16 February 2006 - 3:02 pm

[back]

god knows when i last wrote something but since then i have left japan, flown through korea, stayed in sydney with marii, stayed in melbourne with daniella and arrived back in adelaide. now im staying at mum and dads.

i have a new job, a new bike, some new shoes and clothes. i am yet to get my flat back. i do have my car back. i have not gotten my tv, stereo etc back because my family have intergrated them into their lives and are reluctant to part with them. infact, in some cases i do believe they have forgotten that it was i who purchased them.

i have only caught up with about 10 so far. i see no point in making contact with people until i am back in my flat and can actually see people on a somewhat regular basis. as i have to give my tenant 2 months notice i will be back there in april or may.

as i sit here typing i am taking care of the other side of business. the people who i have completely lost touch with. im going through my contacts and deleting all the old and useless ones - one by one - because it seems that hotmail wont let me do it all at once.

so my job doesnt start until march 6. until then i am walking my familys dog - jimmy - every morning and then either going to the gym, or from now on, bike riding. i rode 10kms today.

i have to add a whole bunch of new contacts to my hotmail account and write a group email too. ive been putting that off for at least a week...

it really seems like it was too easy. within a few weeks i have almost everything back on track. not that im complaining, but i just thought it would take longer. it seems like i never left.

im being boring now so im gonna stop typing.

[japan is nothing but a yakitori restaurant, its master, his wife and their daughter]

and that yakitori-ya is called teio. and when i am 103 and getting towards the end of my life i will never forget that yakitori master's happy face and sagelike words...or his jokes.

i cant really remember why i came here. i read 2 sentences in a book that oliver lent me, but i'm not giving it back, so i suppose "gave me" would be more accurate. the 2 sentences were:

Why do you go away? So that you can come back.

and maybe that is why...

i'm also reading a book by carl shuker, called the method actors. i used to work with carl at nova, but he left last year, or even the year before, i cant remember when. at the time i thought he was quite interesting, but now that i'm reading his book, i think that perhaps he was pretending to be interesting, when, in fact, he was fukking fascinating...

anyway, the book is based mostly in tokyo and it tosses about some of the questions which i find myself tossing about on the eve of my departure.

what is it about japan? i dont know yet.

but for me it has something to do with the yakitori master, mikami hirokazu, aka hiro.

and tonight will be the last time i visit that restaurant, and the last time i see hiro, and the first time in a v long time that i bawl my fukking eyes out. and i cant remember feeling this helpless to stop something which i dont want to happen. fuk. im even starting to cry now. just thinking about it. and how does a person become so important to you? so powerful that thinking of saying goodbye to them makes you feel hollow inside except for the searing pain in your chest? that man is a great man. a lively man. a man who has bungee jumped without the slightest apprehension, without even waiting for the countdown (i have seen the video!). that man taught me almost everything i know about japan. and many things i know about the world too. and when i was homesick, he made me laugh, and when i was happy, he made me laugh harder. he taught me old japanese words, and also how to insult people in at least 10 different ways...

is it weird to feel so much for a 57 year old man? it seems like it should be, but he is like a grandfather to me. truth be told, i know him better than my grandfather, grandmothers, uncles, aunties and possibly other family members too. and vice versa.

and i think that fluent english speakers lose something in the multitude of words. sometimes less is more.

i'll leave you with a quote from my self-proclaimed japanese father...

"jaye, mans mind is always moving moving but i dont forget you. we will miss you jaye."

[negative nancy]

the other day i tried not to say anything negative. just one day. i didnt even attempt to stop thinking negative thoughts because that would be impossible.

i made it to work without saying anything negative, but thats only because i was with private students until then... as soon as i got to speak to native english speakers a barrage of complaints and "i hate it when..."s came out of my mouth. i was of course joined by others, but thats not the point.

i suppose it was a bad idea to try this when im sick with one of those long drawn out colds that you have for 2 weeks before you realise it. i would much rather have a hardcore, all at once and finished within a week cold. this one is more like several mild colds all joined together. im in the sneezing, eyes watering, runny nose with dry cough stage. 2 weeks ago (or actually almost 3 weeks ago) i had the tickly throat cough, then i had headaches, then it was sore throat, then lethargy. i think im headed for the chesty cough and blocked nose stage.

im not suprised. i hear that when people get a chance to relax, their body allows them to become sick, and i guess my body knows i have 8 days off coming up to recuperate.

so anyway, when i get better im going to try not to say negative things for 24 hours. the problem is that its so much fun to complain. and practically impossible to be funny without complaining. positive people are rarely funny. bright and uplifting perhaps, but not funny.

come to think of it, i hate positive people. theyre boring. and they annoy me. why the hell would i want to be positive???

[the 1st of the sayonara parties bites the dust...]

...in the land of 2 hour parties...

one more thing about japan i will not miss is the mistaken concept of parties. here, 3 people going to a restaurant consitutes a party. tho in todays case it was 15 people eating sushi and drinking tea...for 2 hours.

and i shouldnt complain because they are nice people, but dammit, i will complain because i feel like it.

they gave me manju. i have told them i do not like anko (sweet red beans) so they give me a bag of all different kinds of sweets...all made from fucking sweet red beans. beans are not meant to be sweet. and im not really sure that i like beans even when they are served as part of a savoury dish. mexican food is ok. i quite like it, but not because of the beans. inspite of the god damn boring mushy beans.

and if one more person uses the word paatii (party) to describe a sober 2 hour long experience which does not include alcohol...I...WILL...SCREAM.

a party is 20 or more people drinking alcohol for more than 5 hours. that, my dears, is what a party is.

anyway, 1 party down and i suspect 1 more to go...for every private student i teach. actually, possibly more as todays party was only one of 2 parties planned for me by that private class. the next one is in 2 weeks. so the one today was not really a farwell afterall, because i will be seeing them again, at the next paatii, which is not actually a party.

and i am sick of people taking for-fucking-ever to make a decision. i cant really understand japanese, but i can usually follow the conversations and decide (in my head) the best course of action in any given situation, 20 minutes before those having the discussion in their native languages do. of course, im never included in the conversation, or asked my opinion. only told the outcome after is has been decided, and then i have to act suprised because they think i havent understood the last half an hour of conversation.

and that may well be the thing i hate the most about japan. being treated like a child and having every other person make decisions for me.

if you can speak english to tell me the decision you have made on my behalf, why not use english to communicate options to me? or even better, just let me take care of my own business.

[T minus 6 weeks and counting...]

but it doesnt feel like it. but i think i was the same way when i left australia. those types of things dont seem to sink into my brain. actually, it would probably be accurate if i said that most things in my life dont seem real. i have trouble differentiating between actual memory, memory of books and movies, memory of dreams, memory of day dreams and complete fanatasy. i suppose thats what happens when you live half of your life in your head or in a book...

so...6 weeks and ill be on a plane to seoul, then sydney. and when i think about it, i get the same feeling as when i think about winning the lottery. its a nice thought, but it doesnt have that "real" feeling about it. too good to be true...? perhaps.

perhaps its the scourge of the aquarius. to analyse so much that we become distant and unable to feel. to think about stuff so much that we simply take all of the fun out of it.

my students are starting to say their farewells, starting to take photos and give gifts and it seems like something i cant...involve myself in...which sounds strange because i am most certainly involved. its my farewell...but whilst its my farewell and its me they're saying goodbye to and me they are taking photos of...my mind is not there...

i have learnt to detach from people, from situations, from conversations. i have learnt to be in a conversation, while being somewhere else entirely. i have learnt to ignore that which i dont want to notice. to react physically and verbally to stimuli, whilst completely unaffected beneath the surface.

i have learnt not to care.

and so, when people are crying, and telling me that they will miss me...i can only utter insincere cliches and promises to come back, or meet in australia. promises that i dont want to keep, and promises that will be forgotten by those who make them.

and i wonder, how can people be so naive. how can they be so unaware that time changes everything, erodes all feelings away. only the rarest of relationships can survive time. that even love can disappear within 3 months, so how can a mere acquaintanceship last an indefinite time over an entire ocean?

or do they think that our relationship is more than an acquaintanceship? and if so, then again, how can they be so naive?

or is it me? and is the question then how can i be so cold?

[happy halloween...?]

have booked flight to sydney for january, friday the 13th... couldnt decide if i was superstitious enough to not fly on friday the 13th, eventually decided whilst superstitious enough to recognise friday the 13th as unlucky day, not superstitious enough to not fly. also interested to see whether plane is emptier because of bad luck factor...but probably wont be as most passengers will be either japanese or korean (as flight is via seoul) and believe friday the 13th to be western thing, possibly from some christian thing.

note to self: google on friday the 13th and use as voice topic.

