the little 'un is running a temperature, work is just too stressful and sh*tty to be funny anymore and it's raining. Too much for me, I think, to think about posting anything longer than this.
apologies, normal service will be resumed soon, one hopes...
Tuesday, 28 March 2006
Tuesday, 21 March 2006
Classic stuff
Apologies for the lack of post last night, but I was out for leaving beers with colleagues. End of March is always a popular time for leaving beers as lots of colleagues seem to feel it is a good time to move on to something new or return to the UK. I know this to be true as when we left in 2001 we went in April, probably because it coincides with the end/beginning of the academic year here in Japan. This year is a popular one with three friends moving on, one to pastures new in Japan (the chap we were out for last night) whilst two others are returning to Blighty to do stuff there. I have warned them, but little heed has been taken. Oh well.
So in the news this week has been the World Baseball Classic, which is a silly name for what is, in effect, the baseball world cup. It is about time baseball got a world cup, mainly so whichever American team wins their domestic league title (or World Series, as it is known there, after it was originally sponsored by World magazine) will stop calling themselves the world champions, when, patently, they aren’t. Of course the winners of the US’s domestic American football championship will continue to call themselves the world champions, but at least the baseball is a start. Anyway this all kicked off a couple of weeks ago with some games here in Japan in the Asian leg, where Japan managed to lose to South Korea once, or even possibly twice, but they both went to the finals in the US anyway. Lots of games, not a little controversy and some excellent teamwork saw Japan into the final against Cuba, the Americans having been put out by someone, possibly Mexico, whilst Japan got there by beating South Korea at the third attempt. To put it in context a little, Cuba were the favourites to win as they are a better team and, more importantly I guess, are reigning Olympic champions so should be quite handy.
The final was today from 11am Japan time, an amazingly synchronicitious coincidence as today is a national holiday (spring equinox, don’t you know) and so everyone could stay at home and watch it, and not have to get up early to do so. As the kick off (er... pitch off? Hit off? Toss off?) was at 11am, we decided to go out to the community centre, and thence shopping, as it seemed a better thing to do. Actually we went to the community centre a bit earlier than that, to be honest, just after the young ‘un had had his breakfast, when father’s hangover was kicking in (though it wasn’t too bad, luckily (the Oh God of Hangovers would not be happy)). The community centre, which has a name in Japanese that I can never remember, possibly Kokumin centre, is a jolly place that mothers, and sometimes fathers, take their kids under 4 years of age to let off a bit of energy. Essentially it a big room with mats and lots of toys where you can just let your kid go off and they can enjoy themselves whilst mothers chat with other mothers. Today was my first time there and I must say that I was impressed. It was big, there was plenty of room and plenty of toys and, because it was a national holiday, not too crowded. Marcus seemed to enjoy himself, playing with various things, including waving a toy (wooden) kitchen knife around with surprising precision and gusto (career as a chef or mass murderer perhaps). Dad also had fun as I got to push Marcus around on a little scooter thing, his legs aren’t quite long enough to reach the floor just yet, and also because I managed to make two other little kids cry just by looking at them – and there was me thinking I had a great rapport with little kids, oh well. At this point I should just mention that on Saturday we went to Akachan Honpo (Japanese Mothercare, if you remember) and whilst in a play area Marcus managed to stand all by himself with no support and not holding on to anything! An auspicious day, I think you’ll agree and something he did again this afternoon back home, but only for a moment.
So after spending about an hour or so there we went off shopping to the new shopping centre in Kawaguchi (the city is abuzz, I tell you, new building sites, shopping complexes and other stuff everywhere. The place has changed completely in the three years we’ve been here). The place is called Ario and it is, basically, a shopping mall, but it has a cinema that we haven’t been to yet, so it is not all bad. Anyway the good people of Ario were sensible and realised that whilst lots of families may be there to do a spot of shopping, more than likely the fathers would be far more interested in watching the baseball, so they set up TVs for precisely this purpose. When we got there it was 2-0 to Japan in the first inning and people were getting excited. Now personally I don’t really care for baseball, I prefer cricket as any self respecting Englishman should, but then again I have a little interest in it and follow what happens in a cursory way, much as I did ski jumping before watching the Nagano Olympic final in a sports centre once that I wrote about but don’t know where. And of course I, and by ‘I’ I mean we as the Guru got into it as well, really got into this game. We wandered around Ario for a bit, had lunch, bought dinner food, looked at arms & armour for the boy (more of which in future posts), but always kept coming back to the baseball. By the time we left it was 4-1 to Japan and there was a palpable buzz. We walked home in the pleasant spring sunshine, the young ‘un fell asleep and as soon as we got into the house we switched on the TV to find out what was going on.
At this stage I should really have gone to do some study, but what with the previous evening’s exertions, the baseball on the tv and the cricket on the web discretion was the better part of valour and so I slobbed out. On out return Japan was now winning 6-1 and it was looking like a cakewalk (what does that expression really mean and where did it come from?), but then Cuba came back into it. Soon it was 6-3 and Japan had stopped scoring. Then in the bottom of the eighth a Cuban hitter smacked a two run homer to left field and it was 6-5. was an upset on the cards…? Belatedly Japan got their offence working again and, though some really excellent team batting, managed to pound out 4 runs (inexplicably the Cubans walked one Japanese hitter, loading up the bases so that the next man in, Ichiro, who holds the single season record for hits in the US league, had merely to connect and Japan were assured of runs). So, by the bottom of the ninth it was 10-5 and Cuba had to score 6 to win. The second in chap hit another home run, I think, to make it 10-6, but then the Japanese pitcher showed some excellent control and struck out the last two batsmen for no runs and unfancied Japan won the inaugural series and can now, justifiably, call themselves world Champions. And jolly well done, too.
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect is that their play followed national stereotypes almost to perfection. The Cubans wanted to big and macho and hit the leather off the baseball. All death or glory, the individual big hitter, superstar kind of thing. Japan, on the other hand, was all about teamwork, playing as a group, all members doing their bit well to make sure the whole team (and country) succeeded. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it...
Apologies for the lack of post last night, but I was out for leaving beers with colleagues. End of March is always a popular time for leaving beers as lots of colleagues seem to feel it is a good time to move on to something new or return to the UK. I know this to be true as when we left in 2001 we went in April, probably because it coincides with the end/beginning of the academic year here in Japan. This year is a popular one with three friends moving on, one to pastures new in Japan (the chap we were out for last night) whilst two others are returning to Blighty to do stuff there. I have warned them, but little heed has been taken. Oh well.
So in the news this week has been the World Baseball Classic, which is a silly name for what is, in effect, the baseball world cup. It is about time baseball got a world cup, mainly so whichever American team wins their domestic league title (or World Series, as it is known there, after it was originally sponsored by World magazine) will stop calling themselves the world champions, when, patently, they aren’t. Of course the winners of the US’s domestic American football championship will continue to call themselves the world champions, but at least the baseball is a start. Anyway this all kicked off a couple of weeks ago with some games here in Japan in the Asian leg, where Japan managed to lose to South Korea once, or even possibly twice, but they both went to the finals in the US anyway. Lots of games, not a little controversy and some excellent teamwork saw Japan into the final against Cuba, the Americans having been put out by someone, possibly Mexico, whilst Japan got there by beating South Korea at the third attempt. To put it in context a little, Cuba were the favourites to win as they are a better team and, more importantly I guess, are reigning Olympic champions so should be quite handy.
The final was today from 11am Japan time, an amazingly synchronicitious coincidence as today is a national holiday (spring equinox, don’t you know) and so everyone could stay at home and watch it, and not have to get up early to do so. As the kick off (er... pitch off? Hit off? Toss off?) was at 11am, we decided to go out to the community centre, and thence shopping, as it seemed a better thing to do. Actually we went to the community centre a bit earlier than that, to be honest, just after the young ‘un had had his breakfast, when father’s hangover was kicking in (though it wasn’t too bad, luckily (the Oh God of Hangovers would not be happy)). The community centre, which has a name in Japanese that I can never remember, possibly Kokumin centre, is a jolly place that mothers, and sometimes fathers, take their kids under 4 years of age to let off a bit of energy. Essentially it a big room with mats and lots of toys where you can just let your kid go off and they can enjoy themselves whilst mothers chat with other mothers. Today was my first time there and I must say that I was impressed. It was big, there was plenty of room and plenty of toys and, because it was a national holiday, not too crowded. Marcus seemed to enjoy himself, playing with various things, including waving a toy (wooden) kitchen knife around with surprising precision and gusto (career as a chef or mass murderer perhaps). Dad also had fun as I got to push Marcus around on a little scooter thing, his legs aren’t quite long enough to reach the floor just yet, and also because I managed to make two other little kids cry just by looking at them – and there was me thinking I had a great rapport with little kids, oh well. At this point I should just mention that on Saturday we went to Akachan Honpo (Japanese Mothercare, if you remember) and whilst in a play area Marcus managed to stand all by himself with no support and not holding on to anything! An auspicious day, I think you’ll agree and something he did again this afternoon back home, but only for a moment.
So after spending about an hour or so there we went off shopping to the new shopping centre in Kawaguchi (the city is abuzz, I tell you, new building sites, shopping complexes and other stuff everywhere. The place has changed completely in the three years we’ve been here). The place is called Ario and it is, basically, a shopping mall, but it has a cinema that we haven’t been to yet, so it is not all bad. Anyway the good people of Ario were sensible and realised that whilst lots of families may be there to do a spot of shopping, more than likely the fathers would be far more interested in watching the baseball, so they set up TVs for precisely this purpose. When we got there it was 2-0 to Japan in the first inning and people were getting excited. Now personally I don’t really care for baseball, I prefer cricket as any self respecting Englishman should, but then again I have a little interest in it and follow what happens in a cursory way, much as I did ski jumping before watching the Nagano Olympic final in a sports centre once that I wrote about but don’t know where. And of course I, and by ‘I’ I mean we as the Guru got into it as well, really got into this game. We wandered around Ario for a bit, had lunch, bought dinner food, looked at arms & armour for the boy (more of which in future posts), but always kept coming back to the baseball. By the time we left it was 4-1 to Japan and there was a palpable buzz. We walked home in the pleasant spring sunshine, the young ‘un fell asleep and as soon as we got into the house we switched on the TV to find out what was going on.
At this stage I should really have gone to do some study, but what with the previous evening’s exertions, the baseball on the tv and the cricket on the web discretion was the better part of valour and so I slobbed out. On out return Japan was now winning 6-1 and it was looking like a cakewalk (what does that expression really mean and where did it come from?), but then Cuba came back into it. Soon it was 6-3 and Japan had stopped scoring. Then in the bottom of the eighth a Cuban hitter smacked a two run homer to left field and it was 6-5. was an upset on the cards…? Belatedly Japan got their offence working again and, though some really excellent team batting, managed to pound out 4 runs (inexplicably the Cubans walked one Japanese hitter, loading up the bases so that the next man in, Ichiro, who holds the single season record for hits in the US league, had merely to connect and Japan were assured of runs). So, by the bottom of the ninth it was 10-5 and Cuba had to score 6 to win. The second in chap hit another home run, I think, to make it 10-6, but then the Japanese pitcher showed some excellent control and struck out the last two batsmen for no runs and unfancied Japan won the inaugural series and can now, justifiably, call themselves world Champions. And jolly well done, too.
Perhaps the most pleasing aspect is that their play followed national stereotypes almost to perfection. The Cubans wanted to big and macho and hit the leather off the baseball. All death or glory, the individual big hitter, superstar kind of thing. Japan, on the other hand, was all about teamwork, playing as a group, all members doing their bit well to make sure the whole team (and country) succeeded. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it...
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
On the move
Now Tokyo has, if you don’t know and/or haven’t lived here, one of the best public transport systems in the world. I can say this because I have been to a few places and have decided it to be so (but, for the record, I haven’t been to that many places, but have decided it to be so anyway. I mean, I haven’t seen the marble-clad mausoleum that is the Moscow subway, but I reckon that Tokyo’s probably works a little better). The fact that the public transport services are, to put in mildly, excruciatingly busy of a morning does not seem to stop their ability to deliver me to where I want to be at, basically, the time I want to be there. Actually there was an interesting piece in one of the free weekly listings magazines recently about the Tokyo Metro (as it has been renamed as when it was called the subway people kept going to station masters and tried to order club sandwiches with extra mayo (honestly)), which had the usual blurb you would right about a metro system if you were writing an article about one, and also some facts and figures. The most interesting fact and figure for me was that the most crowded bit of line is the Tozai line between Kiba and (I think) Monzen-nakacho, heading into Tokyo, around 830am of a weekday. This was interesting to me as this exactly the time that I pass this stretch of line – thank goodness that I’m going out of Tokyo and can wave at all the suckers squashed sardine fashion on trains going the other way. Ho ho. Amazingly this bit of line runs every morning at 197% capacity. 197 per cent! I mean, how can that be? To me 100% capacity means a full train so to squeeze double that number of people on, I mean, phew. Thank goodness it isn’t me indeed. Although I do get a jolly busy train for three stops from Kawaguchi to Oji on the Keihin-Tohoku train line, and that three stops is bad enough and is only rarely crowded enough that I have trouble breathing. Still, with this aging population problem there should be enough space by about, say 2106, or something.
