What I Do

This is what we do at work:Actually, I woke up this morning thinking "Oh crap. Wednesday. Four lessons. And three of them are Junior High 3rd years. Oh crap." And then, do you know, I had a very nice day. All my classes were really nice (noisy, but nice) and one student said to me "How come your Japanese is so good?" And that really cheered me up because I met a very rude (and fat, and ugly) man at the weekend who made a big point of saying to all and sundry how very very rubbish he thought my Japanese was. I expect he has emotional problems of his own (being fat and ugly and having no manners might have something to do with that). So thank you Ayaha in 3:1, you made my day.

This article filled me with wild delight when I read it this morning. Since childhood, I've always felt it very sad that Britain no longer has the big charismatic beasties so common in the myth-laden forests of our fairy-tales. Though I expect I’d have slightly less romantic notions if I went camping and found one in my tent one morning gnawing at my leg, if it's good for the eco-system and the farmers get compensated I say bring the wolves back!

Here’s another one of those important (yet all too impersonal) circulars from Jonathan Bond.

Everyone on this little housing estate of ours in Greenwich has invested a lot of time and effort trying to get their voices heard. We're very close to victory, but we need as many people as possible to sign our online petition, as soon as possible (ie before 10 February). Please visit:

http://www.petitiononline.com/vpera001/petition.html

If you agree, sign it, then send the link to everyone you think will support us, as soon as you can. Lots of love jonathan

Yet another example of corporate greed and irresponsibility! Fight it folks! Fight it!

色々

Apologies for late bloggage - I have been a bit down. Not due to any seasonal affective disorder or out like that but simply and predictably due to work. The work which disappoints and ceaselessly crushes the soul. However, I won't go on about that. This is a place for happy things.

Since I last wrote, many things have happened. Old Fukushima buddy Paul Sparks (now in Tokyo) has informed me that there will be yet another Beer Tasting (BT11 I believe) this year on March 10th (which had me rubbing my hands together and cackling with glee). Young Kenta-kun (formerly brother-in-rock and bass player in the legendary machine-gun-rock-band Beretta) has been in touch to tell me that he finally has a girlfriend (which had me and several choirs of angels breathing huge sighs of relief - Congratulations Kenty!). And that lanky northern git Jonathan Bond has been in touch after an interval of maybe 5 years to inform me that:

..Borough market is London's oldest market. It was established on
the south bank of　the Thames when the Romans built the first
London Bridge and people have been trading on this site for over
2000 years. it's a beautiful undercover food market
and a truly wonderful part of London's history.

Some bright spark has decided to expand the railway line running
through the roof of the market, which will also involve knocking
down 23 of the beautiful listed and unlisted buildings in the
closely surrounding area.

They already have planning permission, but are waiting funding
and there is a strong local campaign to put a stop to it.

If you know and love the market in its present state, please sign
the petition to prevent this from happening. The plans, photographs
and the petition are on the following site: http://www.sabmac.co.uk

Which had me wondering why people in high places never seem to value the things that are quite obviously the most important. It also had me wondering why I didn't get a proper, personal message from old Bondy, to which he tersely (but quite fairly) replied:

After about five years of circulars from you I thought I'd
start getting my own back . . .

So that told me.

Saturday night, HJ and I went to see our friend Motoko singing a wee bit of Mozart at the Kyoto Culture Museum. Philippe was also due to read some poetry by Paul Verlaine, which he was quite nervous about so I suggested filming the event and putting it on youtube. He then offered several words of encouragement, (something about my being born out of wedlock), so I took lots of pictures and a video and you can see the results below. Enjoy!

These are mostly pictures of Motoko's performance. But there's a couple of choice shots of Philippe stressing out:


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And now watch Philippe Goulier reading Verlaine to a crowd of uncomprehending Japanese:

There is no war on terror

Hurray for the DPP! That's literally all I have to say today.

