The Pub

Ok this week hasn’t been anything like last week, but its still been pretty sweet.

After getting back from Tokyo last week, I had a huge cold, and going to work on Monday with relatively no sleep was not nice. After just about getting over it on Tuesday, I went to work on Wednesday. One of the teachers here has gone back to Canada so while we wait for a new teacher I was filling in. The classes were ones Id taken before (since the same teacher had taken a week off last month and I had filled in). So I knew what to expect.

The first 2 classes were young bratty kids that always started fights and cried and didn’t pay attention, so that was a bit of a chore. In one of the classes, one of the students objected so much to me (being a newish teacher and a break from the norm) that he refused to come into the classroom. Eventually he did, but only on the condition that he could be cuddled at all times by one of the female Japanese teachers. Im sure she had other things to do but she stayed for nearly the whole class, bless her.

On several occasions the kid fell asleep in her arms which was pretty funny. He was awake and on his own for the last 5 minutes tho so I suppose at least there was a bit of a lesson. Felt a bit sorry for the other 3 students tho.

On Thursday I had a similar day of teaching except the kids were all pretty well behaved this time. I also had an adult class this day which was quite good fun as they all had quite a high level of English.

On Friday I had a much needed day off. Ayae was going to her parents for the weekend so I went to the station to see her off. After that I went to a bookstore and bought another book on learning Japanese (I must have about 10 now!). I spent most of that day reading and trying to get better. Ironically since Ive been here I think my Japanese has probably gotten worse. When I was in the UK I was a dedicated student, studying for hours every day and now that Im here, I never seem to find the time. I justify it to myself that as Im here I should be subconsciously getting better, but Im not really talking to people in Japanese enough so theres no way that can happen. Occasionally me and Ayae do talk in Japanese, but I don’t push it enough. Since going to Tokyo last week where I was chatting Japanese I have decided to really try harder, so hopefully my new book and new attitude will help me get better. We will see!

On Saturday I had work, and afterwards I did my usual thing of checking out Sakae although there was not as much on as usual (there was a couple of bands playing in the park and on the street but they were pretty awful). I did however come across a new department store which featured a Tower Records with some awesome discounts, and also a new live music venue. It seemed to play to some pretty big acts in the past (such as Stereophonics) so Im thinking it was a good discovery for the future.

I also went to an `English pub` called The Hub, to check if they would be showing the live Tottenham - West Ham game Sunday. I was told `Tabun-ne` which basically translates as `I think so`. I decided I would definitely go anyway as even if they weren’t showing it, it seemed like a cool place worth checking out.

Sunday was a big day for me. I had been wanting to see some live football ever since I got here, but the 9 hour time difference means unless it starts around 12 or 1 its not really possible. There are bars open late, but the last train is around midnight, so I have to go then anyway (unless Im staying out all night!).

The game would start at half 10 but I decided to go into the city early as I had nothing else to do. First I explored a park which I hadn’t been to before in Fushimi, near Sakae. There were a couple of cool sculptures, as well as lots of nice trees which had changed color because of Autumn so that was cool.

After that I decided to go to Osu to do a bit more exploring. On the way I came across a really beautiful shrine although it was right next to a busy main road. I also found a temple which was really nice.

When I got to Osu I was bombarded with ridiculously bright lights everywhere. The first thing I saw was some fire eating dude surrounded by a wall of Christmas lights and topped up with a huge cat statue thing that is everywhere in Japan. Awesome.

Next I wondered through the indoor market thing which again had Christmas lights everywhere. On the ceiling, on the trees, and even on the archway thing. Nagoya is well and truly ready for Christmas.

After this I headed to Sakae which again was decorated to the hilt. I decided to explore Sakae again as this time I had lots of time (it was still about 3 hours til kick off). After walking up as many streets as I could, I discovered Sakae was actually about 3 times bigger than I thought it was; it just didn’t stop!

As the light faded, the seedier side of the city exposed itself. Whilst there wasn’t a red light district per say, the streets seemed to go : Shop, shop, restaurant, shop, brothel, shop, restaurant, brothel and so on. Women on the street started offering me massages and as it got later they were everywhere (even on a Sunday!). As I tried to get away I somehow managed to double back on myself and had to walk past them again! I eventually found refuge in `The Hub` and sat down with a refreshing pint of Guinness.

