DOWN get UP I get DOWN get UP I get DOWN

It's been an odd week... up and down.

UP
My students are awesome. An essay called 'Lets Stop An Impossible Diet' and this girl who shouts OI LAU HEY LAU HI every time she sees me in the corridor made me smile.

DOWN
Reading a book on Thursday, a fucking mukade (poisonous centipede) DROPS FROM THE CEILING onto it. How the hell do centipedes get on the ceiling? The following morning, having a shower, just turn off the taps, MUKADE NEXT TO MY FOOT. Shit. Shit. Shit.

UP
Wicked weekend at city. Three day weekend, and stayed with three different friends in Tarumi, Uozumi and Mukonosso. Did karaoke for the first time EVER on Friday, really didnt 'get' it at first, but after a few drinks the real depth and subtlety of this form of entertainment began to shine through. Was the only person in the whole room of about 14 who knew Master Blaster by Stevie though. For shame. Saturday found this little club in Sannomiya where we met some Kobe jets who seem pretty cool. Nice to bounce around to some deep bass again. Also gave insight into the Japanese clubbing groups - the girls at the back dancing by themselves, the guys dressed like extras from a music video executing perfectly practiced moves by themselves who don't look like they're having fun, and the one Japanese salaryman dancing around like a nutter with whoever is nearby - respect! Sunday went to a little wine party at a friends (wine not so popular here, in the off license every bottle was covered in dust) and watched the wedding planner - somehow this happened. Nice weekend! (I'm starting to talk like my supervisor - Nice XXX! for everything. Nice way to lose your language skills!)

DOWN
Come back and during the night cannot sleep at all due to hearing little noises which sound exactly like mukade falling from the ceiling. Also hear the same scrabbling noises that I heard a couple weeks back, and after jumping up every 10 mins, wacking the light on and seeing something scurry across the floor, finally I decided at 4AM i wasnt going to get to sleep and arming myself with mukade sprays for spraying, hi top dunks for stamping, and a big stick for poking, I opened up my cupboard in order to hunt down the bastards. After a while, I found out this: I HAVE MICE. Fuck. Oh and I found out what I thought was a beetle a while ago was in fact a cockroach so now I have three types of pests in my house. FUCK. Slept about 2 hours that night (and only due to blasting www.nuwaveradio.co.uk and thinking about other things) and was like a zombie in school the next day.

UP
Got my car. This was awesome. Drove to the next town and met up with Dylan, who's a JET at Kaibara High. Got the little iPod to tape adaptor thing for tunes and discovered my car's stereo sounds pretty good actually, nicely bassy. Went for dinner with Dylan and another local JET, Chris, at the curry place I think I mentioned before. This time made the mistake of having level 6 hotness (out of 10) - man it was hot. On your tongue hot, not in your throat hot. I can't imagine what level 10 is like. Anyway, afterwards, went with Dylan to check out the local sort of hypermarket place (Kaibara is like a big city compared to my place, even though those who live there would still say it's rural.) Then went back to his and discovered a shared love for Borat, and he showed me something really cool for the computer which helps you with Japanese websites (he's a bit of a pro at the old Japanese). Leaving his place, this led to...

DOWN
Scratched up my car. So Dylan's road is only JUST wider than my Honda, and he has a stone wall on both sides of the drive. Couple this with my average at best driving and of course I managed to get a large scratch on the door. In fact I managed to scratch the car AND get into the most stupid position so that there was practically no way I could move without scratching it again. Dylan came out to help me and with my phone's torch ran round the car directing me in the most minute detail for about 15 mins. Tomorrow I will have to drive the car to school where all the teachers - who have been telling me 'be careful' and 'don't make accident' all week - will see it when they come to check out my car for the first time as I can guarantee they will. Nice embarrassing situation!

UP
In one of the hypermarkets, got a stussy catalogue for about 4 quid which comes with a free Stussy tote bag and a shitload of stickers. This is immense, it's the equivalent of getting it from the Tesco you stop at on the motorway on your way up north or something. I can't get my head around Japanese youth culture and fashion stuff - it's all so widely available and this puts a whole different slant on things. I was trying to explain my thoughts to my mate Rob yesterday, stuff about anyone can 'choose' to be cool, certain things aren't so underground, but I'm not really sure about my theory yet, need more time. Lemme explore some more stores and clubs and shit and expect Lau's Theory of Japanese OHNOYOUDIDNT Style later this year.

DOWN
another mukade fell from the ceiling as I wrote this post. :o(

..........

So some random pics from recently: painting some hyotan things at school (like being back in primary school make and do type classes, fun), awesome jazz shop which had the concept of a smaller number of artists but having literally EVERYTHING they've ever done (picked up 'Our Thing' by Joe Henderson with Andrew Hill on piano, well nice), Stussy freebie bag which goes from small to large, limited edition gamecube I've never seen before (Hanshin tigers, baseball team, people in this area go NUTS for them) and my supervisor's girlfriends retro car - check the speedo!