The very dangerous typhoon that (almost) never arrives

This is just a quick one..I had thought of this title yesterday, when yet another warning of a typhoon cause all the Japanese to start losing the plot, cancelling the better part of 3 days appointments and stocking up on tinned food...

I don't want to make light of what is obviously a pretty dangerous thing (I say this as rain and wind lashes the internet cafe and bedraggled gamers stagger in from the wet blender that is outdoors today) but seriously people totally overreact here! Of course if you live on the beachfront in Kyushu, you should batton down the hatches, put away the outdoor furniture and settle into your shelter with a thick book, but here in the city, 95% of the Typhoons never seem to actually reach us.

For example - in the last month there have been about 4 typhoon alerts. Each time it is the same, people racing around buying shit, cancelling lessons and dates and staying in doors anxiously listening to the radio. Of those, it only actually rained twice and once was just a light sprinkle of rain...

Today's weather kind of reminds me of a heavy rain-storm in Melbourne. You get pissed on and your umbrella turns inside out and that's about it...Even so, my work was cancelled today and people are for the most part looking pretty freaked. Maybe I am missing something.

After the earthquake a worried news reporter told everyone there was a tsunami alert in Kyushu, with waves up to 0.5 meters...huh? I was thinking most surfers wouldn't lay off the bong to actually go to the beach for waves like that...I guess though, that here in Japan, when a big one (typhoon, earthquake, tsunami, kim chi disaster)its, it's bloody massive, so they are rightly nervous...even so, people were way calmer after the 6.5 richter earthquake than they are at the mere mention of a typhoon...

a very compelling place indeed! I love it actually, all these stark differences...

by the way, I opened a bank account the other day at the post office and they gave me a face washer in a little package, as a way of showing their appreciation for my patronage...ace, a flowery face washer..when is Australia Post going to catch on to an idea like that!

Anyways, sign the guest book mofo's and share the love around

Hot date - A tale in Pictures

Ok - I have figured out how to attach pics from my camera onto this here site - how exciting! As Ryan and I never see each other any more, him starting early and me working late, each Friday night we go out on a date - It's wonderful to catch up and we just explore...

Here are some shots from the last 2 Fridays - I hope you enjoy (tanoshinde ne!) I started Japanese lessons today, looking forward to actually understanding the world around me.


Isn't this weird! This guy drew this for us in 15 mins and the artwork is amazing, but how weird is it? You no longer need to struggle to imagine what Ryan would look like if he was Japanese - nor what I would look like if I ran into the back of a truck! I think it looks like a huge billboard, which is cool...

Then Ryan drank a strange brew and became a giant man and he ripped off the billboard of our monger selves and held it up as if it was a postcard...Man, Japan is crazy!!

We met this crew in a mall - lord knows what they were selling, but they were happy to pose with the Ryster.

Ok this guy was honestly cooking bonito fish in a small fire using hay outside in a busy, crowded alley just off one of the most hip happening streets in the whole of Osaka..Just going retro style and grilling that fish in the oldest of old school ovens...amazing

Dammit! Why can't I have loads of yen so I can go inside the grand kabuki and actually watch a performance, rather than standing out the front taking pictures of its name up in lights...any offers of assistance for my cultural expansion fund?

Some of you have already seen this - but I think it is a total winner..If only it was taken on a bigger format!

This is a window display in a small noodle and okonomiyaki joint..marvellous

I realised there are no pics of me, except for the messed up manga rendition, so by the magical powers of technology I have taken a photo right this second at 2.00am in the net cafe where I am writing this - here is me, a bit wan and pale, and suddenly freezing (summer left in the space of 48 hours)...love to you all from the orange vinyl chair!

Election Heartbreak

It's unbelievable...It's worrying...In fact it's downright disturbing. Who are these people I share my country with? We had both had a good feeling that a change was in the air for Australia, but it seems the people have spoken.

I don't need to go into the many reasons I am shocked and dismayed that the little prick has romped home to another term...I know many of you out there are feeling just the same way. Being over here during such and important election allows a unique vantage point. And sadly, when I think about home, I feel like I don't want to be there, I don't want to live in a place where the hardline, the reactionary and the discompassionate make up the majority. I feel estranged from a land that is really on loan anyways...

I won't ramble on too much more about these feelings of dismay...but just wanted to put it out there.

We've had a wonderful few days. Today was a public holiday, and a perfect autumn day. We got out on the bikes and cruised around Osaka Jo-Koen, which is a huge park that borders the palace - a magical old place in a busy city.


Everyone was out and abut and there were festivities and events in every corner of the park. One curious aspect of Japanese life is that even though they work like dogs for their whole life, they restore some balance by having on average one public holiday a month. Today was the Sport and Health day, a holiday for the nation, 2 weeks ago it was Respect for Old People Day and so on. To celebrate the concept of health and wellness, there was a big dance/karate/kendo display - At any one time 4 or 5 troupes of up to 60 dancers would be performing, each trying to outdance and overpower the other with a show of superior audio technology. It is a peculiar asian fancy, this mish mash of multiple auditory assaults. It ranges from the radio in the supermarket that is just that bit too loud and that bit to far to the left of the dial, so you get that screeching crackle and distortion in Japan, to the Laotion bus drivers selction of 'best ever recordings of happy birthday'...that was one to remember!

We enjoyed the spectacle of 8 year olds doing battle with 68 year olds on the dance floor before crusing around to take in some of the baseball, soccer, fishing and picknicking that was going on in other corners of the park.