Anyway that is not exactly what I was going to write about. What I want to mention is the fantastic service you get if, shock horror, the trains go wrong. Now this has happened on the old Keihin-Tohoku line a couple of times in the last month, which in itself is enough to write home about (not that I have, apologies to parentals) as, generally speaking, trains and metros do not get delayed in this country, even when the men with white gloves are pushing people onto the trains so they all fit (yes, it does happen, it is not an urban myth but no, I have not been subjected to their synchronised shoving and nor do I want to be). But sometimes the trains do get delayed, quite often by some exceptionally unhappy yet not very public spirited person who jumps in front of a train as it pulls into a station. Other times there are just technical problems (wrong kind of snow, leaves on the line, tricky sudoku problem to solve), which mean delays. Now in the UK, from what I remember, there is such a thing as a timetable which BR and The London Underground produce which list trains, times and destinations and which have no bearing to what is actually travelling along the tracks at any given time. The Japanese, on the other hand, have a timetable which bears not a passing resemblance to reality but which is actually run by atomic clocks and is attuned to the cosmic tick (or rather, the universe sets its wristwatch by the 11:02 Tokyo-Osaka shinkansen (possibly). That this works is testament to the fact that, well, the Japanese know how to run a train/tube system properly – so much so that if I go onto Yahoo Japan and tell it I want to be in Yokohama at 930 in the morning, as I did this morning, it will tell me to take the 8:30 from Kawaguchi and I know that I can pitch up at Kawaguchi at 8:30 and the train will be pulling into the station and it will then deposit me in Yokohama at 9:26 as promised. And it works every time. Why the British can’t do this, I will never know.
Slightly off point there – so, what happens when it doesn’t work? Well, last week, or perhaps the week before I arrived at the station at my regular time of about 8:15 to find crowds and an unmoving train at the platform. Hmm, thinks I, shall I pop for a cup of coffee and wait as this could take a while if it was a jumper (i.e. someone jumped in front of a train, not a sweater left on the tracks, which would be a BR excuse)? I have a moment of indecision and walk to the overpass to see if the trains start moving. They do, but I wait a little longer just to make sure another comes to replace the one that left, which it does.
Ok, so I head down to the platform and wait for a train, of which plenty come past but these are now somewhat more stuffed than usual as, naturally, more people have got on, or tried to get on, at earlier stations etc. by the time I manage squeeze on my 8:20 has become an 8:40 running at (at least) 197% capacity. As I said I only have to go three stops before I change and, even better the first of the stops in Akabane which is a big changeover station so you can usually fight to get into an aisle here, much better than being squashed against a door and/or other person. By the time I get to Oji I am still about 20 minutes late but here is why the Japanese public transport system is so great. At Oji I leave the trains and head underground and actually change station and on exiting Oji JR station there are stationed three bowing, exceedingly apologetic JR staff, saying sorry for the delays and hading out little slips of paper, about the size of a shop receipt with the day’s date, approximate time, station and train line and a short message to my boss saying ‘sorry this chap was late, it wasn’t his fault, the line was delayed, we will happily pay for any inconvenience this has caused or offer our daughters hand’s in marriage, if it will make things better’, or something like that. I mean wow, can you imagine BR apologising for being 20 minutes late? Come to think of it if a BR train were only 20 minutes late the staff would congratulating themselves on a job well done.
So, well done, greater Tokyo public transportation staff, for a job really well done.
Oh
And just in case you thought there wasn’t anything to complain about this week, well done to the boys in blue of Kawaguchi who arrested a woman the other week for ‘looking foreign’ even though she was Japanese. But fair enough because looking foreign is a crime in Japan, isn’t it...? More here.
Now Tokyo has, if you don’t know and/or haven’t lived here, one of the best public transport systems in the world. I can say this because I have been to a few places and have decided it to be so (but, for the record, I haven’t been to that many places, but have decided it to be so anyway. I mean, I haven’t seen the marble-clad mausoleum that is the Moscow subway, but I reckon that Tokyo’s probably works a little better). The fact that the public transport services are, to put in mildly, excruciatingly busy of a morning does not seem to stop their ability to deliver me to where I want to be at, basically, the time I want to be there. Actually there was an interesting piece in one of the free weekly listings magazines recently about the Tokyo Metro (as it has been renamed as when it was called the subway people kept going to station masters and tried to order club sandwiches with extra mayo (honestly)), which had the usual blurb you would right about a metro system if you were writing an article about one, and also some facts and figures. The most interesting fact and figure for me was that the most crowded bit of line is the Tozai line between Kiba and (I think) Monzen-nakacho, heading into Tokyo, around 830am of a weekday. This was interesting to me as this exactly the time that I pass this stretch of line – thank goodness that I’m going out of Tokyo and can wave at all the suckers squashed sardine fashion on trains going the other way. Ho ho. Amazingly this bit of line runs every morning at 197% capacity. 197 per cent! I mean, how can that be? To me 100% capacity means a full train so to squeeze double that number of people on, I mean, phew. Thank goodness it isn’t me indeed. Although I do get a jolly busy train for three stops from Kawaguchi to Oji on the Keihin-Tohoku train line, and that three stops is bad enough and is only rarely crowded enough that I have trouble breathing. Still, with this aging population problem there should be enough space by about, say 2106, or something.
Anyway that is not exactly what I was going to write about. What I want to mention is the fantastic service you get if, shock horror, the trains go wrong. Now this has happened on the old Keihin-Tohoku line a couple of times in the last month, which in itself is enough to write home about (not that I have, apologies to parentals) as, generally speaking, trains and metros do not get delayed in this country, even when the men with white gloves are pushing people onto the trains so they all fit (yes, it does happen, it is not an urban myth but no, I have not been subjected to their synchronised shoving and nor do I want to be). But sometimes the trains do get delayed, quite often by some exceptionally unhappy yet not very public spirited person who jumps in front of a train as it pulls into a station. Other times there are just technical problems (wrong kind of snow, leaves on the line, tricky sudoku problem to solve), which mean delays. Now in the UK, from what I remember, there is such a thing as a timetable which BR and The London Underground produce which list trains, times and destinations and which have no bearing to what is actually travelling along the tracks at any given time. The Japanese, on the other hand, have a timetable which bears not a passing resemblance to reality but which is actually run by atomic clocks and is attuned to the cosmic tick (or rather, the universe sets its wristwatch by the 11:02 Tokyo-Osaka shinkansen (possibly). That this works is testament to the fact that, well, the Japanese know how to run a train/tube system properly – so much so that if I go onto Yahoo Japan and tell it I want to be in Yokohama at 930 in the morning, as I did this morning, it will tell me to take the 8:30 from Kawaguchi and I know that I can pitch up at Kawaguchi at 8:30 and the train will be pulling into the station and it will then deposit me in Yokohama at 9:26 as promised. And it works every time. Why the British can’t do this, I will never know.
Slightly off point there – so, what happens when it doesn’t work? Well, last week, or perhaps the week before I arrived at the station at my regular time of about 8:15 to find crowds and an unmoving train at the platform. Hmm, thinks I, shall I pop for a cup of coffee and wait as this could take a while if it was a jumper (i.e. someone jumped in front of a train, not a sweater left on the tracks, which would be a BR excuse)? I have a moment of indecision and walk to the overpass to see if the trains start moving. They do, but I wait a little longer just to make sure another comes to replace the one that left, which it does.
Ok, so I head down to the platform and wait for a train, of which plenty come past but these are now somewhat more stuffed than usual as, naturally, more people have got on, or tried to get on, at earlier stations etc. by the time I manage squeeze on my 8:20 has become an 8:40 running at (at least) 197% capacity. As I said I only have to go three stops before I change and, even better the first of the stops in Akabane which is a big changeover station so you can usually fight to get into an aisle here, much better than being squashed against a door and/or other person. By the time I get to Oji I am still about 20 minutes late but here is why the Japanese public transport system is so great. At Oji I leave the trains and head underground and actually change station and on exiting Oji JR station there are stationed three bowing, exceedingly apologetic JR staff, saying sorry for the delays and hading out little slips of paper, about the size of a shop receipt with the day’s date, approximate time, station and train line and a short message to my boss saying ‘sorry this chap was late, it wasn’t his fault, the line was delayed, we will happily pay for any inconvenience this has caused or offer our daughters hand’s in marriage, if it will make things better’, or something like that. I mean wow, can you imagine BR apologising for being 20 minutes late? Come to think of it if a BR train were only 20 minutes late the staff would congratulating themselves on a job well done.
So, well done, greater Tokyo public transportation staff, for a job really well done.
Oh
And just in case you thought there wasn’t anything to complain about this week, well done to the boys in blue of Kawaguchi who arrested a woman the other week for ‘looking foreign’ even though she was Japanese. But fair enough because looking foreign is a crime in Japan, isn’t it...? More here.
Wednesday, 8 March 2006
Meme
These things seem to be all the rage right now, well, I mean that they have appeared over at 35degrees and SAAP recently and as I don’t have much to write about this week, or rather I do but summoning the creative energy has defeated my so far, I thought I’d be self indulgent and write about myself. And why not, so...
Four jobs I’ve had in my life
Cheese a deli assistant in Waitrose
English Teacher
‘Jonny No Stars’ in KFC
Recruitment Consultant (which is bottom of the list for a very good reason)
Four movies I can watch over and over again
Goodfellas
Blazing Saddles
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Aliens
Four places I have lived
Fleet in Hampshire
Somerton in Somerset
Leamington Spa in Warwickshire
Kawaguchi in Saitama
Four TV shows I love
Er, well this is a tricky one as I don’t really watch a great deal of TV except for news and sports, mainly as in Japan there isn’t a great deal to watch. I suppose ER is about the only thing that annually comes around that the Guru and I watch all of, but I’ve never got into The Simpsons or much like it. Though I suppose if I can catch South Park, I will. And there is the Before/After house changing programme thing on Sunday evenings, now sadly discontinued, that was worth a watch, as was Iron Chef when it was on. But otherwise, not a lot really.
Four holiday locations I have enjoyed
Sydney, Brisbane and Noosa in Australia (and a place I’d like to add to the ‘...have lived in’ list)
Koh Samet in Thailand
Annecy in France (ah, childhood)
The Lake District in the UK
Four of my favourite dishes
Mum’s roast beef (of course)
Thai green curry
Grilled lamb chops (not that easy to find in Japan and not at all cheap)
Maguro (tuna) sashimi
Four websites I visit everyday
The Telegraph (for news and sports and the Alex cartoon)
Cricinfo (to see what’s going on in the world of cricket)
Site Meter (to see who’s looking)
Flickr (to look at other people’s snaps)
Four places I’d rather be now (apart from playing with the little ‘un and the Guru)
Sitting on a beach somewhere, not really that bothered where, so could be SE Asia, Australia, southern France or anywhere else warm really. But must have a bar close by, a decent book close to hand and somewhere for the little ‘un to play.
Gambolling up, or indeed down, a mountain somewhere in the UK, probably in the Lakes, but Wales and Scotland are also beautiful.
Poking my nose into some antiquity such as Egypt, Greece or Iran, getting a bit of culture, seeing the sights, breathing in a bit of history.
Wandering around Italy, I’ve never been but the Guru has and of this I am very jealous. When we finally have the time, it will be spent travelling from place to place.
Four bloggers I have tagged
Er, is that the same as linking? Don’t think so, in which case none. I may have a blog, but that does not mean I know what I am doing. What is tagging? Actually don’t bother to answer that, if I had wanted to do it I would have done it by now (as it is free, unlike spending a year wandering around Italy, which most definitely is not).
NB all the above will have probably have changed by tomorrow - well, not the ones about where I have lived, for example, as that cannot be changed, but opinion-y ones like where I'd rather be. You get the idea.
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
Not in the news this week
Well, not in the Japanese news anyway, which is odd. I was watching BBC world news this afternoon (having a relaxingly pleasant day not at work) and caught an odd story. It was a typical ‘dog bites man’ story in that it was about a dog that bit a man. What was odd about this was that firstly the dog was Romanian (not, in itself, odd, I grant you), whereas secondly, the man was Japanese. The third oddity in all of this was the fact that the man died of this bite to, if memory serves, his thigh. The fourth and oddest thing about all of this was that a Japanese man, a businessman as well, had died on a foreign shore and no one in Japan had reported it. To check that it was not just me that had missed it I checked with the Guru, who watches several TV news programmes a day and she had not heard of it either.
So, why the media conspiracy? What was the man doing? Why did the dog bite him? What are they trying to hide? And why are the authorities in Romania trying to silence the only witness to the whole affair – the dog? All very suspicious, if you ask me. Usually if something happens to a Japanese person in the big wide world it is a huge story here (and just to balanced about this, I think the news media every country takes a similar stance), but about this one there seems to be little. Although having said that there doesn’t seem to be much on the BBC news site now either, though there is a video news report about it that I am not going to watch, having seem it already. The Japanese media seem to be quite happy to show Japanese people getting in a muddle abroad – I seem to remember a report from a few years ago where a couple were in the middle east having a wander around and inadvertently found themselves in the middle of one of the Palestinian camps, Ramalla I think, just as the Israeli army sent in the troops to destroy the place. The Japanese couple looked extremely bewildered and not a little shocked – “we’ve been travelling for a while so were out of the loop” was their sheepish response.
