Sensible Jumpers... Viva La Samba, and horse mackerel

It's time. I have a nice navy one for school. I was told by Daisuke that he loves "teacher sweaters, the kind you can't wear in the real world." Well... me too.

Maruzuka had it's 文化発表会　(Culture Festival) last week. It was fun. It was on the Wednesday and my voice hadn't quite returned to me but I could make squeaking noises and nod at the appropriate moments so it wasn't a problem. The highlight for me was seeing my speech contest student perform her speech from way back when I spent my first 6 weeks teaching her everyday after school. I couldn't go to see her in the contest as I was at the other school. But that was great. After that by far the most impressive thing was the school orchestra which was damn near perfect. They did a few numbers, but the most enjoyable was the jazz number when they all stood up and pointed their horns to the sky to the big beats! When I thought it couldn't get any better, the baseball coach comes out dressed as a tv pop star in a gold sparkly suit and a hairpiece followed by the PTA mums fanning him with branches singing "Viva La Samba". HOPSCOTCH!



My voice finally was returned to me by a short man in a top hat, on arriving at the two day mid-year seminar that all the Shizuoka ALTs and a corresponding number of JTEs had to attend last Thursday and Friday. We were given workshops about many things. And lunch, taken outside in the sun, followed by a 20 minute doze. Thursday night I had another enkai (drinking party) with the teachers at Maruzuka. It was great. It's the only time the majority of them speak to me so I was trying to make the most of it, safe in the knowledge that back in school the next week I'd be forgotten. This time I headed out to karoake with them afterwards. Despite only having been granted the gift of speech that morning I was keen to be rid of it again. So it was just as well all the teachers had requests for me to perform in english! I quickly churned out Surfin' USA, We Will Rock You, Penny Lane, Jailhouse Rock, Bohemian Rhapsody and a duet of japanese and english versions of My Way. Good times but hard on the vocal chords. Well, they all had Friday off, but not I. Back to the seminar I went, looking and feeling my best.
Friday night I went to Shizuoka after the seminar for a JET pub quiz. We came third but as Doug had specifically stipulated he would not be happy without complete unequivocal victory we got the last train home and went to bed. Rising early on Sunday we started the long journey to Yume no tsuribashi. Where we tried to get to two weekends ago on the way to open mic but didn't have the time. Well, a day devoted to that purpose was propsed and stuck to. It was Christine's birthday too. So she, Doug and Daisuke joined me on two trains, a bus and an amble to find a pretty place. I took my manual camera so no pics for you, but the ones for me are just lovely. After a nice walk for an hour or two we settled in our nakedness between rocks and maple leaves in an outdoor onsen, it had all these natural mineral salts in and made me feel light and fluffy.
After that we headed to a tiny Mexican place for Buritos and Enchiladas. The place only had one table and was so small they brought in the chair that was holding up the menu board outside to seat us all.
Sunday came and I headed to the international day at HICE for some grub, then went to meet Ohsuka-sensei for some fishing in Maisaka. First time I'd ever been fishing and I caught five aji (horse mackerel), Ohsuka caught about eight. So we went back to his home where his mother prepared the most delicious sashimi I've ever tasted. She also made tempura out of it... oishii!

* * *

Today in school, one kid had to be certain my beard was really attached to my face... it was.

In a forest with tall bamboos.

Proper Moments for Drinking Tea number 15.

Last Friday after school, I taught an English Conversation class to an adult group. It's three days later and I haven't been able to speak since. Been slowly listening to my ipod alphabetically.
So since then:
Ashes Highlights DVD with Mari.

Saturday:
Nagoya with Christine.
Camera fixing.
They wanted £100 to put in a new lens.
I declined.
They removed the lens cover for free.
Fixed.
Bought 'Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman'
Atsuta-jingu shrine.
2 metre long "grass-cutter" sword.
Tea.
Okono-miyaki.
Home.






