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This is when I introduced my parents to the wonderful art of Pachinko AKA pinball gambling. Look at the glazed eyes, indifferent expressions and untraceable hand trembling withdrawal symptoms.

I promise I haven`t gone 100% photoblog. I have been incredibly busy these last few days. I`m running out of pictures to post here (Donations accepted via Paypal account on bottom left towards Windows XP Desktop computer for USB compatibility?)

I took a tour Thursday of the nine schools I will be teaching 12 year olds English at for the next nine months. They are about a 45 minute train journey away from where I live but all really close to each other when you finally get there. Lessons include introducing yourself, describing your pets and numbers to 30. I have to plan (entertaining) lessons for all of these. Any help?

Today is the beginning of the seven day Golden Week national Holiday which apart from Monday is a day off for everyone until next Thursday. The temperature has soared from necessitating two duvets in winter to now requiring none at night. It averages about 25 degrees every day with high humidity. I like air conditioners…

The beautiful sitemeter on the bottom right has managed to notch up a quite stunning 10,000 visits in under eight months of counting. Thanks for reading my blog.

This is the car unveiled at the Aichi World Expo named the i-unit. From a press release:

The “i-unit” is a form of “personal mobility” that seeks to attain a greater balance of meeting individuals’ wishes to enjoy freedom of movement, harmony with society, and harmony with the Earth’s natural environment.

Yes.

Yet again a picture taken in a shrine. Am I in doubt? Perhaps. I had a busy day today and no time to post. Sorting through a true torrent of junk mail including two great ones promising me 20% of 15 million US dollars if I open a bank account in Ghana. No thank you.

When in doubt post a picture taken in a shrine. The kanji on the Hanshin Tigers barrel means “sake” which means alcohol and so these are barrels for alcohol. Quite why the mighty Hanshin Tigers are on it is beyond me though.

Not much use when you`re lost.

Much like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory where he gave out golden tickets in his chocolate bars, the mighty Japanese Asahi beer company are giving out the item on the left in a prize draw if you first collect a liver-rotting 36 stickers off of the cans.

36 Cans I hear you cry? But this is no ordinary object of attention. This is a mini fridge to hold further purchases of your beer addiction ingeniously combined with a fully functioning DVD player and screen. What an amazing idea. 36 cans I hear you cry? I`d gladly buy 72!

But I`m a bit of a sucker for these alcohol related giveaways. Every Saint Patrick`s day I buy the requisite six Guinnesses for cheap plastic violin or three foot mad-hatters hat which like a Santa Claus costume is only useful for one day a year. But the DVD player mini fridge? It`s surely worth one liver at least.

Thanks go to Isabo for the explanation:

That is a shinto shrine, the rope is called shimenawa and the paper strips are gohei. They mark boundaries to sacred areas/objects/kami. that’s why they’re on torii gates, mark the boundary to a sacred shrine/area.

Also, Simon, as you’re obsessed with sumo, you’ll notice it looks an awful lot like the belt sumo wrestlers (highest ranking ones) wear during ceremonies, right? I guess b/c Sumo was originionally a performance to Shinto kami (that’s simply translated as gods to foreign cultures, but kami means much more/different things).

I started a teaching position yesterday. Once a week on Fridays from 4-9 in the evening teaching classes from four years old up to adults. In the first lesson the woman owner blazed in, squawked at the kids for five minutes and then left me alone with them for the rest of the hour. The lesson was boring. The second lesson she just gave me a textbook and left me with them. The adult class was the best as I could have an interesting conversation with them including a sarariman who was also a marathon runner and amateur Japanese chess player about things like the new pope, rally driving and the Aichi Expo.

The supernatural powers of the tie seem to be going into overdrive as I am now receiving offers for positions I`ve not applied for. I got an email the other day from my old employer offering me a full time position until March next year with visa sponsorship. This is great of course and I accepted it with full accompanying assertions of not being worthy but I promised a bloke I would work for him on Wednesdays. This man is incredibly nice but now I will have to say I can`t do it. I don`t like being a bastard.