tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68920492011-07-08T10:07:11.952+09:00JAPAN. AND STUFF.pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.comBlogger1251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-36673484323574609742007-05-15T19:21:00.000+09:002008-12-12T10:20:21.811+09:00

Here's a couple of faked tilt-shift lens shots I made.Click this link to read a tutorial on making fake tilt-shift miniature shots in Photoshop CS or higher.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-27835977067411791162007-05-11T01:00:00.000+09:002008-12-12T10:20:22.276+09:00

Two almost bald men at Angkor Thom. A Khmer boy harrases turtles on the Angkor Wat walkway whilst hoping for adoption by Angelina Jolie. I saw this little guy throw a 50 riel coin back at a Western woman who'd given it to him. 3,998 riel currently equals US$1. $1.50 might get you a cup of coffee in the cheapest Siem Reap cafes. $3.50 might get you a small bottle of local beer. Or some noodles.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-79521470918554601292007-05-09T21:30:00.000+09:002007-05-18T07:53:25.737+09:00

If you write anything about yourself more than around three sentences in Microsoft Word - which maybe around 2 billion people have - the hugely frustrating animated paperclip will suggest that you're being too egotistical, that maybe you want to change some of those 'I's to something else. The "It looks like you're writing a letter" paperclip.The "Flesch reading ease" paperclip.That paperclip

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1150365927448353682006-06-15T18:53:00.000+09:002007-03-19T03:39:36.263+09:00

I don't expect anyone to really believe this, especially since I mentioned hopefully seeing the visage of Mother Teresa on a mango scarcely two posts away, but the image you see to the right appeared in talcum powder on the floor of my shower. I swear I didn't make this, it really, really, really did just appear. Yuka saw it too.It's actually disturbed me a little. I took this photo then washed

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1150365034858733952006-06-14T18:35:00.000+09:002006-06-15T19:08:00.066+09:00

Whilst I'd like everyone to think a lot has happened in my life since I purchased the Golden Mango™, nothing actually has. I did lose a tooth though. Now I have a hideously ugly completly metal one, a small souvenir of Japan's mineral deposits rammed into my gum. It's not finished yet, they're going to add more metal next week. They stick a smaller lump of metal to the bigger lump of metal and

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1146794899499233862006-05-01T17:56:00.000+09:002006-05-10T21:29:15.003+09:00

You know how it is - you're down to your last few ¥1000 notes with a week or so until payday and you're thinking cheap nutrition. You also know that fruit can be ridiculously expensive in Japan. You're also very tired. You buy a ¥2000 mango. You thought the label said ¥198. It didn't. You walk home tenderly clutching this presumably ambrosial fruit reflecting on all the cheaper fruit £8.50 might

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1144055283035174442006-04-03T17:27:00.000+09:002006-04-03T18:08:03.106+09:00

Today you - the longest, most heel-dragging, mule stubborn Winter I've ever sleepwalked discontentedly through - have finally stopped hanging around. I can't believe you thought you'd still be welcome after everything, even after you tried to selfishly steal three weeks from Spring.Yeah, you've gone and by tomorrow no one but truly dedicated phenologists and meteorologists and maybe their

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1141721562720312572006-03-06T17:09:00.000+09:002006-03-07T17:52:42.786+09:00

Recently I've been savouring a can of coffee or two on my frequent ADD style breakouts from the staff room. Usually it's a Suntory or maybe a Georgia or occasionally, if needs must, a DyDo which is a brand not to be trusted because of that extra capital "D'. Of late though, say this last week or so, it's the Asahi Wonda Shot and Shot that gets selected from one of the 16,000 vending machines

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1141224504229120312006-03-01T23:41:00.000+09:002006-03-05T21:23:23.693+09:00

Spring's heading in all schizophrenic. It's dark, it's light, it's dark again - as if some vast kitchen fluorescent needs a new starter plug. The temperature too is bi-polar. Godzilla's out in the Nihonkai opening and closing a giant refrigerator. So they say.In Japan people who drive trains, airline attendants, and those in similar vocations, well, they do this odd pointing thing. They just

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1140082451928438472006-02-16T17:41:00.000+09:002006-02-17T16:59:25.880+09:00

Oh dear. More scandalous images of prisoner abuse and the beating of defenceless Iraqi teenagers some of which, it says here, 'didn't have any shoes'. By soldiers, no less. British ones at that. We can expect it from those nasty 'friendly-firing' US GI's or whatever they're called, but the British! Crikey. It's just not cricket. Our boys are supposed to be doling out Gin and Tonics and Kendal

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1140013139777885692006-02-15T22:40:00.000+09:002006-02-17T16:57:45.686+09:00

Shit. Almost forgot my log-in. What can I say? When life's good I guess there's nothing to whinge about, and then it's hard to think up stuff to write here. Also, I've got fifteen days between now and not being 20-something anymore and I don't care. It's great. I really don't give too much of a fuck how I look in the morning anymore, or what people think, or if a girl feels I have a small penis

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1130851322655984842005-11-01T21:12:00.000+09:002005-11-01T22:28:45.016+09:00

