speechless

i have lost my voice

it could be from a combination of many things. mainly the ones that are not giving me any free time at all to rest.

last week i had helped interview 11 people in english, had two school visits, went to tokyo for a golf fair and then ran the first day of my movie seminar.

on the way to the first one school visit i didnt have a great time, i really wish i had caught one train earlier than i did. i was supposed to go to a station called ishioka, about 30 mins from mito, but i only made it as far as hattori, one station shy of ishioka, when the train stopped and sat at the platform for way too long.

finally when i realised we were not moving again, i took out my headphones (currently listening to many different australian podcasts, triple j ones are great, especially hack), and listened to the announcements coming over the train's PA system

"There has been an accident at Ishioka, the police have been called and the ambulances are on their way..."

Great. Another one of these. I pulled out my phone to call my office to get the number of the person who was supposed to be picking me up at Ishioka, (i had left it on the desk at home) and at that point my phone runs out of battery.

Luckily we were stopped at the station and not somewhere in the middle of the tracks. I got out and found a pay phone. Funny, cause i was just listening to how telstra will be getting rid of 5000 pay phones in australia over the next year or so..

I had to call my office 4 times till they got the right number and redirected my lift to hattori station. In the mean time i met a danish person who works for the same english company as Tom and a japanese guy who had just got back from NZ and was now running late for a job interview.

The school visit went fine in the end, but i missed out on teaching one class cause i was so late. sorry grade 5! They still gave me a big box of cakes to take home though.

It would have been faster to ride my bike there in the end. I have been really close to that school before cause it is almost next door to the golf course in Ishioka where tom caddied for last year.

my second school visit, the day after, was also in the same area, but this time we got there with no problems. i went along with Tod, the other CIR in Mito, and his tuba.

I am getting good at these school visits now, dont have to prepare anything cause i have a whole kit made up with photos, maps, games etc that i just take with me to all schools and choose the best bits for each one.

The golf fair in tokyo was something that tom wanted to see and i went along for the ride. it was very... golfy...
way too many golf clubs for my liking. its bad enough letting him loose in a golf store!

Sunday was the movie festival/seminar part 1. We showed "The Dish" and i think it went down well. Had about 20 people turn up and after a few minor hitches (the power not working until 10am on the dot) we got it started. Next week is "strictly ballroom" so if anyone has any ideas for the seminar part, yell out in the comments.

Today, Aurelien (french CIR) and i went to a Natto museum and factory to write about it for the E-Ibaraki Report. Veyr stinky but luckily we didnt have to eat any of it. They gave us some natto furikake as a present. i think we will give them away to people who like it rather than try it ourselves. Natto has to be the worst food in the world. But i did find out in the museum that there is anotehr 6 or so countries that have dishes similar. one even in africa! Aurelien describes it as "food from hell"

anyways, now i have written all this down i wont have to say it and use my voice. i sound very husky at the moment, but its hard to avoid talking. it better get back to normal by thursday as i have a radio interview to do! they want to ask me about australian stuff cause japan will be playing australia in the soccer world cup. the interview will be broadcast in 10 min slabs every day next week, so listen out if you are in ibaraki at lunch time anytime next week.

be prepared

when i bought my bike in late 2004 i bought some spare tire tubes just to be safe. up till now i havent had to use them. never had a puncture.

today i decided that after a year of riding, and thousands of kilometres, it was probably time to put the spares to use.

i took off the front tire and spend about 30 mins stuggling to get the tube out. i am not very good at replacing tires.

then i pulled out the spares and discovered that my preparation was not as good as i had hoped.

the spares i have been carrying around for the last 18 months, relying on in the case i might get a flat out on the road, the ones i got from the bike shop along with my bike the day i bought it.

they are the wrong size!!!

after all that stuggling with the tubes, i just had to put the same one back in

not happy jan. dont rely on the bike shop to sell you the correct tubes. when flat they might look the same size, but when pupmped up, a few milimetres make a big difference.

grrr.

another one-giri

this time from "011-738-8281"
i looked it up on the net and its in the "worst one-giri ranking".

where did these people get my number from? or is it just a cooincidence....

