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June 27 Sasayamaguchi feat. Chris BenoitHi everyone, I'm writing this from my flatmate Tristan's computer while he's at work. I hope he doesn't mind. First and foremost i wanna talk about the death of Chris Benoit. Lets just say first i was so completely shocked. Jono emailed me and i didn't even really believe him. Went to WWE.com and saw the articles and still wasn't completely convinced, considering their bad taste death storylines recently. But then i saw it was the top article on Stuff and i was blown away. Just couldn't get my head around, still can't really. You know it's weird, i'm watching this video with Vince McMahon and these tribute clips of Benoit and getting choked up, but i'm thinking what will be his legacy? the fact that he was one of the best wrestlers of his generation or that he murdered two people, and seemingly with predetermined thought, not in rage. I dont know why but it makes it worse somehow. It's odd, i always preferred him as a face. I get emotional when i read or see things about him or how he made people feel. On Stuff alone there are sooo many comments from people. Like them I never knew the man, not in that way so many could, i mean how could i as a mere viewer? But i knew how he made me feel, and that was happy and in awe. I read one comment that said something along the lines of "at least Eddy (Eddy Guerrero) has a tag team partner in heaven". I thought first "yeah, thats a nice thing to say", then thought "wait...is Benoit in heaven? he killed two people, in seemingly cold blood. I dont know that he is there, and i dont know if i feel he should be or not". I don't know, it's just so fucked up. I would love to know what these mysterious txt messages said that made people get worried and stuff. Cos that might offer a clue to his state of mind. One thing i am certain of though is that it is sad, whichever way you look at it, it's a tragedy, and a great loss. Ok. So my computer's now in the repairers. I managed to negotiate the Japanese postal service yesterday and send it into Osaka. It arrived today (!) and the guy, Felix rang me today and said had i noticed that the port for the charger was broken. I said yeah, i noticed it had been pretty screwed, but i'm pretty sure it was working with it like that, so i asked him to open it up and see if there was any other possible reason. Hopefully he should get back to me, maybe i'll call him tomorrow just so that he doesn't call me during work hours. Andrew did overtime today so i was by my lonesome. So i packed up both my cameras and caught a train up the road to Sasayamaguchi. I'd heard there was nothing there, and it's half hour away, but i thought i'd go since i teach a girl who lives there and it'll be something to talk about. So i went and yeah, there is nothing there. But i still liked it. It's a small town and reminded me of Levin in some ways (so many places remind me of Levin, it's silly really), but it's nestled at the foot of huge hills (they call them mountains here) and in scenery it kind of reminded me of a town on the west coast, maybe Greymouth or Westport, something like that. I took some photos and i'll attempt to put the, up, but if they're not there, i obviously had problems doing so :) Found my first Japanese mountain dew though, that was pretty cool. Oh and while i'm ranting, i had a bottle of sparkling Pomegranate juice yesterday. It was really really good. US imported, was like sparkling Ribena, only replace the blackcurrants with pomegranates and minus the Vit. C controversy. Apart from that everything's ok, the weather's been ridiculously hot, humidity like i've never experienced. Walking out of the Diamond City Mall yesterday near Osaka was like walking into a sauna, literally. The heat just hit Andrew and I in a wave, it was hard to breathe and we became exhausted almost immediately. It was incredible. And its only gonna get worse i hear. So yeah, i wouldnt mind a bit of that Wellington chill right about now. Hopefully i'll have some good news re: my laptop come next post. Hang in there! Until next time, go to a NZ sauna and appreciate it's 4 x 4m space, not it's 40km x 40km space like its Japanese counterpart. Neil P.S. The photo of the loo is there because this is a high tech extreme toilet. I had a bidet built in! and you control it with buttons next to your arm. The seats also heated, amazing. June 25 So I no longer have a computer...Yup, title says it all.
