it in Sapporo, me and pal Pete plan to drive up to the north coast of Hokkaido to take a trip out in an ice-breaker ship, as well as visiting his home somewhere in the middle of, well, nowhere (sorry Pete). All sounds fantabulous, and it means that while my Christmas will once again be spent on a beach, my february will be spent in a place that is as snow filled as can be. Hurrah for snow!

Merii Kurisumasu!

2007-12-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Ho, ho, ho.

Yes its Christmas once again, and I'm off on my holidays to sunnier inclines.

Merry Christmas Everyone! And a Happy New Year.

旅行に行きます！メリークリスマスとあけましておめでとうございます！

The Reds vs AC Milan - Live!

2007-12-13T01:17:00.001-08:00

18:21

Ok, this blog can rise beyond a title containing the quasi-word "luminarie-tastic" and the description of the Kobe Luminarie as "really, really shiny". But maybe not by that much.

Tonight sees Champions of Europe, AC Milan take on Champions of Asia, the Urawa Reds in the semi-finals of the World Club Championships. Its a big deal in Japan, if not in England or much of the rest of the world. Anyway to mark the occasion, and to further promote "internationalisation", I suggested a sweepstake for the game on the lips of everyone in the teachers lounge today. Five of us picked scores (all involving Milan winning coincidentally), and agreed a bet of 1000 yen each (around 4/5 quid). It was also inexplicably decided that should the Reds win, Kawasaki T would get all our money despite not betting. Hmmm. The match kicks off in just over an hour, and there will be live updates on this blog every 15 minutes or so...stay tuned!

The key winners to watch out for are Kawahara at 3-1, me at 2-0, Nishi T at 4-0 and the sports teacher who I still don't know the name of at 2-1. Someone else also bet but I can't remember their score.

18.42

I've placed two bets on bet365.com- Milan to win 3-1 (10/1) so I win big even if Kawahara does, and ace Kaka to score a cracker! :) at 5/1 as first scorer.

19.15

Fifteen minutes to go and lets run through the key men-

Kaka (Milan)
The newly-crowned Ballon d’Or winner should have too much for the Reds to handle. The brilliant Brazlian can scores crackers from distance, and was mobbed by adoring fans on arriving at Tokyo airport.

Marcos Tulio Tanaka (Urawa)
The Brazilian-born defender is a giant at the back, good on the ball and great in the air. Watch out for him from set pieces.

19.24

And the teams are in the tunnel! Kaka looks stern....will we get national anthems?

19.29

Sadly not. The beer is well chilled, the sashimi soy-sauced, and the gyoza plated. Milan are in white and the Reds are in, well, red. Game on!

19.35

Yellow card!! Nesta. Well deserved. Urawa are getting stuck in, but no clear chances so far.

19.42

Excellant free kick by Pirlo is tipped over the bar. From the resulting corner, Milan have a great chance but the header goes just over. Urawa have been bright but just lack a bit of quality in the final third...

19.53

Two great chances in succession! Seedorf should have done better one-on-one with the keeper. It's all Milan at the moment...

19.57

End to end stuff!! Milan have a great chance to go ahead but some last ditch defending saves the day. Then Urawa go down the other end only for some poor passing to let them down. Urawa #17 , Makoto Hasebe has now been stretchered off, but it doesn't look serious...

20.15

Toot toot! as Pete Doherty would say. Yes, the first half is over. Milan have huffed, they've puffed, but so far they've failed to blow Urawa's house down. A committed performance from the Japanese, but you can't see past Milan eventually getting the goal they deserve.

20.30

Yoshyaa! And we're off once more

20.38

How did they not score!! First Jankulovski, then the follow up by Gilardino. Then another break and a fantastic one on one save from the Urawa keeper Tsuzuki!

20.50

Milan Sub! Gilardino off, Pippo Inzaghi on! Is the old maestro gonna make the difference?

20.55

Its all happening now! Best chance of the game for Urawa, with an excellent save from that part-time actor Dida.

20.56

GOAL!!!!! AC MILAN SCORE!!! Ball in from the left, and Seedorf- virtually unmarked- with the strong strike into the bottom right corner of the net. 1-0 to MILAN!

20.59

Well, can the Reds get back into the game? I highly doubt it, and if Milan can add another then 5000 yen is mine, all mine...mwah ha ha ha!

21.08

Milan sub! Jankulovski off, and the even older maestro is on- Paulo Maldini! Urawa also make a sub- Soma for Hirakawa.

21.10

And to think if I worked for the Guardian I'd actually get paid to do this. As it is my readership is somewhat smaller, but at least I don't have to come up with entertaining jokes. Milan have a free kick just outside the area.

21.19

Three mins of stoppage time.

21.22

Toot toot!! And it's finished 1-0 to AC Milan. I was within a very get-able goal of winning 25 quid from my fellow sensei, but as it is no money will be given or received. Milan's quality was enough to see them through in a match that could have had far more goals than it did. Urawa were committed, but apart from one good chance didn't really test Kaka.

Luminarie-tastic Times

2007-12-10T05:56:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to Kobe and saw the magical Christmas Luminarie. It was really really shiny!

I also went to the spiritual (and indeed physical) home of the Hanshin Tigers, Koshien!! Sadly it was closed for reconstruction but I still got to pose outside and throw a baseball around, which is always fun.

Finally I also made it to the Akashi Ohashi, the world's longest suspension bridge which I've passed many times on my way to or back from Kobe/Osaka, but never seen up close. More excitingly I've just learnt from Wikipedia that in 1998 it claimed its title from Hull's Humber Bridge (which has now sank to number 4) - et tu Timmy-chan!

Passing the Akashi Ohashi on the train back from Osaka a few weeks ago

Kobe Luminarie, which appears every year in honour of those who died in the Greak Kanto Earthquake of 1995.

Hey Hey! Hannnnshin, Taigaasu!

Up close at the Hashi.

Happy Birthday To Me!

2007-12-07T00:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am now 24, and thanks for your many birthday cards, messages and (in the case of Kawahara sensei), novelty lighters not appropriate for those under 18. My birthday itself was actually fairly painful, as I spent most of it labouring under a cloud of alcohol-induced confusion. This was confounded by having interview tests ("how are you aimu faiin sankyu ando yu") all day, which did my head in. Nonetheless, the preceding nights celebrations were, as we say in Japan, saiko!, involving the normal but always excellant activities of nomihodie and karaoke, and cake! This weekend I'm off to Kobe for some fun and games, and the weekend after I have another enkai. Then its happy happy holidays!

Winter Is Coming

2007-12-02T01:01:00.001-08:00

On Friday the Okayama Christmas Tree turned up, and on saturday all of the cashiers in my local supermarket, Nishina, started wearing silly Santa hats- yes, it's Christmas time once again! To be honest I can't believe how quickly autumn has passed- my favourite Japanese season seemed so much longer last year; perhaps leaving the country and going to Korea helped. Anyway, today is December 2nd and winter has truly arrived. This morning I took the Japanese Proficiency Test level 3, after passing level 4 last year. It went ok, though the red card/yellow card system lost its novelty this time around. Still, now that thats over I really have no long term Japanese goal anymore- perhaps I've reached the peak of my Nihongo powers. I'm going to keep learning kanji though, albeit at a slower pace, and maybe I'll start blogging in Japanese too (though I don't think my basic Japanese can match my sophisticated English turns of phrase). Anyway, this morning's test was made all the more difficult by being in a state of pain and suffering, thanks to drinking way too much at last nights Shonan Bonenkai. Me and Kawa-T decided to mark the occasion by buying Cuban cigars!! Sadly no Coheba Esplendido's, but we did get some good sized Romeo y Julietas to enjoy with Nishi T, Kawasaki T and one of the kyoto-sensei's. Heres a couple of pictures of us posing outside the cigar shop!

Followed by a couple from the party itself... (blurred shot on the right taken by Toda-T, with Nishi-T's face the main loss)

And here's the slightly shorter Japanese version of this post...

金曜で岡山のクリスマス木に着った。それから土曜から二品の店員がサンタハットをひいた。それで、クリスマスに着きました！ほっまに秋が早くなりました。秋はぼくの一番好き季節ですけど、去年はもっと長い感じがあった。多分韓国の旅行にいったですからね。

今日は１２月２日、と冬が来ました。今朝日本語の試験を受けた。去年４級をうけた、だから今年は３級。確かOKにしました。昨日翔南高校の忘年会に行った。ちょっと飲みすぎました、もう葉巻を吸いました！必ずすごい味と感じがあった、川崎T特には”ザーゴッドファザー”のイメージがあった！面白い買った。今回は”ロミオとジュリエタ”を吸ったんだけど、今度”コヒバ”を吸いたい！上の写真を楽しんでね.

Amazing Red Autumn Leaves and Other Things

2007-11-25T05:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a small selection from the many photos I managed to take in Kyoto last weekend...

The red leaves of autumn are known in Japanese as "koyou", and koyou viewing- particularly in Kyoto- is a popular passtime. Hoards of tourists descend on the big sights, but luckily I was able to find this "scenery plus flag" shot in a group of temples in the north, Daikokuji, that were relatively quiet.

Higashiyama and Arashiyama are the mountains to the east and west of Kyoto. I hadn't been to Arashiyama before, but the colours were amazing!

More colours in Arashiyama

Kiyomizudera, in the Higashiyama Mountains

Fushimi Inari Taisha

Another cat photo!

Just one more cat pic, I promise. But this one's the best.

The Gardens At Heian Jingu

Quiet Contemplation

Meeting Sonic In Osaka!

Hangin' With The Cats In Kyoto

2007-11-25T05:07:00.000-08:00

Kawaii! :D

Okunoshima- Poison Gas and Bunnies

2007-11-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

There are thousands of islands in the Inland Sea, each with their own unique features and attractions. Yet I doubt there are any stranger than Okunoshima. Between 1928 and 1945 Okunoshima was used to produce several kilotons of mustard gas and other posion-gases for use in the Pacific War, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. For maximum secrecy, the island was erased from maps, while workers on the island had little training and poor equipment, resulting in horrific injuries. Today the buildings deserted after the end of the war remain as they once were, shards of glass still hanging in the windowframes. Animals were used in the gas tests, but when the island was deserted in 1945 the remaining rabbits were set loose. And they bred like, well, rabbits. So today these small victims of war have claimed the island for themselves, behaving like abandoned pets, and gratefully receiving all the carrot and lettuce visitors have to offer. They certainly enjoyed the 6 carrots we brought along...

Kawaii!

Rabbit Gropes Miki-chan

Old Lady Feeds Over-Enthusiastic Rabbits

Rabbit Eats One of Steve's Carrots

...que More Carrot Eating

Everyone Pause For A Photo

No Its A Shoe, Not A Carrot

Autumn Leaves

Gas Tanks From Another Era

Just Around The Corner

Abandoned Warehouse (which we snuck into at risk of death from falling things)

Good Place For A Date? Hmmm

Preserved In Time and Space

Ending On A Fluffy Note

After leaving Okunoshima we stopped in Onomichi for some Onomichi ramen on the way back to Okayama. We went to a ramen shop I'd been to about 7 months previously on a day trip, and the owner remembered me! A nice end to our trip.

Shonan Festival ' 07!

2007-11-10T00:41:00.000-08:00

Friday was the first day of the school festival,with stage performances involving lots of girls dancing and some boys dressing up as girls. It was short and sweet, finishing around 2, but I ended up staying at school until 7.30pm, practicing with Natto and making t-shirts for our Saturday performance. We worked out an excellant opening routine, involving me and Murakami prancing on to the stage to the "Numa" song, a Romanian pop song by "O-zone" ("miahi! miahu! miaha! miahaha!") - apparently its big in Japan. You can listen to the song here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfiVc0X9Ewc- its so great!!