The crowd in the hub was about 50-50 gaijin and Japanese, and most were aged mid to late 20s. Though it was on one of Sakaes busiest roads, the interior replicated an English pub very well although the emphasis on the fact they sold fish and chips was a bit much. As I perused the menu I noticed they sold Strongbow. I have been looking for Cider in Japan for a very long time, and so to finally find some was a huge victory for me. It was ludicrously overpriced of course, but I have come to expect that about drinking in Japan.

After sitting on my own for the best part of an hour, I decided to make a bit of an effort, and got talking to this Australian/Polish bloke called Max. He was sitting at a table with an English girl and a Japanese guy and girl so I chatted to them for a bit. Max and the English girl were both English teachers so there was a sense of camaraderie there. After a while the football started and I warned them that I could get a bit anti-social watching football. They laughed a bit and carried on talking. I managed to fire off a few words of terrible Japanese to the guy and girl, which was just about understood and so a great step forward in my language learning.

After a few minutes I happened to notice in the corner of my eye Tottenham scoring. I jumped off my seat and screamed `Fucking Come on! Yes!!!!`. As I did this I noticed that no one else was actually paying attention to the game. They were however staring dead at me and most were laughing. To make matters worse, the goal was ruled offside so it didn’t actually count. I took to my seat again and proceeded to act like nothing happened. The other guys at the table thought it was really funny tho and were very curious as to how a game could mean so much to someone.

After drinking and chatting for another hour or so, it was midnight and although the game had another 15 minutes to go, the bar was closing so I left. Although I hadn’t missed the last train home Max insisted I had and that his mum would give me a lift home. Max was about my age and had lived in Japan for around 2 years, after moving here from Australia with his Polish mum. The lift home was pretty surreal being as I was drunk and Max`s mum tho very friendly had what she called a `lead foot`. Im sure we were close to careering off the road many times but eventually we got to the station. Because I didn’t really know where I lived I asked to be dropped at the nearest train station (although this wasn’t actually at all near to where I lived).

From there I got in a taxi and asked to be dropped at the nearest landmark I knew- which was Ayaes University. The driver (a nice middle aged women with about 5 very bad teeth. Come to think of it the taxi driver in my first blog had no teeth….. Hmmmmm…….Maybe theres some sort of weird sadistic initiation ritual involved in getting a Taxi license here……..I wonder…..) must have taken from this that I spoke fluent Japanese and proceeded to talk at me the whole way home. I nodded and smiled through the whole thing and I think she was none the wiser although for all I know she could have just spent 10 minutes badmouthing me.

After she dropped me off, I got into my apartment and fell straight to sleep. I had work the next day so was not too pleased to notice I had a hangover. Luckily my shift didn’t start til the afternoon so I caught up on plenty of sleep. Although it was a pretty stressful day (I don’t like Mondays), my last 2 adult classes cancelled, so I got to go home 2 hours early which was awesome. All in all it was a very strange but very cool and worthwile night out.

Next week me and Ayae are off to Kyoto again to see the changing leaves so Im thinking that should be pretty awesome; expect a gratuitous amount of pictures!

Anyways, thanks for reading, and hopefully Ill catch you next week.

Peace out

Jack

The Tokyo

This weekend was every bit as insane as I expected it would be. Its been said that Tokyo and the rest of Japan are like 2 different countries and I would definitely agree with that. Tokyo is so mental and so much more … everything than anywhere else in the world. Put simply, it’s a city that you have to see.

I got to Tokyo at 7am on Friday having taken the night bus, as the train is so unbelievably expensive that its not even worth considering. The night bus basically goes from Nagoya to Tokyo via a few other cities. It leaves at around 11pm and arrives early the next day. The idea is that you sleep on the way and therefore don’t lose any time. Unfortunately for me, Im particularly adverse to sleeping sitting down (especially when the bus is ludicrously bumpy) and so only got a couple hours sleep.

I got off the bus in Shinjuku and decided to look around since I had a few hours to kill before I was allowed to check into the hostel. Shinjuku is a pretty incredible place, filled with massive skyscrapers and a ludicrous amount of neon. Still, at 7 in the morning theres not really a whole lot going on except A LOT of men in suits rushing to work.