My computer has been running insanely hot for the last wee while, to the point where it was too hot to even touch. Then it got so hot that it actually shut off. Andrew, myself and Luke took my laptop apart in a rescue operation to clean it out, suspecting it was dust, as the computer wasn't ventilating. There certainly was a load of dust and we removed it. But then putting it back together, it wouldn't turn on. Why? Who knows, after taking it apart a further two or three times we were none the wiser. The internet says it's a very common problem with my model, i.e it's shit. So yeah, i was gutted. I have no computer, next to no use of the internet. I'm on Andrew's laptop as we speak.
You know what it felt like? It was like an recent episode of Grey's where a certain character went in for a very straight forward procedure, but complications arose, and the character died. Thats how i felt about my laptop, it trusted me to take it apart for the first time ever, and i failed the poor guy. He was never the best laptop, always a little crippled and lame, lacking a cd drive and all, but he tried his hardest. But i let in the infection, and he didn't pull through.
Not sure when i'll next be able to update this blog, but i will continue taking photo's just in case.
Thanks for reading those of you who have.
Until next time (if there is one), treat your electronics like you would a beautiful woman, don't just pull them apart and fiddle with their insides.
All the best,
Neil June 20 A Heavens Harajuku/Sunny Forest Smile PleaseHi everyone,
Well last night after writing a blog over about six hours, i finally finished it, went to post it and MSN had signed me out of my space. So i lost it all. I couldnt have been more angry at half one in the morning. But anyway, i'll write a summary instead, skimping on the exposition, sticking to the facts. It makes me feel shit cos i felt it was a really good piece of writing, but well what can you do.
In good news first, the aforementioned rash is fading, due to excessive applications of hydrocortizone cream. It's still there, but it's less itchy and less red, and just less really. I think it's probably linked with stress as well and since it's my weekend i'm not really feeling any.
But yeah, so yesterday Andrew and I got haircuts! Japanese haircuts! Well, maybe just haircuts in Japan, but close enough. After trying to go to a recommended hairdressers down the road, Mod's Hair, and finding it closed we went to Flower Town where Andrew works as there is a hairdresser under Nova. We went and managed to communicate enough to get respective appointments at 2:30 and 3:30. After killing time at McDonalds and the local museum, both of which were great we headed back.
We returned in time for Andrew to keep his appointment. I played Pokemon on his DS while waiting for my turn, eventually slipping in and out of sleep too until the girl beckoned me to come with. She took me over to the sink which had a motorized chair. But it wasn't like NZ hairdresser sinks, it didn't have a curvature it it, it was literally hanging your head into a sink. And when she wanted to wash the nape of my neck i had to lift my head using my neck which was a bloody strain. After the first shampoo she kind of realised and put a warm towel under my neck to help me just let her lift my head for me, which was a lot better. The whole time you have a towel on your face as to not get splashed with anything. I love having my hairwashed, it feels great. Like a warm head massage. So after two shampoos and a conditioner i was smelling blissfully good and it was time for my hair cut.
After sitting down in the hairdressers chair, the hairdresser came over (the only other staff member, one woman-one man show) and wrapped a towel around my neck. He then wrapped the usual plasticy gown thing round me too except this one had sleeves for your arms! I couldn't help laughing out loud which he seemed to respond to nicely since we could barely communicate. The hairdresser was not your usual gay hairdresser, not was he a rough barber. He seemed different. He had short hair, and wore a hawaiian style shirt with turtles on it, whose shells were yin-yang symbols. He was a very nice looking man. As it turns out, he was different, he was an artiste, and of the highest calibre.
After looking through magazines to find a hairstyle i ended up picking a cross between a Heavens Harajuku and a Sunny Forest Smile (:D). I used what Japanese i had got people in Voice to tell me (mizikai for shorter for example) and he managed to understand i wanted the back gone, considering the disaster haircut i got before coming here. Then he started cutting, and he was amazing. He would snip here and there, quickly, use his amazing water sprayer which squirted miniscule amounts of water, then start snipping some more. He was the artist and i was his canvas.
