Hello everyone,

 

This blog will be about my birthday, which was of course on the 21st.  Thank you for your birthday message those who send them, you know who you are.  And as for you others...nah i'm just kidding :P

 

So Tristan asked me a couple of weeks ago what i was gonna do for my birthday.  I instantly said "karaoke!" and even though i later regretted it, since i wanna go bowling sometime in Japan, it was an absolute ripper of a night, an absolute pearler.  To give a little bit more background, a couple of weeks ago i pulled out Hard Yakka to show the boys.  After squeezing into the little bastards a lot easier than usual, i unleashed them on the boys who were suitably in awe.  Tristan later said "you have to wear those on your birthday!", and never to back down from a challenge involving the baddest shorts of all time, i agreed.

 

So the 21st rolls around and after working (for the first time ever on my birthday i believe) we met up at our place.  Now after putting the bad boys on, i went to the bathroom.  In my hurry to tell Tristan something and forgetting the sheer restraint that Hard Yakka puts on ya willy, i kinda had a little "left in the tube" as they say, and lo and behold, a silver dollar sized stain was present on the pants.  First reaction was "oh for fuck's sake!", second reaction was "its my birthday i dont give a shit" and third reaction was well, walking into the lounge and announcing "man, i pissed my pants!" to Tristan who said "man, you could have told me it was splash back and i wouldnt have asked", "yeah", i said, "but you overestimate how much i care".  So he took a few photos of it, which i'll put up if i get them off him.

 

With piss-stained shorts, Andrew, Brian, Tristan and I went down the road to Gusto, a terrible family restaurant not unlike Denny's, minus the whoke 24 hour gimmick.  So shit in otherwords.  But it is cheap.  I got the Gusto Burger, which kinda tasted like a BK burger so thats all good.  Beck met us there and after ages getting people to try and read a poster in Japanese about meeting Avril Lavigne (who is in town very soon), we departed Gusto. 

 

Revealing that we were intending to not go to the usual Monkey Karaoke went down like a lead balloon.  The other karaoke place was a very long walk away and although it did have Double S (Steven Seagal, yes he sings :D), by the time we got there we would most definitely be sober.  Andrew elected not to come to karaoke for unknown reasons, but after telling Luke and Erica via email the change of plans (they were to meet us later), we headed off.

 

We decided that instead of paying the astronomical prices of the booze at the Kareoke place we'd sneak some in.  So we bought some beers, stuffed Beck's bag and rocked up to the Monkey karaoke. We paid our admission and successfully snuck em in.  The plan had been for me to start the night off with Jesus To  A Child hilariously, since i love the song and it is possibly the slowest song of all time :D  However, Tristan and I were aghast to find it wasn't there! So i sung Everything She Wants by Wham! instead (which was tough).  The night rolled along, I sung heaps, as it was by birthday :D These are some i sung.  Breathe by Prodigy (which absolutely rocked), Linoleum and Dont Call Me White by NoFX, Sunday Morning by No Doubt, Freedom 90 by George Michael, Thriller by MJ, Hot For Teacher by Van Halen, Livin' On The Edge by Aerosmith, Acquiesce by Oasis (with Brian), Song 2 by Blur, Come Out Swinging by Offspring, The Girl Is Mine (with Tristan) by MJ, BYOB by System of a Down, Dont Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult (which was a highlight for me), 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins, Rio by Duran Duran, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting by Elton John (which was sooooo hard) and The Power Of Love By Huey Lewis and The News.

 

The pictures tell a better story than i could really.  Suffice to say the night kicked ass, beer was consumed, then confiscated by the staff when they discovered it.  Brian got topless to everyone's joy, and we sung for four hours, till the wee hours, a record to everyones knowledge.  And of course, Hard Yakka brought out all kinds of emotions in people; envy, lust, joy, repulsion, all the best ones :D

 

When everyone went their seperate ways we stumbled back to the flat where i was presented with my birthday present from Tristan and Luke.  A pair of inflatable water wings and a kind of Pokemon mat.  Overcome with emotion (and beer), upon request i proceeded to get topless, put on the water wings and staple the mat around my neck as a cape.  Ahh, the things we do for fun. 

