If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Fellow bloggers how long do you spend blogging? I am getting some schtick from Reiko for the amount of time I spend maintaining the site and reading other sites which on average comes to around three hours a day). Is this excessive?

So in the interest of research, how long do you spend on blogs?

I may have been proud before here that living in Japan gave me certain geek related advantages such as possessing a PSP since January but now with the advent of the PSP`s North American release I look at the games available in the United States and cry with envy.

Here in Japan they are heavily into their (Advanced Japanese required) role playing games which I`m not inerested in. It seems that only these have been released lately. I look at the American PSP releases such as NHL Hockey -I`ll have that! Tony Hawks - I`ll have that! Fifa - I`ll have that! And I cry.

I watched a Japanese dating program today although it was very hard to watch. Five blokes comprising (160kg) obese guy, geek boy, the comedian, a bloke that looked like he came out of a manga comic and a muscled K1 (which is like kickboxing) fighter vying for three girls. The girls were pretty but it was awkward for me to watch as I kept on feeling incredibly sorry for the obese and the geek guys who obviously had no chance. However it was also hard to pull my eyes from the screen.

Manga guy and K1 guy were the best looking guys there. At one point they each had to show off a skill they could do - Obese guy played a simple bass line on a tuba (what is it with fat guys and tubas?) and K1 guy broke 10 concrete tiles with his head. Don`t mess with the Alpha male.

Incredibly at the end geek guy, up against comedian and manga boy, won the girl they were all after. I explained all about “Is the Pope Catholic?” to Reiko for yes answers today. I would have thought the scenario would have been, “Will she choose manga guy? - Is the pope catholic?” but bewilderingly Girl 1 chose geek boy. Was she sorry for him?　Did his awkward mannerisms or my Japanese incomprehension hide some gleaming facet the boy possessed?

Of course K1 boy got his girl. Don`t mess with the alpha male. He was the only one who chose the alpha girl and for a girl to refuse a date with him would be as unlikely as the first girl choosing geek boy. Oh wait.

Finally the only people left were obese man and Girl 3. Would Girl 3 choose go for the waddling ass? Of course not. That`s why I felt so sorry the whole way through. And also why I couldn`t pull myself away.

Chicken and jellyfish starter eaten at an izakaya - a mix between a restaurant and a bar.

This is a house near where I live. The front is for growing plants. One thing about Japan or at Osaka at least is that you rarely see large areas of grass or fields. Any available free space is immediately designated as either rice field or for new buildings. Of course given how seriously the Japanese take their rice I`m not going to mess with them. However the lack of many large areas of grass and fields is probably the biggest thing I miss about England.

Eel on a bed of rice. Once more delicious!

Story about modern day pirates armed with rocket launchers who attacked a 323 ton tug, kidnapped 3 of the crew and demanded 240000 dollars ransom in Maccala Strait near Japan earlier this week.

Story also here

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1: Wrestlers prepare to face off
2: Winner and Loser return to their positions
3: A (big boned) wrestler
4: The third highest ranked fighters` introduction ceremony
5+6: A bout in action
7: The second highest ranked wrestlers` ceremony (This is from the seat I was supposed to be sitting in)
8: Asashoryu`s (in the middle) own highest ranking ceremony (This is the seat I managed to wangle)
9: Yokozuna Asashoryu (gold) prepares to demolish Kotomitsuki

You can see some more of my sumo pictures by folllowing the link below.

I went to Sumo today. I went for a massive, bum-aching 9 hours and loved every second of it. It started at 8:45 I got there for about 9:10 and it finished at 6:00 with the final fight with the yokozuna Asashoryu.

I had emailed the man (and sumo afficianado) at the excellent website Tokyo Times for some advice for a newbie sumo viewer. He said to get out of your seat as quickly as you can and to sit as far down the front as you can get and watch the show there until the person who paid the extortionate price for the seat arrives. Never was a more useful piece of advice given to me.

To start of with I was physically escorted to my seat by an attendant through a labyrinthine network of corridors and sat next to an Italian called Francesco (100 empty seats in the area and I`m sat next to the only other bloke in the section) Alas I thought my plan had failed. I stayed there for about one and a half hours and then decided to give it a go and see how far I could get down. I made it to three rows from the ring and stayed there for a long time. Then I went back and ate and then tried it again. By three o`clock on my fourth sojourn the attendants began to get a bit shitty with me - This place is only for reserved seating etc. -so I tried the other side.

I had begun drinking by this time as well and so with my confidence bolstered by drink and the rude man with young girlfriend who made me move my bags one space so they could sit in their designated seat at the back (even though there ｗａｓ acres of other seats they could have sat at on the row), I went down to the front for my final time. It was now NHK recording live time with the wrestlers everybody wants to see. There weren`t very many spaces free so I chose a seat five rows from the ring and I managed to stay in the best seats until the very end.

I have some very good pictures (for my camera at least) and I`ll get them up for tomorrow.

I`ve just seen the Japanese version of the incredible Werthers Original advert . It is exactly the same. Flashback to 60 years ago when young boy received Werthers from said Grandad. Then cut to present and the immortal (and unintentionally hilarious) line, “Now I`m the Grandad.” rendered in Japanese as “Ima dewa watashi ga ojiisan.” Genius. This ranks up there with the time I saw the Teletubbies in Welsh.

I promise I`ll have a proper post tomorrow. I`m going to watch the Sumo tournament (alas alone) tomorrow being held in Osaka. I promise I`ll have lots of pictures.