Anyway back to this shaggy dog story. Apparently the carnivorous canine is now residing at the state’s pleasure and is scheduled to be put down, along with a large number of other dogs in Bucharest, as they seem to have something of a strays problem. One of the things I’m wondering about, though, is quite how a bite to the thigh can lead to death? I mean, if the dog was rabid or diseased you would think that it would have been put down immediately, but no, it is still around. Its plight is such that Brigitte Bardot is giving her two penny worth and trying to save aforesaid dog – and has been trying to save the stray population of Bucharest for a number of years. Interestingly the news report said that an agreement existed where, at the moment, only aggressive, dangerous or ill/diseased dogs would be put down – now I don’t know about you, but I think that a dog that attacks and kills a foreign businessman could quite possibly fall into all three categories and yet clemency has so far been the order of the day.
All very suspicious, if you ask me. Perhaps the dog is in the pay of the state, a hitdog, if you will. Perhaps the businessman wasn’t, actually, a businessman. Who knows...?
This doesn’t, of course, explain the lack of comment in the Japanese media. As I mentioned above, pretty much any country’s media, should one of their own fall on foreign soil, will be there in droves, talking to anyone they can get their hands on. Especially, in this country, the right wing, isolationist, be wary of foreigners section of the media who, one would have thought, would have pounced on this as yet more proof that it is a dangerous world out there so you are better off staying here. All, as I said, very odd
One thing that is odd but in a very different way is Taro Aso – current foreign minister and possible future PM. Poor old Taro, everything he says the media (them again) take out of context and twist his words. So, when the media report that he said the Chinese should ‘just get over’ the fact that the Kool Kid prays at Yasukuni shrine (praising, as we know, class A war criminals), what he really said was the Chinese and all those other moaning Asians should get over it (possibly). And he didn’t really say that the occupation and colonisation of Taiwan was good for them (the Taiwanese) as it raised education standards – he said that it raised education standards as well as everything else on that emperor-forsaken rock (allegedly). Anyway what is odd is that this chap, with his record of foot-in-mouth disease, is the man entrusted with talking to the Iranians about their current uranium enrichment plans. I mean, a slightly unbalanced, doctrinaire, twitchy Middle Eastern power with a lot of oil and a nuclear power station half built is moving slowly but surely along a path to nuclear weapon capability which the US and the west will not allow to come to pass and the guy who is charged with trying to talk them out of it is Taro? Uh oh...
Well, not in the Japanese news anyway, which is odd. I was watching BBC world news this afternoon (having a relaxingly pleasant day not at work) and caught an odd story. It was a typical ‘dog bites man’ story in that it was about a dog that bit a man. What was odd about this was that firstly the dog was Romanian (not, in itself, odd, I grant you), whereas secondly, the man was Japanese. The third oddity in all of this was the fact that the man died of this bite to, if memory serves, his thigh. The fourth and oddest thing about all of this was that a Japanese man, a businessman as well, had died on a foreign shore and no one in Japan had reported it. To check that it was not just me that had missed it I checked with the Guru, who watches several TV news programmes a day and she had not heard of it either.
So, why the media conspiracy? What was the man doing? Why did the dog bite him? What are they trying to hide? And why are the authorities in Romania trying to silence the only witness to the whole affair – the dog? All very suspicious, if you ask me. Usually if something happens to a Japanese person in the big wide world it is a huge story here (and just to balanced about this, I think the news media every country takes a similar stance), but about this one there seems to be little. Although having said that there doesn’t seem to be much on the BBC news site now either, though there is a video news report about it that I am not going to watch, having seem it already. The Japanese media seem to be quite happy to show Japanese people getting in a muddle abroad – I seem to remember a report from a few years ago where a couple were in the middle east having a wander around and inadvertently found themselves in the middle of one of the Palestinian camps, Ramalla I think, just as the Israeli army sent in the troops to destroy the place. The Japanese couple looked extremely bewildered and not a little shocked – “we’ve been travelling for a while so were out of the loop” was their sheepish response.
Anyway back to this shaggy dog story. Apparently the carnivorous canine is now residing at the state’s pleasure and is scheduled to be put down, along with a large number of other dogs in Bucharest, as they seem to have something of a strays problem. One of the things I’m wondering about, though, is quite how a bite to the thigh can lead to death? I mean, if the dog was rabid or diseased you would think that it would have been put down immediately, but no, it is still around. Its plight is such that Brigitte Bardot is giving her two penny worth and trying to save aforesaid dog – and has been trying to save the stray population of Bucharest for a number of years. Interestingly the news report said that an agreement existed where, at the moment, only aggressive, dangerous or ill/diseased dogs would be put down – now I don’t know about you, but I think that a dog that attacks and kills a foreign businessman could quite possibly fall into all three categories and yet clemency has so far been the order of the day.
All very suspicious, if you ask me. Perhaps the dog is in the pay of the state, a hitdog, if you will. Perhaps the businessman wasn’t, actually, a businessman. Who knows...?
This doesn’t, of course, explain the lack of comment in the Japanese media. As I mentioned above, pretty much any country’s media, should one of their own fall on foreign soil, will be there in droves, talking to anyone they can get their hands on. Especially, in this country, the right wing, isolationist, be wary of foreigners section of the media who, one would have thought, would have pounced on this as yet more proof that it is a dangerous world out there so you are better off staying here. All, as I said, very odd
One thing that is odd but in a very different way is Taro Aso – current foreign minister and possible future PM. Poor old Taro, everything he says the media (them again) take out of context and twist his words. So, when the media report that he said the Chinese should ‘just get over’ the fact that the Kool Kid prays at Yasukuni shrine (praising, as we know, class A war criminals), what he really said was the Chinese and all those other moaning Asians should get over it (possibly). And he didn’t really say that the occupation and colonisation of Taiwan was good for them (the Taiwanese) as it raised education standards – he said that it raised education standards as well as everything else on that emperor-forsaken rock (allegedly). Anyway what is odd is that this chap, with his record of foot-in-mouth disease, is the man entrusted with talking to the Iranians about their current uranium enrichment plans. I mean, a slightly unbalanced, doctrinaire, twitchy Middle Eastern power with a lot of oil and a nuclear power station half built is moving slowly but surely along a path to nuclear weapon capability which the US and the west will not allow to come to pass and the guy who is charged with trying to talk them out of it is Taro? Uh oh...
Friday, 24 February 2006
Blog wins Gold!
In an international Olympic first a skater representing the popular and well known Blog Arakawa Riverview has won a gold medal. See this BBC report for more details.
Go Arakawa Go!
In an international Olympic first a skater representing the popular and well known Blog Arakawa Riverview has won a gold medal. See this BBC report for more details.
Go Arakawa Go!
Monday, 20 February 2006
Headlines
So it was a happy weekend for Japan, this one just gone. First up a Chinese born woman with a Japanese husband stabs two 5 yr old girls to death – she was taking them to kindergarten with her own 5 year by car, a system introduced to protect kids from strangers and, it was hoped, danger. Then in the paper today there were the headlines ‘Woman stabs son, self in apparent suicide bid’, followed by ‘Man hangs self after strangling daughter’. Oh what a happy world we live in.
I don’t know, seems like there are more and more of these kinds of things going on, indeed I think I might have written about it only a few weeks or months ago, and here I am again. What I find stranger is that, well, I know suicide is quite a big thing in Japan, not frowned upon as the coward’s way out as it is in the West, but rather more a heroic thing to do (at least it was, I mean the old connotations of suicide are more glorified than in the west – death or glory, you’ll never take me alive, seppuku, that sort of thing), but now there seems to be a definite ‘not just me but I’ll take someone with me as well, as in the two headlines from the paper.
The first case, with the mother killing the two little kids, is truly shocking as there seems to be little, so far, in the way of motive, except that the woman seemed a little upset that she had to take part in the car-pooling for the kids and that she blamed the other kids (and, I guess, mothers) for her kid not being able to fit in and make friends (which, of course, the little kid will be very able to do from now on!). But of course this sort of thing is not without precedent. A few years ago, before this blog started perhaps (or maybe not, I forget), a mother in Tokyo murdered the friend of her daughter, again about 5 years old or so, as she was jealous of the girl getting into a prestigious kindergarten (no doubt paying a wad of ‘gift’ money into the bargain as well). That one shocked the nation: ‘how could she do it?’; ‘all because of a kindergarten?’ and ‘how could jealousy drive a mother to kill a little girl?’. But I reckon there were a few, in the long dark nights, given the extremely competitive nature of schooling in this country, and especially Tokyo, who could see what drove the mind of that particular woman and, whilst never sympathise with her, could find a tiny bit of empathy for her. Or I could be completely wrong, of course.
But no, the other two in the headlines strike a different kind of chord. OK, end of tether has been reached and you just can’t go on with your life. Suicide seems to be the only option open to you and a decision is made. But this is not a spontaneous decision as not only do you plan to do away with yourself, but you decide that someone else is going to come with you. And not only that but a member of your own family as well. Maybe I don’t remember reading about this stuff in the UK, or maybe t happens all the time now I don’t live there, I don’t know, but it seems to be happening more and more in this country and, I guess this is my point, no one really seems to be that bothered about it. I mean, I would expect politicians to be up in arms about this, or at least appear to be as family groups would be putting pressure on them to do something about it. But no, not a mention. Don’t get me wrong, politicians do get up in arms about the breakdown of moral fibre in this country, but that is invariably focused on kids and teenagers who are disrespectful to their elders (i.e. the politicians, to whom everyone should be disrespectful), who talk funny, are slovenly and who are, generally, teenagers. But parents killing their kids and then committing suicide, well, that seems to be acceptable, or, at least, not something anyone can do anything about, so best keep quiet about it.
Snow etc
But luckily for Japan we have the Winter Olympics in Turin to take our minds off all the nasty stuff going on. What with all the gold, silver and bronze medals the boys and girls have bee raking in the ski jumping, speed skating and...sorry...ah. As of this morning’s newspaper even Team GB had more medals than Japan, with its proud heritage and great expectations – OK, GB has only a lone silver in the skeleton, whatever that is, but it is better than nothing. And Japan may well overtake us seeing as they have the women’s figure skating to come and their women’s curling team beat GB putting us, it looks, out of contention for a medal. But it is interesting to watch the events, late in the evening before going to bed, and wonder if there are any sports going on which Team Japan are not involved in – there are, of course, like ice hockey and bobsledding, but as Japan aren’t in those, NHK doesn’t care and wont show them. But hey, we’ve been here before with the summer games in Greece in ’04 so we know all about the tv coverage.
On a lighter note
In the last week the young ‘un has made great strides, literally. On Valentine’s day last week he finally decided that ok, maybe he would give this crawling lark a try and set off around the living room but in the ‘commando’ style of pulling himself along with his arms. Then on maybe Friday he thought he’d try a new stage so started doing the crab style thing on hands and toes, not moving, just getting into the position (if you don’t know, this is a precursor to standing up). Then today he managed to pull himself into a standing position all by himself (well, with the help of the sofa, but all the upwardness of thrust came from his legs, not mum or dad). And finally, this evening, he actually crawled properly for the first time, i.e. moving arms and legs at the same time.
So, well done youngster, a very productive week.
So it was a happy weekend for Japan, this one just gone. First up a Chinese born woman with a Japanese husband stabs two 5 yr old girls to death – she was taking them to kindergarten with her own 5 year by car, a system introduced to protect kids from strangers and, it was hoped, danger. Then in the paper today there were the headlines ‘Woman stabs son, self in apparent suicide bid’, followed by ‘Man hangs self after strangling daughter’. Oh what a happy world we live in.
I don’t know, seems like there are more and more of these kinds of things going on, indeed I think I might have written about it only a few weeks or months ago, and here I am again. What I find stranger is that, well, I know suicide is quite a big thing in Japan, not frowned upon as the coward’s way out as it is in the West, but rather more a heroic thing to do (at least it was, I mean the old connotations of suicide are more glorified than in the west – death or glory, you’ll never take me alive, seppuku, that sort of thing), but now there seems to be a definite ‘not just me but I’ll take someone with me as well, as in the two headlines from the paper.
The first case, with the mother killing the two little kids, is truly shocking as there seems to be little, so far, in the way of motive, except that the woman seemed a little upset that she had to take part in the car-pooling for the kids and that she blamed the other kids (and, I guess, mothers) for her kid not being able to fit in and make friends (which, of course, the little kid will be very able to do from now on!). But of course this sort of thing is not without precedent. A few years ago, before this blog started perhaps (or maybe not, I forget), a mother in Tokyo murdered the friend of her daughter, again about 5 years old or so, as she was jealous of the girl getting into a prestigious kindergarten (no doubt paying a wad of ‘gift’ money into the bargain as well). That one shocked the nation: ‘how could she do it?’; ‘all because of a kindergarten?’ and ‘how could jealousy drive a mother to kill a little girl?’. But I reckon there were a few, in the long dark nights, given the extremely competitive nature of schooling in this country, and especially Tokyo, who could see what drove the mind of that particular woman and, whilst never sympathise with her, could find a tiny bit of empathy for her. Or I could be completely wrong, of course.
