Monday, July 25, 2005

soooooorrryy...haven't been able to get on the net for 2 weeks!! it's great to be back. lots to tell and finally the promised pics! Well, let's start off with taipei and the fabulous Mirandar Golf Country Club. That was my room with all its glory, incl. full marble bathroom etc. twas nice..slavo is the guy i met, caught here with a white russian and his music, that i'm listening to right now (cheers again, mate:) next is the limo and lametta-ed police escort of some african president. anyone know that flag?? i don't..i found this ad of iwc, a watch company from schaffhausen and it cracked me up. funny what they think they can get away with. next is my contribution to the fund of pics that should be on the next solitune cd. this is what tim yanke looks like. always. wipe that smile off your face. i call him genki yanke. the canadian i did the training and shared the flat in tsurumai with. good natured and desperate. nagoya-jo was totally destroyed during ww2 bombing raids, this is the uhm, reconstruction. not entirely accurate, as there's elevators inside and made of concrete. still looks cool though..and big sloppy smooch to y'all!
but wait there's more: the new abode, Leopalace Central River III #203, 2-806 Sakae Nisshin-city, 470-0113 Nisshin-city, Aichi, Japan. i'm in the middle. i have a loft where it's too hot now, so all the crap i don't need goes up there. from there i have great views over the living/dining/bedroom that is my new home. the teenieweenie thing in the hallway keeps trying to call itself kitchen, but we haven' come to an agreement on that one yet. kawaii, ne?
and last but not least: AEON Akaike, Dai 25 Ocean Plaza 57, 1-3001 Akaike Nisshin, Aichi, Japan. if you wanna send me stuff, send it here! and now, the staff: we start of with Kimumi-san who likes to just be called manager. hello manager. how's it going, manager? she's nice and diplomatic. and my boss. which brings us to Miyuki-san, one of the two funny ones here, she cracks me up. she cleaned up my appartment and helped me get my superduperhightechmegamobilephone that also does parttime gigs as 2 megapixel camera and mp3player. it's good to me so far. Atsuko-sensei is the head teacher and also very nice, she helped me register here so this week i can pick up my alien registration card (i'm an alien, i'm a legal alien, i'm a swaussieman in japan..) and can be asked all sorts of questions. pretty smart cookie, she is. Akane-sensei greets me every day with a 'g'day mate', she also does a part-time gig at red rock, the aussie bar downtown, is funny as hell and part 2 of AEON Akaike comedy team. even though most of it's in japanese, the giggles, laughs and chuckles are enough to brighten my days here. Mariko-sensei is the quiet one but very helpful. she always let's me borrow her games for my 5 kids classes, which are by far the most challenging thing here. missin here is matt fom memphis, tenessee. he likes beer and girls (brownies, man!), straight outta caahledge. i'm sure there's more to him. i hope. he's gonna make it next post. that's me on a mushi atsui (friggin humid) day at nisshin station, a bamboo forest in the background. and my last class on saturday, they're heaps of fun. usually i only have between1-5 students per class, this is the big one and also the best! the bamboo again and the bathroom that didn't make it into the last album.
that's it for the photos.
other than that i've been busy sampling the local cuisine. latest additions to the weird stuff: toriyuke: raw chicken, sliced, drizzled with soy sauce and dipped in a raw egg yoke. delicious! it really is, i'm not joking! and i didn't even get food poisoning OR salmonella! had it 3 times already. also tried a grilled sparrow (spatz:). whole. they took the feathers off, but the rest was all there. crunchy, pretty flavoursome and not much meat at all, but i had to try it. otherwise: battered and deepfried octopus is fantastic, so is yakitori, chicken skewers. radish salad, fried chicken gristle (knorpel), sushi, of course. tempura, of course. more chicken. the local speciality is grilled chicken wings with lots of pepper. teabsaki! and all sorts of other stuff. oodles o'noodles, heaps of rice, been cooking vegies, seafood etc. YUMMY!!
my official welcome party was on saturday, all you can eat and drink. then the mums of my thursday kid's class invited akane and me to a fancy restaurant the next day. all you can eat and drink again! the mums tried to drink me under the table and it almost worked. i still haven't figured out how these women manage to fit all that food and beer into their tiny bodies but i was most impressed. they were equally impressed that such a tall thing as me wasn't able to eat more (we're talking about 8 plates of food and 5 schooners of beer within 2 hours, pizzas, spagetthi, quiche, springrolls, clams (very tasty!), red snapper, baked chicken and spuds. all on the same table. they called it international food. crazy! and both nights free for me, as a welcome. these people are so nice and generous, it's unbelievable. one mum wanted a child from me but i think she was joking.
teaching is fun. especailly the bigger adult classes. i have the occasional weirdo but that's ok. much easier than i thought!
all i need are some more buddies and a bit more courage to just go out there and explore a bit by myself. there's sooo much to see and i don't know where to start. I'll keep you posted. see ya next week!

gg; 4:36 pm