Chapter 9 - September 2000

September is nearly over but the sweltering Japanese summer persists.

Even the locals are befuddled when I contradict them saying, "it is still summer, why else are we sweating like this?" But tonight I have been blessed with a sweet rain.

Not the downpour that some passing typhoon has spawned but a nice summer shower that is lasting well into the night. Japan gets a lions share of rain. Typhoon Number 17 just went by two days ago fortunately only bringing a day of thundercloud activity with it.

I wonder if they ever tried to name them or just started numbering them in each year because they know they will have so many that there aren't enough names to go around . Kind of helps reduce the anxiety toward them I guess. It's not Lucy or Debbie or Brian bearing down on the country, just another one of those, nearly countless, pesky typhoon things.

Regardless of the inevitable rain and periodic ravaging of carefree typhoons the winter must be on the way as the autumn equinox has just passed us by and I find it hard to imagine that winter will fail to come when the earth stops tanning this hemisphere under the sun's rays.

[More:]

And winter here is no picnic either, heh. I got the tail end of it when I arrived, sheesh, six months ago and it had just stopped snowing. I lived out the bitter cold that remained for some 2-3 months [March to May]. So weather, schmether.

Did I mention, in the last, that I was moving into a new house? Well it's done. I had the one day off from work to do it all and wouldn't ya know it, I catch the flu. Felt like a piece of dung. I think I've already made mention of the fact that Japan seems to be a very dusty place and this detail is very obvious when you have to clean down one accom' on the way out and then find you have to do the same when you move into the other.

The house I moved into is large, by Japanese standards, not to mention cheap. Two highly motivating reasons that I moved in here as well as the tenant of my previous lodgings imminent return to Japan. In fact he turned up the day after I moved, with no notice to either me or his partner from what I could ascertain, so the timing was gorgeous.

Except I didn't exactly leave his pad in *fine* form. Hey I was sick! .. of cleaning! Then to the new house. Lived in by a family of three, Ma Pah and the twelve month old fledgling human plus two dogs. One of which has enough hair for three! Take a guess what the house smells like and how that felt to someone with a sinus situation!

A gaijin friend here calls such phlegm and colds "the Mung" and I can *feel* & *taste* the essence of the word. In fact I can even put it on a slide if you like..? OK .. maybe not. So the house is nicely sized. Firstly a tatami, the standard "carpeting" of a floor in a Nihon home comes in a rectangle shape at a 2:1 ratio. There are a few different sizes and the ones in this place seem to actually be bigger than the last ones I lived over. About 1.7m long and half that [duh .85m] wide.

The last bungalow had a bedroom of 6 jo [tatami being called 'joe' over here, as well as tatami ] but a couple of these were taken up by the cupboard. Then the lounge room of 6 jo. The kitchen, not actually tatami'ed, a tad bigger. Between 7-8 jo. With small WC and bathroom tacked on. My washing machine out on the two foot deep verandah [patio to you yanks or whomever else speaks 'patio']

The new pad [read "pit"] has a 6 jo kitchen area with a largish, step down, bathroom area. This has my washing machine in it and a bathtub, no shower. The bath has to be filled to cover the outlet/inlet holes that let water circulate to the Kerosene heater on the other side of the wall, outside. This is my *only* source of hot water via plumbing, and yes I know I am using the term loosely. For I then have to bucket the water from the tub to wherever I choose to use it.

Of course the kitchen has the gas stove so small volumes are easy enough to pan heat. To the other side of the kitchen area is the first of two doors that separates my from the pit toilet. And no "pit" is not being used here as a college dorm adjective. Thankfully the times I've spent over such "dunnies" has me coping with the contraption [yes "hole"] fine. And squatting really is a good, forced, morning stretch that I was lacking. To be honest. Bugger honest do I hear you say? Get back on those nice smelling tatami..

OK. Now we move to the first lounge room / entry area. What use to be the front room for the house after god knows what killed the yet to be mentioned other two rooms. This one is 10 jo. About 3.4m x 5.1m. A good space, with two desks and chairs ready to go. Then the next room. This and the next room having been resurrected from some past fire and damaged rat lair situation to be lined and fitted with tatami to make them livable.

The bedroom, again large, this one being 8 jo and filled with an Enormous bed. I gotta sow sheets together to fit this thing but it is nice to get of the floor when sleeping. This place is too dusty and the floor is where gravity sends the dust.

Then we move on to the last room, which I used call the second lounge room but I now call the aquarium. Yes it has a large fishtank. The others were large, this ones a squash court [nearly]. at 14 jo. A room to actually invite friends and not have to ask the first ones who arrived to leave and make room for the second ones at the door. This really pleases me.

Along with the joy of being able to walk around the place while the heavens drop yet another load of water on this island. Helps with the cabin fever you know? Really... truly. I even stop disassembling my assault rifle just to take a walk to the back porch for a breather, and a sighting... gotta make sure the sights are true[d].

So a big shed basically but with shoes of and tatami pretty naf. Not hot water on tap or a 5 star hotel toilet and two dogs that come with it but it seems to fit well. Now where was I .. oh yeah. Nihon! It hasn't changed to my eye since I've been here. Least I don't think I am affecting it overtly or it me inadvertently.

Other than these self obsessive rants that I spam to everyone who wishes hadn't given me their email address 7 months ago . I am slowly getting more of a glance under the blanket of "normal" life that makes most places seem like another when it comes to daily stuff. They eat, sleep and work then rush off on holidays like many other first world populations but they are quite the chivalrous folk about it.

The Japanese way is one which really does allow many people to live as *close* together, and I do mean *close*, as possible. In fact I had a letter from a friend who kind of stuck me with a "just what is it with them folk?" kind a question so the response to that is gonna make up the next [half?] of this letter.

[Quote]
From the vast spaces of Oz and the comparative freedom that we enjoy it is hard to relate to the industrial ideals of the Japanese- their absurd group holidays and the camera fetish they seem to share. Their fixation for appearance: Vogue products,Chanel,Dior,Louise Vuitton. Their mercenary greed and insensitivity to environmental concerns, whether it be whaling,forestry,fishing or mining are hard to relate to.
[End quote]

Sure hard to relate maybe but some retrospect puts it in place.