After close to an hour of lightly combing, cutting and clipping, he was done. Well almost. He adjusted the back, showed me in the mirror, had a look, adjusted it some more, showed me again (i was continually nodding as it was great), and then adjusted it one last time. He was an absolute perfectionist. And that is awesome. He genuinely looked like he was working on a temporary art piece. From there i was motioned back over to the girl and had my hair rinsed again. Then after returning to the chair she blow dried my hair dry. Then lastly, the hairdresser returned with a handful of mousse. He delicately put bits and pieces in my hair, so that it looked like i had been out in the snow, before mushing it all together and spending a good five minutes to get it right. And then he was done.
The piece finished, i thanked him deeply before paying the 4100Y to the girl and leaving the best hairdressing experience of my life behind. Oh well, i thought to myself, one of the few things you bcan pretty much guarantee in life is that hair will grow. So maybe i'll be back.
And that was that. I was beaming a radiant smile when we left and Andrew though clearly not as stoked as i was, was still happy with the experience. I'm gonna add a photo i took last night to this blog, but i look terrible, it was taken at like half one. But hey, it's got the haircut in it :D
Until next time, save your work more often.
Neil
P.S. As a postscript to this message after going to the shrine, i have found out that bugs are attracted to my new haircut. Heaps of buttlerflies kept on attack my head. Crazy, must be the Sunny Forest Smile in it. Also saw my first wild snake after i almost literally ran into it. It wasn't very long, amybe half a metre, and it was much more scared of me than i was of it, but it was still very very odd. Good ol' NZ and its lack of snakes. June 18 I'm Allergic To JapanHey everyone,
Sorry i haven't been more prolific with my blog writing like my other Japanese counterpart, but i've had very little to say. But what i'm writing about to has got to the point where i need to write about it. God knows why.
I'm allergic to Japan. Since arriving over a month ago, the condition of my skin has gradually deteriorated. It has got to the point now where i'm covered head to foot in a rash. That's right. I'm not talking about pimples (i have a lot more of those now too though), i'm talking about what i can only describe as Extreme Eczema (or X-treme X-ma). Every single place there is a join, anywhere sweat can form, is covered in a horrible itchy red rash. Armpits, wrists, fingers, elbows, knees, hips, back, bits-in-between-tummy-flab. You name it, they're there. I'm a walking leper. To be frank, really i have no idea what it is. It's different from any eczema i've had before, but it itches and occurs in sweaty areas, so i can only assume that's what it is. It's not only that it's itchy, it seems that my whole skin is weaker. Small amounts of friction with other parts of skin or clothes seem to break the skin and make yet more wounds. I dont understand it.
But it would seem that i've traded my asthma or the eczema. I have very little breathing difficulties despite my flat being surrounded by forest, so it's clearly not a pollen thing. I have no idea what it it is, but its really nice to be able to breathe deeply 99% of the time. Its not however, really nice to be covered in an itchy red rash, and i'll take bad breathing over that anyday, at least i was used to bad breathing.
In other non-bodily news, Nova's in the shit. They were fighting a court case with the government about breaking some rules, and they lost the appeal. They've been ruled to not be able to offer contracts of less than a year and basically their reputation is shot to hell. Students are quitting daily, and Nova's rep is so bad i cant see how they'll be replaced. All the teachers kind of feel like they're on a sinking ship. As i said to Vera today "the boat's sinking, and sure we have life jackets, but the water's still fucking freezing". I thought that summed up the situation nicely, despite not actually knowing what i was meaning. For more info, though a bias and one sided one against Nova, check out this link http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1993. I'm not sure i believe the stuff about bankruptcy, but i'm keeping my ears open, and talking to the students about how we are percieved by the regular Japanese.