Yuta rocks up for band practice

Yui-chan, Wakana-chan, Miho-chan

T-Shatsu Tsukurimasu!

Yuta pausing for thought

Never Miss A Photo Opportunity!

Our performance on saturday went perfectly, including the prancing onto the stage to Romanian pop music. In fact everyone in the music club did really well- despite nerves beforehand- so all were very happy afterwards. The rest of the festival was great fun, with old teachers turning up (Miyoshi sensei, and Kagawa sensei!!), excellant yakitori and cheap takoyaki, and lots of attention thanks to my dashing good looks and funky dress sense (also being the only foreigner at the festival helped). You can listen to the "Official Festival Song", Million Films by Kobukuro, here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7BZdNU3fXI

Miho and Wakana by the Festival Gate

Me, Yuta and Wakana just before going on stage

Hayashi-T, Kawa-T and Toda-T

Post-Gig Relaxation with Kawa-T and Murakami

Random Child Takes A Liking To My Glasses

Kagawa-sensei!! And his son Kazuo, who remembered me from when we went to the beach :)

Seito Hard At Work Making Takoyaki

Kaneda Natsumi (middle) is a big fan of English!

Kawa-T, Toda-T, Miho and Futaba-chan

One More Recommended Video

2007-11-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to Japan's newest comedy phenomenon- Kojima Yoshio. Much like his predecessor "Hard Gay", he is known for his repetitive routine, his catchphrase being "Sonna No Kankee Ne" ("who gives a sh*t") rather than Hard Gay's thrusting in the general direction of anyone he encounters.

Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3663366153630408608&q=kojima+yoshio&total=32&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

YouTube Videos- How Do You Add Them?

2007-10-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

If you can answer that question, please comment on this post. I've tried the method suggested on youtube but it didn't work...

Anyway until then, here's a few recommended videos for your perusal, starting with the aforementioned Mr. T commercial!

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

Next is a Hanshin Tigers Montage to the backing of the club song, Rokko Oroshi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3z11k7SPhM

And finally theres a couple of Japanese pop videos, Kobukuro's Sakura and Tomodachi by Ketsumeishi (neither video is very good, but the songs are)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVERFzT8aHo

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

Quit Your Jibber Jabber, You Ain't Hurt!

2007-10-29T07:30:00.000-07:00

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...

A New Post

2007-10-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hello. Thought I should post something, as its been a while since my last posts on Hanshin's failure and my wedding success. Nothing much has been happening in the world of Steven Martin however- lessons go on, the seasons are changing as Japan once more descends into its cold phase, and I'm considering buying a new suit.

In the upcoming weeks I have a series of drinking engagements with various teachers, Shonan's festival (in which, of course, I am playing), hopefully a visit to Kyoto to see the beautiful koyou (red leaves of autumn), and the dreaded Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3, which I am busy studying hard for. Then its off on winter holidays.

Of far more pressing concern at the moment is the organisation of some sort of future plan- the internet poll idea probably wasn't the best way to decide my future (well pointed out Tim), however something isn't going to just land in my lap and I need to actively partake in finding gainful employment (or bumming around if I decide to do a Masters). Anyway this isn't happening so far- I have lots of time though, and if any of you blog readers happen to be millionaires with cash to spare (as one probably would have if one was a millionaire), then please send it to me.

Anyway, for now adios and please look into my new feature on the sidebar- Steve's Betting Corner!

Rice Paddy Art As Summer Ends

2007-10-14T04:49:00.000-07:00

Hanshin Blues

2007-10-14T02:27:00.000-07:00

Hanshin have collapsed in dramatic fashion over the last two days, and are on the verge of annihilation in the playoff semi-final. Having been thoroughly beaten 7-0 yesterday, we are currently losing 5-0, having only played one inning! All does not look good...

...on a brighter note, my kanpai speech was highly successful last night, getting all the laughs in the right places. We ended up in karaoke after the party (as usual), where I sang...oh yes, Rokko Oroshi! I'll never get tired of that wonderful song...

What Good Is Travelling The World If You Can't Make Bad Puns About The Places You've Visited?

2007-10-11T02:04:00.001-07:00

First came Korea...ice cold nights with only spicy cabbage (and a few dozen beers) to warm the Seoul...

Next came the Philippines...it certainly wasn't "vanilla in Manilla", although our drinking antics did destroy us for an entire week

Third was the "Republic of China", known to the rest of the world as Taiwan. Tai-may have enjoyed the chaotic hostel at the time but I definately-pei'd for the lack of sleep on THAT trip!

And finally came Thailand- two weeks of beaches, pad Thai and cheap cheap beer! (Note the avoidance of puns involving Bangkok, Krabi or Ko Pi Pi)

"But what next!?" I hear you ask! Good question reader! Next I will be venturing once more into the dear embrace of South-East Asia, visiting...

Malaysia! (not much pun potential there, unless I don't have a good time in which case I can talk about slipping into a "malayse")

Singapore! (a controversial country, but it has good pun potential, particularly if I end up in karaoke...)

And a return to Hong Kong!! I can feel the nostalgia coming on already...

And thus I will end the post with a couple of pictures taken in Hong Kong the last time I was there...

Steve Says Kanpai, For Real!

2007-10-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right- my blog name will be realised in grand fashion on saturday as I have been chosen (against my will) to give the official kanpai toast at Kawasaki sensei's wedding party. Quite why he chose me is anyone's guess, although I suspect it was in consultation with Seishi joker Hiramatsu-sensei, who greatly enjoyed watching the fear fill my eyes when he told me.

Apparently I can get away with a 30 second speech in Japanese, as long as its funny. Given that I have trouble being humourous in my native tongue, Japanese comic genius is a distant goal. Seishi's kyoto sensei has already offered me his Hanshin Tigers baseball shirt if I want to do some sort of skit- but leaping around in front of 50-60 people and not getting a single laugh would mortify me even if I get tanked up on booze beforehand. The other option is the route of sincerity, although why ask a gaijin to do the speech if you just want some kind words in Japanese? No, I either have to think of something hilariously funny or somehow manage to get Tim to appear dressed in a gorilla costume...

Timmy-chan! Come back!

Marugame Art

2007-10-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the last in a series of long weekends. I spent it drinking and shopping, as per usual, yet found time on monday to visit the Marugame Modern Art Museum, just across the Inland Sea on the island of Shikoku.

The highlight of the musem was undoubtedly the temporary installation by Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian artist. The conceptual "rooms" of soft things were designed to appear like two people kissing from above, with the whole structure supported by giant "weights", bags of dried spices.

Here are a few photos...

Back In The Hanshin Groove

2007-09-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

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"

2007-09-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-17T03:34:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

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!

Hisashiburi!

2007-08-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Its been a while since I last updated The Blog, not least because my internet at home is dying a slow and painful death. Fear not though, a new high speed connection is on its way! For now, let me introduce my newest object of affection, a wonderful zoom-lens for my digitial camera. The Nikkor AF-S DX VR Zoom 55-200mm f/4-5.6 lens can take crystal clear pictures of things from 10 miles away, and looks very shiny. Here are some test pictures…

The “Miwa’s Not Impressed” Test

The Cat Test

The “Random Person On Bicycle” Test – (note, the zoom on this lens means you can take pictures of people without them knowing anything about it. Which isn’t dodgy at all. Honest.)

The “Is It The Seventh Level of Hell or is it Mizushima at Night” Test.

Anyway, enough of all that jazz. In other news I’m back in the music business after a long absence (The Subterraneans, a university venture, never really got of the ground, not least because I could never spell subterranean). Me, enigmatic bassist Yuta and our wacky drummer Murakami will be playing two songs at the Shonan school festival in November. We’re auditioning for a singer next Saturday at the unseemly hour of 10am, and will be covering Nirvana and either Oasis or Green Day. I offered my self-penned efforts, “Oh Nishina” and “Hey Look It’s A Gaijin On A Bike!”, but they weren't well received. We’re looking to create a new take on the classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by replacing Kurt Cobain with a 15-year old Japanese girl.

Finally, I’ll be welcoming more friends to these shores in a weeks time. Tim and Joe, aka Dusty Bottoms and Ned Needelander, will be arriving for 2 ½ weeks of…you guessed it…karaoke and nomihodie! Let the fun commence..

A Sojourn To Kyushu

2007-08-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

Just 4 days after putting my backpack away from Thailand, I shouldered it once more for a whirlwind trip to Kyushu. While there, I managed to tick of lot of things of the "must do in Japan" list- I made it to my 3rd of Japan's 4 main islands, I ate potentially lethal food (fugu), I stayed in a capsule hotel and I went to an onsen.

I got the shink to Shimonoseki on thursday night, and stayed in a particularly militant YHA hostel where lights were turned off at 11pm and you were forced out of bed at 9am. Luckily all of the people I met there were really friendly- a salaryman who I got fairly drunk with, one of the girls who worked there who'd spent 2 years studying in Germany, and an amazing 16-year old lad from Yokohama, who was cycling all the way to the southern tip of Kyushu for his summer holidays! I was pleased that I could talk with people in Japanese without too much trouble, especially as they spoke no English. The next day I set out to explore Shimonoseki. Before leaving the hostel, the manager explained fugu to me entirely in Japanese, interspersed only with the English word "die". Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately for comedy purposes) I understood the Japanese too. And so I didn't die. Fugu made good sushi and pretty standard fried fish- see photo of my tasty and cheap fish market lunch. As well as trying fugu I visited a big red temple and the Treaty of Shimonoseki Museum. It was baking hot, so after that I retreated to an airconditioned train carriage for the journey to Kyushu's biggest city, Fukuoka.

Fukuoka is a really nice city- light on traditional sightseeing, but with a really nice vibe, lots of energy and a plethora of modern attractions. There I met up with ii tomodachi Georgina to sample some of Fukuoka's specialities- tonkotsu ramen (made with pork bones, honto ni oishii!), roadside yakitori and oden (although I avoided the oden because its not very nice), and lots of drinking. We ended up karaoke-ing the night away, and thus the next day was fairly laid back. I did managed to get to the Fukuoka Art Museum though for an interesting exhibition of Asian art, and the big shopping centre "Canal City" where we saw a giant pikachu!

The final stop on my lightning tour was two days in Nagasaki. I'd been searching for a decent hostel but there don't seem to be any in Nagasaki without curfew's, so I ended up staying in a cheap capsule hotel/onsen/sauna place that my friend Nicola found. Capsule 207 was a very good capsule (although I suspect they are all remarkably similar), but the highlight of the stay was the onsen. Although I'd been skeptical, the onsen experience turned out to be fantastic- i was happily hopping between the sauna, jacuzzi, hot bath, cold bath and steam room, after which I could change from my provided pajamas into a provided dressing gown and relax in the comfort room with a choice of 12 giant TV screens to watch. And all for 3000 yen! I'll definately be staying in those sort of places again. The capule itself was slightly strange- not recommended for those who are claustrophobic- but fine for a couple of nights, with a control panel of dreams that could accomplish almost anything I wanted it to.

