the happy happy pandas say...

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

...buy green tea. These little guys have wobbly heads, which are solar powered, so they rock from side to side from morning until night, silently exhorting people to buy green tea. But behind their happy nodding is a threat; if you don't buy their tea, the green monster on the poster behind them will come to your house every night for a month to try to sell you a subscription to the Mainichi Shimbun (newspaper). As you may have guessed, i didn't buy any tea, and yes, we get lots of newspaper hawkers. Boo.

On a work-related note, I had my 3-week observation today; it went without particular event, and I can now relax somewhat until May, when I get my probationary review. This will be the one that decides when I start getting full salary, and as such it'd be nice to nail it. But for now, off to training, where Paddy can punish us with exercise...

Beermat appearance #1: Woofin' magazine

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

This is the first outing for the beermat; since I brought it here it's been sitting in a cupboard waiting for its first outing... and here it is, next to that most famous of magazines, Woofin'. For those that i haven't told/weren't there, a week or so before we left, I went to a pub quiz in Beeston with Luke B and Tom. our team (5 of us) did OK, but we did win a bottle of wine by getting the nearest to the correct date in the question 'when was the sandwich invented' or some other such rubbish. without even a cheeky google, we submitted our entry (1672, ham and cheese) on a beermat, and were amazed when our team name was called (although i recall us being about 150 years out). Anyway, on the way back, I suggested to Tom that i take the mat with me, and send holiday snaps of the old thing in uniquely 'Japanese' locations. So, here you are, Mr. B; with any luck it'll be the first of many...

for those who advertise...

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

needless to say, this isn't on my christmas list...

Happy Fantasy Colour indeed...

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

I was shopping for some sesame seeds earlier, when i saw these in the aisle opposite. As you can see on the boxes, each of the lovely ladies has a different coloured couiffure style. However, the samples of hair underneath, which would in England be over-exaggerated shades in order to lead the buyer into believing that their hair will adopt a similar shade on application. Not here though - all of the samples were the same colour. Black. Thus, the packaging is both misleading and truthful, and the manufacturers have indeed discovered a Happy Fantasy Colour.

yay for Hyaku Yen

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

We weren't working today, and we were going to go to the onsen, but I played football last night and took a bit of a pounding in goal (our usual defender wasn't about and all of our players were knackered after a hard weekend) so we decided to go to this sushi restaurant where all the dishes are 100 Yen. Turns out they were 105, but frankly, who's counting the 2 1/2 pence... It was incredible - watching the sushi being made and placed on the belt, and being able to order anything you fancied from the huge (and thankfully picture-laden) menu. We ate loads, including a really nice miso soup with chunks of fish in, all for the princely sum of 1050¥ (about £2.50 each). Once we'd finished up, we headed over to Mr.Max and tried out all their massage chairs, which are top-notch. I'm definately thinking about bringing one back...

Tonight, Paddy (one of the other Nova instructors) wants to restart fitness training, which has been off over the winter, so I'll be off running later, legs permitting. Sweet.

work it

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

So this is where we work - the You me Town, Nakatsu. It's a massive mall, with loads of concessions for various things, and a big ol' supermarket on the ground floor. If you're hungry, you can eat at any of the plentiful restaurants, have a Pon De Ring from the Mister Donut, grab some fried chicken, a burger, ice cream... the list goes on. But, when you've bought all the Doraemon, Anpanman and Hello Kitty merchandise you can afford, and eaten all the ramen, sashimi and, er, donuts you can handle, you can come to Nova and learn English. This photo was taken after work on Saturday, about 7.30pm, and doesn't really do the place justice - it's about twice as long as this, but my phone couldn't really handle that, and to get far enough away to see it would have involved climbing another building. Not going to happen. But, at least you get the idea...

