oh...hai!

Kobe Matsuri

2011-05-19T03:57:00.000-07:00

Well...no point banging on about it, but it has been AGES since I used this thing. So long that I cringe to think about things I wrote before as a fresh faced gaijin, and a bit of a (frustrated, sad, confused) dick at times. But whatever, here I am in 2011, happy and with technology and time to blooogggggg.

Check these pics out, I took them last Sunday at Kobe Matsuri, meaning Kobe festival. The theme was Brazil apparently, but it seemed like an excuse for every kurabbu in town to get involved. Floats ranged from boring soccer teams shambling down the street, through to the Japanese airport customs band.

Amazing costume.

Unicycle Association!!!

It seems like every kid in Japan learns to ride one of these things.

A crash, lol.

Everyone waiting to get back on track...

They do these amazing turns linking arms, looks awesome.

Brazillian Dancer.

Vibrant.

Part of the same group as the orange lady.

He looks like a statue!!!

CUTE

Next came the transvestites.

Lady Gaga.

Note how everyone is looking the other way.

Madonna, who kept giving me the evils.

The end.

Adam does Arashiyama

2010-09-12T03:03:00.000-07:00

I was stoked! Adam came to Japan after telling me when I left he'd be here to visit within a year...so I took him to the most beautiful place I've seen in Japan to date: Arashiyama - "Storm Mountain", in Kyoto.

It's a little touristy in the main centre (if you can call it a centre) but still much prettier compared to the stinky, crowded greyness of Osaka.

I got us hopelessly lost trying to find everything and anything, but we ended up at a cute cafe which served Japanese food (as opposed to American style "humbug" (hamburg(er), or pasta etc.

What was it? I don't know. Was it nice? ...yeeeah..? Did Adam like it? ...yep...
It was grapefruit flavoured something, probably rice based (you can make a gelatinous substance from rice). The green tea was lush though.

So after walking around in circles, we decided to ask this friendly Rickshaw driver to take us to Tenryu-ji Temple, which is what I wanted to show Adam. Oh yeah, and it was just around the corner. Nevermind.

It looks like we are in a giant wheelchair.

Poor bugger, lugging us heavies around. He was so sweaty, but was awesome and spoke English to us the whole time telling us about the place.

Finally we got to what I wanted to show Adam; the Sagano bamboo forest which lies outside of Tenryu-ji temple.

It is stunning.

This is a shot of the famous zen garden in the temple, but you really have to see it to feel it.

Some shots of the grounds:

Then we went to an Izakaya (Japan style pub/restaurant) and got served by this guy.

Temmabashi in Osaka, which reminds me of home.
Has lots of trees down the side of the river.

See ya mate!!!

We are not in control

2010-09-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

It would be nice to say the events of late in my life have been great, but its been a rocky road these last few months.

Firstly, as many of you know, I was hospitalised in June/July as it was discovered that I had two ovarian tumours...of which I have made a complete recovery, fertility and sanity intact. (I promise to write about the unique experience of having a major operation in The Land of the Rising Sun).

THEN...my home in New Zealand gets demolished, and ends up looking like some drunken giant stumbled through the city. What the hell? Nothing ever happens in CHCH. But now it will never be the same again.

My mother realised there was an earthquake as she was being thrown out of her bed. My sister had a large set of drawers fall on top of her. Jennas house continues to develop cracks in the aftershocks. Gina had no water for days. My grandparents tin shed was demolished by a neighbours chimney (they didn't realise this until days after - which shows how loud the quake must have been to mask that sound).

No one died - of which I am grateful. But people I know and love will continue to pick up the pieces for months.

I know this is cliche, but I think rebuilding my body, in the case of my operation, has helped me to gain a new appreciation of life. Things like - being mobile, sleeping and walking around fancy free were things that were taken from me, for a short time. I'll never take those things for granted again - I have a huge scar to remind me not to.

Maybe rebuilding Christchuch will have a similar result in peoples lives. Structures will be built　to better withstand these disasters. People will be kinder, and appreciate the peaceful normality of life. There will be many a scar to remind us all of how mortal we are.

I had two tumours, and didn't have a spread of cancer. Christchurch had a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, and no one died.

The mind boggles!

What to write...

2010-06-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

Firstly perhaps that I`m no longer the tallest girl in Kobe - I`m now the rival to Godzilla in Osaka!! Am loving living here closer to work and friends, but miss my Uncle Glenn and the clean, quiet relative tranquility of Kobe. It`s only half an hour by train anyway, so I won`t have a big cry about it.

Life update: was really really homesick for ages, but am coming back into normality. I am adjusting to teaching my very own classes of kids and still crack up at them everyday. Especially when you see and hear a three year old Japanese kid say "Hello Darlene" in really clear (NZ accented) English that you`ve taught them...hahahahaaa!!! Weird.

It`s Summer here, and it`s bloody hot and will get hotter, muggier and rainier...right now it`s lush, and I`m still sporting a golden brown tan from my trip to Okinawa in May. I swam with the fishes...and the turtles, sea snakes, star fish, sea slugs and the holidaying population of Japan during Golden Week.

Highlights:
1. Touching a sea turtle with my feet, then hand.  Then, chasing it down with the intent of gripping it and having it tow me. Fail.
2. Feeding schools of fish, which then attacked me and bit my body.
3. Kicking and punching said schools of fish.
4. Seeing my first sea snake, having a panic attack underwater and having my flatmate tell me to pull myself together (all done underwater)
5. Swimming with phosphorescents, who lit the night time water up so brightly, it was like day.
6. Playing with hermit crabs

Facebook has some pics, maybe I`ll post some too. Wanna show some pics of my apartment as well which has a beautiful large patio.

Just a coke, desu. Took this pic at Coco`s, a family restaurant similar to Denny`s with crappy western food that I sometimes just have to have!

It says "abunai" and means "dangerous". The Japanese signage is like nothing else. It`s so descriptive. I ain`t going in that water after seeing that pic!!!!!! The waves have teeth, let alone whatevers below!!

Nelson, my friend who I work with on Tuesday.

Jeremy on the subway with a random kid getting in on the picture.

Mecha fashionable couple, both wearing stripes. Stalker shot.

And now my piece de resistance...an actual smoking campaign for Winston cigarettes. Can you believe it??

Japan is a bit behind the times, at times.

The Ramen Museum

2010-03-13T02:36:00.000-08:00

Hisashiburi - it means long time no see. Had no interwebs for quite a while, but I'm back for at least a week or so. Next Sunday I move into a flat to share with another Japanese girl and an American from New York...please be like Elaine from Seinfeld, please be like Elaine from Seinfeld, please be like Elaine from Seinfeld...or Kramer, or George, or Newman...

I recently had a haircut which I'm pretty happy with...it's somehow prompted people to actually comment on it too. This old, drunk, Japanese woman last night plopped herself down next to me on the train and started speaking to me in Japanese...then busted out some English which sounded like The Fast Shows Rowley Birkin QC - "but I was very, very drunk". I picked out Oriental Hotel, Onion Soup, Harbour in bits...I think she wanted me to go somewhere.  But the funniest thing was when she suddenly said "are you a businessman?" "No..." then she said - "haircut, cute because muzukashi (difficult)". "Mmm, yeah" I nodded.

