Tuesday, March 20, 2012
On the train
Managed to catch the earlier train today. I usually do so when I have NICHOKU duty which entails standing on the bridge outside the station greeting the students as they come out of the station on their way to school with a hearty "good morning!" and also making sure they're sticking to the left side. Also after work is done the 2 NICHOKU staff have to go round and do the lockup check. Anyway I'm pretty happy because today is my last one ever! Just wanted to see how this worked from my mobile phone basically ...
Thursday, February 28, 2008
My first sento experience.
What is a sento you ask? It’s a Japanese “public” bathhouse. That’s right…PUBLIC!!
That’s the reason I hadn’t ever been to one in my almost 7 years in a country very famous for them. But, I’ll be the first to say it was a very nice experience, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I’ll go back again I’m sure.
After a night on the drink with good company (my mate Gordon) he decided it was time for my first experience at a Japanese ONSEN. I was reluctant but he ended up getting his way. So we went up the road from my place to the new joint called SACHINOYU. SACHI 幸 means BLESSING and YU 湯 means HOT WATER.
It was all very nice and new and all the trimmings. We paid our 500 yen and we were off.
The men and women are separated of course and no sooner had I walked through the door that all….and I mean ALL….my inhibitions were blown well and truly out the window. To put it bluntly, there were naked dudes everywhere. I tried to avert my eyes but no, there was a naked guy there too. I looked away, nope another naked guy was right there too. I gave up in the end and gave in to the fact that this place was just going to be wall to wall with naked guys. The most amazing thing was nobody cared.
All shapes and sizes. Tall, short, fat, skinny, young, old….all sorts. I always thought it would just be full of young muscly guys sitting around flexing but I was wrong. Most of the guys there were oldish and very out of shape. So I whipped my gear off and covered what I could with the small towel provided and headed into the steamy beyond.
We first sat in a bath with some old guys who looked like they’d been there a good while. It was hot but not too hot. Not like when you were little and got in the bath so hot you couldn’t actually register if it was hot or cold, but pretty warm. We were there for about 10 minutes and then like most others we felt the need to try something else so we went outside. Outside it was about 3 or 4 degrees and perfect weather for an ONSEN we were told so we sat in a bath next that seemed to be much hotter but only maybe because we were outside in the cold. Stayed there for about 20 minutes and then thought we’d give the steam room a go.
Well, the steam room was so steamy (funny that) that we couldn’t see much and an old guy bumped into me bum first….ewwwwww….but we sat in the small bath at the end of the room which was green and smelled vaguely of pinetarsol. Actually it was quite nice. Last we went in to the SAUNA. Now my idea of a sauna is steamy but this room had an air heater. It was set on 60 degrees!!!! Couldn’t touch the floor, walls or anything so I sat on my towel for about 2 minutes, got a fairly bad headache and left.
Out in the locker room again there were people having cold showers, hot showers, using hair dryers, sitting enjoying their nakedness.....all sorts of things going on. I kinda put on my clothes in a bit of a hurry and got out of there. Hey, I`d just been publicly naked for the past hour why did I need more?!
Anyway, that`s an experience I won`t forget in a hurry.
That’s the reason I hadn’t ever been to one in my almost 7 years in a country very famous for them. But, I’ll be the first to say it was a very nice experience, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I’ll go back again I’m sure.
After a night on the drink with good company (my mate Gordon) he decided it was time for my first experience at a Japanese ONSEN. I was reluctant but he ended up getting his way. So we went up the road from my place to the new joint called SACHINOYU. SACHI 幸 means BLESSING and YU 湯 means HOT WATER.
It was all very nice and new and all the trimmings. We paid our 500 yen and we were off.
The men and women are separated of course and no sooner had I walked through the door that all….and I mean ALL….my inhibitions were blown well and truly out the window. To put it bluntly, there were naked dudes everywhere. I tried to avert my eyes but no, there was a naked guy there too. I looked away, nope another naked guy was right there too. I gave up in the end and gave in to the fact that this place was just going to be wall to wall with naked guys. The most amazing thing was nobody cared.
All shapes and sizes. Tall, short, fat, skinny, young, old….all sorts. I always thought it would just be full of young muscly guys sitting around flexing but I was wrong. Most of the guys there were oldish and very out of shape. So I whipped my gear off and covered what I could with the small towel provided and headed into the steamy beyond.
We first sat in a bath with some old guys who looked like they’d been there a good while. It was hot but not too hot. Not like when you were little and got in the bath so hot you couldn’t actually register if it was hot or cold, but pretty warm. We were there for about 10 minutes and then like most others we felt the need to try something else so we went outside. Outside it was about 3 or 4 degrees and perfect weather for an ONSEN we were told so we sat in a bath next that seemed to be much hotter but only maybe because we were outside in the cold. Stayed there for about 20 minutes and then thought we’d give the steam room a go.
Well, the steam room was so steamy (funny that) that we couldn’t see much and an old guy bumped into me bum first….ewwwwww….but we sat in the small bath at the end of the room which was green and smelled vaguely of pinetarsol. Actually it was quite nice. Last we went in to the SAUNA. Now my idea of a sauna is steamy but this room had an air heater. It was set on 60 degrees!!!! Couldn’t touch the floor, walls or anything so I sat on my towel for about 2 minutes, got a fairly bad headache and left.
Out in the locker room again there were people having cold showers, hot showers, using hair dryers, sitting enjoying their nakedness.....all sorts of things going on. I kinda put on my clothes in a bit of a hurry and got out of there. Hey, I`d just been publicly naked for the past hour why did I need more?!