It was still pretty interesting looking round, altho I ended up well lost. At one point I stumbled across `Kabuki-cho`, or the red light district. One minute I was walking along minding my own business, the next Im being approached by pimps trying to drag me into brothels! Normally I quite like seeing the seedy underbelly of cities, but having had 2 hours sleep was not the best preparation, and I got totally freaked out! Somehow I got out of there, and decided to head to Akihabara (the electric city).

Akihabara is one of my favorite places in Tokyo just because its such a haven for geeks. I don’t think theres another place in the world with more video game shops or crazy model shops. Whilst not buying anything, I did manage to play some weird new Japanese games, and see plenty of cool stuff. I also got to fulfill a recent ambition and try the `Rice Burger`. Theres a fast food chain here called Mos Burger, and they sell this. Its basically the same concept of the burger but instead of a bun, 2 kind of fried lumps of rice, and instead of a burger, some stir fried vegetable stuff. I have to say this was an awesome mix, and no doubt healthier than the average `burger`.

After Akihabara I headed to my hostel in Asakusa. I had booked this at the last minute (literally, I got confirmation 30 minutes before I left the house), due to some terrible planning. However it was a very decent hostel and had a very reasonable price. My friend Sam was going to meet me there in a few hours so I decided to catch up on some sleep.

Once I woke, I met up with Sam, got fed, showered and dressed, and we decided to head out. Since we had both been sightseeing in Tokyo before, the main motivation of this whole trip was for clubbing. I don’t have many friends in Nagoya, and there aren`t any clubs in Kofu (where Sam is from), so we both had a lot of pent up energy to abuse Tokyo with.

Whilst the hostel arrangements had been slapdash and last minute, the clubbing aspect was something I had put a lot of man hours into planning. Friday would be spent at Womb, where Shinichi Osawa, a famous Japanese house/J-Pop producer (kind of like the Japanese equivalent to William Orbit) was playing, whilst Saturday would be spent at Unit where there was a drum n bass event on.

After a couple of drinks in the hostel lounge, we headed out to Shibuya. We searched far and wide for a decent and relatively cheap bar, and eventually we came across one. As we sat down and began the drinking process, I noticed something strange happening directly in front of where we were sitting. On closer inspection I realised there was a man cutting thin slices of pork from a huge pigs leg placed directly on the bar. Nice.

After a few more drinks we decided to be a bit more adventurous, and bought a special hot plum liqueur complete with a whole plum inside. Not being a big plum man, I was suitably apprehensive. Surprisingly it was actually really rather tasty, altho I don’t recommend trying to eat the plum afterwards!

This bar was also a good chance to practice my Japanese. Sam is studying Japanese at uni, so his level is really rather good. Mine however needs a lot of work, so I took this opportunity to inflict some of my `skills` on the barstaff. Whilst I wasn’t exactly waxing fluent, I was satisfied with some of the exchanges, and considered it a decent achievement for my language skills.

After leaving the bar we headed to Womb. A number of readers will have been there (they told me about it!) but for those that don’t know, Womb is kind of the Japanese equivalent to Fabric; a chilled out atmosphere, with safe people and top name DJs playing regularly. Its not that big, but the main dancefloor is big enough to produce a suitably `epic night out atmosphere`.

Ive said it before, and Ill say it again, clubbing in Japan is an awesome experience. The friendliness of the people is above and beyond any `pills-free` place I have ever been to. Its one of the main factors that got me here, and this night more than lived up to expectation.

After getting suitably hammered my Japanese was getting better and better (this is a phenomenon which is apparently very common) and so we ended up chatting with loads of random people. Having said this, most of my conversations consisted of me saying `Subarashii, ne!!!` and getting the response of a hug.

The music in Womb on this night was house and techno, with a few random selections (at one point impromptly breaking into `Hit That` by The Offspring!), and was for the most part really really awesome. Im not a big fan of house music generally, but when its done right its really cool, and this was one of those times.

I also have to say something about the quality of the laser lights show and VJs in womb, as they put on an awesome show. The pictures here wont do it justice, but they were really cool all the way through, trust me!