there and back again

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

On tuesday we were going to catch up on sleep, and all the little jobs we'd been putting off for the last week, but I got a call from Cory, one of the other teachers here; he had a day off as there was a national holiday, and did we fancy doing something? We did, and he duly drove over and we went to the Aono-Domon cave. It's a really long tunnel, which a monk carved into a mountain after the woman he loved fell off on the way to the temple on the other side. The tunnel is really impressive; however there's a road through it now, which meant that we drove through it in about 20 seconds. Impressive, nonetheless. Then, we parked up, saw the best pimped-out van so far (see flickr), and then started the climb to what we thought was Rakanji Temple, which has hundreds of stone Buddha statues, and is by all accounts wonderful. There were a few on the way up, but then the walk quickly turned into a climb (interspersed with a few rounds of aeroplane racing and golf - videos to come). We came down 2 -and-a-half hours later having found no more than a smattering of statues and nearly fallen off our own cliffs, and it wasn't until about 8 hours later, in the bar, that we found out that the actual temple was on another mountain, about a kilometre away. Ho hum...

What do you get if you cross...

Weezer, Franz Ferdinand and four Japanese guys? you get the Asian Kung-Fu Generation. I got their new CD 'Fanclub' today, and it rules. Check them out here. (in English)

View From...

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

This is what we get up to every morning. It's odd, really - nobody seems to have a garden in the English sense - but in between all the houses there are these little plots of land, which people cultivate. They'll grow the normal kind of things; onions, cabbage, Daikon radishes and such. But at the moment, there are also loads of oranges about. Massive great buggers they are too - the apples are also enormous, which is really odd to see; i was looking for apples in the local supermarket, and all i could see were these huge, grapefruit-sized fruits... 2+2 etc. Anyhow, it seems that the done thing is to cultivate rather than decorate one's land, which seems like a good idea to me - i'd rather see onions than paeonies any day.

The bike for the New Generation

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

I actually chickened out of buying this one in the end - settling for the 'Ambitiaus [sic] City Cruise' in fetching blue. it's a Mama-chari, which (to quote the mainichi general news), "Derived from the English word "mama" and "charinko," Japanese slang for bicycle, the mama-chari is usually equipped with a basket to store groceries and a child seat where Mom can sling the kids while she rides along.". Now, whilst i don't have a kid, so no child seat, i do have a basket, and this is way useful in order to carry stuff; coats, umbrellas, 6-packs, trainers; the list is endless. Em also chickened out of buying the Viv - she bought a 'Bistro Town' mama-chari, in fetching silver. Having spent the last year or so alternating between Em's massively fly mountain bike, and the massively battered bee-em-ex, a sit-up-and-beg ladies bike is something of a change. But, when in Rome, or Nakatsu for that matter...

the hip, the hop, the hip etc.

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

Thanks to Nova, the wonders of email, and my apparent memory deficiency, I managed to arrange that Mike D (pictured) arrived for a 24-hour red-eye visit a full 13 hours after out landing in Japan. This was achieved after Nova put our departure date back twice (once was our fault, once theirs, so I guess we're even) and me forgetting to mention to Mike that the second delay had happened. However, it was really cool to see him - he rocked up right on time, and after a very pleasant day spent getting to know our new city, we went for the most culturally diverse meal i think that has ever been served. We went to a vary traditional Japanese-style inn, with low tables, tatami and the like, and promptly discovered that it was in fact a pizza restaurant that only served imported German beer. Confused but undeterred, we went ahead and ordered some mushroom pizzas only to find that the chef had helpfully added strips of bacon, which meant that they weren't exactly veggie - not good for Em and Mike. However, we ended up at Karaoke, and were absolutely smashing at all the songs we attempted. Well, we thought so; the staff (who could barely stop themselves from ) weren't as convinced of our abilities. Pah.
(Mike had to catch a train just after lunch the next day, but the memory of his rendition of 'Rapper's Delight' still brings warmth to my heart.)

comfort, space, aesthetics

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

This is our new sofa. It was here when we arrived, and is a very fetching shade of blue, but as you can see it's not exactly large. I never thought i'd see an efficient sofa, but there you go...

Me, soon after landing in Japan

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Originally uploaded by p1ckle.

Exhibit One.

The specimen you see before you is classified homo erectus insomnius. Observe the neglected mane, the tense forehead and the puffy eyebrows. Observe how he seems uneasy and disorientated in his surroundings. The way he is completely unable to take in any new information or make sensible decisions. This photograph was taken at a restaurant called 'Ringer Hut'. I think we can safely move on now...