[3 mins later] suspicion verified. is western/christian thing. about judas. am not christian thus am safe...

really dont know why bothering to blog as have naught of consequence to report. am having bloggers block i suppose. have witnesses this phenomenon in others, never thought would happen to me. has happened.

did i blog of mother's recent visit?

well, went to kusatsu, nikko, kamakura, odaiba, asakusa, shinjuku, shibuya, harajuku, akihabara. mother and friend also went to nara, kyoto and hakone.

highlights? kusatsu. twas idyllic. gaspanic shibuya. mother and friend drank and danced with african folk. then mother lost locker key and thus last train was missed. went to roppongi. mother had bizarre freak out accusing people of...whatever... some kind of paranoia thing. mother paid for taxi from roppongi to yonohonmachi.

lowlights? large argument between mother and self involving crying and whatnot. resolved by mother waking self at 4am to pronounce herself bad mother.

outcome? expect triumphant return to home country will not be as triumphant as once thought...

a short one because this keyboard is only semi functioning...

and i have to get to narita airport to pick up my mum and her friend.

it saddens me that my friend pete is homesick. if you read this pete, then dont be sad. go to sydney and i will see you there in a few months.

it also saddens me that many of my friends in adelaide are fueding.

if you are from adelaide, and you are my friend, please dont fued. please read this book instead. it is relevant in at least 2 ways i can think of. long term friends growing apart, and then sticking back together, or rather thegither. much of the speech is written in the phonetics of a strong scottish accent with dialect. and its also about drugs and alcohol contributing to the discord between them.

anyway, as usual, im looking forward to getting back to oz. short stay in sydney will be nice. but first, i must attend to my mothers imminent visit...

[mario, the man in the computer]

friday i got up early and went to roppongi for a hair cut and a massage. that was good. then i chucked a sickie and went to pete's red wine party and proceeded to drink from about 2pm to about 2am. i threw up and fell asleep before the end.

then i woke up and went home. i cancelled all but one private lesson that day. i could have cancelled all of them but that student's mother scares me.

after that i met chizu at an english pub in omiya and ate fish and chips and drank a bit.

sunday i taught a lesson and then went to the hara museum of contemporary art to see a miwa yanagi exhibition. it was the best exhibition i have ever been to. black and white eerie photography with a gothic fairy tale theme incorporating the issue of young vs old. wicked.

then met chizu and her parents in odaiba for a beer and watched the sunset. then hiro decided we should have sushi for dinner, but the sushi would be better in asakusa, so we took the boat across the bay and up the sumida river.

once we got there hiro took us to an old izakaya to drink a famous cocktail - whiskey, shouchu and gin... and then to sensouji for a quick prayer to buddha.

sushi was good. hiro practically forced beers and nihonshu (sake) down my throat, and then we took the train home.

the rest of the week has been v standard. cleaning the house, washing my clothes, working etc etc.

oh, and the turkish guy who hands out tissues for the popeye media cafe on nangin in omiya has decided that he wants me to go to his house in warabi for a turkish feast prepared by him. i dont know if i will yet. hes offering kebabs...kebabs are good. he told me whilst his name is haan, people call him mario because he looks like super mario, "you know, like the man in the computer..."

[get me out of here]

i have been working 7 days a week for about 8 months. i did take about a week off in febrary and i have had about 4 other days off here and there during that time. also, i dont work full time.

however, with travel time and what not its still alot, and the important part is that I HAVE ZERO DAYS OFF A WEEK.

this kind of escaped my attention for a while. i knew it in the back of my head, but now i know it in the very front of my head too.

let me get one thing straight. i will continue to do this until i leave, but it will get a little better as i will take a week off in october and a week off in early january.

so, on sunday, i was teaching a private lesson with 2 students who i have taught since january when they started asking me how many private students i have, and about my days off. i told them the above info when one of them said, "i'm scared of you."

we soon figured out he actually meant to say, "i'm worried about you," and laughed about it. but then they started telling me how i have started to look stressed and tired lately and said that they just wanted free conversation for that class (and then made me take the regular payment anyway...)

they then said that if you are stressed you should "play" and invited me to "play" with them that night.

so after the rest of my students that day, i met up with them and we went to yaki niku and they wouldnt let me pay anything. then they took me to a "philippino bar" which was actually a hostess bar.

this means that they paid for us to speak english to women who are paid to tell you how wonderful you are, light your cigarettes and pour your drinks etc.

they did not find it weird that a married couple would take their teacher to a men's club. their female teacher. and no, not because they think im a lesbian, because its not weird for men to take women to hostess bars...

so japan continues to suprise and bamboozle me...

i feel bad because i really dont like japan anymore, but i have met some wonderful japanese people. of course i dont tell them that ive grown weary of this place...

so there are the katsuki family and the mikami family who are constantly watching over my wellbeing like mother hens. its amazing to find people like that. i feel i owe them a great deal but have no hope of repaying the debt...

the katsuki's have given me a replica samurai helmet to take home.

the mikami's are taking my mother, her friend and i to kusatsu onsen in october.

not to mention millions of other things they have done for and given me.

and then there are the other students at nova who write me letters and give me presents.

one of my private classes has started rearranging their lessons so that they are focussed around my spheres of interest...ie they know im interested in japanese culture, so they asked me if it was ok that one of their lessons consist of each of them giving a presentation of a japanese object.

and the kids i teach are really sweet (well most of them).

anyway, i have to go to work but i guess i feel guilty that i cant love their country, and that im too tired to give 100% to teaching them.

[heartened: topic stolen directly from battlecat.net]

so i just read pippa's blog battlecat where she expressed concern over the lack of use of the word heartened and realised that i am indeed heartened today.

i just sent 190,000 yen back to oz and will be able to send a further 70,000 yen or so in the next few weeks. and after that 2 more payments of about 150,000 yen by october 16 should see me free and clear of credit card debt, allowing me to pocket a bit before i leave this (at the moment) uninteresting and somewhat annoying country.

and dont even try to add up how much debt i'm in at the moment. also, don't act so suprised, you know money management was never my forte.

i plan to finish paying it off while my mum's here and then casually drop it into convo - just to watch her nearly have a coronary - and then to watch her frustration over not being able to scold me, because i've already fixed the problem. immature? maybe, but the best fun one can have without using a credit card...

i also plan to get her rolling drunk by downplaying alcohol percentages, to "lose" her in shinjuku station and watch her panic for a few minutes before "finding" her and to con her into eating natto by telling her it's delicious. i will definitely get her to eat raw liver, heart and tongue by telling her if she doesnt eat it it'll offend the chef (my friend hiro, who will happily involve himself in any of my hijinks).

not much else to report. life goes ever onward. another day another dollar. im bored of this place...

[jaysus]

so i carried the dreaded omikoshi and it was damn heavy and i was damn hot (rivulets of sweat were pouring down my face even tho i was wearing a hachimaki (bandana around my head - think karate kid).

there were 2 breaks along the way. on the first one chizu (who followed and took photos) urged me to get in quick and grab myself a well earned free beer, but i didnt, and then some guy came up and told me to follow him to my team. so i sat around drinking free beer while my team attempted to communicate with me by saying, "friend. we are friend. tomodachi ok?" which was lovely.

then we carried it further and then threw ice cold water over ourselves...willingly...and drank more free beer.

on the last leg i put in as much as i could and gave myself a headache and started to feel ill. much like i always feel after an onsen (hot spring bath - which if you ask me is always too fukking hot).

again, the peeps were nice. some guy walked past me and gave me a beer and said "osukaresama!" which means something like "good job!"

then we ate and later went to chizu's dad's restaurant. he gave me some ume-boshi water (really salty/sour water used to preserve plums). apparently its "old mens medicine" for summer. i tried to drink a chu-hai (something like a vodka and lemon) but all i wanted was water, so i drank 3 huge glasses of water and left the lemon-hai there and went home.

whilst i was a the restaurant chizu's mum looked at my shoulders and basically said, "wow. that looks painful," in japanese, but i thought nothing of it until i got home and had a look in the mirror, only to find 2 large bruises on my back/shoulder.

i thought id wake up feeling terrible, but i actually felt great when i woke up. a little sore, but nothing worse than the gym after a 2 week break. i was full of vim and vigour.

i think sweating bucket loads, then drinking water (and ume-boshi water) must have cleared out some toxins and then replaced them with the needed water, salts and minerals. weird.

i went back the next few nights after work to take photos and movies.

my shoulders are kind of peeling now. like after bad sunburn, but the skin isnt sore.

i can now identify with the whole jesus carrying heavy cross before being crucified thing. the carrying of the cross wouldve been punishment enough. the poor bastard was whipped first tho...

and then the whole nailing part. overkill.

