茗知流

Anzac day 2007, I choose to spend it reading the newspapers and drinking coffee. Lest I forget.
It's an awfully foggy day up here, raining on and off. I had hoped to go outside and play some basketball but it doesn't seem likely. Apparently summertime up here is more of the same, cloud and a lot of rain. It just keeps getting better! I've been lucky enough to have a few trips off the mountain in the past fortnight, took a solo mission to Kōriyama last week hoping to buy myself some new shoes. Of course I had neglected to take into acount that I am a giant in this land and was (very politely) turned away. The worst part about it is that there are loads of really cool and reasonably priced shoes here, damn these gaijin feet of mine. Aside from the shopping I spent most of the day walking aimlessly, I don't think I saw another foriegner the whole day. Funnily enough the only person who spoke to me all day was trying to tell me about Jesus, i'm just lucky I suppose.
It's been nearly three months since we arrived in Japan, to say that time has flown would be an understatement. That's what happens when you live, work and exist within a 300m radius.
Ok, so i've read back on my post so far and it sounds a little negative. It's not all bad, last night I was lucky enough to meet one of the Japanese students staying here and had a great conversation about rock'n'roll, punk rock, garage rock and a bunch of Japanese bands like Teengenerate, Guitar Wolf, 5678's and Shonen Knife. It's been a while since i've been able to talk music with anyone aside from Marika so I got a little excited.
See you soon, suckers.

Long walks, BBQ's, Sukagawa & Koriyama

Sorry long time no talkie talkie...Stuff has been happening but just haven't been in the mood to yammer on about it...So, apart from the same ol same ol politics and mini dramas things have been mosieing along...
A couple of weeks ago we went on an excursion into real Japan, caught the train to Koriyama and went temple hunting...we found a couple of really nice ones with interesting graveyards and then decided we'd just wander around and see what we could find...we found the Thankyou Mart where everything in the shop is Y399 and they have heaps of stuff with skulls and card suits and dice and really cool stuff all at one low price! They also have lots of secondhand clothes...but most of it is really small...we went up and down escalators looking at all these shops and realising that Japanese people just love to shop...for anything and everything but nothing really that practical, if you know what i mean...We were exhausted by all the shopping and barged our way into the train to get seats on the way back, no way was I standing for another 50 minutes...

  

Last week I conned Khan into doing a rather exhausting walk, down to the bottom of the first hill and back up again...I just wanted to go down there for something to do, get out of BH, it only took an hour to get down and an hour to get back but we did some exploring of the soon to be opened Regina which is kind of a resort holiday place where you can either rent a little house, an igloo or a tent for however long you want and hang out at the fake lake...(Japanese people love their fake lakes, i'm telling you, i haven't seen a natural lake yet!). I think we'll have a trip down there before we leave here to do some camping out, when it gets a bit warmer...the weather has been crazy, warm one day, snow the next...Anyway, we made it back up, exploring some abandoned houses along the way, rotting floorboards and all, still with bedding in the cupboards and slippers at the door...very strange that they'd just been abandoned...one was a great A frame place with a really nice loft bedroom...Khan was too scared to come in but thought he'd take some photos from the doorway...

  

Friday the 13th, we had our first all staff party which was a bbq at a nearby park in Naganuma as the hotel had no guests so was closed for the day. We had lots of fun, kicking balls around, frisbee and badminton...Japanese style bbq is wierd, they like to tie tea towels around their heads, for what reason, I don't know...and there wasn't a steak in sight, but Yoshi our HR saviour made sure we were catered for...Booze was free and we were drinking this stuff called shoju, which i still haven't found out exactly what it is but lots of us suffered black spots through out the night...including the point where we thought it'd be a fantastic idea to swap the newly acquired, highly uncomfortable vinyl lounges for our old grotty but comfy lounge which was now in the main staff lounge...
Anyways, it happened and there has been waaaaayyy too much drama caused before it, myself and one other guy have taken the wrap for it, basically cos i don't really care as I know they won't fire me, and also cos it's a little hard to explain all the bruises all over my body without getting Khan in trouble..meh he heh...They made me write a report, which mainly consisted of me saying i couldn't remember what happened as I can't, but shiiiiitttt...talk about a storm in a teacup...we replaced them, didn't nick the flat screen tv, coffee machine or any of the other items in there and merely switched the vinyl uncomfy couches for our old one which at one point had mice living in it...funny shit really...

  

  

Ummmm...soooo, other than that we went with Yuichi (who coincidentally enough, did a homestay in Port Macquarie a couple of years ago...) and Elise to Sukagawa to look at the sakura (cherry blossoms) which are in full flight right now...very pretty...we were adamant that it was going to be like we were normal people so we went bowling, took some of those pictures in those booths...Oh Elaine you'd go insane here...they're so cheap and you can do so much more with the pics than in aus...not to mention the bars that allow you to hang upside down and stuff...ha ha...
Khan won at bowling of course...but below is a pic of the "Auto shoeser". Instead of an attendant being there to help you with shoes you insert Y300 and choose which size you want...as they say, vending machine for everything...

  
  

After bowling, we decided to go shopping and I made my first purchase that wasn't food, transport or accommodation..the first girly bag that I've liked ever...and it was only Y3000 ($30). It's got animals printed all over it, very cute...Anyways, next we were going to go to Thankyou Mart but when we parked the car Yuichi closed the door and oH! locked the keys inside...luckily his mum owns a set of keys and lives not too far away...but it made for a good diversion, Thankyou Mart was closed so we ended up at this bar where Yuichi's friend works but who wasn't working that night...it was kind of a rock n roll bar with good (old rock n roll) music and a comfy atmosphere...After a beer and some snacks it was MOS burger time...they have a rice burger which is vegie friendly and is actually quite yummy...though the bun is made of rice and the insides is some kind of carrotty, vegetably stuff...though we take what we can get...

In summary it was a great day...it's nice to get out and see real Japan where the people are nice and friendly and will do anything to give you good service...

Khan's working today but I'm not but I spent too much money yesterday so decided not to go to Shirakawa as I am terrible at impulse buying these days, had a nice day here, sleeping in, doing some yoga and going for a wander around the nature trail. The bears are out so I was armed with the most powerful weapon known to mankind, a set of bells...hmm mister bear doesn't like the bells apparently...neither do i actually, turns a nice quiet walk into a christmas carol...ok enough...sorry if it's really boring...i'll try to write less boring things more often..then there won't be these big boring monologues...anyways, take care y'all and send us some emails...

P.S. I uploaded more photos here...http://www.3littlepenguins.com/photos/japan/2/index.html

P.P.S. My name in katakana is: マリカ アンデルス khan's is something like this... カーン　チャチル woohoo...