Hupdate!

Just a little update seeing as it's been a couple of weeks since the last one.

So what's happened since last time? Hmmm. Just small things I guess. (On a music tip, found this amazing cafe with a friend in Himeji which played the entirity of John Coltrane's "Ascension" [if you know the album you know how unusual this is] followed by his album "Ballads" as a comedown. Could there be anything better than that? Good music good company good atmosphere makes life for sure.)

Had my Japanese exam last weekend which I am sure I failed (the clue was in the fact I studied only about 50% of the material)... But I'm so happy it's over, now Japanese can be fun again rather than just preparing for the test. I'm trying various new things, including keeping a diary in Japanese, reading my favourite artists' blogs in Japanese (it's amazing how much more you persevere when you actually want to know what they're saying), flashcard programs for the mac... let's hope it works a bit.

Sunday night after the test, popped into Osaka to try and find a particular magazine for Japanese learners, didn't find it, but did find Especial Records, a tiny little shop run by the Okino brothers (of KJM fame, see previous posts for mentions of them.) Found out about some tunes I'd wanted to know about from freedom time, theres an album coming out this week with that LOVE IS THE KEY tune on, yayayayayaya. And most importantly picked up some wicked selections:



and manning the shop was Yoshihiro Okino (deep house DJ again from previous posts.) Tried to speak some poor Japanese to him, to which he replied in English with a London accent. Oops! Anyway, talked to him for a few minutes which made my week/month/life then back home -- where incidentally it is OHMYGOSH cold all the time now.

Also, my taiko class finished. On the final lesson, there seemed to be a lot more people hanging around, a few housewives, a lady in an apron, a seemingly drunk old man (he'd actually been for the last few lessons, think he was an old teacher of taiko or something, he played with a sort of 'drunken master' style) - it was like they were trying their hardest to recreate the people who live in the village from harvest moon:



Turned out they were last year's class, and after we gave our final performance, they played a song: (apologies for the terrible sound, i recorded this with my mobile) -- oh and check the drunken master guy, he's playing the odaiko (large taiko horizontal on a stand) at the back on the left) --



Oh and also had my school's Bounenkai last week 'end of year' party (although apparently it literally means 'forget last year cos it was tough' party). It was really fun, times like this I'm reminded why I like my little school. Only about 20 teachers, all drinking together in a small old fashioned style Japanese place, with middle aged ladies in kimonos serving up the food and drinks. Everyone had a good laugh and as usual my Japanese ability went up 200% with the addition of alcohol - or rather my awkwardness in knowing that i need to sound like an idiot in order to get my meaning across went down. My teachers are too cute - after the first course (amazing sashimi, thats the raw fish, so soft and melty) we had a quiz - all about the school, stuff like 'near the west exit, above the noticeboard, there is a switchbox. what colour are the buttons?' and everyone had a little guess and won a random christmas present like a plate or cup or something like that. I understood most of the questions which was amazing (i guess being in school all the time you pick up the relevant vocabulary) and won some sort of tupperware rice container for knowing what a colour print costs the school. (¥13, fact fans.) Innocent fun, compared to the old pervs and bitter rivalries I hear about at some schools mine is like a blissfully innocent family.

I feel like with 2006 nearly over a new chapter in Japan is beginning. In fact I am pretty used to life here now, I used the sentence "I have to go and buy batteries for the remote control for my toilet" yesterday without thinking twice about it. Off to Tokyo this weekend (excited bout that), India in 3 weeks - time is flying. Hope all is good with you guys wherever you are reading this!