But no, the other two in the headlines strike a different kind of chord. OK, end of tether has been reached and you just can’t go on with your life. Suicide seems to be the only option open to you and a decision is made. But this is not a spontaneous decision as not only do you plan to do away with yourself, but you decide that someone else is going to come with you. And not only that but a member of your own family as well. Maybe I don’t remember reading about this stuff in the UK, or maybe t happens all the time now I don’t live there, I don’t know, but it seems to be happening more and more in this country and, I guess this is my point, no one really seems to be that bothered about it. I mean, I would expect politicians to be up in arms about this, or at least appear to be as family groups would be putting pressure on them to do something about it. But no, not a mention. Don’t get me wrong, politicians do get up in arms about the breakdown of moral fibre in this country, but that is invariably focused on kids and teenagers who are disrespectful to their elders (i.e. the politicians, to whom everyone should be disrespectful), who talk funny, are slovenly and who are, generally, teenagers. But parents killing their kids and then committing suicide, well, that seems to be acceptable, or, at least, not something anyone can do anything about, so best keep quiet about it.
Snow etc
But luckily for Japan we have the Winter Olympics in Turin to take our minds off all the nasty stuff going on. What with all the gold, silver and bronze medals the boys and girls have bee raking in the ski jumping, speed skating and...sorry...ah. As of this morning’s newspaper even Team GB had more medals than Japan, with its proud heritage and great expectations – OK, GB has only a lone silver in the skeleton, whatever that is, but it is better than nothing. And Japan may well overtake us seeing as they have the women’s figure skating to come and their women’s curling team beat GB putting us, it looks, out of contention for a medal. But it is interesting to watch the events, late in the evening before going to bed, and wonder if there are any sports going on which Team Japan are not involved in – there are, of course, like ice hockey and bobsledding, but as Japan aren’t in those, NHK doesn’t care and wont show them. But hey, we’ve been here before with the summer games in Greece in ’04 so we know all about the tv coverage.
On a lighter note
In the last week the young ‘un has made great strides, literally. On Valentine’s day last week he finally decided that ok, maybe he would give this crawling lark a try and set off around the living room but in the ‘commando’ style of pulling himself along with his arms. Then on maybe Friday he thought he’d try a new stage so started doing the crab style thing on hands and toes, not moving, just getting into the position (if you don’t know, this is a precursor to standing up). Then today he managed to pull himself into a standing position all by himself (well, with the help of the sofa, but all the upwardness of thrust came from his legs, not mum or dad). And finally, this evening, he actually crawled properly for the first time, i.e. moving arms and legs at the same time.
So, well done youngster, a very productive week.
Monday, 13 February 2006
Thank goodness
Was studying on Sunday, as I am wont to do and as mentioned in last week’s post. Also mentioned in the post last week was that I am getting a little worried as I couldn’t find the angle to hang the dissertation on. Well, that is now past tense as yesterday, luckily, finally, I got my epiphany, that moment of insight where suddenly you can see the form, see the structure, see what it is you are going to do and, more importantly, just how you are going to be able to do it. I’m just a tad relieved by this, as you may have guessed, as I was getting quite worried about the whole dissertation thing. I won’t bore you with the details as I am sure that you are not really that interested and am hoping that I might write something more interesting soon (not sure if I can help with that one this week, I’m afraid), but suffice it to say that, after having come through the other side, I can look back and think that it is so obvious that how on earth could I miss it? But I did, for quite a while, but no longer – now I can see where to go, what research needs to be done, who I need to research and what sort of thing to ask them. Phew!
Otherwise it was a quiet week. The boss was away on hols, which was good, but it meant that the MD came to me with questions, rather than the boss. This is not good as the MD is thick, doesn’t listen, speaks without thinking, says yes to the CE and no to everyone else and is generally crap and for whom nothing is ever her fault. And no, I don’t like her either. Luckily she only came to me with one question over the budget, for which I gave her the correct answer, which she didn’t like, then realised there was no way around what I told her so appropriated my answer as her own idea and told the CE. No response yet from the CE but if he doesn’t like what he hears you can be sure that the answer will be appropriated back to me with alacrity. But the boss is back now so the deflector shield is back in operation.
In the news it seems another of the royals is going to have a baby. This is interesting for me only the sense of the succession, which I may have mentioned over the recent weeks. As you know currently only men may become head of state of Japan i.e. Emperor (obviously as a woman cannot be Emperor only Empress, but currently that cannot happen was what I meant). This is an issue as there are no male children ready after the current crown prince accedes the throne – he only has a daughter, princess Akiko, and that one was hard enough to come by, if the tabloids are to be read. Anyway the Kool Kid has proposed changing the law to allow women the top job, for which the country has become divided – most people think it is a good idea, whilst a bunch of bigoted, misogynistic old farts who happen to be vocal and quite powerful (including members of the royal family) disagree. Anyway it was announced last week that another member of the royal family is now preggers, I think it is the wife of one of the crown prince’s brothers, perhaps. So now everyone, including the Kool Kid, has said ‘whoa there, maybe we have been a bit hasty in saying we’ll change the constitution as the couple might have a boy’. That the princess is only 6 weeks pregnant (i.e. in prime ‘problem’ territory) seems not to have occurred to anyone. Also, no one seems to have asked the crown prince his views on his daughter being bumped out of the way, or indeed if it is constitutionally possible, seeing as the unborn prince/princess-ling is not in direct, oldest male heir to the throne lineage thing. And of course it might be a girl anyway.
But hey, Japan was trying to take another step into the 20th century, so you have to give them credit for that.
Anyway, here are some photos of the youngster, who is in fine fettle indeed.
Er...
Standing #1
Who farted?
Playing #1
Smiley
Paparazzi shot
Was studying on Sunday, as I am wont to do and as mentioned in last week’s post. Also mentioned in the post last week was that I am getting a little worried as I couldn’t find the angle to hang the dissertation on. Well, that is now past tense as yesterday, luckily, finally, I got my epiphany, that moment of insight where suddenly you can see the form, see the structure, see what it is you are going to do and, more importantly, just how you are going to be able to do it. I’m just a tad relieved by this, as you may have guessed, as I was getting quite worried about the whole dissertation thing. I won’t bore you with the details as I am sure that you are not really that interested and am hoping that I might write something more interesting soon (not sure if I can help with that one this week, I’m afraid), but suffice it to say that, after having come through the other side, I can look back and think that it is so obvious that how on earth could I miss it? But I did, for quite a while, but no longer – now I can see where to go, what research needs to be done, who I need to research and what sort of thing to ask them. Phew!
Otherwise it was a quiet week. The boss was away on hols, which was good, but it meant that the MD came to me with questions, rather than the boss. This is not good as the MD is thick, doesn’t listen, speaks without thinking, says yes to the CE and no to everyone else and is generally crap and for whom nothing is ever her fault. And no, I don’t like her either. Luckily she only came to me with one question over the budget, for which I gave her the correct answer, which she didn’t like, then realised there was no way around what I told her so appropriated my answer as her own idea and told the CE. No response yet from the CE but if he doesn’t like what he hears you can be sure that the answer will be appropriated back to me with alacrity. But the boss is back now so the deflector shield is back in operation.
In the news it seems another of the royals is going to have a baby. This is interesting for me only the sense of the succession, which I may have mentioned over the recent weeks. As you know currently only men may become head of state of Japan i.e. Emperor (obviously as a woman cannot be Emperor only Empress, but currently that cannot happen was what I meant). This is an issue as there are no male children ready after the current crown prince accedes the throne – he only has a daughter, princess Akiko, and that one was hard enough to come by, if the tabloids are to be read. Anyway the Kool Kid has proposed changing the law to allow women the top job, for which the country has become divided – most people think it is a good idea, whilst a bunch of bigoted, misogynistic old farts who happen to be vocal and quite powerful (including members of the royal family) disagree. Anyway it was announced last week that another member of the royal family is now preggers, I think it is the wife of one of the crown prince’s brothers, perhaps. So now everyone, including the Kool Kid, has said ‘whoa there, maybe we have been a bit hasty in saying we’ll change the constitution as the couple might have a boy’. That the princess is only 6 weeks pregnant (i.e. in prime ‘problem’ territory) seems not to have occurred to anyone. Also, no one seems to have asked the crown prince his views on his daughter being bumped out of the way, or indeed if it is constitutionally possible, seeing as the unborn prince/princess-ling is not in direct, oldest male heir to the throne lineage thing. And of course it might be a girl anyway.
But hey, Japan was trying to take another step into the 20th century, so you have to give them credit for that.
Anyway, here are some photos of the youngster, who is in fine fettle indeed.
Er...
Standing #1
Who farted?
Playing #1
Smiley
Paparazzi shot
Tuesday, 7 February 2006
Monday, 6 February 2006
Pardon?
All seems a bit quiet at the moment, and I’m not just talking about this house now that the young ‘un is in bed and snoozing away (though he did just wake up for his three hourly ‘where’s my food?’ grizzle, all quiet now).
No, Japan itself seems on the quiet side, perhaps it is the weather. The Livedoor thing that I wrote about last week is still rumbling on and Horie has decided to go with the cunning defence of ‘I’m not guilty of anything’, which seems to have temporarily stumped the inquisition and so who are getting their best man onto it (whoever he may be, though the Yomiuri did allude to the fact that the person investigating was a super top dog in the investigative dept, usually the sort of bloke who investigates war crimes and terrorist activities – obviously a dangerous man then, Horie...)
Also the construction scandal is ongoing – this was a little bit cooler today as they inspectors went to one of the suspect buildings that is located about 200metres from this very computer desk. The Guru saw it on telly was tempted, only for a second mind, to go down and wave at the camera. Anyway I may well walk past the block tomorrow on the way to work, just to be nosy of course, see if there is anything interesting going on – though I doubt it as that was probably today and, more importantly, it will likely be snowing tomorrow morning so I fear the inspectors with their hard hats will be holed up somewhere with a nice cup of tea.
Japan also seems quiet in comparison to the rest of the world, especially in connection with the whole Danish cartoon imbroglio. I don’t know if there is a large Moslem community in Japan, I figure there must be as there seem to be a community pretty much everywhere you go, but I have yet to see of any demonstrations outside the Danish embassy here (just noticed that word capitalises the major religions of the world – never knew that). Perhaps if there is a Moslem community here they have been influenced by the Japanese laissez-faire attitude to religion and so just go with it, I don’t know, but seems a little odd to me. Not that I am complaining, of course, as has been said before there is enough hate in the world already without people adding to it, but I feel it is being taken a little bit too far when some radical cleric starts on about trying and executing the cartoonists for blasphemy, especially in a secular European country – no sense of humour, obviously. Then again the western world realises (or at least should) that doing something like drawing cartoons of Mohammed is going to provoke a pretty serious, negative reaction. But of course that shouldn’t mean they don’t do it, if that were the case then freedom of speech would go out of the window (where if may be going anyway). Anyhoo not much of a reaction that I have seen on these shores.
So, what with all this deafening non-committance going on I thought ‘well, if George W can have a state of the union speech about what’s going in his life, I shall do the same’.
Er...
The young ‘un is coming along a treat, right now. He is slowly but surely becoming more mobile, when we were back in Blighty for Christmas it looked as if he was making very rapid progress towards crawling, but since we came back he sort of gave up the ghost. Until this last week gone by, really, when I think he decided enough was enough and he’d better get moving. So he started scooting about on his arse, pushing himself backwards and moving happily from sprawling to sitting and back again, but always in a rearwards direction. This weekend he started lifting his tummy off the floor in a kind of press-up (or push-up, for our US audience) pose – not crawling, that, but only a small leap, as it were, from there to standing on his own. He hasn’t managed that leap, yet, but with a help he is standing quite happily, supporting himself (though holding on to who or whatever is closest) and smiling mightily at the enjoyment of it. Indeed he is a most smiley baby and seems to be enjoying himself almost all the time – some kids sound like they are ultra hard work but Marcus just looks like he’s having a ball. His motor skills are also coming on a treat, picking stuff up, throwing stuff at mum and dad, exploring what he can do and getting into activities like ‘open the cupboard door’ and ‘what happens if I pull this cord really hard?’ – and no, it doesn’t matter how much you think you have baby-proofed your house, they’ll always find something else to pull/push/shake/etc. He’s also very much enjoying his food, onto three square meals a day now, which means that the poor Guru is either cooking, or thinking of things to cook, pretty much all day.
Talking of the Guru she is doing very well except for the fact she is tired and shagged out by the end of each day. This would be easier to cope with if the little ‘un was able to sleep through the night, but this has so far eluded him and he still awakens around midnight and 3 am, looking for a tasty morsel to get his chops around, something which due to biology I cannot help with, if you get my drift. Thus the Guru’s days, and nights, seem to be spent dealing with food for him in some respect. And thinking of things to feed him isn’t easy as for about 10 days he had diarrhoea, which might have been to do with what he was eating, but it didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest and then the doc said it was because of a cold (er, so let’s get this straight, it’s a cold that involves no snot, no fever, no cough, just lots of watery shit? Right...). Anyway that meant he missed his polio shot at the beginning of Feb as it would have gone straight through him, apparently, and will miss the next available one in May as he will be having another shot, MMR perhaps, so will have to wait until September as for some reason you can’t just pitch up and get a polio shot in Japan, they are only given at specific times by specific doctors. No idea why it is (dis)organised like that, but it means that our trip to west Africa has had to be postponed.
