the paper chase

This is madness! Two blog posts in one night?! Note: like last year, this stuff didn’t necessarily come out in 2008, but let’s just pretend.

favourite albums of 2008:

mewithoutYou – Brother, Sister
Twin Vickers – Demo

These two recordings were so far beyond anything else I heard in 2008 that I feel the need to break up the list in order to point out this fact. The rest can be considered more or less equal.

Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Muscles  – Guns Babes Lemonade
The Decemberists – The Crane Wife/Picaresque
Smoking Popes – Stay Down
Bayside – Shudder
The Benevento/Russo Duo – Play Pause Stop
Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
The Black Keys – Magic Potion
The Maccabees – Colour It In
Annuals – Such Fun
Judy and Mary – The Great Escape
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Boatman’s Call
Crystal Castles – S/T
Death Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Foals – Antidotes
The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
New Order – Substance
Ratatat – Classics
Justice – †
Kanye West – Graduation
Louis Jordan – Greatest Hits
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Oh Mercy – Priviliged Woes
The Bronx – III
The Presets – Apocalypso

favourite songs by bands/off albums i may or may not necessarily give a shit about:

Twin Vickers – The Way To Walk Out Of Here
mewithoutYou – O Porcupine/The Dryness and the Rain/Wolf Am I!
Oh Mercy – Can’t Fight It
The Greasers – Shelley
The Bronx – Past Lives
Annuals – The Tape
Cut Copy – Feel The Love
Death Cab For Cutie – I Will Possess Your Heart/Cath…
Common – Be (still probably my favourite hiphop track)
Kanye West – Robocop
Bayside – The Ghost of St. Valentine
MGMT – Time To Pretend (I liked this when everyone was still obsessed with ‘Kids’)
Muscles – Jerk
Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor
Driving Music – Demo (all five tracks)

bands that should have quit in 2008:

Fall Out Boy
Jimmy Eat World
Saves The Day (hurts me to mention these last two)
Bloc Party
Kaiser Chiefs
Coldplay (still)
Metallica (still)
The Getaway Plan

bands that shouldn’t have quit in 2008:

Blueline Medic…

best new bands/new to me:

The Paints
Kimbra
The Benevento/Russo Duo

biggest disappointments:

Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreaks
Common – Universal Mind Control
Lagwagon – I Think My Older Brother Used To Listen To Lagwagon

best gigs:

The Paints @ Noise Bar
mewithoutYou @ Soundwave Festival
Saosin @ Soundwave Festival
The Matches @ Soundwave Festival
Ratatat @ The Espy
Kimbra @ The Toff
Twin Vickers @ The Old Bar
Justice @ Ganban Night ‘08
Lagwagon @ Club Quattro Tokyo

i just don’t get it:

MGMT
Deerhunter
The Gaslight Anthem
Vampire Weekend

biggest surprises:

Local artists outshine just about everything else regardless of genre
After shockingly saccharine Plans album, Death Cab release scary good song with ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’
I develop a nasty affinity for nasty electro (although I can pinpoint this to one very particular night)…
Sum 41 most popular pop-punk band in Japan (not really surprising actually)
Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading, mental

best movies:

Let The Right One In
Wall-E
The Dark Knight
The Killing
Tekkonkinkreet
Burn After Reading (Coen-lite but still hilarious)
Battle Royale
Hidden
5 Centimetres per Second
Tokyo Story
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (why are there so many thrillers on this list?)

worst movies:

I didn’t watch anywhere near as many movies this year so thankfully I didn’t see many bad ones. Let me think…

Babylon A.D. (stumbled across this on the plane to Cambodia, I couldn’t look away it was so appalling)
The Orphanage (not bad by any means but just a bit of a disappointment)
Ghost In The Shell (so overrated)
Pineapple Express (had its moments but ehhh)
My Blueberry Nights (ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

best television shows:

The Colbert Report
Monster
Death Note

worst television shows:

The Office (quit while you’re ahead!)
Heroes
Lost

best games:

The World Ends With You (DS)
Space Invaders Extreme (DS)
Kirby Canvas Curse (DS)
Jump! Ultimate Stars (DS)
Geometry Wars (DS/PC/360)/Grid Wars (PC)
Everyday Shooter (PC)
N+ (DS)

best books read in 2008:

The Grapes of Wrath
The Name of the Rose (it took me like four months, it must be good…I think…)
Red Dust
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler

best book read in 2008 that i didn’t really care for:

Slaughterhouse-Five

most anticipated/fingers crossed/predictions for 2009:

New Decemberists album redefines indie rock, tops both Pitchfork’s best albums chart and the New York Times book review
Fabled second Postal Service album finally drops
Kimbra becomes the next Björk sans the cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof act
Blueline Medic reunite and finally get the recognition they deserve
Hacking the Wii becomes even cheaper and easier
Nonetheless, Nintendo continue their march towards total world domination
Barack Obama launches rocket full of conservatives into the sun
Kevin Rudd’s internet filter blocks every website except tubgirl
Electric cars
People start talking about how many Yen gold can buy, not the other way around

That’s a whole year’s worth of pop culture right there! Sadly I can’t even remember half of the stuff I read and watched in 2008. The first half was spent in a warbly daze and the second half swimming in neon and smokey karaoke bars. Consider my lesson learned.

よろしく。

cat heaven

Is this thing on?

So, uh, I’m sorry it’s been so long since I wrote in here.  That’s not an apology directed at anybody in particular, cause I know nobody reads this, but I feel like I’ve let the team down. Anyway on with the show.

New year’s resolutions. Bizarrely, I more or less accomplished all the things I set out to accomplish in 2008. I feel like that must be a first for humankind. So this year I’ve pared it back a little bit, and focussed on more practical, rather than abstract, goals. Like getting more proficient at Japanese, f’rinstance. And saving money. 2008 was a year of excess. And to prove it…

OK now, I’m more or less over these kinds of surveys. But I feel that given my time constraints it would be more efficient and less painful for you, the reader, to see this in easy-to-digest point form. So with no adieus to further, here’s 2008 in review.

life, the universe, and everything

There are always a few peripheral characters in the Pixar films that I fall utterly in love with. In the case of Wall-E, it’s the adorable clean-up drone M-O (they always boast clever names, too), whose facial expressions come entirely in the form of LED eyes yet manage to capture all the curiosity of an intelligent animal who is coming to terms with human ingenuity.

