Monday, September 29, 2003

Ovens

The Ovens. In Japan. They are very small. Imagine a microwave oven. Thats the size of the ovens in Japan. They are normal ovens and microwaves in one. And they are very small. I don`t know how people cope going from here to the States for example, where the average oven needs its own postal code, their food must get lost. It would be like trying to roast a chicken in an aircraft hanger.
The reason I bring this up is that this last weekend with Arch, Tom and Kerryn in attendance, we managed to roast a chicken. Not a noteworthy event usually, but seeing as we were roasting in shifts I thought I`d bring it up. First in....taties, those are done, out they go, in goes the halal chicken, imported from Brazil with cooking instructions in Arabic (not as helpful as perhaps it could be), then, in shifts, sidled in alongside the bird go the kumura, then the mushies, then the garlic, then the....it went on and on and around 10:00 on Saturday night we had the bird. And it was dashedly good.

We`d all worked up a hunger by tackling the Godo Miniature Golf course that day. I don`t want you to think this was a putt-putt type experience with windmills and volcanoes and the like. This was a miniature golf course. Sure, the holes were only 30-50mtrs long, but the worn-out-astroturf-on-concrete-bases made for some lightening fast greens. It also seems that in between Gary Players design studio and the Godo riverside there had been some sort of a mix up in that all of the `fairways` had a reverse camber on them. In addition there were no handily placed edges to the fairway, the ball would simply roll off the quick greens and into the rough, the bunkers contained river rocks. I am serious about this. The final killer was that over half the holes were placed on a slope....things were a little tough.

Still, fun was had by all, and when the time came to call the game on the 12th hole, we all had vey respectable 18 hole scores and a hankering for some roasted goodness. Certainly a fine catch up and as far as I can recall we called Paul in London Towne and had a natter. Good times.

I certainly hope you are all well, have some big fun out there,
berin

Friday, September 26, 2003

Earthquake? Eh?

Didn`t feel a thing.
An earthquake hit Hokkaido this morning, the Northern most island of Japan. It was a 6-7 on the Richter scale and there have been 11 injuries reported so far. We are good. Just thought you`d like to know.

You can stop calling all the hospitals.

Tom and Kerryn and Arch coming through this weekend for good times. Will file a full report as it becomes available.

How about that Paul Holmes eh? What a tool.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

28

Hey there all,
Well, first off, thanks to all concerned for the birthday messages last week. I was certainly looking forward to this one, it fell on a Friday after all, and as it happened, that Friday was payday (oooooh payday) so by the mighty power of those two facts coinciding upon my birthday, I was relishing the thought.

Until about two weeks ago.

Then my supervisor strolled on up to me, bold as brass and stated it was work as usual on the
Saturday, followed by work as not so usual on the Sunday. Any other weekend would have been fine, dash it all. So, plans were hastily rearranged and I faced the working weekend. Nic managed to be pretty sneaky and underhanded however, dragging me out to nearby Gifu to a mystery dinner spot. As it turned out it was a swell Mexican place we had been to once before and lo!! who should that be grinning like iijits in the corner, wiping nachos from their greasy chops (we were a shade late) but Tom and Kerryn- all pre-arranged like.
A super surprise and we sat down to some good natters, some cool beer and some ridiculously good food. Big steak fajitas, mmmm fajitas, dirty ole' spare ribs, mmmm ribs, and....the lights went down, the crowd looked, the waiter winked, Kerryn winked back, and there it was...cake. Mmmmmmmm cake. Adorned with sparklers and such, and a damn fine cake it was too, having survived the bike/train/walk from tom and Kerryns place.
The table we had was actually booked so at the appointed time we made our excuses and left to the station, all of us training home as we were. With an hour or two until our last respective train we ducked into the Station Izakaya , essentially a restaurant at which you drink. Round these parts there isn't really a 'bar' type culture. Drinking is something you do with food. I do miss a good bar. Aaaaah well.
Still, we sat and mulled over this and that over some more sweet beer, and them the trains came and we said our farewells and disappeared off into the night.

Cut to the following morning when Berin has to get up and go to work at 7:00...

Cut away as its just too harsh to relive...

Still a dashedly good night and the Saturday went by in a veritable flash of instant coffee and cold tea.

Sunday the weather around here decided that in fact we had had enough of summer and so dampered down the furnace. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees overnight and has stayed there. The trees are already beginning to turn. Autumn in Japan is quite, quite pretty, albeit a little short. Those days of summer are gone...next stop snowboarding - woopwoop.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

2 cents? Anyone? 2 cents? Come and get it...

Just quickly, I am relatively excited by ex-NATO guy-with-all-the-sparkley-stuff-on-his-chest Wesley Clarks` decision to join the 2004 US Presidential race. I think someone who realises that there is a world outside of the US mainland would be a welcome change at the helm of that juggernaut.
Not whole-hearted support from this corner, simply a quickening of the pulse in interest to see how a committed multilateralist who has spoken out about the Iraq debacle fares in the US of today.

There. 2 cents. Take it. Go on.

Well, not much actually...

Yep, things have been pretty slow in old Godo over the last couple of weeks.