So we set off to the party late, me and Ben - I mean the Blue Shadow and Uma Thurman - and that was fair enough: we had a couple of breasts to make. Why we then got off the train at a stop called 三雲 (Three Clouds) is anyone's guess. We were heading for Omihachiman.But there we were, a ninja with unparalled tracking skills and a woman who found and killed Bill, unable to locate the correct train

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1130422428973788242005-10-27T23:08:00.000+09:002005-10-27T23:13:48.986+09:00

Today I told a class of 12 year old Japanese kids that I love Meerkats, but nobody knew what they were. Except one little girl who took a few minutes to describe them whilst everyone else listened, fascinated. I loved her for that, but she'll never know.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1125837100782130442005-09-04T21:04:00.000+09:002005-09-04T21:39:31.613+09:00

If we'd stayed on the train for another half hour or so we'd almost have been at the furthest southern point of Honshu. We got off at Shirahama - Sean and me - a beach town on the Tonda river and overlooking Tanaba Bay. I guess it's south south west Wakayama Prefecture.It was hot and the imported Australian sand was real white. Shirahama. 'White sands'.By 5p.m. a typhoon coming up from below

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1125835361847243632005-09-04T21:00:00.000+09:002005-09-04T21:03:55.020+09:00

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1124109399819593122005-08-12T21:35:00.000+09:002005-08-15T21:36:39.820+09:00

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1124109312057567012005-08-07T21:33:00.000+09:002005-08-15T21:35:12.076+09:00

Gonna be away for a while in places yet to hear of the internet. It's true.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1123490583472683232005-08-05T17:40:00.000+09:002005-08-08T17:43:03.476+09:00

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1123098786961867062005-08-04T04:33:00.000+09:002005-08-04T04:55:38.306+09:00

There are times when I wonder what it is that's good about this little island upon which I live. It's much easier to list all the problems. But I won't - the bandwidth would go up in smoke. But every now and then something happens that makes you realise that there's something quaintly bonkers about the good old U of K. It's a place littered with eccentrics. Which is probably a reason to leave,

Dave Wnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1122967422146325392005-08-01T16:09:00.000+09:002005-08-03T00:41:01.863+09:00

There were phosphorescent plankton in the sea!Mobile-phone button back-light blue at the edges of each wave and in the circles about the legs of midnight paddlers. Also in the air if you threw a large rock seaward. In hindsight, this probably killed several million innocent plankti (plankti?). But they looked beautiful in their airborne death throes.Besides glowing, the little beauties exhibited

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1122814031962100682005-07-31T20:16:00.000+09:002005-08-01T19:57:19.246+09:00

My brother went home.Ten days of mooching across Southern and Eastern Honshu in every form of transport Japan Railways has to offer has culminated in a fat collection of violence themed puri-kura, a build up of dirty laundry, and the realization that already I'm missing our kid just way too much.The brothers Pik cut a swathe, for your information, through Otsu, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Miyajima

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1122025120150779172005-07-22T17:56:00.000+09:002005-07-22T19:24:49.866+09:00

金曜は写真の日なのか・・・じゃあ金曜だけ出てくっかな・・・最近書くことないからな。Anyway,...Hey guys, this is where I live, Fukuoka. My flat should be in this area but it is hard to see anyway. That is the beach area and if you take a 5 minute tube ride, you will come down....here;[Current Music] スキマスイッチ "全力少年"

Hayatonoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1122019606240942452005-07-22T17:02:00.000+09:002005-07-22T17:06:46.246+09:00

Friday, my friends, is picture day on the Moichido Cooperative Experiment. So, as opposed to my frist two dreary, non-entertaining entries, i decided to put up a picture of something everyone gets excited about - architecture!Ok, actually, i don't get all that excited about architecture. But anyways, this picture, taken in Tokyo, is of by far one of the coolest buildings i have seen in Japan.

DanInJapannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1121948314281088542005-07-21T20:17:00.000+09:002005-07-21T21:44:12.556+09:00

These recent sultry, humid days in Wakayama-shi have seen me instigating a new dress code for dinner. I hunch at this very desk wearing only boxer shorts and a hat. The hat lends the occasion a sense of dignity, I feel. A large fan is trained constantly on my back. One day soon, I shall turn it on. The chopsticks slip all too predictably up and down in my useless, sweaty fingers. I groan

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1121842454365121472005-07-20T15:27:00.000+09:002005-07-20T15:54:14.370+09:00

And there it is - my duties as an ALT for Toyosato-cho are finished. I haven't been sure if i made the right choice to contract or not. Lately i have been wishing i was staying on, i have really gotten to know some of the students and teachers quite well, and many people seem sad that i am leaving. Maybe it just took time to get used to being here, or used to the different styles, or used to

DanInJapannoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1121620229787694222005-07-18T01:40:00.000+09:002005-07-18T02:12:51.066+09:00

I feel like a little boy about to dip his toes in the water. I've been invited here but, like those odd moments when you're left alone in someone else's house, or, 'eck, even in their bedroom, it doesn't feel quite right. I feel like having a snoop about. Peeling back the edges of this whole Moichido Co-operative to find out what lurks in the cupboards, maybe trying on the pants... But then I

Dave Wnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120830302315036372005-07-07T22:24:00.000+09:002005-07-08T23:10:15.666+09:00