Which leads me, of course, to Wall-E. This is a beautiful, breathtaking film in every sense of the word. From the scene it paints of the inevitable convergence of the current human condition (both from an environmental perspect and a social one), to the promulgation of corporation to an extra-terrestrial scale, to our dependence upon automatic processes and loss of love for learning, to the effects of infinite loneliness and longing, Wall-E as a film transcends and redefines animation itself. There, I said it. It has aesthetic value that is surely equal to any film as well as philosophical implications that are relevant to us – today – on countless levels…and it conveys most (if not all) of this without dialogue. Think about it. Everything Wall-E achieves, he does so without words, without a soul, without religion. All he has is his curiousity and his faultless, incorruptible innocence.

The depth of field animation, and in particular, the depiction of weightlessness in space is just beautiful. There is no other word for it. Wall-E and Eve’s dance in space is surely the most beautiful and touching sequence in Pixar’s history. Oh, and just quietly…things are still looking up.

I guess this means I’m gonna have to start thinking about my best and worst of 2008. It will be a bit of a tough call, as I’ve been uncharacteristically occupied, at least over the last few months, and have partied more vigorously, more regularly, this year than I ever have before. The result? I must be getting old. I have that familiar feeling that time is flying by. I feel the year(s) whisking by at unfathomable speed with utter disregard for patience or etiquette. This year, more than any other, I have caught myself in moments of contemplation and admiration at the infinite serenity that the world offers by virtue of its simple existence. There are patterns and balance and beauty to be found everywhere if you’re only willing to take a few minutes out of your day to sit back and think about things

Stop worrying about your job. Stop worrying about your boyfriend. Stop worrying about your deadlines. Stop worrying about money. Take a look around. A speckled bird, humbly inspired, ran across the road, when it could have flown.

I’ve been thinking a bit about Christmas back in Australia, and how I’m kinda really gonna miss it. The weather is always nice (re: not freezing), and it’s always accompanied by a pretty pervasive good mood, plenty of eating and drinking, and of course, the promise of cricket, parties and more amazing weather. Some of my fondest memories of the past few summers have been Boxing Days, Australia Days, New Years’ Eves, that sort of thing. Apparently New Year’s Eve isn’t such a big deal over here, at least not in the same sense. From what I can ascertain, it involves docile trips to shrines and such and reverence for the first sunrise of the new year. It’s a far cry from the utter immorality of New Year’s Eve back in Australia. Back there, you’re lucky if there is a shirt in sight, or a non-alcoholic beverage. My Aussie friends and I have already started plotting a rampage on January 26th. Rain, hail, snow or tsunami, it will definitely involve shorts, thongs, outdoor barbecues and (more than likely) Vegemite and Tim Tams (since they are the only uniquely Aussie foods you can buy over here).

Oh, did you guys hear? A black guy is gonna be President of the United States. There’s something to mull over the old noggin’. I can’t possibly add anything to further elucidate the significance of this. It’s so strange being in a country like Japan, where national pride runs so deep but general knowledge about politics is so limited. Seriously, beyond local council elections, the average Japanese person has no idea about the political situation in their own country, let alone internationally. It’s because their elections are structured differently from the ones we are used to, and because the Emperor and his family still carry such symbolic importance, that the image of solidarity and stability is unfaltering, even during times of severe economic panic. Of course, the fact that the media is so saturated with ‘major’ issues like two Russian-born sumo wrestlers getting caught smoking weed doesn’t do much to raise awareness of ‘lesser’ problems like war. This was front-page news for at least three weeks back in September and August. Why? Because sumo is the national sport, and anything resembling a blot on the integrity of the symbol that is Japanese nationalism is nothing less than the worst thing that could happen in this country.

Take a look at the flag, for further evidence:

It’s, uh, bold. To say the least. Even more so than when I was back in Australia, I have been depending on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for my news, at least when it comes to America. I’m not quite so keen to read thousand-word articles on The Australian or The Age websites, though, on account of I’m already starting to see the waking world in bleary-eyed, pixelated format, and I don’t want to exacerbate the problem. But you know what’s great about high-speed internet? All forms of media are available on-demand. Give me convenience or give me death. Just don’t spoil the party, Mr. Rudd.

On a related note, I find the routinely inflammatory comments that appear on news websites absolutely fascinating. At the time of writing, the most recent comment on that article I linked to above reads as follows:

“I didn’t vote for the twit, I hope the people who did are satisfied we have a now have a monkey running our economy and our internet.”

So many great things about this post, not the least of which is the level of political engagement with the real issues at hand here. But it’s indicative of the vast majority of what constitutes ‘commentary’ on the internet. I believe most people’s internet practices have evolved so as to completely filter out all user comments, except in the case of community message boards, but the phenomenon of semi-anonymous propaganda is incredible. The ability to conceal one’s real agenda and distill one’s real motivations into a handful of characters is something that we are seeing for the first time in human history, and the manifestations are countless. What is it that compels people to comment on articles like this in the first place? Who do they think is actually reading them? Do they not realise the abstraction that occurs when you substitute your real name and address for an internet handle? It goes without saying that the vast majority of these comments would not be made in a real-life scenario, eg. in general conversation, or even during a political discussion amongst peers over dinner.

I feel like going back to university just to investigate things like this. In fact, I feel like going back to university full stop. Seeing how my students’ eyes widen when I explain that ‘percent’ comes from the Latin words ‘per’ and ‘cent,’ and that ‘per’ roughly equates to the Japanese possessive particle の(no), and that ‘cent’ means ‘hundred,’ is a great feeling. In these rare cases, I truly feel like I’m helping them learn, and that what I have to offer them is actually valuable and rewarding. I want to regain that feeling for myself.

It’s lunch time. I had better sign off and go make my presence felt.

Take care, friends.

by land, by sea, by dirigible

I forgot to take my phone off silent. Normally, in Japan, this isn’t an issue. Any uninvited noise emanating from your personal space is frowned upon over here, with the exception of slurping your food like you’re eating out of a bowl on ground level without cutlery. But this morning, it was a problem. Because my phone is also my alarm, and when the phone is on silent, the alarm ain’t very alarming.

So I overslept for the first time since arriving in Japan. During my frenzied bike ride to school, I visualised all the ways in which they would punish me. Embarrassing apologies to the principal, deductions from my paid leave, peltings with rotten fruit in the town square, all of it. So I snuck in. Seemingly morning meetings had already begun. It was like a ghost town. I’m in huge trouble for sure.

