No post this week except for some more photos of the youngster


Marcus on the sofa
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Yaay!
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Who are you looking at?
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

little and large
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji in August
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

That was the week that was

And quite a busy one it was too. Now you all thought, and so did I, that I was on holiday last week, a time for relaxation and de-stressing from the rigours of work. No such luck, last week was busy. Monday was Kawaguchi Town Hall day - I had to go as I need to renew my gaijin card, which runs itself out on my birthday (13th September, if anyone is interested in sending me any presents) and on the card it says you must renew within 30 days. Now, this time limit thing is a tricky one. If you are talking visas, the deadline to renew is within 30 days of the end date but beforehand; if you are talking driving licenses (more of which later) then it is within 30 days before or after the expiry date; so with gaijin cards I assumed, wrongly it turned out, that their 30 limit as either before or before/after situation. Oh no, the gaijin card people are a strictly renew after your card has run out. Doh, how silly of me not to spot this.

So up I troop to the very busy desk, proffer my card and ask nicely if I can renew my card. A cold and somewhat frosty stare ensues and I think lady says to me “you can’t renew this as it is more than a month in advance”, or something. I therefore begin to remonstrate in poor Japanese, stating that it most certainly not over a month until my card runs out, indeed it is only 28 days. She is having none of it, as I suppose is her wont, and it takes not a short amount of time until she starts using Japanese that I can understand i.e. simple stuff and makes it clear that it is only after. This is followed by much rolling of eyes, not a little tutting and a definite glint of ‘and when you come back in a month, I am going to be as difficult as possible’ in her eye (when it wasn’t rolling). Oh well. The Guru had a few things to do as well, not that I was privy to them, I just got to sit in and out of the way place with Marcus in his pushchair (he was sitting in the pushchair, not me) and amuse him, which I did with certain panache.

Tuesday was at home but I was on my own for a chunk of it as the Guru went off for her health check, which was all good, I am glad to say. As was mine, just to mention, though apparently my kidneys aren’t working as well as they were last year. I think the problem was that I went for a run the night before and then didn’t drink enough water afterwards, but I might be wrong. Anyway, nothing to worry about for either of us.

Wednesday was driving license renewal day. Here I had to get up at the crack of dawn and go to Konosu, which is in the middle of nowhere, fine if you have a car, which is probably the point, but a bloody long way if you don’t. So anyway, I have a Japanese license, which I got on coming back here a couple of years ago. This is especially useful if I want to drive anywhere, but as I don’t, and don’t have a car either, it is perhaps a little superfluous. But better to have than not I suppose, so I took my woefully under-utilised card to Konosu, all by myself, to get the bugger renewed. I was expecting it all to be quite hard work but, in a surprising show of bureaucratic efficiency, it was mostly smooth and plain sailing. The beginning of the process is very much like a conveyor belt. Desk number 1: have you changed address or anything else on the card? – no, fill in this form and go to. Desk #2: please give me 4000yen – here you go, take these bits of paper and go to. Counter #3: Is this you on these pieces of paper you have given me? Er, yes – good, go to that eye test desk there. Eye Test Desk #4: look into this box and say where the arrow is pointing (aside, I get confused with left and right, the Japanese words for, I mean, so I ask the chap if my right hand is migi? He says no, no, no! I ask if therefore my left is migi? He again says no, no, no, looking a little exasperated. I say “well one of them must be”, to which he replies, “no, you must look in the box and tell me!” Very helpful, that chap. That done, eventually, please go upstairs to. Desk #5: Are you the person identified on the bits of paper you have given me? Yes, that’s me – good, go to photo booth number 3 and have your photo taken. Click. Counter #6: have any of your details changed in the time you have been in this office? – Er, no, I don’t think so. Good, go upstairs to the third floor and proceed to. Room #5 (the 7th part of the process, in case you’ve lost count). It is now 10:00 am, only been in for about 20 minutes, now I have to wait until 10:15, when the 2-hour boredom lecture of death will start.

Boredom lecture of death – the whole idea of renewing you license is, I think a good one, as making any driver have an eye test every two or three years has got to be a good thing. But of course, once ‘they’ have you in there, they can’t let you get away without a lecture. The gist of the first part of the lecture, deliver by a kindly looking old bloke (but who is a retired copper and therefore a mean bastard) was, I think, this: “don’t kill people with your car. I SAID DON’T KILL PEOPLE WITH YOUR CAR! Are you listening to me? ARE YOU LISTENING? If you kill someone with your car, it is a bad thing. The worst of it is you will have to sit through this lecture every two years for the rest of your life and possibly eternity too. If you don’t kill someone with your car, next time you renew your license your lecture will only be an hour and a half. If you become a ‘gold’ license driver then the lecture is only 30 minutes. SO DON’T KILL PEOPLE WITH YOUR CAR! Now watch this video of PEOPLE DYING IN CARS and don’t do what they do. Lights please."