My first thought, seriously, was that the French were even more upset about the loss of the Olympics then we were led to believe. British sense of humour kicking in you see. Which is, I imagine, getting a lot of Londoners through today. And which is, I know, part of the reason why today's events will do very little indeed to panic the Smoke's population in the long term. London's been bombed for

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120655527874911322005-07-06T21:39:00.000+09:002005-07-07T01:10:21.640+09:00

''Hello. I don't know whether I like you or not. So I can't be your girlfriend [anymore]. Sorry. 志穂美.'Scrolling down on the mobile phone screen doesn't reveal the 'Thanks for everything.' or the 'Good luck.' I'd hoped for. Ah well. Thanks, Shihomi, for writing your mail in English, it's honestly appreciated, but not half as much as I appreciate your telling me this after I bought you the iPod.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120486453289912192005-07-05T22:11:00.000+09:002005-07-05T19:14:10.733+09:00

NOTE: The plan is that Moichido will slowly become a communal blog. The list of contributors on the right there will hopefully continue to grow. Dan is a good friend of mine living in Japan, but very soon he'll return to Minnesota. He's kindly agreed to start posting here - PIKThe rainy season has come to Shiga Prefecture, and with it, the date of my departure quickly approaches. Spring has

DanInJapannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120489657770550312005-07-04T23:41:00.000+09:002005-07-05T18:10:11.100+09:00

Almost a year since I arrived in Japan, the products on the shelves at Family Mart have rotated back around and now I buy the products I bought when I first came here. I'm eating an apple danish whilst the rain outside throws up lingering farts of mist and frenzied pods of mosquitoes.Moths are grouping around the balcony light, which I leave on to give them a purpose.Stood at the bus stop today,

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120146893365000792005-07-01T00:48:00.000+09:002005-07-05T18:09:02.903+09:00

Wakayama love hotels; an occasional series. No. 1: 'Angel's Birth' Hotel

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120135084525932032005-06-30T21:22:00.000+09:002005-06-30T22:40:46.766+09:00

Sources close to weblogger 'PIK' have revealed that plans for a background image 'laced with wit and artistic merit and not a little irony' have fallen foul of 'obsessive and intrusive' housekeeping from 'the strange old lady on the third floor'.Bitterly disappointed'Three months of planning have come to nothing' said PIK in an oft candid, sometimes emotional statement. "I had collected a

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1120036640903189552005-06-29T17:56:00.000+09:002005-06-30T21:20:13.386+09:00

Moichido is in the process of changing. From July 1 there'll be a different sort of content and a different sort of tone*.Moichido is dead. Long live Moichido.* Not better or anything, just different.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1119793869568326792005-06-26T22:33:00.000+09:002005-06-26T22:51:09.566+09:00

Recent search engine inquiries directing unfortunates to Moichido:"Complete Manual to Suicide""waribashi issue""hama mike""is eating in bangkok safe?""doctor put his finger up my ass" (second appearance of this!)"the complete manual of suicide""suicide how to kill yourself painless"

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1119792649458104302005-06-25T19:17:00.000+09:002005-06-27T13:17:59.100+09:00

私の庭には二羽鶏が居る　is a novel Japanese sentence, which I seem to have had no trouble committing to memory, probably because it's a sentence I will never need to use, ever. This is the way my brain has always seemed to work - I can't remember how to give directions to Japanese taxi drivers (as I discovered today) but I can say the above, (which is also below, in Romaji).'Watashi no niwa niwa niwa

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1119450169837930822005-06-22T23:09:00.000+09:002005-06-22T23:22:49.843+09:00

'It's fucking hot!' exclaims Kusumi sensei, several desks away, across a full staffroom. I'm the only person to turn around in shock. 'Fucking shit!' he says.I look about. Surely someone must realise what he's saying? No. Even Kusumi sensei doesn't really realise what he's saying.'Do you know 'shit' in Japanese?' he asks me.'Actually, yes, I think so' I reply, casting glances about the room.He

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1119022279065120292005-06-17T23:40:00.000+09:002005-06-22T23:08:56.593+09:00

Teaching is great right now, really very great. Today, in class, I somehow managed to slap myself in one of my testicles midway through an explanation of a worksheet. All student eyes upon me I stolidly took the diabolical pain, and subsequent stomach cramps, on the chin. 'Get them looking at the worksheet' I thought, 'and I can have a leisurely few moments to clutch my stomach and grimace'. And

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1118821650759185072005-06-15T16:20:00.000+09:002005-06-15T22:50:51.226+09:00

It is hot and slightly humid, the weather. Yonder (yonder?) mountains are indistinct behind a haze of sorts which might be moisture, or carbon monoxide, or smoke from the bombs of the ninja who live there which is true and not a lie at all. Non-yonder mountains are not hiding. They are verdant, and proud, and wearing their power cables coquetteishly. I am sweating freely. My fingers skid across

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1118819942497084152005-06-14T15:23:00.000+09:002005-06-15T22:41:37.610+09:00

The black jumping spiders are back.I think, probably, that they are not a threat to humanity. But they are black, and they are spiders, and they can jump. And they will jump anything - maybe just to enjoy the sheer glee of jumping. I watched one jump all the way up a flight of stairs in my housing block. It went one stair at a time - it was only a small black jumping spider so this was impressive