[and a little voice inside my head (who sounds a lot like my mother) says...]

"well you will get yourself into these situations wont you jaye..."

so i agreed about a month ago to carry omikoshi.

what are omikoshi? portable shrines.

why would i be carrying one? its summer festival.

i still dont understand why you are going to carry a portable shrine... well, short answer is: im an idiot.

long answer is: late july/early august is not quite hot enough for the japanese (its only 30 to 40 degrees everyday in 90 to 100% humidity you see...) so in the v distant past they decided to celebrate by having parades of portable shrines ranging from kids size to "fuck off, thats not portable" size around practically every town from southern kyushu to hokkaido. so that's a lot of portable shrine carrying.

or should i say lugging. they are made of heavy wood. with metal ornamentation. and were not talking pine here...

the idea is that the local gods live in the omikoshi and every year they get taken out for a bit of a stroll around the place. but these gods, they like being jostled apparently, so they're not just carried (lugged) around, the carriers (luggers) must bounce the fukking thing up and down the whole time too...saying "wasshoi! wasshoi!" the whole time...while the crowd throws ice cold water on (at) them.

why do they throw water? well because its fukking hot!

today, thus far, i have not been lugging omikoshi (yet) and i am literally bathing in my own sweat. but yay! in T minus 2.5 hours and counting, i will be.

looking back on the fateful convo where i agreed to do this, i was drunk. and i think at the time i envisaged a fantastic cutural experience. being part of a team, wearing a costume, walking the streets in a parade.

i did not envisage pain. oh, and there will be pain.

did i mention that these fukkers are heavy??? and did i mention that they become waterlogged from all the water chucking? and did i mention at the end the "cheerleaders" get up on the fukking thing?

oh, and the taller luggers bear the brunt of the weight! yay! im in a country full of short arses! so whos going to be one of the tallest? thats right! fukking me.

but i hear you thinking, "surely it's not that far?"

well it is. im not exactly sure how many kilometres. but its far.

on the bright side. everyone will be drunk.

so picture me in amongst a throng of drunk japanese men, who at the best of times have no sense of direction, lugging a heavy piece of wood through the streets of omiya, whilst buckets of ice cold water are being hurled at me. and then when you stop laughing, pity me.

actually, i can only think of one other country where it might seem like a good idea for a bunch of men to get pissed and indulge them selves in pointless feats of strength.

australia.

[sometimes all it takes is a haircut, a sickie, yoga and a summer festival down the road...]
and a friend called pete doesnt hurt either.

the last 2 months have seen a pressure building in my head making me feel that at any moment i would have to either have a nervous breakdown in the middle of shinjuku station, or...well, or nothing, a nervous breakdown in shinjuku station.

in the last few weeks it felt like it was just a matter of days. crunch point came when i was late for my hair appointment, by a measly half an hour, which in the benefit of sanity, is not really that big of a deal. oh...but it was on saturday.

i had taken the precaution of procuring 2 maps, but as i was mildly hungover and on a tight schedule i managed to somehow confuse the stations and got off at harajuku station, rather than gaienmae. quite close but with the time i had alotted (as per f*cking usuall i allocated about 30 mins less than i should have) not close enuff. mind you, it was also super hot and humid that day so my brain was addled.

so of course i couldnt understand the crappy map and then had to ring the salon for directions, but omotesando dori was sooooo naffing loud i couldnt hear anything except aoyama dori, so made my way there, then found omotesando station, caught the subway 1 station and then got lost again, rang again, only to be told as i was 15 mins late (at this stage) my colour couldnt be done, just the cut.

i proceeded to get lost again, then nearly cancel the appointment out of sheer frustration, then nearly cried, then figured out my error, and prompty threw caution to the wind and ran across a busy inner tokyo multi lane road narrowly avoiding death.

i arrived 30 mins late and was told to wait for another hour for the cut as had missed the appointment. so didnt need to run across road...

was literally (yes jenny, really literally) drenched in sweat and beetroot red (so actractive) in a posh salon in the poshest area of tokyo. as was hungover etc, was looking fairly haggard anyway. nearly burst into tears again, but thought it the only way i could be any more embarrassed, so didnt.

on verge of nervous breakdown (not in shinjuku station as had thought but in aoyama) emailed pete who adeptly rectified my mortification.

turned out my hairdresser was not snobbish as had feared, but normal. 3.5 hours later i left, with new hair including colour (turned out there was time after all), no longer drenched in sweat or beetroot red, and much much calmer.

met pete at a party in noborito, then headed back to tokyo with him for red wine and much needed letting-off-steam bitching session.

awoke at petes v early and had to set off for private students in saitama. got to saitama v tired (not hungover) and decided needed day off. cancelled students, read and napped until early arvo.

around 4pm set off on bike to check out summer festival/street party down the road. was v calming. returned to apartment for camera and walked back.

took many (if i may say so myself) good photos. had a few beers and a few chats with the natives and returned home at 10pm and had a good nights sleep.

woke up and did yoga.

[homesick for the first time]

prolly my 1 year anniverary coming up and the knowledge that i wont be coming home for another 18 months kicking in...and when i get home all my friends will be married anyway...

and i miss my brothers. they suck, but mike is pretty funny and tom is really intuitive...

and adelaide is quiet...but fun for me...and peaceful...

but half the people i miss arent even there anymore...

drunken dedication to people i miss and love:

i hate language

[insight into my life for those of you not in japan. a good laugh for those of you who are...]

ive been reading the blog of an african american dude working as an assistant language teacher in japan and it is rather amusing...

i can assure you its a realistic depiction of life in this odd country. most of the things this guy talks about have indeed occurred to either my coworkers (in my branch) or me. and more...

like when i asked one of my students,

"how are you today?"

and he replied,

"not so well. i have hemorrhoids."

triggering blank looks from the other students who then asked ME to explain what he meant. i told them to ask him, which they did, and he calmly explained that his anus was painful and swollen inside.

or the student who (with typical japanese pronunciation says cunt instead of can't. which is fine most of the time, when its in context. but when for some reason he starts an utterance with that word (grammatically incorrectly of course) or when he pauses for several seconds mid sentence to gather his thoughts, then abruptly recommences with the word, only to pause again, it can be quite alarming. ie

ME: do you know the word "blind"?
HIM: cunt......look...?

or

ME: what did you do on the weekend?
HIM: I...cunt.......go to another place.....i must work.....the weekend this time. [translation: i had to work this weekend so i couldnt do anything fun]

it basically sounds like he has tourettes...

or the high school boy who i was chatting to between lessons and took my leave by saying that i was busting, which he didnt understand, i quickly taught him it means someone has to wee really badly.

upon my return he asked me,

"what can i say if i really have to shit?" [in those exact words]

or the time i was teaching one of my kids classes and teaching body parts as part of a game. so i'm kind of doing the simon says thing, without the simon says part ie

"hands on head"..."hands on shoulders"..."hands on knees"...etc

but ive been teaching those kids for 9 months so they know all the easy parts so now i throw in eyebrows, cheeks, forehead etc. of course, if i they dont know it, then i point to it and repeat the word a few times.

anyway, long story short, chin chin is penis in japanese, so of course you know the rest of the story.

some scared looks were circulating between them on that day!

and my kids all say baka! at the end of the lesson (which is japanese for idiot), because they have misunderstood me when i have said ok. pack up.

actually, today was quite funny in the reverse...

one of my coworkers is a typical oz guy. reminds me of my brother and countless other murray guys. anyway, today he must have been a bit tired or preoccupied. one of the other guys and i were waiting for late students, so listening to phil having a warm up chat with his student.