As for yours truly, my dissertation is uppermost in my mind at the moment (well, uppermost in what’s left of my mind that isn’t think ‘I don’t want to be here, I want to be at home with Marcus’, which isn’t a lot). The studying is going at the moment, but I’m not sure if it going ‘well’ or not. I know what the theme of the dissertation is, that’ll be teacher recruitment, selection and induction, but what I don’t have is a conceptual framework to hang it all on at the moment (that’ll be nonsense jargon for not knowing how to structure my research, what exactly to research or how to go about it). Still, at least I know what I want to look at, which is a start, but I need to get a bit more focused as the research methods module I’m doing has to be submitted in May and is essentially two sections of the dissertation itself (how the research will be done and the literature review), so better get some ideas soon or could be a little stuck in a couple of months – I think having 6 months off, a month back on then a three weekend holiday to the UK has meant I am out of practice and the stop-start return hasn’t helped. But mustn’t whinge as it won’t help and, looking on the bright side, it will all be over by December.
Right, that’s enough for now, off to bed for me.
Oh, and well done England for stuffing the Welsh on Saturday evening! A fine performance all round (and well done to Scotland as well, what a result), shame JSkySports has got such piss poor coverage of the rest of the 6 nations.
All seems a bit quiet at the moment, and I’m not just talking about this house now that the young ‘un is in bed and snoozing away (though he did just wake up for his three hourly ‘where’s my food?’ grizzle, all quiet now).
No, Japan itself seems on the quiet side, perhaps it is the weather. The Livedoor thing that I wrote about last week is still rumbling on and Horie has decided to go with the cunning defence of ‘I’m not guilty of anything’, which seems to have temporarily stumped the inquisition and so who are getting their best man onto it (whoever he may be, though the Yomiuri did allude to the fact that the person investigating was a super top dog in the investigative dept, usually the sort of bloke who investigates war crimes and terrorist activities – obviously a dangerous man then, Horie...)
Also the construction scandal is ongoing – this was a little bit cooler today as they inspectors went to one of the suspect buildings that is located about 200metres from this very computer desk. The Guru saw it on telly was tempted, only for a second mind, to go down and wave at the camera. Anyway I may well walk past the block tomorrow on the way to work, just to be nosy of course, see if there is anything interesting going on – though I doubt it as that was probably today and, more importantly, it will likely be snowing tomorrow morning so I fear the inspectors with their hard hats will be holed up somewhere with a nice cup of tea.
Japan also seems quiet in comparison to the rest of the world, especially in connection with the whole Danish cartoon imbroglio. I don’t know if there is a large Moslem community in Japan, I figure there must be as there seem to be a community pretty much everywhere you go, but I have yet to see of any demonstrations outside the Danish embassy here (just noticed that word capitalises the major religions of the world – never knew that). Perhaps if there is a Moslem community here they have been influenced by the Japanese laissez-faire attitude to religion and so just go with it, I don’t know, but seems a little odd to me. Not that I am complaining, of course, as has been said before there is enough hate in the world already without people adding to it, but I feel it is being taken a little bit too far when some radical cleric starts on about trying and executing the cartoonists for blasphemy, especially in a secular European country – no sense of humour, obviously. Then again the western world realises (or at least should) that doing something like drawing cartoons of Mohammed is going to provoke a pretty serious, negative reaction. But of course that shouldn’t mean they don’t do it, if that were the case then freedom of speech would go out of the window (where if may be going anyway). Anyhoo not much of a reaction that I have seen on these shores.
So, what with all this deafening non-committance going on I thought ‘well, if George W can have a state of the union speech about what’s going in his life, I shall do the same’.
Er...
The young ‘un is coming along a treat, right now. He is slowly but surely becoming more mobile, when we were back in Blighty for Christmas it looked as if he was making very rapid progress towards crawling, but since we came back he sort of gave up the ghost. Until this last week gone by, really, when I think he decided enough was enough and he’d better get moving. So he started scooting about on his arse, pushing himself backwards and moving happily from sprawling to sitting and back again, but always in a rearwards direction. This weekend he started lifting his tummy off the floor in a kind of press-up (or push-up, for our US audience) pose – not crawling, that, but only a small leap, as it were, from there to standing on his own. He hasn’t managed that leap, yet, but with a help he is standing quite happily, supporting himself (though holding on to who or whatever is closest) and smiling mightily at the enjoyment of it. Indeed he is a most smiley baby and seems to be enjoying himself almost all the time – some kids sound like they are ultra hard work but Marcus just looks like he’s having a ball. His motor skills are also coming on a treat, picking stuff up, throwing stuff at mum and dad, exploring what he can do and getting into activities like ‘open the cupboard door’ and ‘what happens if I pull this cord really hard?’ – and no, it doesn’t matter how much you think you have baby-proofed your house, they’ll always find something else to pull/push/shake/etc. He’s also very much enjoying his food, onto three square meals a day now, which means that the poor Guru is either cooking, or thinking of things to cook, pretty much all day.
Talking of the Guru she is doing very well except for the fact she is tired and shagged out by the end of each day. This would be easier to cope with if the little ‘un was able to sleep through the night, but this has so far eluded him and he still awakens around midnight and 3 am, looking for a tasty morsel to get his chops around, something which due to biology I cannot help with, if you get my drift. Thus the Guru’s days, and nights, seem to be spent dealing with food for him in some respect. And thinking of things to feed him isn’t easy as for about 10 days he had diarrhoea, which might have been to do with what he was eating, but it didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest and then the doc said it was because of a cold (er, so let’s get this straight, it’s a cold that involves no snot, no fever, no cough, just lots of watery shit? Right...). Anyway that meant he missed his polio shot at the beginning of Feb as it would have gone straight through him, apparently, and will miss the next available one in May as he will be having another shot, MMR perhaps, so will have to wait until September as for some reason you can’t just pitch up and get a polio shot in Japan, they are only given at specific times by specific doctors. No idea why it is (dis)organised like that, but it means that our trip to west Africa has had to be postponed.
As for yours truly, my dissertation is uppermost in my mind at the moment (well, uppermost in what’s left of my mind that isn’t think ‘I don’t want to be here, I want to be at home with Marcus’, which isn’t a lot). The studying is going at the moment, but I’m not sure if it going ‘well’ or not. I know what the theme of the dissertation is, that’ll be teacher recruitment, selection and induction, but what I don’t have is a conceptual framework to hang it all on at the moment (that’ll be nonsense jargon for not knowing how to structure my research, what exactly to research or how to go about it). Still, at least I know what I want to look at, which is a start, but I need to get a bit more focused as the research methods module I’m doing has to be submitted in May and is essentially two sections of the dissertation itself (how the research will be done and the literature review), so better get some ideas soon or could be a little stuck in a couple of months – I think having 6 months off, a month back on then a three weekend holiday to the UK has meant I am out of practice and the stop-start return hasn’t helped. But mustn’t whinge as it won’t help and, looking on the bright side, it will all be over by December.
Right, that’s enough for now, off to bed for me.
Oh, and well done England for stuffing the Welsh on Saturday evening! A fine performance all round (and well done to Scotland as well, what a result), shame JSkySports has got such piss poor coverage of the rest of the 6 nations.
Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Random thoughts
Ok, so what’s going on with this whole Livedoor! Horie thing? Lots has been written by far more knowledgeable people than me, but for the uninitiated out there it’s the age old tale of: brash young chap starts up internet-somethingorother firm, pretends to be Steve Jobs by not wearing a tie (annoys other salarymen), buys up lots of other firms (annoys more salarymen), tries to buy a baseball team (annoys anonymous grey suited salaryman-like team owners (old money)), the kids really dig his can do attitude (never a good idea), tries to buy a TV station (annoys you know who), runs for parliament when the Kool Kid boots out the postal rebels and needs new recruits and almost gets in (like, really annoying the entire over-50 great suited mass of Salaryman i.e. the ones with the real power), then gets found out.
Now corporate Japan, as is quite obvious to anyone living here or reading the business pages, is built on a foundation of white-collar crime, fraud, corruption and incompetence. But to join this club you must work your way up, wear a grey suit, put in the hours and prove that you are of the requisite calibre to continue this great tradition of avarice and screwing people over. It is not the done thing to attempt to join these ranks at the tender age of 33, having made your own money and not even owning a tie. Just doesn’t work like that.
That, it seems to me (and other from whom I am cribbing, I freely admit) is why Horie’s fall from grace has been so swift and so absolute. I don’t think it matters now if he and his company did indulge in insider trading and dodgy funding buy-back share deals, or whatever, he is, as far as everyone seems to be concerned, guilty as charged and up a certain creek. And that’s a real shame because he was just the sort of person that Japan Inc. needs to pull the stuttering economy out of its somnolence and back to health. But no, seems he tried to take on the ‘old’ way of doing things with a new approach, whilst retaining the palm-greasing that is necessary (at least he wasn’t some crazy, holier-than-thou, crusading anti-corruption nutter), but found the culture of ‘that’s not exactly how we do things around here, you know’ just a little too tough to crack.
Also interesting that the whole Livedoor! Fall from grace exploded just when the Aneha homes construction scandal was about to get interesting by moving from the people whole designed and built the buildings to those who turned a blind eye or two, which may well have included a few politicians and other assorted bigwigs who would far rather some 33 year old internet yob took a bit of heat than, say, they did. Weird that. But anyway, Horie is now heading for a big fall, as was the Nikkei until people started realising that buying cheap stock was great and so now the Nikkei is at a 5 year high, or something, so looks like he was good for business. One can hope that his fall will force the Kool Kid into doing something about the corruption that seems to pervade all levels of commerce and business in this country, but I doubt it as they are the ones who bank roll all the parties (along with the construction industry which, no doubt, is very happy the Livedoor thing has taken them off the front pages) and the politicians and top businessmen will continue their cosy little relationship.
Haven’t had a rant for a while, quite enjoyed that, so here's another...
OK, so what’s going on with this American foreign policy thing then? In the red corner (so to speak) we have Krazy Kim’s North Korean People Mart – they are, allegedly, a terrorist nation, they kidnapped lots of Japanese from lonely beaches in the 1970s, the country is run by an unpleasant dictator with bad hair and dress sense, they have nukes in contravention of everything that is right a proper in the world according to America (do as I say don’t do as...), and all the other stuff as well, and yet the US cannot wait to get them to a negotiating table.
Similar story, though with notable exceptions, going on with Iran, the biggest being that they haven’t actually got any nukes yet but they have the temerity to suggest that they might like some. Now I am in no way condoning these regimes (especially the nonsense spouted by the new Iranian PM regarding Israel, the holocaust and suchlike) – the world does not need any more nuclear weapons, or weapons of any kind, and so these states should be brought into the world community and their toys taken away.
But what gets me is the American, and indeed world, reaction to the election of Hamas in Palestine. Now again I am in no way condoning Hamas and their methods of action or their desire to destroy, again, Israel – there is enough hate in the world, we don’t need any more, thank you. But, here is a democratically elected government, surprised at their own success, to be sure, but elected they have been. They have a poor state, they have little clout and yet already the US and most other countries have signalled they will refuse to even talk to them unless there is a swift and unanimous split from the military wing. Now, has Krazy Kim been told that he has to distance himself from his army before 6-way talks will begin? No. Has a similar request been made of Iran? Nope. Indeed did anyone, including Bush’s old man, make such a request of Gerry Adams, to spilt from the Provisional IRA, when he took tea at the Whitehouse every fecking year? I don’t think so.
But Hamas, well, they’re only little and in the puny, very new, easily squashed state of Palestine aren’t they, so we can darn well tell them what to do. Ha! No one f*cks with the good ‘ole US of A (unless they also have a very big stick).
Hmm, lucky I’m in a happy place right now, chap could get a touch down if he were to think to much about these things.
Ok, so what’s going on with this whole Livedoor! Horie thing? Lots has been written by far more knowledgeable people than me, but for the uninitiated out there it’s the age old tale of: brash young chap starts up internet-somethingorother firm, pretends to be Steve Jobs by not wearing a tie (annoys other salarymen), buys up lots of other firms (annoys more salarymen), tries to buy a baseball team (annoys anonymous grey suited salaryman-like team owners (old money)), the kids really dig his can do attitude (never a good idea), tries to buy a TV station (annoys you know who), runs for parliament when the Kool Kid boots out the postal rebels and needs new recruits and almost gets in (like, really annoying the entire over-50 great suited mass of Salaryman i.e. the ones with the real power), then gets found out.
Now corporate Japan, as is quite obvious to anyone living here or reading the business pages, is built on a foundation of white-collar crime, fraud, corruption and incompetence. But to join this club you must work your way up, wear a grey suit, put in the hours and prove that you are of the requisite calibre to continue this great tradition of avarice and screwing people over. It is not the done thing to attempt to join these ranks at the tender age of 33, having made your own money and not even owning a tie. Just doesn’t work like that.
