PeePooPeePooPeePooPeePoo....

Poppies

Like the ones you wear on ANZAC day, only better.

Bihoku Highland Circuit

I have lived here for two years, and I had no idea there was a racing circuit hidden up in the mountains of Niimi. And it's not just any racing circuit either. The Bihoku Highland Circuit is for racing K-Cars!

Can you imagine 1,000 cc shitboxes and pimped out rides alike going around and around a circuit for five hours? Come to Niimi and you won't have to!

We almost drove right on to the racetrack on our way in to the grounds, and I don't think anybody would have spotted the difference if we'd joined the race.Quite a good turn out, considering the drizzly weather.Colour co-ordinated crowds.Niimi has a Racing Club?My favorite for the day.I don't know why you'd call second place when you could call first. In any case, this car never finished the race.A distant relation of "The Danger Cow" van sits in the pit stop.Like we were gonna watch the race for five hours. There was plenty of time for an excursion into the wilderness before we left.

Isshoukenmei BAM

When you live in Japan, you get roped into starting or ending your night with karaoke. The rules of song selection change depending on the crowd you're with. It could be "No Japanese songs", "Only songs you've never sung before", "Songs we can all sing along to", or "Only 80's classics".

Inevitably, there are certain songs that maybe you're good at, or you enjoy singing, or you know everyone else loves, so you select them more often. The point of karaoke is enjoyment, right?

But, if you always sing the same songs every time you go to karaoke, and you always sing them alone, does the point change from being enjoyable entertainment to putting on a show for others?

Hmm, I'm pondering this and many other things today.

Mama Mia!

Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came (even if it is 2am when you arrive and after promising to stay for one drink, you keep them open till 4.30am). For me, that place is a tiny little snack bar in Niimi called Izumi, and this is my ode to it.It doesn't look like much from the outside. It's the raucous laughter, singing, or hum of conversation that draws you through the noren curtains.

Inside, it's full of nick-nacks and decorations, some of which have been there since Izumi opened back in 1984 (if I remember correctly). There's always fresh flower arrangements, and fantastic cooking smells.Because it's a snack bar, you're given personalised service. Often, there's already a hot towel waiting, and a beer so cold it turns to ice in the glass being pulled before I've even sat down. The "snack" food served is the best in town (I've heard), and ranges from konyaku, to vegetables, fish, salads, soups....in fact, it's always a pleasant surprise. And if you're ordering, their okonomiyaki is the best I've ever eaten.

The proprietors of this establishment are Master and Mama-san, two of my most favorite people in Niimi.I always figured they were married, but I recently learned they're not married, and in fact don't even live together. Since my previous supervisor has moved on, they have now become my Japanese parents.

Mama-san has got the loudest voice and speaks in the gruffest dialect I've ever heard. Sometimes it's hard to understand her. She can come off as being quite intimidating when you first meet her, but she's hilarious, concerned, warm-hearted, and very giving. And she's a fantastic cook. Mama-san often calls me to check how I am, sometimes at one or two in the morning (or maybe she wants to know why I'm not there, if I'm trying to save some money that week). She is very interested in my life back home as well as my life in Japan, and loves to gossip about the ALTs in town. When she found out I'll be going home in a year's time, she actually started crying and said "Mama will be very lonely". If there's dirty-old-man types at the bar, Mama-san will sit between you and them or heartily berate them when they try it on. These days, Mama-san often shouts me drinks, or goes so far as to sneak me out the door before I've paid my bill. She even offered to run me up a bar tab once, but I decided that wasn't a good idea. And you can depend on Mama-san to give you a ride home in the early hours of the morning. There is no drunk driving, and in some cases, drunk cycling, to be had with Mama-san standing at the door watching you leave.

Master is graceful and elegant, and always moves with a flourish of the hands or head. He's not drawn into conversation easily, but when he is, he proves himself to be interested, kind, and caring. He has a fantastic laugh and a ginormous smile. He anticipates your every need. When it's time to leave, he'll often come outside to wipe the snow off your bicycle seat in the winter months. Most of the people who frequent Izumi, whether young or old, enjoy enka music, traditional warbling Japanese music much like a country and western song - always about love and loss. It's an acquired taste, and you either love it or you don't. I've personally come to love it, and rather than belt out Okinawan classics such as Sukiyaki or Shimauta like most foreigners, I'm learning enka! Mama-san and Master started Tom and I off on an easy duet called Nirinsoo (the name of a flower), by Miyuki Kawanaka. They would sing in our ears a second before the line, stressing the complicated ups and downs in the notes. I've since been asked to sing that song with Master a number of times with by the regular patrons, and on my "debut" night, had 1,000 yen notes thrown at me. I've since sung the song in a weird "pretty boy" open karaoke bar in the city. That caused raised eyebrows and much hilarity.