One-giri

Does this happen anywhre but Japan?

I know that prank calls are common in many countries, heck, look at bart's escapades in the simpsons when he calls moes tavern over and over.

in japan its different. all they do is call and then hang up before it actually rings. its called a "One-giri" or "One ring" in english.

When i woke up this morning i had a missed called at around abouts 1am from a number i didnt know. My old mobile would tell me how long it had rung for so it was easy to tell if it was a One-giri or not, but this phone doenst have that function.

So i looked up the number of the net, 048-631-2730, just in case it was the hospital calling to say matt had injured himself snowboarding again or something. I knew the number wasnt from Ibaraki but it could have been from Saitama or that region.

ANyways, i didnt find out who it was, but i did find out that this number is known to be a nuisance number. Many people have written on a forum that they have recieved prank calls from this person. always one-giri's.

why would someone want to do that. what kind of thrill do they get out of calling someone in the middle of the night?

I am happy that my phone was on silent last night or i would have been pretty pissed off to hear it ring at 1am.

"Lets go to the Flicks" Australian Movie Seminar

"Flicks” is Australian for “Movies”. It probably comes from the sound a film projector makes…

This year is the “Australia Japan Year of Exchange” and we have decided in Ibaraki to help to deepen friendship, cooperation and understanding between Japan and Australia through holding an Australian movie seminar.

As part of the Ibaraki International Association's World Culture Seminar and the International Affairs Division, every week we will show a famous movie from Australia that is not well known in Japan. Before each movie will be a short introduction to Australian culture by our Australian Coordinator of International Relations in Japanese, and afterwards there will be a chance to ask questions.

Dates and times of sessions

* Sunday February 26th 2006 (10：00～13:30)
Movie: THE DISH
* Sunday March 5th 2006 (10：00～13:30)
Movie: STRICTLY BALLROOM
* Sunday March 12th 2006　(10：00～13:30)
Movie: RABBIT PROOF FENCE
* Sunday March 26th 2006　(10：00～15:45)
Movie: BABE
A party with Australian music and food will be put on for the participants following the movie on March 26th

Place:
Prefectural Theatre, Level 2, Prefectural Office, 978-6 Kasahara-cho, Mito
Click here for a map

Cost:
Free！

How to take part:
Please send a postcard or an email with:
your name, address, phone number, days attending and number of people taking part with you, to the following address

Address:
978-6 Kasahara-cho, Mito 〒310-8555　
International Affairs Division, Australia Japan YOE Movie Seminar
Email　：　ausflicks@gmail.com

Deadline:
No later than 3 days before each session.　The first deadline is on Friday February 24th 2005. There is a limit of 50 people per session. First in best dressed!

For more information:
Contact the International Affairs Division on TEL 029-301-2857 or email Carly Bode, ausflicks@gmail.com

do you want to pay for NHK?

The other night a man come around to my door to ask me to pay for viewing NHK.

I have heard of this happening before, and in fact they came to our house in Ebisu once too, so i played dumb and pretended that i didnt speak japanese. Why should i pay nearly $20 a month for a channel that i dont even watch.

I looked it up on the net to see what it is really all about and found this site, RECEIVING FEE SYSTEM

Apparently, Article 32 of the Broadcast Law tells me that
Any person who has installed receiving equipment capable of receiving the broadcasting provided by NHK shall conclude a contract with NHK with regard to the reception of its broadcasting. However, this shall not apply to those who have installed receiving equipment not intended for the reception of broadcasting, or receiving equipment solely for the reception of radio broadcasting or multiplex broadcasting (broadcasting of voice and other sound transmissions not coming under television broadcasting and multiplex broadcasting classifications).