Still, just letting you know we are alive and well.

We had a phone call from old Jarrod Blaine Ward just the other day, out of the blue there, he sounds well and is mooching along right nice in sunny Kansas City.

Other than that Nic has found a new vocation - Total World Domination - in the form of Risk2, on the `puter. This led to a fine, fine Friday night last week with 6hrs of Risk for her and a similar amount of time on the PS2 for moi. Added to that some rather good Chilean wine and some natters when we could be excused from our respective ventures added up to a top evening.
Monday saw us faced with "Respect for the Aged" day holiday over here, we lazed about for much of the day before heading up nearby Mt. Ikeda (about a 25 minute drive seemingly straight up and wendling -thats enough Shane- around some pretty tight corners, from home) ostensibly to sit in the sun, Unfortunately we didn`t realize it was 5:00 when we left and the sun was bidding us farewell. Undeterred we chased it across the mountain range for an hour or two through some nice bush/mountain land, before finally giving up and returning to nearby Ogaki to visit its grand Brazilian restaurant/cafe to fill up on meaty goodness and real bread.

`Twas grand.

We are getting our Japanese licences on Monday- very much looking forward to being legal again.
Tata.

Saturday, September 13, 2003

A MOMENTS SILENCE....

Johnny Cash is dead. I am upset.

John ("Three's Company") Ritter is also dead. Thats a tough break, to die on the same day as someone like Johnny Cash. Sure Threes Company was good, but compared to "Ghost Riders in the Sky"?, come on.

Today is a black day.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

The Buddha Guy's Vital Stats

So this is how big he is...

Height of Body: 48.91ft (sitting).
Length of Head: 17.75ft.
Length of Eye: 3.34ft.
Length of Ear: 8.33ft.

He was a very large chap.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

Hello Again, Thanks for waiting.
Well then, our weekend...
After slashing our usual 2hr20min trip to Archs down to under 2 hours we had a super catch-up over some Yaki-Niku; (Yaki , meaning "to roast/grill" and Niku , meaning "meat" = inordinate amounts of meaty-meat you roast yourselves over a small, charcoal BBQ.) I look left....I look right...nary a vegetable do I see.......Mmmmmmmmm. Meeeeeeaaaat.

An aside on that- Nic does sometimes run in to trouble when introducing herself as "NIc", because the Japanese generally pronounce in 2 letter combinations - ka, gi, mu etc, which is why there is very rarely a Japanese company that ends not on a vowel sound - ToyoTA, HonDA, MitsubiSHI etc - So when Nic introduces herself, the closest they can get to approximating it is Ni-ku, meaning Nic simply states "Gidday, call me MEAT."- Bemused stares all round.

Anywhoo, next day we started our super trip to Nara, and lo! there was certainly much gob-smacked staring and a small amount of running from rabid, out-to-get-you-sacred-deer. The deer just hang out around the enormous park that has the historic attractions of Nara placed on it. You buy little bikkies for them to nibble on, but some of them...

a) don`t understand you have to physically have the bikkies in your hand before they can accost you for them, and

b) have grown past the Oooja-boooja-boo-wook-at-the-widdle-deery-weery-lets-give-him-a-widdle-bikkie-wikkie stage and are old, fat, ugly and angry at the younger Bambi (tm) types working the crowds and getting the goods.

These make for scary deer.

So we ran the gauntlet of deer and made or way to the star attraction, the Todai-Ji Temple. You can also have a gork here. Think of something big. Then think of that as being very small. Then think of this building being very big. And completely made of wood. And considered `new` because it was built in 1709. Relatively new I guess, but the statue inside of the big Buddha fellow is really very, very big and old, dating, in parts from the original, cast in 749, with the `newer` pieces added in the 12th century. The guy is 48 feet tall people. And he`s sitting down. Thats a pretty big guy.

The building has two main beams supporting the roof, these are 1m in diameter and 23m long, weighing in at a cool 43.5 tons each. Of wood. These are 40m above the ground and you can`t see them for the gold and carry-on on the ceiling. They sit there, thanklessly supporting the 1200 tons of building plonked around them. I thanked them. Particularly when they were over my head.

We spent a while in there and just as we were coming on out, the nature turned on a flash thunder storm forcing us to sit on the 1600 year old steps and do a good bit of people watching. CONCLUSION: There are some sour faced old American tourists who need someone to tap them on the shoulder and remind them just how long ago 1600 years was and how big a 48ft tall sitting Buddha guy actually is.

It was a very peaceful excursion. You wash your hands before entering the hall, you place incense in an enormous incense bowl just at the entrance way, waft some of the smoke over yourself and then go in and look at a representation of a God who has a very relaxed look on his face and looks like he has just read a damn good book, or scratched a good scratch, or eaten some bacon. It was really very, very nice.

I have to go and make boomerangs- thats just the sort of thing that happens over here. Toodle pip.
berin and nic.

Friday, September 05, 2003

...and in other news... I`m Darren McDonald and I`m completely nutted on methamphetimines.

Thats a pretty odd story.

We`re off to Kyoto tonight to go to Nara, Japans first capital, to see the big Buddha. It`s going to be grand fun. Will report back presently.