And then we got a video, which was much as you’d expect that sort of thing to be i.e. don’t drink and drive, don’t fall asleep and don’t kill people (or yourself, the video added) with your car.

Then the lecture carried on in a similar vein, taking about how many accidents there are in Saitama prefecture, what kind of shit driver you are (impatient, nervous, don’t care about this lecture gaijin etc) and then, the only really useful bit, I suppose, changes to the road safety laws which have been, are or are going to be implanted. The sum total of this, well the bit I could understand, was that on motorway service area signs a big ‘i’ has been added that means ‘information'. Useful that. I’m there was other useful stuff, other people seemed to be writing stuff down, sometimes. And then the bloke with the new licenses came in so the lecture bloke, who apparently had at least three more page references to go through said “oh, bloke with the new licenses is here, that’ll be all from me then” and buggered off.

And that was that, license in hand I made good my escape and will probably be back in three years time, having not driven at all in the intervening period and so hopefully not having killed anyone with my car.

Friday was passport day, not for yours truly but for Marcus. For this we had to go to Omiya, to the north of Kawaguchi, where the government has a jolly big building called Sonic City. Anyway the Guru had gone the week before and had submitted all the relevant docs so this time we had to take the little ‘un along to prove he was who we claimed him to be, so off we toddled on Marcus’ first ever trip out of Kawaguchi. I’d like to say there was an interesting adventure attached to all of this, but sadly there was not. We turned up, the passport chap looked at Marcus’, agreed that his photo was a near enough likeness for it to be him and then we were on our way. Again it was a surprising brush with bureaucratic efficiency, twice in one week made my head fair spin.

Then on Saturday Steve and I went to watch Newcastle Falcons giving the Japan Top League Champions the NEC Green Rockets a right good stuffing at the National Stadium. 17-4 at halftime was respectable, but 8 second half tries meant over 70 points to the lads from the north, all without that nice Johnny Wilkinson.

The election

Actually turned interesting this week. The 40 odd LDP MPs that voted against Koizumi’s postal savings plan have been expelled from the party. This is a two fold exercise, methinks. First to send out a message that you do not f*ck with the PM and second, that it should reduce the average age of the party and put them more in touch with the ‘people’. Interestingly, as there isn’t a production line of replacements it seems that anyone is joining the LDP in an attempt to become an MP, so local people, business men and women, basically people who haven’t been into politics before. This may not sound much but politics in Japan, much like everything else, seems like a closed shop in that there are people/families that are politicians and you are not allowed to join their club. Until now, it seems.

Anyway a bunch of the expelled MPs have formed a new party named, interestingly, The People’s Party of Japan (or something like it) and the members of it have an average age of 156 or so, but with an aging population they are probably more at the correct end of the scale than those targeted by Koizumi. They claim that they are going to give a voice to the farmers and small businessmen of Japan, who have been drowned out by big business since Koizumi took power. Of course with one of the most protected agricultural rackets on the planet, these farmers really need a voice. Still they have been the bread and butter of the LDP’s victories for the past 50 years so it is nice to see they aren’t being abandoned.

Goodness me

Well, I mean I thought the Edgebaston test was a close run thing but what about Old Trafford. This time I got to listen to nearly all of the match as I m on holiday and staying up until 3am listening to cricket is acceptable, even encouraged. From the moment Vaughan won the toss – no longer a luckless tosser – England didn’t look or take a step backward. And those Aussies? Played woefully in the main, honourable exceptions for Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting, whose 150 was truly exceptional. But the sting in the tail, the real nail biter was this. Last night, 2:50am, Ponting is out so it is Lee and McGrath, the last two batsmen, to face the final 4 overs. I’m gripped, the nation is gripped, can we do it? 3 overs to go, no wicket. Flintoff’s last over, big shout for lbw turned down, he can’t finish it. Down to Harmison, can he pull off a miracle like he did in the last over of the 2nd Test...? Well I won’t get to hear as my internet connection disappears and will not, even after rebooting the computer, re-connect to let me know what happened. At first I thought we must have done it and the connection failed due to a surge in logging on, or something. But no, it was my local server deciding that no one in Kawaguchi would be using a computer at 3am on a Tuesday morning.

So, onto Trent Bridge on Thursday week for the 4th with the series tied at a thrilling one a-piece.