Works going well anyway, I'm earning some good money and enjoying the kids.

Right now, I feel so free - like a balloon floating into the sky. Which is terrifying and thrilling at the same time. I know these moments here are fleeting so I'm enjoying every one of them!

So...here's one day I spent at a RAMEN MUSEUM:

The use of the word "museum" is very liberal in Japan.

Every make and model of noodles from this company from the 50's to today.

I was naturally very taken with this UFO flavour. Powdered aliens?

AND IKATUN!!!!!!!! Shrimp Pig!!!!! Absolute GENIUS.

The oldest ramen - the first one the company made. I bet you can still eat it.

The highlight of coming to this museum though, is creating your OWN ramen - choose the flavour, and design your own cup. Most people seemed to do an adaptation of the companys logo. I went another way.

Note the whipped cream pooh logo.

It's my new friend Terry Donovan - he's one of the Donovan brothers. Duncan normally doesn't wear a top, so I thought I'd best draw Terry.

Ikatun skating with flowers.

Mmm ok, I'll admit I crappily tried to draw the logo, but failed. So it turned into a UFO spaceship.

Ikatun and UFO saying "Hai, douzo" - meaning, yep, here you are , eat it.

Soo...the two on the left are Nacho and Mio's, and the one on the right is mine.

At least I was able to teach them NOM NOM NOM.

Big ramen model.

It's my line, going into production...

Add flavour.

Chuck a lid on it.

Seal it up...

I'd pay money for that.

The company founder, or something.

Happy

2010-02-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

I wrote a blog a couple back which appears a tad ungracious...and I didn't mean for it to be, but it reads that way. Japan, I'm sorry. Look what you did to make me smile:

You sent him!!

Me, Erica and David were doing some street drinking in Kuzuha and I spied this guy much to my immense JOY!

Oh, hi!! My names Rammy - what's your name? Daariin? Pleased to meet you, Daa-riiin-san. Can we be friends?

So..I just stood there taking pics, and the person inside Rammy did this amazing pose, and held it for ages as I kept trying to get a good pic with the fading light. As I'm writing this I'm doing a wheezing crack up laugh.

Oh, bye!

Special Valentines Day ice cream for all those kapurus in rabu-rabu from the deliciously evil Baskin Robbins icecream chain...look at the attention to detail on this sucker.

Stories

2010-01-25T19:30:00.000-08:00

The other day I was covering some classes for an absent teacher. My first class were these two 5 year old kids who were tiny, smart and cute. There was a jar of sharpened pencils which I was using to mark their homework, which after I had finished using, I placed on the ground - next to me. Then I started to do some ABC flashcards. I put the cards on the ground - also next to me - without looking. Then I felt a strange sensation in one of my knuckles...I had whacked my hand into the pencil jar and stabbed myself with a 5cm pencil lead. As I raised my hand, a 20 cm long pencil was dangling out of it. All I could think of was - I've scarred these 5 year olds for life with this image. I felt sick, but smiled, ripped the pencil out (which left a clean hole) and continued flashing "B - buh! C - cuh! D - duh!" - the show must go on, right? I snuck a look at my hand - and it had started to pour with blood. The kids by this point were looking at me with concern - "daijobu, daijobu sensei?" (are you ok?) they asked. "Yes kids, daijobu" I smiled - when all I wanted to do was vomit at the sight of the blood (I'm really squeamish with things like blood and stabbing oneself). So now I have a lead dot tattoo on my hand. I'm a really good teacher.

It's a Thomas the Tank Engine train for grown ups!!! I raced and raced to try and get a pic of the Gordon cart, cos I hate Gordon. He's so ugly and grumpy - big wide faced git! Could only get Percy before the train departed.

Shoes contrast. I could make an album of shoes I see on the trains here. I love looking at them so much. Those are Gareth's Nikes in the foreground.

It's Sailor Jupiter!!

This was all I could manage before someone busted me for taking pics of a school girl. But I had to, I loved watching Sailor Moon. Sailor Jupiter was my fave.

This is a place called Hirakatashi. I liked the balloon in the sky.

And that's a crane in the river. Bad pic - I need to take my proper camera out with me more. I keep forgetting!!

Naoko and Duma. We went to a place called Harborland in Kobe. There's a cool little rink for kids to drive around in. I couldn't fit in the train...

An Anpanman car. Anpanman = Red Bean Bun Man.

A Baikinman car; that's "Germ Man". He's pretty angry!

A GIANT Mario bouncy castle!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna go in!!

A cool robot toy. I wish I had a sweet playground like this when I was growing up.

This is Erica.

She can do this. She's another Kiwi and a friend. She rules.

And finally, a crow on a ball. I was for the first time afraid of a bird seeing this guy. He was pretty close. I'm always concerned they're gonna swoop down and pluck out my eyeballs.

Gaijin SMASH

2010-01-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

I've given up trying to fit into Japan. At all times I'm aware of being watched, noticed and judged. And I realised after reading a book called the "Blue Eyed Salaryman" -  a story about an Irish guy who made it into Mitsubishi and became a life employee - that even if I DID understand the culture and language completely, I'd never fit in anyway!! I think foreigners make up 3% of the population, so it kind of figures that the foreign are noticed - particularly the large girl with the mushroom cut stomping around in Doc Martens.

Now that I've had this realisation though, I'm making like the Hulk and Gaijin Smashing at every opportunity!

Basically, Gaijin Smashing is the wilful breaking of Japanese rules (perhaps unspoken or assumed) by one who is not Japanese. Gaijin - it means literally "outside person" = gai/outside, jin/person. The Japanese are Nihonjin.

So when I'm eating an apple (skin ON), crossing the road at a red light, pushing back on the train and blowing my nose in public, I'm enjoying it! It's like being given permission to be dumb. In fact, it's expected!

Recently, Gareth, Mirabel and I went to USJ. I don't think we Gaijin Smashed it (much) but we had good times in this dated land of madness. It was January, but they were still blaring Christmas Carols. One of the attractions was "Backdraft - the Movie". Interviews conducted with the stars and directors were overdubbed in Japanese. It was surreal and hilarious. Other rides we went on were Spiderman, Terminator 2, Peppermint Patties waterslide (the crappest thing I've ever done - a 30 minute wait to slide down in freezing water for 2 minutes), Jaws, Jurassic Park , Back to the Future and Hollywood Dream - an epic rollercoaster which had me screaming, holding my breath, blocking my ears and squeezing my eyes shut all at the same time.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but when I saw this Universal globe I almost cried...why? I think I was overwhelmed and surprised that I was there! When I was a kid, the thought of coming here was impossible. And suddenly, here I am in Japan, taking a train to "Universal City" and walking right in! I sound like I was born in Rwanda or something...

Perfectly manicured Hello Kitty's at the Hello Kitty Shop ^_^

This is when I knew things were gonna get good.

This is some sort of rapping, singing, break dancing Sesame Street "crew", bringing the message of fruit and vegetables to the tune of Can't Touch This.

