Well hello there. It’s a bitterly cold Monday morning over here in Numazu and I am stuck in school in my wee basement office all alone yet again :(. Today I have the pleasure of watching and grading 63 skits that my first years performed last week for their final exam. For the second time. First time round, I was inexpertly recording their performances – now I get to watch them back and see just how crap I am with a handycam. This task wouldn’t be so bad if more of the skits were innovative and witty, and some are. But you have no idea how mind-numbing it is to watch 50 skits over the space of a week that all have the same story line – boy and girl talk on phone, make plans to go to restaurant, go to restaurant, order food, boy gets food poisoning, goes to doctor, doctors gives him medicine and says get some sleep, end. And to watch them over again is the dramatic equivalent of self-harm. So I’m procrastinating for as long as possible by arsing around on the internet and writing this. If only I hadn’t finished book 4 of Harry Potter last night (I’ve decided to read them all again to prepare myself for the arrival of book 7 in July. Read the first 4 books last week, then realized that we don’t have books 5 and 6. Bugger). Ah well.
So here’s what I have been getting up to since last week. Went to Tokyo last weekend to celebrate Ross’s birthday and stopped in to see Stevie Wonder in concert on the way. The man is a legend, his voice is sublime and his selection of tunes was spot on. It’s been a while since I danced, sang and clapped so much, but I think I made up for it that day. Spent the rest of the week recovering from the weekend (as you do), then on Saturday I finally went and bought myself a bass. I have been thinking about doing it for a while, but somehow always had too many other things to be doing to go shopping for it properly. This weekend, however, I quit procrastinating, grabbed my Italian exchange student Ire and her Japanese friend Sumiho (who is a bassist/body piercer/all round lovely person) and went and bought the thing. If you’re asking me what type of bass it is, let me answer you by saying that it is a cheap one. But it works and that’s all I need right now. And I have the incredibly sore fingertips to prove it. I’m starting off easy learning Pixies basslines (which are really fun to play) – I’ll let you know when I’ve mastered anything more complicated than that…
Oh, just one more thing before I sign off – what about that Ireland v England rugby match? I nearly spat my cereal all over the computer screen when I saw the final score! It’s even being reported over here, it’s the top sports story in the Japan Times today, full with commentary on the historical significance of Ireland thrashing England in the first game against them in Croke Park in light of the slaughter of 14 people on the grounds by British forces in 1920. Much as I appreciate such poignant journalism, this means only one thing for me – I am going to have to explain all the history to all the Japanese people I know at some point, because they will ask. This is easy enough when the enquirers speak English, but just try discussing the finer points of Irish politics and conflict with sign language and pigeon Japanese. I had to do it on Saturday to some punk guy who came into Sumiho’s shop to have his tongue pierced, as he had Never Mind the Bollocks and wanted to know about what the Sex Pistols were shouting about in Anarchy in the UK (that would be “Is this the UDA, Is this the IRA” etc etc). 20 minutes and a whole lot of hand waving later, I think he got the gist, but I can’t be sure. So I will have an interesting week ahead of me. Ah well, if nothing else, I’ll be deadly at charades by the time I’m finished. Now there’s a talent that’s bound to come in handy one day…
1 comment:
where's my soiled japanese underwear Missy?
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