Apart from that the job's going well. I'm not looking forward to teaching Kids classes, but hey, ya gotta do it. I did however almost pull an Andrew this morning and miss work. I woke up at 6am for work at 10, then went back to sleep. Next thing i know Tristan's knocking on my door saying "do you not have work today?" to which i mumbled "yeah...what time is it?". It was nine o clock. I swore profusely, threw on clothes (no time for a shower) filled my pockets with the usual shit i need and raced off. Apart from being bloody starving i was no more worse for wear for the experience. I got there on time, and i'm really gonna have to start using my new cellphone's alarm clock function, cant have that happen again.
But yeah, it's the easiest and probably most enjoyable job i've ever had. But then saying that, that's not very hard. But it's not every job where you can spend one hour of your day talking non-stop about Les Mis and Lloyd-Webber, or dusting off your old French ability with a student learning French for a whole hour either. Both of which happened today, so there ya go.
Until next time, may you hear the people sing.
Neil June 14 Adventures With Mon Frere - Part TwoHey peeps,
So a week later here's Part Two, chronicallying the adventure to Nara last Wednesday.
We got up on the Wednesday morning and set off once again for Osaka. But this time we went to Shin-Osaka (new Osaka) to investigate the Shinkansen (the bullet train) for Paul. After wandering about aimlessly for about an hour, been given mixed directions by people, we managed to find out where he needed to catch the Shinkansen from and got Paul his rail pass. From there we caught a couple of different subways before staying on the Osaka Loop Line which carries on all the way to Nara.
When we arrived it Nara it was blistering hot, and dear god we were hungry. Paul wasn't in the mood for takeaways and yet we ended up getting McDonald's anyway. Hit the spot, well almost, if hit the spot means felt-really-bloody-sick-and-fat, then yeah, it hit the spot. Nara's small, and there are a lot of tourists. Noticed that first thing, easy directions, but even easier is to follow the white people. So we followed them up this main shopping street which is really small and nice until we came across Sega World! I was like "holy shit! That's only the second time i've seen Sonic since being in Japan...ooh, and another world spelt in the Sega font, that's cool". But then i looked in the window and saw it was just another stupid arcade with those damn coin machines. So on we pressed.
We came to this really cool little lake of which i took a photo. We started to walk around when i noticed these big things in the water. On closer inspection they were turtles! (well terrapins i think but close enough). It was amazing. Wild turtles in a lake, its crazy talk. We turned back, realising there was nothing on the other side of the lake and as we approached the start i noticed how many bloody turtles had been right where i took my first photo! Just didn't see them at all. Yeah, real observant Neil.
After a short walk we arrived at the main temple grounds. Torabaji i believe it's called. I had already been told about the deer but i'm not sure Paul had. It's hilarious. Becuase they're sacred, they walk around everywhere and anywhere. They're insanely docile and you can stroke them and everything. They just hang out wherever they want and often around people. After taking a few snaps we continued onto the main temple.
When we got to the path leading up to the temple i think we were both aghast by the sheer number of people! Not only tourists but so many school groups! It was a perverts paradise. Just so many stereotypical Japanese schoolgirls, hell i think Paul was in heaven too. After navigating the masses, we got to the first main gate. It was stupendously huge. Couldn't fit in the photo frame, had to get Andrew to make use of the photos i took to try and make a panorama. In the gate was two gigantic wooden statues, presumably guardians of the place.
From there the path leads to the main gate where you pay your 500Y to get into. When you get past the gate you see how truly enormous the main temple is. For a wooden structure it truly is ridiculous. Walking up to you feel just so in awe of how much dedication and work went into such a gigantic building. Coming up to the steps there was a huge throng of people and we had to wait a wee while to get inside to see the Buddha.
The Buddha itself is enormous, but i have no idea what it was made of. The photo's i took dont give a very good impression of how big it actually is, it's amazingly big. Its flanked on either sides by two smalled gold plated buddhas and around the back of the statue is a couple of huge wooden statues of warriors. There's also a representation of the complex in it's original form, before parts burnt down. The current structure is still the biggest wooden structure in the world, but it used to be bigger. The temple and buddha are close to 1500 years old. Amazing. I love the sheer dedication to religion, you can blame religion for a lot of things, but without it, you wouldnt a lot of the world's most wonderful things.