After hours of dancing, drinking and chatting we left the club around 5. On the way out we were given a whole bunch of leaflets although I have to say my favorite one was for a drum n bass tour of Japan sponsored by Nike. The leaflet was obviously coproduced by Nike, as it had some pictures of various Nike trainers `ideal` for drum n bass. The idea of having a pair of `Drum n bass trainers` is awesome to me, and I definitely now want a pair!

Before we left the hostel this night I had mentioned to Sam that we should at some point see the Tsukiji fish market since neither of us had seen it, and it is meant to be something that you should definitely see. Since our timetable consisted of clubbing all night and sleeping all day this was almost certainly going to be out of the question (especially since you are meant to go there around 7am). Sam however came up with the ingenious idea of going to the Fish market on the way back from clubbing.

The fish market was as expected a market with lots of fish, and we got to see plenty of interesting species, although our enthusiasm was dampened slightly by the intense tiredness which had yet to, but which was surely about to hit us.

Highlights of the fish market included seeing some really big fish, and the crazy buggie guys (they drive dead fish around to different parts of the market) who nearly run you over at every available opportunity due to the incredibly narrow streets, and the large volume of people.

After realising we had seen enough we headed back to our hostel to catch up on some much needed sleep.

The next day we woke up around 3, headed out for some food, then went back to bed to rest up for the intense Saturday night we had ahead of us. Saturday was the night we were both really looking forward to as it was a drum n bass night headlined by DJ Zinc and Dynamite MC. Since getting to Japan I have been searching far and wide for some DnB in Nagoya, but it seems I overestimated how popular the scene is here. I have recently found out about one night on the second Saturday of each month but it seems that it is not as widespread as I initially thought. Because of this I was very excited to find this night featuring Zinc and Dynamite, as well as the extra draw of Makoto (a Japanese DnB artist with releases on Hospital records) who I had been wanting to check out live for some time.

Once again we decided to drink in the lounge of the hostel, and ended up talking to this American bloke named Dave. He had just got off the plane, and had not had any sleep but decided it was best to stay up all night, and agreed to come along with us. Dave was in Japan to study Aikido (a Japanese martial art) under a teacher who is the only person in the world who can teach it apparently.

After a large amount of drinking (Dave drunk an entire litre of Sake on his own!), we decided to leave having first also dragged along an Australian bloke named Warren with us. On the way, Daves jetlag sunk in and he passed out on the subway, veering dangerously close to falling asleep on some poor womans shoulder.

We ended up once again in Shibuya, and headed to a bar to meet one of Warrens friends. After about an hour of looking we eventually located it, and then promptly decided to leave to avoid having to queue to get into the club. Warren however decided to go with his friends to a different club, so we left them. After a lengthy wait for a train and a very long search for the club we eventually finally found it.

Unit is slightly more upmarket than Womb, altho still has a very casual dress code and a chilled out atmosphere. There were 2 rooms, one was 2 floors below the ground, and the other, 3 floors below the ground. We headed to the lower floor to get some much needed alcohol for me and Sam (Daves Sake antics had him totally wasted).

On the wall of this room there was a giant video screen playing Disneys Fantasia which went strangely well with the intensely loud jungle music. After a few drinks, I headed upstairs to check out the main room. This room was awesome! The first thing that hit me was how good the sound system was. Im not much of a nerd when it comes to stuff like that, but obviously the Japanese attention to detail and being at the forefront of technology applies to clubbing as well.

The room had started to really fill up, and there was a group on stage called Rub-a-dub-Market who were some Japanese electro-reggae MCs, and who were really quite good. After a few minutes Zinc and Dynamite hit the stage and totally smashed it. Zinc is a DJ Im a big fan of, but I have to say this performance blew away all expectations and was one of the best Drum n Bass experiences Ive had in a long time.

As per last night, I met lots of really cool Japanese drum n bass fans, including one guy who had been to Fabric. Having said that there were also loads of gaijin once again, altho they were all really safe too.

After Zinc finished his 2 hour set, Makoto took to the stage with a Japanese MC, and again was totally awesome. I danced solidly for a ridiculous amount of time, and we got out the club around 530. The subway started again at 5 but the music was actually so good I sacrificed a vital half hour of sleep ( we would have to be out of our hostel by 11).