Anyway, in between all my long soaks in the bath I had a bit of time to explore Nagasaki. On saturday night I went out with Nicola (fellow Brummie) and her friends, and on sunday I toured the main sights of the city- the Peace Memorial and bomb museum (a nice memorial, but not so thorough as the museum in Hiroshima), some more templey temples, and the exciting Glover Garden, a collection of European houses perched on a hill. Back in the days of Japan's self-imposed isolation, Dutch traders were only allowed to trade at Nagasaki, and even then they had to do so via the small settlement of Dejima, an offshore island. The result of Chinese and European trade in Nagasaki is an apparent "international flavour", with the local speciality of champon (Chinese style ramen), and the European buildings which were lovely in the late afternoon sun and had a great view across Nagasaki.

On Monday morning, after one last soak in the onsen, I started back on my long journey home to Okayama.

Thai'm Going To Avoid The Puns This Time

2007-08-13T04:22:00.000-07:00

For the last two weeks I’ve been on holiday in sunny Thailand, soaking up the sun on the beaches of Kho Phi Phi and Railay, and eating very tasty fishy feasts all over the place (the best was in Bangkok’s Chinatown). For now there are many photos, but few words. A fuller revamp of the blog for the brand new Second Year in Japan will be forthcoming.

Wales 1 England 0

2007-07-30T07:43:00.001-07:00

Tonight was the final of mine and Phil's long running pool tournament. Despite going 1-0 up and feeling confident, a couple of cruels twists combined with solid Welsh play to get us to 2-3. After that it really should have been 3-3, but a cushion shot on the black was minutely short, leaving the black hovering over the pocket for Wales to clip it in and take a 4-2 lead going into the break. 4-2 became 5-2 before England heroically brought the match back to 5-4, only for Wales to end it in the next.

All credit to Pip for taking the victory in the end- our Pool Mondays have become the stuff of legend (at least on our respective blogs), and even pool owner Akira looked close to tears are Filipu left the Theatre of Dreams for the last time. In all seriousness though, Phil is a top bloke and a worthy pool opponent, and will be greatly missed.

Carrie and Phil- おつかれさまでした！

2007-07-29T06:09:00.001-07:00

This weekend I said goodbye to good friends Carrie and Phil, who are leaving Japan and moving to Prague. Well actually I said goodbye to Carrie, as I'll be facing Phil in tomorrow's tense Pool Final, which will be the last time I see him on these sunny isles. Our farewell involved a curry at the delightfully named SWAD (does it stand for something? what does it mean? answers on a postcard) followed by some drinks. Photos to follow when I steal them from other blogs.

On Saturday I returned once again to my favourite place Takamatsu, revisiting Ritsurin Koen and the lovely area around the train station and by the waterfront.

And on Thursday I'll be off to Thailand!! By the time I come back I'll have been living in Japan for over a year- plenty of time to philosophise on that later though, as at the moment the mighty Iraq are battling with the equally mighty Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup Final. Come on Iraq! I'm sure no-one would begrudge that nation something to cheer about.

The Final Countdown...

2007-07-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

After 12 long weeks, and 132 frames of competitive pool, the outcome of mine and Phil's epic contest will be decided in four days time.

Tonight I clawed my way back into a game that I thought I would lose (4-2 down at the break) to sneak it 6-5, and keep my hopes alive. In 3 months I haven't once led the tournament, yet whenever Phil has taken a lead I've eventually pegged him back. Its now 6 matches each...

Monday will be a tense encounter, yet it will also be a sad one as its the last chance I'll get to see my good friend from Wales before he returns, via Malaysia, to Europe, and before I head off to Thailand for my summer holidays.

Look out for photos of our last bout, including Pool Master Akira, and news on who triumphs and becomes 2007 Okayama Prefecture Gaijin-In-Akira's-Bar Pool Champion.

倉敷夏祭り- Kurashiki Natsu Matsuri!

2007-07-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to Kurashiki's summer festival, a great excuse for people to drink beer, eat street food, and wear kimonos. It was a great day that I only found out about thanks to fellow jets Meghan and Bethany. Without overstressing the point, it yet again demonstrated how amazingly community-oriented Japan is- grandmothers dancing next to 5-year olds, everyone enjoying themselves, getting drunk and having fun without trashing stuff.

After a few hours of watching parades and listening to the same music again and again and again and again... I "encouraged" my companions to go to a sports bar to watch the Asian Cup Quarter Final between Japan and Australia (two of the group, Bethany and her visiting sister, are Ozzies). What a thrilling game!! Austraila scored first, but Japan hit back within two minutes, before extra-time was played out and it went down to penalties. The hero of the day was none other than that living legend Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi! Me and the other Japanese guys in the bar were chanting his name as he saved not one but two Ozzie penalties, and Japan recorded a deserved victory 4-3 on pens. Back of the Net!

Some Photos From Onomichi

2007-07-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

The first real test of my new shiny camera was in Onomichi! Here are some of the results...

Let's Make All Our Dreams Come True

2007-07-15T05:32:00.001-07:00

One of my jobs as Shonan High’s resident foreigner is to come up with a naff English slogan for the school festival. This is meant to be based loosely on the ideas of students in the "organising committee".

Last year we had the pretty cool "All Our Hearts Beat As One". Wish I’d thought of that one. It was certainly a step up from "Let’s Make All Our Dreams Come True", which inexplicably seems to be a favourite phrase of Ono-sensei. The year before that someone had clearly be watching the Three Muskateers, and shamefully stole "All For One, One For All". The cheek!

Anyway this year I was given very strict parameters for what I could and couldn't choose, which severely hampered my creativity from the outset. The "Organising Commitee" presented me with "One Day Treasure Believe Your Friend". When I broke the news that this was completely nonsensical, they requested I think up a tagline with a similar 'feeling' to it. After pausing to wondering what feeling is actually associated with this car-crash of the English language, we finally settled on "A Day To Treasure With Friends". It’s certainly less grandiose than "All Our Hearts Beat As One", but for an afternoon of lazing around school and eating takoyaki- aka the School Festival- it seems quite appropriate.

Anyway, its been a while since there’s been a competition on the blog so lets see who can think up the best Japanese-English-"nice thought behind it but sounds pretty cheesy in practice"-slogan. Prizes will of course be available.

Tarako Tarako Tarako!

2007-07-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

Tarako!!

Two days have passed (or maybe three), and I sensed you were all eager to hear more about Kaminocho station's new ticket barrier. It became clear to me yesterday morning that the arrival of said barrier is a major event in the lives of many Kojima residents. As I arrived at the station for my commute to Seishi High there was actually a small posse of old people standing around the barrier discussing it. It reminded me of the ewoks staring in awe at R2D2 and prodding him with sticks. Anyway, its truly big news when the old people stare at the barrier rather than me!

The rest of my day yesterday was about as laid back as could possibly be. In fact its quite scandalous that I got paid for what was 7 hours of total relaxation. It started with my getting into work at 1pm only to be told that there was a big meeting until 3pm, so I could take off and go shopping for 2 hours. After a leisurely trip around Aeon shopping mall I headed back to sit down for the afternoon movie on TV (in Japanese, but still). After dozing through that I had a leisurely dinner whilst watching more TV. Just as I was settling down to do something productive S-sensei declared it was time for golf practice! So off we went, in his sports car, to the local driving range for an hour of practice, before he dropped me off at home a full hour earlier than I'm meant to finish.

Today was like being in a labour camp by comparison. I had two whole lessons, although one of them did include eating tacos. And between the hours of 3 and 4 I played in a mini target golf tournament with Yoshida sensei, Kawahara sensei and Toda sensei. We even had students to carry our clubs! :)

Despite all this stress-free living I remain on edge for the coming weekend, as a big, bad, scary typhoon is scheduled to hit mainland Japan on sunday. I'll either be at home or in Kyoto, where I'm hoping to see the Gion Matsuri, though I can't imagine how good that'll be in a torrential downpour. Only time will tell...

Shocks and Surprises

2007-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

I’ve titled the post as above because I can't think of any other way to link a cockroach falling on me and a new ticket barrier at my local station. The first event traumatised me severely- I’d arrived back home in the dark of the late evening, slightly tipsy as I swerved into my bike parking space, when I noticed something moving on the floor. I saw it scurry away, then took my bike keys out of my bike to open my front door (put together to be truly “Steve Proof”). It was only then that I noticed a big buzzing cockroach on my shoulder!! Even writing this makes my skin crawl, but at the time I immediately swiped at it with my hand while simultaneously shrieking like a little girl at the top of my voice (I say this without shame- YOU try finding a big f*ck-off cockroach on your shoulder!) Once it was on the ground I stamped on it about 6 times before rushing inside.

This is only one in a series of cockroach incidents recently. They appear in my apartment on average at a rate of 1 per week, and every time there is much shrieking and throwing of things.

Anyway, onto the next bit of news, which is the new ticket barrier at my train station! It's truly the most ineffectual ticket barrier ever. Picture a big wide open space, with about 2 metres on every side and no barriers except for this rectugular ticket checking machine in the middle. It was being watched today with beady eyes by a JR employee (one of Japan's train companies). He insisted that, after we'd walked past the barrier to buy tickets from the ticket machine, we walk back, insert the ticket and somehow pretend to pass through an imaginery barrier before heading up to the platform. No-one looked impressed, and he was even less impressed by my grinning as we lined up to complete the process. If it led to slight amusement for me, many of the elderly residents of Kojima seemed genuinely shoocked to have to deal with such a piece of technology, and on returning home from Okayama tonight everyone gave the unsupervised ticket barrier stares of open disgust. I enjoyed the collective feeling of malcontent, and if I'd had a few more beers I'd have probably boo-ed it loudly. Obviously this saga is yet to be resolved, but I'll keep you all posted.

Finally, I levelled the pool series tonight with a 6-1 win, before finally settling for a 7-4 victory. That leaves me and Phil at 5-5, having played a whopping 110 frames of competitive pool, and with just 33 more frames- 3 more matches- to play before he leaves these isles.

Shonan Strikes Back

2007-07-05T03:44:00.001-07:00

After the teacher transfer window in April I knew the kimochi, or general ambiance, at Shonan was going to change. However recently there has been an explosion of Japanese-English or "Japlish" at work. Not the usual "how are yuu aimu fine sankyuu ando yuu" of the students, but a move amongst many of the young teachers (and Y-sensei) to mix English words into everyday conversation.

The most obvious example of this tendency is Y-sensei's cries of "Let's Go!! Smoking!!!" whenever he heads for the downstairs smoking room. But today, this craze reached new and worrying heights. Instead of his usual "see you later" or "see you tomorrow", K-sensei decided to sign off by declaring "May the force be with you!". Incidentally this is because N-sensei told us that he was a big Star Wars fan- he told us he'd memorised "may you force be with you" and "yes my master" (after which I broke the news to him that it was actually "may the force be with you"). Now K-sensei has decided to put the phrase into general usage...

It worries me on a number of levels, not least because K-sensei seems to expect me to reply with "yes my master" whenever he says it.

I think I'm going to teach him such words as antepenultimate and pulchritudinous in an effort to create a higher level of english debate.

Anyway here are a few pics from around my local neighborhood...

(Cloudy day Seto Ohashi hashi)

(House of Kojima's very own "Salt King", Nozaki)

Some Nature

Seto Inland Sea

A Boat

Canada Day

2007-07-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

On sunday a posse of us met in Kurashiki to say goodbye to Christopher, Sarah and Ezra, soon to be departing Japan for home. It also happened to be Canada Day, celebrated in international style with Australians, Americans, Japanese, New Zealanders and two Brits kicking a football around while drinking cans of beer (who, me?)