I couldn't take my eyes off this Cookie Monster veritable midget. He was moving way too fast for my liking. Cookie Monster is FAT and FULL, he can't move with the speed of lightening!!

I resisted the urge to rush up to Big Bird - who kept looking at me -  and doing something...not sure what exactly.

Laters homies.

Some stuff from JURASSIC PARK - the actual gate and cars!!!

And that's about it. I was a bit lazy with taking pics. But overall - it was an pricey experience that I enjoyed; but I don't need to go back there probably ever again.

We had fun desu

2010-01-03T23:10:00.000-08:00

I spent my new years period with Gareth, Mirabel, Sarah and Japan. We had so much fun doing stuff like partying, eating, seeing stuff, playing Nintendo and hanging. New Years Eve was spent making cocktails with many types of alcohol including an Irish tonic called "Buckfast", predicting fortunes and going to a countdown party followed by karaoke. We somehow ended up coming home at 5.30am.

Time flies when you're having fun desu!

Putting our shoes back on in the agari kamachi (or what is the area called where you take on and off your shoes anyone?)  I really hate doing this because I'm lazy.

Waiting in the lift for me to stop effing about.

I took a photo of Gareth taking a photo of us - lol!

This is one of my all time favourite photos - The Super Mario Brothers "duck jump". If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. And if you do, hilarious right??

Just so happy about life in general!!

HAPPY...

...NEW YEAR!!!

YAY!!!

YAY!!!

YAY!!!

uh - YAY!!!

It's Daisuke!!! He just kept being there whenever I turned around so he got his photo taken. And now he's seared into my long term memory banks.

Desperately Seeking Dianne Keaton.

Sarah-san made some pals.

Making a public spectacle of myself on the dfloor.

I got accosted by some people who didn't believe my hair was real.
We're having fun desu.

Can I take your coat?

Can WE take your coat?

Umm...things go a bit blurry here.

The combini where I think we spent an hour or so. I asked the guy in the background what he studied. "Raw" he said. I looked at him like what the hell did you just say? Sarah kindly translated for me - "law". I'm an idiot.

WE WANT EVERYTHING

Sarahs impression of a salaryman.

Umm...

Oh, hai! Fancy meeting you here.

Dunno - let's just go to Karaoke already...

Singing something grand.

These two were singing some R Kelly beautifully.

Living dreams

2009-12-19T23:45:00.000-08:00

It's coming up to my first white Christmas. Gotta say, not a fan. I miss the Kiwi Summer Christmas, where Santa comes to visit us via surfboard (according to Japanese folklore). I even miss the Christmas hype and also Coca Colas special Christmas bottles of coke. One of my (adult) students said to me yesterday: Santa is from the north. So he will be very weak in the south for summer? I said I think he wears shorts and a t shirt.

I miss the sun, family and friends. I still sometimes look around at all of the silent, unsmiling Japanese faces literally surrounding me and think what the fuck am I doing here?!?! But then I remember I'm living one of my dreams, and that saying life is something that happens while you're making plans for the next thing. So I'm trying to remember that and enjoy each second this conservative yet insane country offers me.

If I haven't mentioned it before, the older generation here are from another planet. They're TINY, many are hunched over and they all shuffle along quite speedily. This old lady is really close in front of me. She'd be about 4 feet tall.

"Bad Girl" scented incense at the hyakuen (100 yen) shop.

A small wild boar roaming the university grounds, snuffling for grubs.

This cracked me up. It's a person dancing around inside of a blow up elephant costume. How they're breathing is anyones guess. It looked hilarious!!!

A sea otter from Kaiyukan - I'd never seen or heard of one of these cute creatures until I came to Japan!

Sometimes you see these random lines of people in malls - I think they were lining up for a bakery??  The lines stretch for miles. It's bizarre.

One day I had to travel to a place called Midorigaoka - and it required me to take the MONORAIL. Here's a shot from the front.

I was wondering why they Japanese had a monorail - it's slow and quite large, and space is a big deal around here. Apparently it was created for a world expo sometime years ago. And they've never updated it. It's awesome.

Behind that man are real life sumo getting into a van. When they each got in, I enjoyed watching the van sink a little lower on its axles. ROR!!!

My Hello Kitty Bank book and Cash Flow card, with my name stamped into it. It's my childhood and adult fantasies realised all at once!

This makes my heart smile - a girl I taught to write her name. She's three and very bright. Her mother shouted SUGOI!! When I showed it to her.

And a portrait I took of myself, bored observing a class. I'm wearing the mask and hat non-ironically. That's the best part.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dariin-sensei

2009-12-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

I've started working at my new full time job. The people are great and the work conditions are great. I have to wear a mask when I teach :[]. Probably the worst thing is the commute, but I've mastered the art of the Japanese zombie shuffle, changing from train to train effortlessly. Brainlessly. I read on the train, and play Nintendo DS. Sometimes I'll snooze standing up. It's cool.

I trained with two Japanese women yesterday who I would say are in their late 30's, early 40's who have both lived abroad for over 20 years - America etc. They asked me where I was from. NZ? We thought you sounded American! Then asked: what do you eat - hamburgers? No no, I eat a variety of foods just like you. I was peeling a mandarin and eating it: oh! you eat mikan with skin on?? (Because I hadn't painstakingly peeled off the white stuff on the mandarin). Then: I have heard in NZ there are more sheep than people. Is that true? Ahhh...yeah I think it is...but the sheep are not running amok in the cities or anything like that...I was a bit surprised at the questions going by their ages and the fact that they've lived away from Japan most of their lives!

Recently Peter came to Japan and we went to Kaiyukan in Osaka. It's an aquarium with actual sharks (Hammerheads which have always made me LOL) WHALESHARKS which are huge, and other living monstrosities. I had heard that the most common word you hear the Japanese exclaim while looking around is "oishii!!" (delicious). But we didn't hear that at all - it was Peter and I who said it the most. It's a beautiful, peaceful place and I enjoyed it a lot, while feeling sad for the unnatural living conditions of some of the creatures. It's hard because I would never get to see these animals normally, unless I took up deep sea diving - and that's not gonna happen. I'd get the Bends. The penguins were kept in conditions which definitely weren't cold enough, that was the saddest thing.

Sunset coming out of the train station.

Giant Ferris Wheel.

For some reason, these are all over Japan! Have no idea why!

Kaiyukan mascot.

Peter trying to get us free entry...

First glimpse of the place, replete with a Japanese female hollering into a megaphone about something. This place is massive by they way.

^-^

Lego styled fish built into the walls!

Sunset view from the aquarium - the sun sets at like 5pm which is sad for me. But it's one of the most beautiful sights you'll ever see. The sun is huge and red. Perhaps I should look out for a sunrise, as it is the Land of the Rising Sun and all...

Stingray on entry. This got me jumping with excitement but I had no idea what was to come...

Oh - I found Nemo by the way. He's in an aquarium in Osaka.

Oh, hai!