The Japanese are a country transformed in the briefest of time spans. Forced to no less. Their culture a combination of Zen tranquility, rigid caste hierarchy and now, thanks to the Occupation of the Americans and the necessity of so large a population on so small a land mass, modern consumerism, and international trade.

The [North] American Dream has been supplanted here, for better or [probably] worse, and the Japanese are, in my eyes, struggling along as best they can. This in many ways is a defining trait of the Japanese people and one for which as you ask..

[Quote] I suppose I am asking ,"Do you (as it seems) find them an admirable people?"

.. is why. Just as John Howard has introduced a GST into Australia saying he has a "mandate" from the masses, which I personally do not see and expect most Australians also feel the same, many countries [their governments] around the world do things which are heinous and reproachable and not appreciated nor asked for by the citizenry.

I do not find the average Japanese person to be keen to kill a whale or see a forest chopped down. These things are kept consistent with their cultural habits. If whale meat is available [at whatever price in a fancy restaurant] then it will be purchased and consumed. If it is not they will not riot. They may lament but who doesn't save the Nirvana-approaching-sage.

Perhaps the merchants will [riot] or the whaling fleets but these are the adages of any business that sees its death looming. Australian truck drivers will bemoan the cost of fuel yet any environmentalist will advise the use of rail to trucking which puts lives at stake and the environment lower on the list of items to be considered.

Yet those truckies will claim their livelihood is being taken from them. That to take it is to put them in the dole queue. We know the same about loggers. More and more they are losing their jobs not because the greenies cost them but because the rationalising timber companies put larger and nastier machinery to work to do the same processes.

Costing those men a livelihood that is quite a fine life. Being out in the forest is a lovely place to be. They [simply?] need to switch to farmed or properly [eco]managed wood/timbers instead of virgin and habitat-essential environs and it would be fine. Or at least a damn sight better than it globally is now. I read mention recently of the last nomadic tribes in the amazon[s]. The logging companies give them alcohol so that the tribes will lead them to the largest [oldest & most valuable to the environment] trees in the forest.

You know how nice the forest is, a shame it is filling up with machines doing the work [raping] instead of men who could be taught to care for it and nurture it as they [earn their] harvest from it. How many jobs can we put on the list that should be either ceased or seriously re managed to allow the environment to survive *with* us.

Yet the number of jobs, and therefore votes, that these vocations represent, and the pathetic will and/or foresight that's displayed by the government in general, maintain the status quo of reap or be reaped. 'Tis true, and sad, that they [the Japanese] are so hung on such Gucci items but as we know they are not the only ones buying these things.

The consumerism they have been stuck with is a fairly global phenomenon and in light of their inability to do many things, work commitments and the ritualistic ways of raising family, then that only leaves meditation or shopping. If not just to get out of a house which is only two steps wide in every room and housing three generations of family.

Which also explains why most Japanese seem to do many things though. Sports, music lessons [girls mostly] and such. So much so they end up sleeping on trains to make up for lost time elsewhere. Their culture has traveled a long road. One that saw them [after a long stretch of bloodshed between rivaling Shoguns] settle into a snug island existence.

They opened their doors to trade but saw bad ideas entering their lands so they closed the doors. They were forced back into international trade at canon point. From this they powered on. Needing to feed a population that lives on such mountainous country they simply cannot grow enough food they had to get into the international trade wars.

Whatever racial ancestry or hangovers they carried misguided them into trying on the world and in this they were seriously pounded down. Not just one bomb but TWO. The word here is "gaman". You feel sick but you work on. You feel tired but you work on. The weather is horrid but you stay and work on. The country needs you too or else we all starve. If a wheel in the system breaks down we all go down together.

[Quote] Perhaps it is neat prejudice but I find that the "best" Japanese are those that reject the way their industrial culture force feeds them into the crowded trains to do safe salariman jobs and take the allotted weeks annual holiday in air conditioned greyhounds. The heroes are those cycling through our deserts or struggling to become surfers or freeform dancers.
[End quote]

Of course they are the heroes. How many people in our own cultures our doing things you, we, us, find reprehensible? Just because the Japanese make the headlines does not mean the housewife on the street wanted the act in question performed. I see a lot of Japanese people stuck on an island they can't leave.

We know the passport/visa situation of many countries doesn't exactly encourage a move to another place to make a life. We have borders now and they are greedily monitored. Many people having to work illegally because they have no way to obtain a work visa. How ridiculous. Obviously their skills are utilitarian enough that they have found gainful employ but that is not enough . They must jump the hoops/hurdles that they stipulate as requirements to be here.

The average Japanese is keen to go elsewhere [one in five has gone abroad] but what other way than in an annual holiday to do so. One needs a job, the system says you work at the job long hours unless you do [very] basic pay part time jobs like convenience store clerks, and this keeps them trapped. Yay to have a passport to another country and/or to see the way to move there.

To see a place for yourself in another culture and know you will be safe and loved and be able to raise a family. Legally. A lot of these people are tired of the system but the world has many such systems that are ingrained. That are slow to change.

Our own country, like the majority, makes laws easily and changes them uneasily. The populace lives with this. Shrugs its shoulders and plods along. This legal lethargy is detrimental to the growth of a society, IMHO [in my humble opinion], because although it might help prevent dangerous change it also means that the laws do not really keep times with the people.

Australia's laws and blind obedience to the USA regarding hemp prohibition is an example. How can so many agricultural nations of the world, beaten down in the trade wars through the use of cheap labor or genetically modified crops, not be allowed to grow a product which could provide so many essential materials for sale and export.

How can our gaols be filled with people who have done nothing more than abuse ONLY themselves with a drug that grows from the ground like the tobacco which puts millions into the health system and the grave.. Yet a rapist may get a sentence of a shorter duration, for committing a [heinous] physical crime against a person. Such crimes are rare here. I find that admirable. Is it not a crime of humanity that women are not safe to walk home at night in many places?

Those places are far fewer here. Is it not nice to have your wallet mailed to you the day after you lost it, or to be lead [nearly by hand] to the train platform you have been unsuccessfully looking for. Mutual consideration are words which may sum it up and while Japan does not seem so to the outside world that is a result, perhaps, of governments handling such things.