On the way home we found an amazing sento that had a dry sauna, steam room, spa shower, regular spa, herbal spa, still bath, electric bath and salt spa....total bliss and all for $5!

Yesterday we went to the Kobe Jazz Street Festival. It was a mixed bag, but we saw something that we will never forget, one of those things that warms the heart and would put a smile on even the most concrete of hard jawed old hacks. An amazing dixieland band was playing and most of the Japanese folk were sitting quietly, listening intently and being very much the 'serious aficinado' types. Then an old guy of about 75 leapt out of his seat, opened up a huge umbrella (we were inside) and began to charleston and lindyhop like an absolute champion, all the while holding his umbrella ala singing in the rain. He danced and whooped hsi way around the hall and before long a couple of nana's dolled up in their sunday best joined him, soft shoeing their way around the room with huge smiles....The vibe lifted, the band lifted and that old chap had us all grinning for the rest of the day.

Oh buggar my internet card has run out so farewell for now! By the way there is a guestbook you can sign now, so you don't have to go to the bother of joining blogger.com if you want to say hi - just sign the book so we know you are still reading.

xx

The Curse of the Gold Tooth

I stumbled down to this dilapidated, grungy internet cafe this morning (well it's morning for me though the clock reads 1.20pm) feeling at odds with this strange routine of sleeping at 4am and rising at noon.

Ready to hammer out another installment of life for all the readers at home I find that Mr Ryan (or Mr Lion to kids who can't say R, or Mr Tiger to Kids who can't say either) has been adding a couple of installments of his own...what can I say but that it was tears of joy in the confines of my grubby cubicle...Something magical is happening. You put two people in love into a shoebox, shake it around a bit and add a dash of something new and different....you end up with a bloom that is equal parts delicate and sturdy...It's wonderful to look at someone and just know....not know anything you can put into words, or even shape into an image...it's just that you know.

Anyways, enough of these sweet declarations, I came here today to talk about the curse of the gold tooth. How many of you out there can admit to your age and recall afternoons spent watching 'Kimba the White Lion?' Hell, most of us can even recall the tune 'Living down in deepest darkest Africa..' Now I was convinced that Kimba was Japanese, an early 80's offering from the same Anime crews who bought us 'Astroboy' and 'Gem - truly outrageous (truly, truly, truly outrageous)' In 1996 when an old friend bought me a kimba t-shirt and the name kind of stuck, I got used to people saying 'Kimba? As In White Lion?'



Unfortuntely here in Japan, Kimba the White Lion is completely unknown...it's about as well known as say..Reiki (yes, can you believe it, here in the land where Reiki was re-discovered, the concept is met largely with blank stares or even wide eyes and murmurings of 'ghost energy..nooooo')And that would be no problem except the my name, the name I have considered adopting by deed poll, here means 'Gold tooth'.



In Japan there is no single m sound. The nearest sound is an n sound and anyhting that has an m, is changed to the n...eg - Kimba is Kinba and Kinba means a bloody big gold thing you have in your mouth in place of an enamel chomper. I wouldn't mind that so much, but here it is hysterically funny to people, they just fall about clutching their sides and guffawing. Actually how it happens is I say 'Hajimemashite, Kimba to moshi masu' (Nice to meet you, I am Kimba) and they just look at me, the corners of their mouths imperceptibly trembling. So then I say 'KiMba, not Kinba - ie (no) gold tooth' and they just lose their bundle.

I thought about reverting back to my actual name, even though it feels like ill fitting shoes, but then they say 'Ohhhhh - you Korean? Ha ha' which is even less amusing, as the Japanese practise a deep seated form of prejudice against Koreans.

I then thought I would change it to Kimi - which encompasses two hiragana sounds and is kind of cute - except that means 'you' in Nihingo. Hi there, I'm you - nice to meet you....Way too 'Fight Club' for me. Finally I settled on Kimo...'Ok kyo kara (from today) I am Kimo' I announced to all the clients at Ringo, my hostess bar. They all roared with laughter and cried into their Suntory. Wouldn't you know it, Kimu means 'liver' in Japanese.

You can't win can you?

Stay tuned as next weekend we are going to check out the Nada Fighting Festival - that is a sanctioned festival where dudes drink sake and fight each other in the street for two hours, before calling it off at the ringing of a bell...Did I mention I love this place?

A few words on another 'old' profession

There has been much talk of offshoots of the oldest profession but there has been little mentioned about our involement in another old and important profession - teaching. For me (Ry), the chance to share the joy of music with hundreds of kids is one that makes me feel both honoured and humbled. They are so damn talented and they dig music for the sole reason of 'fun'. They groove and shake spontaneously and soak up songs with such a voracity that I am forced to keep my ideas fresh. Another wicked thing is that I can be a total goose and jump around and hoot, roar and hollar to my hearts content and the kids actually dig it. I can also indulge my scary side and be Mr Stern to varying degrees of success. At the moment, it's a relatively new world so I have lots of energy for it - it may not last for long but as I'm not rocking up five days a week at the same joint I am hoping to avert the drudgery.

I have come across some inspired and inspiring mentors and I am learning a lot and I hope to be an inspiring mentor to the chilluns'. go you little tackers!

An Ode to the White Lion

I thought I might take this opportunity, if I may, to gush a little and say that I am so lucky to have landed such a compassionate, sassy and brilliant lass. The White Lion and I are inseperable and we will continue to conquer vast territories of emotional and actual terrain. Hoorah for this, us, everything!

To all of you reading the blog, you are a stirling bunch and I miss you all.

Love Ry