At a certain point in the night me and Sam realised we hadn’t seen Dave in a while. He had left his hoody in our locker so we assumed we would see him again. However we didn’t and we still don’t know what happened to him. He didn’t really know where he was or how to get back so Im a little worried about him, especially since he didn’t speak any Japanese, and it was freezing cold outside. O well.

Once we got back to the hostel it was about 730, which allowed us a 3 and a half hour sleep, before we had to check out. Since my bus wasn’t leaving Tokyo til 11 at night, we decided to do a bit more sightseeing when we woke up. I had been told by some of my students that the Meiji Jingu shrine was worth seeing, so we headed there. The shrine was in Harajuku which is famous for the kids that embark in CosPlay (which is where they dress up as their favourite characters from Manga comics or just really, really weird).

The shrine was quite nice, and afterwards we headed to Jingubashi which is meant to be CosPlay central, especialy on Sunday. According to my lonely planet book, these guys love having pictures taken of them so I was a little miffed to have my request rejected by the ones that I asked. However, there was a lot of love shown by the `Free Hugs` guys. These guys are all over Japan. As far as I can tell, they just love hugging people, so they stand around with signs saying `FREE HUGS`. You hug them and then that’s it. There is a few in Nagoya here and there but I was pleased to find a bloke dressed in a pink bunny suit offering them as that was a little bit special.

After my hug, we headed deeper into Harajuku to look around. We were both feeling well rough so didn’t probably take it in as much as we should have, but it was interesting nonetheless. As we kept walking, we ended up in Omote-Sando. This is a really high class shopping area, and everyone seemed to be proper loaded. I always say, in Japan you can tell how rich an area is by how many `little` dogs (i.e chiuaua`s and poodles) there are, and Omote Sando is full of rich girls with some sort of tiny mut.

A plus side of this areas economic luxury is the awesome architecture that adorns every building. Time after time we saw really cool, weird buildings, and this was reason enough to explore the place.

One of the highlights was Omotesando Hills, which is a high class shopping Mall. Instead of just having stairs and escalators between floors, they are all connected via sloping ramps that circle the outside of the mall. The center is also filled with these huge diamond like structures which make it look like Supermans ice palace.

Also in the middle on this occasion was some Japanese male vocalist singing. He started with singing an acapella of `White Christmas`, and then went on to sing some really bad songs.

After this we headed back to the station to get back to Shinjuku. On the way I saw some more CosPlay guys and decided to give them one last shot. I asked for a photo, and these guys were awesome. They got all the nearby CosPlay people together just so that I could get a picture with them. In my mind, they had redeemed their culture.

Also on the way, we passed Harajuku park. We could hear lots of loud music coming from within so we decided to check it out. When we got there, we saw what can only be described as a huge circle of Japanese men, dressed in an American 1950s style complete with motorbikes, INSANE slicked back hair and quiffs, dancing to 50s rock n roll coming from a huge speaker next to them. It was like we had stumbled upon rehearsals for Grease. Some were going completely mental, twisting like there was no tommorrow, others just kind of bobbed along. Sam turned to me and said `Only in Japan…`

We also saw a band playing in a hole in a hedge. Literally, there was a gap in a hedge, and there was a J-Rock band playing a set there. They were actually really quite good, well they deserved to be playing somewhere other than a hedge anyway, and we joined the small group of people that had gathered to watch them.

After this we headed to Shinjuku to get some food and our respective buses home. Sam left at around 830 but I had to wait another 2 and a half hours, and whilst there is a lot of things to do in Shinjuku, when you’ve had little or no sleep, there is not as much motivation. I managed to find a few video game arcades to waste some money, but aside from that just wanted to get home.

Luckily at this point I remembered that I wanted to buy some stuff for my students so went on a quick mission to find some sort of Tokyo speciality. I happened upon a rice cracker store and bought a box, which according to the salesman was a Tokyo flavor altho they may have just been trying to get money out of me.

The bus was 30 minutes late so I was standing around in the cold for ages which sucked! Eventually I got on it, got to sleep and got home without incident.

