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I got to eat with the children I taught at school today and I ended up spontaneously playing a game with the kid next to me of trying to think of words in Japanese beginning with O. I did alright - You can`t live in any country for a period of time however long without learning some words. It started lke this.

Kid. O-hashi - Hashi means chopsticks (or bridge) The O is an honorific in grammatical terms. It elevates the word after it. These are often used for food so I replied with
Simon. O-sushi Oh yes. Speaking the lingo. Playing Japanese games. Oh yes.

This went on for a bit until I couldn`t think of anymore O-plus-food words in Japanese and so I had to think of proper words
Onsen, obento, onigiri.

This obviously became harder and harder as although I have been in Japan for a bit and learned as few words this wasn`t going to be enough to face up to an eleven year old`s Japanese.

Then I hit on a brainwave, My earlier post about Japanese names being great - Tera yama being temple mountain. Right I`ll have some of this and so:

Simon O-tera - temple. Oh yes.
Simon O-yama- mountain. Oh yes.
Ohta-san (another coordinator) and so Ohta. Oh yes!
I did a few more and ran out so I thought of the Japanese Hanshin Tigers baseball team. This didn`t go so well as temple mountain.
O-aka - red. No.
O hoshi - star (name akahoshi). Don`t think so.
O fuji - no chance
O moto -no.

And my attack was petering out until hallelujah the sound of Big Ben`s bells tolling in the end of meal time and unleashing the children onto the dusty playground of Dodgeball, football and basketball. I had lasted the twelve rounds. I felt like Rocky when he climbs those stairs and I thanked my blog first and foremost. Thank you blog.

I haven`t posted a lot recently I`m sorry. Do you care?

This is for two reasons. The first is that I have had a hangover which lasted for two days caused by drink-mixing. We did karaoke and ordered free alcoholic drinks which comes to just 140 yen or 70p or a dollar and a bit for half an hour which is a bargain. You don`t even technically have to sing - just go in there and order. I drank oolong hai which is alcoholic tea and then after that tea with whisky as the person was obviously deaf as we tried to reorder the drink. Then we drank some beers at home and I finished on Margaritas. I`m not trying to show off by blogging about how much I can (or cannot drink) the point of this is to show that I drank a variety of drinks leaving me with a two day hangover. It was very painful. I drank miso soup and ate really healthy and nutritious Japanese meals to ease the pain which didn`t help either. This is reason one.

Reason two is Reiko`s friend Maki came back from China (where she is working) because of the Chinese New Year and we have been busy. We went to Universal Studios Japan again to learn about how great America is. I thought I was going to die on the 4D-rollercoaster even though I`ve been on it three times. The 3d vision tricked me into believing I was falling off a skyscraper.

We watched a street performance outside of USJ and the bloke chose me to do some tricks on like passing a lit cigarette through my hat, making me spin plates and revealing a bald head under a bowler hat. It was a bit embarrasing especially as there was a whole crowd of Japanese laughing at this sole Englishman who I guess they thought was American but it was fun.

Of course what`s the difference between a reason and an excuse?

The Englishman blog Tokyo Times has a great post about Kit Kats being eaten now in the junior high and high school exam season.

The name Kit Kat you see closely resembles the expression Kitto katsu, which translated directly into English means definitely win. Resulting in the chocolate covered biscuit being adopted as a lucky charm for students to buy for themselves, and parents and friends to proffer as a luck inducing gift.

After some research I found that BBC News also covers this story.

Today for breakfast I ate ｃｅｒｅａｌ as usual instead of the traditional meal of fish, rice and soup but there wasn`t any milk left. I saw on the table a certain drink advertising itself as a milk drink which sounds like a certain bovine urine substance - Calpis

This is where the Japanese kitchen continues to play cruel tricks on me. I am (quite rightly) afraid to use the kitchen for fear of mixing bleach detergent into my meal or facing another similar mishap. I was told today that as Calpis (as well as having a silly name) is such a sickly sweet substance you are supposed to mix it to about five parts water to one part calpis. I poured half the bottle in straight and could only manage two bites before I had to throw it in the sink or risk vomiting my stomach into the sink.