The furies

The only bits of the 3rd test that I missed (except the last over) where due to some wonderful pyrotechnic displays that Tokyo has enjoyed over the last three evening. Not sure why, but there have been the most enormous thunder and lightning storms raging at about 7 to 8 pm recently, starting with modest sheet lightning but developing into huge arcs of fork lightning, earthing itself, I think, in the skyscrapers of Shinjuku – at least that’s the direction most of it seems to have hit. One massive, second long fork managed to black out Adachi-ku, just over the river from us, for a couple of seconds and I could watch as the grid rebooted itself and sections of the city flickered back into life. The whole stanza, from strike to the return of all lights, took about 5 seconds at most but wow, what a spectacle.

But what gets me is this – I am no physicist, but surely some of the billions upon billions of dollars that Bush and Blair are spending to ‘liberate’ the oil supplies of Iraq could be put into research into tapping lightning as an energy source? I mean there was enough energy released over Tokyo this weekend to power the city for a year, it seemed to me, and it was free, clean and abundant.

A job well done

Last but by no means least, the annual report into the crapness of Japanese teachers was released last week and made for some interesting reading, as ever. In 2004 a record high 566 teachers in the public/state system were deemed to be incompetent, up 85 from 2003. Apparently the increase in incompetence was not due to failing standards of the teachers but because the evaluations have become stricter with new guidelines – well that’s all right then.

But what was more worrying was this, in 2004 the number of teachers punished for alleged obscene acts or sexual harassment dropped by 30 to 166. That’s the good news, but of those 166, 95 were sacked and 30 were suspended. That, by my reckoning, is 125 teachers, so what happened to the other 41? The newspaper report makes no mention of these teachers, so were they let off, reprimanded, promoted? If I were a parent with a kid at one of these schools, I think I should like to know, don’t you?

But then again, these were only alleged cases of obscene acts does this mean that they weren’t investigated, or that to make an allegation is acceptable and the teacher concerned will be punished? Worrying if it is.

Oh, and one more thing

Yes, there’s going to be an election, it’s really hotting up and the parties are getting increasingly fractious. This means, of course, that blah blah blah. All a bit dull really, I will try to follow it all, but to be honest, I have some interesting paint I have to watch dry.

No post tonight...

listening to the Ashes - Come On England!

Ashes update

Wouldn't it be a real shame if Lee couldn't make it to the 3rd Test...?

Well what a weekend that was...

Friday was my last day at work, so no matter now crap it was, and to be fair, it wasn’t actually that crap at all, it didn’t matter as by 6pm I was off and that was it for a whole two weeks. So Friday evening came and, as is the wont of people heading off on their hols (it wasn’t only me that was off, our office Obon holiday starts on Tuesday) we went off into Tokyo for beers. Now we wanted to go to the pleasant roof top bar that a few of us went to after the rugby that I wrote about somewhere, but when we turned up, mob handed with 10 of us, the rather sniffy chap on the door curtly informed us that they were rather busy and he might have a table on the terrace that could accommodate us, but not for 2 hours at least and that, should we come a-looking for service, it would be a sensible thing to book in advance. So much for spontaneity.

Of course we were now faced with the age-old problem. 10 people, in Shibuya, looking for a night out but more importantly, looking for somewhere that would let s in without a booking. Hmm, so we ended up at the Dubliner’s, not as salubrious a place as we had hoped, but it was open, cheerful, not exactly expensive and didn’t hold with nonsense seating policies i.e. it’s a “proper” pub so you can stand up, if you so desire, a feat of coordination seemingly beyond most Japanese after a couple of dai-namas (and, let’s be fair, after most foreigners after a couple more). Anyway, the initial set back apart, the evening was most convivial, beers were consumed, food was ingested and chit was chatted. All pleasant fun.

Hanabi

Saturday was hanabi season all over Japan and Kawaguchi was no exception. Hanabi, for those not in the know, are Japanese for fireworks (lit. flower of fire) and my they do love them here. Also, being far more sensible than, say the English, the Japanese have their firework displays in August, when it is hot and humid and just right for sitting on riverbanks and drinking beer, instead of November which, whilst historically significant, is bloody cold (I said ‘the English’ above as I initially thought that bonfire night and Guido Fawkes and all that was an English peculiarity, but on reflection I suspect that it might be a British celebration. I mean let’s face it, the Scots, Irish and Welsh are certainly going to celebrate someone who tried to blow up the English parliament – I digress).