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1118816581900275882005-06-13T23:09:00.000+09:002005-06-15T22:38:36.563+09:00

Hiroko-Sensei, the Japanese teacher, decided to postpone tonight's lesson in favour of firefly viewing up in the mountains east of Wakayama City. Some Japanese folk tales hold that ほたる (Hotaru - fireflies) are the souls of the dead.The dead have beautiful souls.Because:In the mountains at night, above the river running along between ricefields on this side and cedar covered mountains barely

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1118393776966770732005-06-10T17:54:00.000+09:002005-06-10T17:56:16.970+09:00

Appearing to be slightly eccentric is an integral part of life these days. Rather than fight against this however, I’ve decided to embrace and nurture it as one might a dog, or a lesser panda. It is sometimes fun.This morning I was greeted with stifled giggling and the occasional spastic guffaw from the counter staff at the local Family Mart. I experienced a veritable kaleidoscope of emotion

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1118234207755624152005-06-08T21:07:00.000+09:002005-06-09T23:56:01.710+09:00

What a thoroughly lame blogger I am. Truth is, too much has been happening, and not always in a good way. The good things are these: I have two Japanese classes a week now - a conversation class and a vocabulary/kanji cramming class. Reason being; I've decided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December. I'm going for level 3, which means I'm skipping the beginner level. Rather

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1117373343851170542005-05-27T22:24:00.000+09:002005-06-04T00:37:19.266+09:00

I love the few days I get to teach at elementary schools. Today I was at Yoshihara Branch school, a very small place with a nice wooden charm about it - not at all like many school buildings I've seen in Japan. The kids are of course, fantastic. They respond to everything, in the way that small kids do, with energy and wit and ready comprehension, but even more so when they're responding to

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1117010196162386002005-05-25T17:04:00.000+09:002005-05-25T21:47:15.943+09:00

Allowed myself a little indulgent chuckle at some recent news. RonRon (or it might be Futa - I'm unsure) the red (or lesser) panda has apparently taken to strolling around his enclosure at Yokohama (or it might be somewhere else - truly, the various reports have confused me) on his back legs ‘just like a human’ it says here. A photo printed in today’s スポーツニッポン (Sports Nippon) had me giggling at

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1116639732248508582005-05-20T10:28:00.000+09:002005-05-25T21:50:29.943+09:00

No rain. Sun and a tease of humidity. At lunchtime I pocketed onigiri and headed for a stroll out along paddy fields and brown river waters. So many turtles. A hundred or so. Some basking, others pecking at the floating corpses of large dead fish - one of which looked exactly like it had been surprised to death. I like turtles. I like surprised looking dead fish too.In the afternoon, the Japanese

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1116512413471537952005-05-19T22:20:00.000+09:002005-05-19T23:20:17.056+09:00

A listless, pointless day. Another eight hours sat hunched at a desk in a staffroom at a school I don't particularly like. Despite being contractually obliged to involve me in four lessons a day I'm lucky to get more than two at this place. The kids refer to me as gaijin all day. Foreigner, outsider. Whatever. Not their fault they don't know my name - they never see me.There are exceptions, of

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1116394863376318162005-05-18T14:39:00.000+09:002005-05-18T14:41:03.383+09:00

Depending on which time zone all three of you reading this are in, my granddad died this morning or yesterday. Either way, he’s gone now.I wonder what he thought about during the moments prior in his Louis body diseased mind. I like to think it allowed him some clarity to order his thoughts and remember whatever he wanted to. Did he remember writing all those letters, at least one a week, full of

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1115900358396170852005-05-09T21:13:00.000+09:002005-05-17T22:47:18.033+09:00

Board Pictionary is a great way of reviewing vocabulary, particularly nouns, and is especially useful when no other ideas for a lesson plan are forthcoming. It can also however, spell disaster for the students. Many Japanese kids seem to be great little artists and are constantly doodling manga style pictures during English class. I leave them to it, since said doodles are often amazing.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1115899427159780562005-05-08T21:00:00.000+09:002005-05-14T13:11:28.573+09:00

Golden Week is now over and as I look back on it I realise I did very little of a constructive nature with a whole week of holiday besides clean the apartment and play host to Ben and his family for three days. It was good to have some company. Managed to fall off my bike three times which I remember nothing of and would dispute vehemently if it weren't for the magnificent bruises I keep finding

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1115025990697318672005-05-02T17:04:00.000+09:002005-05-12T20:59:23.783+09:00

Ever go to a comic book convention? C'mon, don't lie. Usually, after about an hour of being jostled by fat pony-tailed guys in black t-shirts grasping feverishly for Golden Age Stan Lee dross you start to realise that the stuff you're into is also the preserve of some seriously geeky people. Seriously geeky. Thinking you'll be safe from the otaku onslaught if you avoid the Marvel stands you head

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1114962099550728362005-05-01T23:36:00.000+09:002005-05-02T16:47:49.140+09:00

May the first. The days are becoming progressively warmer now - the first hints of humidity in the air.It's been raining for several hours. This morning I woke up in a hotel in Osaka, dreadfully hungover and aching from unknown afflictions. Myself and others had intended to see a Shonen Knife gig last night. The venue, Fandango in Juso, Osaka. Next to Fandango is a multi-storey car park, at the

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1115019471902676082005-04-25T16:23:00.000+09:002005-06-29T19:38:13.430+09:00

A seiyuu is a voice actor - somone who provides character voices for anime. I just found this out. I also just found out that the seiyuu for the character of Uzumaki Naruto is a woman: Takeuchi Junko. Of course, there's nothing wrong with this, I'm just incredibly surprised. Like way back when I found out Nancy Cartwright was the voice of Bart Simpson. How do they make these sounds?