Dull Politician Makes Speech to Self at Busy Intersection

This is something I see all the time and can never figure out. Japanese politicians are always standing on street corners making speeches - but no-one ever listens. What do they hope to gain?

MR. SCOLDY! WIND HIM UP AND WATCH HIM SCOLD!

Call me Mr. Scoldy. I've been back at work a week and a half and I've had to scold either a student or the entire class in every other lesson. Over time, this gets tiring. Scold, scold, scold , that's all I do.

I wish I could just teach bored cynical salarymen instead of this teenage rabble... At least the bored cynical salarymen take me out for beers occasionally.

Hmmm... beers...

Mr. Scoldy is going to the pub.

Two Minutes to Midnight

Not much to say today, except... WE'RE ALL DOOMED!!! Which we all suspected anyway, but now the world's top scientists have made it official. Huzzah!

What kind of music would you listen to at a Doomsday Countdown Party? I'd want to hear this for sure:

命

I'm thinking my hordes of avid readers, would like to see something a bit more .... oh I don't know... JAPANESE. Seeing as I'm in Japan and all. So here are some nice Japanesey pictures.

First off some nice Japanese lanterns. What could be more Japanesy?

I took these up at Yoshida Jinja on Sunday.




There's a nice big Jizo on Imadegawa now...



Jizo is the Buddhist patron "saint" of children. This little road-side shrine is on quite a nasty little corner, the cars come whipping round, so it's good Jizo is there looking out for the little chisellers...

Now, there's a little alleyway between Kawaramachi
and Shinkyogoku... If you live in Kyoto, you probably know where I mean... There's a big Loft store there and also one of the few places one can legally park a bicycle in this town. Anyway, on this alleyway, there is a little Temple....

See below:







It's a small temple... I'm not sure how to read the kanji on the sign but I think it's called Houzouji (寶蔵寺). Judging from the look of it, I'd say it was a family-run establishment, probably catering to the needs of the local "parishoners"... Yes, I don't know a lot about it to be honest... There are hundreds of tiny little temples in Kyoto, and most of them don't really stand out, but I like this one.

If you look to the left of this picture, you can see some framed calligraphy on the wall. This is changed fairly regularly and I love it. It's always a short meditation containing some essential piece of wisdom. Buddhist thinking of course but like a lot of buddhist thinking - basically just positive thinking and good common sense advice.
Let's take a closer look at the most recent message:


Right to left this reads:

迎春
命をみつめよう
命を活かそう
生かされている
命に
感謝しょう

geishun
inochi o mitsumeyou
inochi o ikasou
ikasareteiru
inochi ni
kansha shou

Which if my understanding of it is right, means something like this:

Approaching spring
Let's look hard at our lives
Let's live our lives fully
And being alive
Let 's give thanks
For Life

I love the way the calligrapher has used the different kanji for life and living (命、活、生）...

I'll put some more of those up as and when they appear...

Cheerio!

Introducing...

...the Burquini! CHECK IT OUT! I've already ordered mine!

Open the Box

The frenzy for justice continues in Baghdad with the executions of Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamad al-Bandar (former trusty compadres of Saddam Hussein) and there's absolutely no doubt that justice has been done in the case of old Barzan, as his head came clean off when he dropped through the scaffold. Yes, folks, decapitation is part of the deal if you want to see democracy in Iraq. Decapitation. Wow! It calls to mind those immortal words: “To create a democracy, blood must sometimes be spilled”. (Augusto Pinochet, if you're interested). And heads must roll, eh?

Ahem...

On a lighter note, Philippe has put me onto this site, which I'm now listening to: www.pandora.com

What you do is, you choose a song or artist you like, and then the site selects some of that and some other stuff that it reckons you might like. Then it streams it all like a radio station, a radio station specially tuned to your needs, well within your comfort zones, but also with some new stuff you might never have have heard of before. So I'm listening to a Sufjan Stevens "radio station" now (because I like him), but the song is by someone called Chelsea Beauchamp who I've never heard before but I tell you, she sounds hot. You have to register if you want to continue listening for free, but that just requires giving your email address, age and a US zip code. So I live in West New York, right?