Here's one of Kaiyukans meal tickets - a whale shark. There are two of them, and they are the main reason why people come to the aquarium. Included this so you can see how huge he is!!! Biggest living creature I've ever seen.

Lots of the bigger creatures had little passengers who just hitch rides with them!

Weird guy.

A fish I've never known until now.

Oh, Hai!

A big Sunfish! He was MASSIVE. Like, 20 dinners at least! Nah I'd never eat him, he's too amazing!

Peter watching peacefully.

CRAB BATTLES.

This guy kept following me around. Now I know why.

Dunno.

Now for the jellyfish sequence.

These, with the Sun Fish and Whale Sharks were my favourite part of the aquarium. How can something so delicate and beautiful be so poisonous and painful? And so oishii?

Some quotes I liked.

We got out and all the lights were on :)

Peter-san - oishii.

Cellphone pics are the new Polaroids

2009-11-30T03:35:00.000-08:00

On Friday went out for lunch with Glenn to an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. It's Brazilian, and the waiters come around with meat on huge skewers and shave off bits onto a place. They annoyingly say to everyone "it's elephant" or "it's alligator" when they cut the meat onto your plate - yeah, yeah, yeah just give me the meat.(We didn't laugh). All cuts of beef, chicken and pig were included. Steaks too, plus a buffet of salad, rice and stew. All for the equivalent of $9 (if you class 1000 yen as $10. Literal NZ dollars it's a bit more). Anyhow, it's enough meat to make you turn vegetarian. I think I got a headache from all the meat. But I gotta say, I've felt amazing ever since I went there. This vegetarian diet I've been keeping has been a cost saving exercise and I like it; but nothing makes you feel as good as a nice cut of meat.

It was a beautiful day, so after lunch we went to walk off the meat and have a look around Sannomiya.

Took this at a hyakuen - 100 yen shop.
The sleepy owl that I bought Emily was there!!! I love them!!

Alice in Wonderland: is the chair big, or is Glenn small...?

The tiniest Christmas tree I've ever seen...

A tree...dressed like Santa.

I just couldn't resist this shot. The sky was stunning, so blue and clear. Kobe is truly beautiful.

This owl is REAL.

Look at how amazing this bird is. You can see where those ornaments come from.
It's actually pretty sad. He was for sale in a shop similar to the Warehouse. Hardware, bulk food, cheap clothes and shoes and pets in really small, hot enclosures.

A huge beetle. There were also snakes and massive tuatara-esque lizards for sale. Plus fish, rabbits, chinchillas, dogs etc. The snakes were in tiny little plastic boxes about the size of that beetles box, and they were pressed up against the lids - so I decided against taking a pic out of fear.

And this guy wanted to take my picture, and then I wanted to take his so we got one of those shots where we're BOTH taking a photo of each other!! Hilarious!!

Included this because Sarah and I hung out on Saturday night and did Karaoke. We realised we both have a very similar musical vein, and we did an excellent rendition of this song - she was Billy I was the female back up. Other songs and groups included Faith No More - Epic, Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored, Madonna - La Isla Bonita, LOADS of Cranberries for Irish's sake, token U2 although neither of our hearts were in it, Who - My Generation, Damned - New Rose, Ramones, Smiths, Notorius B.I.G and more. The rap bit at the end of Eyes Without a Face was fun. I love the guitar riff at the end. We decided that Billy Idol is underrated.

Immature Rant

2009-11-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

I got a new job, training starts next Wednesday. But I have to take my nose piercing out for this job. I know this is really pathetic, but it makes me sad, because I feel like it's giving away my youth and my freedom. I've had this piercing for eleven years, and have somehow escaped taking it out. Argh it's forcing me realise that there are steps to take which make us move into these roles in life - these aged roles. And they're all signposted - take out your piercing, because you're an adult. But I don't want to!!! :( I know why people just retreat into dark holes and play Xbox all day and night - it's a lot of pressure being out there in the big bad world, trying to meet peoples expectations while trying to maintain some sort of individualism or some idea of who you are without selling yourself out. But if you want success and money you have to conform to these specific ideals and standards!!!

In lighter news, I met a Japanese friend today for a coffee - went to Starbucks - I feel bad for going there, but I wanted something big and that I knew I'd like. I'm such a westerner! I taught her "cool" and "dick" i.e she's cool, or she's a dick. She was surprised that you could call a girl a dick. There is a lot of gender specific language in Japan, I said you'd only say it around friends, but it's fine for a girl to say. I also taught her lame, nerd and geek. And some other more normal stuff like "how are you?" I'm great, good, fine, ok, not good - in that scale. The Japanese are taught that "fine" is the top 100% best word if you're feeling super fantastic. I told her it's not right - it's not what we say, eh? Fine is only ok for us. Well anyway, I'm corrupting the Japanese one person at a time...

When I start working, I won't have so much time to think about the complexities and inner workings of life. That'll be good!!

Went to a club

2009-11-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

It was called Club Karma, and we went because the music mix that was listed seemed similar to Mixtape. You have to pay to get into pretty much every club here, so it's important to choose the right one!! This was about 3500 yen, to the Japanese 1000 yen is kind of like ten bucks. So not THAT cheap when you look at it through our NZ eyes...I suppose we should feel lucky that we have lots of free options when we go out, because it's not normal!

Took some pics of the DJs and the crowd as it was definitely a different experience to going out back home...

The DJ's - there were about three or four of them - look the part and take themselves very seriously.

You can still smoke in bars here. The DJs chainsmoked, and relished any opportunity they had to use the smoke as a "cool" DJ accessory.

Doing some "serious mixing" here.
The funniest thing is - they used CDjays - and BADLY!!

Jesus Christ Pose.

More "serious mixing".

They acted like they were Justice or something, and they were only playing Kaiser Chiefs and Lily Allen!

But it was the crowd...

The crowd fed these DJs on. Everyone dances to the DJs, looking adoringly at them. Getting in a sweaty mess (while keeping their distinct personal space).

This guy kept doing air guitar, air drums, air saxophone, air anything (pretty well). He looked like a nerd who lived at home still. I asked to take his picture and got this. I thought it was a mistake so asked to take another...

That's my finger going "wait, now!" then I realised he was choosing to make that face. It adds to my theory of Japanese photo posing lessons as part of their schooling.

It was a great night because of these guys.
Memories of mixtape came flooding back when we heard the Cure and The Rapture.

I made a new friend!

2009-11-23T22:22:00.001-08:00

And she is totally cool. Her name is Sarah and she's from Ireland - I met her through my Saturday job! I went to visit her yesterday in Nishinagahori, part of Osaka, near Shinsaibashi. She actually lives near where I went with Josephine and Caro, and so I got to take another look at the place where we were - "Amerikamura"

Remember those hosts I took pics of? I saw their advertisement on a building!!
I chose Issa for my husband.

Not sure what these are exactly, but I like them.
They were outside of a restaurant or a hotel. Or a restaurant in a hotel.

Sarah.
After this, she took me shopping to a place called Thank You Mart, where everything is 390 yen.

I'll get married wearing these glasses instead of a veil.

Sarah found some shamrocks.