After that we looked around the whole area, which is huge, lots of fields and small temples and shrines. We looked around for quite a while but the heat was beginning to get to us and we decided to heat back. On our way back we saw a couple funny things. A deer run off with a teachers papers, and her chasing the deer, and a young girl and her boyfriend ask for a photo with me and Paul. Was very funny.
When we were walking we saw a woman with a Sega World bag. Suddenly i thought maybe its not just an arcade after all. So i actually went inside on the way back, and nope, it's just a fucking arcade. She must have won some things out of the machines. Oh well.
So that concluded our day in Nara, somewhere i would reccommend to anyone coming to the Kansai region of Japan. My brother's still here, he's been about, a couple of days in Seoul, to Tokyo, all kinds of places. He heads down to Australia on friday to continue his holiday. God holidays are cool.
Until next time, stay cool.
Neil June 07 Adventures With Mon Frere - Part OneHey people,
Before i start, you've probably seen i have a "New Additions" picture folder now. This is an idea of Andrew's to make things easier. And it's a good one. Any new photos will first go here to save you looking through the old stuff to get to the new ones. But they'll be moved to their respective folders, in this case Japanese Manholes and Osaka, when i post next. So sometimes, the folder will just be empty.
So my brother arrived in Japan on Monday night as part of his "Japan-Korea-Australia" tour. So i decided the only way we could guarantee meeting each other, due to the lack of cellphones, would be to meet him at the airport as soon as he arrived. So after work Monday i went straight to Amagasaki as i had been reccommended to do, and caught a bus to Kansai with relative ease. An hour later i was waiting in arrivals, and for the next hour and a half alternated between playing Pokemon and waiting some more. Eventually his plane came in, delayed of course, we hugged, exchanged greetings and went outside to catch a bus. I accidentally bought a $27 ticket for some other bus, having never actually bought the bus tickets from machines properly, i was used to the train ones where you can use any, but nope, has to be the one next to your bus stop for buses. So after cursing myself to high heavens, we started on our journey home.
Couple of hours later, just before midnight, we arrived home. Did introductions to Tristan and Luke and went to bed pretty much. Found an old and admittedly mouldy futon for Paul, but it's still better than a couch.
Morning arrived and the plan of action was to show Paul around Osaka and see some stuff i hadn't seen yet. So off we set, pretty early, Osaka-bound. Its a fairly straight forward trip to Osaka, and after getting off at Umeda we walked around downtown Osaka, going to Yodobashi Camera etc. We found ourselves at the huge ferris wheel and actually went into the building this time. Inside was a very strange lisping German man welcoming people in English and Japanese. He scared both of us and we kept on walking, briskly. Also there was a giant fuck off Whale hanging from the ceiling, which was red, peculiar. Paul decided that of all things to want for lunch he wanted Subway, easily the most difficult of takeaways to order in a foriegn language. He did quite well, abandoning the minor Japanese i gave him to help, instead resorting to the point and talk loudly technique, *sigh*.
After lunch, it was time to venture out to Osaka Castle. So after consulting several maps and deciding how to get there we caught a subway and got there around 1 ish. It was easy to know the direction, you could see the castle against the skyscraper skyline from the ground as soon as you surface. After walking into the grounds and being thoroughly dumb-struck by how huge the moat and the walls either side of it were, we proceeded to the nearest gate. Outside the gate an old man came up to us and said to us in relatively good English "i'm a volunteer, i take you around Castle for free if you have an hour or so". Paul's experiences in Europe of "free" things made him very dubious and he was doing his best to ignore the guy. I however had full faith, he had a name tag with Osaka Castle Volunteers Group on it, as well as an official looking vest thing and a pack of brochures. I looked at Paul and basically said yes to him, so off we set, our new group of three.