As you Marcus is now three months old (my how time flies), we thought it was about time that he received guests whilst at home. To this end, then, friends and colleagues came over, bringing offspring as well. So not only did we have six adults over, but a 7 month old and an 11 month old as well – the 11 month old being my boss’s son (he bought his folks as well) who I am sure I have mentioned somewhere here before. One of the great things about our apartment is that not only does it overlook the river, but away to the right, over the railway bridge in this photo, we get a birds eye view of Toda Koen – Adachi-ku fireworks, all for free and, as the guru likes to point out, without having to be too far from a toilet. We are close enough to see everything, hear and feel the explosions and generally enjoy the atmosphere but, importantly with small ones around, far enough away so that the bangs don’t scare the shit out of the kids. So once again plenty of beer was consumed, food, lovingly prepared by yours truly, was again ingested and fine old time was had by all. The kids all seemed to enjoy themselves, there weren’t any tears before bedtime and, because all were so generous, I’ve got a fridge full of beer that I didn’t have to pay for.

And then there was a small matter of...

The Ashes – what a test match that was. Wow. I tried to listen to as much of it as I could, and certainly got some of the good bits, like Flintoff and Pietersen cutting loose on Thursday afternoon before tea (and Flintoff getting out third ball after tea!). Friday night was a bit hazy, but I certainly remember Flintoff wrapping up the Aussie first innings with 2 in 2 and then Warne bowling Strauss at the end of the day so I must have been compos mentis for at least some of it. Then Saturday night I finally got to turn on the computer after everyone had gone and heard Flintoff’s second bout of fireworks but then went to bed, stupidly, so didn’t hear the majority of the Aussie 2nd innings. But then came Sunday evening and, well, I think that took a few years off my life.

I blame Jonathan Agnew myself. During, I think, the first or second over of the day he turned to a fellow Test Match Special commentator (who was Australian – Geoff Lawson, I think) and said something like “well I suppose to make it interesting we would like Australia to get really close to the target”. Lawson was, of course, incredulous, as was everyone else listening, and said surely you want this over in two balls, like any sensible sportsman with an interest in winning would? But no, Aggers stuck to his guns, the silly bugger. But what a match, I was worried, really worried, going into the last few overs, but finally, thank everything, they did it with 2 runs to spare. I suppose it confirms two things, first that Australia aren’t going to give up without a fight (not a nice, Queensbury rules, jolly good fight but a real, dirty, no hold’s barred dog fight – and why not). Second, that England can win the tight ones. OK, it was close, but old England would have lost, their nerve would have gone, the resolve waned and Kasprowicz would have got the winning runs. But they didn’t, they had the character and the nerve and they won. The fact that Glenn McGrath wasn’t playing certainly helped but hey, how many injury problems have England had in recent series? (and ya boo sucks to Mr McGrath and his 'we'll win 5-0, oh hang on, it's England so there's bound to be some bad weather, let's make that 4-0' prediction.)

And then on Monday

Kool Kat Koizumi is fighting for his political life as the LDP, with shades of the Conservative Party circa 1997, decides to implode over the privatisation of the Japan Post. Just in case you were wondering, the Post Office here is, in effect, the biggest bank in the country, with about 3,000 billion pounds worth of savings in its vaults. This cash has effectively bank rolled Japanese economic expansion for years as, as far as I can make out, various governments took out massive loans using the money as collateral... actually that doesn’t sound quite right as I’m sure there was something about government bonds in there as well. As you can see, this isn’t an issue that I have been taking too much notice of, mainly as it is really quite dull. Until today when the vote on its progress was sent to the upper house after scraping through the lower house last week (I think). Anyway a fair few LDP bigwigs don’t like the idea of using all that cash so threatened to vote against their own party to scupper the bill. The Kool Kat said “do that and I will dissolve the diet and call a general election – we’ll let the people decide”. Bigwigs responded by saying “oh yeah, dare ya”. This was swiftly followed by a “double dare, no returns” from the Kool Kat, and the board was set.

So today the vote was taken and the bill defeated 108 to 125. His bluff called, what did the Kool Kat do? Good as his word, he has dissolved the diet and called an election for September 11th. Of course we now have a dilemma – I like the Kool Kat for sticking to his guns, having a few ideas and for not wearing a tie, but I would love to see the LDP toppled from power for only the second time since WWII, something needs to shake the politics in this country and this could just be the catalyst.

This is going to run and run, more reports to follow, if I can get my head round it. For now, though, thoughts turn to Old Trafford and the third test...

Might be useful

Just found this whilst over at Bondibooks, might be useful for those of you here in the metropolis (of Tokyo, that is) whose Japanese isn't up to much...

Erm...

