Arrived in Shimokita earlier today (yesterday), went a walking and a coffee'ng. Found a cool niche of clothing and cheap jewellery stores in the street behind work. Considering a few key purchases.
Dinner tonight was honest-to-goodness spaghetti bolognese, with parmesan cheese and everything. Most tasty and lots of leftovers for tomorrow night. Well, training starts early tomorrow (1320), so must now to bed.
So today I have to work one class earlier than usual, since I will be attending training tomorrow.
What? You do more work because you have training?
I'm glad you asked...though I think I just answered the question in my first statement. Still, an explanation may be in order: I have training tomorrow in Shibuya, which will go for about forty minutes less than my normal work day. So, in order to 'catch up', I will be going in to work today some time around four in the afternoon, instead of my normal five pm.
Which is okay by me.
I mean, it's not petty at all.
Forty minutes is forty minutes.
And you dared question why I would move to such a hip and happenin' place?
Fool mortals! There be busking! BUSKING!
Don't bother clicking on it, the full size picture is terribly blurry and low-def
Yesterday, travelled to Ebisu.
Saw some great obey giant street art and then ate some "Good Honest Grub". Really nice sandwich, chicken, blue cheese, crispy bacon, etc...
I did not do this alone. No, no I did not. Helen (organiser and holder of dark cafe secrets), Mark and his lady love were there.
Post meal, Mark, Helen and I travelled to a second hand book store, the name of which eludes me at present ("Super happy book friends"? No.) Mark bought a book, I bought two and I think Helen bought no more than eight or nine. Helen likes books. I bought Bliss by Peter Carey (feeling patriotic on Anzac day) and The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf. I read Misconceptions by Ms Wolf earlier in the year and it was great, so I thought I'd continue backwards to her first(?) work. So far, it's been excellent, full of fire and Germaine Greer quotes.
Respeck:
Going into Ebisu tomorrow (again, I actually mean later today) to have lunch with Helen (and maybe Mark) and then go second hand book shopping. Helen was reading Digital Fortress the other day, and since I made such a stink about it, she suggested we look for new (old?) books on Monday.
Everyone! Watch out! You might accidentally read some freakin' Dan Brown
I did go to shimokita. I did drink coffee. Three cups in short succession. Then I wandered around as a nervous wreck and got tired by about four thirty and went home.
I did look at a few boards outside of some real estate offices. Does that count?
(or, today)
Tomorra I am going to go into Shimokitazawa and start house hunting. There are many reasons I want a new place. Shimokita would be more convenient, cooler and less reminiscent of cows. Also, I would not have to spend an hour and a half commuting everyday. (I know, I know, wah wah).
Anyhoo, I plan to look around for an english speaking real estate agent and then do the whole looking at places thing. Who knows how far I will get? Probably no further than the local coffee shop. Still, it's a plan and I plan to stick to the plan.
I emailed some people last night. If you were not one of them, and you would like me to get off my lazy arse and reply to you, I recommend sending me an angry email. That usually works. Otherwise, quit complainin' to yourself and get a haircut or something productive. Possibly eat a banana and wait.
Erm. I think sleep is in order.
Great, right?
Thought you might like to see these:
Thank you for your time.
There are two things that need bringing to your attention today.
Today (or indeed, yesterday by now) I did something wonderful. I went to the Raj Mahal in Shinjuku with Thad and Stan and ate huge amounts of curry at the buffet (they call buffet food 'viking' here, how cool is that?!?).
So we ate, and ate and ate. Naan and curry and salad and pakora and naan. We ate and ate some more. Then we were done. Food was no longer an option. Stan left for Japanese class and Thad and I did some Shinjuku explorin' (we found what has been billed as 'Tokyo's only anarchist bookstore').
The second thing that needs bringing to your attention is that I am officially (as of May 1st) finished my probationary period at the Company and will from now on be paid more and given greater responsibilities. That's right, more money.
Thought all y'all should know.
In case you all forgot, it was my weekend a couple of days ago.
Yes, that's right, my weekend. You can't escape it that easily. Oh no.
So, what did I do? Well, I went with Mark to see Aiko sing and play the blues in a blues bar named Terraplane in Shibuya. It was very, very cool. Aiko writes all of her own songs, and for such a little lady, she can really belt them out. Her music is really beautiful and moving, even without understanding the words - when I had the songs explained to me, it made perfect sense, the music had already told half the story.