Christopher and Sarah are truly wonderful people, not least because they gave me some tahini so I can fully realise my humous dream. If that wasn't enough of an excuse to lavish them with praise, they also happen to be the biggest Bob Dylan fans I have met outside of the Martin family. They'll be sorely missed, and I look forward to travelling to Canada some time in the future to see little Ezra inherit their passion for Bob and greek dips.

In other news tonight's pool match saw me claw my way back into the tournament after last weeks humiliated 9-2 defeat. I won 6-3 before Pip took the two consolation games to make the final score 6-5. That leaves us at Steve 5 Phil 4 with the weeks counting down before Phil and Carrie head back to Way-yels, and then on to Prague.

More Wanderings Through Asia

2007-06-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

The fourth country I will visit this year (so far South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan) will be Thailand!

I must admit I'm a bit undecided about the merits of this country, although my previous visit only lasted a grand total of 3 days. That time I went to Ko Samet, but this time I'll be travelling down to the south and staying on the famously beautiful Ko Phi Phi. Plus the inevitable visit to that unique city Bangkok.

Yahoy!

A Shiny New Camera!

2007-06-21T08:44:00.001-07:00

Given my increasing interest in photography, and my desire to continue touring the world, promoting my own brand of "internationalisation", I've decided to invest in a shiny new SLR camera! It's a Nikon D40 SLR, brimming with shinyness, and with much potential for buying hideously expensive lenses in the future if I so decide. Here are a few test shots from todays pool match (more of which below)

The Football Shirt Test

The Turtle Test

The Beatles Test

The Philip Jones Test

The Pool Test

Anyway. The Pool. Today was much like the day Blues lost 7-0 to Liverpool in the FA Cup Quarter Finals- a day best forgot. And so my 9-2 defeat to Phil tonight will thus be recorded here (as will his luck all night, as well as my distraction by other matters), and we will move on.

Matsuyama

2007-06-18T01:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went on a round trip to Matsuyama, Shikoku. Me and Miwa drove across into Hiroshima-ken on saturday, down onto Shikoku via several bridges spanning the Inland Sea, then back east on Shikoku and across the Seto-Ohashi on sunday.

Highlights include the most boring museum I have ever been to, the Asakura Towel Museum (so boring that even my ironic fascination at the towel exhibits only lasted five minutes), overly friendly petrol station staff who insisted on cleaning the inside of the car whilst we were in it, and a shiny castle well worth visiting. We also managed to get to Dogo Onsen, the famous building frequented by Japanese literary giant Soseki Natsume, and the setting for his book Botchan, which depicts a new teacher being contracted out to rural "inaka" Japan (a must read for JETs stuck in this situation!).

The return journey saw me finally cross my local bridge, the Seto-Ohashi Hashi, the longest bridge in the world! Or maybe the 3rd longest. But really long and shiny. Hurrah for the Seto-Ohashi Hashi! It was a cloudy day but the stormy 気持ち　added to the ambiance of the final photo (besides, I've seen the Seto Ohashi in sunny weather many many times).

The Pool Just Got Serious

2007-06-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have seen a post under this title last night. That post is gone, and a new one will be written to chronicle the madness of what happened on Thursday 14th June. The events were of such psychological importance that they forced my opponent Phil to create an "imaginery press conference to myself on the train home" (see http://firipujonzu.blogspot.com/ for a reasonably balanced appraisal of the game).

Basically, and without going into the detail that Phil's blog does, he started very brightly in a pool match I had to win to level the series at 3-3. He was unlucky to lose the first, made up for it in the second and I took the third to make the score 2-1. From there I managed to stretch my lead to a commanding 5-2 through clever hold-up play and the ability to come back into the game while Phil was frustrated on the black. Needless to say, it's testament to his temparament that he didn't let these could-have-been games affect his confidence, and he powered back into the game to eventually take it 6-5. I missed a couple of absolute sitters that would have given me victory, but now I'm 4 matches to 2 down in the series, and will have to fight all the way to get myself back into it.

How far we have come from a few weeks ago, eh Phil? The monday night meet up started as an idle way to catch up on the weeks events over a few beers and a few games of pool. Yet now not a drop of alcohol is touched, we spend days thinking of strategies to psych each other out, and a deathly silence falls over the later games of every match as beads of sweat roll down our faces (this could just be Japan's ridiculous climate tho). Even the owner of the bar (if you can call it that) will soon be drawn in to referee as the competition heats up (he's on my side though, which is good).

Stay tuned for next mondays showdown, which could see me claw back to 4-3, or go down to a worrying 5-2 deficit.

Random Japanese Lesson

2007-06-13T08:07:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a mention of this on my Welsh friends blog, I thought I'd provide a quick Japanese lesson for all you readers...

1. キリン　means "giraffe" in Japanese, and is pronounced (for those who can't read katakana) "kirin".

2. 麒麟 is also pronounced "kirin", however it is written, as you can see, with two of the least used and most difficult kanji that there are. It means mythical magical beer-drinking dragon.

Hai. Lesson over!

Golfing Fun!

2007-06-12T05:50:00.001-07:00

Having already tried Japan's first sporting love at Shonan (baseball) I got the chance to try it's second today- golf! It seems that after their youth and energy is sapped by the steady passage of time, Japanese men, staring retirement in the face, take up the sport that we all know isn't really a sport. En mass.

Yoshida sensei (Shonan) seems to play every weekend, and practice several times a week. And today I experienced the thrills of golf firsthand with Sugihara sensei at the driving range. Having already managed to read books, watch videos, surf the net all day and even play Wii sports with another teacher there, I wasn't surprised when we got permission to take off from Seishi High for a couple of hours of golfing fun.

Sugihara sensei is a good golf sensei- at first I was hacking wildly at the ball, but by the end the ball's flight was truly poetry in motion. Except I killed a sparrow! I suppose they usually guess the path of various golf balls quite well, but this guy clearly underestimated the ridiculous angles which I could make it fly off at. Taihen desu ne.

Anyway, yesterdays grudge pool match with Pip was postponed till Thursday, so that's the date of my next sporting challenge...

A Few Extra Pics, This Time From Kobe

2007-06-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

As the post title suggests, here are a few pics from the Kobe Conference. First up is Reed jammin' at the Brazilian restaurant we went to on his b'day. It had nine different kinds of meat on skewers! What more could you wish for.

The remaining two pics are some of the Okayama JETs- Bernie and Amy from Oz, and Reed, Dennis and Marshall from the States, plus in the second picture Meghan from Canada.

Tottori-ken and 3 Days of JET Fun in Kobe

2007-05-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

I've been on the move for the last five days. First me and Miwa went to Tottori, a city due north of Okayama-ken on the coast of the Sea of Japan, for the weekend. Then from monday to wednesday I was in Kobe for the JET Recontracting Conference, a good excuse to get pissed every day and pick up the odd scrap of useful information from the masses of boredom that await in the lectures and seminars.

Tottori was beautiful. It took us 3 hours to drive from the Inland Sea to the Sea of Japan, and by mid afternoon we were eating raw fish and drinking beer by the beach. Tottori is famous for the "Tottori sakyuu", sand dunes that stretch out for several kilmetres by the sea. They come complete with "desert costumes" and camels, but despite our best efforts we couldn't locate the elusive camels (maybe they'd taken nenkyuu! :) ). The food was absolutely fantastic; fresh sashimi for lunch on saturday, then barbequed whole fish in the evening; "tai", "aji" and a local fish as well as squid, scallops, clams and prawns. Then on our last day we went down to the fish market at Tottori harbour, which had fresh and amazingly cheap crap meat.

After returning to Okayama late sunday night I was off again the next morning to Kobe by bullet train. The Recontracting Conference was really great fun; I was lucky that I was put in a room with two Brits who shared the same attitude towards the three days as me. Despite the occasional useful bit of information, I was happy to make sarcastic comments to while away the several hours of boredom each day. The predominantly American-habit of cheering, clapping and volunteering just doesn't seem to sit well with us Brits (or maybe its just me), who prefer to quietly mock and scorn that which they don't like (ok it is just me). In truth it wasn't all that bad, and I did make it to all but one seminar, which is pretty good going I reckon (I didn't make it to breakfast any of the days though). Anyway, the Conference was fun because of the evenings, when we got to "explore" Kobe in true JET style. The highlight has to be the last night, when I went out with a big group of Brits in Sannomiya. Trust the english to find the biggest public space (a concrete area just outside the main station), sit in it and drink cans of beer! I met some fun people, refreshing my list of contacts in various places all around Japan, as well as getting to know some of the other Okayama JETs better. On the last day we all went out for lunch as it was my New Orleansean friend's birthday. Hope you had a good day Reed!

Some Pics From Tokyo

2007-05-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics from Golden Week.

Me and Georgina: in the Park Hyatt

Me and the Sunshine Man: somewhere in Shinjuku

Tokyo at 5am: I emerge victorious from karaoke.

Me, Claire and Georgina: on Shibuya crossing, one of the busiest spots in the world (but not so much at 5.30am). I think we scared the Japanese people with our antics.

Sports Day

2007-05-20T03:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Shonan High's "Supootsu Taikai" (Sports Festival). Quite why they put it on a sunday I do not know. But anyway I was forced to attend, and had to start work at 9am on God's Day of Rest. Not only that, but I'd stayed up watching quite possibly the worst FA Cup Final ever the night before.

Despite my understandable grumpiness when setting out from home at 8.35am, it turned out to be a really fun day. In the morning we had the endless volleyball "playoffs", during which I circulated between various groups of students causing panic and mayhem wherever I went (or mild divertion, depending on who you ask). I decided to support Kawasaki sensei's home room class, so I helped with a rousing speech of "Come on Lads! Get stuck in!" when we were down after the first set. Unfortunately my speech didn't have the desired effect, and we crashed and burned in the second.

After lunch we had the volleyball "finals", where I was roped into the "ichinensei no sensei chiimu", or first year teachers' team. We beat the 4th placed 1st year team, and I scored a point, hurrah! After that I watched the other playoffs, during which I acquired a follower, one of those male students who thinks its hilarious to point at all his male friends and announce "he likes boys" before bursting into laughter. Once the volleyball ended our principal gave a rousing speech on the virtues of sport and fairplay, before we were all given a box of juice...how nice!

The day ended at 4, but me and 3 other teachers hung around to get some good baseball practice in. I bought my first bat on saturday, a beauty that will hit me some home runs and defend me against mentally unhinged neighbours in equal measure. My pitching definately needs some work though...

Odds and Ends

2007-05-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Dan departed this blessed isle to return to Blighty. We market the occasion by eating a "family size" feast of raw meat, washing it down with beer before attempting to stand up and somehow manageing it.

I was recovered sufficiently by Sunday to go on a 10-mile bike ride to Shibukawa Beach, up the coast from Kojima. It was a beautiful day, and I whiled away the hours lying on the sand listening to music from my new shiny Sony MP3 player.

Then on Monday I was staggered to find, while marking tests, that one of my classes (34 students) had managed to spell my name in a ridiculous 22 different ways. And for your reading pleasure, here they all are...

Steven
Stewb
Streb
Stibu
Stibe
Stive
Stee
Steav
Steve
Stibun
Stedu
Steev
Stevbun
Steave
Stebe
Sutedu
Sterve
Strbu
Stybe
Suttb
Sutibun
Stiven

Unbelievable

Tales From A Golden Week

2007-05-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a series of national holidays, known collectively in Japan as Golden Week. I used the time to chill and relax by Mount Fuji, and have a karaoke-tastic time in Tokyo! Tokyo was wonderful, and I definately want to move there at some point, even if its just for a few months. I have far too many photos to share, and was accompanied at various points during the week by a series of amigos- Phil Ford from Notts Uni, Dan "Better Than Nothing" Luton, Georgina and Claire from South Africa, and a Mr. Stephen Harris who is currently on a world tour.