I was embarrassed to be Australian when John Howard became PM but how much did I / we [the people really affected and who think & care about *social* values] have to do with that? I didn't vote for him? But the system allowed him to remain. The propaganda, the preferential voting system that is, I think, unethical and NON democratic.

If I want to vote for one man and no other why can I not? But we don't have "one man one vote". Preferences are sold from one political party to another for whatever favours they are after. That and the pandering to seats filled with [well off] suburbs of people who DO profit from John's longevity. Was the Australian public asked if it wanted a GST? If I recall correctly he actually said previously that he *wouldn't* enact such legislation.

And when the Australian public was asked about the Republic was it a simple YES or NO. Were the commercials on TV informative? Most I spoke to did not find them so. Ambiguous crap that told them as little as the info on the GST does.

A lot of money spent to keep the public in the dark because that is where they are best controlled. Information IS power nowadays, even politicians are becoming [more] bewildered and losing control because of it. They will struggle to retain it, at all costs, although it will be to no avail.

The Japanese have one of, if not the highest, literacy rate in the world, but what they are given to read is the question. Just as Americans are bombarded with domestic news and see little informative telecast about the rest of the world so too the Japanese are kept busy with *internal* dogma. Life goes from one Flower festival to another. Those short sweet holidays are filled with jammed roads and trains as people run to see distant family or places in the space of a long weekend.

The world needs change from such structures not just Japan. How many people die on Aussie roads in Easter because of the same work life arrangements. Even though most Japanese are not religious they visit the grave side of family members once every season except [I think it is] winter. I think this an interesting and charming trait. The Japanese are considerate to the dead. They take a moment from their selfishness, which is a rarity anyway being so group oriented, and think of someone else, someone gone who doesn't need them anymore.

The main bent in Japan is Buddhism. I saw recently that it's not so much defined as a religion but as a philosophy. And that is something the Japanese definitely do have. And it can be seen in the way they live together. They have a philosophy. Mostly it works. At least it allows so many to coexist so well whilst meanwhile Los Angeles murders itself.

Heh, now I am raving. Sorry.

[Quote] Are not gaijin rather despised for their big sweaty bodies and un-Japanese behavior. I suppose I am asking ,"Do you (as it seems) find them an admirable people?"
[End quote]

Yeah, often. A few places will not accept foreigners because they don't want to risk trouble [lots of drinking in Japan and it's the foreigners who lash out the most] or just the difficulty of the language customs differences. The Japanese have many traits which are admirable, even as simple as letting one in during peak hour traffic. Something I saw little of during my driving history in Australia. I am sure I would have found even less in New York.

Every culture, like every person, has its goods and bads. Japan is full of goods, as much as its leaders are prey to corruption like any other country's leaders, maybe some more or some less, hard for a man on the street to really know.

But the people are nice. The food is healthy [a shame truly that the rivers are dying but again, is it the local man or the giant company that wreaks such chaos] the language and [therefore] culture very interesting. What's more it's very easy to just *be* in Japan. Isn't that what most of us desire.

No matter what they think of you they don't shove it in your face because their culture says:

"Don't be rude, it's just not polite."

Woooooooooo

Love ya's all

nomaD

[end of transmission]

Chapter 8 - August 2000

The summer is well and truly here now. Every one [Japanese] carries a towel for mopping up the continual outing of sweat that their bodies produce in response to the clammy humidity. Weather that is yet another straw on the camels back of extreme climate conditions that the Nihon islanders live with.

But the Japanese don't just carry on with the usual they also use the summer months for a plethora of festivals. Nearly every weekend there is some sort of party to celebrate a flower blooming or an ancient ruler who did some kindness, or cruelness, to his people.

Laws pertaining to fireworks are much more lax than in Australia and as such there can be heard the sound of explosive recreation going off at different corners of the city [Mito shi] depending on which institution is sponsoring the festive occasion.

The 20th [Thursday] was Umi no Hi [Marine Day or The Day of the Sea] and as such a group of Gaijins went to the local [nearest] section of coast called Ajigaura. So did every other Japanese person in the prefecture by the looks. It was standing room only nearly. The weird thing though was the atrocious weather.

I left Mito in patchy cloud only to find the train, as it neared the coast, heading into a fog bank!

Well it deterred us not and due to the increased level of reflected UV from the overcast conditions I still managed to get some colour into my skin. Fortunately Japan does not seem to share Australia's lack of ozone so sun burn is a little harder to achieve here. Lucky for little fair skinned me.

So we gaijins paddled around, ignoring the pleas of the life guards to exit the water [the visibility being so poor they were obviously worried they would be unable to see and therefore help people in danger, Japan's coast having some nasty rips and costing a few lives a year] and played Frisbee much to the annoyance of many reclining locals.

So in this manner we spread the good name of whitebread westerners

Well last night was a cute little adventure. I went to a local watering hole called The Paper Moon to watch the gaijin boys play, a band called The Junkyard Dogs, and then afterwards got invited to the beach.

Thing is the beach didn't happen, instead we did a midnight raid on a swimming pool in the grounds of some large Junior High School [I think it was]. Much climbing of fences and hushed voices only to end up making a chorus of noise as we all splashed about in the pool.

Weather was beautiful, water was not quite tepid and the accompanying use of a handycam to film us all made for a riotous night. I walked home at dawn from one of the accomplices homes after watching the video. Yay for homemade flicks about schoolyard antics and skinny dipping in the wee hours.

Conveniently there were three boys and three girls too, couldn't have been scripted better {smile}

Hope your smiling

nomaD

Chapter 7 - July 2000

OK, sorry the last chapter was more for those with an interest in things linguistic but as language was a prime motivator in coming to Japan it bore some mention.

Anyway I did in fact go to Korea for a couple of nights.

Yet again another ride in a large plane that got me all excited, this time crossing Japan mostly in the dark as we departed around 6pm.

Gorgeous views regardless. The plane rose through patchy cloud cover and as such climbed into the last sunlight before darkness fell.

It was like being in another world. A place of softness and clean light. But one could see through to the world below which was a dark and forbidding landscape. The [mostly orange] city lights looking like the smoldering embers of a recent forest fire's dying remnants.

