Stumbleina

Traumas, Tribulations, Travels and Tomfoolery Down Under

Friday, July 29, 2005

Its Been A While...

Sorry for the recent lapse in blogging. The absence of spare office hours at school and influx of drunken nights out to wave people off/welcome them has discouraged my posting here...but anyway things are good. Its a weird time because some of my best friends have left but also cool to meet the new people.(Who, in this end of the ken are a really good laugh by the way.) This certainly prompts a lot of reflection about the last year and the one in hand...I'm sure all the second and third year JETs at the mo know what I'm talking about...The total bewilderment mixed with fresh faced enthusiasm that the newbies bestow reminds us only too well of ourselves a year ago and makes you only too aware of how far you've come. There so bloody much to learn in terms of language, manners, culture and just general mechanics of Japanese society. Its easy to forget how used to it I am now although I think I prefer to have some sort of understanding of how things work and being comfortable in that than everything being new and exciting but utterly baffling.
I'm doing my best to be helpful and informative without being patronizing and know it all(whih I really don't anyway!), a hard line to judge sometimes...
But of course the hardest thing to deal with is people leaving. It actually surprised me how, well, bothered I was by the leaving of the other JETs, especially Kirk and Aaron. I mean after all I deal with being without my family and friends here everyday, it really shouldn't be too hard to say bye to people I've been friends with for a year. Maybe its that friendships forged here are tight because youre alone in a foreign country together, maybe its because I know I'll see my friends from back home and live near them again and its likely ill never see a lot of the leaving JETs again...Or maybe its simply that they were really special people. :)

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I Am Minority...


Sometimes I seriously worry about the minds of Japanese junior high school students. Here's some gems from some recent letters to me:
"I pley fishing. Do you pley fishing? Do you pley horizontal bar?" (is he talking about gymnastics here or a more abstract concept?!)
"I have a briefs but I don't like briefs. I don't like bullbog." (me neither mate)
and may favorite...
"kyatherin, after a long time.
I'm Kanzaki
You are beauty (thanks!)
I like meat
You are english teacher
You are rich man
I like meat.
Oh, my meat (?!)
This is paper
I like J
I'm minority."
Sheer poetic genius.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Woohoo!




Your Simpsons personality is.... Sideshow Bob

Horoscope: The bad news is that you're going to the. And by "the", we mean "die"--slowly and painfully. Somebody you know is planning to disembowel you. Wait, no... not disembowel... gut you. It will happen when you least expect it; perhaps when you are enjoying the amusing caricatures of Gore Vidal and Susan Sontag in the Review of Books; perhaps when you are smoking a cigarette and watching a well-plotted piece of non-claptrap that will never once make you want to retch; perhaps he will simply place a sharp rake in your path. Before you are killed, however, you'll have some excitement when your murderer chases you in his car, although it will seem a little tacked on.

To find out which Simpsons character matches your personality, go to:

The Official* Simpsons Personality Quiz

Congrats!!



A huge Congratulations to my pals back home who recently found out their degree results and did fantastically-
Ryan, Holly, Liz, Rags, (you clever buggers we can all get firsts you know...well actually i couldnt!)
Emma and Liz-I'm beaming like a bitch for you!(how you managed to get degrees in the midst of all that vodka consumption, "duck fuzzy" escapades, falling off the ww stage and pulling gingers/minors is a miracle in itself ;))

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Sayanora Angela


For ice cream gorges, customise your own blow up doll anicdotes, relationship dissecting, reccomendation swapping, marine barating, killers meeting and bread smelling, I will truly miss thee Angela.
"Few people are both summer and winte but you pull it off nicely."