 

My first, and probably last, birthday in Japan was a bonafide success.  All the people who came are the most awesome people and i love them to pieces.  Maybe Brian and Tristan maybe a little too much...

 

Until next time, find a friend or friends to have guilt-free homosexual relations with.

 

Neil

 

P.S. I should also say that most of these photos were taken by Erica and Brian, giver credit where credits due, and these are some corkers.  Still haven't got Tristan's one, so may be more to add yet :)

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry it's been so long between drinks, the laptop i'm using can handle Hotmail, but not MSN Spaces which crashes the bastard.  i also havent been able to get on my flatmates computer until now basically.

 

The title of the is fairly obviously in reference to the worst kept secret in Japan.  I resigned last Monday, handing in my 30 days notice.  I come back to New Zealand permanently on the 14th of August.  My reasons are many and varied, but the main reason is because i answered the question i came to Japan with, What do i want to do with my life? Having so much time to myself over here, not being able to understand people, i spent HEAPS of time contemplating.  In doing so i've been able to assess my priorities is life and what is really trult important to me.  Most importantly i've decided to try and get into film school because working in the film and television industry is what i want to do.  Its my dream.  It took long periods of loneliness to wash away all the negativity and self-doubt surrounding myself and film (i hadn't picked up my camera in over 2 years before coming here) but i managed to conclude that i need to try the hardest i possibly can to make this work.  If it's spending $15,000 on film school? so be it.  I need to make the best possible go i can of it so that if i fail or just suck at it, at least i can have no regrets and move onto the next challenge in my life. 

 

Yes, i could have stayed here for the whole year period, Nova is easily the best job i've ever had in my life.  I enjoy it 90% of the time (even though just working my first 6 day week was a little gruelling), and i'm pretty good at it.  It's helped me grow as a person and i will always oew it that.  It also gave me some idea of what teaching is like.  Not a particularlu accurate idea i dont think, but some idea.  Its not what i want to be doing right now, but in the future it's a possibility.  So yes, i could have stayed, but i would have been staying for the wrong reasons, knowing that this isn't where my future lies, i would have been staying for the money, and this adventure was never about the money, and i never want money to motivate decisions in my life.  So instead of taking the easy option of staying, i'm coming home and forcing myself to adapt once again to life in Wellington. 

 

I'm both happy and sad about coming home.  There are a lot of mixed emotions and feelings, but on the whole i will be glad to set foot in NZ.  In the time since i've resigned i've been keeping a list of things i will miss and things i wont, so look out for that blog in the next coming weeks.

 

On our weekend last week Andrew and I went shopping one day (i bought an Incredible Hulk t-shirt :D) and then... shopping the next day! The second day we went into Kobe, and although i ended up buying nothing, it was an amazing day, especially becuase we went on the gondola/cable car/rope way up the hill.  I was scared i would be petrified since i hadn't been in a gondola since '92 on a holiday with my grandparents in Rotorua.  I turned out to be fine, even stood up in the bloody thing.  The view was beautiful from the top and on the way up, and i took a lot of photos which i will put up shortly in the Kobe folder.  I also filmed the whole thing, so i'll be able to show you it if you want to see it one day.

 

Today Andrew and I went into Kyoto, about 2 hours away.  It was a beautiful city and i have been wanting to go for weeks but rainy season has been a bitch.  Since i had a one day weekend i insisted we go today.  We arrived about 11am after a nice early start and first went to a place called Nijo-Jo or Nijo Castle in English.  Its claim to fame really is it's "nightingale" floorboards which its paranoid builder had installed so that no body could sneak through the castle.  You see, they squeak with any movement.  And not like an old-house-creak, it sounds a lot like birds singing, its quite peculiar, but quite remarkable.  Apart from that it wasnt the best, Himejo kicked the pants off it, but it was worth the visit.

 

Following the mass of foriegners (seriously Kyoto has sooooo many American and European tourists its ridiculous) we caught a but the Kinkaku-Ji or Golden Shrine.  It is a tiny shrine in the middle of a lake that is pretty much completely covered in gold leaf.  From my knowledge it was originally built by a man for his father to retire and live in.  It was then turned into a shrine, burnt down my some lunatic, then rebuilt in thr 1800's i think and covered in gold leaf.  Its very small, but is very beautiful and the setting its surrounded in is also quite stunning.