That, it seems to me (and other from whom I am cribbing, I freely admit) is why Horie’s fall from grace has been so swift and so absolute. I don’t think it matters now if he and his company did indulge in insider trading and dodgy funding buy-back share deals, or whatever, he is, as far as everyone seems to be concerned, guilty as charged and up a certain creek. And that’s a real shame because he was just the sort of person that Japan Inc. needs to pull the stuttering economy out of its somnolence and back to health. But no, seems he tried to take on the ‘old’ way of doing things with a new approach, whilst retaining the palm-greasing that is necessary (at least he wasn’t some crazy, holier-than-thou, crusading anti-corruption nutter), but found the culture of ‘that’s not exactly how we do things around here, you know’ just a little too tough to crack.
Also interesting that the whole Livedoor! Fall from grace exploded just when the Aneha homes construction scandal was about to get interesting by moving from the people whole designed and built the buildings to those who turned a blind eye or two, which may well have included a few politicians and other assorted bigwigs who would far rather some 33 year old internet yob took a bit of heat than, say, they did. Weird that. But anyway, Horie is now heading for a big fall, as was the Nikkei until people started realising that buying cheap stock was great and so now the Nikkei is at a 5 year high, or something, so looks like he was good for business. One can hope that his fall will force the Kool Kid into doing something about the corruption that seems to pervade all levels of commerce and business in this country, but I doubt it as they are the ones who bank roll all the parties (along with the construction industry which, no doubt, is very happy the Livedoor thing has taken them off the front pages) and the politicians and top businessmen will continue their cosy little relationship.
Haven’t had a rant for a while, quite enjoyed that, so here's another...
OK, so what’s going on with this American foreign policy thing then? In the red corner (so to speak) we have Krazy Kim’s North Korean People Mart – they are, allegedly, a terrorist nation, they kidnapped lots of Japanese from lonely beaches in the 1970s, the country is run by an unpleasant dictator with bad hair and dress sense, they have nukes in contravention of everything that is right a proper in the world according to America (do as I say don’t do as...), and all the other stuff as well, and yet the US cannot wait to get them to a negotiating table.
Similar story, though with notable exceptions, going on with Iran, the biggest being that they haven’t actually got any nukes yet but they have the temerity to suggest that they might like some. Now I am in no way condoning these regimes (especially the nonsense spouted by the new Iranian PM regarding Israel, the holocaust and suchlike) – the world does not need any more nuclear weapons, or weapons of any kind, and so these states should be brought into the world community and their toys taken away.
But what gets me is the American, and indeed world, reaction to the election of Hamas in Palestine. Now again I am in no way condoning Hamas and their methods of action or their desire to destroy, again, Israel – there is enough hate in the world, we don’t need any more, thank you. But, here is a democratically elected government, surprised at their own success, to be sure, but elected they have been. They have a poor state, they have little clout and yet already the US and most other countries have signalled they will refuse to even talk to them unless there is a swift and unanimous split from the military wing. Now, has Krazy Kim been told that he has to distance himself from his army before 6-way talks will begin? No. Has a similar request been made of Iran? Nope. Indeed did anyone, including Bush’s old man, make such a request of Gerry Adams, to spilt from the Provisional IRA, when he took tea at the Whitehouse every fecking year? I don’t think so.
But Hamas, well, they’re only little and in the puny, very new, easily squashed state of Palestine aren’t they, so we can darn well tell them what to do. Ha! No one f*cks with the good ‘ole US of A (unless they also have a very big stick).
Hmm, lucky I’m in a happy place right now, chap could get a touch down if he were to think to much about these things.
Monday, 30 January 2006
Tonight's post...
...will now be tomorrow as I've been too busy to write anything down - or indeed think of much to write. But that will change. Anyway, two quick things to mention, first congratulations and felicitations to the McG household on the birth of their first, Sophia, over in Oz somewhere - well done all involved.
Second, more photos of our jaunt back to the UK for crimbo are now on display over at Flickr, so go check them out.
...will now be tomorrow as I've been too busy to write anything down - or indeed think of much to write. But that will change. Anyway, two quick things to mention, first congratulations and felicitations to the McG household on the birth of their first, Sophia, over in Oz somewhere - well done all involved.
Second, more photos of our jaunt back to the UK for crimbo are now on display over at Flickr, so go check them out.
Monday, 23 January 2006
Right, better get on with the story of Christmas, then.
So, Friday finished work with the glorious prospect of a fortnight back in Blighty to look forward to. First job was to pack and this simple task was made all the easier by the fact that the Guru had already done most of it. Indeed such was her foresight that she had actually sent two boxes of stuff on to her parents, with whom we stopped on Saturday night before flying on Sunday, as a sort of staging post or way station...
OK, that was written a few weeks ago before I managed to pour coffee over the computer, so have to now try and remember what went on over the hols – not an easy task from this distance.
So, to the in-laws prior to our departure, this was a cunning plan as it meant that if anything went wrong with our leaving, like forgetting something vital, we would still be in a position to do something about it. Luckily we didn’t, but what I did do, or rather, what I wasn’t sure that I’d done, was about the only thing that the Guru asked me to do, which was not to forget to take the milk out of the fridge before leaving and wash the carton. Ok, simple thing to do I know, but I spent the entire holiday worrying about whether we were going to return to a living fridge covered in green slime. Naturally before we left the house the Guru had asked me about three times to throw it away and of course I replied, probably louder than necessary something like ‘look just leave it to me, I’ll sort it out, alright!’ Ooops...
Anyway that was by the by as we were to the in-laws, where we picked up the boxes already sent, and repacked the suitcases, including borrowing one from the mother-in-law, everything actually fitted into the cases and didn’t seem to weigh too much over the limit – although we did manage to gt all the youngster’s stuff into one separate bag that was ‘hand’ luggage and weighed a ton.
The other thing I had been worrying about was the seats and whether we would get a baby bassinet/cot thing for Marcus. I was worried as Virgin refused to allow us to book specific seats in advance and, as we went through a travel agency rather than booking direct, wouldn’t confirm the availability of aforesaid cot thing until about a month before the flight, which ended up being two weeks before the flight and even then was only a ‘you should be alright, just make sure you check in early...’ (but coming back the other way, you can do his quick check in thing where you can reserve specific seats over the internet, hmm). But on getting to Narita, checking in was a cinch and we got exactly the seats we wanted. Even better was that not only was the airport empty, so, basically, was the flight. Nice. But before we got on the flight we had to go through the security check – of course it was the usual ‘did you pack your bags yourself?’ and ‘any dangerous objects in there?’ type questions, to which the answers were yes and no respectively – we had been very careful to ensure that things like Marcus’ nail scissors were safely in the suitcase. In fact so much attention had been focused on his stuff that the Guru had quite forgotten about her eyebrow scissors in her make up bag...
The security people were very nice about it, realising that a women with a baby strapped to her front was perhaps not an international terrorist hell bent on hijacking a 747 armed only with a tiny pair of eyebrow scissors – but it was a close run thing. Their helpful suggestion was to try to catch the suitcases before they went into the hold, but alas they had already departed and so we had to say goodbye to the scissors, which was a particularly poignant and emotional moment – the Guru had had them for a good few years – but now they are safely stored in the examples box in front of the security check area (should we ever want to visit them in the future).
The flight itself was long, involving and, in the end, not quite as bad as I thought it might have been. We got the middle bulkhead seats, which was good, and the baby cot thing, this wasn’t. The cot thing was placed on a big fold down tray thing in front of us, folded up into a cot shape, fastened together with press studs and then attached to the fold down tray with a couple of straps. This would have been ok except that the straps went across the top of the cot about 10cm from the top end and the bottom end, or exactly where Marcus’ head and knees were when we tried to lie him down. Now the youngster isn’t the best of sleepers in the first place and one of usually has to lie next to him after putting him down to make sure he actually drops off – in a aeroplane with a too small cot thing with straps over the top getting him in and off to sleep proved almost impossible. We succeeded a couple of times, the first was going ok until he tried to roll over and realised that because of the straps he couldn’t – best wake up then. Next time we’d tried again, got there and he’d been asleep for about 15 minutes and seemed to be going well. Then, of course, a mild judder ran through the plane and due to this ‘turbulence’ the seat belt light came on and so we had to take him out of the cot – wouldn’t you just know it. After that we just gave up and kept a hold of him, hard on the arms but easier in the long run.
Arriving in England and once again I was ‘so’ happy that we were able to use the lively and characterful Heathrow rather than the sterile and soulless Narita. But all tings were well, being met by the various family members, for whom this was the first opportunity to meet Marcus, though with his body clock on about 1am Tokyo time whilst it was really 4pm UK time, he did seem a bit fazed by the whole thing, especially when he was strapped into a car seat for the first time in his life.
From then on the whole holiday thing took over. We stayed at golf-playing-brother’s place for about 5 days, were introduced to Charlie, my nephew and Marcus’s cousin all rolled into one (now, at 16 months, a walking and talking ball of energy and snot), met up with old school friends and generally enjoyed ourselves whilst watching Marcus try to come to terms with jet lag. For adults it isn’t too bad as you can tell yourself to not sleep during the days and, reasonably quickly, get over it. Babies, on the other hand, think it is perfectly natural to be up at 3am and wanting to play. At first this isn’t too bad as your body clock is saying the same thing, but after a couple of night, when not a few bottles of red have been seen off, the novelty and enjoyment starts to wear a bit thin. Still, at least g-p-b has satellite and there are plenty of crap channels to watch at 3am. The youngster did eventually get over the jet lag, but it probably wasn’t until the Thursday night, after having arrived on Sunday afternoon.
Christmas itself was at the folks place in deepest, darkest Hampshire, but before we got there we had a brief visit to Hove where Marcus met his great grand parents on my father’s side. As they are both getting on a bit now, great grandfather is in his 90s and generally pretty marble-less, this was perhaps the one and only time for them all to meet. I’m glad to say it was a happy affair, all were on their best behaviour and things all went without a hitch, which doesn’t make for particularly gripping blogging, but hey, it was an important moment for all there.
For Christmas day we had 13 sitting down for lunch. Of course if Agatha Christie had had anything to do with it the butler would have poisoned someone over the chance to acquire a priceless diamond, or something. So, mindful of this, the babies were luckily not included in the seating plan and we gave the butler the afternoon off, thus preventing any sort of nonsense going on. The days carried on much in the same vein, plenty of red wine was consumed, and Father Christmas paid us all a visit on Christmas afternoon to dispense toys and whatnot – I’m not sure that Marcus’ had much clue what was going on, but Charlie was agog at the whole show and I think it made his Christmas. Oddly, though, my father missed out on the whole thing as he was elsewhere in the house at the time. Odd that...
And lastly, of course, the (sort of) annual Christmas backgammon tournament was held. Now last time this happened, as you can see from the link, it was very much a nip and tuck affair, with the advantage tipping one way, then the other. But this time around, well, suffice it to say that a whipping was handed out and, as you can probably tell from the smile on my face at the memory, it was yours truly that handed out the whipping. 30-13 was the final score, almost as sweet as the vintage port that accompanied the victory. I won’t dwell on it as that would appear to be crowing so suffice it to say, nyah nyah nyah!
And then we came home. Again the flight back, leaving the UK on the 31st and arriving in Japan on January 1st 2006, was more or less empty. Again we got decent seats and again Marcus would not sleep in the cot thing. Coming home seemed a lot quicker than going to the UK, even though the flight was only about 30 minutes quicker, but it was still long enough. At one stage there were about 6 parents with their babies all standing in the galley area at the back, no one getting any sleep – it was almost like we had set up a little day care centre. Narita airport was again a dream to navigate and I reckon that it was no more than about 15 minutes from the time we left the plane until we were in a taxi heading for the in-laws. But of course it had to happen somewhere – all holiday we had managed not to drop, step on or otherwise accidentally damage the youngster but in the plane, as we were about to get off I was help the Guru put him into the baby carrier/sling thing. To do this I lift him up, the Guru guides his feet and body into the sling and then he kind of slides down into it. This time, though, as I lifted him up I did it a little too vigorously and managed to smack his head on the luggage compartment above... Doh! No real damage done, thankfully, but a bit of a shock for the poor lad.
Still, at least I had remembered to take the milk out of the fridge. Phew!
So, Friday finished work with the glorious prospect of a fortnight back in Blighty to look forward to. First job was to pack and this simple task was made all the easier by the fact that the Guru had already done most of it. Indeed such was her foresight that she had actually sent two boxes of stuff on to her parents, with whom we stopped on Saturday night before flying on Sunday, as a sort of staging post or way station...
OK, that was written a few weeks ago before I managed to pour coffee over the computer, so have to now try and remember what went on over the hols – not an easy task from this distance.
So, to the in-laws prior to our departure, this was a cunning plan as it meant that if anything went wrong with our leaving, like forgetting something vital, we would still be in a position to do something about it. Luckily we didn’t, but what I did do, or rather, what I wasn’t sure that I’d done, was about the only thing that the Guru asked me to do, which was not to forget to take the milk out of the fridge before leaving and wash the carton. Ok, simple thing to do I know, but I spent the entire holiday worrying about whether we were going to return to a living fridge covered in green slime. Naturally before we left the house the Guru had asked me about three times to throw it away and of course I replied, probably louder than necessary something like ‘look just leave it to me, I’ll sort it out, alright!’ Ooops...