I should point out that there's a verse missing in the above video, and it's supposed to be sung in part by a man, and in part by a woman. My current enka project is Koiutanagashi by Mika Shinno.

There is a very limited number of English songs available, and I recomment "Yesterday"....the video clip consists entirely of a naked woman.

You're guaranteed to meet interesting people at Izumi. It's usually an older crowd, but sometimes you'll find a younger group in for the evening. I've spoken with teachers, gas station attendants, postal workers, bank employees, governmental and Board of Education types, JR workers, as well as students, retirees (one favorite lady of mine is over 70 years old), and people from out of town.I've been lucky enough to have my name written on a bottle of shochu in the bottle keep by a couple of regular patrons. Many people have bought me drinks. My entire bill has even been settled on a number of occasions by people who probably can't afford such generosity for the foreigner who has come so far (from NZ) to their tiny town to sing enka for people who have been in vegetable fields all day.

I've even struck up some kind of friendship with a lot of the people I meet. This is Sae-chan, and Drunk-Dude-Whose-Name-I-Always-Forget. I think Sae is 42. She comes in late, often dangling off of the arm a man, or two. She knows everyone, and their business too. She is an excellent singer with a husky voice. She makes slurping ramen noodles from a shared bowl look sexy. "Dude" is an odd character. The first time I met him, he called me a "rezu" which is Japanese for lesbian. Perhaps this was because I walked in with Marilu and Tara. He continued on with saying that my chest was "sugoi" and that "something got hard". I hated him for a long time. Then one day he apologised and told me I was a great person. Since then, if he's not waving at me from across the room, or passed out or falling in the doorway, he finds the time to sit with me and impart life lessons, mostly concerning love.

Let's not forget Mama-san's pug, Taroo. A very friendly dog who is an expert at farting and sneezing directly into faces (I think he saves them up just for that purpose).

I have so many amusing stories of nights in Izumi. So many that they all blend into each other. One night, I found a box of squishy boobs on top of the fridge. That made for some interesting photos.

Of Darren.

Finally.........If you pass out at the bar, you run the risk of being poked with chopsticks by all and sundry.

Pure Evil

This is the mukade centipede you hear so much about. I've only seen a couple of small ones, but this took the cake. It was huge. When I poked it with a stick, it's legs clicked on the concrete.

*shudder*

Suupaa Duper

Entering a Japanese supermarket can be a daunting experience the first time around, with garish colours, unrecognisable packaging, and soft squishy things floating around in plastic bags, but you get used to it, and gradually it becomes interesting, and even entertaining.

But even after two years here, I still haven't wrapped my head around Japanese food products enough to be able to put them into use in the kitchen.

For those of you who have never had a look inside a Japanese supermarket, here's Niimi's Fresta.

Surprisingly, they stock a lot of foreign products, such as Wedgewood Tea from England.

I decide what green tea I buy by price alone.

There's more than one kind of seaweed; one for rolling sushi, one for onigiri, one for soup, and a million others used as toppings.

I don't really have a clue what the difference is between soy sauces, let alone all the other sauces.

Even though it's supposedly easy, miso is not something I've ventured into as yet.

Instant noodles - the choice is endless.

I'm not a big fan of Japanese chocolate, but at Fresta they do stock Tim Tams, M&M's, Snickers, and Hershey's.

Breakfast cereal is expensive, especially museli, so I make do with the various Kellog's products on offer.

Fresta has a fantastic selection of ready to eat products such as sushi, salad, donburi, fresh noodle soups, meat-on-a-sticks, deep fried things, and bento lunchboxes.

My least favorite raw packaged thing.Next to the Minke whale steaks, that is.You can get all kinds of whole fish at the supermarket, but on this shelf you get fish "bits". I think the red things are egg sacks.Umeboshi, and other tsukemono, or pickles.Mammoth sized fruit which is very expensive. The watermelon were over 2,000 yen each.Kiwi fruit - one for 98 yen! Expensive.

There's no dairy products, bread products, or snacks pictured because I began to feel like a bit of a tool taking photos in the supermarket, but I'm sure you get the idea.

What the hell is this?

