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? >grin<
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 >grin< 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.