Because the Japanese base their entire existence around the notion of keeping up appearances. Even if you have nothing to do or contribute by remaining at your workplace, even if you would in fact be bothering your coworkers by your mere oversized gaijin presence, you are expected to stay. It’s J-group-think, or, as it is more commonly known around here, group-sink. If your co-workers are making the effort to be at their place of work, then of course it would be rude for you not to be there as well. If they are making the effort and keeping the world spinning by falling asleep at their desks or shopping for handbags online, then so should you. I just fail to see how I’m contributing anything by sitting around, trolling message boards, downloading games with the school’s bandwidth, listening to music on Myspace, and of course, the prescribed four or five hours of aimless Facebook patrol.

But that’s the way things are here. Long story short, I didn’t eat breakfast and pedalled like a bitch only to discover that they had quietly switched Monday’s timetable with Friday’s and I don’t have any classes today. Maybe I’m just not in tune enough with the J-lifestyle yet, but it seems like there are some discrepancies in communication versus expectation here.

In other great news, I have a stiff neck. This comes from sitting at my desk for hours upon hours with nichts zu machen. I discovered these two girls who like to play acoustic guitars in an adjacent classroom after school, so sometimes I invite myself in to jam with them. In this case, collaborative jamming actually means me butchering Elliott Smith songs, and them recording videos of me on their mobile phones. I keep saying ‘Youtube’ and making that J-style ‘do not want’ sign with my arms. The teacher I sit next to at work generously donated her sister’s unwanted acoustic guitar a few days ago, so that’s awesome. For those who are in any doubt, cycling home in strong winds carrying a hollowed-out guitar isn’t as easy or as fun as it sounds.

It’s getting cold. I don’t know how cold it is but I don’t like it. Things are looking grim. Last night I was wearing four layers, two of them woolen. We had okonomiyaki which was the one thing I specifically requested not to have because you never get enough food and it takes forever. It’s like a big fried noodle pancake that is drowned in the Japanese equivalent of barbecue sauce. Give me tonkatsu any day. We stopped at the foreign food store afterwards and descended upon it like ravenous zombies. The poor girl working there was probably so scared seeing the six of us blitz through the place. I feel kinda stupid sometimes when I go grocery shopping because Japanese people don’t often stock up on snacks and soft drinks and easy-to-prepare meals and bread and milk and cereal like us whities do. I can’t help feeling some degree of condescension each time I go through the checkout. In my defence, I do usually buy fruits and vegetables too, despite their outrageous prices (sometimes four or five dollars for a peach, that kind of thing). Last night I bought Cadbury chocolate and Tim Tams. Ohhhhh yeah.

This weekend won’t be as mental as the two preceding it. I think I’m staying more or less put. Considering going to a Halloween party on Saturday night and/or a house party. We have yet another public holiday on Monday, followed by the mid-year conference on Tuesday and Wednesday in the capital city. We’re kinda planning a trip to Kansai (Osaka, Kyoto) at the end of November, which I’m crazy excited for, but we need to book it soon or else spaces will run out.

Anyway, I had better go and attempt some more Japanese study. Or maybe I’ll just keep playing Metroid on my DS. Who knows.

So long, friends!

the tale of genki

No game plan whatsoever in the writing of this blog. Like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ve been either too busy or too tired to even think about writing for the past couple of months. I don’t know what all these other JETs are complaining about.

Anyway. This past weekend was one of the biggest of my life and as I hunch over my desk in Nishigo I can barely keep my eyes open. I am a trashbag of the highest order and I’m sure my Japanese co-workers don’t appreciate it. OK, maybe it’s not that bad, but I get the idea that they expect me to be at my genkiest on Monday of all days, not the other way around. So let’s backtrack a bit.

On Wednesday I left school in Shirakawa early to go to Koriyama where the Global Citizens Festival was drawing to an end. Actually, my motivations were not quite so noble. I was going to check out the performance of my school’s synthesiser club (pronounced ’sinsasaiza’). A few weeks ago I ‘helped’ them by reading out the lyrics to a song they were performing. Of course, the impressionable first-year girls thought this was the most exciting thing ever to happen (I suppose given the fact that we’re talking about Yabuki, they were probably right). I was so embarrassed. They sat me in a chair in the middle of the music room (one lonely, lonely chair) and gave me an a-cappella performance of this song in like twelve-part harmony that was like Southern Gospel quality. Then as I was leaving, made a guard of honour and applauded (I mean literally) for my help. Again, I was so embarrassed. But obviously it meant a lot to them, so I took a few hours off work on Thursday to go see them perform in Koriyama.

To tell the truth I wasn’t aware that I was even going to the Global Citizens Festival. Those of you that have seen my Facebook photos will have also seen the face-painting that went on last weekend (spreading international understanding through horribly butchered renditions of Australian flags slapped Jackson Pollock-style onto high schooler’s faces) – well, it turns out this is one of the biggest events on the prefectural calendar and attracts heaps of visitors. The closing ceremony was held at the Bunka (culture) Centre which is like a huge concert hall. It was packed, and there were TV cameras and giant mixing boards and ushers and the likes. There were hundreds of performers doing exotic foreign dances and stuff like that. I was duly impressed, and of course the Synth Club girls were awesome. Apparently the Emperor’s son was there too!

I took a day off on Friday which I was well entitled to do and went to Tokyo. I met up with Midori in Ginza and we went out on the town. Midori is heaps and heaps of fun. Her English wasn’t as good as I recalled though, probably cause when I met her we were all so drunk we weren’t making sense anyway. Not to worry. Turns out she is from Osaka which explains her genkiness. She took me to an Irish pub. I’m not sure why. But there were so many repulsive Americans there. The whole time we were there ths group of three of them were talking in their obnoxious accents about frat parties and smoking weed and getting ‘blitzed’ and ‘blazed’ and those other disgusting Yank colloquialisms that all amount to the reasons why Americans are so unpopular with the rest of the Western world. It was really distracting. Not to worry though cause they left after a while, only to be replaced by this old British guy who sounded like Michael Caine. He showed up with three Japanese women, who all looked as if they were in their forties, who spoke fluent English. Michael Caine said he had been in Japan for ten years but the whole time he was there didn’t speak a word of Japanese.

Midori is a beautician in one of those ridiculously expensive boutiques in Ginza. I have never been anywhere so glamorous in all my life. Every minimalistic shop front houses two or three brand name accessories that probably amount to the value of the rent of the stores themselves. We’re talking Louis Vitton, D&G and upwards here. Maseratis parked on the sides of the roads. I mean even the taxis are luxury cars. Not to worry. Some of the smaller streets, crowded with restaurants and bars, reminded me of Melbourne. As if I needed any more justification in my love for Melbourne, but while Ginza is awesome and impressive, its style is very materialistic and affected, unlike my home city. Thankfully, despite being totally stylish and beautiful, Midori herself is unencumbered by any of this. She is humble and not too embarrassed to attempt English sentences which are way beyond her ability, which makes me feel more comfortable about speaking Japanese. Anyway after we left the gaijin-infested Irish pub we went to a san-byaku-en bar. I did not know places like this existed in Japan, let alone Tokyo, but for those that haven’t already figured it out, all the drinks are three-hundred yen! Bargain basement lunacy. The place was horribly over-crowded with trendy locals and a minimum of foreigners.