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1114801300032688422005-04-16T20:30:00.000+09:002005-05-01T23:58:54.096+09:00

Last two days were spent engaged in an English camp with a bunch of high school kids. The venue: a strange oil rig like monolith out in the middle of a harbour north of Wakayama in Osaka prefecture. As far as any of us English speakers could make out the place seemed to be an educational establishment centred around the theme of 'oceans' and so it was that, at 9am, I found myself playing the

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1114082351221588972005-04-14T21:58:00.000+09:002005-04-21T20:19:11.223+09:00

No posts for some time and I imagine Moichido's huge readership is on the wane. Busyness, of sorts, has taken me away from the keyboard and perhaps we were all better off for that. For those who care, a brief overview of recent (non)events;I have a girlfriend. Updating a blog means very little when confronted with this. She's got me scared because I'm almost crazy about her. The cynic in me is

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1114077443809854922005-04-05T18:47:00.000+09:002005-04-21T18:57:23.810+09:00

Took a while for me to figure out what I was being told by Shihomi. Something about 'Guitar Wolf' and 'death'. Seems all that rocking got the better of Bass Wolf a.k.a. Billy a.k.a. Hideaki Sekiguchi. Having seen one of his performances the heart attack is no surprise. That he was 38, however, was kind of surprising. Best of luck in heaven Bass Wolf. Or Hell. Or Meifumadou. Play the Holy See

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1112587816242007902005-04-02T23:42:00.000+09:002005-04-04T13:14:26.473+09:00

Hanami = cherry blossom viewing = getting ridiculously drunk on sake and assorted lagers and foolishly mismanaging your chopsticks enough to drop one of the only two delicious looking pieces of crab on the floor and then gazing at it longingly for several long moments. And some other stuff besides. Like frisbee and hide-and-seek and climbing trees and gazing at other trees. And returning home to

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1112585614505106272005-04-01T20:16:00.000+09:002005-04-04T12:33:34.506+09:00

April the first, and by way of avoiding any undoubtedly hilarious pranks and capers I remained in bed until well after 2pm. This, however is in truth just my way of justifying another episode of recently acquired supreme laziness in which I lay around the apartment making exhausitive mental lists of all the things I should be doing. I did manage to buy a plant earlier in the week. This was only

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1112333788521524472005-03-25T13:41:00.000+09:002005-04-01T14:36:28.523+09:00

In a move that is destined to swell profits but can only spell disaster for me, the one-minute-away-from-my-apartment Family Mart has begun selling alcohol. This is a major land mark of my life here in Japan. Yes, you are right. I need to get out more. Well now I will. To Family Mart.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1111985053144386542005-03-23T13:37:00.000+09:002005-03-28T13:54:12.040+09:00

Permission granted. Moichido may now present an image of an afflicted man. We do not mock, belittle or indeed, cast sneering accusations of this man's relative 'pussyness'. Oh no. Make of it what you will. He is no longer wearing an eyepatch.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1111659490581611792005-03-21T18:14:00.000+09:002005-03-24T19:18:10.586+09:00

If you have to go snowboarding somewhere in Japan then where better than the site of the 1988 winter Olympics, if only to feel the collective residual auras of a thousand or so competent atheletes frowning at you as you slide down a black run on your arse, head facing downhill.This is how I spent my weekend - marvelling at the seemingly endless mountain terrain of Nagano. No less marvellous

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1110866284208380022005-03-13T14:20:00.000+09:002005-03-15T14:58:04.210+09:00

Never paid too much attention to UK news whilst I lived there but I kind of dabble now and all I seem to be reading is 'UK on terror alert' banners. Why? What's happened? Why the new terror bill?Why is London and by extension the rest of the UK so pumped up about terrorism these days? What's changed? I can't think of a time when there wasn't a vague threat of terrorism hanging around the streets

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1110364858983497312005-03-08T19:12:00.000+09:002005-03-09T20:00:57.503+09:00

Why can't it be spring all year? (Rotation of the Earth). It's a joy to stand on the Okozakimae Nankai platform these lately balmy days. Some sparrows were busy having dust baths. I watched them, chuckling away at their rapid head jerks. There was an old woman on the platform too. She was talking to herself. I was chuckling, she was talking. Must have looked like a Tourette's institute

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109756786438351902005-03-02T21:16:00.000+09:002005-03-09T20:03:11.513+09:00

It's getting gradually warmer. Espied a mosquito today as it alighted upon the screen door. For it's cheek I killed it with a nice one-two combination of thumb and forefinger. No one was around to thank me for this service to humankind so I congratulated myself with a cigarette as I surveyed the small, devestated corpse - a beacon of warning to it's kin. Briefly hope said kin might pick up the

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109755594930615612005-03-01T18:08:00.000+09:002005-03-02T18:52:03.366+09:00