First I feel I should introduce my primary companion to the blog. Dan, Dan the Sunshine Man has been a good friend for many many years, and over said years has collected such catchphrases as "Better Than Nothing", "If Only It Wasn't True", and most recently the slogan "He Says It Best When He Says Nothing At All". He is a true hero, who helped me greatly during the week, particularly when I injured my foot in a "karaoke incident" and couldn't walk for the next few days (more of which later). Both the highs and lows of the week revolve around several karaoke incidents- the proudest of which was me belting out the Japanese classic "Kore ga watashi no ikiru michi" with newfound Japanese friends (all in Japanese).

Tokyo Treats

There were many exciting places to visit in Tokyo, and so I visited many of them. They included a pub showing live football called The Footnik, in Ebisu. I managed to see Man Utd virutally clinch the title with a magnificent 4-2 victory over Everton- its been a while since I've supported United in a game! I also saw the impressive Senso-Ji in Asakusa, which was incredibly busy, packed with Golden Week crowds. Ueno Park was another nice spot, as was Ginza- shiny upmarket department stores, and very tasty (and expensive) sushi. My favourite areas in Tokyo are in the west though; Shibuya and Shinjuku. I had two good nights out in Shinjuku, one all-nighter celebrating the Blues' promotion with Georgina, Claire and Dan. It started with a return to the Park Hyatt, where me and Pete in Hokkaido were sipping (or downing) expensive gin and tonics in August 2006. From there it progressed to more bars before karaoke, where we were eventually chucked out at 5am (we would have stayed longer otherwise). Afer that me and Dan fell asleep on the Yamanote line, spending far too long then having to find our way back to our accomodation and beds. The other night out in Shinjuku also included karaoke, and an obligatory drunken walk home. Shibuya was the scene of my third big Tokyo night out, with Pip Ford and Dan. We went for the good-old two hour nomihodie to "warm up" for more drinking in cheap stand-up bars. We also crashed a karaoke room where we made new Japanese friends and I sang (yet again) Puffy and Bob Dylan. I also managed to seriously injure my foot, which meant I needed to go to the hospital the next day and get an expensive X-ray. It also meant Dan was lumbered with my big backpack, but I feel I helped keep moral up in a difficult situation.

Other exciting places in Tokyo included Harajuku, home of Tokyo's dress-up kids and some really chilled out shopping areas, restaurants and bars. It also had Meiji Jingu, which to be honest was slightly disappointing. Roppongi was briefly visited at night but was too seedy for myself and Daniel. During the day we explored the huge shopping/eating/living areas of Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Mid Town. Of final note in this whistle-stop tour of my time in Tokyo is Yasakuni shrine, the controversial war shrine which causes diplomatic incidents every time a Japanese PM visits it. Outside sat the right-wing "sound trucks" with their nationalist slogans. The atmosphere was very strange, but it was a fascinating place to visit. Even more interesting was the war museum, a well-funded and excellantly presented overview of modern Japanese history. Its "take" on certain incidents was certainly interesting, if slightly wrong. I would have loved to have a good argument with someone over certain points; the Nanking Incident was totally glossed over, the creation of Manchukuo was presented as a natural evolution of Manchurian history, whilst at several points exhibits presented Japan's wartime quest as inherently linked with third-world efforts for self-determination- all rather bizarre. If the tone and content of the museum was decidedly right-wing, I doubt there is a better (or more interesting) museum covering modern Japanese history in Japan. I'd have loved to have been able to read the Japanese in the comment books at the museum. After spending time at the Shrine I went to the Imperial Palace Gardens, to get a glimpse at the Imperial Palace (the museum also presented the 1868 Restoration as a true restoration to direct Imperial Rule, which is clearly incorrect).

Fantabulous Fuji

Fuji-san has been revered for hundreds if not thousands of years as a spiritual symbol for Japan, and it's easy to see why. Its incredibly beautiful, and our time on the lake-side at Kawaguchi-ko was a nice respite from the madness and mayhem of Tokyo. We headed there with an injured foot and terrible hangovers, but left full of local udon and souvenir postcards.

Back To Kyoto Again

Several things went wrong on our way to Kyoto from Fuji, but we eventually arrived at 10pm where we luckily managed to run into Steve Harris at the station. After catching up over drinks we headed back to our ryokan, where we posed in our free kimonos for a photo which as yet is not on the blog...probably for the best to be honest.

Second

2007-05-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

The third and final installment of Blues news...

With Preston scoring, Blues have wasted a golden chance to clinch the Championship title. McSheffry had three great chances, but its Sunderland who take the crown. On the day they deserved it- scoring 4 goals against their opponents while we failed to nick a 1-0 win which would have won us the league.

We finished second. Still....we're up.

The Blues Are Up!

2007-05-04T03:39:00.001-07:00

Derby's defeat to Crystal Palace, and the Blues 2-0 victory means that next season the Blues will be playing in the Premiership!! The news reached me in Tokyo at 5am, at which point I was very drunk but had to call home to share the news!

Congratulations Blues, and bring on the Villa derbies!!!

おめでとうございます！！

Top Of The League!!!

2007-04-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

As if my weekend hadn't had enough pains and lack of sleep, I've just listened to easily the most stressful football match I've ever listened to, EVER.

1-0 to Blues lead to manic screaming which may or may not have upset/worried the neighbours. 1-1 sent me to the pits of despair, and upset me so much I marched off to do my ironing. While I was gone Wolves scored to make it 2-1. But five minutes later Nic Bendtner scored to make it 2-2, and send me into hysteric celebrations which probably further upset the neighbours.

And on the 88th minute Blues scored to make it 3-2!! I went absolutely crazy. But in stoppage time Wolves were awarded a penalty. But Doyley saved it!!!!!

3-2!!!! Top of the League!!!!!

Congratulations Christopher and Sarah!

2007-04-20T08:06:00.001-07:00

This is long overdue, but first and foremost Congratulations to Christopher and Sarah! on the birth of their son, Ezra James, absolutely wonderful news.

The first half of this weekend was a bit of a blur. On Friday I went out drinking with Kawahara sensei and Kagawa sensei. Kawahara was blinged up to the max with his Louis Vuitton wallet, Gucci watch, and a silver ring on a chain around his neck. He completed the look with a pair of Edgar Davids-esque sunglasses. We went to an izakaya in Kojima and had the requisite 2-hour nomihodie, as well as some really good food. It seems Kawahara is something of a regular at the place, and he was on fine form. Towards the end of the evening I was trying to teach him and most of the bar staff the difference between saying "belly", "berry" and "very", without much success. It was great to see Kagawa sensei again, I felt like bursting into song when I saw him but I restrained myself.

Saturday was painful. I spent the afternoon shopping at Aeon with Meghan, and managed to buy some clothes as well as eating the wonderful bukkake udon for dinner. This may be its first mention on the blog, but it is a firm favourite food and topic of conversation for me recently. In the evening I met Georgina, Miwa, Miwa's friend "Mehhh-chan", or "Lovely", and Lovely's boyfriend for drinks.

Sunday me and Miwa joined Chisato, Meghan, Georgina and 2 of Christopher's work colleagues in a visit to the hospital to see Christopher, Sarah and little Ezra. He's very cute! And I managed to hold him without dropping him. In fact even more impressive I managed to look fairly comfortable holding him in a photograph (despite the beads of sweat that suggest the contrary).

Back In The Groove II

2007-04-20T02:27:00.000-07:00

Lessons are now fully underway, and I've gone from being the gaijin in the corner who doesn't do much to the foreign celebrity I used to be! The new students are a mixed bunch, but (and in particular the night students) once you break the ice with them they are really keen to talk.

It also helps that I can speak a lot more Japanese now. Whilst many people are warned against using Japanese in class, it seems to work wonders at Shonan and Seishi, where the students are of a very low level. Even the odd word or Japanese phrase makes them much more willing to talk to you in English, and it also means they feel they can chat outside of lessons to you as you'll often understand.

It was also great to see all the students from last year, especially my favourites from Takemoto sensei's class! Next week I have more lessons, as well as a "business trip" to Kurashiki and a health check which involves all kinds of invasive procedures apparently (nothing too bad I've been assured). Then its a week of holiday, hurrah!!

Back In The Groove

2007-04-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today saw me return to teaching at Seishi High School. Chisato's departure had left a big hole in the teaching line-up (yes we're back to football metaphors), however the new English teacher is doing a pretty good job of filling it. Aoyama sensei, a "very handsome man" as described by Sugihara sensei, is one of Okayama's teaching elite, and indeed is so "young salaryman" in his looks that he could easily appear on TV advertising Softbank or Georgia coffee (along with Bobby De Niro). He also happens to be an "English English" teacher who supports Ipswich (the team, not the town itself). Yesterday I taught 2 lessons with him, and today I was back to teaching with Sugihara sensei.

It was great to see my favourite students again, as well as the return of Michiye to school after having to drop out mid-way through last year (I asked her if she was still working at the same coffee shop, and she told me it had closed down because of her. Hmmm). Michiye, in case you don't remember, was the original founder of the Seishi Steve Fan Club, and was born on the exact same day as my sister. The student ranks have also been boosted by a motley crew of first years, complete with their "too cool for school" attitudes and scruffy clothes. It didn't take long for them to crack under the pressure of translating "I like udon, but I don't like cockroaches" though. Mwah ha ha.

Tomorrow lessons begin in ernest, and in every other sense, at Shonan. I have a class of 3 students, then a class of 5 students. Which should be a doddle compared to friday, when I have a class of 56 students, followed by one of 28.

End Of The Season Run In

2007-04-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last night the Blues managed to beat Leicester, despite a typically nervy ending holding onto a one goal lead. Which leaves the table looking like this

Sunderland 82
Blues 80
Derby 78

Three games to go, and in case you didn't know the top two get automatically promoted!

The final three games are...

Wolves (a), Sun 22nd 8pm kick off (Japan time)
Sheffield Wednesday (h), Saturday 28th, 11pm kick off
Preston (a), Sunday 6th, 9pm kick off

If the Blues go up it means I'll be able to watch us battle against Chelsea and Man U, and thrash Villa on SkyPerfect TV. If we don't, it means more nights huddled around the radio listening to us grind out results against such teams as Preston and Grimsby...Come On Lads!

Steve's International Film Festival

2007-04-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

I've been watching quite a few movies lately, from all over the globe. These include the Korean Welcome to Dongmakgol, the Japanese Tonari no tottoro, the Mexican/Spanish Pan's Labyrinth and the German/Turkish Head-On. So here are some thoughts on them...

I saw the first part of Welcome to Dongmakgol on the coach ride back from the Demilitarised Zone to Seoul. Set in the Korean War, its a story of two sets of soldiers, one from the north and one the south, who happen to meet in a village in the mountains. The villagers of "Dongmakgol" are totally removed from and unnaware of the war that's raging all around them, not even understanding the threats of guns and grenades. Its warm and slapstick openings make the sad and heroic ending even more poignant, and highlight the futality of war and common bonds of kinship and solidarity without shovelling on any moral lessons. Well worth seeing.

Tonari no tottoro, or "My Neighbour Tottoro", is one of Hayao Miyazaki's (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle) most famous films. Its a story for children involving a bus that's a cat and three "Tottoros", cute creatures that like the sound of rain on umbrellas. I'm not a huge fan of manga, but this is such a nice story, very different from other Miyazaki epics like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa. Its short and simple, but completely enjoyable.