Some Japanese graffiti in a wheelchair toilet.
Does that say what I think it does...?

Photostickers - or purikura as they're called. We did some. I like them.

Bottom Trawling TV

2009-11-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

I REALLY miss Jetplanes - as in the lolly. There aren't any firm, gelatinous lollies which are up to my standards here. I'm eating some Haribo "Tropifruitti" crap right now, it's just not the same :'(

It was a long weekend here - not that my time here so far has been anything BUT a long weekend; that's gonna change soon I hope as I was accepted into a full time job which starts on December 2nd!! That was the last I heard from them - I'm waiting for more details, so I won't confirm in my head that I'm truly doing it until I get those details.

Still been working on Saturdays - and so my Friday night tradition has evolved into watching Japanese TV. It's awesome. Most shows revolve around a cast of Japanese "comedians" - I suppose they're more like "personalities" i.e the way you see Jason Gunn, Mark Ellis etc on every show in NZ. The shows are either the comedians doing weird stuff that I can't understand, or watching a video of someone else doing weird stuff and us observing the comedians reactions. There's one show though that I love - and it's all about bottom trawling!! Fishermen go out and scrape the bottom of the ocean for fish. If you know anything about bottom trawling, you'll know it's terrible because it ruins the oceans ecosystems, and much of the fish is discarded (in New Zealand anyway...) - so it's a lazy and destructive way of collecting fish, to simplify it.

HOWEVER - the fish they pull out are seriously from another planet, time, era, whatever. The creatures are fantastic - stuff that is all gelatinous and see through, that look like old men, giant eyes, electricity shooting through them, look like mud on one side with the consistency of mud, then turn them over and it's an octopus kinda thing. And the OTHER best thing is - they chuck whatever fish they find into a nabe - just a pot with water and an onion or something - boil it up, and eat it on the spot. My uncles girlfriend was here - we were saying "ewww" at all the stuff during the show, especially the mud octopus. Then I said "would you eat that?"
Without hesitation she said "yes".

Big Stuff in Japan

2009-11-18T23:38:00.001-08:00

There was this strip mall in Shinsaibashi in which I realised I had taken several photos of big things - signage, billboards and that type of thing.

Happy light man.

Octopus - tako!

Crab.

Fugu.

Your Dad.

You.

That's Entertainment

2009-11-16T23:22:00.000-08:00

All of the schools and university's in Japan have these festival days, and I guess they are kind of an equivalent to our Orientation days. They always get some huge band or comedian (Japanese on both accounts) to come play and there are exhibitions, stalls etc. Kobe University, my local, had theirs on Sunday and I think the theme was Jazz and Rock. My uncle said I should go, so I begrudgingly went; expecting twee everything which I wasn't in the mood for. But it turned out to be pretty awesome.

That same day two Japanese girls my age came over to meet me - their names were Mio and Nacho. NACHO! Heeheheheheeee. We're going to go do something sometime, perhaps go out for dinner...Mexican?

Before I begin: Here's Col Sanders in a Santa Suit, snapped in Itami. It gives me the creeps.

Completely off topic here, but Christmas in Japan is a day to take your boyfriend or girlfriend on a date. Apparently KFC is a big choice of venue! Also they celebrate Christmas on the 24th.

I arrived, and walked into the university. I was drawn to some grungy psychedelic guitar sounds with organs. These were the guys responsible for said sounds. The band is complete with a nerdy drummer. They were really good.

You can tell they like Kurt Cobain. There's nothing wrong with that!

Band list. I think I was either watching Kasuppa, or the one at 15.20.
I wish I saw My Chemical Robinz.

I think I told you that Rokko, my area, is famous for these wild pigs that roam around and are known to attack. They must do their studies at Kobe University first.

Hmm, how can I explain this...

Well, after the first band, I heard some punk guitar noise, so followed it. I stood to watch (I should mention I was the only foreigner on campus) and these guys sidled up to me, trying to make fun of the foreigner. The guy on the far right asked me to put on the glasses. I was thrilled, and got them to take a picture. They didn't anticipate that I would want to play. I thus won their respect. Then all through the performance they guys kept coming up and giving me "presents" - noodles, two beaten up drum sticks, a neck of a guitar broken off from the body...I had to say no to the last gift.

They are the most "alternative" Japanese guys I've seen so far - everyone else dresses very much in fashion. They reminded me of guys at home.

They all had eggs. I was nervous that they were going to egg me. After I turned down the head and neck of the guitar, I suggested they use the neck like a baseball bat, and hit some eggs with it (naturally). This guy responded quite positively to my suggestion. He put eggs under his mask, and insisted we hit the eggs with the guitar. Ok!!

You will notice he has eggs in place of his eyes.
It looked hilarious when they were intact!!

Proud Samurai Eggio-San.

Eggio-San posing with the guitar neck. I think part of Japanese schooling must be on how to do the coolest poses for the camera.

Ok fun's over. Sunset time.

The next noise I was drawn to was the sound of Japanese Cheerleaders.

They're similar to American Cheerleaders except they're cute and exciting!!

The guys roles are way different. They either stand with their hands on their hips, legs akimbo (always wanted to use that word) and scream; or they come to the front and do all of these fast martial art type movements.

Cool Stuff

2009-11-11T02:07:00.000-08:00

The first cool thing is that I started work on Saturday. I have a six month contract teaching young kids in 50 minute lessons, ages from 2 - 7 in different classes. Lots of games, singing, talking.

The second cool thing is that I caught the express train for the first time to get to work. I had to stand, and I started to feel like I was seriously going to vomit. I felt my knees go weak, I started to sweat. So I thought "I'm definitely getting off at the next stop to hurl". The next thing I know, I'm on the ground with concerned Japanese faces looking into mine. I had fainted!! Didn't realise until I woke up on the ground - I didn't feel a thing. Luckily I had fainted at my stop. The train driver made me sit down, and then he made me get into a wheelchair and took me into the staffs office. No one spoke English. I contacted my uncle - he told me to get out before they called an ambulance and put a drip in me, which is what the common cure for what ails you is around these parts. After a slight rest, I went to work and felt fine. Strange episode, I think it was stress and motion sickness. Considering I'm fine, I laugh to think what everyone's faces would have looked like; a big 75 kg foreigner collapsing to the ground making a loud noise...it's just not done on the train! They would have thought I was on drugs.

The third cool thing was that I had an epic weekend with Josephine and Caroline. I took lots of pics, and want to show you them, but am going to have to split them up into groups.

Here is some cool stuff I saw, with stories where applicable.

We stayed at a hostel called U-en for the night, as if you wanna go out in Japan you have to either stay out til 5am (first train) or leave before midnight. The hostel had rice paper walls, tatami mats with futon to sleep on, and floors like that. http://www.u-en.net is the website, I highly recommend it.

A Japanese keyboard. They are a pain to use cos you keep hitting wrong keys and converting into Japanese. There is a red panic button for some reason - I pushed it, nothing happened. I think it's unique to the hostels computer though.

Live FUGU, the poisonous fish. In a restaurants window, ready for the cooking.
Aren't they cute?

oh, hai!