A very interdimensional view riding across one world and looking into another from the safety of my flying unicorn.

Korea: I wandered around the airport trying to figure out why I hadn't studied any Korean when a fella came up and asked me, in quite reasonable English, where I was going.

A brief interchange with him [read haggle] and I scored a ride to the area I had been told would be most interesting to stay, I'teawon, the backpacker red light area.

He took me straight to a hotel that was *very* well located and very cheap so I was sorted immediately, all that was left was find some dinner and then try to sleep in the tropical warmth.

The next day I had a mosey around the nearby area for a while and fobbed off as many shopkeepers as I could, only buying a new pair of shoes and a bumbag to carry my [way heavy] camera in.

Then I asked some passing gaijin about finding an Internet cafe and was soon sitting in a darkened lair with lovable air conditioning paying US$1 and hour to do my Internet thing.

I ended up staying there quite some time as they had some of the latest games and at that price it was cheaper than eating! The price was obviously right because I was surrounded by teenagers doing the same thing.

I took a few photos which I will endeavor to get online in the near future but I didn't get too into Korea. The traffic was insane [left-hand drive also] and dirty. The roads made Sydney look like a motorist's, and for that matter cyclist's, heaven as they were tearing up nearly everything in sight which just made the traffic even more aggressive and unpredictable.

So two nights there and I was looking for a taxi to take me back to the airport and then Nihon.

This all went according to plan and I have gotten a few more classes as well since a friend went back to Texas and gave me a few hours of his work to cover during his, one month, absence.

Hope you're well.

nomaD

Chapter 6 - July 2000

So I've been here over three months and I find I am not making as much progress with the language as I would hope. There are a few contributing factors here such as my own laziness in studying and the fact that my job teaching English means that is what I spend most of my time speaking.

The grasp I have of Nihongo does come in handy whenever there is confusion in class as to what is being said but generally it is Eigo Eigo Eigo.

That combined with the tight network of Gaijins that I tend to see on a regular basis has me using my Japanese less than when I was struggling at the airport to get a bus ticket to Katsuta.

Still I do learn a few more words every day.

The language is not so difficult except for the backward grammar and the convoluted writing system.

I do have to stop and think still when creating grammatical structures but I am getting quicker and I can read hiragana now. The 109 phonetic characters with which the Japanese could write their language if it weren't for the multiple meanings which some words have, which is resolved by using Kanji.

Just as English has duel meanings for the same sounds e.g.. right[correct|turn]/write. The Kanji themselves sometimes having various interpretations.

So they combine them. Because sometimes a kanji can be interpreted to mean something else they will add the phonetic symbols so you are sure of the intended meaning of the duplicitous Kanji because you have part of the words sound written.

Then there's Katakana which is the set of symbols which totally duplicate the Hiragana but they use them for words of a foreign origin.

So another 109 characters to learn so that I can say foreign words with the limitations of the Japanese phonetic system.

I.E. the word 'royal', when written in Katakana produces 'roiru'. There being no L in Japanese. Alongside a missing V and TH.

So I teach a student the word VERB and the hiragana/katakana they write next to it so that they can practice saying it will result in BEBE or BERUBE. The Japanese ending all syllables with a vowel except for some with an N.

I was talking to a friend, Neil, who has been here for some time [5 years] and he informed me or we concurred on some pointers on Japanese language:

It is mostly the use of verbs that you need to learn in Japanese to be able to communicate effectively as they tend to use the same adjectives repeatedly.

Whether it's a little cold or iced over they say 'samui'[cold]. When it's interesting to downright fashionably cool they say 'kakkoi'[cool].

Their language does have more expressive or shades of gray words but their mentality is to not use them. Standing out in a crowd is not the done thing in Japan and one does this if ones language is too descriptive.

Or to quote some of Neil's thoughts in response to this letter:

"
I don't know why people limit their own use of language this way.

It's partly because "That's how everybody else talks, I don't want to seem weird" I suppose I don't think anybody ever thinks about it. Maybe its laziness ... nah

With other aspects of this place - the way businesses are run, children are taught, some children are raised, etc. etc. The emphasis seems to be on compartmentalizing, systematizing and basically running like a machine.
Life is like math - a system of rules.

It rains - you use an umbrella
You travel - you buy souvenirs

You go in the house - you take your shoes off

Fuck, people I know in Canada do these things too, but its a result of common sense and free will, it isn't a custom

Basically the idea is to make everything so rule-oriented and systematic that common sense becomes obsolete.

That's why English teaching in schools has always been so fucked - they tried to turn it into some kind of mathematical system of rules.
"

This restrictiveness or constraint from using the language is a facet of Japanese society that runs deep in their collective conscience.

They follow societies rules fairly nicely and this has got to be a contributor to Japan being one of the safest countries in the world in which to live. Although things are changing, as ever.

The verbs of this language though have a great many messages. The multitude of ways one can change the verb by using different suffixes on the verb stem is where the message one conveys is totally centered.

From showing the tense [past present (future tense is usually the same but a time frame is mentioned if there's ambiguity)] to requesting or desiring, the verb has it all.

Needless to say my book 'The Complete Japanese Verb Guide', with over 600 verbs in it, has moved to the forefront of my reference material.

The verb is also modified to signify the level of politeness. Talking up to someone, down or to a peer are all different, one can also speak humbly so that makes four variants on the above.

When I open my Verb book at random I am given

Plain Form : Present / Past

Masu Form: Present Past [this is polite speech]

Imperative Form:

Te Form:

Conditional: Plain / Formal

Presumptive: Plain / Formal

Volitional: Plain / Formal

12 forms of the verb then all of the above in the negative.


OK, back to the books.

Chapter 5 - June 2000

I've joined the local gym/health center/sports club. Not that they have a lot of sports except for aerobics weights and swimming.

But it is a lush place to be in my mind.

The town I first lived in, Katsuta, had a bath house [ofuro] which charged Yen1800 for a visit. You could soak all you liked in the different [heated] waters and lie about in the lounge and sleep or get a massage but it was too expensive for me to do more than once.

Yen1800 being about AUD$27 at the moment. I have to remember I am earning nearly twice that an hour but still, for a [HOT] bath. I ask ya?

