What a week

I was planning to leave Japan today. Bought a ticket home and everything. Then I get offered a job starting immediately at another school. I took the job and will be staying for one more final year in good old Kofu, Japan.
I lived last week like I was leaving here for quite some time. Ski days, long trips, goodbye sessions and some surprising tears from people. Then I inform many of these same people that I'm staying put. Awkward.

Chop chop

In the Lonely Planet guide book for Korea they had a little section about The Return Of The Noses. While Japanese soldiers were occupying that land they chopped off the noses of thousands of people, and kept them for some reason. This was a source of tension between the two countries because these body parts were actually being stored somewhere. At one point they had a Return Of The Noses ceremony (not sure the correct term for when people return thousands of severed human noses) and the body parts were returned and layed (laid?) to rest. While I was in Korea some men would sometimes go to some government office building and proceed to cut off one of their fingers in protest of some aspect of Korea/Japan relations. It may have been to do with the Japanese Prime Minister visiting some war shrine or something. And this morning I read the article below.


'Rightist' with abduction gripe lops off hand outside Diet

A man almost completely lopped off his left hand with a machete Tuesday in front of the Diet, apparently to protest Japan's policy toward North Korea, police said. The 54-year-old man approached the front gates of the building by car, stepped out, silently placed his left hand against the hood of the vehicle and swung the 40-cm blade down across his left wrist, Tokyo police official Hideyuki Yoshioka said. The man, who identified himself as a member of a rightwing organization, then mumbled a few words about the way Tokyo has dealt with Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese in the 1970s and 80s. Police seized the machete and rushed him to a hospital. The man "appeared to be in a lot of pain and his hand was hanging by a piece of skin," Yoshioka said.


The Japan Times: March 22, 2006

Au revoir Japon

J'ai vraiment apprécié mon temps au Japon mais il est temps de
partir....

Vancouver Bound

Vancouver Canucks games, high school friends, BC Lions games, university friends, Grouse Mountain, aunts, uncles, cousins, brother, mother, Stanley Park, cheap health food, Whistler/ Blackcomb, no asbestos, the view from North Van, friends on the Island, Long Beach, real smoked meat sandwiches, interacting with English speakers on a regular basis, mountain biking, hiking West Coast Trail, and the list..goes..on..

I'm, going, home.

Happy St. Patty's

St Patty's Day Celebrations going on now. My namesake. Both a pretty girl and a guy I get along with asked me to different social scenarios this evening. Alas, I no longer partake so I had to turn them both down. At times I crave certain products that I've sworn off. For the longest time I craved Marlboro Medium smokes, the beige pack. And I never really smoked them much. Tonight I pang for a Black Label pint, of all things, Benson & Hedges smokes, and a jigger the size of my forearm. And then to turn a song called Three Pistols up very loud and shake my head to it, swinging like I just don't care. The plan is to be up at 6 to go jogging in the morning so there'll be none of that tonight for me.

Rice Cohesion

A very important aspect of Japanese culture was explained to me today. Japan is an extremely conformist place. They have a saying that the nail that stands up quickly gets hammered down in Japan. Group dynamic and cohesion is regarded as paramount. A Japanese woman explained to me that this stems back to the harvesting of rice in Japan. Rice was all important. Rice was survival. In order to effectively plant and harvest it was necessary for neighbours in a village to help each other a great deal in the agrarian society. Non-confrontation (at least directly) and maintaining the appearance of harmony with everyone was the Japanese method of continued success with the harvest. It all goes back to rice, according to this woman.

White Day

Today is called White Day in Japan. It is similar to Valentine's Day in the West except the men are expected to give chocolates to their girlfriends or wives.