I want to know what this material is, I love how this building looks. Reminds me of pounamu.

This cute cat was walking around the floor at a game arcade. They have heaps of toys that walk around to lure you in.

I think these are punters drawings of the staff at this bar we went to called Kangaroo Bar (at the recommendation of the staff at U-en, not cos it sounds Austrailian...)

More of U-en, this is on the walls outside of the rooms.

Classic Japan - according to my sources, most Japanese think Westerners are on drugs. This poster is in English, conveniently.

Cool lamp post in Shinsaibashi.

Cool mural on shop front.

Cool bike.

A love hotel...

The cast of a Japanese play.

You may have heard of hostess bars - businessmen go there and get doted on by young females. The drinks are really expensive; you're paying for the privilege of their conversation and attention.

Well THESE guys are HOSTS. The male equivalent!!! They were fishing for girls on the streets. One would break away from the group when they saw a candidate, and try and get her to go to their bar.

Caro playing a timpani game, similar to guitar hero.

OLD MAN PLAYING A VIDEO GAME!!!!!!!!!!!! Old Japan meets New Japan.

Can I have a go?

Shoes I've Seen

2009-11-09T00:17:00.001-08:00

Sitting on the train, had to get a pap shot of these triple tongue mothers.

I'll always love white converse.

Caro trying on some thousand dollar shoes. I can't remember the designer or anything, but they were sky high, suede and impeccably tailored.

You may not think these shoes are anything out of the ordinary; however the context is.
This is Josephine Rout, trying on pastel green Reebok Hightops.

Sitting in the Park

2009-11-08T23:53:00.000-08:00

Feeling happy that I'd managed to go and pick up alien registration card all by myself, when this happened.

My Brother

2009-11-08T22:27:00.000-08:00

Benjamin George Brown
Well i'm back from an amazing weekend in Auckland,just saw NICKELBACK live at the vector arena on saturday,the Canadian's really rocked the house with a few of my favourites such as photograph,how you remind me,and rockstar.The crowd was pumpin' and the mosh pit was a force to be reckoned with. Thankfully nothing was thrown at Chad Kroeger as that would have reduced any chance of the rockers returning to our shores.

about an hour ago · Comment · Like

I miss him.

Japan - Day Nineteen

2009-11-05T03:17:00.000-08:00

An amazing sculpture I've seen in Sannomiya/Kobe a couple of times, but could never remember where I saw it. I love this mind-bending sort of art.

Also, I got a call from Aim today (one of the companies I've been accepted with) to say that I have a contract working on Saturdays with them, teaching a range of people from BABIES with their mothers, young kids, and a pair of brothers. Start this Saturday, have no idea what to expect...

What am I going to teach babies?

Japan - Day Seventeen

2009-11-03T22:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Culture Day in Japan, and my cousin Jamie's school had a festival. The school is called Kwansei, I think, and it's a junior high school, high school and university all at once. It's a mega huge campus. Once you get into this school, you go to university from there - and you're apparently "in" with life because it's a good school, and that's the main thing that matters in Japan. You get a job based on what school you went to - majority of the time, it doesn't matter what you even studied.

So all of the schools within the school were doing performances, had stalls etc. Jamie was in a skit about Santa Claus giving everyone their wishes; Jamie was in the Michael Jackson dance scene to the song "Bad" - he was one of the knife wielding guys in the knife fight scene. His moves were pretty good. Japanese school performances are like watching your old primary school end of year performances in a foreign language with an extra something I can't describe. It's the same - but quite different.

My aunty Kayo bought me a tea in a bottle from a vending machine. It was hot and sugary. It's the norm here.

ALSO - finally understand why the Japanese wear those masks over their faces. Swine flu has been around the schools, and the amount of coughs, splutters and breath that I heard/felt/smelled...I really wished I had a mask. Sure, I may have chosen a Hello Kitty one, but it's functional too...

So this is a self portrait that Jamie did. I love the pink hair.

The entrance to the high school.
Everyone, wait, you're actually walking into the bowels of a dinosaur.

Oh...you're ok.

I think I've said everyone has bikes - this is only a tiny snapshot of the amount of bikes I saw.

Cat Big Band.

My cousin Maria with her besty from primary school. They're 12. Kayo said that they are the tallest and shortest girls in their school. Reminded me of myself with my own friends so much with the height difference.

And then there were the clouds from Super Mario Brothers.

Japan - Day Fifteen

2009-11-02T01:32:00.000-08:00

Had the Halloween Party with Aim on Saturday night. It was ok - I didn't fully realise it was an opportunity to meet with potential students to tutor, I thought it was a shindig for students, teachers and staff. I ended up chatting to someone called Jun Sakata. I resisted the urge to tell her that Sakata is the brand of my fave rice crackers. Anyhow, to my surprise during our conversation she said she would like to learn English from me! The next time I see her, I'll tell her about the rice crackers.

OK so now I need to vent. Met a few westerners, current and new tutors from all over the world at the party. Man, foreigners in Japan are weird. If they're not ignoring you completely because you're not Japanese (I guess I can semi understand that) then they're talking to you like you're learning English yourself - because they've "lost their English". One couple - a Japanese girl and an American guy - when they found out I was from New Zealand they were like "oh, we are jealous! We were just talking about New Zealand. We are jealous!" I was like "why?". They used big smiles and hand gestures all the way through.

Moved on from them, met an ok American guy called Roger who said he worked in film before coming to Japan. I asked him what he did exactly in film (he didn't expect to be asked that) he said just whatever he could get; but he's working on some feature length screen plays. I laughed on the inside. But he was nice enough, he's into breakdancing, he's done it for a year.

There was another guy from Leeds - he seemed a dimwit. He was pretty annoying. I had a nametag on with a number behind it which was a raffle number. He asked me what number I was: "I'm 27". To which he said "how old are you?" "25" "You said you were 27!" Good one. Then we played Bingo. I said "I love Bingo!" He said "Who is he?"
I quickly moved away from him.

Then there was a group conversation. There was the typical loud mouth American hassling everybodys country of origin. Poms, Crims, Sheepshaggers etc. I think it's the done thing when you're overseas. People complain that Christchurchians always ask what school you go to. Well this is kinda the same thing.

This American guy, he asked me where I was from? I said I'm a New Zealander. He was like "a Kiwi". That annoyed me for some reason. He asked my name, and I said "Darlene". He said I was the first Darlene he'd met, apart from Darlene in Roseanne. I responded with my typical answer, "yeah, it's kind of an American white trash name". BUT THEN...he said "well actually, Roseanne's family wasn't white trash; they had a house." Wow. I stand corrected!!!

I met two Australian girls too. I got talking to one of them, then the other rushed over and made sure I knew that I was talking to "her" friend. It was nice doing the whole "wow, we're in Japan, how's your experience?" thing, because one thing that I've missed is sharing my experience (real time) with a friend. Talking to westerners is like missing cheese or foods you can't get here - you miss it more because it's not available directly. Eventually I realised they were drama theatrical types (not in a good Braydon way, in an "I'm the lead in Romeo and Juliet high school production because I'm the most popular girl in school" kind of way). We ended up exchanging numbers, then walked to the train station. As we said goodbye I said "I'll probably end up messaging you guys because I'm DESPERATE for friends!".