All the disgruntled middle-aged salarymen in Melbourne would do well to take note of J-business attire. Sure, most of these lemmings think about necking themselves every other night, but at least they will look good doing it. They all have nice shoes and nice suits and nice briefcases and the girls all wear black stockings and high heels and everyone in Japan owns a designer wallet or handbag (males included), but now I’m only repeating myself.

So my night out with Midori was loads of fun. The following morning I got up nice and early to head to Hibiya. This would have been more of a problem if the weather wasn’t the best we’ve had since I arrived in Japan. The last four or five days have been absolutely beautiful. Met up with Ian for the Tokyo Run for the Cure! We scurried about registering and getting changed and finding a place to stash our bags then headed down to the Imperial Gardens with the other thousand people. There were heaps of foreigners this time around. Ian and I started the race at the front of the pack and more or less stayed there. I got entangled in a sprint-finish with this absolute tank of an American guy and another white kid who was maybe twelve years old and barely five feet high. Long story short, I finished maybe fifth out of a few hundred! Totally stoked, as I didn’t eat dinner the night before, barely slept and haven’t been regularly exercising in months.

We walked aimlessly around Hibiya after the run looking for a place to eat and relax. We eventually got knocked back from a capsule hotel in central Tokyo because they don’t accept business from people who can’t speak fluent Japanese. This was the first case of obvious, inveterate, structural racism I have encountered in Japan. To protest would be completely useless. To make cultural generalisations in Japan is almost expected, in the sense that everyone assumes a white face is an American face and that we are loud and rude and can’t use chopsticks. In a sense this is true, and as a JET I am currently leeching of the government to a degree that would cause a six-week controversy on Today Tonight back home in Australia, but that’s no excuse.

We eventually crashed at Ian’s friend’s apartment in Roppongi. We happened to arrive at the exact moment of the official green-carpet (yeah, I know, wtf?) opening of the Tokyo International Film Festival. So there were heaps of VIPs and punters there. Ian slept under the coffee table for a while before we went out for Chinese food. After a seriously placating meal of dumplings and sticky rice we jumped on a train to Chiba for GANBAN Night 08! Mental! The lineup for this event was simply insane, and I’m not even into electro music. The party was at this stadium and was the biggest thing I have ever seen. Thousands upon thousands of people were there. Saw Bassment Jaxx and Justice (among others) and partied harder than I have in a long, long time (without actually drinking that much). Caught a train back in a semi-conscious and deliriously exhausted state at about 6am.

We picked up our bags from the coin locker (re: rocker) and stumbled around looking for a McDonalds in the same manner that the undead crave living flesh. We found one and watched a girl apply her makeup and curl her hair for over two hours while we waited for our bus back to Fukushima. This was the most measured and immaculate procedure I have ever witnessed. I was intoxicated by her unflinching steadiness of hand (as well as just being intoxicated in the conventional way). She was a pretty girl but to my mind didn’t look any better at the end than she did when we walked in. But who knows, maybe after another few hours she will have been completely transformed, as if from humble caterpiller to stunning butterfly. I will always wonder what she was getting ready for, where she was going, who she was meeting. We went to the bus terminal at 9am and came back home.

And that’s why I’ve only had about 10 hours sleep since Thursday.

Ja ne!

let’s enjoy trying

I’ve had a while to settle in now, and this means I’ve had more time to digest all the bizarre things that go on here in Japan. As I was telling a friend the other night, there are some things about this country that will forever remain beyond the realms of my comprehension. It’s such a wacky and nonsensical place in many ways, but at the same time, so ordered and simple. But I’ll embellish more on that some other time. I’m feeling more comfortable now that I’ve been here for six weeks, but by no means am I a natural. I mean, I was asked if I was wearing coloured contact lenses and if I had a perm in my hair. This week has been a bit of an anomaly in that I had my first day at my final school and my base school has been busy with exams. So that makes for a grand total of three high schools. Here’s a bit of a rundown:

Kohnan – This is my homebase. The people in charge of fitting out my apartment (ha!), making sure my bills get paid and generally holding my hand are all Kohnan staff. My supervisor, Kaori, is one of the English teachers and she’s really great. I’m not sure how old she is as you can never tell with the Japanese. So I think she would be thirty-five at the most. She is kinda tall for a Japanese woman and has the most perfect posture of anybody I have ever seen. Every move she makes is graceful and perfectly balanced. Her English is grammatically perfect but still sounds kinda stilted and occassionally straight-up humorous. She told me one day a couple of weeks ago that I had a “great sense of styling.” Kaori is so prim and proper that I find myself forever pushing the boundaries of acceptable Japanese office humour in an effort to expose her bad manners. Sometimes I get a real belly laugh out of her but usually not when I expect it. She has been so nice to me since I arrived and bought me some new linen as a welcome present. It was a good thing she did, too, cause the Board of Education didn’t deem it necessary to ’splurge’ on bed sheets for me. Kaori has taken me all around town setting up my utilities and explaining things to me. I’m still pretty clueless and helpless when it comes to this whole Japan caper but if it weren’t for her I’d be in a whole heap of trouble.

The other staff are just as friendly as her. The guys in the office (not secretaries, just like general admin guys) helped me fixing the light and TV reception in my apartment. The vice-principals and principal are cool too except they don’t speak any English whatsoever so I have little reason to ever talk to them. The English teaching staff are all awesome. Including my supervisor and myself, there are seven of us, and four of them are attractive young females. Win! Nemoto-sensei is the best guy ever. He knows evrything about every subect. He’s an English teacher who has read Nabokov and is able to make witty metaphorical jokes in his second language. Every time I have some odd question about an obscure aspect of Japanese writing or grammar, the other teachers all say the same thing: ask Nemoto-sensei. He knows everything. Still, nobody  (Nemoto included) has been able to explain to my why the character はis written when it is わthat is pronounced. The classes themselves are still warming up so I’ll have more to report on those later.