Not a lot to say, this week, which may come as a surprise to those of you know who know me. But might just go with the flow to see where it takes us. For those of you not living here in the mysterious east let me tell you that it is fucking hot right now. The summer, after the not-really-a typhoon of the other week has decided to let rip with a vengeance and with a desire to make up for lost time. I read somewhere that June in Japan this year was the hottest on record, I don't know if that was meant to be a true statement, but it did not feel like it to me. Or July for that matter, until last week. So now we are back into 35 degree heat and humidity to match. I realise that I proably write about this every year - and quite right too. Of course this wouldn't be too bad if one was sitting on a beach with a good book and something long, cool and alcoholic (and a wife as well), but when one has to go to work, it is not pleasant.

But having said that, yours truly only has four days of work left until a two week holiday! Yaay! Two weeks, wow! This will be the longest holiday I have had since the Guru and I spent a fortnight down under (with a week in the most lovely town of Noosa, where our very own Mr Pratt is at this moment becomming more domesticated as he prepares for family life - congratuations, sir, to you and the wife, good luck and all that (and, of course good luck in the tri-nations and in your attempts to retain the ashes, both of which I suspect are far more pressing concerns right now)). Anyway yes, two weeks off, plenty of time to bond with youngster, read books, get slowly drunk all day and generally do as little as possible, although it would seem that I already have an action plan, including health checks and visits to various government ministries, courteously supplied by the Guru.

But that should leave at least some time for me to get on the bike and go off exploring and getting sunburnt into the bargain. I keep meaning to at the moment, and to take some nice pics of the river and environs to share with you lovely lot, however no matter how bright and sunny the weekdays seem to be at the moment, each weekend clouds over (though with little diminuation in heat or humidity), making snapshot shooting a dull and grey affair, so why bother. Anyway as I will have more time, this will mean more opportunities to go father afield and get lost, which is, of course, the point of having a bike - might even try and ride to the mountains, but they do look a very long way off...

And talking of bicycles, as we were, what is it with Japanese and their inability to oil their bicycle chains? Every day I ride to the station and wince at least twice as some kid (or adult) goes past with a rusty old chain making that teeth-clenchingly horrible squeak. Sends shivers down my spine just sitting here thinking about it. I remember once going to a bike shop with the Guru so she couold get some air for her tyres and then thinking to myself 'ah, some WD40 oil type spray would be useful for a squeaky door hinge at home', so asked the Guru to buy a can. But bike shop guy basically refused, saying her bike didn't need oil. When mentioned that it wasn't for the bike, bike shop guy got very suspicious, as if I had asked for 115grams of processed weapons grade plutonium, a detonator and directions to the nearest cop shop. Suffice it to say I have refrained from using his velocipede emporia since.

One thing that will be taking up a large portion of time will, of course, be the new fantasy football season. Football, being as we know a winter game, kicks off in blighty on August 13th, which surely is about as far from winter as you can get. Seems odd, but who am I to judge. As you may or may not be aware, fantasy football is a pleasant way to while away the winter months and as such there is now quite a following for the Crate of Beer (CoB) Intercontiliga run by chap with far too much time on his hands, Stephen Denney. Anyone sad enough to want to join us is more than welcome, we use the online Daily Telegraph's Telegraph Total Football as the basis for our game (although they've revamped it this year), though be warned, as reigning League Champion and Champion's League winner, I can tell you it is not that easy, not easy at all.

New Ipod

This amused me.

After the typhoon

Bit of a damp squib, really, yesterday's so-called typhoon number seven, but what it did do, as typhoons are wont to do, was launder the atmosphere. So, when yours truly got up around six this morning the air had a most pleasant and refreshing, freshly scrubbed feel to it, which, apart from being pleasing on the skin, meant that Mt Fuji was displayed in all it's glory. So beguiling, did it appear, that I thought I'd better share, so here you go.


Fuji after the July typhoon #1
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji after the July typhoon #2
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji after the July typhoon #3
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Fuji and Chichibu hills after July typhoon
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Bit of a lack of a post this week, but here are some photos of the youngster to keep you going. Shame about the cricket, but at least the footy season is only just around the corner though, eh?



marcus in karate kid pose
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

aah
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

bit dark but lovely smile
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Whoa!

A five minus trembler wandered past the greater Tokyo area at 4:30pm this afternoon, the first real biggy since Marcus was born. Luckily I was holding him at the time and so dashed to the front door, just in case (in the sense of just in case the front of the building falls off, which will happen, judging by the cracks around the balcony). Worrying about yourself during an eathquake is bad enough, but worrying about a three month old is something else. Oddly, no one from the other apartments seemed that worried.