DJ Katastrophe



Well its happened, I came, I fretted, I played some tunes and hopefully it was pretty good. At the time I got a lot of positive feedback although I put this down to a)copious amounts of booze and b)the fact that Yamaguchi is a mutual backslap society where everyone is always nice to each other all the time! So feedback people! Did I cut the custard? If you need a refresher I played the Killers, Green Day, White Stripes, No Doubt, Stevie Wonder, Britney, the Hives...
Thanks a lot to DJ Jim Extraudenaire for his teaching and advice and DJ Neal Before Me/Neal me Now (yes we were sad enough to thing of various puns on our names!) for his help and support. Look out for DJ Tomfoolery coming to an AJET party near you. You have been warned.
I had a fabuouls time this weekend adrift in the induced sentimentality/nostaligia/excitement of the imminent changes in the ken. Sadly I'm only just realising that there are some people that are a bloody good laugh and I wish I got to know better (especially Laura, my drinking game partener in crime) but I'm sure they will continue to spread froilcs and havoc back into whichever part of the world they're returning to so its all good. I could write something along the lines of the usual cliched take care stay happy stuff but I won't. Instead I'll say that enjoy seeing your homes throught compeletely different eyes. Japan has that effect on you...

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Sanzoku-Whats Not to Like?!



If only a place existed in every town where you could eat barbaqued chicken from a stick (brings out the primal instincts) humongous rice balls and the best gyoza in Japan then the world would be a better place.
Another week, another bizarre festival, today its something to do with a prince and princess in the stars you write wished to and tie them to trees (never a dull moment.) This meant I got star shaped potatoe croquettes for school lunch so I'm not complaining!
Also,this is a lasting image of Angela I'd like to keep-fish-like with the contours of her collarbone perfectly matching the giant onigiri. Just about sums her up really.

End of an Era...or is it?

Well the time of regeneration is upon us and its not long until an alarmingly large chunk of the ken will go back to their various homes where they can indulge in sleeping more than an inch from the floor, not being traumatise daily by insects and freakish weather and not being demanded to discuss "what do you like food" on a daily basis. Sounds refreshing eh. On the other hand they won't be the eternal cherished guest, get to witness breathtaking scenery everyday or have a conbini within reach to gorge on onigiri, crazy toys, fabulous ice cream (and manga porn.)
Seenas theres only a certain amount of interest your freinds and family have in a completely different lifestyle and future jobs are unlikely to relate (would you get koncho-ed working in Marks and Spencers? Dont think so) I have to ponder: Where does the JET experience actually go?
I recently remarked that next year will be totally different as there'll be a new crowd and someone (not sure who, kirin clouds my memory) said that the onslaught of JETs isnt too different every year, attracting a certain array of university-educated adventurous types. Gaijin by numbers.
Going home may be scary and weird and unsettling but an experience like this should make you able to take on anything-Teletubbies back to back, Neighbours twice a day, tramps pissing on you in the street, chips gravy and peas, its all yours for the taking ;) Of course people fade away and not everyone will keep in touch and remain buson buddies. But there was ace times to be had and true moments of self-discovery for everyone I'm sure. (Even if that discovery was that you hate japan.) No matter how hazy or distorted, that image remains.
All of these factors make the experience all the more precious and special and, at the risk of getting sentimental (I'll save that for the upcoming leavers partys and last goodbyes) there are certain characters who could never get replaced. Despite my renedering of the JET personalities (or lack of) the newbies have shoes to fill of Sideshow Bob proportions.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Panic on the Streets of Yanai


Although "terrible" weather conditions here are usually what we Brits call a Friday afternoon over here, this weekend was thrown into chaos after a f-ckload of rain made Yanai look like this.
Crazyness. It seems that the "rainy season" is upon us although I feel it should be re-christened the "f-cking ridiculously extreme and horrendous season."
Getting home from Yamaguchi today was not fun due to the cancellation of trains and blocking of certain roads. But I didn't think I would have to get waist deep in filthy freezing water to get home...
I thought it was a bitch when I saw a few inches of flooding so i rolled up my jeans and put flip flops on. I needent have bothered.
soaked. to. the. bone. Marti Pellow has nothing on me.
The only good that can come out of this is the possibility school mignt be cancelled tommorrow...

Friday, July 01, 2005

My english speaky good

The more Japanese I learn the more I realise its utterly untranslatable to english and vise versa, rendering my job here somewhat useless. Furthermore I am finding myself using innane phrases such as "a little changed" and "anything OKOK," therefore entering the dark and hazy world of japlish, a place where the language you've used without a second thought all your life suddenly becomes nonesensical and inexplicable. Why is the past tense of go went anyway? Damn japanese for being so logical.