The Kohnan students are all pretty rad, with the exception of a few of the older kids with bad attitudes. They always try to make me feel like I’m invading their territory, which is true to a degree, but I’m just another teacher really. The first-year students (ages 15-16) all get heaps excited when I come to their classes, even though most of them couldn’t talk their way out of a paper bag in English. There was one first-year kid who spotted me at the train station one Friday night though who came and spoke to me in decent English. I had never seen him before and I was so surprised at his ability I asked him if he’d been overseas and if he watched millions of English movies. He answered no to both questions – I still can’t believe it. He’s probably got the best English of any of the kids at this school. Anyway so the point is the standard of Engilsh isn’t winning any awards but most of the kids are pretty cool. 

After schools when I get restless I occassionally take my footy outside and look for kids to kick it to. Usually I just bomb it at them from a distance and they flip out with excitement – firstly, because the foreigner is coming, and secondly, cause they have no idea what is going on. Playing footy with Japanese kids is amazing fun because it makes me feel like I’m actually good at football and also because they have no idea what is meant by ‘contact sport’ so I can push and shove and bump them out of the way at will and I feel supremely muscular. 

I’m still trying to find a way to weasel my way into the music department. I’ve decided I will buy a guitar over here but so far haven’t and I have an itching to play. There are these four dudes with crazy manga hair who play ‘music’ together in a rock band after schools some days. I don’t think they have any songs; they all just stand somewhat near each other and play their own shit. To this day I haven’t heard them play more than 4 bars together in time. Maybe once I get more comfortable I will invade and try to actually play something with them.

The focus here definitely isn’t on university entrance and subsequent subway suicide, and I like it that way. Their baseball team is one of the best in the ken and they have a full-blown cheerleading squad. The students artwork that hangs around the corridors is all seriously good and their school bands are good too. I’m glad I’m not in charge of making sure these kids can study their way into some white-collar nightmare of a job.

Shirakawa Jitsugyo - This is a technical school in Shirakawa of all places. Takes me over and hour to commute there in the mornings and costs me about $10 each way on public transport. Hardly worth the effort for the amount of work I have to do when I’m there, but anyway. 

The kids here are at about the same standard as Kohnan. They offer various engineering and agricultural courses as well as the standard ‘home economics’ thing which is what all the girls do. I’ve only been there twice so far but they get super excited when they see me. One particular third-year class consists of forty girls – simultaneously frightening and awesome. One girl offered to take me to Tokyo Disney, at least two of them asked for me phone number and another offered to make me lunch. Fairly awesome but intimidating. The teachers here are so great. My supervisor at this school is another young girl who gets nervous before some of her all-boys classes. She was explaining to me that they are rude and loud and I was fearing the worst. But for the first time since been given my teacher’s badge of honour, I put my authoritarian boots on and kept them in line by regailing them with stories about Australian football and some mild teasing. One kid cheekily asked if I wanted to go swimming with him and I said only if he stays at the other end of the pool. He more or less shut up after that.

They have a staff meeting every morning where the two vice-principals make general announcements and it’s all very curt and and well-behaved. These two guys sit at the front of a huge long room which also houses about forty of us underlings. It doesn’t stop certain teachers sleeping at their desks between classes though. The main building of the school is a huge U-shaped structure which encloses a giant Japanese sand and rock garden, which is amazing. There are two ‘islands’ with huge boulders and windswept pine trees perched upon them, surrounded by a perfectly raked ocean of sand. It will look even better in winter.

I like going to Shirakawa cause it helps to break up my week and I feel a bit closer to civilisation, even though I have to get up at 6am to catch my train.

Nishigo Yogo – My third and final school which I visited for the first time this Monday. This is a special school for kids with disabilities located on the outskirts of Shirakawa. Takes even longer and costs even more to get there but it’s worth it for the experience. The kids here all have different levels of disabilities. Some of them just have severe ADHD, about a quarter of them are autistic (some quite mild, some who are likely to scream and shout at any given moment), some can’t read or write (dyslexic I suppose), some of them have emotional disturbances, but much to their endearing credit, they all seemed the least startled or excited by my presence there.

I think there are only about nintey students here, aged between 14 and about 20. During the day I wore the most fugly pair of boots and a hick’s straw hat and went bean pickin’ with the kids. It was good fun! Just to get to know some of the kids and staff and sit back and observe. Obviously there’s not much of an academic focus here so my class didn’t involve any actual teaching. I just showed a slide show of Australian animals and got the kids to try to bounce the football. As an aside, the kids at Nishigo are as good at doing this as any other Japanese people – they are all equally hopeless. It’s simple physics, guys – pointy end first so it bounces back to you. Apparently they don’t see the simple part though – I’m revered like a virtuoso every time I do it. I’m so glad I brought it with me – it has been such a great ice-breaker.

Anyway, each of the kids in my class at Nighigo came up to me and introduced themselves in English and told me their favourite fruit/vegetable/colour, which is more than I could say for the students at my other schools. I guess it does have something to do with their disabilities (lowered inhibitions, that kind of thing) but it was still pretty amazing.

I’ve only been there once so I don’t know too much about it. Unfortunately the Japanese love their public holidays and most of them fall on Mondays, which is when I’m supposed to be at Nishigo. So I’ll only get to go there maybe a dozen times in total. So I guess that is more than enough for now. I’ll have more specific anecdotes next time but since I don’t have the internet at home yet (being installed on the 25th) I haven’t really had time to sit down and write a decent blog.

On the weekend I went to a traditional-style tea ceremony with one of the teachers from my office and his daughter (I thought she was 21 but turns out she is 30 and married, mental). The tea ceremony was beautiful, so quaint and delicated. One of the other English teachers was participating so she was there all dolled up in her kimono and she looked absolutely stunning (and I told her so).

This afternoon I’m gonna tackle some more Japanese study before I heading over to the music department to help the choir pronouncing the lyrics to this hymn that they’re singing (again, all girls, totally frightening). After school I might pay a visit to the local swimming pool. It’s been heating up again this week and apart from riding my bike everywhere I’ve been feeling pretty lazy. As for my study, I’ve started learning some of the kanji (Chinese characters) and verb conjugations. Constructing sentences is still more or less beyond me though. I am able to understand the odd conversation that flies about my office but I’m still very much in the habit of speaking English. I’m gonna work hard on that over the next few weeks.

Tomorrow I’m heading down to Tokyo for the long weekend. On the agenda is wandering around Shibuya and going to some party, the details of which I have no idea about. The trip down there takes about 4 hours on the regular train and costs about $35 AU. On the shinkansen it’s more like $60 but only takes an hour and a half. Maybe once I make friends and no longer have to get a hotel room I’ll consider taking the shink but until then I’ve gotta stop splashing money around. Nevertheless, this weekend promises to be absolutely filthy and I’ll come back with lots of disgraceful photos.