PHIL: long time no see!
STUDENT: yes. i dont come for a long time. you remember me?
PHIL: of course!
STUDENT: oh. i dont remember you...
PHIL: [in best aussie style] ah, ya bastard!

now this may not seem that funny. but remember, this is a student, and not familiar with the oz concept of calling people names as a sign of affection.

needless to say, tom and i burst into laughter, further startling the student, and thus ran to the teachers room to continue laughing while phil had to talk his way out of it.

actually, i doubt the student knew what a bastard was...nor would a japanese person ask...theyre more likely to look it up in a dictionary later...

bastard 1: (n) asshole, bastard, cocksucker, dickhead, shit, mother fucker, motherfucker, prick, whoreson, son of a bitch, SOB (insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous) 2: (n) bastard, by-blow, love child, illegitimate child, illegitimate, whoreson (the illegitimate offspring of unmarried parents)

[1000 year duck eggs are so foul. not that ive ever eaten them, but i saw them in real life and it scared the pants off me. ewwww.]

last sunday chiz and i went to yokohama. ate lunch in chinatown, headed to yamashita park, then took the akaikutsu (red shoes) bus to yokohama cosmo world. whilst there we had a ride on the ferris wheel (chizu was totally freaking out as shes afraid of heights, something that was previously unbeknownst to me). we then took a spin on the spinning rollercoaster thing (she wouldnt go on the bigger one). actually, the spinning one was quite unnerving... after that we drank a corona in a mexican bar, then headed to the hard rock cafe. ive only been to the hard rock cafe twice, both in japan. we drank cocktails then headed to shibuya where we met up with some dudes at a canadian bar and watched some comedy. twas quite funny.

speaking of red shoes. yokohama is famous for a song about red shoes and even has a little statue of the girl in the song:

A girl who had red shoes on

A foreigner took her away and she's gone

By ship from the wharf in Yokohama

A foreigner took her away and she's gone

She'll be in the foreigner's country

And she has blue eyes by now

I think of her every time I see red shoes

I think of her every time I see foreigners

[it's really old and famous. kimi was adopted by an american missionary family and assumed by her mother to have moved to america with the family. however, kimi had developed tuberculosis, and thus couldnt go. she was left in an orphanage and died at the age of nine.] btw, that photo is not the yokohama statue of kimi, this is the yokohama kimi.

if you go to this site you can here the music to the song.

in other news. im depressed because i work 7 days a week. im going to take a week off in october when mum comes to visit. also, im saving as much as i can so i will have some yen in the bank in january when i take off.

a tentative plan is forming whereby i leave jan 13 (as thats when my visa expires) and head for thailand where i'll chill and ill for a week, then head over to vietnam to meet chiz in ho chi minh city for my birthday. shes got a friend there whos living in a fancy hotel (at her husbands companys expense). her friends hotel "room" has 4 bedrooms, so we can live in free luxury. then i guess i'll head up to china...

theres a hobby farm (or rather a few) currently being used to grow rice, which means its got several inches of water in it. anyway, the frogs have been really loud at night when i ride past on my way home and im thinking about kidnapping some tadpoles so i can have pet frogs... why did i tell you that?

d'ya think turtles and frogs are friends or foes...?

whilst looking for info and shite on lil kimi i found a scary website...

i have always been wary of dolls. when i grew out of dolls, i put mine in a toy box. when i moved out of home, i took the toy box because i used in like a table, but then one night i was sure i could here them in there and they were mighty pissed at being trapped in a box. the next day i made sure they were all comfortable, but it still makes me shudder to think of that box...

speaking of dolls, theres a big poster in shibuya advertising a new horror movie...the doll master...

[girl with cock]
no, not me. just got some photos of hakone developed (from feb) and had a gold one of a sculpture with the above title. they actually mean girl with rooster but in japan the double meaning is lost...

have been uber busy and will only get more so. have too many private students and have had to delete my profile from all the private english teacher websites. im working 7 days a week now so no time for love dr jones. well...no time for anything really.

heading down to shibs this evening to see young pete. tomorrow i actually have most of the day off but will probably chill and clean.

recently i hit a wall re japan. some of my students are really starting to piss me off. that which i used to consider quirky is now infuriating. in stations, walking down the street, everywhere except in the confines of my home people fukking irritate me. they push, they stare, they annoy the fuk out of me.

i have taken to staring back. i am no longer intimidated by the little fukkers. if someone pisses me off, i swear. sure, they cant understand what im saying, but what with my intonation and body language, im fairly sure they get the point.

to clarify, communication issues dont worry me. thats my fault. but blatant rudeness on their part is not.

seriously. some people will actually stare right at you on a train. youre just reading a book, then you feel the eyes. you look around and sure enough 12 people are looking at you. 11 will quickly avert their eyes, but 1 old bitch will keep staring and you know shes thinking that normal human etiquette doesnt apply to the southern barbarians or nanbanjin.

i can feel them thinking,

"i not understanding why so popular. she is having the too light colour hair and the sticking out type nose. too much high also. why she no shave her arms like nice japanese girl?"

yes. j-girls do shave their arms. not armpits. arms. hands. feet. face. yes, face. apparently it makes makeup look smoother...

in voice the other day i asked students what they would miss about japan if they moved to another country.

"convenience. japan is very convenience for me."

"japanese food. other country's food is not so healthy. japan's food is too healthy."

yeah, like tempura, katsu, copious amounts of mayonnaise on everything including pizza, chicken skin kebabs...

is there anything about japan that you would be happy to leave?

"pressure. we can feel pressure everyday. shame is very important to japanese culture [insert students knowing smile here indicating some warped sense of pride]. in other country place we can feel relaxing."

amen to that i say.

do i still want to go to china...? i feel i should, but i wouldnt mind to feeling the relaxing of the western world...

of course there are some nihonjin that i love. the mikami family, the katsuki's and a few others.

i had one of those shite days where everything goes wrong the other day and hiro fixed it. i lost my phone and the burberry stockings i had purchased (and needed that arvo for work). when i ran into him he asked me what happened and then rang around and found them for me. the day before he "found" my bike light...right on the front of my bike where it had always been... i was going to buy one when he said i should already have one if it was a new bike. i said i didnt, so he went outside and checked it, then pointed it out. i hadnt noticed it there...

hes also going to teach me how to run his business next month. from open to close. cutting sashimi, cooking, everything. then, should i ever come into hundreds of thousands of dollars i can open a replica in adelaide.

i can dream right...?

[oh, but i do think you are mistaken kind sir. happiness is not a warm gun, but a small guamanian...]
yay! checked my emails for the first time in at least 3 weeks, only to discover my guamanian-in-crime is returning for a vacation, perhaps in july! the guamanian, or more correctly chomorro im referring to is of course audi! yay!

my mum thinks september and wants to bring my dad...who (whom?) i love...but...otosan wa chotto...(with falling intonation).

speaking of my dad. had disturbing convo with a few days ago. he advised me,

"i think it's time you came home now. you've had a look around and realised how good home is so it's time."

well evidently it isnt because hes still trying to tell me what i should be doing, without even realising it...

he also advised me hes been checking my bank statements for spending trending and my spending went up last month... probably my fault as gave mum power of attorney and thus my mail (excluding credit card statements) goes to her (and thus he thinks its his right to inspect).

needless to say, words were had, well, i had words anyway. he received words. words to the effect of,

"you know im planning on going to china next year, so you are not going to see me for longer than you have already not seen me. do not check my mail."

twas a little cute that my daddy wants me to come home, but annoying none the less. he has apparently decided that when i do return to australia i will be living with my family for 6 months too...to "catch up". i had envisaged "catching up" for a few days before job hunting and removing my presence after no more than 2 weeks... but apparently i will be getting a parttime job in murray bridge for at least 6 months first and saving some money by not paying rent.

i personally think the bills for the shrink i will have to see weekly if i live in murray bridge will out weigh the rent i save... (however i chose not to bring that up via phone and will wait for a face to face).

speaking of shrinks. im off my medication. have been for over 2 weeks and the withdrawal effects ceased a few days ago. they were only physical. the only emotional change i have noticed is that when watching "touching" moments on teev or video etc, i get a little teary.

actually, to be more accurate, while watching lost boys, dream a little dream (starring corey feldman circa 1982) and twin peaks i dissolved into tears of joy...

i hope this sentimentality doesnt last much longer. i have a rep to uphold...