 

Following that we went around the corner to Ryouen-Ji  (Ji must mean shrine) which is famous for it's rock garden.  It is a very large complex with wonderful ponds full of gigantic lillypads and plants.  The rock garden itself is 15 stones i believe that are arranged in such a way that from any point only 14 can be seen at once.  Apparently studying them is supposed to bring enlightenment.  I dont know about enlightenment, but we sat with the other tourists at the garden's edge and stared at them.  I found them very hypnotising, Andrew reckoned it was because everyone else was ("power of the masses"), i disagreed and think it was due to the colours, the white yellow of the immaculately raked sand, the fresh green of the moss and the wild grey of the rocks.  Was somewhat calming too. 

 

From here we were starving (it was now 4 o clock) and we returned by bus to the middle of town and walked all the way to Gion, not really knowing how to get there but we ended up there.  I had heard it is where Geisha and Maiko (apprentice geisha)live, but we failed to see any, but it was probably becuase we were there at the wrong time.  They come out at night usually, and apparently Gion is beautiful at night.  We were too tired to stay much longer though and after checking out the houses where the Geisha work and live, (which are all old Japanese style and fully made of wood) and briefly visiting two more temples (there are over 500 hundred shrines and temples in Kyoto, we were templed-out), we went home.  Three trains later and a whoooooole lot of standing cos of rush hour, i arrived back in blessed Sanda.

 

And that brings us to now :) Sorry its the condensed version, i'll try not to leave a blog for as long as i did this time k? Join me soon when i will tell you of more adventures in my last weeks in Japan, in what has truly been the sweatiest three months of my life.

 

Until next time, celebrate my birthday for me on Saturday, i'll be karaokeing i hope! Whooo!

 

Neil

 

P.S. Amazingly Kyoto has no picture manholes! I was so disappointed, perhaps it's only a Hyogo thing.  The Orient is truly a mysterious place.

Hey,

 

I was gonna write a looooooong blog about Andrew and I's trip to Himeji, but he has written a very good blog on it, so head over to www.andrewdarlington.com to get the full story.  I'll put up my photos though soon enough.

 

Basically on the first day of my weekend, of which the photos up are currently of, i went down the train line a couple of stops and looked around both Takedao and Dojo.  Both are tiny places, Takedao wasn't even a town, just like a nature reserve, very pretty though.

 

I'll be back with a proper blog in due time, dont you worry.

 

Neil

Hey everyone,

 

Now i've known for sometime my own personal obsession with lingeries but a while ago i noticed that Japan is also obsessed with Lingerie.  There are so many lingerie shops around, it's ridiculous.  Sexy, but ridiculous.  Going into a regular mall you are guaranteed to see three, possibly four, it is quite strange. 

 

With this is mind i wanted to work out this Japanese obsession with Lingerie.  Andrew seemed to think it was becuase they didn't have lingerie in big department stores like we do, e.g. Farmers.  But this is untrue, they do have lingerie sections in department stores.  It would just seem that Japanese women have an insatiable appetite for lace, mesh and all things lovely.

 

I didn't think i was going to get any answers to my questions until a revealing last lesson at work last week.  The woman i had, a high level, very good at English, mentioned that her husband worked for a company that makes the padding in bra cups.  Pouncing on this tidbit of information i moved in for the kill.  We were already having a GD (General Discussion) instead of a lesson anyway, so it didn't matter too much.  I mentioned that he must get a lot of business due to all the lingerie shops around! After she overcame her shyness (she's about 42 but looks 30, these Japanese are a very deceptive people) she talked about how Japanese women have very padded bras due to their small busts, and they want to look like western women.  Ahh, this explained a few things i said, but i said they also seem to be obsessed with pretty lingerie, even catching a glimpse of a bra strap with a student, or an employee in a shop or anywhere, it's almost always bright and somewhat frilly.  I explained this and she put it down to the notion of cuteness (or "Kawaii") and its supreme dominance over everything in Japan.  This is true, i had noticed, everything is "cute", down to photo's of NZ houses (ask Andrew).  Its silly, but this is why they love pretty, colourful, lacey lingerie. 