Anyway that was by the by as we were to the in-laws, where we picked up the boxes already sent, and repacked the suitcases, including borrowing one from the mother-in-law, everything actually fitted into the cases and didn’t seem to weigh too much over the limit – although we did manage to gt all the youngster’s stuff into one separate bag that was ‘hand’ luggage and weighed a ton.
The other thing I had been worrying about was the seats and whether we would get a baby bassinet/cot thing for Marcus. I was worried as Virgin refused to allow us to book specific seats in advance and, as we went through a travel agency rather than booking direct, wouldn’t confirm the availability of aforesaid cot thing until about a month before the flight, which ended up being two weeks before the flight and even then was only a ‘you should be alright, just make sure you check in early...’ (but coming back the other way, you can do his quick check in thing where you can reserve specific seats over the internet, hmm). But on getting to Narita, checking in was a cinch and we got exactly the seats we wanted. Even better was that not only was the airport empty, so, basically, was the flight. Nice. But before we got on the flight we had to go through the security check – of course it was the usual ‘did you pack your bags yourself?’ and ‘any dangerous objects in there?’ type questions, to which the answers were yes and no respectively – we had been very careful to ensure that things like Marcus’ nail scissors were safely in the suitcase. In fact so much attention had been focused on his stuff that the Guru had quite forgotten about her eyebrow scissors in her make up bag...
The security people were very nice about it, realising that a women with a baby strapped to her front was perhaps not an international terrorist hell bent on hijacking a 747 armed only with a tiny pair of eyebrow scissors – but it was a close run thing. Their helpful suggestion was to try to catch the suitcases before they went into the hold, but alas they had already departed and so we had to say goodbye to the scissors, which was a particularly poignant and emotional moment – the Guru had had them for a good few years – but now they are safely stored in the examples box in front of the security check area (should we ever want to visit them in the future).
The flight itself was long, involving and, in the end, not quite as bad as I thought it might have been. We got the middle bulkhead seats, which was good, and the baby cot thing, this wasn’t. The cot thing was placed on a big fold down tray thing in front of us, folded up into a cot shape, fastened together with press studs and then attached to the fold down tray with a couple of straps. This would have been ok except that the straps went across the top of the cot about 10cm from the top end and the bottom end, or exactly where Marcus’ head and knees were when we tried to lie him down. Now the youngster isn’t the best of sleepers in the first place and one of usually has to lie next to him after putting him down to make sure he actually drops off – in a aeroplane with a too small cot thing with straps over the top getting him in and off to sleep proved almost impossible. We succeeded a couple of times, the first was going ok until he tried to roll over and realised that because of the straps he couldn’t – best wake up then. Next time we’d tried again, got there and he’d been asleep for about 15 minutes and seemed to be going well. Then, of course, a mild judder ran through the plane and due to this ‘turbulence’ the seat belt light came on and so we had to take him out of the cot – wouldn’t you just know it. After that we just gave up and kept a hold of him, hard on the arms but easier in the long run.
Arriving in England and once again I was ‘so’ happy that we were able to use the lively and characterful Heathrow rather than the sterile and soulless Narita. But all tings were well, being met by the various family members, for whom this was the first opportunity to meet Marcus, though with his body clock on about 1am Tokyo time whilst it was really 4pm UK time, he did seem a bit fazed by the whole thing, especially when he was strapped into a car seat for the first time in his life.
From then on the whole holiday thing took over. We stayed at golf-playing-brother’s place for about 5 days, were introduced to Charlie, my nephew and Marcus’s cousin all rolled into one (now, at 16 months, a walking and talking ball of energy and snot), met up with old school friends and generally enjoyed ourselves whilst watching Marcus try to come to terms with jet lag. For adults it isn’t too bad as you can tell yourself to not sleep during the days and, reasonably quickly, get over it. Babies, on the other hand, think it is perfectly natural to be up at 3am and wanting to play. At first this isn’t too bad as your body clock is saying the same thing, but after a couple of night, when not a few bottles of red have been seen off, the novelty and enjoyment starts to wear a bit thin. Still, at least g-p-b has satellite and there are plenty of crap channels to watch at 3am. The youngster did eventually get over the jet lag, but it probably wasn’t until the Thursday night, after having arrived on Sunday afternoon.
Christmas itself was at the folks place in deepest, darkest Hampshire, but before we got there we had a brief visit to Hove where Marcus met his great grand parents on my father’s side. As they are both getting on a bit now, great grandfather is in his 90s and generally pretty marble-less, this was perhaps the one and only time for them all to meet. I’m glad to say it was a happy affair, all were on their best behaviour and things all went without a hitch, which doesn’t make for particularly gripping blogging, but hey, it was an important moment for all there.
For Christmas day we had 13 sitting down for lunch. Of course if Agatha Christie had had anything to do with it the butler would have poisoned someone over the chance to acquire a priceless diamond, or something. So, mindful of this, the babies were luckily not included in the seating plan and we gave the butler the afternoon off, thus preventing any sort of nonsense going on. The days carried on much in the same vein, plenty of red wine was consumed, and Father Christmas paid us all a visit on Christmas afternoon to dispense toys and whatnot – I’m not sure that Marcus’ had much clue what was going on, but Charlie was agog at the whole show and I think it made his Christmas. Oddly, though, my father missed out on the whole thing as he was elsewhere in the house at the time. Odd that...
And lastly, of course, the (sort of) annual Christmas backgammon tournament was held. Now last time this happened, as you can see from the link, it was very much a nip and tuck affair, with the advantage tipping one way, then the other. But this time around, well, suffice it to say that a whipping was handed out and, as you can probably tell from the smile on my face at the memory, it was yours truly that handed out the whipping. 30-13 was the final score, almost as sweet as the vintage port that accompanied the victory. I won’t dwell on it as that would appear to be crowing so suffice it to say, nyah nyah nyah!
And then we came home. Again the flight back, leaving the UK on the 31st and arriving in Japan on January 1st 2006, was more or less empty. Again we got decent seats and again Marcus would not sleep in the cot thing. Coming home seemed a lot quicker than going to the UK, even though the flight was only about 30 minutes quicker, but it was still long enough. At one stage there were about 6 parents with their babies all standing in the galley area at the back, no one getting any sleep – it was almost like we had set up a little day care centre. Narita airport was again a dream to navigate and I reckon that it was no more than about 15 minutes from the time we left the plane until we were in a taxi heading for the in-laws. But of course it had to happen somewhere – all holiday we had managed not to drop, step on or otherwise accidentally damage the youngster but in the plane, as we were about to get off I was help the Guru put him into the baby carrier/sling thing. To do this I lift him up, the Guru guides his feet and body into the sling and then he kind of slides down into it. This time, though, as I lifted him up I did it a little too vigorously and managed to smack his head on the luggage compartment above... Doh! No real damage done, thankfully, but a bit of a shock for the poor lad.
Still, at least I had remembered to take the milk out of the fridge. Phew!
Wednesday, 18 January 2006
Tuesday, 10 January 2006
Friday, 16 December 2005
Merry Christmas one and all...
We are off back to the old country for mince pies and egg nog so postings unlikely for the next couple of weeks. I will ty, but can guarantee nothing.
So, hope everyone has a fine and jolly christmas and a splendid new year, I certainly intend to and hope everyone else does likewise.
See you in 2006
We are off back to the old country for mince pies and egg nog so postings unlikely for the next couple of weeks. I will ty, but can guarantee nothing.
So, hope everyone has a fine and jolly christmas and a splendid new year, I certainly intend to and hope everyone else does likewise.
See you in 2006
Monday, 12 December 2005
Christmas is coming
And plans, as I mentioned last week, are well under way for our return to the UK for a two-week sojourn. Logistically this is proving quite a challenge as neither myself nor the Guru have ever been to a foreign country with a seven month old baby, indeed we have only ever been away for one night with the little ‘un and that was an over nighter at the parents-in-law down in Chiba. This time that will just be the precusor as we will be staying with them on Saturday night before heading to Narita on Sunday for the flight – they live quite close to Narita, you see, or at least an awful lot closer than we do. Anyway on that first away trip we seemed to take enough gear to supply Caesar’s 15th Legion (including support staff and baggage train), so heaven knows how much stuff Virgin is going to have to stow in its holds, or how much excess we’ll have to pay for that matter. I’m hoping that as we are flying before the peak period, and on a Sunday, that the flight will be relatively quiet and so they’ll be a little bit less strict with the baggage limits, which with Virgin is a pretty puny 20kgs, even BA gives you more than that.
Along with the baggage issue is the ‘in-a-big-metal-tube-with-a-7-month-old-who-has-just-discovered-screaming-for-fun-for-12-hours’ conundrum. Not that it is actually much of a conundrum, really, as if he wants to scream, he will and there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot we can do about it at the moment, so more a case of feeling sorry for anyone sitting near us. Still, if the flight is quiet they might put us in a part of the plane where there aren’t too many others, such as upper class – well, one can hope. I, personally, am also banking on the kawaii, or cute, factor of the youngster. Being both British and Japanese (not half, thank you), and having inherited his mother’s looks (i.e. the better looking side of the relationship), he is an exceptionally cute looking baby, not that I am in any way biased, you realise, just stating fact. So much so that old women cross the road to get a better look at him and passers by shake me by the hand and congratulate me on having such a fine looking son. Anyway, hopefully we can use his good looks and charm to wangle something better for ourselves, or at least some good treatment by the staff (although I expect nothing less from Virgin, going on what I have heard).
The other problem we have is that with all of our baggage are Christmas presents for the whole family, plus electronic doohickies for golf-playing-brother, one of his work chums and another friend of the family. When I agreed to get all these things I wasn’t, of course, thinking about the packing because, as a man, I think about packing no more than 12 hours before I leave on holiday – now looking at the spare room I realise I should have thought about this more deeply, or at least asked the Guru if she thought we had room. So anyway it looks as if I will be packing a minimum of clothes for when I am over as I won’t be able to get any more in the suitcase even if I wanted to. Oh well.
But who cares as this time next week we will be back in Blighty with real beer, real sausages, real bacon and real(ly) crap service. Please note the “real sausages” and “real bacon” there, those upon whom we will be imposing...
Anyway in Japan right now the talk of the town, as it were, is infanticide. Last year I wrote about how parricide was all the rage, but that seems to have abated this year and it is adult men murdering young girls that is hitting the headlines. Not sure why these things come in spates, can’t believe it is copycatting, but you never know. Interestingly one of the horrible crimes was committed by the Peruvian chap of Japanese descent (there are a lot of big Japanese communities in South America and Peru, with ex-PM Alberto Fujimori, a favourite emigration destination early in the last century), the interesting bit being that the media didn’t make his foreign-ness a huge part of the story. It was part of the story, obviously, but more because the papers and whatnot were surprised he was allowed into the country after gaining a rather unsavoury reputation in Peru and having, therefore, to falsify his documents to get into Japan. The media focused more on the immigration lapses than the fact he wasn’t wholly Japanese, which is progress of a sort. In another story a cram school teacher stabbed a 7 year old girl to death in his classroom, no one is quite sure why, whilst elsewhere a spurned, lovesick boy killed the object of his lust and sometime killed two hostesses in their apartment, all of them stabbed.
Not exactly sure why I am writing about these grisly happenings. Obviously they are very sad, tragic, for the families and victims, perhaps now as a father these things seems to leap in the consciousness more, resonate more, I don’t know. But just goes to show that whoever says Japan is a safe country hasn’t been here for a while.
On a happier note there have been some particularly spectacular sunrises and sunsets recently. This time of year, about 2-3 weeks before the winter solstice, is wonderful as the sun sets behind Mt Fuji if you are looking at it from Kawaguchi, and especially if you happen to be on our balcony. So, here are some snaps, more over at those wonderful people at Flickr
Sunset behind Mt Fuji #1
Sunset behind Mt Fuji #3
Twilight on the Arakawa #1
Sunrise over Tokyo #1
And plans, as I mentioned last week, are well under way for our return to the UK for a two-week sojourn. Logistically this is proving quite a challenge as neither myself nor the Guru have ever been to a foreign country with a seven month old baby, indeed we have only ever been away for one night with the little ‘un and that was an over nighter at the parents-in-law down in Chiba. This time that will just be the precusor as we will be staying with them on Saturday night before heading to Narita on Sunday for the flight – they live quite close to Narita, you see, or at least an awful lot closer than we do. Anyway on that first away trip we seemed to take enough gear to supply Caesar’s 15th Legion (including support staff and baggage train), so heaven knows how much stuff Virgin is going to have to stow in its holds, or how much excess we’ll have to pay for that matter. I’m hoping that as we are flying before the peak period, and on a Sunday, that the flight will be relatively quiet and so they’ll be a little bit less strict with the baggage limits, which with Virgin is a pretty puny 20kgs, even BA gives you more than that.