As I walked away I thought to myself - a) I'm not that desperate for friends, and b) that was a really inappropriate thing to say. I deleted their numbers from my phone.

It has started to rain, and get windy. The sky got scarily dark, quite early on today.

Glenn took me around Sannomiya and Port Rokko, or Port Kobe, not sure what it's called. It was rainy and grim, but still cool. That's a ferris wheel - there are several scattered around Kobe. I hope when Peter comes to Japan we can go on a ferry ride around the port.

This sign cracks me up everytime I use the toilets at Rokko station. It reminds me of something Jenna would draw. It's the eye and the arrow which does it for me.

Japan - Day Twelve

2009-10-30T20:42:00.000-07:00

Went for another walk around the neighbourhood yesterday, to get some groceries and actually get out of the house. Not working is actually becoming a drag! Never thought I'd say that. Someone slap me.

The sky here on a clear day, is a lighter blue, and kinda hazy. I can't work out whether it's pollution or the existence of an ozone layer. I've gotten so brown and not burned one bit being out in the sun, so whatever it is, I like it.

An aim of my walk was to document some of the signage I've seen around the place. Signs addressed to the public more often than not feature cute cartoon characters with faces to match whatever they want you to do.

I feel very accused by this dog. I want to think of something I can write in there.
"If you don't take my sh*t, I'm gonna hurt you. Yeah. You'll be in this bag next, and I ain't gonna clean it either."

Ad ad on the back of a bus.

It was after school time and there were heaps of cute kids around in uniform chatting away. I really wanted to get a pic of these three, but felt like I might have frightened them or something. So I tried to get a pap shot.

More kids at Rokko Cable car, they all have these extreme uniforms!!

Street View.

On the way back to Glenns place, there is this temple, or pagoda, not really sure. It's quite desolate, creepy, tranquil all at once. It has an abandoned feeling about it. I like being there, but there are bugs literally everywhere, and I feel I will walk into a huge spider web with one of those massive spiders at any minute.

This pillar has a beehive inside of it. There are bees constantly coming and going, entering through that split in the bottom piece of the pillar.

Tried to get a shot of the whole temple, but need a different lens. There are trees everywhere with spider webs between them.

Japan - Day Eleven

2009-10-30T04:00:00.000-07:00

Awesomely and unexpectedly, I went to China Town yesterday with Azusa. We originally met for a coffee in Sannomiya, and then went around some shops. She took me to a department store called Daimaru where I was able to see what was in fashion in Japan. Fake fur, real fur, animal toys to hang off your bag (that look real), boots, animal print oh and "chouchou" - which are scrunchies. This season, I'll be mostly wearing Chouchou - Jessies Fashions; The Fast Show. One more thing - Daimaru has a floor dedicated to Kimono, it was amazing. I wanted to buy so much from this place.

After we finished mall trawling, Azusa mentioned China Town was nearby and we ended up having dinner there. Took some pics on my cellphone like a good tourist.

Apparently China Town is much more busy on weekends, packed with people. As you can see it was pretty sparse.

Me with some China Town kids.

Dumplings were everywhere, and in front of many of the restaurants were maniacal looking pigs slobbering over them.

Dumplings were cooked at all of the street food stalls - the black ones are squid-ink flavoured. Yum.

Bruce Lee I think, in front of a ninja shop. Get a load of those muscles.

More dumplings!!! I want them!! This is why I'm in Japan.

Azusa eating the dumplings. We got told off for taking this pic.

Azusa eating real dinner. Don't ask me what she has.

And I'm eating pork with sweet and sour sauce, karage (chicken, large bits of meat), salad, corn soup broth stuff, rice. Behind me are strings of Chinese 100 notes. I wouldn't go back to this place.

This shop sold Panda EVERYTHING, Panda Tshirts, Cups, Pens, Cellphone holders, Chouchou - you name it, they've panda'd it.

Azusa kindly took this of me outside of China Town - the old people next to me suddenly realised they were in a pic and were uncomfortable. They didn't know whether to pose with me, or get out - too late. Thanks for ruining everything.

More reasons why I'm in Japan. Sign outside of an optometrist place - the black pupils are constantly moving around. Crazy eyes.

And this sign was mega huge, in Sannomiya mall. How do they come up with this stuff? Azusa said "is this funny in NZ?" I said "a little bit".

Japan - Day Ten

2009-10-28T00:46:00.001-07:00

It's Suiyoobi (Wednesday) and I had a job interview today with a company called Aim in Tanimachi, close to Namba I think. I had to take the Tanimachi train line to Tanimachi Kyu Chome Station. I can't figure out if that meant I was in Tanimachi Kyu Chome, or Chome. I had to take the train to Osaka first, and this time got a bit lost in the train station trying to find the Tanimachi line - I almost panicked but suppressed it. Anyhow, the interview was for a one to one tutoring job, where I sit with a student in a cafe, at their house or my place and get paid 500 yen per ten minutes, in cash. I think it went well; I had to give a demo lesson explaining the difference between "I went to" and "I have been to"...I said "I went to" is in the past, and needs to be defined by time, "I have been to" is more of a term you would describe an experience with. Am I right? Have NO IDEA!!!

The interviewer, Masa, was really nice and invited me to the Aim Halloween Party this coming Saturday night which will have staff, tutors and students. 2500 yen for all you can eat and drink. Sounds good to me!! Will be nice to meet some people here too, so I'm quite happy :)

Here are some pics I took today and yesterday, more around the neighbourhood shots, as I haven't really been anywhere else yet:

View of Rokko, uphill.

View of Port Rokko.

Rokko Cable Car - you go here if you want to go up into the mountains.

Construction site. You notice a few of these empty holes around Kobe, which are sites where houses collapsed in the 1995 earthquake. Reasons why sites are empty vary - from respect of the dead through to not being able to afford to rebuild. Another interesting impact of the earthquake is that Kobe has a really 90's architecture flavour.

View of Rokko, downhill.

Crow swooping to the left. Their wingspans are huge.

As you may be able to tell, I've become quite obsessed with the crows. A huge bunch of them were flying around in the sky today. Something must have disturbed them. Gutted these sky shots show my dirty lens up!!
Mark can you come to Japan and clean it for me?

Food review time. I am not sure what these delights are called exactly, lets go with Alfort biscuits as that's the only word I can read. These are tiny little ship chocolates with a mini biscuit on the other side!

Front

Back

As you can imagine, there aren't any left.

Japan - Day Seven

2009-10-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Was an interesting weekend, family dinner on Saturday night, BBQ on Sunday which was at my uncles friends place - James, with his wife Naoko.

Went to a place called Sayzeria for dinner (basically like Dennys). Smoking laws haven't changed here and you can still smoke in restaurants. Here's a pic of me and Maria, taken with my new cellphones camera. Maria is only 12 and goes to Juku, cram school, on top of regualar school. She has also appeared in a commercial for Hello Kitty Mints, and Rice (Star Spot).