 

This explained why the lingerie in Japan looked so nice, but why the abundance? She said it was because the Japanese are compulsive collectors, particularly of fashion, and lingerie is no exception.  They collect it, dont ever throw any out, so they're not just ploughing through it, merely adding to a collection.  Apparently they also buy all the newest things.  This i could understand with things like clothes and cellphones, after all, these are seen in public, but lingerie? i tried to explain that noone knows what it is you're wearing in that regard.  She said it doesn't matter, Japanese girls talk about it and compare and just know.  Something like that.  Extremely strange, and yet strangely awesome.

 

So after discussing how she didn't own any sexy lingerie even though she's married, and laughing non-stop together for about half hour, the class was over.  Enlightened, i left the class room.  But this is not where it ends, oh no, i had also noticed something else about the Japanese and their lingerie...

 

When i was in Kippy Mall one day i was perving at the display window of the lingerie shop and saw the most hilarious pair of knickers i had ever seen.  I took a photo, but its of course on my somewhat defunct computer (maybe more on that later), so i'll have to just describe them.  (UPDATE: See photos down bottom, courtest of Anita). They were like a very small pair of hipsters but across the top they had a diamante g-string looking thing.  I was so puzzled.  I showed Anita and asked her what she thought, she was equally puzzled but a few days later she came back after talking to her flatmate about it.  they'd concluded they were for people who wanted to have the seen g-string above the pants thing going on but without actually having to wear a g-string.  As soon as she told me it sounded absolutely right, it couldn't be anything else.  I laughed it off and thought "only in japan".

 

But that is not where it ends oh no.  Getting off the train everyday and staring at people's bums (fairly involuntarily) while climbing the station stairs i began to notice how Japan was under siege by VPL.  For those not up with the play, (though i doubt it's any of the 4 people reading) VPL stands for Visible Panty Line, and when you wear tight pants you can obviously see the seam of the knickers through the tight fabric.  People wear some very very tight pants in Japan and all i could notice was that not a single person DIDN"T have vpl going on.  Where were all the g-strings that are used to combat this condition overseas?

 

So i asked my flatmate Tristan about it, being the ladykiller he is.  He agreed, women in Japan (including his gf Miki) just dont wear g-strings.  Somewhat hilariously they call them Tea Bag's (or maybe T Bag's).  Tristan's theory was that it is because Japanese women dont trim, let alone wax or shave their pubic hair, and g-strings are more revealing in the front in that respect.  I thought this was quite a good theory, but it just seemed unusual.  The Japanese are very quick to pounce on anything fashionable in the West and quickly adopt it, but not the G-string.  Bizarre.

 

The discussion came up again after i had had my class with the wife of the bra-stuffer.  Miki happened to be here so we talked to her about it.  She agreed that neither she nor her sister ever wore g-strings, but didn't really know why, but she didn't think they looked cute.  So there ya go.  I also asked her why more women in Japan didn't go braless since a lot of the time they dont really need to be wearing them because they dont need the support.  She said it was because it was a big faux-pas to see the outline of a nipple in public.  I explained that this is possibly also the case in NZ, but Tristan added that it isn't really the case in Europe, they are much more laid back about that kind of thing.  Later that evening i went to the supermarket and lo and behold, i saw the first girl in Japan with her bf without a bra, and yup, there was some seriously obvious nipple.  When i told Miki she didn't believe she was that shocked.  Really interesting stuff.

 

So that's all there really is to say on the Lingerie Conundrum, case closed.   Turns out it's all about "Kawaii Culture", but then what isn't in Japan.  I could turn this into a blog about sexuality in Japan in general, since a man on the train was blatantly reading porn in public which shocked me, but the blog is long enough and in reality really, it would only be a very shallow observation, since i'm sure people have written entire theses or books on the subject.

 

Until next time, go buy some lovely lacey lingerie for either yourself of your loved one.  And appreciate its wonderfulness.

 

Neil  

 

P.S. After uploading and accidentally deleting photos becuase of MSN Spaces sheer stupidity, (moving photos, then deleting them from the original folder deletes them in the new folder too) i will be decommissioning the New Additions folder next time i uploaded photos.  What i will do instead is simply move the folder with the relevant new photos in to the top of the album list.  You'll still have to scroll to the end of the gallery though i'm afraid.