Take care, friends.

sore thumbs

World, well I’ve got a bit of time to waste while the other teachers are deliberating over their staff meeting (I was excused immediately after giving my welcome speech on account of not being able to speak Japanese) so I figured I would try to jot down some things in the meantime.

Hopefully most of you are aware that I’m in Japan right now. Since I got here I’ve been sweating nonstop, getting hideously sunburnt (not the best first impression although it really does drive home the point that I’m the whitest guy these people will ever meet) and soaking wet in the rain. Yeah, there are only three seasons here: hot, cold and wet. Sometimes the wet season overlaps with the other two. I want to buy a motorised scooter so I don’t have to ruin my business threads by cycling to school every day but that idea didn’t go over too well. The reason is that the Board of Education in Fukushima-ken are subsidising my rent and decked out my apartment with a refrigerator, brand new microwave over that is smarter than I am, futons, a television, stereo, desk and chair and other stuff. The brand new bike was the icing on the Japanese cake and they would be offended if I didn’t use it. On the plus side: abs of steel.

There’s always lots of hushed conversation going on amongst the female students when I strut scurry down the halls at my school, followed by plenty of giggling once I am out of earshot barely six feet away. I guess the fact that I’m a single white male replacing a taken Asian female is pretty exciting for these people. The teachers though are all amazingly friendly and genki: I haven’t met one yet that I wouldn’t have liked to have as one of my own teachers back home.

It’s still technically summer holidays now but most of the kids come to school anyway to practise their instruments, or baseball, or cheerleading, or their being Japanese. It’s pretty awesome and schools definitely rock out in a different way than they do in Australia. I will never understand how these girls are allowed to wear their skirts and socks in that particular way, though.

Since arriving I’ve been to karaoke a few times, mostly with other whities though. Shamefully, I’ve already started memorising some of the more ubiquitous J-Pop and have since come to the realisation that there is nothing funnier than seeing drunk white dudes singing Japanese punk anthems.  Saw some amazing fireworks in Shirakawa as part of the obon festival the other week. I have rad videos but alas I’m on the crappy work computer and don’t have access to my pictures or movies right now.

I saw frogs, grasshoppers and foot-long dragonflies in my front yard. Not that it’s much of a yard. It’s like a gravel driveway with some pitiful grass trying it’s best to grow. There is like a town alarm clock that sounds like an especially loud doorbell that goes off every morning at 7am and I imagine wakes up the entire prefecture. It’s always a bummer but it definitely prevents me from the possibility of sleeping in.

Attempts at Western food are even more questionable in Japan than they are in China, but it’s countered by the fact that you can buy enormous boxes of sushi from supermarkets and 7-11s for not much money at all. When in Rome. Virginia and I are still on a quest to find some good places to eat in our little town but given her awesome Japanese skills I reckon we’ll find something sooner or later.

It’s been heaps of fun meeting all the other new JETs and talking about our various homelands. Being Aussie has never been such an easy in-road into all sorts of social circles. Yesterday I showed my supervisor all the bizarre Australian animals I could think of courtesy of Wikipedia. Seriously, if you needed proof against “intelligent” design, look no further than the platypus. The koala is a perennial favourite amongst the Japanese and I broke a few hearts when on my first day I strolled around the school handing them out to unsuspecting students.

In spite of Japan’s reputation for having a declining birth rate, my prefecture is notable for having the nation’s highest rate of teenage pregnancy. Don’t look at me, I’ve only been here a few weeks. Anyway, the number of attractive young girls pushing prams around shopping centres is absolutely mental. The girl who sold me my mobile phone was a student at my school just last year, according to my supervisor, and already obviously pregnant. What’s with that? The prefecture is also famous for producing a huge amount of Japan’s peaches. You could bludgeon someone to death with one of those things, they are the size of my head.

There is also an uncomfortable number of dudes carrying around manbags. At first I was skeptical – surely the girlfriend of that guy with the Louis Vitton handbag with gold trimmings is getting on at the next station? – but it’s actually cool over here. I have never felt so comfortable being as skinny as I am, because I’m still a damn shot more masculine than most of these Japanese guys.

Television, while shockingly ethnocentric, is a blast. The Olympics coverage has been complete balls (most recent example: just last night they replayed all nine innings of a Japan vs. Canada softball match immediately after it finished) and I have never been so sick of the sight of one athlete as I am of Kosuke Kitajima (OK, I lied – I got pretty damn tired of Jana Pittman), but the bizarre array of game shows and variety shows is astounding. The other week I saw a guy whose challenge was to do do a forwards roll atop a three-metre diving board, with a balloon at the end that he was meant to burst. Hilarity ensues. Their soaps are pretty amazing, too: imagine a sexed-up schoolyard version of Neighbours with even worse acting and editing. Not that I can understand what is being said, but do you really need to?

Politeness and courtesy levels are through the roof here, until they get a few drinks in ‘em. Rest assured there will always be some kid who wants to shake your hand and practice his two lines of English on you over the course of any given night out. Older people and females remain timid, though.

Let’s see, what else. I have noticed other quirky things since arriving here but I’ve generally been so busy or tired to write it down anywhere. Classes start this Friday so I’m sure things will only get weirder.

Take care, everyone.

the dark knight of the soul

Now that there’s less than a week remaining before I’m unceremoniously shipped out of Australia, air freight-style, the time is right for a blog post. I’ve been avoiding the fact that I haven’t been as dilligent or as timely as promised when it comes to updating this thing, and I guess that’s because I knew I would eventually have to write this very post and I wouldn’t know what to say. Well, here it is.

I’ve been spending the last few weeks getting ready. For those of you who have moved overseas before, you will know that ‘getting ready’ in this context more or less translates to ’spending heaps and heaps of money.’ Having never been a white-collar employee before now, I had to rush out and buy business attire, including a suit, which prompted more than one American Psycho-style moment of self-evaluation. Since discovering how difficult it really is to find stylish business clothes that I feel comfortable in (I’m trying to keep all pastel colours to a minimum here, which, if you take a look at the graduate job/overpriced race meeting crowd, is a lot harder than it should be), I find myself sneering at every ill-fitting jacket, poorly tied-up tie and tasteless shirt I encounter. Presumably, these people spend their entire waking lives being buttoned-down yes-men; I thought by now most of them would have realised how to dress themselves. Guess not. Anyway, it’s something that I haven’t paid any attention to until now.