When I got in the door, I slept for 3 hours and then went into work to do a 5 hour shift. Im not sure if it was the copious amount of alcohol, or the standing in the cold, but Ive since developed a distinctly horrible cold. Luckily I`ve had the day off today so Ive been able to try to get over it before I have work tomoro. Urgh, what a chore! Tokyo was awesome but Im paying for it in spades now.

However it was still blatantly worth it! Cramming 2 months of clubbing into 2 nights was definitely needed, and I cant wait for my next Tokyo adventure. Accomodation permitting, I should be going there for New Years Eve to meet up with some friends, so I really hope I can pull that off as Im thinking that will be immense.

Anyway this has taken me ALL day so Im gonna go now. Not sure what Im doing next week so expect some more random thoughts etc. Thank you all very much for reading all of this, and hopefully I`ll see you (or have you read my words!) next week.

Much love

Jack

P.S Heres a couple of movies to go with the trip. One is of Unit, with Dynamite and Zinc on stage, and the other is of the rock n roll guys dancing. Enjoy!

The TV

Ok, sorry again for the lateness of the blog but yeh am getting a bit slack sorry! This week has been about as exciting as last week but this time at least I had my camera with me!

On Sunday I went shopping in Nisshin in the hope that I could get something in the Dragons sale. Whilst I was after clothes, in the end I found a DVD store with a classics section in which all the films were 500 yen (about 2 quid) so I ended up buying Casablanca. (Since then I have also bought The Maltese Falcon and Strangers on a Train). Sweet!

On Monday and Tuesday I was at work all day so no fun then.

On Wednesday the highlight of the day was a trip to a nearby restaurant (surprise, surprise!). This particular restaurant was specialising in Doria`s (kind of like a Gratin but with rice). This was a three course meal starting with a lush salad, a main of a seafood Doria, and a desert which was awesome! It was a fruit parfait buffet, which is basically where you get a glass and can fill it with as much fruit and lush ice cream as you can.
Yes. I was very impressed by that.

Thursday and Friday were spent planning the numerous trips I have planned. Next weekend I am going to Tokyo with my friend Sam (more on that later), in 2 weeks me and Ayae are going to Kyoto to see the Koyo (the changing of Autumn leaves altho we may be a bit late lol!). Also at Christmas we are going to Okinawa for 3 days and finally I should be heading to Tokyo with some mates for New Years Eve. So there are plenty of blogs to look forward to!

On Saturday I had work, a highlight being Yukiko (one of my adult students) going to the trouble of preparing maps, directions and even information on various tourist spots, for my trip to Tokyo. I was very touched by this and will be sure to buy some Tokyo themed gifts to bring back for her and the rest of the class!

After work I decided to try to explore Osu again since I was completely defeated by it last week, this time armed with my camera. Again my frugalness reared its ugly head and I came away with nothing, however hopefully these pictures will make it somewhat worthwhile. As you can (hopefully) see, there are rows after rows of a sort of indoor market (but huge) each framed by a different ornamental archway. In addition to this there are loads of tiny little backstreets with more obscure hippyish clothes and variouss home wares. There is also loads of huge neon signs beaming from the massive stores all around this area which makes for quite an assault on the senses.

On Sunday again I went shopping in Nisshin, and Monday again I worked. I should also say that on this day I was feeling rather experimental so after some gentle persuasion I decided to buy a can of `Tomato Cocktail` which was basically like a tomato flavoured alcopop. The taste was as expected completely disgusting but hey, at least I gave it a crack.

In need of a topic to further this blog, this week I have chosen the well documented world of Japanese TV. I`ve been here 2 months now and whilst I haven't sat down in front of the `idiot box` very often, the few times I have, have given me ample time to gather some material.

Japanese TV is famous round the world, mostly for bizarre game shows, rubbish soap operas and animation. Actually being here and watching at my leisure has given me a much more authentic taste however.

One particular show I love is called `The One Million Yen Dream` which is a show in which the hosts give the contestants the chance to win a million yen. There are various different opportunities for this. One involves trying to blow out candles on a birthday cake from a 1 metre distance, one involves travelling around a water circuit in a rubber dinghy (dressed as pirates of course), whilst the hosts use various methods to try and knock you from your boat. These include a huge inflatable ball set off a big ramp thing Indiana Jones style, an inflatable ball gun thing, and a huge huge fan. Its basically It’s a Knockout meets The Krypton Factor.
My favourite challenge however is the `If you find me you get a million yen`challenge (great translation!). This is basically a game of hide and seek in which the hosts are invited into the contestants house to find them, and if the contestants can evade capture for 30 minutes they get the prize.