Check THIS out.

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Flavour of the Season

As you've probably heard, "Japan has four distinct seasons" (plus a 5th called Tsuuyuu, Rainy Season). As part of their efforts to make the distinction between seasons as clear as possible, food and beverage companies release special edition flavours - sometimes recurring every year, sometimes not.

Something that has just hit the shelves for spring is....................cucumber flavoured Pepsi.

Da-me

Sayoooooonara

The "official" party for people leaving Okayama and the JET programme was held at Jibutei Samurai House in Kumenan-Cho. Funnily enough, most of the people who attended were people staying another year....

The property was huge and the house was amazing.

Needless to say, I stayed up all night playing games, drinking, dancing, and exploring the village.What happened at Jibutei stays at Jibutei. Sorry.

Let's Labouring

S JHS spent the day at Kenko no Mori singing songs about toiling in the hot sun for the greater good and preparing a sweet potato field. Love it!

The teacher explains what we're supposed to do while the students look on.

Dirt was shovelled.Plastic sheets were laid out.And the earth was trampled in around it to hold it down.Darren makes use of his hoe.Class smart-arse Yuuto wants a photo with Darren.After the field work, we were rewarded with lunch and "orienteering" which was really a nice stroll around the property.Ahhh, child labour.

Starting them early

"Beer" for children.

First festival of the season

Every year, the taiko groups of Northern Okayama get together and hold the Nassai Wadaiko Festival. This year it was held at the Kuse E Space Hall, where we saw Hono-o-Daiko the night before.

Darren and I arrived early with Yuzuriha to help turn the grounds outside the historic Senkyo Elementary School (built in 1907) into a performance area. Once the pavilions, chairs, tables, and stages were up, and the entire area surrounded by huge plastic sheets to keep the noise in, it started to rain and we had to put it all back again.

It was then time for a delicious curry lunch before getting changed and preparing for the performances.

Darren helps Tom put his traditional taiko pants. It's not actually that hard...

The group has a last minute practise on some unsuspecting chairs.

The guy from Tsuyama Tsurumaru Taiko broke both ends of his drum hitting it so hard.

Tsuyuyamazakura Taiko had some very young drummers in their group.Niimi's Yuzuriha rocked the house.Tengu Taiko had some hogari (either Pacific Triton or Shank) shells accompanying them.Hayagawa Taiko played some New School jumping beats.The finale finally came around 5pm after about 11 groups had played and a return performance from Hono-o-Daiko. Members from every group got on stage to play the Nassai Wadaiko Festival song, penned just for this occasion.After every body's hard work, it was time to pack up, and head to the all you can drink and eat buffet dinner. I was seated at the heavy drinkers table with a bunch of guys from all over (how did they know).Once everyone was good and plastered, it was time for every member of every group to get on stage and make a speech - in Japanese! Bolstered by cries of "we love Vicky!" from my table, I managed to muddle through.

Then it was clean up time, before a long drive back to Niimi to unload the truck.

Taiko just got it's sexy back

Hono-o-Daiko is the first professional taiko performance I have seen, and 私はとても感動して、刺激されました。(I was very moved and inspired by them.)

Niimi's Yuzurihadaiko group, along with some of our friends, made the trip out to E Space Hall (pronounced E-su-pa-se) in Kuse to catch the show, and I think we were all blown away.

They managed to incorporate chanting and dancing, fashion, beauty and drumming while showing their skill at all varieties of Japanese drums and accompanying instruments. They even included many flaring batchi tricks. The concert literally ended with blood spattered drums, and three sweaty women who looked about to burst into tears as they tore the last of their strenth from their arms.

Here are some of the photos Suzette took with her super camera.


They're not much, but check out these live video clips to get a tiny taste of what it was all about: http://www.asano.jp/hono/live/live.html

The temperature is rising

The people of Niimi combat the rediculous heat and humidity by heading to the famous Yamada-ya for kakigori, shaved ice, served in various ways.

We sampled strawberry, macha, and blue Hawaii flavoured kakigori served with icecream in the middle.Another gastronomic first for me which is sure to become a regular habit.

The City at Night

Last night, I sat by the Takahashi River in the centre of town. I listened to the river as I watched the lights on the water and the herons stalking in the shallows. I sipped my beer. I dreamt.

Kiwi Furutsu

Just thought you might be interested to see how NZ's Zespri kiwi fruits arrive on supermarket shelves in Japan. If you've got money to burn on fruit, the kiwi is the fruit for you.