Anyway, that`s an experience I won`t forget in a hurry.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Good question
Here`s something interesting....
Most Saturday mornings I teach a guy at work named HIROKI. Let me just start by saying that I`ve met some pretty smart people in my time but this guy is "scary" clever. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever had the pleasure of meeting too and it`s not like we are student and teacher because his English is so good. He works for a steel plant here in Wakayama called SUMIKIN and they have an office in Houston making pipes specifically for oil drilling. Hiroki was transfered there for 4 years and went with his wife (who I also have the pleasure of teaching from time to time) and their 3 kids. As you can imagine they basically came back a bilingual family and especially Hiroki, having worked in an American office, has really natural English so I rarely find things I`m able to teach him but I always try my best to offer him whatever I can and we have had some really really great chats over the years I have known him. One of the things we have in common is our passion for good music, jazz in particular.
So to cut a long story short, about 3 weeks ago Hiroki asked me this question
"If you were told you were going to die today, what 3 CD`s would you listen to?"
Being the person that I am I immediately blurted out 3 CD`s without thinking and was abit shocked myself as I said them. I don`t even remember what they were but he was like "really?" Hiroki had obviously thought about it and brought in his 3 and they were Art Pepper, Miles Davis and Stan Getz....what class!
After thinking about it long and hard I came up with my 3 and in no particular order they are:
1. When Harry met Sally the soundtrack which is a Harry Connick Jr old style big band album and possibly my favourite single album in the world.
2. Snappy Do by James Morrison. Probably abit surprising as he tends to be abit "gimmicky" but as the first "jazz" album I ever bought it carries enough sentimental value to make my top 3.
3. Dangerous by Michael Jackson. I know I know it`s Michael Jackson, that`s right I said it. I do not support many of his decisions or actions but there`s no denying that he`s the greatest artist of our time, probably any time. It`s a great album and I can listen to it top to bottom any day of the week and there aren`t a great many albums I feel that way about.
So there you go. One of my good mates Dave MacIntyre asked me a good one too a while back "what are the 20 songs you`d choose to see live by the original artist?" Dead or alive doesn`t matter. What a tough time I had answering that one!! That`s a whole nother post!!
Most Saturday mornings I teach a guy at work named HIROKI. Let me just start by saying that I`ve met some pretty smart people in my time but this guy is "scary" clever. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever had the pleasure of meeting too and it`s not like we are student and teacher because his English is so good. He works for a steel plant here in Wakayama called SUMIKIN and they have an office in Houston making pipes specifically for oil drilling. Hiroki was transfered there for 4 years and went with his wife (who I also have the pleasure of teaching from time to time) and their 3 kids. As you can imagine they basically came back a bilingual family and especially Hiroki, having worked in an American office, has really natural English so I rarely find things I`m able to teach him but I always try my best to offer him whatever I can and we have had some really really great chats over the years I have known him. One of the things we have in common is our passion for good music, jazz in particular.
So to cut a long story short, about 3 weeks ago Hiroki asked me this question
"If you were told you were going to die today, what 3 CD`s would you listen to?"
Being the person that I am I immediately blurted out 3 CD`s without thinking and was abit shocked myself as I said them. I don`t even remember what they were but he was like "really?" Hiroki had obviously thought about it and brought in his 3 and they were Art Pepper, Miles Davis and Stan Getz....what class!
After thinking about it long and hard I came up with my 3 and in no particular order they are:
1. When Harry met Sally the soundtrack which is a Harry Connick Jr old style big band album and possibly my favourite single album in the world.
2. Snappy Do by James Morrison. Probably abit surprising as he tends to be abit "gimmicky" but as the first "jazz" album I ever bought it carries enough sentimental value to make my top 3.
3. Dangerous by Michael Jackson. I know I know it`s Michael Jackson, that`s right I said it. I do not support many of his decisions or actions but there`s no denying that he`s the greatest artist of our time, probably any time. It`s a great album and I can listen to it top to bottom any day of the week and there aren`t a great many albums I feel that way about.
So there you go. One of my good mates Dave MacIntyre asked me a good one too a while back "what are the 20 songs you`d choose to see live by the original artist?" Dead or alive doesn`t matter. What a tough time I had answering that one!! That`s a whole nother post!!
My first time....
Welcome to my blog. What`s a blog? I have no idea but more and more people seem to be posting boring crap about themselves and everyone seems to lap it up and beg for more so why can`t I? I like to think my life has something to offer, haha.
Today was my day off and I had the worst migraine EVER!! I was sitting at the computer (as I do) watching the WWE (I`m not ashamed) and it hit me like a tonne of bricks. Ususally I can feel them coming about 10 minutes before and can get some drugs into me but this thing came out of nowhere and nailed me. Not too bad now so I`m thinking it`s time to go out and get some tea. What do I feel like I wonder?......
Well, that actually is boring but hey, it`s my first time. It`ll get better I promise!
Today was my day off and I had the worst migraine EVER!! I was sitting at the computer (as I do) watching the WWE (I`m not ashamed) and it hit me like a tonne of bricks. Ususally I can feel them coming about 10 minutes before and can get some drugs into me but this thing came out of nowhere and nailed me. Not too bad now so I`m thinking it`s time to go out and get some tea. What do I feel like I wonder?......
Well, that actually is boring but hey, it`s my first time. It`ll get better I promise!
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