tihs is pertty azinmag...

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Guest appearances from Santa

The last week and a half I have been parading around as Santa to all the local nursery schools. It's been tiring and at times alittle tedious. But I'm overall glad that it's done. Some of the kids recognised that it was me, but in the many that thought I was the 'real' Santa, the expressions on their faces was pretty priceless. Along with the many difficult and unusual questions that I got asked. My favourites being:

'Who does Santa sleep with at night?'
'Why does Santa have a big white beard?'
'Why did Santa arrive in a car?'

Tomorrow, off to Wakayama, and then Sri Lanka(!) on Friday. Have decided that since the trains are running so erraticaly recently due to the snow situation, it is probably best not to cut it too fine and arrive at the airport with only an hour or two to spare. Hence tomorrow night will be spent in the capable hands of me old mate Callum.

Since, this is probably going to be my last blog entry for a while I thought that I would write down some of my highlights of 2005:

Hiroshima; cherry blossom and hanami outside Himeji Castle; drinking watermelon shakes on Koh Phan-Ngan, Thailand; playing as the Bento Boys at the Halloween party; Hokkaido; rehearsing with the Bad Santas; general silliness (drunken or otherwise); 'Takk... '- new album by Sigur Ros; dressing up in cool kimono for koto concert;

In fact far too much has happened this year. So that's really the only ones that jump out at me at this time.

Merry Xmas.

So as you may or not have gathered from this blog and the various other blogs from people in Japan - it is pretty cold. Definitely colder than last year, and according to locals, colder than quite a few winters' past. It feels a million miles away from the heat of the summer.
Here's a picture of Rob getting ready to attempt some sleep in my tatami room:















Here I am outside of the traditional toilet stop after a day's skiing up at Hakuba. It was snowing like crazy. As we drove back we saw countless trucks either stuck in the snow, or just stopped in the middle of the road! Pretty crazy and not a driving experience that I want to repeat!

A winter's tale

Here's a little rhyme from MC Machete of the Bento Boys:

So here's alittle rhyme for those that are cold,
I'm freezing my ass off if the truth be told,
waking up blinded by the steam from my mouth,
like an albatross flying south, i've had enough!
i'm getting on the next plane, I'm heading out,
to lie on a beach, and eat n' drink like a leach,
down near the equators,
where there ain't no playa-hataaas

at the moment, it ain't no fun,
scrapping snow off my car, no morning sun,
cos it's cloudy and its cold,
and it takes half an hour to get in the mood,
I'm dressing up like that old man Santa,
but all I'm thinkin' about is repeatin' my mantra:
'it's gettin' cold, it's chillin' my behind
it ain't long before I'll be seeing the sunshine!'

The invasion of the Santas...

So The Bad Santas played their first ever gig this weekend at Colare at the International Cooking workshop. Went down really well and listening back to the mp3 of the gig we actually sounded alright. However, at the time felt alittle let down. We had done quite a lot of practicing and then on the night it just sounded alittle weird. The main reason being that on stage the only thing that I could really hear were the drums and my guitar (which was loud because I was standing right next to the amp). So as the gig progressed I kept on trying to turn the guitar down as I thought it was also deafening to the audience. Turns out it wasn't, but wasn't to know that at the time.
But looking back on it, it was a good night - thoroughly enjoyable and deserved the copious amounts of beer afterwards.
Next up - the JET fesitival thingy in February. However, don't think that that we can get away with playing Christmas songs again! Any suggestions anyone?

Here's an mp3 of God rest ye merry Gentlemen. I think it was during this one that Lee's trousers started falling down: http://s57.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0I76GVV89LGSA0OFDRAFDRYW4A

The Bad Santas...

Here are some of the members of The Bad Santas cooking up some seriously funky shit at rehearsal.
(Black and White makes things look so arty!)

Am I wasting my time?

You should learn Mandarin You should learn Mandarin. You are very practical, and enjoy setting goals for yourself. You feel very rewarded when you accomplish something big.

http://www.quizgalaxy.com/result_images/lang-learn-bg.jpg); background-repeat: no-repeat;'>

Take'>http://www.quizgalaxy.com/quiz.php?id=64">Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Well, I never thought I was one for languages. May be I should quit learning Japanese and get myself on the Mandarin!!
Thanks Chris for the link.

Yesterday something happened which was a mixture of comedy and cuteness rolled into one. It was my English teacher singing along to Band Aid 20's Christmas song 'Do they know it's Christmas time'. It went to no 1 in England last Christmas and is the single that inspired Geldof to go on and do Live Aid (20 years ago) and Live 8 this year.

The icing on the cake was when my teacher started to try and sing the Dizzee Rascal part. If you don't know it goes alittle something like this:

You ain't gotta feel guilt just selfless
Give a little help to the helpless

It's sung very fast and with a very strong London accent. It was hilarious. My teacher then repeated it over and over again to try and memorise it while I was carrying out the lesson.

It was one of those moments when you really feel like you are in a foreign country!

From the English to the Japanese countryside.

Every month I write a little article for the local Asahi newspaper. It's a really good way to explain more about 'real English life' and dispel some of the stereotypes that some people have (eg people all drink tea and walk around with umbrellas under their arm!) Here's this month's entry:

I have been in Japan for nearly 18 months now. However, even now, I encounter many things which are different from England – whether it is something at school, the supermarket or a restaurant. There are so many things that are different from Japan that it is impossible to mention them all here!

However, here is a list of 5 things that I miss about England (excluding friends and family):

Roast beef and Yorkshire Pudding: This is a traditional English dish consisting of a nice big piece of roasted beef, vegetables and a special pancake (Yorkshire pudding). It is cooked in a big oven for about 4 hours and then covered in gravy. We usually eat it on Sundays. Oishiii!!!!!

Understanding what everyone is saying!! It is a very humbling experience when you cannot understand what people are saying to you, and cannot articulate your thoughts accurately when having a conversation with someone. In England, I am no longer the foreigner and everyone speaks my language.

English countryside: My parents live in the Southwest of England. Down there nearly all the fields are full of sheep and cows. A walk out in the open on a Sunday afternoon is one of the most refreshing things. It’s beautiful! If you ever come to England please go there.

Eating European style: In Europe we enjoy eating outside, especially when the weather is fine. There is nothing like eating and drinking on a cool summers’ evening down by the sea.

Shopping in Brighton: For the first 8-9 months I had a great difficulty in understanding what anything was! I can now read hiragana and katakana completely and I have learnt over two hundred kanji characters. However I still have difficulty reading what a product is. Sometimes I just have to guess! So I miss the ‘hassle-free’ element of shopping back home.

But this winter holiday I am not going back to England, as there is still so much more of the world which I would like to see. Instead, I am going to Sri Lanka to met up with my family and girlfriend who are traveling from England. More next month…

Bad Santas and Japanese tests...

Well the Japanese test is finally over and to be honest have absolutely no expectation to pass at all. But nevermind. Felt a little bit out of my league!

But on to brighter things...The Bad Santas will be playing their first ever (and hopefully not their last!) gig at the International Festival in Colare this Friday. We're currently putting the finishing touches to our set which will include some Christmas favorites (excluding Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Xmas is you', or that dreadful Wham! one - 'Last Christmas'). But it will include some very irreverant interpretations of some classics.

I have an mp3 of one of our rehearsals, but like opening pressies before Xmas day, I don't want to spoil the surprise - so it's not going to be posted.