And Hyon Ju brought back this game she bought Korea, called Rumi-kub and we've been playing it all day. It's weirdly addictive. Especially for me as I keep winning. Not sure what's in it for her really. I must have just beaten her 7 times in a row. Anyway, lots of fun. It's based on the game Rummy, but you play it with tiles and the possibilities are endless. It gets harder as you drink beer though.

Beats Cluedo anyway.

Today's Eclectic

I felt like going to see a movie yesterday... so I went and watched "Lucky Number Slevin". I didn't know much about it, but I thought it had a good cast. Well, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis pretty much did what they always do. Josh Hartnett was Josh Hartnetty. Lucy Liu was cute (she always cute). Ben Kingsley was (very) good. The film was... ok. Not great. Not bad either. It wasn't as clever as it thought it was though... I had the whole story worked out in the first five minutes. Still not a bad way to waste a Saturday afternoon.

Now I managed to skip a few pictures when I was uploading to Bubbleshare the other day. Here's a good one.
This is Rik Abel. (Oft mentioned on these pages.) Once upon a time we worked in a bookshop in Cambridge together and we shared a house with a few other jolly characters. Although we talk on Messenger all the time, we haven't actually met up for four or five years so it was really good to catch up with him. Anyway, we've made some plans and we are out to conquer the world.

My youngest sister Sheila got me a couple of excellent presents for Christmas (I wrote her a list see). Neil Gaiman's "Marvel 1602" and "The Fate of the Artist" by Eddie Campell.


I'd been wanting to read "1602" for ages. It was worth waiting for. All the classic Marvell characters (a pre-spider-bite Peter Parker, the X-men, Doctor Strange, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four and even a brief cameo by the Hulk) are reinterpreted in a 17th century setting. I like Gaiman anyway, but this is a real cracking yarn, heaps of intrigue and suspense and nice artwork form Andy Kubert too. RECOMMENDED.


"The Fate of the Artist" I found a leetle disappointing. After all the talk about it last year I was expecting something weightier but it is a very slight volume indeed... A little too up it's own ass for my liking too. However, though short it's very readable, has many a droll moment, and the artwork and constantly shifting styles are very impressive. RECOMMENDED (if your really into that sort of thing).

Lastly here's something that amused me when I found it in the paper when I was home in England.
Steven Seagal has a band! And it's called THUNDERBOX!!!!


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Blind-Roller-Dancing

Again, it's late... and I have many things to say... but they must wait... Instead, to fill today's blog, here is a short video of Rik (McGit) BLIND-ROLLER-SKATING. Enjoy.

Arashiyama (at last)

Well, I have lots to tell you... Life-changing.... nay Earth-changing stuff you know. But I'm well tired and I just drank half a bottle of cheap Japanese wine so I'm going to leave you with the Arashiyama video I have FINALLY finished. On December 3rd Hyon Ju and I went to Arashiyama to see the last of the autumn leaves and I took along my new camera and videoed a bit and took pictures a bit and you can see the results with some Mandala music (thanks Eric) here:

明けましておめでとうございます！

Happy New Year! I'm back in Japan (ah to sleep twixt my own familiar sheets once more) and back at work (ah...) and back at my blog (did you miss me?). Scary stuff today - I asked one of my junior high students what she did over winter vacation and she said "I read you blog." How on earth did she know about my blog? I shall have to be careful what I write... Now I took heaps of pictures and I've whittled them down to a few and put them on to a Bubbleshare account (my Flickr account is full you see)and apparently I can easily add them to my blog here... Let's see if it works:


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Good God it does! Marvellous! Isn't Bubbleshare terrific? Just click on the picture to see them full size with proper titles. I'll be posting videos later - once youtube gets it's act together... Ooh! Look I can do this too! Just hover your mouse over the picture to see the titles. So much fun! My Flickr days are done!


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