Anyway the 5 minus was centered on the Chiba area, closer to where we used to live and closer to where the Guru's folks live. Apparently it was the biggest quake in the Tokyo area for quite a few years, which I feel is a bit odd as the effects of the Niigata quakes last year felt stronger to me, but there you go. But not to fear (too much) as we are all fine and dandy.

Oh, and apologies about the jinx on the cricket, listening to Saturday afternoon's play, as I currently am, we are117 for 4 'chasing ' 420 and, I fear, we are buggered.

So the Ashes start...

And what a corker, Australia 66 for 4 before lunch, fantastic (but it is a long way to go, I know Pratty).

Anyway, had to share this quote from the cricinfo preview of the first test regarding England captain Michael Vaughan's record during the coin toss at the start of the game:

"Vaughan, who earned a reputation as a luckless tosser in his early captaincy days"

Beautiful.

don't know if you've seen this yet...

the shape of things to come

The guru and I went to see star wars episode three last weekend, it being a bank holiday after all (umi-no-hi, or day for the sea, but not a lot of sea in Saitama (though the river does smell a bit fishy at times)). But how, you may be asking yourself, did you go and see a film with a two month old baby son? Easy really, I went on Sunday and the guru went on Monday, meaning we both enjoyed a pleasant day out and visit to the cinema, though not exactly with each other. Oh well.

This was a shame as we both enjoyed the film very much. For my part i thought it was a lot better than the critics had given it credit for and certainly the best of the 'new' series (though admittedly not difficult!). OK, it has some crap dialogue, but all star wars films have, it's what they do. I was especially annoyed by one critic saying how out of place it was for Obi-Wan to say "I've got a bad feeling about this" towards the start of the film - does this critic know nothing? Has he not seen episodes 4-6? All the way through, in every film including the originals, someone like Luke or Han or Leia say "I've got a bad feeling about this". Yes, it's cheesy, your point being? Now move along.

So, the FX were cool, the spaceship battle scenes fantastic, the light sabre duels just rocked (though got a little tired of Yoda's jump/spin thing), Padme really looked 8 months pregnant with twins, someone had had a word with George Lucas so there was no 'cute' in the film and the story sort of made sense, if you didn't ask too many questions.

But more important than that was what transpired last week. As Japan is sooo behind the times, episode 3 only came to these shores last week, so on domestic telly they have been showing all the other movies, newer ones and the originals. Last Thursday they showed the re-mastered version of Return of the Jedi and of course it had all the extra little scenes and what not. But then, at the end , a travesty. The final scene on Endor has everyone jolly happy and ghost version of Obi-Wan joined by Yoda and then, finally, Anakin Skywalker. OK, but in this new version the actor playing Anakin, whose face we see when Luke rescues him so we know what he looks like, has been replaced by Hayden Christiensen, the chap playing Anakin in the new movies! Talk about a Stalinist re-writing of history! This is my childhood they are fucking with! Why did they need to do that? We've seen Anakin's face already and the person at the end of the film is not him.

Unnecessary and annoying (and probably not worth getting angry about, but, dammit, someone's got to have standards).

Summer's here

I know this for two reasons - firstly because NHK have told me, well, they have told me that the rainy season (the bastard offspring "5th" season that no one talks about) has finished in Kyushu and Shikoku. Eagle-eyed action men amongst you will realise that this does not cover the kanto region, of which Kawaguchi is a part, but it probably will tomorrow and that is near enough for me. Indeed today was warm enough and humid enough to be considered summer in my book, though the actual sunny-ness of summer is still somewhat lacking.

The second, and far more important and trustworthy, reason I know it is summer is that I purchased the season's first bottle of gin and have, this evening, been quietly and pleasurably supping on a number of pleasant G&T's. Even better is that this year, after reading something in some newspaper that says a G&T must be made with 47.5% gin, I have decided to splash out a little and gone for Bombay Sapphire, rather than the usual Gordon's or cheapest other alternative. Well I say 'splash out', but for some reason gin, in Japan, is ridiculously cheap. A regular bottle of 40% Gordon's is less than a fiver (980 yen in the marvellous alocholic emporia that is MyMart) whilst aforesaid Bombay is eight quid, against a price in the UK of about sixteen (so thedrinkshop reliably inform me - and that's for the 40% stuff) and is, I can now confirm, very much worth the extra 600yen or so that I paid for it.

So, roll on the official summer proper. I will be off to Seijo Ishii international supermarket to get my bottle of Pimms No. 57 very soon as well.

And also...