Its such a simple idea but makes for awesome watching. Theres this one where the contestants come up with ingenious ideas such as flooding the bathroom to the ceiling with bubbles, and using a straw to breathe whilst hiding on the floor. It should be said that even on this occasion the family were still found, but Im told occasionally someone does actually win.

Another show I saw yesterday was `Is it Just Me?`. This is a show where various celebreties are gathered together to have all their weird personal habits (such as chewing rice for 5 minutes before swallowing it, wearing a different pair of pajamas each night, and sleeping in a sandwich like state with 5 futons on the bottom and 5 on the top) exposed to the audience. They are then given the chance to say why they have this weird habit, and find out how many people out of 1 million Japanese people do the same. Lastly the two hosts judge them as to whether they are `futsu` (normal) or `Henne` (weird). Its all done in a very comical manner, and typical of Japanese TV features a ridiculous myriad of graphics and bright colours constantly bouncing round the screen. The highlight for me though is when the audience find out what the habit is and squeal a huge communal `EEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?????????????!!!!!`.

Being as British TV is generally regarded as the best in the world and Japanese is regarded as well, the strangest, it was interesting that I found these 2 shows so wonderful. Recently British TV has been on a downward spiral (as anyone watching Charlie Brooker will agree!!). It seems the only things of recent success (circa Sep 07) in Britain usually involve some reality element, filled with hosts that are complete bastards and contestants you want to punch. Japanese TV however which is supposedly based on ritual humiliation (well, according to Clive James and Chris Tarrant anyway), seems to be much more respectful and enjoyable on all levels (even with the language barrier!). Its also providing me with good exposure to the Japanese language, although quite when Ill need to know the phrase “Argh! The bathrooms filled with bubbles!` I don’t know.

I also want to take this time to introduce you to a Japanese comedian who goes by the name of Yoshio Kojima. Here he is.

His act basically involves him dancing around in his underwear and singing at a high pitched voice. At the moment he is EVERYWHERE. Seriously if I put the TV on now I can almost guarantee Ill find him. On a commercial, or a talk show, a sitcom or even a food show he`ll be there somewhere. Anyone familiar with Japanese comedians will know this is typical. Apparently when a comedian becomes famous they are on every show every day for a year and then never seen again. I guess if your entire career can only last a year you`re gonna want to put in as many man hours as you can if you want to support yourself the rest of your life.

The names that precede him as `famous for a year then never seen again` include HardGay (a leather clad gimp like wrestler) and someone who I know only as `Bowl Head` (who the Japan `05 guys will surely remember). They become famous, ridiculously over exposed, then disappear. They are everywhere, then nowhere.

(BTW I tried to get a picture of `Hard Gay` but after googling `Hard Gay Pictures` and seeing the results I got, I decided it just wasn’t worth it).

Anyway despite the crudeness and ludicrousness of Kojima, a smile always creeps onto my face everytime he comes on screen. I dunno, maybe Ive just been in Japan too long.

Anyone whos curious enough feel free to check out the movie linked at the bottom of the page. Its worth staying with it, as theres a good slapstick payoff at the end.

Ok, that’s enough for this week, thanks for reading and be sure to tune in next week for a Tokyo special edition of my blog. Got a couple of things planned which Im hoping will be awesome, (in fact I`m certain they will be!).

Take it easy yo!!!!

Jack

http://www.veoh.com/videos/v1237096EAwQaze7

The Students

Ok, welcome back to another blog, sorry this ones so late but I have not had the time to sit down in front of the computer in a long time.

This week has been relatively uneventful so I will pepper it with some random pictures of my environment here, including my appartment, my local park, the linimo (hovering computer controlled monorail thingy) and my favourite café across the street-The Yeast Paradise.