So does that mean that just having a TV means i have to pay? or does the line "this shall not apply to those who have installed receiving equipment not intended for the reception of broadcasting" mean that if i dont watch NHK and only use my TV for watching movies from my computer, that i dont need to pay...

I dont know if we can play dumb again if they come around again. I might just stop answering the door in the evening.

Luckily i have found another artilce from the Japan Times that tells me "there is no punishment for nonpayment" and because a large number of people are not paying, NHK is having huge trouble with its budget.

I think that if a fee like this was introduced in Australia, noone would pay it. But i did read that in the UK, BBC has a similar system and it has a penalty of 1000 pounds if it is not paid.

Well i think i can continue to avoid it, but i also heard that they always send around people who are good at getting your sympathy...

E-Ibaraki Report

The January Edition of E-Ibaraki Report is finally up. Check it out.

busy busy bee

i dont know the last time i actually wrote about what i have been up to recently. its all been about the freezing cold weather. its starting to get warm again here and any moment now the ume (plum) blossoms will be blooming. when i walked though the kairakuen park on saturday they were preparing for the thousands of people that will come through to see them over the next month.

this month has been extreemly busy. i think it was a ploy to get me to recontract here at the kencho cause one of my qualms was that i didnt have enought challenging work to do.

over the last few weeks i have run a workshop day for the other JETs in Ibaraki, been to a PA training seminar in Tokyo, gone to a sake brewery to write about it, MC'd a speech contest for foreiners (i wish i could have taken part, they won some groovy prizes like bikes, money, suitcases, microwaves etc), translated the entire audio system of the Ibaraki Nature Museum (check it out as of April 1st if you want to hear my work), translated heaps of tourist brochures and letters for the governor, visited a number of primary schools to teach about Australia, and setting up a movie festival to start on the 26th February showing Australian Films such as "the dish" and "babe"

Now thats only what i have been doing at work. I went skiing the other week, taugh tom a lot of japanese, golf lessons at the driving range, english teaching at the local international centre, taiko drum concert in Ibaraki-machi etc.

Still this month i have another 3 school visits, a trip to the tatami and natto museums for the E-Ibaraki website, learning how to do indigo dyeing in Yuuki, helping out at english interviews in Tsukuba, talking at MESA, and the movie seminar from feb 26th.

if i am lucky i will go skiing in Fukushima on the 25th for only 500yen, but i might be too tired to move by then.
we have a JET bowling day on march 3rd too...

no wonder i have been tired recently.

Famous Tom

Tom and i have been getting special treatment down at the driving range ever since this article was in a Golf magazine called "Alba" in January.



Basically it is about how he was caddying for Tajima last year and how he is good at imitating other peoples golf swings. In the picture he is taking off Tajima's swing.

my new camera

I finally bought my Panasonic Lumix FZ5 at Yamada Denki near my house yesterday.

It was 4000 yen more expensive than in Tokyo, but i got 4000 yen worth of free points which i used to buy a iron that i was going to buy anyway. So it ended up being the same price really.

I still need to get a case for it so it doesnt get scratched, but it works really well. But by the time the batteries charged, it was already darl outside so i didnt get a chance to take it out for a test drive.

Shame, cause even thought it was soo cold outside, it was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in sight. I guess that is why it was so cold...

new level of cold.

this is getting ridiculous. when we woke up yesterday, our pipes were frozen.

when we woke up today, they were frozen again!

at least now we know that the hot water trick works, but its no fun going outside in that cold to do it.

lucky for me, tom had to leave 1 hour earlier than me to get to work so i got to stay in my warm futon and by the time i got up the pipes were running fine :)

soo cold

it was so cold this morning that the pipes froze. we couldnt get them working again till way after lunch when we decided to try pouring hot water over them cause we couldnt wait any longer.

in other news, i bought a new digital camera today (and an iron). new photos will be up soon. and finally i will have neat clothes to wear to work.