The sports club is charging me Yen7000 [AUD$107] [plus 5% tax] a month for my day membership, meaning I can go there between the hours of 10am and 5pm [out by 6pm]. This fits my schedule rather well as all my classes are in the evening bar one so I save money by not paying to have all day access [Yen9000/AUD$138].

This is two hours work so I think the ratio is not so bad. When I was in Sydney the membership for my gym, with similar facilities (less even) was $40/month and I was on $15-$20 an hour.

I do prefer this gym though. Bigger, better equipped & closer to my house than I've ever had a gym and oh the bath room.

There is a spa bath on the balcony so one can be outside whilst sitting in the hot and bubble, then in the single-sex change rooms there is also a spa bath with a *cold* bath next to it as well as a sauna. Then there's the showering.

The Japanese like to do this on a stool so one has a combination of shower rose [on a hose so you can get to those unmentionable places that really need a rinse] and a tap for filling up your plastic bowl so you can pour water over yourself, for variety I guess. I use it as my shave bowl, so I can have a shave during my shower whilst sitting down. There's a mirror and usually a shelf [tile/marble] at each water outlet.

After doing the whole hot water shave thing then there's the dry off room where you left your shorts and towel and then there's the make up room. For the ladies this room is obviously put to full effect but the men it's a simple affair I guess.

Complete with wall to wall mirrors basins, hair dryers, cotton buds, tissues, hair tonic and moisturiser, this room makes sure you are lookin' just right before you hit the streets again.

Of course the vanity basins are set into one surface so it's all very easy to clean and as such it is.

The fact that you carry your shoes from the lobby into the change area also means that the carpet is kept as dust free for as long as possible with no-one grinding outdoor grit into it.

It always seems trite to have to carry your shoes in some of these occasions but it's not long before you reflect on the hygienic state of the carpet/tatami/room. It's a given that you just don't wear shoes on the tatami. Blow you nose whatever just don't tread with shoes on the tatami.

So my daily routine now contains, much to my joy, a bit of a stretch/workout along with a damn good soaking and scrubbing. Then some teaching in the evening.

D

Chapter 4 - May 2000

Well I am coming up to the 3 month mark and all is well.

Last Sunday I had my birthday here, my first in another country since I turned one in England. I did turn one in England didn't I Mom?

So 33 in 2000 in Japan.

Had a wonderful day. The apartment was pretty well up to scratch, at least none of my visitors said anything to suggest that it was below par. Maybe because I kept them too busy eating [famous trick].

So one friend brought over his gas cooker and some of the essential ingredients for making Shabu Shabu come to life.

Essentially one has a pan of boiling water in the middle of the table and everyone uses their chopsticks to grab some meat and wave it through the boiling water. It is cooked in seconds and then it is dipped in the sauce of your choice and then popped straight into the mouth. Other accompanying dishes include rice and salad as well as there being Hakusai [Chinese Cabbage] and other vegetables boiling in the same pan. These are fished out at almost anytime the stock being constantly replenished.

I also made a potato salad, I just love Japanese mayonnaise and a bought some pre-made nori maki. These are the small rolls of rice covered in seaweed that have an inner content of say tuna or some other fish-meat. My favorite in Oz was avocado but I haven't seen that style over here.

The crowd was good, well OK the guests. Shouldn't over sell the event but the house was fit to just below bursting. Easy to do in the typical small Japanese accom's but everyone had a seat and a feed and something to drink so it seemed a success.

I was just thrilled to have a housewarming of my own so soon in Nippon.

My best present was from the girlfriend. She gave me a book written in Hiragana for six year olds. So I now have a mammoth task of deciphering and translating this whole fairytale.

Other than that it's back to work as usual.

My students seem to be enjoying the classes, although I am not sure how much English they are learning but at least they seem to not be having a bad time. I teach some kids on the weekend [10 year olds] and I just love it/them. The very nicest of human natures is apparent with these young ones. Happy and honest. Transparent when it comes to being either interested or bored, excited or scared. Now if I just stop playing card games with 'em and start teaching...

I went to Tokyo again a couple of weeks ago. The girlfriend, Wakako, took me to the Meiji shrine which is right next to the Harajuku station. Great place. Set amid some gorgeous rainforest in the heart of such a citified city it defied belief. I was back home all of a sudden, breathing cool clean air, listening to great numbers of birds doing what comes naturally to them, singing and flitting around.

Small creeks winding through the bases of wise old trees and then under ancient worn stone bridges.

Eventually the roadway taking us to a cluster of large buildings, predominantly built with huge timber beams [my interest in architecture had my antennae raised] with the traditional tiled curve-sloped roofs that one relates with the orient.

We washed our hands tossed some money bowed our heads and said a prayer. I did the tourist thing and opened my camera's shutter at as many different angles as I could without wanting to look like the earnest photojournalist portfolio builder.

Every gaijin I see has a camera in hand, I was reminded of my origins. That I am not a local, if ever I will be. Still, I couldn't miss the chance for some "stills" of this still place amid so much city bustle.

A lovely centerpiece were the kimono clad women with their young babies. They bring them to the family shrine for blessing not long after they are born. Traditional dress is a beauty in itself but added to that the sleeping face of a not long born child and you have a heart warming moment. Little wonder we have trouble controlling our urge to breed. Maybe the law should be "don't show your new born to too many people" it's *too* inciteful. "Woohoo, lets have us one of those, we can do IT!"

OK, hope all is well, thinking of you all occasionally {grin} but yeah, not really that often

I am taking photos and I will put them on a web page hopefully this month. Yet to find the best place to get them processed. Most places do photos excruciatingly small and expensive. Film is reasonable to buy but good developing shops have to be hunted out.

mata ne (lit. "again yeah", or "see you later")

nomaD

Chapter 3 - April 2000

Thought I might try and flesh out some of the previous Chapter, I realise that I skimmed through some things:

I've only scratched the surface {grin} it's a must visit place .. actually I think visit is the wrong term. I think you need to live in such a place to actually tell what it is about. Too many places are merely visited. Postcard holidays are enacted according to binding schedules with set itineraries. You end up back home with a set of photos that show you places you almost can't remember being in. "Oh yeah, I was there ... now where was that? Oh look I wrote the name on the back here.."