Something that caught my eye in the paper today that I thought I ought to comment upon, incase you missed it, of course. Currently in Japan there is a concern about the the future, the ageing population, lazy youngsters and what to do about it all and luckily, in June, there was a symposium to sort it all out. The meeting singled out a recent SMAP song entitled "Sekai ni Hitotsu dake no Hana" (One and only Flower in the World) as, essentially, being at the root of all Japan's social and economic woes. Apparently the group and song have the temerity to suggest that each and every person is special in their own way, as far as I read it, which is, according to Masaaki Taira, chairman of Japan Junior Chamber, Inc's Kanto District Council, nonsense.

Apparently (and I am not making any of this up) "SMAP's song includes a line that says, 'You don't have to be No. 1. You're always special and the only one.' But such a 'special and only one' doesn't exist. Education should aim to teach students how to prepare to fit in with life in the competitive society." [my italics]

He was referring specifically to Japan's problem with NEET's (those Not in Employment, Education or Training - aka people who don't want to get a job) and Freeters (not sure exactly what it stands for but refers to graduates who take part time jobs in, for example, convenience stores to ensure ample free time to enjoy oneself, but still have some cash available, thereby doing the minimum to get by). These types of young renegades are doing irrepairable damage to people like Taira's chances of getting a decent pension as they don't pay into the national systems like full time employed people, and he is not happy about it, obviously.

Naturally this is SMAP's fault, rather than Taira's or the government's, as SMAP are encouraging young people not to work. It is, of course, quite plausible that SMAP could provide education, jobs and/or training to the millions of people that this affects, or Taira and the govt could do something about it...

But luckily for both, I have the solution - something that is simple, won't cost the govt any money. If Taira and the govt are really worried about NEET's and Freeters not working and not contributing to society all they need to do is pass a law that says no one between the ages of, say, 25 and 55 (thereby allowing for that potentially tricky time between graduation and first 'real' job - and later looking after aged folks), is allowed to live with their parents but must go out and rent, and eventually buy if possible, a place of their own. Having to pay their own rent, rather than sponging absolutley everything off their parents and making no contribution to the household budget whatsoever, will ensure they get themselves motivated to work pretty damn toot sweet I reckon.

Becomming more conservative in my old age? Not me...

Stuff about London

So london wins the right to host the 2012 Olympic games and then the very next day some deranged people blow up tube trains and buses - strange old world, eh? Sort of makes you hark back to the IRA, at least they were civilised about trying to kill the British, coded warnings and often military and/or politcal targets (I realise that a number of their targets did not fall into these categories, the Harrods bomb, for example) whereas the perpertrators of Thursday's explosions went for regular commuters and workers who could not defend themselves and who, to some extent, may well have been sympathetic to their plight (if the bombers were indeed Islamic fundamentalists then the anti-war demonstrations of last year should have been a hint). Had we still been living in London then I think I would have been ok as I would have been at work, however the Guru would have been going through King's Cross on her way to Old Street at about the time of the bombings, so she might, just might, have been caught up in it all. Of course that is a lot of ifs and buts. There is not much I feel I need to add to all of this as there is, I am sure, reams and reams being written already. So well done London on the stiff upper lip approach to it all.

As for the Olympics, will we be back in Blighty for them? Possibly, possibly not, who knows? Of one thing I am quite certain, however, and that is if we are back in Blighty in 2012, we won't be living anywhere near London, hole of a place that it is (yeah yeah yeah, Doctor bleedin' Johnson). I've read a few blogs, especially since the bombings, and not a few have mentioned that suddenly, with all the focus on the old place, they are feeling a tad nostalgic for a bit of litter, crap transport, pollution, overpricing, surly "service" and agression. Can't see it myself. Anyway, we lived in Japan and moved away when the footy world cup came so I can't really see us moving to the UK just because the Olympics are on there.

Stuff about Japan

We have been buying stuff as it is the only way to prove you are a patriotic person in Japan (it seems to me). Anyway, we've got the excuse of a new member of the family so that means we get to buy stuff that we 'really' need. Most fun was the futon storing bag things. As we now have a extra bed for the little 'un, and extra futons, summer duvets, winter duvets and blankets for any unexpected guest that might show up, storage space is becomming a luxury we don't have much of. Futons and duvets take up a lot of space, especially the hollow fibre jobs, so we bought the storage bags. These are fab - bloody great plastic bags with a zip lock side; when eveything is in you stick your hoover into the corner valve thing and, hey presto, air sucked out and thin, rock hard duvets that are *so* much easier to store. I could have watched the air being sucked out all day...maybe I need to get out more.

Also was have purchased a multi-region dvd player which is great and, much to the Guru's surprise as it was from a dodgy looking ad in an English magazine, it actually arrived and it works. I'm still not truly convinced of its foreign dvd playing qualities, but it does play a vcd that (not-much)-golf-playing-(anymore)-brother sent us of Charlie's naming ceremony. We've only watched the speeches so far, about an hour of them, and all seems to be jolly, so thanks for that.