[back from kansai]
got back sat evening and went straight to teio to give the mikami family omiyage (souvenirs). hiro gave me a teio staff shirt!!!!! apparently im the first person to get a shirt without asking, and the first to get one without returning to my home country! hiro said im now his younger daughter! then he told me to wash the dishes...

twas weird. in osaka i felt homesick for yonohonmachi and i was so happy to be home. i even left osaka at lunch so i could be home for the evening. originally i was gonna leave in the evening and sightsee during the day.

sunday night china took me to an okonomiyaki restaurant call yukari. monday we walked around namba and den den town. we had dinner at lock up (a theme izakaya). when the monster show started she started screaming, but i was laughing so much the monsters came and had photos with me.

tuesday i went to universal studios and had dinner at the hard rock cafe. the only good rides were the spiderman ride and the back to the future ride. the others were soooooo lame.

wednesday i went to osakajokoen to see the peace museum and then took a boat ride to yodobashi. then walked to umeda and saw howl's moving castle. twas in japanese, but good none the less.

that night we had a tako yaki party at chinas. amazingly i only had 2 drinks, but she got trashed and passed out.

thursday was kyoto with nozomi and taka (china's friend and her boss). was a great day and long too. got home around 9pm. we went to kinkakuji and ginkakuji. we also went to toketsukyo bridge in arashiyama. there was a wicked bamboo grove there too. in gion we saw a maiko running to catch a cab to an appointment. we ate sushi for dinner in pontocho.

that night (quite late) we took the train to wakayama to visit china's family. i slept in the tatami room with china's ancestors...by this i mean the same room as the alter with her ancestors funeral tablets in it. i met them by lighting incense and hitting a metal buddhist bowl with a stick and praying.

friday we went to koyasan which is like kyoto all on one mountain. heaps of temples and such. also, a huge cemetary with lots of famous peoples graves. including the tokugawa family's (note: the tokugawa family were a v powerful shogunate for about 300 years).

then we went to marina city and home for sukiyaki. then china's long time bud nakamura-kun took us back to osaka in his van (which had a dvd player).

saturday china and i had sushi for lunch and i took the shinkansen back to tokyo.

[ni hao?]
so ive decided to apply to teach in china after i leave japan. for a while i had thought i might return to oz in time for my 26th birthday, but no, im not ready to return.

last nite i had a nightmare in which i had 5 days until my return to australia, and i was absolutely distraught. not because i hate australia, but because i would miss japan...whoops...instead of writing japan i freudiantly typed my home...

no, i dont really consider japan my home, but most certainly my 2nd home.

but anyway, im going to apply to teach in china from feb 2006 to dec 2006, then ill return to oz...maybe. we shall see.

the money's not great in china. well its ok in china, just not out of china. so my credit card must be paid off before i get there.

i met another kool j-boy, his name is kaz. he lived in california for 18 months. im trying to get chiz to like him so she can have a japanese bf for a change. i think im getting a little ahead of myself as i dont even know if he has a gf yet. but tonight will be the 3rd time weve caught up and the 2nd time chiz has met him, so again, well see.

im now reading about the modern history of japan. tho modern history has always bored me, its going well so far. ive also been reading fiction based in edo period japan. this also helps me to understand older history too.

ive watched some rather crap movies lately, partially because i can no longer watch dvds since my laptop was stolen, and partially because my flatmate loves romantic comedies...

speaking of which, lauren and i are about to be separated. nova has advised we are to be transferred as they are not renewing their lease on our apartment. im going downstairs to apartment 205 and shes going downstairs to apartment 201. no big deal, and we save a weeks rent which is about $200.

in funny stories, i have a doozy. one of the girls lauren is moving in with sometimes works at my school, so the other day we were both hungover and she told me that that morning she had lost her shoes...

the story unfolds: sunday night she went to a house party somewhere near naka urawa. the last thing she remembers is drinking some kind of spirit with a snake in the bottle. next thing she's near yono honmachi walking into a convenience store. its at least 2 hours later and shes cold. she looks down and she has no shoes on...and her feet are caked with mud. absolutely no recollection of why or how...doesnt even remember leaving the party. all she remembers is that she has a vague feeling she thought she was hiding from the mafia...

once in the convenience store a woman said shed walk her to the station so she could get her barings. natasha remembers being suspicious of the woman and wondering if she too, was in the mafia...

the moral of the story? be wary of drinks with snakes in them...

[just call me konjou-chan]
the last week or so has been a blur of private students and drinking. i am happy to be unhungover today. feels good.

the owner of one of the private teacher businesses i work for wants to have meeting with me so he can pick my brain about my teaching. at first i thought this sounded like he lacked confidence in me, but after speaking to him, he seriously wants to learn from me.

one of the classes i teach for him asked me to reschedule a class for golden week, but i'll be in osaka on the day they wanted. i told them that this guy could get another teacher or teach them himself on that day, but they decided to reschedule for after i get back from osaka. they said they dont want another teacher, or the owner, because they know the owner and apparently,

"he speaks too fast and too much,"

so now i'm meeting him to discuss my teaching methodology and the texts i use in private lessons.

i met some cool japanese guys last week and they came over to my place on sat nite. we decided that i am the embodiment of konjo. in english this means: will-power, guts, temper, nature, spirit. they said strong spirit. one of them told me he likes me (as more than a friend) on the way to the combini to buy more booze. i froze like a rabbit in headlights and i think i fucked it up. in the combini we ran into some new gaijin guy puzzling over onigiri and he happened to live in my building, so we took him back with us, thus the subject was left unresolved.

they stayed from 7pm to 4am, and when they left the guy said he wants me to invite him back. i sent him a text a couple of days ago, and no response. so i dunno what the deal is. feck it i say. much less hassle anyway.

[short, but sweet]
so, went to ueno again last nite. twas much busier than last week as the sakura are at their peak.

chizu and i hung out and drank for a bit, then pete dropped by.

as did sandi, the egg woman from last week. she brought with her 4 platters of pickled vegies and the like. upon parting she kissed pete and i on the cheek. she was v drunk.

my house was broken into and my laptop was stolen. yes. in japan.

japan is the safest country in the world. i have never been broken into before. they drilled a hole in our front door, trashed by bedroom, stole my computer and my flatmate's earrings and pissed off.

the police said there has been a spate of this type of break in, with the drilled hole, in the area. they are looking for a gang of chinese people. of course.

japanese people always blame chinese immigrants because there is absolutely no way in hell a japanese person would do such a thing. hey, at least they don't blame the whiteys...

the weather has been great. the cherry blossoms have been beautiful. so i guess im ok with the fact that all of my digital photos and music has absconded to the home of thieves. insurance should cover a replacement, but ive lost all my software too...

more strange people
well, i didnt die and i feel much better now.

i met another fucking weird person on the train last night. her fac was painted white, but not as thickly as geisha, she had huge white sunglasses (at 9.30 at night) and looked like one of those harajuku chicks who dress like little bo peep, but slightly less so than them. in fact, she would have been less weird if she looked more like little bo peep because then i would have just classified her harajuku freak which is far more acceptable.

she was watching us on the train back to omiya from work. we all noticed her. she then got up from her seat and came and stood near us. we ignored her. then tom and my AT alighted the train 1 stop before me. she came even closer, so i thought, if i can ignore her for 1 more station, then i can get off and go home unviolated.

but alas, she wasn't going to let that happen. she asked me where i came from and the usual shite. then told me that her job is drinking alcohol from 10pm to 5am - ie she's a hostess. fair enuff. then she told me she is an insomniac and an alcoholic. her job only pays $600US a month and she lives alone.

why, oh, why, would i need that information? so after a few more minutes of her grilling me and giving me unnecessary info, i arrived in omiya and we went our separate ways.

fucking weirdos.

but today was better. got a new book called English as a Second F*cking Language : How to Swear Effectively, Explained in Detail with Numerous Examples Taken From Everyday Life. tis a goodun. just need a private student with enuff ability and the desire to learn the sacred art of swearing.

i think i finally know what i was put on the earth to do...