Actually this is why I think places should be lived in rather than visited. Obviously not feasible for many people/places. Be it financially difficult or culturally impossible, but still, to live with a people is to have something tangible rather than a set of postcards which show a place you still do not understand the machinations of.

To come here briefly and not speak the language is to be almost blind to everything that goes on.

Nothing can be read because of the script on all the signs, so much activity is held behind doors which do not explain, to the ignorant gaijin, what goes on inside. One might enter to find they are in an Izakaya where you can eat heaps at great prices or that you are in a Snack Bar where you will pay a minimum of US$30 for the privilege of getting your crackers and hot sausages and alcohol served exclusively by some young girls while you sing Karaoke songs. Just so you can go home pissed and broke.

Seems a lot of fellows do spend their money this way though. Relieving the stress of the long hours they do. Apparently the karaoke bars are a fair deal though. Often you can drink as much as you like for a flat fee of 2000Y [US$18] and you spend the night singing with your pals. These venues being group oriented, i.e. men and women. I recall that in many of the clubs I worked in the pissed folk were indeed singing along to their favorite songs, don't we all, so why not get handed a microphone and do a duet with your best pal, girl/boy friend.

Ginza; this is where the money hangs out, and although I was there for less than an hour I had a nice walk through the place. Very select, with a lot of restaurants as you would expect of the cashed up area. A lot of kimono'ed ladies on the street welcoming and farewelling their clientele. Manners being uppermost in their rituals. Plenty of people dressed in expensive clothes. A bright lights part of Tokyo.

Taxis abound for of course where there's money there are people too drunk to drive who can afford to rent a chauffeur to get home. It costs, if I haven't mentioned it, 600 yen [US$6] to open the door of a taxi or rather have it opened for you. The driver has a switch which operates the back door and the customer is *not* meant to override this system!

Rules are rules, tradition is tradition, ne? &gtgrin&lt

The usual abundance of bright lights and neon which now sit shoulder to shoulder with the old traditional paper lantern styles which would probably have been the only source of lighting on these streets long ago when the mothers of these woman were doing the same job[s].

[.. Cool, today's film is 'The Natural' 1984, Robert Redford, Glen Close, Barbara Hershey I can't believe it. Practically modern day! No where's that bilingual button again.. gaaaahhhh .. They televise one English language film a day. Can't let it slip by.]

The weather has come good a few times in the last couple of weeks. Some gorgeous evenings where the wind has softened to a gentle breeze with that freshness that brusque winter air often belies. The hint of summer so close it might even be a balmy summer evening that's just been pushed aside by a last minute stormy coolness from some nearby country, namely Siberia {shiver}. The air has that summer smokiness about it, I know it's really pollution but hey nice to think otherwise, ne?

Reminds of the smells from Indonesia, curry cooking scents wafting about on hot tropical air currents.

As far as desolate landscape goes it is pretty flat and industrialised around these parts, huge great power lines snaking across the countryside shouldered by giant steel skeleton armies.

There are so many power lines in Japan. Even in the local streets. I presume it has something to do with imminent earthquakes making for potential logistic nightmares when tryin' to get infrastructure back online again. The more things underground the longer it takes to find and repair them.

Speaking of Earthquakes, we've had a couple of tremors. Not so big, would just seem like a few large trucks going past, to those people that are hip to trucks passing their doorsteps. The nation waits for the next 'big one' but they are also fairly casual about them too. So the ground shakes once a week. The wind blows madly in Typhoon season [my boss lost the door to his rooftop deck area!] and the rain never gives up and the cold is *cold*. These people have made a home in a not so choice place. I reckon they're tough. Mind you they're always complaining &gtgrin&lt but at least here it's justified to some extent when it comes to the weather.

One effect is that I keep my clothes close at hand in case I have to flee the building in a hurry due to it collapsing. Glad I live out of a suitcase now ... Oh the roofs falling ... I'll just take this with me .... {scamper scamper}

[ .. Tuesday 25th ..]

Well my last week here in Katsuta. The work I scored at a small English school in Mito has resulted in a 4 month arrangement [minimum anyway as the head teacher (of 2) is going home for a vacation] and as part of the deal he is sub letting his apartment to me. I'll be a 10 minute walk from work, not to mention that he's loaned me a decent mountain bike which just needs a bit of love to get happening again.

Apparently it's a spacious apartment, one bedroom but with a lounge area as well as kitchen so I'll have room to entertain and tutor my private students.

I've also found some local computers where I can tinker with typing the local text, Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji as they are called.

So neat watching the computer translate things on the fly. The Babel fish is coming everyone.[See Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy]

It doesn't translate English to Nihongo but it does translate Romaji [Japanese written with the English alphabet] into either Hiragana or Katakana and then another button press and you have Kanji characters. Soon I'll just be talking, English or Nihongo or Japlish for that matter, and it will type away on it's own.

[..Tuesday 2nd May..]

Well I have moved into my own apartment.

The place is not so huge but defiantly adequate for one such as me. Needs some scrubbin' here and there as well as some work to remove the odour of dog. Nothing I am not capable of especially at this price!

Apparently the previous tenant is not returning to the City of Mito. He says he will live in the country upon his return to the Land of the Rising Sun so I don't actually have a 'must-leave' date. woo hoo.

So mata ne.

Chapter 2 - April 2000

OK, two weeks here, what can I say?

The people are definitely hospitable aside from the few cases of racist snobbery that do happen. I went to Tokyo last week and the little noodle shops have a set of flag/signs they hang over their doorway when they are open for business. I went into one such to be told sorry we are closed.

Must have been my haircut.... but the environment is INhospitable at the moment. The temperature must not be getting any higher than 10-12 degrees, which in itself is obviously bearable, but oh the wind. Cuts like a knife it does, and making one not only shrink into ones clothes but struggle to keep your eyes from becoming grit filled.

The landscape here, at the moment, is pretty hard. The words desolate and barren come to mind because things are so dry and windblown. The winter is hard on these islands.