Unthinkingly, during a class centered around the joy of homophones, I wrote the word on the blackboard in two parts. I was intending to explain what it's component words meant. So in fat yellow chalk characters I've scrawled 'Homo' on the board and a great many students are chuckling away. I hastily write 'phones'. More laughing. Now gestures too. Effette people talking on the telephone.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109589658979977682005-02-28T20:11:00.000+09:002005-02-28T21:37:56.020+09:00

It is entirely possible to study a language for several hours every day and immediately upon closing the textbook become engaged in a conversation where the native speaker of studied language will use approximately none of the words you studied. There's only one real response in a situation like this: a counter-attack in high speed English, delivered monotonously with the mouth hardly opening. Of

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109587147466557742005-02-27T19:11:00.000+09:002005-02-28T20:38:36.700+09:00

Quite what happened I cannot say. I'm unsure. What began as a sedate adult evening enjoying the multifarious delights of conversation and Japanese cuisine very rapidly descended into a deplorable spiral of violence and destruction. Suspect I may have played a role in the instigation of the evening's sudden turn for the worse, but don't exactly know when or how. A swollen lip, cuts on the legs and

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109252779950564622005-02-24T17:09:00.000+09:002005-03-02T19:01:32.286+09:00

Gaaarrrggghh. Once I see a roach, regardless of size or relative threat, I start seeing them everywhere. Start feeling them in my hair and up my pants leg just above the sock. This particular little bastard was about the size of an uppermost thumb joint but I still had no scruples over reacting as if it where a foe of Godzilla's come to stomp my kitchen furniture into oblivion. It was skulking

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109160319055701362005-02-22T22:56:00.000+09:002005-02-24T17:09:07.693+09:00

Everybody in existence will have a birthday this year. 2005 is not unique in this. Last year was similar, if not the same. 6 billion something birthdays. Think of it. All those candles. 1,303,654,784 birthdays will occur in China, though not on the dates we think they will of course because January is February and December is January and it's all 4207 and 2005 is not the year of our Lord but the

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1109154877038889272005-02-21T19:20:00.000+09:002005-02-23T19:35:39.843+09:00

Q17: みょうじ ( ? ) よんでください。(A) へ　　(B) に　 (C) で　 (D) のErrrm...(C)? Strange how I actually know what this sentence means yet have no clue what the missing particle is. At my desk in the staffroom frustration and desperation and the need to have action lead me to place the test paper on my head. I don't want to come out from under it. I momentarily hope that perhaps this absurb paper hat will act as

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1108467346915044102005-02-12T18:59:00.001+09:002005-02-15T20:49:03.036+09:00

Yesterday was friend Satoko's birthday. Not really though. Her birthday's not until Monday. But she works on Monday so she's having her birthday Friday, today and tomorrow instead. I'll drink to that. And I did. Didn't take very much arm-twisting to get me murdering already sad songs on the karaoke system. Sure I protested lamely for several minutes, then proceeded to hog the mic for an hour or

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107943338116995922005-02-09T17:55:00.000+09:002005-02-10T15:53:42.993+09:00

Not so much to be said for today. A rumour of warmth in the air, a low sun through the staff room venetians bringing a promise of sakura and some much needed serotonin. Some classes were taught, some English was spoken, some students slept. My interest in what manga that guy at the back is attempting to hide below his desk continued to outweigh my interest in making myself understood. I love

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107768947389324312005-02-07T17:53:00.000+09:002005-02-07T18:38:07.783+09:00

Japan gets through around 130 million pairs of waribashi everyday (about 11,000 million pairs a year). Waribashi are manufactured from tropical hardwood of which Japan is the world's number one importer. Waribashi are, apparently, outlawed in South Korea in favour of stainless steel alternatives and now there is a growing movement against them in China. Waribashi are disposable chopsticks.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107765422855562742005-02-06T23:57:00.000+09:002005-02-07T22:47:14.550+09:00

Friday evening and Kyoto by 8.20pm, Otsu by 9. Ben, Richelle and Dan in a German bar, knocking back Jagermeister and laughing it up. Good friendships kick back off exactly at the point when goodbyes were last said - no awful, clumsy silences here. Apart from when booze inspires an unprovoked attack on a friend's breast. Snapped a pivotal button on my trousers too. Karma. And Saturday - Kyoto

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107427755454499812005-02-03T19:10:00.000+09:002005-02-03T20:21:35.546+09:00

Staff room, 10 minute break after third period. Propped against my laptop: a little package, couple of inches across. White with red trim and two red kanji. Inside: dried soy beans. Cast a glance over to Kitano Sensei - teacher of mathematics and Buddhist priest; setting difficult problems by day and tackling the bigger, more enduring ones by night. 'These beans' I'm told, 'are for Setsubun'. '

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107429203334344272005-02-02T20:04:00.000+09:002005-02-03T20:47:57.410+09:00

Lavatories that play music - with heated seats, vending machines accessed by mobile phone, jacuzzis with underwater lighting and water-proof TV's, love hotels, back-packs with out-facing miniature plasma screens showing whatever you load into the incorporated DVD player and now this (bit risque, for the sensitive type). Wonder if it'll ever turn up, edge of frame, in MTV's 'Cribs'? Culture