Rukio as i will now call him (his name was definitely 5 letters and started with an R) took us around the grounds slowly, telling us all about the Castle. It's a fascinating place, built in the 1500's i believe but has been burnt down twice, most recently by the US bombing in WWII. So it's relatively new in it's current state, like 50 years, but it is accurate to the original. This brought on an argument between me and Paul about archeological restorations. They're a real faux pas now, but then i reckon they shouldnt be completely. Noone would go to Knossos now if Arthur Evans hadn't had rebuilt it. It's hard for a lot of people to imagine how a place was from foot-high ruins, and everywhere isn't as well preserved as the Colisseum or the Pont Du Gard etc. Paul disagreed, and i'm still not sure how i feel about it, but i think it's gone a bit too far.
Anyway while i'm thinking about it, click here to find out a bit more factual stuff about Osaka Castle. So he led us around, showing us the coolest parts of the grounds and telling us the history of the places, what certain symbols inscribed on the stones meant, that kind of thing. On the whole i was so impressed by Osaka Castle. I had been told by people that it wasn't very cool, overrated, but i think they must have been talking about the inside of the castle which is apparently modern and has zero resemblance to a Japanese castle (I wouldn't know, we didn't go in). The outer walls and the inner walls which are all original are ridiculously gigantic, much bigger and more impressive than the British castles i've seen, but it is newer, and different. The sloping walls are just so cool, and the slabs of rock are so big. I took a picture of the biggest stone in the complex, but i dont think i got anything in it for proportion. Its massive, supposed to be over a 100 tonnes, and is a about ten metres long. They all came from boat from an island in the harbour, just off Shikoku. Very bloody impressive.
After he showed us everything, including the best photo places, a secret garden, all kinds of stuff, he offered to take a photo of us and then was gone. The only thanks required an "arigato gozaimasu" from us. Was amazingly cool. As Paul said, just wouldnt happen anywhere else really. In America they'd expect some massive tip, and in Europe or a poorer country they'd be scamming you somehow. It's those kind of things that you cant help but absolutely love about this country. It turns out by the way that he was a retired high school history teacher who has lived all his 65 years in Osaka (he was amazing for his age).
So after a frozen Coke (i know! :D) we left Osaka Castle and set off for Namba station, to visit the Namba/Shinsaibashi/Dotonbori area. The area isn't famous for anything in particular but Paul had read that at night there's a couple of areas look like something out of Blade Runner. Of course he didn't tell me that was the reason till we got there, since it was only about 4:30 when we got there, and it doesn't get dark till like 7. Oh well, it's a good place. We walked around for a couple hours, found this giant arcade mall that would Motomachi a run for its money it if was end to end, but it was a grid format, which made it incredibly confusing. We found this very cool mall which i believe is called Namba Park, looked like one of those underground hotel/housing complexes you saw on Beyond 2000 circa 1995.
Before I came here i saw this doco on eating in Osaka, and the area he was in was this area. So i recognised all these places, and yet we had Wendy's for dinner. Haha, bloody westerners. So waiting around as long as i could for it to get dark, we starting leaving about half six. The lights had come out so it was cool. Paul wanted a photo with one of the many Colonel statues about, and i apologized to this Japanese couple for taking up the footpath, but they just smiled, laughed and indicated they should take one of us both, so they did. Was hilarious. People can be so nice here. Of course there's also the others who will move train carriages away from you because you are Gaijin (yeah, that happened to us that day as well).
After getting home unbelievably exhausted, Paul went straight to bed. I stayed up to watch the Bourne Supremacy with the flatmates, Miyumi, Erica and Bec, since tuesday is movie night and we watched Bourne Identity last week and i hadn't seen either before. Then finally, once that had finished, i turned in for the night, knowing that the poor nights sleep was totally not gonna repair my body enough for another day of walking in Nara the following day. And boy, it didn't.
Until next time, visit a castle, go on, bet ya can't.
Neil |
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