Apparently the weather due to replace this winter hardness is a *very* hot and humid summer that will contain the tail of the monsoon season from SE Asia. So just when everyone is set to try and get a tan it will be non stop rain for 6 weeks. Enough flooding to stop the trains. At least the railways give you a note so you can blame them for being late for work.

Speaking of difficult there's the garbage. Or 'gomi' as it's called. They pick up burnable gomi twice a week. This is what is generally called landfill at home, most everything that you would just chuck, plastic wrappers, Styrofoam containers, little paper bits and food.

Once a month they pick up cans, bottles and paper [cardboard maybe] which is in itself a nuisance because with no backyard we have stacks of bags filled with these items awaiting that monthly pickup. Then once a week there's a pickup for non-burnable gomi.

I am still not sure what this is exactly, I think it be such items as kettles and toasters or other metal/furniture type items which obviously do not fit into the other categories. If you have a fridge to be removed you have to ring someone up to come and get it. Pay them to remove it so that they can fix it and sell it on to someone else.

Now I just want to write to the City Hall and ask why they don't switch the non-burnable pickup with the recyclable pickup. Seeing as there are bags of cans and bottles stacked all over the city awaiting the once a month pickup and yet I see hardly any non-burnable items once a week. {shrug} Oh well, it's all so Japanese they keep telling me.

Then there's nose-blowing Seems it's bad form to do it. I see it quite often though, especially as this is "cofusho" season [allergy time]. What is bad is using a 'filthy' handkerchief. Not so bad to use a clean tissue. Seems it's not 'bad' form to spit though, I see plenty of lads doing it on the sidewalk, so I figured that must be why the Japanese take their shoes off when coming indoors. The sidewalk is .. slick?

Yes, there are vending machines everywhere dispensing mostly drinks, hot & cold, cigarettes and beer. Although apparently the liquor dispensing machines shutdown at 11pm. Go figure. The vending machines which are outside Pachinko parlors [slot machines/games of chance] even have a 'chance' button. So you can try and gamble your money for a free drink.

Then there's the cuteness of many things like furniture. Our ironing board is the size of a large skateboard with little picnic table fold out legs. The cistern above the toilet has a concave lid, or sink, with a faucet over it which runs when refilling so you finish you business and flush the toilet and then just wash you hands as the cistern refills. I think that is *neat*.

I am doing well, I only hit my head on every third doorway. I wish I had not cut my hair so short now, I could do with all the protection I can get both for warmth and for doorjamb impacts.

Tokyo was good. Bustling is putting it mildly and thank god for the trains because driving a car would have been insane. A motor bike would cut through the traffic but, of course, at risk to life and limb.

I arrived during the day and found the trains system not too confusing but I did lose my bag which I had stashed in a locker. I arrived back at the same station and couldn't figure out where I was, the station being so bloody BIG with so many exits.

Then I went to Roppongi to check out the nightlife rat race but I think I did not stay late enough, leaving the are around 10pm. The hostess clubs I went to ask about work had plenty of eager staff ready and waiting and I saw enough blonde overly made up women escorting elder Japanese gents around to let me know I was in the right part of town.

Then I went back on the subway to check out Ginza, the money district. More spacious streets, better clientele etc. Did a quick walk through here just to check it out, apparently a Japanese girl I'd meet in Sydney SAW me on the platform at Ginza but she was too far away [different platform] to get my attention. She Emailed me that night. Small world, ne?

This is when I discovered that the peak hour of an evening goes from 4pm till 11pm. A constant wave of people coming home from work. The hours of most business being around 10am till 8-9pm. The Japanese are well adapted to a busy schedule with packed commuter excursions. They sleep anywhere.

When the train is really packed they even sleep standing up, the crush keeping them upright. I have an old John Wayne movie to keep me company right now, their midday movie coming on at 1pm &gtgrin< only took me 5 minutes of fiddling with the remote to get the bilingual thing to switch to English. I had to get someone in to translate the airconditioner controls and one TV in the house is still not dialed in to the local channels. Even native speakers have trouble with it. Kanji is a minDfield. Even the citizens of Japan say so.

[..]

Aha, I finally got the other TV tuned into the local stations. I was lucky enough to find the manual for the said TV and then a visitor who could read Kanji, although she still had trouble with the instructions, helped me get things going. I did most of the thinking though, she is nonplused when it comes to electronica as are many locals. As many of y'all know, I enjoy 'em.

So just another small hurdle crossed in a land of unintelligible script. I've learnt a few Kanji but be buggered if I can get my hand to replicate them. My handwriting leaving a lot to be desired when it comes to legibility even in English!

Got some hours coming up at an English school in Mito this week as well as my first private lesson for a pair of girls I met at the Duck, so gainful employment on the increase.

[..]

Well I've racked up one month [ichi ka getsu] now; My private class, two office girls, have included me in their weekly basketball and tennis nights so maintaining some semblance of fitness is a possibility now. Great facilities also.

Every such place I go is met with amazement/stares. Why would a gaijin be here? There seems to be a mutual amount of enjoyment out of it though. Also found that my name has a Kanji for it. I have no way of writing it here, maybe on another machine but it translates as "Big Gate". Heh. I found the Kanji easy to write too which is lucky.

Another trip to the supermarket and the spending of 3800 Yen [US$35] got me a couple of bags of shopping. SMALL bags. OK, off to Tennis, hope all is well where you are.

The View is Here, Wish you Were Beautiful.

[Just Kidding {wink}]

Welcome to Japan

Welcome to Japan

I left Australia mid March 2000 to see how life in Japan would be and so far so good. I've written few chapters so my friends and family around the world can keep pace with this other life; feel free to check them out.

My main reason for deciding to live in another country was to fufill my desire to speak another language so most of the links below are oriented toward learning Japanese.At the bottom of the page are some unsorted non language oriented links.

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

I've only spent a few years in Japan, not much by comparison to some of the ex-pat veterens there and in other countries, but still time to soak up a little more than the average "summer holiday" tourist might experience.

When one moves full time to another country one gets to live, work, play, cheer and boo with the locals on all manner of things. It is in doing such things that I managed to learn a bit of the language and understand a little of the Japanese mind.