And, of course, we've been buying baby stuff. But that, I fear will never stop - or at least will evolve into buying toddler stuff, then kid stuff etc etc

Japan itself, it seems to me, is pretty quiet at the moment. Koizumi has been off to the G-8 summit and didn't appear to say a lot. The postal sell off/privatisation thing seems to be going ahead, but that is, I think, just a tax dodge and a pretty dull one too boot. Krazy Kim over in NK has gone all coy, perhaps he has taken up semi-professional snail racing, who knows. And of the politicos here no one seems to making gaffes to any extent and keeping their noses clean as the scandal-o-meter is alarmingly low right now. Must be due to rainy season, which looks like it is approaching its last throes. Actually rainy season has been quite pleasant this year in that it has been quite cool, in fact distinctly chilly at times, so much so that the summer hasn't really had a chance to heat up yet. Yes we've had a few hot days, but nothing like last year, thank goodness, where we were topping 30 degrees/90% humidity in early June and it didn't stop until October. How English, talking about the weather - you can take the boy out of Blighty, but...

The little 'un is doing much better now and seems to have got over his eating problem. Although he still can't take in as much food as his contemporaires, he's doing a lot better than when he came out of hospital. Also his weight now seems to be going up at someting like a normal rate and, after spending ages hovering just below the 4kg mark he is now up to 4600grams - so fight on there, little one.

and the winner is...

bloody hell!

but let's be honest about it, those images of jubilation in Trafalgar Sq? They're happy about winning, yes, but more importantly, we beat the French.

Kawaguchi by satellite

The image above was taken by satellite and is of our little bit of Tokyo and Saitama. I got it from Space Imaging which is a cool website that I think I first saw on Bondibooks and have been trying to work out how to use it ever since. So anyway, the big, dark rivery looking thing through the middle of the shot is, as you can probably guess, the Arakawa. To find our little bit of it, first click on the image and then click again on the magnifier doohickey to get the most zoomed in one. Then look to the far right and you can see a smaller 'y' shaped river coming off the main river and going (or actually coming from the) north - north conveniently being up on this image. You can see the slightly lighter grey of the grass river bank moving right before curving down, we are just st the beginning of the curve looking south over the river and into Tokyo, so if you are passing, give us a wave.

Other points of interest on this image are (ok, I think they are interesting): towards the centre of the image, just above the river, is a dark oblong, this is the National Rowing Centre at Toda where they had the rowing events for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Goodness knows how long the course is, probably 4kms or something, and there is also a speedboat racing centre attached as well, which I suspect brings in the cash so they can keep the place open as it appears to be universities that use the rowing course more than anyone and I guess they don't have too much money.

Further to the left you can see what looks like a lake, mainly beacuse it is a lake, part of Toda Doman Green Park, which I would love to find a link to so you can see it, but can't seem to find one. Anyway this is usually the area I go cycling around at the weekend for a bit of exercise, if I can't be bothered to go for a run. I went there yesterday and took some photos, but because the weather was so grey and overcast they didn't come out too well. Still, I will take some more when it brightens up after the rainy season. Suffice it to say this is a most pleasant pak area where there aren't any cars so kids can play, there is windsurfing and boating on the lake, footy and baseball pitches and a great big adventure playground for the young 'uns. I haven't seen it in the height of summer but can guess it will be pretty packed, but who cares, Marcus will be taken there in the not too distant future.

On the far side, next to the river and away from the main people-y bits, it has been really quiet every time I have been there, a real get away from it all area right next to Tokyo - fab, I reckon. Also there is a golf course which I don't dislike as much as ythe others as it has been built in two halves along side the river, so players have to get a boat across the river half way through their round I (so a golfing ex-colleague told me), which seems better, for some reason. Again I have grey and overcast photos which I will not share just at the moment

And that's about it. Apologies if there have been/are some weird spacings around these days, don't know what I've done and so don't know how to stop it, though trust me I have been through the template trying. Oh well. Pity about the Lions as well, as I have said before, this time last year perhaps, it comes to a pretty pass when I have to rely on the England cricket team for some sporting success...

Someting for the golfers...

And now, by popular request, pictures of some pleasant open space now off limits to the majority of the population so sad little people can hit sad little white balls 'here' and, let's face it, 'there' in the name of "sport". And, oh look! There are some people putting in the bottom corner of the first photo! How exciting! [apparently...]


Golf course towards Akabane
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.

Golf course towards somewhere else
Originally uploaded by tokyobogue.