After Terraplane, Mark and I decided on a bit of Karaoke. I sang some cool songs and some not so cool (on Mark's insistence that I choose something embarrassing). Here's my list:
Creep
West End Girls (I know, I know)
Paranoid Android
Bulls on Parade
Where is my mind?
Dude, what fun!
So, I was over at Tokyo Times today, checking out his latest posts when I read about Catprin.
Okay, so...um, wow.
Catprin is a "tailor for cats". I would write more, but like the author at Tokyo Times, I will rely on Catprin's words, since mine could never suffice:
CATPRIN, a tailor for cats. Ever imagined dressing up your lovely cat into a fabulous beauty? You don't have to dress her everyday, in fact she might not feel comfortable with a dress on for days. Just dress her up only on special occasions like her birthday, takes a photo and that should leave you lots of memories and fantasies.
1. Dress her up. Cheer or yell, do whatever you like to enjoy the moment with your family.
2. After you are enough with your joy, take a photo! Take some poses and leave her some cute photos!
3. Remove her clothes and give her a hub, say "Thank you!"
Word for freakin' word. And now, some pictures to make your day:
So, The whole 'sleeping in a net cafe' thing, which is supposed to be the way to go when you miss the train turned out to be a little more difficult than previously anticipated.
I can sleep on trains and planes and in automobiles, so I imagine I can sleep in a net cafe too. Maybe if I took my sleeping-mask and earplugs I would be fine. Will have to remember to have them with me next time I'm out and about.
Got home around six this morning, set up some downloads and went to sleep. I got up at about twelve and decided not to go back to bed. I don't want to throw my whole schedule out.
So, it turns out that sleeping in a comfortable chair with a lovely footrest in a private booth in a quiet netcafe is actually kind of difficult.
I guess I'll sleep when I get home. Not too long now before I leave.
I was out with colleagues tonight, and totally missed the last train home by about a minute (seriously, I caught the 12:09 instead of the 12:08), so I am stuck about twenty minutes by train and one hundred dollars by taxi from home. Fortunately, internet cafes have special deals on overnight (ie, until five a.m.) stays - so I will be able to sleep in comfort (it's really nice here) until that time and catch the first train home.
Normally, all I have to do is walk home from Tama Center station, which takes less than forty minutes, but Chofu is just a little too far to walk. Another good reason to move closer to work.
Tonight on the train I met a polylingual Japanese guy (Japanese, English, German, Italian, French) and we spoke in a combination of languages (he spoke Italian and English, I spoke French and English). Only a second before he disembarked, a French man made himself known to us and said he was sorry he could not speak to us. He seemed nice, I had nodded to him (as I do many Gaijin I see on the train). Anyways, the Japanese guy and I had a cool conversation about Europe and Freiburg and whatnot before I had to go. He was pretty cool, shoulda gotten his email address.
So, now I am in an internet cafe for the night. It makes me laugh a little, since at this cafe you have to register yourself and get a membership card. When I did it, about a month ago, I was kinda annoyed that I had to give them my details, being paranoid about such things. However, it has worked out well for me now, all I had to do was show my card and I was let in. It will only cost me about 1200 yen, so I'm pretty happy.
That's about it, time for me to go to bed. Good night.
Work is quiet at the moment, for the last few days there have been multiple 'frees' for almost everyone. To be honest, it's a hellava lot more boring sitting in the staff room doing busy work (or at least shuffling papers with a harassed look on your face) than doing even a terrible lesson. It's okay if there are some other teachers with whom to chat but at the moment I am sitting along on my arse bored out of my skull writing a blog entry on company paper using company ink while wasting company time (if you are from the company, first: please take everything I write as figurative; second: please stop coming to my site, it's weird).
So, this morning I cooked a 'traditional' Japanese dish called nikujaga, which I'm told translates to something like 'meat and potato' (or, maybe potato and meat). Tasty, and easy to make.
Some meat (I used pork)
A few potatoes
Half a litre of water
A little fish stock (benito)
A dash of sake
A dash of soy sauce
Two spoons of sugar
Coupla onions
Fry meat until colour changes, add diced potatoes and onions, continue to fry for the next five or so minutes.
Add water, sake, soy sauce and sugar and simmer for ten to fifteen minutes.
Eat. Don't serve, just eat it straight out of the pan.
(I used sake from a jar, but a bottle or carton is also fine).
Tonight, we are going to watch Napoleon Dynamite which is apparently funny and good, besides the poster makes me want to watch it, which is motivation enough for me. Stan downloaded the it the other night. He is getting much better speeds now which is good, since earlier anything at all took days.