I’m still in the process of trying to sell my car. Nobody wants it I guess. Come on people, it’s not like I’ve smashed it up that bad. At least, any damage is emotional, not physical. One thing I’m not going to miss in Japan is driving. To be fair, Melbourne’s traffic is becoming exponentially worse with every passing month, but to be in a place where public transport is as popular and ubiquitous as energy drinks or flannel shirts or Apple products is gonna be great. I’ll be stationed an hour and a half from Tokyo by shinkansen (aka death-defying anti-gravity train). But there are some things about Melbourne I’ll be missing.

A huge range of everything, thanks to our ever-increasing migrant communities, is one of them. Amazing bands and live music events are another, despite their extortionate prices. Cultural landmarks such as the Astor theatre, Flinders Street Station, the botanic gardens, Southbank, the MCG are as distinctive and as well-loved as any in other countries, and our innate sense of style far outclasses anything I’ve encountered in any other city (especially Sydney).

Of course, there are other things besides traffic that I won’t be missing. Like six dollars for a Metcard, fickle weather, being a native speaker and as such being subjected to the drivel that saturates newspapers, magazines, television and radio, disgraceful trendy nightspots and their accompanying clientele (although these aren’t endemic to Melbourne), the complete lack of a decent film/television industry, consistent apathy towards important political issues and, on the other hand, uninformed outspoken finger-pointing regarding uncontrollable ones (e.g. fuel prices), and so on.

Japan, on the other hand, doesn’t suffer from too many of these complaints. They have properly fast internet, perfect etiquette and rituals of generosity and politeness (us Westerners would do well to take note), local cuisine that is more about subtlety than sheer quantity and a zany fashion sense. It also boasts being one of the most consistently romanticised countries on earth (at least, from a Western point of view) and, finally and most importantly, a healthy whaling industry.

While there is something to be said for being organised, I have learned over the last couple of years that to try to control too many of the billions of variables that make up your day-to-day life only guarantees two things: firstly, that you will end up feeling frustrated, and also that you will inevitably miss most of the finer details that make the ordinary into something worth noticing, remembering. I know that my preconceptions about Japan will mostly likely turn out to be well off the mark and I will someday come back to Melbourne with a completely different perspective on the country, its people and its culture, and I’m going into it without too many expectations. The only ones I do have are ones that I want and need to control, for my own good – greater independence, more creative output, that kind of thing. I’ve been completely exhausted for the last couple of weeks and to be honest it will be great just to arrive in Japan so I can finally sit back and just let things run their course.

The time I haven’t spent in a delirious state of hyperanimation has been used to get hideously drunk, sleep in late and play bucketloads of video games. For those of you in any doubt, we’re talking hardcore Nintendo DS gaming here. I’ve picked out a few choice game trailers for the unconvinced.

Nanostray 2. One of the hardest games I have played. Still stuck on level two.

The World Ends With You. Ultra-modern RPG and proof that the DS is the only platform you can find games with real style. Great soundtrack, too.

Jump! Ultimate Stars. Possibly the best handheld fighting game ever, featuring loads of playable anime and manga characters and seriously cool art style.

Sonic Rush. Light-speed Sonic goodness.

Space Invaders Extreme. A fantastic remake of a game that was in desperate need of a shot of adrenaline. As an aside, I more or less need to own this bag. It’s $80 at the only store I’ve seen it in, which is a flat-out joke for a PVC bag. Anyway.

Metal Slug 7. Insane shooter, not as hair-pullingly frustrating as Nanostray either which is a plus. To finish the whole game only takes about half an hour on easy mode but that’s not a problem.

So there you have it, and that is saying nothing of the huge catalogue of great adventure games on DS. It has been said before; I should probably be earning a commission for the promotional work I do on behalf of Nintendo, but I’m just happy to have a portable gaming console this powerfully awesome.

I was gonna do something of a review of The Dark Knight but it’s getting late. Let’s just say, forget the superhero genre. Forget any genre; this is as good a movie as you are likely to see this year. Strong characters across the board, fantastically bleak art direction (and countless expensive Armani suits) and clear-as-mud ethical and moral riddles are in danger of seeming superfluous to the incredible performance by Heath Ledger. Two hundred people collectively gasped after he delivered his first few lines as The Joker. I doubt any other infamous posthumous performance will be looked upon with such reverance; if anyone can think of one, I’m all ears. Let’s be perfectly honest; we have seen the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor awarded for much less. Don’t fail me now, Academy. Everything about this film is first-class and frankly embarrasses all other movie franchises of the last few years. And as I already mentioned, its themes are anything but preachy or obvious. Haunting, stylish, brilliant!

I guess that means the only other film I can’t wait to see this year is Wall-E. Hey Pixar, whatever happened to global release dates? Thanks a million. Now I’ll have to wait until December to see this in Japan. If I don’t download it first. Seriously; you would think a studio with their money and influence would realise that a synchronised global release date for their films would be one of the most obvious and effective ways to prevent piracy – if indeed movie piracy is as much of a big deal as you pretend it is. When studios are paying $250 million to make movies as horrendous as Spiderman 3, I have trouble believing it.

Either way, the movie looks unbelievable. Only Pixar have the balls to make a kids’ movie where the entire opening act is silent, and the plot of the movie opens the door for treating some seriously overdue ethical issues, for example our impending irreversible loneliness and a sense of responsibility for each other and for the environment. Ratatouille was great but didn’t feature any new plot devices or themes that weren’t already commonplace in animated films. I know this time I won’t be let down.

This has gone on long enough; for the rest of this week I’ll be running last-minute errands and tieing up loose ends; hopefully there’s time for a trip to the Art Deco exhibition as well. If all goes according to schedule I’ll also be leaving a parting gift for you, the Internet, and you can be sure I’ll be posting it up here as soon as I can. Until then, stay safe.

wants to see movies of his dreams

I guess it’s about time I started punctuatin’. If I’m going to take this blogging game (and myself) seriously, I guess I should. WordPress, for better or worse, still lacks any kind of mass-editing functionality (you will notice that this new theme made the text in my last post bigger than all the others) and there’s no way I’m going back to edit my older posts. But I can live with that shame. Always there to remind me of the shadow of a man I once was. What’s more, I guess I have certain standards to maintain from here on. But more about that later.