On Sunday Ayae came back from her parents so I met her at the station. We went to a tofu restaurant which I was apprehensive of at first, not being a big tofu guy, and the fact the prices were twice that of the average Japanese restaurant. I was however pleasantly surprised, as once more it was an awesome meal! The dish I chose was basically some pieces of Tofu covered with Miso (traditonal in the Aichi prefecture I live in), as well as sashimi, some meat and loads of variations of tofu dishes. It also came with free top ups of rice and Miso soup. Sweet.

After this we decided to go to Sakae to see what was going on. It was pouring with rain however so there wasn’t the usual choice of live bands in the park. There was however the `World Festival` which was a festival with lots of stalls, most asking for charity for various African and Asian nations. There was also a big stage featuring world music and dance artists. Im not a huge fan of world music, but there was some ok stuff on, and it was quite interesting.

On Monday I went into work to observe some classes I would be taking on the following week. The president has recently decided to give me twice as many classes, which is obviously both good and bad. The day seems pretty long though with 5 and a half hours of classes crammed into a 6 hour shift.

On Tuesday I went into work again to cover for a teacher off sick. This was quite good fun as most of the kids were really well behaved, and enjoyed learning. It’s a shame Im not taking over these classes!

Wednesday and Thursday I pretty much chilled out.

Then Friday I went to work to do some more cover lessons.

On Saturday it was a new Dragons Sale. The Nagoya Dragons won some end of season tournament (presumably the equivalent to the F.A cup), and so nearly all the shops in and around Nagoya had sales on everything. I headed to Sakae (the center) after work, and stumbled upon a visual arts festival. There were a few stalls exhibiting photography and stuff, but my attention was drawn to the stage where a J-Pop band called `Cherry Blossom` were playing. I cant claim to have heard of them but they sounded pretty good, and apparently they’ve got singles and stuff out so fairplay.

Unfortunately this day I forgot my camera so I cant provide any photos or movies . Sorry!

Anyway after watching them for a while I blazed the shops, but couldn’t find anything decent in my price range so headed to Osu Kannon. Osu is kind of the more bohemian shopping district of Nagoya. I had only been their once before this and that was a very short trip.

So I was a little shocked to discover how unbelievably huge it was. When I got there I went through all the tiny market stall stlye shops to look for clothes, but despite the number of them (their must have been 100s), pretty much everything was catering to the more extreme Japanese tastes (lots of ridiculously shiny and/or ludicrously tight (even on a skinny boy like me) garments), and anything relatively normal was too far out of my price range (even with the Dragons sale!)so I ended up not actually buying anything!

Still, seeing Osu was enough in itself to make the trip worthwile. As I said before its huge-possibly as big as Sakae (which is twice the size of the average UK city centre). So big that I have no idea how much I actually saw of it. I just know I got lost and there was still plenty more to see.

So that was pretty much my week. However I realise this blog does seem a little short so Ill talk a bit about some of my more interesting students. One of my adult classes every Saturday is 3-5 women in their 20s and 30s, one of whom is the girlfriend of one of the Nagoya Dragons players (which I guess makes her a WAG!). She always gives us insights into the players personal lives as well as adding a touch of glamour to proceedings. These ladies always have plenty to talk about, so the class pretty much teaches itself.

Another class I taught on Friday featured 2 older women (late 60s), one of whom has been married for 32 years, all the more surprising being that it was an arranged marriage. She said “At first I didn’t like him cos he was short and fat but I later realised he was very kind and now I love him and Ive never thought about divorce”. Quite interesting that shes so happy, when you think of the divorce rate nowadays.

In addition to this shes also one of the many people to be affected by the recent Nova collapse. For those that don`t know, Nova is the biggest school in Japan, and it recently went bankrupt leaving hundreds of teachers penniless and out of a job. Anyway this student of mine had paid for lessons in advance which obviously she will never get now. The company president totally screwed people over, having a bar, double bed and even sauna in his massive office whilst not paying teachers wages for 2 months. Needless to say this has been quite a talking point among the English teaching community.

Most of my other students are kids, and most of them are quite well behaved. One of the classes Ive taken over on Monday features this really obnoxious kid but I find shouting, or slamming my hand on the table usually gets his attention. Its funny going straight from being a student to being a teacher (altho in a year Ill go back to being a student again!).

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Ill try and do something awesome this week so I can write a really cool blog but until then,

Take it easy

Jack