And so February passes…

I don`t think the reason for the Japanese`s successes and long life is down to their diet as conventional wisdom points but rather they pray to the right Gods and please somebody up there somewhere in just the right way.

Today I have been throwing beans around to ward off demons amongst other surreal things. I am not hallucinating this is the Japanese festival of Setsubun on February 3rd.

An oni.

To start off we went to a neighbours huge traditional house with tatami mats, personal shrine and papered windows. The only concession to modernity in the room we sat in was an airconditioner set to heat although I could still see my breath mist in the air. After imbibing the prerequisite in any social occasion of green tea, we set to warding off demons. First we receieved a cup of roasted soya beans and had to throw them in the house shrine in the corner of the room with a cry of Fukuwa uchi which means “Luck into the house.” Then we set off to the main entrance and repeated this ritual with a cry of “Oni wa sotto” which means demons away!

When we came to our house we ate dinner. Part of the Setsubun ritual involves having to eat a block of makisushi or rolled sushi (a long sheet of dried seaweed, with rice and an inside usually consisting of fish tuna for example and cucumber etc rolled into a cylindrical shape) whilst facing in a certain direction (this year was West-South-West) whilst remaining silent and continuously smiling until the makisushi is finished for good luck. Our block was a good one and a half inches thick and almost a foot long. As you can imagine, this took some time.

Some makisushi

The third and final part of the ritual was to eat an amount of the beans that you haven`t yet thrown at demons equal to your age plus one symbolizing your past years and good luck in the year to come.

I did all of this with full eagerness and I urge you to swallow your pride and do the same. Remember the Japanese long life expectancy and ask yourself if it`s still February 3rd where you are today, where can you get some soya beans and makisushi in a hurry?

I applied for some teaching positions recently and was asked to call one of them back to discuss the possibility of an interview. How not to answer simple questions:

So we can interview you any weekday apart from Friday as it`s a national holiday. What day would be best for you?
How about Friday?
Err… No. Its a national holiday
Oh.

My PSP possesses chameleon-like powers and unexpectedly changed colour to yellow today which was a shock. I have ditched the Monkey Game Piposaru Academy and play mainly Ridge Racers and the excellent Minna no Golf game (score this morning of 16 over par). I gave up on Tetris-esque Lumines as well but only because Reiko can quite easily and continuously triple my high score. It`s a tidying up game. She`s a woman. What more explanation do you need?

Funny Japanese words:

ringo (pronounced lingo) - apple
bimbo - poor
demo - but

coconotsu - nine things

counting things is interesting and easy to learn if you do it in groups of four ie:

hitotsu - 1
futatsu -2
mitsu -3
yotsu -4

itsutsu -5
mutsu -6
nanatsu -7
yattsu -8

coconotsu - 9
tor -10

That is all thank you.

This weekend Reiko went off to Tokyo for another interview so I went with her mother to see her dad who is working in Matsuyama - a small and rural city on Shikoku island. We took a plane there which reduced a six hour journey by train into just 45 minutes.

Her father is working in Matsuyama at the request of his company. I`m not entirely sure of the exact details but he has to work there on occasions and in the near future will have to relocate entirely to Matsuyama whilst the rest of the S. family remains in Osaka. Osaka Ichiban!

This is typical of the Japanese work ethic. Work is most important. But the relaxed pace and fewer hours are healthier for him as well as having good onsen nearby.

Matsuyama is a good place with an excellent fish restaurant we went to . We also went to the castle and the onsen.

From left to right there is the fish restaurant and a poster inside and YAWYE 22 Sashimi (raw fish) set with miso soup and bucket of rice and massive grilled fish.

This is part of Matsuyama castle.

This is the ride up (or down) the mountain to the castle

For larger versions click on my Flickr photostream.