Less sweet and certainly not simple is Head-On, a story about two Turks living in Germany who marry each other for convenience and slowly start falling in love with each other. Its full of sex and violence, and has won lots of awards. I enjoyed it as much as I could understand it (we watched it in German with Japanese subtitles).

Finally, and best of all, is the amazingly fantastically wonderful Pan's Labyrinth. Anyone who listens to Mark Kermode's movie reviews will know how he raves about this film, and the praise is definately well founded. It's directed by Guillermo del Toro, and set in Spain a few years after the Spanish Civil War. The story revolves around the difficult life of a young girl, taken with her mother to live with her stepfather, Captain Vidal, who is hunting down a band of resistance fighters in the hills surrounding a small town. The horrors she experiences in real life are reflected in the fantasy world she creates, complete with ambiguous "monsters" and a powerful lessons about the need to question authority. Its a complex and gripping film that masterfully combines the real and imaginary. An absolute must-see.

In other news the Blues beat the Saints 2-1 to leave promotion in their own hands! Only 4 games to go...

Great News and the Madness of Japanese Timetabling

2007-04-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hurrah! A while ago I posted about my new timetable for the next 12 months, and how I might have to work until 9pm every friday. The good news is, I don't! The class has been cancelled, to my great relief, due to low numbers of students choosing it.

In a perfect demonstration of the ridiculousness of Japanese scheduling though, "Oral Communication" (as the English course is called) is actually massively over-subscribed. While the 7.30-9.00pm class had way too few students, the 4.00-5.30pm class had a school-record number of students, 56, choosing it! Last year my combined night school classes had 8 students in, this year, 56! It has been put down to the excitement amongst the first-year students at seeing me working at the school :) But if they thought they'd get to spend time with me by all choosing the course, that plan has massively backfired. 56 is way too many for any of the classrooms, so the class will be split into 2 of 28 each, and I'll take one one week, and the other the next. Quite how we'll teach an Oral Communication course that way I have no idea. In fact I actually have no idea whatsoever, it appears a plan doomed to failure...

Change Is Afoot...

2007-04-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

...and exciting change at that! In contrast to the dreary monotony that passes for my job at the moment, I'm going to be moving apartment in a couple of months to somewhere closer to restaurants, bars and beer vending machines. I'll be moving north to Kurashiki City, the exciting centre of, well, itself, as opposed to the inaka outskirts of Kurashiki- Kojima- where I currently live.

Unfortunately, moving apartment in Japan involves ridiculous start-up costs. First theres the "deposit", put in inverted commas as its hit-and-miss whether you'll see any of it again. This is usually 2-4 months rent. Then there's the "gratuity payment", a bizarre 1 months rent to say "thank you" for moving in, as if actually paying rent itself isn't thanks enough. In total this will be a payment of around 150,000 yen to move. My cunning plan is that if I find a place thats roughly 10,000 yen a month cheaper in rent, I'll be recouping most of the costs over the next year and 4 months. That means I can look for places around 48,000 yen a month (a low but manageable amount), and the Board of Education will pay 25,000 yen of this in subsidy (as they currently do for my 58,000/month place).

After the place is found and the huge downpayment is paid, all I'll need to do is relocate absolutely everything in my apartment a few miles north, so thats another 30,000 yen for a moving van (the BOE wants me to take everything in my current apartment, which will save me lots on furniture but also leave me with ridiculous amounts of stuff that I don't want and can't throw away. I may have to rent a "storage space" apparently)

There's a huge amount of stuff to be sorted out before I can move, and finding an apartment that meets my picky specifications (2nd floor, south facing, 2 rooms plus kitchen, air-con) will be tough. But, like Mao Tse-Dong and his really Long March, I won't rest until it's done.

In total I'll be spending about 60,000 yen or so to move, plus spending far more in Kurashiki living, and waking up an hour earlier 3 days a week. But it'll all be worth it to live in a thriving metropolis!

The search starts here...

Kyoto in Spring

2007-04-09T05:14:00.000-07:00

With the cherry blossoms in full swing, last weekend was the perfect time to visit Kyoto again. Me and Miwa got the Shinkansen on friday night, and stayed till sunday. On Saturday we visited Sanzen-in in the north, but the weather was really rubbish so we cut short sightseeing and went shopping and eating instead. We went to a really cool bar with views across the river, and then to Miwa's friends' French restaurant. I had a carrot and jelly mousse that tasted like curry sauce, followed by excellant fois gras, and some grilled sea bass with baby octopus and Okinawa baby seaweed. After that I had roast duck, while Miwa had some strange mix of various cow organs that was surprisingly nice. For dessert we had avocado, lime and caramel ice cream, and an apple chibuste (a kind of apple creme brulee for those uniformed souls out there). After eating we went to Kiyomizudera; the temple is lit up at night, and the cherry blossoms around it were absolutely amazing (so hard to take good pictures though). Once we got back to the area where we were staying we went to an izakaya for more food and drinks. On Sunday the weather was really nice, so we went to Kyoto Gosho (Imperial Palace Park) for a picnic, and then up to Ginkaku-ji, and the Tetsugaku no michi (Philosopher's Path), which was lined with Cherry Blossom trees.

Farewell Enkai

2007-04-06T02:39:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night I attended the Shonan farewell enkai, a glorious excuse to eat and drink to my hearts content. There is always an element of luck as to how good the first part of the evening is, as there is a "seating lottery" to decide which table you are on. Luckily for me, I was on the same one as both Yoshida sensei and Yoden sensei. The speeches were a lot shorter than expected, during which me and Yoden sensei were eyeing the tasty treats laid out before us. We had all kinds of sashimi, raw squid, smoked salmon, pasta, dumplings, sushi, and steak!

As this was a farewell enkai, after the first few courses people moved around the room, eagerly filling up the glasses of teachers who are leaving, who are then obliged to drink what they are served. This led to queues of people trying to get the leaving teachers, including Ono sensei and Kagawa sensei, reeeally drunk. Not that any teachers needed encouragement for that, and the enkai soon descended into the drunken state that these things always do. At the end we all formed an arch with our hands for the leaving teachers to walk through, and then all 40 or so of us linked arms to sing the school song at the top of our voices!

After the official first party came the unofficial second party, which about 10 teachers went to. I was taught lots of Okayama "ben" (regional dialect) by Kawahara sensei and Kagawa sensei. There was also a drink called "very very very sour" (which Japanese people pronounce "berry berry berry sawaa" which everyone seemed to be drinking, even though it was terrible. Star of the show was Miyoshi sensei, the teacher who helped set-up Shonan High and is leaving after 4 years. He was unbelievably drunk- consistently- for about 2 hours, and at the second party was saying all kinds of outrageous things which had everyone in hysterics! After long, drawn-out farewells, 7 of us raced to get the midnight train back towards Kojima, and I said goodbye to Ono-sensei, then Kagawa-sensei.

It was a really nice evening, and there’s a great spirit among the Shonan teachers, especially many of the leaving teachers. The new bunch includes a lot of young teachers- Nishimura sensei, who’s the same age as me, Kawasaki sensei, who is the new English teacher and is 25, and a PE teacher who is 22. There are also three new female teachers who are all in their early 20s, but theres only so many names I can remember, especially when drunk.

Today I was once again at a loose end, so me and Yoshida sensei popped outside and played target golf, a ridiculous game involving golf balls which shuttlecock-bits attatched, and circular target nets. I was pretty rubbish, but it was good fun.

Sakura Sakimashita

2007-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Whilst life at school continues in its dreary monotonous tones, only punctuated by Yoshida sensei's highly inappopriate questions about my private life, Japan's famous cherry blossoms have finally bloomed. Luckily for me the steep driveway at Shonan (which usually causes me all kinds of pain at 8.30am) is lined with cherry trees. So here are some pics...

Change, Change, I Fear Change

2007-04-02T04:52:00.000-07:00

(**Warning: This Post Contains Moaning**)

And the winds of change are certainly blowing. Today I made the dramatic shift about 5 metres south east to my new desk. Although I thought I was going to have Manabe sensei's desk, they've actually decided to put me right next to a big bin. Hmmm.

The new English teachers are nice-enough, Kawasaki sensei in particular seems like an alright bloke, but let's face it he's no Kagawa sensei. He definately doesn't have a "theme tune" vibe like Kagawa sensei did. Ah, Kagawa sensei...and Michishita sensei seems like a nice lady, but she lacks the English sense of humour, and fondness for Oasis and the Libertines that made Ono sensei a one-in-a-million Japanese English teacher. It could be worse- I know plenty of people who get stuck with nightmare teachers, and the two new teachers are clearly easy to get on with and should be fairly easy to teach with (even if they're not, I only have 2 of 5 lessons in my 3 days at Shonan with the new teachers, 2 others with Takemoto and 1 with Manabe). It's just annoying as I probably had 75% of my conversations with Ono, Kagawa and Yoden, and now only Yoden sensei is left (and despite his protestations, we aren't sitting next to each other).

What really bugged me today was that after the 2 hours of novelty at new faces and new views from my new desk wore off, there remained nothing for me to do, a bored ALT adrift in a sea of despair, moving from the downstairs teachers lounge to the upstairs staffroom to kill time. This will change in 2 weeks 2 days when lessons finally start, and hopefully from then on I'll regain the enthuasiasm for life that is usually so well noted about me by friends and family.

Until then I remain a disgruntled and, oftentimes (believe it or not) pessimistic teacher who has nothing to do 35 hours a week but learn kanji and write songs lamenting the loss of Kagawa sensei, the legend that was.

Sayonara Sensei

2007-03-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

Today Ono sensei and Kagawa sensei left! Their days at Shonan are over. As are Hamamoto sensei's, a comedic character who smokes 40 a day and looks constantly on the verge of collapse (if ever there was an advert for anti-smoking its Hamamoto sensei).

Me and Kagawa sensei mourned the end of an era with our third lunch out in a row- today we had curry & rice. At Co-Co's Curry if you eat 2kg of rice in 20 minutes you get it for free! I stuck to 300g in the end though.

I'm also....moving desk! Yoden sensei was very annoyed when he found out we wouldn't be sitting next to each other, so I suggested he bribe the teacher in charge of the seating plan. He laughed but then dashed off to speak to her, so who knows... I'll be sitting at Manabe sensei's desk, next to the new Head of English, Michishita sensei. The other new English teacher is Kawasaki sensei. I'll meet them both on monday.

But for today, goodbye Ono sensei and Kagawa sensei!