[choking...slowly]for the last 4 days i have had a kind of choking feeling halfway between my throat and, i guess, my stomach. maybe i'm going to die.

anyway, there was another fight with my flatmate. this time we ended up physically fighting. thankfully, i won. and not by hitting her either. i just got her on the ground, put my lower leg over her neck, thus pinning her and avoiding more fighting, and told her i wouldn't let her up until she calmed down. she eventually did, and i went to bed. have not seen her since. which is not to say she hasn't been home, but rather we have carefully avoided each other, perhaps for fear of another showdown. but she leaves in a few weeks, so, i can last that long.

in other, non-violent news, friday arvo pete and i hit ueno park for the beginnings of hanami. we were approached by a strange, perhaps homeless, man who spoke no english. and the egg woman.

before the egg woman, i am the walrus made no sense to me. now it makes only a little sense.

she wore a leather-look, metallic maroon, kimono-like dress/coat. she carried a basket of golden eggs and a bottle of whiskey. she said, "are you from country?"

she disappeared into the night, only to return later. she was very, very strange.

later, chizu and some texan guy showed up after i asked a policeman to give her directions on my cell phone.

i can't recall much after that, except that when chizu left, i stayed with a group of young japanese folk.

i became deathly cold and ate ramen, nearly falling asleep in my food, so i abandoned that project in favour of falling asleep in front of ueno station.

twas awoken by a policeman asking, "daijoubu?". i promptly replied, "hai. daijoubu." and headed into the station. it was about 4.25am.

i boarded the kehin tohoku, omiya bound, and awoke hours later in ofuna. i bought a drink from a vending machine, and took the same train back to omiya. i arrived around 9am. i transferred to the saikyo line and walked very slowly home where i slept until 2pm.

i watched hotel. interestingly, imdb says if you like this movie then you'll like the muppet movie. well, i'm not sure, i've never seen it...

then watched my life without me. depressing in a surreal way.

actually, both left me a little perplexed for different reasons. i guess they were interesting, but somewhat pointless. but see hotel if you are hungover and want to passively ingest something of cinematic interest...if that even makes sense...

today, awoke feeling very vague. drank 2 genki drinks, felt rather on edge and yet, still vague. went to ittaku and yukiko's and taught for a bit, tho they were more interested in talking about the egg woman. and i guess, so was i. then they took me to opera city, a tall building in shinjuku. we dined on the 54th floor, our table was next to the window. twas really high. and bright. and served to make me vaguer. then we drove back to omiya, and now i'm here...

jumpers...
and no, i dont mean sweaters.

last night, whilst returning by train to omiya, from iwatsuki, where i work, my train hit a jumper.

a jumper being a person who commits suicide by jumping in front of a train.

the first indication joe, a co-worker, and i had that something was rotten in the state of denmark (or rather the prefecture of saitama) was a large cracking noise, followed shortly after by a series of smaller cracking noises, and the train bumping around. our first thought was that a large branch had fallen onto the tracks.

then the train stopped and an undeciferable japanese message came through the speakers.

after waiting half an hour we saw an ambulance and thought, well, branches do not require hospitalisation...

not to mention, the tobu noda line runs every 8 minutes, and there was no wind, so how would a branch get onto the tracks...? and anyway, there were no trees near the tracks.

we then realised the cracking sounds were bones being crushed between tracks and train.

joe and i wanted to make sure by checking out of the back window of the train, but thought it might be a little...well...not kosher. it did not stop other passengers opening windows and sticking their heads out tho...ah, the japanese...

i thought it odd that there was a jumper on the tobu noda line as it's a private line, and hiro, my buddy from the yaki tori restaurant, has previously informed me that jr rail charges dramatically less for clean up than the private lines. obviously not a budget concious jumper...

in other news...

argument with flatmates. cannot be arsed rehashing the nitty gritty, but essentially was pushed into a corner by their crap logic. my 2 options were to a)lie and tell them they were right and that i was running away from an arguement because i couldn't stand to have people disagree with me, or b) tell them i was leaving an inane discussion because i believed them unable to have an intellectual conversation.

needless to say, i chose option (b). and again, needless to say, they didn't feel happy about being labled unintelligent, tho they, interestingly, did not dispute it...

if i had more time i would blog about the 2 things that have occupied my thoughts recently. the things i miss in australia, and the things i will miss about japan when i return home.

and, the hilarious cultural gaffs stupid foreigners have made around me lately.

they can both wait, as i need to pee and i can't be fukked typing anymore today.

happy easter!

[rather tired]
indeed.

one of my friends emailed me a link to a project he is creating in collaboration with some other...people.

i must say, adelaide does indeed spawn some of the most bizarre people in the universe. and that is why i miss adelaide.

anyhoo, this project will be launched in about a month, so stay tuned for...it.

when you're tired...words...don't...appear in your mind...much. or...with speed. rather.

[it's raining gaijin]
or sometimes it feels like it... just went to grab a drink and ran into a girl i did training with for nova, and a guy from my branch aswell.

anyhoo, nothing much has happened this week. i got sick, but i think i'm better now. couldn't take days off as had chucked that sickie last week...

had a few drinks with some new teachers. strangely, they don't seem to suck.

possibly made an enemy of this teacher from another school who's always coming to my branch, but doesn't matter as everyone in the area knows him and hates him. his nickname is napoleon due to the fact that he is short and bossy.

gave the name henry to ittaku because he's chotto hen, which means a little strange (but in a good way).

some extra info on my last post.

a strange man gave jenny and i mandarines in hakone-yumoto.

ittaku was unable to sing during karaoke because i found the video hilarious, so he got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing (one might say he almost pissed his pants, literally, hey jen?)

i have continued to spread the word on the misuse of the term literally. jenny and i spent a day going over correct and incorrect usage of the term in hakone, and i'm sure she'd be happy to note that it hasn't stopped there. though pete had a contrary opinion...

speaking of pete, had dinner in shibs on thursday night. twas nice.

am currently running late for a sayonara party in ikebukuro. should have been home half an hour ago. forgot my phone, so can't call people to let them know. daijoubu. will meet them there later.

chizu is back and has finally decided to get rid of the thorn-in-her-side, the monkey-on-her-back, her horrendous sometime boyfriend, eric. praise the lord.

after searching on "tom" "hines" "wakeboarding" i have discovered that my little bro is on quite a few websites. he recently won the junior men's state championships...again...and this year also competed in some pro thingy with professional grown men. unfortunately, as my dad is well stingy, tom was unable to travel to all of the comps, like the one in brisbane, so didn't do as well as he could've, but, i hear tell that had my father coughed up, then he could've placed in the top 3. these are comps with americans and whatnot. yay tommy! boo dad!

should you like to see a photo or 2 of my little bro, then look here:

on the top left hand side. he's the grommet with the grey beanie.

and again top left. this time, upside down.

anyway, that's about enough of my proud big sis thing me thinks. so i best go to this party thing...

[back to boring]
jen left yesterday. now i have 11 more days of work before i get a day off.

on thursday march 3 i taught a private lesson for 10 high level students. was great as they told me i was the best teacher they'd ever had.

then raced home, backed a bag and set off for shinjuku where jen and i bought a hakone pass each and waited whilst drinking coffee.

once in hakone yumoto we had a drink and headed to an onsen near the station called kappa tengoku. we had forgotten towels so i dried myself on some shorts and a singlet top afterwards.

we then caught the hakone tozan line to miyanoshita where we stayed in the fujiya hotel. the baths in the rooms have onsen water, so i had another bath the next morning.

tozan line to chokokunokumori to the open air museum. as it had been snowing all night and morning we got wet feet, but it was very beautiful and there were practically no tourists there.

after that we headed to Gora and took the cable car to Sounzan, then change to the hakone ropeway and headed to owakudani aka hell's valley. the air smells like sulphur there and the snow on the side of the track was about 50cm deep. we climbed up and ate onsen eggs (black on the outside as they are cooks by volcanically heated water).

after that, we took the ropeway to togendai to catch a ship across lake ashi.

once in moto-hakone we bussed to another onsen which was completely outdoor, overlooking snowy mountains and such.

we arrived back in yonohommachi around 9.45pm and headed to teio, then saizeriya with chizu.

saturday we vegged and watched 4 vids including juon. twas in japanese and all, but v scary none-the-less. more than once i jumped off the couch and landed on the floor near jen's feet squealing like a girl.

now i want to see the enlgish/american version.

sunday i taught ittaku and yukiko, then had a meeting with a private student, then went to kaiten sushi with ittaku, yukiko and jenny. they then took us to karaoke, where i got the top score of 92 for my rentition of otherside by rhcp.

jen and i then headed to yonohonmachi and did more karaoke and headed home to 2 parties on my floor of the apartment building. i hit the hay early, but jen partied on.