I'm told that "language defines us" which means that to learn another language is to learn another way of thinking. Seems to me this is a knack we could all do with some training in. Even in our own backyards it's a common tale that men can't understand how women think and possibly vice versa - I won't presume :)

So therein lies my reason for wanting to learn. Not that learning alone isn't enough of a reason, but also just that nice pleasure in being able to communicate with another race and to help some more people find the nearest phone, gas stand, restaurant etc.

I thoroughly recommend Masao Miyamoto's Straight Jacket Society,

"An insiders irreverent view of bureaucratic Japan"

A great read it helped me see past the suits and kimonos.

Chapter 1 - March 2000

My first Chapter on leaving Oz in the third millennium.

The flight to Fiji was fairly ordinary as flights go I guess. Short, thankfully, but long enough to feed me, an important item in my day to day survive-on-not-much scenario. Met a guy, sitting next to me, Adam who was a surfer from Maroubra, who goes regularly to Fiji and he gave me the news on where to go when I fly back through Fiji on my return. He also gave me his meal so I was happily stuffed

So I stayed in the same hotel as him and the crew which he was meeting, for a wedding, and had a few beverages with them and an English couple who were immigrating to Australia.

Met Adam's ex and talked to her for a while, as Adam had taken an ecky pill before the flight and had gone off to bed totally ratshit. Had the naked midnight swim in the pool and all of a sudden it's the next morning and I am hefting my bags back to the airport.

[More:]

Back on the plane there were not many people so I got three seats to myself positioned right outside the galley, that's the kitchen for you landlubbers, so again my stomach was well tended to as well as being able to lie down. Above the galley door was a monitor so I got to watch the three movies from my reclined position.

Movies - "The World is Not Enough" (always got to time to watch 007 in action) "Double Jeopardy" (wanted to see this one for a while, Tommy Lee Jones & Ashley Judd, thank you Air Pacific) and "Bringing Out the Dead" (strange flick with Nicholas Cage, John Goodman & Patricia Arquette)

The plane had a cool display which informed me of how far into the 8000k trip we were, our altitude, up to 12 clicks above the face of the Earth and the outside temp of some minus 50 degrees centigrade and of course our speed - just under 1000 kph.

The sky was gorgeous beyond belief. Blue sea running out to the horizon where a white cloud skirt hid the merger with the sky which turned to a near black above me.

A world of blue-on-blue with cloud creatures grazing the aqua plains.

Didn't see Nihon till we were putting our wheels on the ground due to *very* low cloud cover.

The airport is a slick piece of engineering, nice little train came out to our terminal and commuted us back into customs and immigration. Except for the world of Kanji characters it is just an airport. Made for maximum people throughput.

So I found a place to buy a ticket to Katsuta and then stood in the 10 degree coolness to await my trusty transport.

Got to remember to go from a cooling climate to a warm one and not to a near freezing and snowing one!

Arrived at Katsuta, the bus leaving in front of the train station, and then lugged my bags to my friend Ben's place, stopping every 20 meters to rest my arms and pray that Ben's directions where accurate.

They were but he wasn't - there! Damn.

Next is follow directions to the gaijin (foreigner) watering hole - "The Drunken Duck."

The Drunken Duck, turns out, is owned by a Japanese lady and her daughter runs it. I went in and inquired of the Aussie barman about my friend Ben and got connected with someone who lived with him. Seems the barman, Jamie, fell in love with and married the owner's daughter and as such runs the Duck, much to the satisfaction of many gaijin residents & visitors.

I also wrangled myself a trial work shift tonight (Saturday) so that should prove interesting.

So Ben turned up eventually and the night flew by as we share some celebratory toasts "kampai" ....

My first day awaking beneath the Land's Rising Sun and Ben and I train it off to Mito, the next larger town. Actually the capital of Ibaraki prefecture.

The train stations are well laid out but needless to say the whole Kanji signage and turnstile displays are decidedly intimidating but I made it home on my own after Ben took off for work. I had to stay on and shop around for an adapter for my laptop's power lead.

Can't believe I let that one item slip me &gtshrug<>

Couldn't find one but on returning home I scoured the house for old leads and found one that had a large plug on the end like the type we use, in Oz, with old element water boilers (kettles/jugs whatever).

I unscrewed the plug to expose the metal housings which accommodate the two metal prongs in the jug and I pushed them over the ends of my computers plug, leaving the Earth unconnected, and here I am typing away! Power to the machine at last. Not to mention the music contained therein.

[..]Sunday morning:

Worked last night at the Drunken Duck. Feeling sore in the back from walking everywhere hunched over so that I don't smack my head on the shelving &gtsigh&lt. But it's got to be good for my Japanese to listen to so many drunken Japanese talking.

Note to Jok and Max, next time we speak Nihongo just pretend I am drunk and we should communicate fine {grin}.

OK, off to find an Internet bar and Bath house (Onsen).

[..]Sunday arvo:

Well the Internet place seemed closed so I went to a bath house and for 1780 Yen [US$17] I had the most relaxed afternoon soaking in HOT water then cold then HOT then sleeping in the TV room, then a feed in the Saloon. Nearly wore my shoes onto the Tatami mats [phew!]

Off to work at the Duck real soon.

OK Love to you all in Australia and the rest of the world.

nomaD

Ibaraki-ken, Japan

A Plan to leave Oz

Well I was over it. Worked a hundred different jobs and spoke hello/goodbye in six languages but I couldn't chat with any of the nations I could say "Hello" to. It was time to go abroad.

I thought maybe Europe, put the EU passport to good use, but my contact with a friend whose Ma rented rooms to Japanese boarders had given me a few more phrases in that language. Japan was also close to Oz and the chances of finding work as a teacher of English were good. And I needed that.

Some bank was fool enough to give me a credit card so I was fool enough to use it. I rang the travel agent and asked if they took Amex and when they said "yes" I replied "see you tomorrow."

So I bought a ticket to Japan, not knowing where I would stay, thinking I'd be selling crack on the streets of Tokyo and hoping I could last a week until I could organise a return seat to get home again.

But I received an email from a Sydney pal who said he was in Japan and did we want to meet up. Well I landed with US$400 and stayed in his apartment for 6 weeks so the punt came off ok.

Read on to see just how and thanx for droppin by Deezplace.