Tai-really-wan To Go Back Again Sometime (Taiwan Part 3)

2007-03-29T05:54:00.000-07:00

And so we come to the final installment of my Taiwan trip. Tai may have pei'd too much for breakfast on the second day, but tai more than pei'd the price for drinking all those beers on the third. I finally managed to leave the hostel around midday, and had to find new accomodation as the room I'd been in was booked up for the next two nights. I wandered along to the Happy Family hostel, a grotty tower block in central Taipei with iron bars over every door. Pretty grim, but very cheap. The owner was Mr. Lee, a slightly less crazy Mr.Lee than the one I'd met in Seoul. There was no happy family in sight. After dumping stuff I headed up to Danshui, the seaside town at the end of the Taipei MRT metro line. It was a really nice day, and I enjoyed strolling along the waterfront, even in my pained state. I visited Fort San Domingo too, which was very interesting. I had more street food and then went back into Tapei to visit a couple of temples; they were both nice to wander around in the sun, and it was a great way to spend a day (I was really lucky with weather in Taiwan, as most weeks it pisses it down constantly (for non-British readers, that means it rains a lot)). In the evening I went to the Beitou Public Baths, an onsen-esque experience without having to get completely naked. I accidentally went to the hottest bath first, and jeeeesus it was hot! I don't know how the old Taiwanese men sitting in it could stand it. I settled for a less hot version, and soaked for a while. In the evening me, Meghan and Tibor met up for some drinks. We had quite a few, and ended up in a pub selling pints of carlsberg- pints!! I hadn't realised how much I'd missed the pint, Britain's greatest export. Anyway I got home around 3 or 4, I'm not entirely sure which, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning the Taiwan trio ("JETs on tour") met up to see Taiwan's most famous "sight", the National Palace Museum. It was very impressive- I must admit the fact that it was mostly pieces of pottery worked against it, but even so there were some amazingly intricate, and unbelievable old pieces on display. The museums contents were all dumped onto a plane and flown to Taiwan in the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-Shek escaped Communist China. Thank god he did, as otherwise most of this stuff would have subsequently been destroyed in Mao's "Cultural Revolution". A particular favourite was an Olive stone carving, with a small boat with about 7 figures in, about 1.5 inches by 1 inch, with an entire poem carved onto the bottom in minute Chinese characters. The oldest stuff was around 4000 years old! There was also a long scroll painting, "Down By The River", which was fantastic- it was about 5 metres long. The photo is of Meghan getting interviewed by high school students. The rest of the day, and indeed evening, passed quite quickly; I strolled around a bit and, reverting to hobo-like tendencies, dozed on a park bench. In the evening we went to the Shilin Night Market, where we had the Taiwanese equivalent of nabe, and where it finally truly let loose and pissed it down. I had a couple of beers back at the hostel with a French guy before turning in for the night.

The next day began at the ungodly hour of 4.50am. The flights and train ride home all went without a hitch, and although we had a great time we were all tired and ready to be back home. Taiwan was very interesting; there wasn't quite as much to see as I'd expected, but the dumplings and general street food were excellent, and it was really really nice to be back in a Chinese-speaking country. It renewed thoughts of possibly going to live somewhere in China in the future. Nothing could match the amazing autumn colours nor the DMZ that I'd seen in Seoul. But I like Chinese architecture more than anything else I've seen in Asia, and I managed to remember and speak some of the Chinese I'd learnt two summers back which was very satisfying.

Tai-peid Too Much For Breakfast (Taiwan Part 2)

2007-03-29T05:08:00.000-07:00

The next day I ventured out of Taipei, to check out the coastline of northern Taiwan. Tai truly did pei too much for my breakfast sushi, and it was crap compared to Japanese sushi, but then what did I expect. I got a train to Ruifang, and then got a bus (with lots of Taiwanese people staring at me) to Jiufen, a nice mountain town with a really long covered market street, and good views out over the sea. It was full of Japanese tourists too. After staring at the nice view for a while, and eating lots of street food, I headed on to the Pingxi Rail Line, apparently a very scenic route into the moutains. It was ok, but there's only so much excitement I can muster when faced with coal museums. After that it was getting late, so I went to the famous Keelung Market, known for its wide range of fish and traditional cooking. I had a kebab in the end. It was pretty good though. In the evening I drank in the hostel, and chatted with two loony Japanese travellers from Tokyo; it was their first time staying in a hostel, and the girl was so excited! After some beers I was gonna go out with some of the other people staying there, but we ended up drinking and watching movies all night; first The Departed (again), then Blood Diamond (DiCaprio's South African accent is actually really good), and finally Pulp Fiction, a perfect film for 4am. I had some more of my betel nuts to keep me awake!

Bring It Taiw-on!

2007-03-29T05:07:00.001-07:00

This is the first in a series of poorly titled posts about my recent trip to Taiwan. It was full of fun, beer, sightseeing and dumplings.

The trip started on tuesday evening, when I dashed out of school 2 hours early thanks to Ono-sensei's generosity. I got all the connections and managed to have a couple of beers, so all went well. Soon enough I was on the flight to Taipei, where I managed to bag another couple of beers, this time free. I caught the last bus into Taipei from the airport, and at about 1am found the unmarked door to Eight Elephants hostel. The hostel was one of the most interesting I've stayed in; incredibly fun, relaxed and full of friendly people. But the longer term guests there were absolute insomniacs! The first night I probably managed to get about 3 hours sleep, so after that I quickly switched to a private room upstairs.

Despite the lack of sleep I hit the streets of Taipei with vigour and vim the next day. First up was the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, a huge monument to the controversial leader of Taiwan. It was at the south end of a huge square, with fantastic temples and monuments on all sides. The Memorial Hall and the arch facing it were both of a similar style to the Sun Yatsen Memorial I'd seen in Nanking, while the other two were wonderful Chinese buildings in Forbidden Palace style. I wanted to see Chiang's grave (I'd then have seen Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Sun Yatsen and Chiang), but I couldn't locate it. After the Memorial Hall I went to Taipei's most important temple, Longshan. Again it was colourful and full of life, and people. While temples in Japan are sombre and quiet, in Taipei they were all full of people praying, and mists of incense. Longshan felt like a real, working temple, and was on the corner of a block right next to busy market streets. From Longshan I went to the Ximen area, and chilled out for a while enjoying the sunny weather. I also went to the 2-28 Peace Park, which was really nice. Around 2 I headed back to the hostel, picking up some cheese dumplings from a street stall that someone had recommended to me; they were delicious, and dirt cheap. And I taught the lady there the Japanese pronunciations of the Chinese characters for her shop (I'm not sure how much she wanted to know them to be honest). I dozed on the sofa in the hostel for an hour or so, then went out again to visit the world's tallest building, Taipei 101. I've been up a few reeeally tall buildings now so the experience wasn't novel, but I guess its pretty cool to go to the world's tallest building, even if it will only hold the title for a few months before something else takes over. After that I ate in the basement food court, which had styles from all across Asia so I, of course, plumped for Japanese seafood ramen. I met my friends Tibor and Meghan in a coffee shop in Ximen in the evening, but they were pretty wiped out from a day trip, and my 2/3 hours sleep was finally catching up with me. So I left to check out Snake Alley before heading back to the hostel. On the way to snake alley I found one of Taiwan's infamous betel nut girls; girls who sell the addictive nuts by the side of the road, often skimpily dressed. This one was a fully clothed women in her 40s, just my luck!

I bought some of the nuts; they give you a caffeine like buzz that lasts for about 10 minutes, and turn your mouth blood red. Plus they are absolutely disgusting. Anyway I went on to Snake Alley, which was a bit dissapointing; only one snake, and de-shelled baby turtles for people to eat!! :( :( That made me feel glum, so I returned home. At the hostel I had some cake, and chatted with the really nice hostel owner; a girl who's just finished uni called Heather, who knew a lot and was incredibly laid back. By 12 I was ready to die, so I crawled into bed and got the 8 hours sleep I desperately needed.

The Transfer Window

2007-03-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

Its all change this month as thousands of teachers across the country pack their bags and move to pastures new. For Kagawa sensei this involves not only packing his bag but clearing his desk of two years worth of accumulated bits of paper (he looked pretty glum today). So, who was the star transfer, and who got an Emile Heskey when they were looking for a Ronaldinho? Lets review...

Chisato-san (Hirota-sensei): The casualty of the window is that Chisato is moving, bringing a close to 7 months of mornings eating udon and afternoons gossiping about other teachers. She's going to a more academic school where my friend Meghan works. Although I'm sad to see her leave, her English fluency and teaching are wasted at Seishi, and so its a good thing for the students of Okayama. She'll have to wake up at 6am instead of 10am though; if I was forced into a change like that, I'd probably jump in from of a bullet train.

Ono-sensei: Not only am I losing Chisato but I'm also losing Ono-sensei. He's also off to an academic school, leaving a gap at the head of the English department at Shonan. Although he turned down my offer to fill that gap, he's a good guy, chilled out, and has a great taste in music, as well as favouring English English over what they speak in less wonderful parts of the world.

Kagawa-sensei: Perhaps the saddest change, however, has to be the loss of the legend that is, Kagawa-sensei. No more will the halls of Shonan be graced with his presence, nor his cheeky smile get to light up the teachers room. If Chisato is a Thierry Henry, and Ono-sensei a Michael Owen, then Kagawa-sensei is clearly the Stan Lazaridis of the English teacher world- the people's favourite, who will be greatly missed.

As well as these three casualties, a number of other teachers are leaving- maybe 10-15 from Shonan. Next week we have a massive formal enkai for both departing and new teachers. At Seishi, there'll be a new teacher to replace Chisato and line-up alongside me and Sugihara sensei in the English teacher strikefore (Ok I think I'm taking the analogy a bit too far now). At Shonan we have a back five of me, Takamoto sensei, Manabe sensei and two new teachers.

Below are a couple of pics from Seishi graduation- Sugihara sensei and me next to his very nice car for some reason, and him holding the big flag we put out for graduation.

Posts all about Taiwan coming soon...

Hattoji

2007-03-18T08:19:00.000-07:00

After a wednesday and thursday spent eating out/drinking, I ended up getting truly drunk with Yoden sensei on friday night. This involved the regular Japanese 2-hour "nomihodai" (all you can drink), followed by a trip to Legend Bar, quite possible the classiest bar in Okayama. After cocktails, rum and wine we stumbled to Okayama station to get the last train back to Kojima.

My Saturday morning followed the classy theme, but involved less alcohol. I visited the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at Takamatsu's Museum of Art. It was well worth the visit, and involved crossing the wonderful Seto-Ohashi Bridge to Shikoku. After a couple of hours there I had to dash into Okayama to meet Miwa, as we were going to Hattoji, and one of Okayama's International Villas for Yumiko's farewell. Friends Christoper and Sarah has spent Christmas there with their family, and it was easy to see why, it was really beautiful, secluded and peaceful. It did take us about twice the time it should have to get there though due to- depending on who you ask- Miwa driving too fast, Chisato driving too slow and going the wrong way, or my terrible directions.

We were sharing the villa with three other people from Illinois, USA. It was a really nice evening and next day, although as I write this the alcohol of the past 5 days has definately caught up with me. I'll give myself tomorrow off the drink before I head to Taiwan on tuesday!! Sugoi!!

Lightning Trip To Kansai

2007-03-12T04:37:00.000-07:00

A while ago I bought the magical, oft-mentioned (certainly on this blog) Ju Hachi Kippu. It lets you travel unlimited for 5 days, and costs 8,000 yen. Last weekend I used up two of the days buzzing around Kansai, visiting my friend Nina in Nara Prefecture, as well as travelling to Osaka and Kyoto.

On Friday night I began my long trip across Japan to Nara Prefecture. It took about 4 hours for me to get to my friend's house, and involved a couple of changes in huge Osaka stations when I had to race to get trains with mere seconds to spare. Luckily I made it each time, and managed to leap acrobatically onto the last train just before the doors closed.

On Saturday me and Nina explored Yoshino, a mountain town famous for two weeks a year, when thousands of cherry trees bloom. Sadly I visited a few weeks before this will happen, but it was still really beautiful, with some nice temples that gave me a good chance to pose in my Blues shirt for an upcoming feature in the Blues magazine!

After Yoshino I headed into Osaka, and went to all the crazy and cool shops in Shinsaibashi. I also visited Osaka Castle, which despite its ancient appearance has an elevator to get you to the top!