Today, being Friday was for a few weeks our traditional evening to go out and have a couple at the local and spend more than necessary on food. After a while, this became a little financially taxing so we ended the tradition. We could reinstate the weekly drinks and dinner, but I think we may change to maybe a Wednesday lunch. I for one have been advocating a visit to the Taj Mahal that all you can eat place that Nathan and I visited. The downside to this new arrangement is that I would have to be up before my normal twelve in the afternoon to make the eleven o'clock start. All you can eat Indian food (including naan and chicken tikka), all for only 1100 yen.
Need to buy eggs tonight on the way home - have the rest of the ingredients for my cholesterol laden sandwich/burgers: cheddar, tomato, beef mince, nice seeded mustard and of course, bread. That will mean I can finish my remaining nikujaga tonight and have some fattier food to keep me happy. Maybe I could even take a sanga or two to work tomorrow...although I am enjoying my weekly macchiato and meat pie...yes, that's sounding real nice right about now. Real nice.
Not sure what I'm going to do this weekend. They come so quickly that they sneak up on me. I need a new book, which means a trip to Shinjuku, sometimes watching tele on the train home from work is completely unworkable. In case I haven't mentioned this before, that footage you've seen of people being shoved into the train by any means possible could be taken any night of the week. Wow.
That's it. No more was written, so I must have actually had some work to do at that point.
Theoretically, my bank account will be slightly fuller today. For 'tis today that I receive my first pay check.
I think I'll buy steak. Or some sort of tofu based steak substitute. Or at least, I'll look at pictures of tofu based steak substitute on the 'net. Yum.
Anyways, only today and tomorrow left before my weekend starts again. Dayam but that happens quick. I should start making goals or my whole time here will be over before it has even started.
Q: Do older Japanese men throw up on the train?
A: Yes, they do. And it's nasty.
This is seriously very funny...or disturbing...I'm hoping it's the former.
I was going to make a soylent green joke.
I forgot to mention this yesterday, but there were two small quakes (that's what I call them here) during the day.
One woke me up at 7:22 in the morning, with the apartment shaking. I thought "huh?", and then went back to sleep. The second one was in the afternoon while I was watching television.
I didn't really think about it when it was happening, but I guess I should have been scared or something. I was mostly just put out by the interruption. Next time I will just think "Eat a banana and wait." (c/o Darren via Robin).
If you actually visit this site rather than viewing the xml feed in your aggregator of choice, then you may have noticed some aesthetic changes. This is mainly due to my having upgraded to movable type 3.15.
Why the upgrade? Well, mostly it's because I'd like to be able to turn comments on, but to do that, I need me some kinda in-surance. Which mt-3.15 and typekey may afford me.
Probably won't though.
Thing the first: in case you haven't worked it out yet, I have uploaded a couple of new shots to flickr. See pics on right of page for links.
Thing the second: I thought of a great definition to use in Balderdash: a small, contrite fish. I want to play now, just so I can use it.
Okay, an explanation is required. The two below entries were written when I first got here in Japan and was netless and alone. I needed an out. I thought writing about celebrities would work for me. It didn't, which is why I only wrote two pieces.
One is about Sandra-Dee (Gidget), the other about Jennifer Garner. Both are 100% accurate. Feel free to email me if you agree.
Thank you for your time.
I'm sure you all heard that Sandra-Dee, one time Gidget, one time crazed sixties sexpot, one time heroine dealer is now deceased.
My first reaction (and the title of the post) was, "Who will learn to surf now?" If you knew this kind, gentle drug-dealer-cum-pimp, you'd know that the thing she loved most was learning to surf. Even in her sixties, most weekends would be spent finding a handsome young beach bum, and ask him to teach her to ride the waves. He would, and then she'd give him the chemical cocktail of his choice for payment. Everyone was happy, and the beach was fun again.
But now, alas, young-at-heart Sandra is dead. Late. Elle est morte. So, I ask you, amphetamine-packing grandmas of the world, I ask you to seek out the beaches, learn to surf, day-in day-out. It's the best way we could remember this sweet lady, it's the only way the beach will come alive, once again!
I watched Suddenly 30 the other day. I'm sorry, I really am. I knew I shouldn't have, but the DVD was there at home, I had run out of downloaded television to watch, and I occasionally enjoy that type of movie. Well, I did once...I'm pretty sure.
I'm not sure what the movie was about, something about Tom Hanks attacking the future president of B.I.G. industries, and agent Bristow having to stop him before she ingests wishing dust and falls in love with the fattest little Mark-Ruffalow-As-Child you've ever seen. I think...