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1107330037923312172005-02-01T16:03:00.000+09:002005-02-02T18:44:00.503+09:00

And so, with nary a 'How'd you do?', February encroaches upon our lives. What's to be said for you? You're cold, I'll give you that. 'Coldest month in the Japanese calendar' I'm severely informed, as if I was unable to register the temperature change dermatologically. Grateful you're a short one. Month. Ah, February - keeper of Valentines and a certain birthday of little note - how much longer

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1106559675483459942005-01-23T18:03:00.000+09:002005-01-24T21:04:35.110+09:00

We here at Moichido are ever comitted to bringing you the News That Matters! The News you Care About! Picture Exclusives! And today we haven't failed you!! Today we bring you the future of Art! A prodigy not yet 4 years old. Take a look at our Exclusive Foto Feature!!! : Check this out Art Fans!! What bold strokes! What firm and decisive hand could have wrought this?!!! And then, as if that

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1106561497026875722005-01-22T22:59:00.000+09:002005-01-24T20:11:36.823+09:00

Partial Transcript of Private One-To-One English Lesson. Japan. 2005 'A' is Japanese Studying English. 'B' is Native English Speaker. A: I enjoy talking with you. I love you. B: ...Wait. You 'love' me? A: I love you. B: ...er...'love' is kind of a big word. A: (writing it down) 'big word'? B: Well, I mean it has big meaning. A big meaning. A: 'Big meaning'? What's mean? B: Like, 'I love you'

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1106559586563101492005-01-21T18:37:00.000+09:002005-01-24T18:39:46.563+09:00

OK, let me just get this straight. I press...here...and letters (and therefore sentences) appear...here. OK, I see. Nothing to it. So maybe I'll get some blog entries written.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1105707375207371222005-01-14T21:46:00.000+09:002005-01-17T22:41:55.800+09:00

And here, finally, is a link to Richelle's journal (also in the side bar). She has a great way (I think) of telling just about everything we did on the holiday incredibly succinctly and has posted the photos across a couple of posts. Some of these shots I'd never seen and now I have a better idea of where her and Anthony were waiting out the waves. Please check out these photos because Richelle

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1105624733638708822005-01-13T22:51:00.000+09:002005-01-14T21:58:14.316+09:00

Here's a link to my mate Dan's blog which I just got permission to use. He was one of our group in Thailand and relays the whole experience better than I and even finds time to talk about some of the good stuff we did which I now realise I neglected to mention. Still, I guess it's too late now. Also soon I'm going to link to my friend Richelle's Live Journal. She was the only girl on the trip and

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1105613978009213242005-01-13T19:54:00.000+09:002005-02-23T19:20:14.300+09:00

Absurd as it is I've just recieved an email from the British Library asking for permission to 'archive' this blog as a resource of 'national cultural and historical interest' (because of the tsunami entries). Oh god. All those posts about drinking coffee and similiar inane crap now preserved for academic posterity. Surely not. So now I feel like I'm writing for the Guardian and the British

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1105604534558285912005-01-11T17:04:00.000+09:002005-01-13T20:30:00.293+09:00

I don't know why the Principal of Kusumi Chugakko (Junior High School) bothers preparing such long motivational speeches for opening ceremony since neither the students or the sensei actually listen, myself included (mainly because I don't understand hardly any of it). So there all us sensei are, chatting away at the edges of the gym, stomping our feet to counteract the bitter cold, eyeing the

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1105324257856502692005-01-10T10:56:00.000+09:002005-01-10T11:56:52.370+09:00

Haven't posted recently since my general mood would have meant an even more introspective, self-obsessed and maudlin entry than usual. Just like the one below in fact. Despite the strange mood I've been in for over a week now, no longer having any idea what I want to do at any one time so electing to sleep or get drunk or just stare into space watching my breath make patterns of steam against

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1104825282676317982005-01-04T15:32:00.000+09:002005-01-14T17:43:22.003+09:00

Feel a little strange today. Sad and with an odd sense of guilt about something I can't place. I'm restless but can't bring myself to do anything. I did however shave/hack off the three weeks worth of beard growth I had recently accrued trekking through jungles and whatnot. I was initially reluctant to shave as I had somehow convinced myself that my face had tanned around the stubble and that I

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1104725178586155942005-01-03T13:44:00.000+09:002005-01-05T00:24:00.016+09:00

It's kind of dissapointing to see a form of governmental oneupmanship in the headlines; 'Britian now pledges £60 million', 'US doubles relief to $35 million'. Perhaps we'll soon see colourful graphics in the papers with titles like 'Where the money came from' with a tally of international generosity below. Makes me think of Telethons and all those inanely grinning corporate representatives

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1104607268161020832005-01-02T04:20:00.000+09:002005-01-12T07:18:01.696+09:00

This is the last time I'd like to think about the events of this day. I've talked about it a great deal these last few days and I'm tired of the sound of my voice. I think me and the friends I was travelling with all feel a little guilty of the attention we've received of late - we are all fine, and suffered only minor cuts and scratches - and think it's important to concentrate on the many truly

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1104312631692244412004-12-29T18:19:00.000+09:002004-12-29T18:30:31.693+09:00

