Drift, Drift, Drift!

I've started singing a new song from Teriyaki Boyz' Buddhist cousins.

"I wonder if they know,
how they live in Ki-Yo-To,
if you've seen it then you mean it, then you know you have to go.

SLOW AND ZEN LIKE!

Sweep, Sweep, Sweep!"

Coming soon to Music Station (Japanese pop music TV show).

6 Months?

Passport is back, with a surprise: the visa is valid until the end of October, with multiple entries. Such a thing to waste...

Reith Lectures

"Places riven with division internally, between rich and poor, are places that are also subject to distrust and find it hard to cooperate abroad. Whereas places where there is more equity internally tend to be more cooperative and peaceful internationally. What happens internally in our societies is reflected internationally." Jeffrey Sachs (Paraphrased from BBC Radio 4's Start the Week programme)

I love having my eyes opened by much smarter people, and am looking forward to listening to the Reith lectures, which he is giving this year. For more information on this suprisingly short and digestible series, have a look here. I searched for, and subscribed to it via the iTunes shop, which I will be using until someone of you tells me of another sevice.

Lucas

Is a fecking drinks magent.
That is the lesson from Kobe. It doesn't matter where he goes. Random Japanese people wind up buying him drinks, and more importantly, all of the friends he has around him. Ours is not to reason why.

Morrisons in Japan

The second week of the school Holidays were even better than the first. I never thought I would get the opportunity because of the distance, but my parents managed to get a 5 day stop over in Kansai, on the way home from a boxing tournament in Australia that my Dad brought a team to.

Hanging out with them was wonderful! I had forgotten how at ase I could feel. Wonderful! I got to show them around my town, and even have them stay in a Temple. Oh, and coming from Oz, they were not impressed with the snow that greeted them.

"Don't look at he camera!"

Brought them by bullet train to Hiroshima and then to the holy island of Miyajima to hunt down some Monkeys. Then on to Kyoto so my Mom could some more of her own Huinting: geisha. It took a while, and then Success!

As usual, you can see more pictures here

Wasabi, our saviour

Last night, Taheshi, Veronique and I ate some not very fresh smelling Sashimi (Raw Fish) for dinner, along with the Green Wasabi that I love so much. This morning, I woke up, not dead. I am now convinced that as well as being a fantastic substance for clearing out the sinuses (Try it! It will blow your feckin' head off!) Wasabi also grants the diner super-human powers of Buddhist Bullet Bending, as well as protection from anything nasty that may lurk in ones meal.

Why I re-contracted

It's an exageration, but only just. There were a couple of events and places in Japan that I missed in my first year, and I was determined not to let that happen again! This was one of them.

In all it's glory, The Kawasaki Penis Festival.

A little tired after getting back from Okinawa just the day before, but a bloody good day out.

In the morning, the giant Pink Penis is carried around the neighbourhood before being brought back to the Shrine where music and dancing rule the grounds as everyone eats and drinks under cherry blossoms in full bloom. I sounds fun and beautiful, and it was.

I've been told that some of the pictures might not be considered 'worksafe' a first glance, so Click here for more photos

As always, there's a good story behind the fesival. A young Japanee woman was invaded by a Demon who had the habit of biting off he genitals of her husbands on their wedding nights. No one was very happy with this situation, least of all the prospective bride and future and former husbands, so the town decided that firm action must be taken.

Enter the blacksmith. We can all see where this is going so I'll skip to the end. The demon broke it's teeth, fled the woman, and they all lived happily ever after.

Except for her former husbands that is...

They went on to form Japanese Teen sensation SMAP

Since then? The shrine became an area where ladies of the night would pray for protection from STIs. More recently, those ladies have been replacd by Tokyos LGB scene and couples praying for ferility, making the Festival a fun day out for all the family, with a fine touch of PRIDE.

Island Hopping

The Japanese academic year is a bit different from our own. Schools and Universities finish up the end of the third week of March, and start back the second week of April. It's only two weeks, so you can imagine the envy when I tell them about our 2 or three months off.

I used the Holiday last year to travel further afield, down the length of Japan stopping off with friends along the way. This year Erin and I went a bit further, to the souhern most islands of Okinawa, within spitting distance of Taiwan: Ishigaki, Takejima, an Iriomote

We noticed he vibe as soon as we arrivd. It was sill Japan, but different. A relaxed Japan. The islands had been independent before, with its own Ryuukyuu kingdom, and you could definitely sense that.

I was most impressed with the best use of a beer bottle I have ever seen. Peanuts. I' brilliant!

We flew into Ishigaki island, but stayed there just for the first night to get our bearings. Then it was on to Takejima, a beatiful island of only 300 souls, where we stayed for one night, getting to see the place once all the tourists had left on the last boat. As it was so small, we rented bikes rather than using the local bus sevice... Very effctive at crossing between islands at low tide I hear...

Then Iriomote, the wilderness of Japan, for two nights. Great hostel, and snorkelling that was even better than some dives I've done. Beautiful, with an incredible breath of colours and life, just a few metres from the sand. The colours don't really show up in he photos, so you're just going to have to trust me.

The next day, we took a kayak 8km up river, and hiked to the falls.

It was a beautiful, incredibly relaxing week.

Click here for more photos.