My trip to China did wonders for the old inspiration/imagination combo. Being idle in any one place – even somewhere as fantastic as Melbourne – is unhealthy, at least for someone like me who struggles with ideas about consuming versus creating. The architecture alone was enough to make me flip out, from the intricate designs adorning temples, to huge monuments and statues, to hyper-modern spaces like the People’s Square in Chengdu. Meanwhile, the Chinese themselves are fantastic. Fantastically interesting, anyway. I would be lying if I said I didn’t encounter any selfish or inconsiderate behaviour while was there, but as someone who enjoys simply observing people going about their daily business, it was fascinating. It’s definitely a place that really drives home the idea that we Westerners don’t have it all going for us; in fact, as far as the richness or authenticity of our culture, we are severely lacking in many respects. Unlike other areas that have been overrun by tourists, China (with the sole exception of Shanghai) still feels mostly real – while you may feel like you are accepted, as a white person I doubt you could ever feel like you truly understand the culture from the inside out.

So, the experience of being something of an outsider exposed to such a rich and intricate culture was properly eye-opening for me. Before I left, and countless times during my trip, whenever I told anybody I was travelling in China alone, I was usually met with incredulous looks, signifying either utter incomprehension as to why I would want to go there (when I could go to Bali instead, bro!) or disbelief as to how I could ever hope to do it on my own. The Chinese recognise the significance of their nation’s achievements and status, but are usually quite modest about its appeal to Westerners. I think that’s one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much; the fact that it’s not simply a party destination or retreat for spoilt white kids does make it more demanding, but infinitely more rewarding to see a country that’s still getting used to the idea of people like me just wanting to visit.

Basically, I would recommend a trip to China to anybody. Any age, any race, anybody. There is so much to do and see there that is mostly hidden from Western eyes and it is impossible not to fall in love with the food, the generosity of the people, the simplicity with which they go about their daily lives, the exuberance of the cities, the landmarks and historical sites, the art, everything. My only regret is that I couldn’t spend a far longer amount of time there; as I have said elsewhere, one would need a number of years to see it all.

Getting back to my original point, though, was that it did wonders for my sense of creativity. As a Westerner in China, you really need to make it happen for yourself. It’s not a one-way ride of consuming, using and abusing the country’s resources; there are countless sacrifices and trade-offs that you need to make every single day – in your pride, your reliance upon English to communicate, your privacy, and so on. And you will be inspired to take as much of it on board as is humanly possible. I felt more energised every day in China, no matter how utterly exhausted I happened to be, than I have in at least the last few years here in Australia, due to an endless enthusiasm to see and do as much as I could. Despite my much-publicised love for Melbourne, I have on many occasions felt bored here since I got home. It lacks the cohesion of a place like China (maybe this has something to do with their communist government?) and I have to say I did not miss seeing drab, dreary, depressed, middle-aged white collar business types shuffling onto the peak hour bus home every night, listening to James Blunt on their collective iPod Nanos. But the end result is that I came home with a renewed enthusiasm for, well, just about everything. And I’m not sure whether too many other places could give me that feeling, to be honest.

Time now, then, to turn eyes towards the future. After months of preparation, stress, and (let’s face it) waiting around, I finally got the call that I’ve been anticipating since November. I didn’t go about telling every single person that I had applied for the JET Programme for a few reasons. Firstly, because the turnaround is so slow. Secondly, because the chances of anybody getting in are realistically quite small (from what I can ascertain, I think only about one in seven applicants get selected, but definitely don’t quote me on that). Mostly, however, I lacked the confidence to think I would ever actually be one of those that made the cut. Well, I guess I did, and the Japanese government is paying for me to go over there and teach English in government schools for a whole year. Maybe even more, if I like it, and if they like me. Let’s be straight with each other, here: this is an infinitely better deal than working for an eikawa (private English-teaching companies – I daren’t call them schools), for a billion reasons, but I won’t get into them here. Anyway, that’s the reason for my new-found ‘professionalism’ when it comes to capitalising my blog posts and the likes – for someone who prides themselves on their proper (dare I say competent?) use of the English language, I have been unforgivably lazy, and if I’m gonna be heading overseas to try and make sure these kids get off on the right foot, I had better tidy up my own act first.

I guess it’s no secret that I’ve had a fascination with Japan for some time. Let the records show that this does in fact extend beyond cute schoolgirls and anime, although there is a time and place for everything (ironically, Japanese high schools). Of all the options I considered, the JET Programme was by far the most attractive and elusive, and I still can’t really believe that I’m going with them. I had more or less resigned myself to a few months of restless anticipation of what would inevitably end up being a rejection letter – imagine, if you will, my surprise when I got a personal phone call in the early hours of the morning last week (OK, it was more like 9am, but that is ungodly). I guess now I have a matter of weeks to ready myself for a complete overhaul of my sheltered and comfortable life in Melbourne, which will hopefully include a snappy new wardrobe with any luck. I already bought the laptop, the digital camera, the Nintendo DS in anticipation of someday knowing for sure that I will be going to Japan and putting them to good use, but honestly I never expected it would be upon me so soon. Admittedly, the whole process to this point has taken close to seven months, but it did give me the opportunity to reassess certain things and have other experiences such as the China trip in the meantime.

So there are quite a few things I definitely want to accomplish before I leave, but alas a blog is hardly the right place to broadcast them. I’ve got some time up my sleeve to tie up some loose ends and to get started on some new things, and for the first time in ages I feel more than confident that I’ll get it all done with plenty of time left over to enjoy the time I have left with the people and places I love.

i’ll be with you if you’ll be with me

just to let you all know; this blog is far from dead. i am cooking up various posts of unimaginable proportions. some of you may know i’ve been on a brief but exciting sojourn in china recently, but alas i am back and ready to make a fist of it here in melbourne (but hopefully not for too much longer).

i couldn’t use wordpress while i was away because of the nefarious and infamous internet censorship in china, so those that know me on a personal level will have been keeping up-to-date via facebook notes. and if you happen to be reading this very blog via facebook, you should know that i’ve done away with my interminable lists of ‘favourites’ on my profile page. yes, they have been replaced with the much more relevant ‘current play/reading lists.’ call it something to do with seizing the day. please note that i still stand by everything that was once listed there, it just doesn’t necessarily reflect what i’m into at any given moment anymore.

so, what have i been doing since i got home? not much. going out and getting on it more than i probably should be, seeing handfuls of world-class local gigs, and busting out on my brand new (imported, special crimson red edition) nintendo DS.

oodles and oodles of fun. in fact, it nicely matches my red laptop, and red digital camera. game reviews and obligatory hyper-exaggeration shall follow within the next few days, i dare say.

so yeah. i’ve had some pretty crazy experiences over the past couple of months – not simply relating to the fact that i was in china. forced some serious changes in perspective which i’m sure will only prove to be beneficial in the long run. i’ll be back to discuss them all with you soon. i’m gonna leave it there because it’s late and i’ve got some sleeping to catch up on. i hope all is well out there in the real world. take care.