[jenny is here]
in tokyo, or saitama really, but whatever...

she arrived on thursday at 12:30pm, but didn't get out of customs until 2pm. we then took the local to nippori, which took about an hour and a half, the whole time being talked at by a very pushy japanese guy. he started of being friendly, which i thought was weird as japanese people dont usually strike up convo on trains, or anywhere else for that matter, but i thought it might have something to do with coming from the airport.

it had more to do with the fact that he was chikan (a pervert) who eventually, after moving closer and closer to jenny, asked if we were interested in japanese men. he first asked in japanese. i hoped that i misunderstood, but the look on the face of the japanese woman nearby told me, alas, that my first interpretation was correct.

we tried to shut down the convo, but failed. he told us he would chuck his wife and that we should take the kehin tohoko line to oomiya with him. i said that we were taking the saikyo line straight to yono-hommachi. he then lied and said at the airport he had heard an announcement in japanese stating that the saikyo line was down. i new this to be bullshit as there was no reason for it, and i would have heard "saikyo-sen" at the very least, had there been an announcement.

we took the yamanote line to ikebukuro, where we decided we needed a beer, or 6, and then drunkenly returned to yono-hommachi. once there we stopped at saizeriya for a lot of red wine.

the next day i was uber hungover, as was jen, so we ate hot chips and watched videos. later that night we went to teio for dinner and got drunk again. we ate raw liver, heart and tongue aswell as cooked chicken, beef and heart. i was very proud to be able to write the order in japanese. nobu popped in and met jen.

saturday we were meant to go to nikko but were horribly hungover, sick or both. i threw up very little, but heaved a lot. we had aches and pains, and hot and cold flushes etc. spent the day watching vids and eating crap.

sunday, i got up early and went to teach ittaku and yukiko until 11.30am, then met jenny at yono-hommachi station. we went to shinjuku and had a coffee, then harajuku to see the freaks, rockabilly dancers and meiji shrine and surrounding gardens. we ate tako yaki for lunch.

after harajuku, we went to shibuya and strolled around, stopping for coffee. we then headed back to shinjuku for a drink at a gaijin pub and all you can eat and drink shabu shabu in kabukicho.

monday we went for kaiten sushi at the saitama shintoshin, then walked to oomiya and jen used the internet cafe, while i went to work.

i met her in oomiya station after work at 9.30pm and we ate and drank at an izakaya, then headed to roppongi to meet oliver at the lexington queen. twas free all you can drink, all night for women. it closed around 5am, then jen felt really ill and said she couldn't see so we sat down for a bit. she wanted to spend $200 on a cab to oliver's, but i thought it a bit silly. i was talking to some guys and then someone told them they had see them play in america or some such thing, so they must have been famous, but i have no idea who they were.

in order to get the cab to oliver's we had to get money out of an atm, so jen said she would walk with us if we held her up. a few minutes later she was fine and walking herself, so we went to freshness burger for a bit.

we got home about 9.30am and i called in sick. spent the day sleeping. ate hot chips.

today i taught a private class of housewives in higashi oomiya until 12 noon, now im here in oomiya. will start work at nova at 5pm, then after work, teach a private student, then home. i am v tired and so sick of drinking.

tomorrow i have another private class, then might go to hakone and stay the night, or just go to nikko or kamakura. not sure. will talk to jen.

having jen here has made me realise, whilst i most certainly wouldn't say i can speak japanese, i have definitely learnt enough to communicate in practically all circumstances. even just using kana pronunciation at times is enough. jen has had trouble ordering drinks with english names due to her accent, whereas i have no probs. ie she ordered a "red eye" cocktail and the guy had no idea, even though it was on the menu. i said "reddoai hitotsu" and he got it. stange ne?

tis also strange how thingy i have gotten at times when jen stands on the right side of the escalator and blocks traffic (that's the overtaking side). also, at the lexington queen, we sat in the vip area and when the guy told us we had to buy a bottle to sit there, she got testy, but i just wanted to leave. she asked him, "where are those people's bottles?" and i was saying, "let's go! come on!" she got a bit pissed off at me and said, "i'm going, i just wanted to know why the other people didnt have to move!" i can't really explain why i wanted to move quickly, just that i really wanted her to move asap.

also, i overheard an aussie and a canadian having words at the bar. basically, the aussie was saying, "you pushed in front of me mate!" with aggressive intonation, and the canadian was saying, "ok, if you want to go infront of me, that's fine," with calm intonation. the canadian mistook the use of mate and a sign of friendship, and the aussie mistook the canadians intonation as patronising. the convo was getting heated on the side of the aussie and the more the canadian tried to fix the situation, the worse it got. ie "i'm not trying to have an arguement," the aussie took as a threat, ie "if you want a fight mate, you've got one!"

they were right next to me, so i said to the aussie, "just calm down ok? here. you can stand here." he was so aggressive. twas kind of like translating.

in the end the aussie guys mate told me he had just gotten to tokyo today and still had the footy club aggro attitude. it was very strange. all i wanted was for the situation to be resolved peacefully. almost like an irrational fear of confrontation. almost like i've been in japan too long...

other things have changed too, but i can't remember them right now. just that having jenny here has made me more aware of them. the aussie accent definitely sounds stronger now.

harajuku was weird. jen got really pissed off at the freaks for dressing up like freaks for attention and hamming it up for the cameras. twas weird that such a thing would bother people. i wonder if i have just come to accept japanese culture, instead of questioning it. maybe yes.

i have started to speak like my students too. over using "maybe" and i often use japanese words in english sentences, which i think is annoying to jenny aswell. like i'm showing off, but it's how i speak now. using americanisms too, like ketchup, not tomato sauce etc.

anyway, i dont think jenny is too pissed off at me, but i am realising that things have certainly changed.

[head hunter]
i have been head hunted by a strange american man. twas walking thru omiya station when a dude asked me if i spoke english, and then, if i was a teacher. he owns a private teacher business and needed someone for some classes in the area, so after a meeting today, i have 2 classes of 12 to teach. one of them is low level housewives, the other higher level english enthusiasts.

the other day i bought a bunch of cheap japanese CDs. gold. funny. worth the $10 aussie bucks i paid for them.

i have completed my study of hiragana and katakana and can use them both now, tho occassionally when writing by hand, mix them up...

i watched a tale of two sisters the other night. well scary! but in korean. but still well scary! asian horror is very scary. but always has a girl with long hair who walks really slowly with hair over her face. but that's why it's scary.

speaking of scary, one of my favourite kids at work called me yukionna the other day. at first i was perplexed because she gives me candy and hugs me, but then, after some follow up, i realised it was because i had my hair down and the yukionna has long hair. in addition she is tall and has white skin. so i guess, to anna, my hair is long and pale, i have white skin and i'm tall. i'm the nova yukionna.

not much else to report. life goes on. looking foreward to picking jen up from narita on thursday and showing her around etc.

mata ne.

[payday]i may as well blog as i think i'm going to miss the last train home anyway. no problem, i'll cab it, it's payday and it's fairly cheap anyway.

so my phone hasnt been taking incoming calls for 2 weeks, and even tho about 7 people mentioned difficulty in getting hold of me by phone, i didnt really think much of it until yesterday. whilst stuffing around with vmail settings i activated some sort of thing which stops my phone ringing, so if you tried to call me and just heard a lot of nihongo, that would be why.

on sunday nite we all went out for danni and kristy's farewell. got home at 4am.

saturday nite pete came up to saitama and we bitched about stupid people we dont like.

other than that i cant recall anything exciting recently...

a student gave me a free ticket to an art exhibition. twas good. 3 of her paintings were in it, but to be honest, the highlight was actually the kirie. this picture gives you an idea of what i saw, but what i saw was better. i was introduced to the artist, who's name i've now forgotten, and he explained the process. it takes him about 2 months per picture. basically, he sketches something, then he has to change it so that he can cut out the shapes from black card, then he puts japanese silk paper behind it to make the colors, or with some, he paints the background.

in other news, the teachers room at my school is currently filled with chocolate given to us, by students, for valentines day. one of the boxes was worth at least 6000 yen, or $75AU.

i must say, on an entirely different note, the incidence of people hooking up in japan is phenominal. relationship, or should i say semi-relationship, wise. i think i only know 3 truely single people here. well, maybe that's a slight exageration, but honestly, standards people!!!

it's like all these people have been locked in a room and told they can't come out unless they find a girlfriend/boyfriend/fuck buddy. i can't understand it. the incidence of even marginally suitable suitors is extremely low from where i'm standing...

obviously, j-girl to gaijin boy is a given, but gaijin to gaijin is common too...

the way i see it, if 2% of people (and that's being generous) in your own country are suitable for dating, then the odds of people being suitable here must be lower, lets say, 0.5% (including japanese people). now, lets say one meets 50 people in the first month here, 30 people in the 2nd month, and 15 people every subsequent month, that should mean that one meets only 1 suitable person every 10 months, not including random people you say hi to and never see again. so then how does this happen??!!

desperation and low standards combined i say! how grotesque.

[just a quickie]
not too much to report. i have finished reading the tale of genji (aka gengi monogatari). twas good. tis a text written around 1008AD. japanese kids study it in school, like we study shakespeare. quite similar with it's poetry and word play.

now reading kinkakuji, or in english, the golden pavillion. so far so good. i'm really interested in mishima yukio, the author, so if this book goes well, i might read some of his others.

saturday night at teio went both well and poorly. i nearly fainted twice, but later, felt better. itaku and yukiko arrive to see me outside squatting on the ground, holding a table, trying not to faint. they, being japanese, totally freaked out, but i explained it was due to low blood pressure, and possibly anemia, and eventually they calmed down...and tried to stuff me with liver.

my private lessons are going really well with them. i can hear the improvement already.

anyway, i have to go and brave the minus 5 degree weather now. faaaaaaaaark!