So, why aren't I sure about the plot? It's because Jennifer Garner (from now on, known simply as J-Gar) looks so freakin' weird. Seriously, have you seen her face? It has two expressions: happy/sad and surprised/angry. Happy/sad is used whenever she is either happy or sad...or neutral. Surprised/angry is used when she is surprised or angry...or looking in the mirror.
Fig 1: Happy/Sad J-Gar
Fig 2: Surprised/Angry J-Gar
The suspense I felt wondering which expression J-Gar would use next kept me from really understanding anything that was going on. I mean, J-Gar'd just be sitting there, looking all happy/sad, then BOOM!, she'd have this amazing surprised/angry expression attacking her face. Wowee. I'd ask myself, "Joshua, why did that happen?". And you know what, just when I was about to answer myself, probably with the wisdom of the ages, she'd swap back to happy/sad, and all I could say was, "I don't know Joshua, I just don't know." and we'd both sigh.
J-Gar wants you for the face-army!
This is one of my favourite photos I have taken since coming to Japan. This is Hachiko crossing in Shibuya. There is road beneath the feet of all the people you see.
In Sydney, I always loved the George Street crossing outside the Queen Victoria Building. Because you could walk diagonally. Heh. In Shibuya, you are allowed to walk perpendicular to four dimensional space-time.
Now, that's progress!
Mmmph.
I have a cold. A nasty snotty, throbbing-sinus-type cold. Yesterday I kept having to leave class to accommodate my explosive nasal decompressions. I have just slept-in 'till 1430 this afternoon, and I really need to leave if I'm to make it to work on time, but all I want to do is roll over and pretend I won't be penalised three lessons for every lesson that I miss.
Bleck!
Nathan and I went explorin' yesterday.
First stop, Harajuku - we saw the cosplayers doing their thing on the bridge just outside Yoyogi park. Wow. Has to be seen to be believed. I recognised some of the outfits, but most were just crazy-cool leather and lace and pink hair combinations. While I wanted to take photos of these people, so many gaijin were standing there gawking and clicking off 'rolls' of digital film that I was slightly embarrassed to be there. I hadn't seen so many plump white people in one place since I was back in Oz.
Next stop, Yoyogi park - a huge park right smack bang in the middle of Tokyo. Beautiful and very Japanese. We walked through it for a long time, and ended up at the main shrine. Nathan has a picture of himself in front of it that I might be able to steal from him at some point to upload. After the shrine, we headed back to the station through the park, along the way we passed a small pond graced by a single flowering cherry-blossom tree. It was spectacular.
After that we got back to the station and headed for Akihabara. We arrived, and once our eyes adjusted to the glare, we walked straight into Radio Hall, which is basically a multi-level toy shop. We saw story after story of giant star wars figurines, and jack skellingtons. I almost bought me some street fighter models, because who doesn't want their own little Blanka doll? The final level was devoted to doll parts. If you ever went mad, and decided you needed to build an army of crazy little dolls, choosing their bodies, heads, eyes, hair and latest doll fashions, this is where you would come. If you weren't mad then, you would be after ten minutes there - some shelves are arrayed with eyeless, featureless pink doll bodies, all posing and looking like they're at a tea party or some such, it's very Evangelion, and very scary.
Well, we continued the walk the streets of Akiba, passing numerous stores that only sold special yellow wires that could be used for repairing twenty year old Czech radio equipment and finally came across one of the Jewels in the crown of Akiba's weird. An Aso Bit City which sold only model guns. Model guns which shoot little plastic pellets. Model guns which cost upwards of $150. Not just model hand guns, but model machine guns which require a tripod in order to be fired. They have a firing range. You can hire a gun and shoot tiny little plastic pellets at a piece of paper to your heart's content. Amazing. (Mum, dad, if you're reading, could you wire me over some funds, I have some purchasing to do).
We ate some burgers and fires from a random Japanese burger joint (mine had chilli and wasabi -- tasty!). And then it was off to Shinjuku to buy a map and just be our cool selves. An hour later, we were leaving Shinjuku - mapless but still a couple of books heavier - on our way home. Nathan has come down with a bit of a cold (I keep trying to convince him it's hayfever) and is suffering head aches and explosive snot issues, so we called it a night early on. Still, a good day, and one I shall remember for weeks to come.
(sorry, forgot to take photos, will do so today, promise)
Dear everyone who has emailed me lately.
I plan to write back very soon, like tomorrow night.
Thank you for your patience.
P.S. Pinback is t3h awesome.