And the Devil Laughed

I just saw the movie The Exorcism of Emily Rose in a theatre. Freakin jumpy for an hour after I got out of that flick. It is my belief that she was possessed and not mentally ill. No matter what pharmaceutical advances we make we will never rid humanity of all demons.
There is one scene in the movie that really got me. Emily Rose had a male friend through her entire ordeal. Early in her trauma he stayed with her one evening holding her in her dorm room. He nodded off while holding her. When he woke up she was on the floor across the room, twisted at impossible angles and staring up at him. Jeepoo Cripes, waking up to that would stay with you for awhile. No cake walk for her either.
I'm always creeped out for a bit when I see a good horror movie, and this is a very good horror movie. While getting a break from Belial Emily Rose writes a note to the priest who is eventually charged with her murder. She describes 6 demons inside of her.

Music Video Shoot

I spent the day today working on a video shoot in a recording studio in Shinjuku and then on a rooftop in Harajuku for this singer http://www.katmusic.jp/ She is wonderful.

'Sensei Sizzles'

I had an idea for a television soap opera drama. Call it 'Sensei Sizzles'. Sensei means teacher or something thereabouts in Japanese. The show would be based on the lives of a bunch of ESL teachers in Japan. You put a bunch of people in their early twenties on the opposite side of the planet, immerse them in a culture completely different from their own, away from everything and everyone they know, add a small town scenario with only very limited social options, a dose of substance abuse, a pinch of sexual activity, a large amount of sad, malicious gossip about the previous two plot lines amongst the kids, and some comical exchanges/ miscues with the students. You could keep adding characters to the drama as the vast majority of the kids who come over here only teach for one year and then move on in their lives.

Morning Terror

Just spent the morning off roading in a jeep. I admit to moments of genuine fear. Fantastic feeling when it's happening. At one moment I suggested to the guy driving that maybe we shouldn't attempt to climb that almost vertical, muddy hill and come boucing out into oncoming traffic. Like most off road types would do, he went for it. We made it. Then went back down and did it again. The times when all indications are that the vehicle may roll and the high speed scenarios got me the most juiced.

Tokyo Visit

Just spent a day and an evening wandering my favourite areas of Tokyo. Damn, I love that town. There is a 'cool' to the Tokyo youth like nothing I've ever seen. Black clothing is mandatory. Two girls sprint at each other in 7 inch heels yelling 'Sugoi!' as they collide in a mid-air hug. A guy rips through a pedestrian intersection upshifting his motorcycle while dodging people. Wannabe gangster boys project inner city Americana with their clothing and attempted struts, completely oblivious to the realities of the Hip Hop scene in America.
In Tokyo's Central Park (not sure the name) there is an area for people only traffic. This is right behind Tokyo School of Music. Some of Japan's best young musicians hang out there and jam. Fantastic tunes. Dance troupes seem to crop up and perform on occassion as well.
One painter/ artist guy has a stereo strapped over one shoulder blaring techno music as he frantically jumps around, then goes back to add a dab to his canvas, then he does a little dance, turns up the music, dances a bit, paints a bit. I've seen him go a few times. He always finishes with a fantastic black and white portrait of someone who is standing watching his show. The lucky person gets a free painting when the show ends.
A little further into the park is a Rockabilly dance group. About 8 Japanese guys dressed all in 50's American-style leather outfits and cowboy boots dance the afternoon away to great rockabilly music. Think, The Stray Cats on Prozac. Sometimes one of them brings his kid so you get 8 adults and one little boy dancing around with their greased back black hair. Funny as hell.
Goth kids go an area of the park to hang out and non-conform. They're quite the show.
The Asian spitting image of young Mick Jagger, lips and all, flutters by me on the sidewalk. He is sporting a 3/4 length purple jacket that screams Mick circa 1980s. The opening riff of 'Paint It Black' goes through my head as he passes.
Some of the women have a sort of 'truck stop crack whore' fashion sense. But they work it. And it works for them. I stopped counting how many times I fell in love at 1400 in Tokyo today.
Japanese people will plow someone into a coma trying to make it to their public transit train on time. Being late is a huge, complex affront to them; letting down their employer family, their own family, themselves, Japan, etc.
Gonna miss Tokyo.