Sunday:
Cycled to 森林公園 (Forest Park) (...again).
Snoozed in sun (30 mins)
Home.
Tea (with honey).
Read Black Rain.
Yaki Niku.




Monday (so far):
Rose 6.30
2 English Muffins.
1 mikan.
Orange Juice.
Can't speak.
Ring work (can't speak!)
BBC World Service.
Doctors.
Pumpkin soup and toast.
Guitar (30 mins).


The doctor told me to shut up for 3 days more. I'm up to Johnny Cash with Willie Nelson.

And every leaf will sing...

This last weekend headed out of town to find some leaves. Hamamatsu's a little devoid of the good stuff so on the way to Shizuoka we got off half way and took a tiny local train line up into the hills. It was pretty impressive, the line ambled through the foothills and became rapidly engulfed on all sides by forested hills and river beds. The further out we got the nicer it became. We attracted thhe attention of a group of older japanese travellers who insisted on giving us "local" cake. It was a red-bean paste bun thing, green on the outside. Really fresh tasting and quite refreshing. We had intended on taking the train all the way, but had not foreseen the distance involved so got off half-way at a suspension bridge over a wide part of the river-bed. It was a stunning day. Beautiful sunshine, and really warm; stripped to t-shirts and rolled up them trousers. Wandered up into the hills a little through all the green tea plantations which just about cover the landscape in these parts. It's incredible, I can't imagine how much they must consume to need this much... it's good though!
Took my manual camera out of it's case to give it it's Japan debut. Didn't finish the film though so will have to wait a little. Hopefully when I do develop it I'll figure out a way of making it digital for your enjoyment. Think I got a few nice ones. On the way back down towards civilisation we got on a steam train. It was really nice. There was a large party of tiny kids travelling with supervision in their snazzy hats. (I love their hats - all primary colours and secured in place with the finest quality knicker elastic under the chin, styled with a short peak like cycling caps) But the train-conductor was a super-happy, slightly crazy lady. She wandered up and through thhe three carriages singing at the top of her voice and making train noises - WITH the universal hand gestures of the piston driven train! Then a few minutes after she finished, much to the enjoyment of our tiny co-travellers, the intercom crackles into life and we're treated to it again in mono with tinny vibrato. There can be no better way to travel!
On arriving in Shiz, we grabbed some tonkatsu and headed to the venue. Signed up for our slots and awaited the talent. The bar is a tiny place owned by an ex-JET. It's so small there's not even any amplification, just you and yours. First up was an American fellow who informed us he'd be playing a bass solo... hmmm I thought, the only bass solo immediately springing to mind being Metallica's Anaesthesia. Well, perhaps by good choice, it was not this he treated us to but a jazz piece by someone whose name I didn't catch and didn't know. Pretty good though, lots of harmonics. Quite unusual to hear an avante-garde bass solo first up at an open mic too - kudos! Second up was Johanna and Megan playing a few numbers, lovely voices, really nice hamonies and relaxed picking. Then I'm up and I haven't had enough beer. Oh well, I try to settle the tiny assembled croud and do my best to find my ay through Paul Curreri's 'Maria'. Think I did it quite reasonably too. My voice wasn't so great as I was throwing off the tail end of a cold but my picking was on form. And I only forgot three verses! After me was another fellow whose name I didn't catch, then up I am again with Doug playing the Muppet theme tune! I was slammin' out the bass line in as funked up a manner as I could muster and Doug was doing the melody on his mandolin. We did silly voices, comic pausing, and even had a bike horn for the finish. Think it went down pretty well. We followed on with Sufjan's 'The Dress Looks nice on You' which went really well and as far as I was aware, sounded lovely. Then we finished with 'I will survive'. Doug started off with a real slow melancholy verse, then I kicked it up with some power chords and just notched up the effort each verse. The first time the chorus came round I practically screamed it out; think I surprised a fair few people. They told me so afterwards.
We were followed by a guy from Vancouver called Brent who had the voice of an angel and did a few Ben Harper songs, then Joni Mitchell's 'A Case Of You' and finishing with the Jeff Buckley take of 'Hallelujah'. Every was pretty much in awe of his voice and wanted to go home and cry. But calls for a second rendition of the Muppets to cheer everyone up were short-lived. A few more people went up who were probably a bit annoyed to be going after that and then Aroop (a second year from Brighton) stepped up and kicked out the jams. He was gifted with nimble fingers and a sultry tone and bangged out a few self-notched numbers, the most memorable being his finale, '70s Love God' - a slight jibe at himself. Being a well-known character, he went down well and the evening was drawn to a suitable close.