Along with the baggage issue is the ‘in-a-big-metal-tube-with-a-7-month-old-who-has-just-discovered-screaming-for-fun-for-12-hours’ conundrum. Not that it is actually much of a conundrum, really, as if he wants to scream, he will and there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot we can do about it at the moment, so more a case of feeling sorry for anyone sitting near us. Still, if the flight is quiet they might put us in a part of the plane where there aren’t too many others, such as upper class – well, one can hope. I, personally, am also banking on the kawaii, or cute, factor of the youngster. Being both British and Japanese (not half, thank you), and having inherited his mother’s looks (i.e. the better looking side of the relationship), he is an exceptionally cute looking baby, not that I am in any way biased, you realise, just stating fact. So much so that old women cross the road to get a better look at him and passers by shake me by the hand and congratulate me on having such a fine looking son. Anyway, hopefully we can use his good looks and charm to wangle something better for ourselves, or at least some good treatment by the staff (although I expect nothing less from Virgin, going on what I have heard).
The other problem we have is that with all of our baggage are Christmas presents for the whole family, plus electronic doohickies for golf-playing-brother, one of his work chums and another friend of the family. When I agreed to get all these things I wasn’t, of course, thinking about the packing because, as a man, I think about packing no more than 12 hours before I leave on holiday – now looking at the spare room I realise I should have thought about this more deeply, or at least asked the Guru if she thought we had room. So anyway it looks as if I will be packing a minimum of clothes for when I am over as I won’t be able to get any more in the suitcase even if I wanted to. Oh well.
But who cares as this time next week we will be back in Blighty with real beer, real sausages, real bacon and real(ly) crap service. Please note the “real sausages” and “real bacon” there, those upon whom we will be imposing...
Anyway in Japan right now the talk of the town, as it were, is infanticide. Last year I wrote about how parricide was all the rage, but that seems to have abated this year and it is adult men murdering young girls that is hitting the headlines. Not sure why these things come in spates, can’t believe it is copycatting, but you never know. Interestingly one of the horrible crimes was committed by the Peruvian chap of Japanese descent (there are a lot of big Japanese communities in South America and Peru, with ex-PM Alberto Fujimori, a favourite emigration destination early in the last century), the interesting bit being that the media didn’t make his foreign-ness a huge part of the story. It was part of the story, obviously, but more because the papers and whatnot were surprised he was allowed into the country after gaining a rather unsavoury reputation in Peru and having, therefore, to falsify his documents to get into Japan. The media focused more on the immigration lapses than the fact he wasn’t wholly Japanese, which is progress of a sort. In another story a cram school teacher stabbed a 7 year old girl to death in his classroom, no one is quite sure why, whilst elsewhere a spurned, lovesick boy killed the object of his lust and sometime killed two hostesses in their apartment, all of them stabbed.
Not exactly sure why I am writing about these grisly happenings. Obviously they are very sad, tragic, for the families and victims, perhaps now as a father these things seems to leap in the consciousness more, resonate more, I don’t know. But just goes to show that whoever says Japan is a safe country hasn’t been here for a while.
On a happier note there have been some particularly spectacular sunrises and sunsets recently. This time of year, about 2-3 weeks before the winter solstice, is wonderful as the sun sets behind Mt Fuji if you are looking at it from Kawaguchi, and especially if you happen to be on our balcony. So, here are some snaps, more over at those wonderful people at Flickr
Sunset behind Mt Fuji #1
Sunset behind Mt Fuji #3
Twilight on the Arakawa #1
Sunrise over Tokyo #1
Monday, 5 December 2005
The service game
Service in Japan is, generally pretty good. Indeed the usual standard of service here is far better than the top notch, best you can get service in the UK, it’s one of the reasons we moved back to Japan after living in London for 18 months (erm...OK, not really a reason to move back, that was more to do with weird bosses, dissatisfaction with London, shitty weather and the prospect of an NHS birth, but it was a reason to come back to Japan rather than, say, Azerbaijan).
And so this week is a tale of two companies and their approach to service here. The first is an airline battle between one airline, which we will call, for the sake of argument, Virgin and another, which we will call BA (mainly, it must be said, as this is their respective names (not that I have a lot of respect for BA)). Now I have heard nothing but good things about flying Tokyo-London with Virgin. Everyone says the service is great, the seats are comfortable, the games and video in-flight stuff is fantastic, strangers come up to you in the terminal to shake your hand in admiration and it is generally an all round top experience. Fair enough. But usually, in fact on pretty much every occasion I have flown to or from Japan I have used BA, mainly as the company has provided the flight and we’ve had a corporate deal with them so all managers fly BA and generally they have been pretty good.
But we as a company no longer automatically go with BA after they stiffed us big time last year and almost left 30 new teachers stranded at Heathrow. However BA does usually do some interesting campaigns for Christmas and had sent through details of their ‘home leave’ campaign. This looked quite good as it listed 70 grand for a return flight i.e. dead cheap, if you booked before the end of October and left mid December. “Ah ha” thought I, “just the sort of thing I am looking for”. But when I phoned up they quoted me 130! The conversation went along the lines of:
“But what about the 70 grand seats?” I queried.
“Oh, sorry, they are not available this year.”
“Then why did you send me them on your price list?”
“Because we are fuckwits, sir, have a nice day.”
Virgin, on the other hand, were nice as pie. Booking was no problem, baby on board didn’t seem to faze them, though check in early to avoid the baby carrying rush, everything seems nice and smooth and strangers have indeed been coming up to me to shake my hand as I walk down the street. Let’s just hope it all goes according to plan...
The second story is the story of my local offy. I have mentioned MyMart before as they are my number one alcoholic emporia of choice, this is because they have a very wide choice, which is good, and also that they stock about half a dozen varieties of Bordeaux reds about a grand a bottle that are mightily fine drinking on a Friday or Saturday evening (indeed they would probably be fine drinking Sunday to Thursday as well, but I try not to on school nights). So on Saturday the Guru had gone off to do Guru type things, like get her hair cut before our Christmas trip, so yours truly was left in charge of the little ‘un and what better place to take a baby than an off licence? My thinking is that if I take him enough times as a baby and toddler it will a) become second nature to him so I can send him to buy me wine and b) the staff there will recognise him and serve him as they’ll know he’s buying the wine for me (and if the little scamp wants a bit for himself, well, he has to start somewhere).
OK, we went to the super market as well to buy stuff for dinner (a rather fine Thai yellowy-green curry, if I may say so myself) and then trooped off home. After pottering about and later going for a run I went to open my bottle of Bordeaux at around 6pm. On doing so I found the cork to me wet through and the wine, after taking out the cork, was like vinegar. ‘Bugger’ was the main thought going through my head, but then the Guru, who knows stuff like this, remembered that around 6pm was the time MyMart does home deliveries (another reason to love them, although all local offies do this in Japan). So she calls them up and asks if there is anything they can do, giving the bottle code and whatnot. They say we’ll see. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve bought a bottle of wine from there that has gone off, but hey, you can never be sure (unless you by Celliers des Dauphins, which uses artificial corks and was, interestingly what I had drunk on Friday night and still had a drop left so wasn’t in a total panic about the Saturday night bottle, yet).
So about 30 minutes later the off licence chap rings the doorbell. I proffer the offending bottle, he takes a sniff and a quick mouthful and agrees that the wine is not at its best. He then produces an already opened bottle of the same wine and asks me to have a quick swig of that one (he even has little plastic cups with him). I do and it tastes a bit on the sharp side as well, so I say no thanks. He then produces another already opened bottle of a different Bordeaux and offers a taste of this one. It is much better and I tell him this. So he then says the already opened bottle, of which only a small amount has been drunk, is my replacement. Er, ok, fine, thanks. But not only that, he then produces another bottle of this new wine and says this is for the inconvenience, sorry about the hassle!
Now I know I haven’t lived in the UK for a while, but I don’t really think your local Threshers or Oddbin’s is likely, if you buy a dodgy bottle, to drive out to your house that evening and not only replace the bottle you bought but also give you a freebie as well. Nice work, and that is why we love MyMart.
Service in Japan is, generally pretty good. Indeed the usual standard of service here is far better than the top notch, best you can get service in the UK, it’s one of the reasons we moved back to Japan after living in London for 18 months (erm...OK, not really a reason to move back, that was more to do with weird bosses, dissatisfaction with London, shitty weather and the prospect of an NHS birth, but it was a reason to come back to Japan rather than, say, Azerbaijan).
And so this week is a tale of two companies and their approach to service here. The first is an airline battle between one airline, which we will call, for the sake of argument, Virgin and another, which we will call BA (mainly, it must be said, as this is their respective names (not that I have a lot of respect for BA)). Now I have heard nothing but good things about flying Tokyo-London with Virgin. Everyone says the service is great, the seats are comfortable, the games and video in-flight stuff is fantastic, strangers come up to you in the terminal to shake your hand in admiration and it is generally an all round top experience. Fair enough. But usually, in fact on pretty much every occasion I have flown to or from Japan I have used BA, mainly as the company has provided the flight and we’ve had a corporate deal with them so all managers fly BA and generally they have been pretty good.
But we as a company no longer automatically go with BA after they stiffed us big time last year and almost left 30 new teachers stranded at Heathrow. However BA does usually do some interesting campaigns for Christmas and had sent through details of their ‘home leave’ campaign. This looked quite good as it listed 70 grand for a return flight i.e. dead cheap, if you booked before the end of October and left mid December. “Ah ha” thought I, “just the sort of thing I am looking for”. But when I phoned up they quoted me 130! The conversation went along the lines of:
“But what about the 70 grand seats?” I queried.
“Oh, sorry, they are not available this year.”
“Then why did you send me them on your price list?”
“Because we are fuckwits, sir, have a nice day.”
Virgin, on the other hand, were nice as pie. Booking was no problem, baby on board didn’t seem to faze them, though check in early to avoid the baby carrying rush, everything seems nice and smooth and strangers have indeed been coming up to me to shake my hand as I walk down the street. Let’s just hope it all goes according to plan...
The second story is the story of my local offy. I have mentioned MyMart before as they are my number one alcoholic emporia of choice, this is because they have a very wide choice, which is good, and also that they stock about half a dozen varieties of Bordeaux reds about a grand a bottle that are mightily fine drinking on a Friday or Saturday evening (indeed they would probably be fine drinking Sunday to Thursday as well, but I try not to on school nights). So on Saturday the Guru had gone off to do Guru type things, like get her hair cut before our Christmas trip, so yours truly was left in charge of the little ‘un and what better place to take a baby than an off licence? My thinking is that if I take him enough times as a baby and toddler it will a) become second nature to him so I can send him to buy me wine and b) the staff there will recognise him and serve him as they’ll know he’s buying the wine for me (and if the little scamp wants a bit for himself, well, he has to start somewhere).
OK, we went to the super market as well to buy stuff for dinner (a rather fine Thai yellowy-green curry, if I may say so myself) and then trooped off home. After pottering about and later going for a run I went to open my bottle of Bordeaux at around 6pm. On doing so I found the cork to me wet through and the wine, after taking out the cork, was like vinegar. ‘Bugger’ was the main thought going through my head, but then the Guru, who knows stuff like this, remembered that around 6pm was the time MyMart does home deliveries (another reason to love them, although all local offies do this in Japan). So she calls them up and asks if there is anything they can do, giving the bottle code and whatnot. They say we’ll see. Now this isn’t the first time I’ve bought a bottle of wine from there that has gone off, but hey, you can never be sure (unless you by Celliers des Dauphins, which uses artificial corks and was, interestingly what I had drunk on Friday night and still had a drop left so wasn’t in a total panic about the Saturday night bottle, yet).
So about 30 minutes later the off licence chap rings the doorbell. I proffer the offending bottle, he takes a sniff and a quick mouthful and agrees that the wine is not at its best. He then produces an already opened bottle of the same wine and asks me to have a quick swig of that one (he even has little plastic cups with him). I do and it tastes a bit on the sharp side as well, so I say no thanks. He then produces another already opened bottle of a different Bordeaux and offers a taste of this one. It is much better and I tell him this. So he then says the already opened bottle, of which only a small amount has been drunk, is my replacement. Er, ok, fine, thanks. But not only that, he then produces another bottle of this new wine and says this is for the inconvenience, sorry about the hassle!
Now I know I haven’t lived in the UK for a while, but I don’t really think your local Threshers or Oddbin’s is likely, if you buy a dodgy bottle, to drive out to your house that evening and not only replace the bottle you bought but also give you a freebie as well. Nice work, and that is why we love MyMart.
Tuesday, 29 November 2005
Apologies...
For the lack of a post yesterday, I was waylaid by a roving gang of colleagues who abducted me and forced me to drink beer and eat yakitori with a ex-colleague who was back in town. So anyway, here are some more photos of on the youngster and family on a recent trip to the riverbank on a sunny November afternoon.
ready to go out
relaxing on the riverbank
mum and marcus #1
dad and marcus
happy #1
happy #2
the happy couple
For the lack of a post yesterday, I was waylaid by a roving gang of colleagues who abducted me and forced me to drink beer and eat yakitori with a ex-colleague who was back in town. So anyway, here are some more photos of on the youngster and family on a recent trip to the riverbank on a sunny November afternoon.
ready to go out
relaxing on the riverbank
mum and marcus #1
dad and marcus
happy #1
happy #2
the happy couple
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