This is Yuko, my uncles friend who came with us to the BBQ on Sunday. She said that I was big, but with little face. Thanks Yuko.

Yuko, my uncle Glenn and James making potato salad.

James has pets - a snake which I refused to touch or hold. Doesn't have a name. Not poisonous either, but I was still too scared.

He also has pet lizards, again not named.

The best pet of all though, is James and Naoko's baby DUMO!!! Look at him!!!

He is only six weeks old, with all of that hair. James is into fishing, art, books, African American history, food, music and Sumo.

Pictures from a Sumo tournament on TV, originally in Osaka. These two guys are the champs, so it was an intense match. I was surprised to see Sumo wrestlers from other countries in the tournament - Malaysia, Russia, Hawaii to name a few. Apparently these guys have the hunger and drive to get to the top. The winner of any match gets handed several envelopes full of cash. The process of becoming Sumo is extremely gruelling and is akin to top army training. I kept thinking about E Honda from Street Fighter.

Some nicer pictures of baby Dumo. He makes you work for a smile, I only got a cheek twitch. He really reads you with his eyes. I can't wait to hang out with him some more, he really is so cute.

Japan - Day Five

2009-10-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

A photo free entry today, just wanted to document what I've been up to as it was a semi-eventful day yesterday. I had a job interview back in Namba which was scary because I had to give a demo lesson to two tutors. My lesson was targeted at young children so it was kind of embarrassing hamming it up to two Japanese adults. They were good about it anyway, and in a weeks time we'll find out if I have a job! I hopefully have some work on Tuesday assisting a friend of my uncles who is a teacher.

Apart from the job interview, one funny thing I noticed was in the toilets - I pushed a button thinking it was the flusher; it was the SOUND of a flusher but it didn't actually do anything. I soon worked out it was for women who wanted their excrement sounds to be modest :-/ found the flusher in the end. Another thing of note, most bathrooms don't have paper towels or hand driers; people carry around their own towels for this!

I've been watching a little bit of Japanese TV. It's quite intense, not the relaxing mind numbing experience I am used to. There are beer ads 24/7, and I saw one today for a company called Kirin in which a man is showing beer to a class of children...
I was watching the news as well - the presenter actually bows to the camera while seated before he starts his newsread.

My uncle took me out for dinner last night and introduced me to a guy called Robin who is married to a Japanese lady. He is German and informed me he used to be in a semi successful 90' rap group called "Hoerzu". He's the tall one with the glasses by the way. Here's the video:

Everyone's famous in Japan!

I also was introduced to a Japanese girl called Azusa Tougo. Cool name. She wants to show me around etc, so that's really nice.

I have a new cellphone too, it can receive email and cmail - I don't think they call it text here. The number is 08061557939, and email is darlenebrown@ezweb.ne.jp incase you want it. It has a good camera, internet, tv, music etc but all that stuff is in nihongoo so I can't read it. It costs to use anyway so at this stage it's off limits!

After dinner Azusa, Glenn (my uncle) and I did Karaoke. It was so cool, great song selection - Smiths, Ramones etc. I did a great rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop. I was introduced to "chuhi" I think that's how you spell it, that's the Japanese version of alcopops so I'm told. It's flavoured soju- with flavours like lime, orange and grapefruit. Not as sweet as Cruisers so I tried them and feel fine!

That's about it for now, blog soon.

Japan - Day Four

2009-10-22T02:04:00.001-07:00

First things first:

http://www.mustlovejapan.com/howto/howto_restroom/

My purpose for today was to do a dummy run into a town? city? area? Not sure exactly, but a place called Namba which is just under an hour away. I have a job interview there tomorrow so needed to practice taking the train to Umeda/Osaka, transferring to the Midosuji line to get to Namba. The train stations are massive, kind of like our biggest malls, so the practice was necessary. I made it, and thought that Namba was cool so took some snaps!!

A view from my uncles place, today was such a clear and beautiful day that I saw the port for the first time!!

My train arriving to my local train station, this is the one taking me to Umeda where I transfer. About a 40 minute trip, seems to go fast when you're a gawking tourist.

View from the train, took this photo to show the green mountains that surround Kobe. Apparently locals would never live there, preferring to cluster near to the train stations for conveniences sake. Atop those mountains there are lodges etc that hold weddings. You can cable car up there.

This girl was dressed like Little Bo Peep, she got on the train that I transferred to. Couldn't get a good enough photo without feeling like a stalker.

I think this street is what I thought I'd see when I imagined Japan. This is in Namba.

A cool colourful building.

This building blew my mind, don't know why. Probably the sheer size and minimalism of it!

Everyone here rides bikes, from the elderly to the young, and they're all awesome bikes that you wish you had. This is just one of them, took it for the Marks and Kits out there.

Biking.

After I found my job interview place, went for a walk and found this park. It was a little bit grotty but it was really nice to sit in a big open space.

Couldn't resist this sunset shot, took it when I got back to Rokko.

OK. So I made some food purchases today which are noteworthy. Number 1 - Corn Flavoured Doritos, which really turned out to be Corn Soup Flavoured Doritos. Not that nice; think chicken and corn flavouring from 2 minute noodles on corn chips.

An Oreo Bar - just tasted like a Milo Bar.

POCARI SWEAT is a healthy beverage that smoothly supplies the lost water and electrolytes during perspiration. With the appropriate density and electrolytes, close to that of human body fluid, it can be easily absorbed into the body.

It tasted like sweat.

Japan - Day One

2009-10-19T22:07:00.001-07:00

So...here I am in Japan! Arrived on Sunday night, airport was a crazy experience. Colours, people waving at me come this way, go that way etc. It has been pretty hard so far - it's really crazy not understanding what people are saying to you, or not being able to read signs, or food labels. The culture shock makes me feel like an alien; and in fact I am just that. Got my registration yesterday, and the guy didn't speak English. I went to a supermarket yesterday and could have spent hours in there just looking at everything. I also went to a bookshop and saw that the number one J Pop group of the week is "Lonely Town". Sounds emo.

Started the morning off with a cup of tea - Janat; the flavour of Sicily, the taste of Paris. It's classy; my cat feels the same.

When you flush the toilet at my uncles place, this tap automatically goes over the cistern. I don't know how to feel about it...

Heard a strange noise as I went outside to the small garden - it was a crow!! The first I've ever seen. They are beautiful looking, quite large and scary. This photo doesn't do the size of the bird justice.

Oh yeah - my uncle lives right by a graveyard. The crows hang out there and are constantly swooping over it...

The biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. I want to go back to New Zealand now.

Another one eating a butterfly.

A view of a street in the Rokko neighbourhood, where I live.

The first night I got there, my uncle said that we would be taking the rubbish out, but to watch for wild pigs. Apparently Kobe is known for them, and my uncle lives up a hill nearer to the mountains. If you see one, you're supposed to freeze as they can attack. I had a nightmare about this that very night.

Arrived home after a long day feeling tired and crap, only to be greeted by FIVE identical black cats hanging out together. These are two - the others were spaced out evenly atop of this wall. They wouldn't come to me.