Sunday morning I arose with the pigeons and headed out into the sunshine on my velocipede. I quickly stripped to down to shorts and tees again and cycled up to Tenryu. Was aiming to get back to Gansuiji - the temple I first visited when I was still looking for a bike many moons ago. Well was almost upon it when I was side-tracked by a sign for a forest park. Thought that'd be nice so followed the end of my nose that way instead. Took these photos with my phone as my digi-camera's still out. Cycled around for a couple of hours in the sun. The highlight being when I was heading along a narrow road through a really small town and saw a small boy zipping down the hill towards me on his bike. When he spotted me, he screeched on his brakes and looked like he'd come across a bear or a lion and exclaimed, "Gaijin!" (for those of you who don't know it means foreigner, but more directly translates as barbarian devil).

A Post Not About Bicycles

Because people need eggs.

Ok, a post not about bicycles! Or at least mostly not about bicycles... I'm no doing very well so far am I. Well, I didn't go riding this weekend (properly anyway) as I went to Shizuoka for Daidogei; which is an international street performance festival. Saw a whole load of people with freakish physical abilities. Makes my attempts at a one-arm-handstand truly farcical; which is perhaps as it should be. They had a pretty good range of shows from bendy ladies suspended from scaffolding to BMX guys doing silly things with boxes to damp English mime, they even found the space for some French slapstick-gymnastic-guitar-noodling. The French I have to say stole the show with their disregard for the Japanese language interspersed with English damnations! Quite a show. The pinnacle of which was when they were all standing on each others shoulders playing a rousing sing-a-long "la di da" number.
No pics - camera still broken. It's going to remain so until I can find the time to get to Nagoya again one weekend and it's not on the cards anytime soon.
I've been practicing for the open mic night in Shizuoka next weekend with Doug (and Joanne and Mike). Planning to do a mandolin and gee-taa bastardisation of the Muppets theme tune - WITH a bike horn! Followed by 'The Dress Looks Nice On You' by Sufjan Stevens; just because when we were playing it, it sounded great with two guitars playing at octaves. Might even get Jo to do some lovely female backing vocals... we'll round it off with a mighty thumping version of 'I Will Survive' taking turns with each verse and one of 'em sounds just great in an Elvis-stylee. (We came across a Japanese busker performing everything from the Beatles to the Eagles in a ... ahem ... interesting 'Elvis' stylee - it has to be done.)
I think I'll offer my version of Paul Curreri's 'Maria' as a solo effort too. Just love that song and am going to miss him in London in the next couple of weeks.
Should be fun - will let you know how it goes.

This is my total design output since arrival. Done at Nakatajima sand-dunes a month ago. With three years at a London art school, you could do this too! That's my neighbour and friend Christine running me through a quick critique. The kanji characters mean 'cow meat' or rather 'beef'. Damn I'm good.

Well that's not entirely true, I've been creating wonderfully illustrated worksheets for my classes. Only problem is because my drawings aren't completely rubbish the students just don't care. All my friends crappy drawings get huge laughs at their schools, so this week I'm using a hand-puppet Shark to demonstrate prepositions in support of my illustrations. Have no way of scanning it to post though... I will find a way.

Ok that's your lot - I'm off for Omrice at 'B-Brick: A comfortable spot for people of all ages' - it's true!