[o tanjobi omedetou]i think that's how u spell it anyway...

happy birthday to me! unfortunately i am now 25 years old...

saturday night i went to a taco yaki party (octopus balls). twas brill! i was the best taco yaki maker! we started around 4pm with cheese and olives and such, and of course red wine. we later hit the beer and taco yaki.

about 10pm, the lights were turned off and a birthday cake came out...for me! twas a suprise party! thanks nobu-chan! thanks chizu!

sunday...arghhhhh....hungover...taught yukiko and itaku. when itaku drove me back to the station he said, "i think you are very nice teacher for me," which was lovely.

monday night i arrive home from studying hiragana at 11:56, and lee announced we must count down to my birthday. we then cracked the champers and danced in the livingroom, until mike and lauren came home.

lauren has a crush on a guy from work called ian. they had gone to a bar nearish by and she had drunk a little too much. she then confessed her affections toward ian, to ian, who declined with a giggle.

mike later found lauren asleep, hugging the toilet bowl of the bar. some of her students had also witnessed he slumber...

lee, mike and i went to the combini and bought more beer and niku man (warm meat buns).

tuesday i awoke feeling like every 25 of my years. worked. naoki gave me an omomori (good luck charm) for studying.

after work i met everyone at teio for yaki tori. received flowers and a ceramic cup for drinking lemon chuhai. the lid has a lemon squeezer thing. thanks chizu! thanks lee, lauren and mike!

hiro then presented me with the teio birthday special- the tomato salada cake - a tomato with 3 matches stuck in it, on a saucer surrounded by cucumber and lettuce. so we did the birthday song with hiro singing at the top of his lungs, "HUPI BIRSDAY TU YU!"

directly after that, the lights were dimmed and a chocolate cake came out with the birthday song, again!

as the local yakuza boss and the local police chief were dining together, they sent a lacky off to purchase some pastries and presented them to me with yet another rendition of the birthday song! they both told me if i ever have any trouble, to go to them. i guess which one i go to depends on the type of trouble im experiencing...

wednesday was oz day, as im sure you're all aware. i worked. then i studied katakana at saizeriya, then had drinks with colin and gary at their place on the way home.

yesterday i hit the hay early so today i feel decent, for the first time this fucking week thank you very much.

alas, it wont last long as tomorrow at 6.30pm i, and some of my other buddies, will be having my 3rd and last birthday party for 2005, again, at teio. if you're in japan, please come, tis on the north end of yono-honmachi station.

if you're in adelaide. my buddy kenji is popping in on feb 12, for about a week, if you have time to show him around, or whatever, please lmk, i would be most grateful.

if you live in perth, chizu will be there for a month starting jan 30 (this sunday). again, if you have time, please show her around, get her pissed, and for god's sake, get her mind of her damn american boyfiend (no, not a typo), eric.

hmmmmmmm...maybe i do have a use for my local yakuza boss after all...

[happy for the first time in bloody ages]which is not to say ive been sad, but discontented, melancholy-ish or some such emotion below neutral, or around neutral.

i think i know why too.

in the past it has seemed to me that when friends have gone travelling, the first 3 months are party, party, party. the 2nd 3 months are a bit lower, and then after that it's all gravy.

i have more money now, which is good. i am regularly sending money home too, which is a suprisingly good feeling. saving. who would have thought that paying off debt and saving money would be...fun...?! but it is.

also, i am learning. never am i happier than when im learning something, and good at it! i was trying to explain this to lee, my flatmate, the other day. i love tests. i have always loved tests. i love seeing the results of work, and more than that, i love being told that im smart!

in school i used to love doing tests, and even better was getting tests back with an A or better! lee said that im a geek. so what. maybe i am a geek. at least im a smart geek.

tis my birthday on tuesday. i will be 25 on the 25th of january. on saturday the 29th some of us are heading to teio (the best yakitori restaurant this side of the equator) and then maybe to karaoke or an izakaya nearby which stays open to 5am. i was going to go to tokyo, but im over tokyo. im a bit over drinking too. a bit is ok, but big nites lead to big hangovers and im not keen.

i have watched 5 movies over the last few days and let me tell you, most of them were complete shite. not really worth a hyperlink, but hey, why not...

full frontal was possibly the best of a bad lot. interestingly done at times, but lacking in substance as so many movies which try to be profound are.

dracula 2000. what can i say... i love vampires. i love the concept. i love books about them. i love movies about them, but, unfortunately, it has come to my attention that aside from interview with the vampire, they are shit. its nigh impossible to make a non-shit vampire movie. any the lines are always terrible. the following lines come from vampire movies i have seen over the past 3 years...

"you havent had head til youve had it from a vampire"

"never fuck with an antiques dealer"

"typical brittish guy. all you wanna do is talk, and all i wanna do is suck."

but i digress. sleepy hollow. why johnny? why?

minority report was almost the same movie as vanilla sky.

the last samurai was almost the same movie as dances with wolves. i dont understand the hype. but i now think samurai were naf. the real monies with the ninja. they have much cooler outfits. the samurai were just typical men. selfish pricks who'd rather stupidly run into gun fire than lose honour, go home and provide for their families. did anyone realise that if you kill yourself, then your whole family have to morn you...? glorified suicide. what pish posh. sure, working the land isn't as exciting as sword fighting and leaping into certain death, but hey, the bills gots to get paid, no what im sayin?

[go go nihongo!]
i have 12 months to master the art of japanese. chizu and i have made a deal that she will get 750 on her next toeic test (last time she got 690) which is pretty good. this time she will do much better because she's heading off to perth for a month on jan 29.

i am on a strict japanese program of 1 hour per day. writing, reading and conversation. so far chizu is entirely impressed with my ability to retain information and learn at a rate of knots (when i actually try).

i'm currently thinking i might give europe a miss until later, head home next year and finish my BA, then get a TEFL accreditation and then do a diploma of education, after that i can work in europe as a language teacher, or in australia as a language teacher, or in the UK or australia as a high school teacher, etc, etc, etc.

i'm going to do japanese at uni when i get back as part of my arts degree. japanese is fun, like maths. learn a pattern, substite different vocab into said pattern, make a new sentence! and anyway, people say my pronunciation sounds natural, "just like a japanese!"

this of course gets me into trouble as the natives think i know more japanese than i do and then i end up getting talked at rapidly while i mostly blink and stare...

jenny is coming to visit! in feb. this will be v fun me thinks.

since i last blogged...last weekend chizu and i went to hikawajinja for hatsumode (first prayer of the new year).

after that we walked to the saitama shintoshin for a spot of jacket shopping and some lunch.

sunday we had an indoor picnic of bread, pesto, tomato, olives, cheese, ham and salami (and of course red wine) whilst watching movies.

the terminal was great. would definitely see it again. i really wouldn't worry about seeing the human stain tho... bridget jones: the edge of reason was nice, but the book is way better. i also had the misfortune of scarring my eyes, ears and brain with joey. never, ever watch this.

i crashed at her place and had lunch with hiro, mitsuyo and chizu the next day.

yesterday chizu and i went to the shinagawa prince hotel and looked around. we went to all you can eat crab (amongst other chinese, japanese and western foods) and beer. hiro paid for me as a birthday present. sugoi!

we dropped in to dubliners in shinjuku on the way home and had a beer. i chatted to ex hello houser, hayden, again, and some various other japanese and otherwise dudes i've gotten to know over time.

today i had my private students itaku and yukiko and now im here...

books read lately include mystic river, the vagina monologues and the kitchen god's wife. i wholeheartedly recommend the kitchen god's wife by amy tan (author of the joy luck club). v good book.

[akemashite omedeto gozaimasu]
or Happy New Year!

it snowed dec 27 and dec 30 i think...cant remember the exact dates but thats approximately correct anyway.

cant remember what i did for most of the holidays...not much. slept, read. currently reading moll flanders. before that i read watermelon. also watched dogville which could be one of my favourite movies.

new year was ok except i felt queasy most of the evening so couldnt drink much and therefore was not drunk. the problem with adelaide new years has always been that theres no difference between an average sat nite in the city and new year in the city. same applies to new year in tokyo really. been there, done that.

jan 2 and 3 in karuiza