On Sunday I headed across the Kansai plain to Kyoto. I revisited Heian Jingu, and then wandered across to Maruyama koen, where I saw some sort of Japanese bridal fashion show in progress. Then I went to Nijo-jo. The castle is fitted with "nightingale floors", which sqeak constantly, making it hard for any intruder to escape detection. Not so useful today when its filled with tourists. I got back to shiny Kyoto station, and just had time to buy an expensive department store bento and a couple of beers before getting the slow train back to Okayama.

Today I found a new and exciting way to pass time at Shonan- play badminton! I managed a total of seven games against Yoshida sensei (old but very very good), Yamamoto sensei, and Kagawa sensei, a man so cool he deserves his own theme tune (for some reason I imagine that it would be simlar to the Postman Pat song). It was so much fun! Me, Kagawa sensei and Yamamoto sensei are all about the same level, and we're going to try to play every week.

Back to Takamatsu

2007-03-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

This Saturday was my second enkai with the teachers from Seishi koko, and it was even more amusing than the first. After eating at a crab restaurant, and consuming the usual vast quantities of Asahi and Kirin, we headed for a sleazy karaoke bar where some of the really drunk teachers started singing the funniest songs. It turns out the kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) is a massive Hanshin Tigers fan, so he belted out the official Hanshin song, bellowing "Hanshin TIGERS!!!" at the top of his voice. Then the slightly bizarre but increadibly friendly history teacher got carried away singing fantasy songs from anime films; everyone was in hysterics! Sadly the night was tinged with sadness, as Friday was the last time I'll ever teach with Chisato-san. She's being transferred in the April teachers' "merry go round", and gossiping with her all day is the main reason why I like Seishi. It remains to be seen how my days there will be once I go back in April for the new school year. Thursday was graduation, so I'll try and post some photos from that soon.

On Sunday me and Miwa took the ferry from Uno (near where I live) to Takamatsu, one of my favourite cities in Japan. We went back to the reeeally nice Ritsurin Koen, had some Kagawa-ken udon, and chilled out. It was a perfect Sunday.

Oyster Festival

2007-02-26T17:48:00.001-08:00

As promised, last weekend I went to an Oyster Festival...

We made a late start, and combined with confusion over how to actually get to Hanase we didn't reach the Festival until 3pm, the time it was meant to finish! Sadly this meant that I didn't manage to meet up with Hanase's resident gaijin, my good friend Tibor. However there were still plenty of oysters to go around. First we had boiled oysters in some sort of a stew, then we tried "oyster ice cream", a bizarre concoction of regular vanilla ice cream, soy sauce instead of chocolate, and two deep fried oysters. Yumi-chan's face says it all- mazui!! The worst thing I have tried in a long time. After that we had oyster okonomiyaki, or "kakioko". Miwa bought some oysters for her mum, so I decided to buy some as well. However, once I got home I realised I had absolutely no idea what to do with this carrier bag full of oysters. Given the inherent dodginess of eating oysters, plus the "Noro virus" currently sweeping through Japan's oyster population, and the fact I was ill last weekend after eating similar creatures, it probably wasn't the best move. Anyway it turned out fine- I half cooked them by steaming them so I could prize open the shells, then fried them up with garlic and onions. Success!

In other news I bought a new jacket. Obviously I wouldn't mention such mundane and trivial news on this blog usually, but I liked the tag inside, which says "Made Expressly For Mechanics, Miners, Engineers and Laboring Men ". Just right for me then. Teaching is, after all, a labouring of the mind, wouldn't you say?

My travelling plans pick up from here on in. Way back in August, I was lucky enough to be told about a certain Ju Hachi Kippu ticket. This mystical ticket has reappeared once again for spring, this time at the bargainous price of a mere 8,000 yen. Which means I'll be travelling a lot the next few weekends. Then there's only three weeks to the Golden Week Holidays! I love holidays!!

The Naked Man

2007-02-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

This weekend I spurned the chance to go to an expensive French restaurant opening in Kyoto, and instead planned to spend Saturday night watching semi-naked men wrestle. All for the blog, of course. This weekend was the Hadaka Matsuri, or "Naked Man" Festival, Okayama-ken's most famous event. It is also one of the top 3 "weirdest festivals" in Japan (yes the Japanese actually list these kind of things). The rules of the contest are simple enough. Men in nappies run round in a big circle, splashing through a waist high "bath" of ice cold water, and having more ice cold water thrown over them. Then, three sticks are thrown into the maddened crowd. Cue mass brawling, and the eventual emergence of victorious champions, who gain both honour and cash prizes (who would have thought you could gain honour while wearing a nappie).

Anyway I planned to watch all this, but sadly my plans were derailed by a bout of unpleasant sickness brought on by consuming large amounts of shellfish. I thus missed the Festival, so you'll have to wait until this time next year for an eyewitness account (or check out Phil's blog once he's updated it).

Not to let the shellfish get the better of me, I'm going to an Oyster Festival next weekend- they may have won the battle, but I'll win the war!

A Different Kind of Piste

2007-02-12T03:50:00.000-08:00

That's right, I put down that can of beer, finished that bottle of Taylor's Port, and picked up my rather cool hat and a pair of skis last weekend for fun in the snow. As with most things in life, I thought skiing would be a piece of piste. How wrong I was. After me and Georgina slotted our feet into the damn things, we had trouble just staying still. Sliding backwards is nothing however compared to crashing forwards into innocent bystanders as you attempt to do anything other than stay where you are. I perservered with typical Martin grit and determination, and as a result almost received the second sporting injury in the family at the moment (speedy recovery Dad). My "skiing" basically comprised of taking the skis off, walking up a mild slope, putting them on, and sliding now the slope crying "yayyy!!" before falling over. I did this about 7 times, and it was great fun. Please refer to the action shot to the left somewhere. As the day wore on I grew bolder, despite still not being able to walk in the skis. So I took the ski lift up the hilly thing, which if you ask me is worth the admission fee alone. At the top I realised I'd actually die if I let myself fly down that slope, so it was with a mixture of sliding on my feet and on my skis that I made my way down. Still, all in all it was a great new thing to do, and I'll definately try it again- though maybe next year.

After a day on the piste me, Georgina and Yukiko headed to Matsue, on the north coast of Japan. Matsue is a quiet, pleasant place, with nice food and some interesting sights. We got there in the evening after the skiing, and went to a restaurant for tempura, a few drinks and one of Matsue's specialities, shijimi miso shoyu...oishii! The hotel we stayed in was great- a really chilled bar and incredibly cheap rooms.

The next day we woke up early (well, I thought it was early) to visit Izumo Taisha, the second most important Shintou shrine in Japan. It contained some really big ropes and lots of kegs of sake. Also there was an incredibly cool statue of the Sun God. I got my New Years fortunes (I'd previously got them in Fushiimi-Inari Taisha in Kyoto back in November), and was once again greeted by bad luck. Damn Shintou gods. After Izumo we headed to the coast and explored a small town with a nice shrine and lighthouse. It was very cool to have gone coast to coast in a weekend- the Sea of Japan feels a lot more like a sea than the Inland Sea does. Before leaving I had some strange creatures as a snack- delicious barbequed squid, and some weird thing in a shell. Back in Matsue we visited the castle and some of the other sights around town.

Far-Fetched

2007-02-08T03:04:00.000-08:00

My days at Shonan are turning into a joke. For the next 8 weeks or so there are no lessons, which means that I have almost nothing to do.

Fair enough I've been asked to plan the curriculum for next years "Oral Communication" classes. But then I've already done a lot of that anyway. And it doesn't take that much time. Secondly a lot of what I decide will be redundant, as I'll have to adapt all my ideas for the incoming Head of English (yeah, still no luck getting Ono-sensei to appoint me).

So today I read. I'm pretty sure I can finish a book a week, so next week its finishing Kokoro for a second time, then the week after I'll begin my fourth attempt (hopefully this time successful) at Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Also today I drank a total of 8 cups of coffee trying to fight off tiredness, in what has to be the first week in recent history that I've had to wake up before 8am every day. See it's just as well I'm staying in Japan, I'm not cut out for the real world.

My day was completed by a long chat with an as-yet unnamed (well that's not fair. He is named. I just don't know his name) sensei in the downstairs "lounge". We spent at least 20 mins earlier this week trying to remember Theo Walcatt's name. Then we did. When I asked him who he supported, he told me "great players". I said Birmingham City, and proceeding to tell him all about our joys (and sorrows too) - maybe I've found myself a convert. Anyway today our conversations were greatly improved by the presence of an electronic dictionary. I could use words such as "far-fetched" without being greeted by a blank stare. And I learnt a new word too! It's ninki, and means popular. We talked about music, politics, food and football.

Anyway I feel that I've rambled enough. Except to say that any ideas on how to spend the next two months are more than welcome- all I've got is reading books. In fact any book suggestions are also welcome- after Dostoevsky I only have 2 unread Murakami, and I feel I need a break from him.

Back of the Net!

2007-02-07T04:29:00.000-08:00

Hurrah!!

I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 4 (yon kyuu), which virtually makes me a Japanese citizen. Well, not really. But it means I can order a beer and complain about the weather to a good standard.

The 60% pass mark was, in the end, cleared with room to spare, and one might say with style and finess too. I got 77% overall, and was really happy to get 80% in the long and arduous "reading/grammar" section.

Now all I have to do is reap the adulation that will hopefully ensue when I go into work tomorrow.

NB: If you want more than adulation in Japan, the best thing to do is to get married. Japanese custom obliges that each guest brings san-man-en (£150) in a white envelope to the wedding. Plus if your a JET you get an extra 5 days paid holiday. Now there's a thought...

Six Months

2007-02-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

That's right, it's exactly six months to the day that I arrived in hot, sweaty Tokyo, bursting to the seams with optimism and joy at being in foreign lands once again. And even though its bloody freezing now, my initial optimism has, like magic, been transformed into a love and respect for the country I now call home.

Even teaching- something most people I'm sure would have never imagined me doing- has been quite a laugh, and gone relatively well, with a few exceptions like mispelling "Christmas" and allowing Wham into the classroom.

I've seen a lot of stuff over the past six months, and there's more to come! Although I've had much fun the last few weekends, I'm eager to ease my itchy feet and get moving around Japan again. I'd tough walking the tightrope between being "daring and adventurous" and avoiding financial ruin. But I do my best. I guess if I'm going for Taiwan for 5 days, then seeing the Cherry Blossom in Tokyo and Kyoto in early April, I should probably sit tight for now. Plus there's all sorts of farewell celebrations planned for my friend Yumiko, who's leaving to live in New York at the end of March.

In other news the Official Shonan English Songs 2006-07 CD was created this week. Bear in mind that it's for 15-16 year olds, who obviously have very poor music taste...

1. "Welcome to My Life", Simple Plan
2. "There She Goes", The La's
3. "Miss A Thing", Aerosmith
4. "Complicated", Avril L
5. "In My Place", Coldplay
6. "Oops! I Did It Again", Britney
7. "Happy Xmas", John Lennon
8. "Last Christmas", Wham
9. "A Whole New World", from Aladdin
10. "Life", Des'ree
11. "Don't Look Back in Anger", Oasis
12. "Nobody's Fool", Avril

Suggestions for next years CD are welcome. I volunteered such classics as the Libertines' "What A Waster" and Mouldy Peaches' "Who's Got The Crack", but surprisingly Ono-sensei rejected them.

Proof, not that it was needed, that I can't spell.