I and the people I was travelling with are all safe and sound and currently in Bangkok. Thank you to everyone who sent emails and/or posted comments of concern. I will get around to mailing you all back when I have more time. I thought a post would be more affective for now. When the waves hit we were on an island just over from Phi Phi and had just got back into a boat. We were very, very lucky

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1103271594181895772004-12-17T17:17:00.000+09:002004-12-17T17:19:54.180+09:00

Hmmm, that entry below is a little morbid. Perhaps it's a good thing I'm flying out to Thailand in less than 24 hours. Perhaps it's a good thing? It's without doubt a fabulous thing, if only because it gives me a legitimate reason not to update this sorry-arsed blog for two weeks. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Peace.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1102823171266078882004-12-10T10:54:00.000+09:002004-12-12T12:46:11.266+09:00

BBC News has posted a report on what it calls Japan's internet 'suicide clubs', coincidentally also the title of a Japanese film I almost rented yesterday. This movie, and a glut of others in a similiar vein; 'Suicide Circle', 'Suicide Manual' etc probably rode in on the sensationalist wave of controversy surrounding the publication of the book mentioned in the BBC article. Author Wataru

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1102482734665165662004-12-08T14:04:00.000+09:002004-12-08T20:00:43.803+09:00

A glance at the counter stats reveals that some anonymous web surfer arrived at this blog by running a Google search for 'his finger up my ass'. I'm unsure what I find more amusing: that he/she may well have trawled through all the many links before clicking mine, desperately seeking out finger up ass info, or the fact that this blog was able to return any result for such a query.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1102511709321965002004-12-05T21:21:00.000+09:002004-12-08T22:15:09.323+09:00

Hayato came to stay in Wakayama City this weekend and it was right good to see him again. Despite my having been well over an hour late to greet him at the station he was chipper and made me a gift of all four current volumes of One Piece in English, the Japanese versions of which I had been struggling gamely through. Yeah, One Piece is some good manga - now I'm so caught up in the story I'm

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1101978468471885342004-11-29T17:24:00.000+09:002004-12-02T20:23:48.023+09:00

This weekend I decided to go visit Ben, another English ALT who lives in Shiga Pref. on the edge of Lake Biwa (Biwako) in Otsu City. It was great to see him, and to be able to make sarcastic comments without fear of offending (a glut of angry and insulted faces in my first month here made me realise that this is probably a particularly British pastime). Friday night was relaxing in a local bar

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1101304490189022752004-11-21T17:15:00.000+09:002004-12-12T13:01:32.783+09:00

No, it's no good. I still can't hear a thing apart from a perpetual ringing. Although I was interested to discover that this can be relieved by listening to loud music on headphones. A hair of the dog sort of thing.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1101304109695552742004-11-20T23:54:00.000+09:002004-11-25T00:21:58.886+09:00

Today was a wonderful day, despite shaky, self-inflicted ill beginnings. 8:48 and I'm huddled in a luggage rack in the smoking carriage of the Wakayama - Kyoto express trying not to vomit on Jeff's legs and being wholly unable to disentangle the wires on my earphones. Even in this kind of state I was pleasantly surprised to find myself warmed by the colours of the low summer sun gilding over

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1101010918198680412004-11-19T23:58:00.000+09:002004-11-21T13:21:58.200+09:00

Struck by an incredible and overwhelming desire to tidy I did just that, whirling about the apartment attempting to impose some semblance of order. Vacuuming, dusting, washing, drying, sewing (yes, sewing) and finally paper shredding. Only later did I realise that I had, in my need for a complete purge, shredded all my Japanese wage slips - the only things that could have avoided what will now be

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1100783908629473892004-11-18T22:08:00.000+09:002004-11-18T22:18:28.630+09:00

What you see here limited but loyal readership, is a ticket. Not just any ticket though. Oh no. This glorious piece of paper is my passage into Club Quattro in Osaka on Saturday night when a certain Japanese band will no doubt leave my ears ringing and a vacant smile hanging from my lips. Yes, I understand your jealousy (?) cos it's not everday you get to see 'Japanese Greatest "JET" Rock 'N'

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1100701063700315222004-11-17T23:14:00.000+09:002004-11-18T22:39:51.123+09:00

Oh God! I just spilt lavender air freshener chemical all over my arm and intensive scrubbing has not removed it's presence. Now I'm faced with the prospect of three 3rd year lessons tomorrow smelling like I imagine Oscar Wilde might have done. This morning I woke up to glorious sunshine and strolled out onto the balcony topless in celebration. Immediately after being noticed by a dear old woman

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1100618109560229812004-11-16T11:56:00.000+09:002004-11-17T00:16:17.130+09:00

I went to the video store - it seems I've watched all available Miyazaki Ghibli movies. What do I watch now? Any suggestions? I guess I need the DVD to have 英語字幕 (English subtitles). Hayato, I'm counting on you.

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892049.post-1100617415937735582004-11-15T23:36:00.000+09:002004-11-17T10:59:16.776+09:00

A new school today, my third and final before I begin rotating from the start again - 東中学校 (Higashi Junior School). This school is out of town and placed somewhat randomly in the middle of a vast network of paddy fields and although only a 15 minute journey by local train it feels a million miles away from the built up busyness of downtown Wakayama City. I seem to have struck on a good

pikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18016187525534923468noreply@blogger.com0