rock n' roll shane...

Thats right folks, we are reeling from the lightning visit of one Shane "I write the songs" Pienaar who decided to take in the sights of "The Japan" on the return leg of his book signing and baby kissing tour of Southern Africa and Olde London Towne. Having made it out of South Africa with nary an elephant gore and managing to avoid the hordes of mischevious (but well meaning) gangs of singing, dancing, Victorian pickpockets that I have heard infest London, he was right ready for some old fashioned Japanese hospitality. So we served it up right after we had met him following a five hour debacle of poor management and poorer communication at the Hiroshima train station.

This saw Nic and I standing, craning our necks to catch sight of The Shane for over four hours while a 30 second advertisement ran on a television next to us with some Japanese crooner who hasn't studied English pronunciation as hard as perhaps he could have belting out a frankly tawdry version of "Stand By Me" over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. The day really came to a peak when I decided to return home to check of Shane was asleep on our doorstep and got in the car, turned the key.......and nothing freaking happened. Yep. Dead battery. Yep. Pretty dead. Yep. Shoulda turned the lights off after that last tunnel. Damn me and my safety first attitude! Grrr. From now on I'm living on the edge baby, walking that tightrope. Nic developed a twitch from the Stand By Me and I developed a healthy disrespect for people who will take the time to stop in a car park building while you are standing there with the bonnet up on the car, holding jumper leads, and asking them for help who say

".....whats wrong?"

quickly followed by "...REALLY busy, nope, REALLY busy sorry, gotta go..."

.......so why'd ya stop in the first place busyboy? Huh? Huh?

Anywhoo, serving up the Japan to the Shane. Finally he emerged from the Bullet Train platform tired and hungry having run straight (smack!!) into the wall of Japanese inefficiency and been unable to get cash from an ATM over here, after having got it out in the middle of a game park in deepest, darkest Southern Africa. Hmmm. We dragged him home, threw his stinking self in a shower, rehydrated him somewhat, then strolled to the local Izakaya (long time readers will know what an Izakaya is, short term readers will remain confused). So there we were and what better way to get rid of jet-lag, than beer and deep fried fish spines YUM!!! Chock full o' calcium kids! So we wandered our way around some Japanese delicacies, had a good old catch up, nattered, drank some beer, ordered some sake, ordered some more, and finally strolled home to view photees of his sojourn to date.

I have since been presented with video evidence that I did not, in fact, manage to view said photos and instead decided, all by myself and in what I view as a very mature and well thought out manner to fall into, or at least very near, bed.

Next day, bright and early-ish we set off along the coast for some sightseeing, on the way we saw THE MOST ENORMOUS FLOATING SALVAGE CRANES YOU HAVE EVER SEEN. Unbeknowenst to us....we would meet again. Along the coast we went, laughing all the way, and then into the hills. Up, Up, Up into the hills to an enormous nearby dam where we did hire a pedal boat and cruise our way hither and yon. It was right nice. If a little inefficient. What with the peddling and all. Still, the autumn colours are on the turn and it was a nice chance to get out and commune with the trees and the rocks and the water and the like. Mmmmmm the nature.

That took an entire day. That is to say the traffic jam on the way home took most of a day to get through, but still there was some napping by the tired little soldiers and some Japanese fast food MOS burgers (thats Mountain Ocean Sun thanks, dur) for the din dins and that was day one.

Wednesday was Hiroshima day and the obligatory visit to the A-Bomb dome/Museum/Peace Park. No matter how many times I go - and I've been alot in the 3 months since I started work here, I still feel very lucky to live near Hiroshima. The park is very nice and while I think the museum could be done a shade better it still manages to shake you back a bit, not to reality, because it is almost impossible to understand what happened there as reality, what it does do is impose a long term view on things, on consequences, different frames of perspective and bigger, but very hazy pictures. Its a good thing to do. Take a step back. Yep. Good.
One of the things you have to get used to when you go to the Peace Park is hordes of Primary school kids who have been hard at work memorising some English to try out on the hordes of English speaking tourists at the Park. What happens turns into a very stylised dance almost, a cat and mouse like game whereby as your smiling reserves dwindle and their self confidence levels rise you manouvre yourself through the park, towards the museum, as they try and get up the gumption to ask you where you are from and if you could please point that out on a map. Don't get me wrong, I was teaching kids this age for 2 years and they are cute as buttons and when you see them wanting to use another language it brings a smile to your heart. It's just that when you are identified as someone who will answer their questions, they telepathically send out victory signals to their kith and kin, and as daylight gets blocked out by Power Rangers drink bottles, Pokemon t-shirts and Hello Kitty backpacks you can't help but wish you'd fixed your 1000 yard stare on and just damn well pretended to be Dutch. Or Chinese.
Still, we got lots of handmade bookmarks for our trouble and wandered through the museum, then took in some of downtown Hiroshima. We went for lunch at a nice wee cafe type place and in actual fact, thats where the day stalled. The beer there you see, was delicious, not only delicious but also cold. Cold and delicious, that hefty combination, the old one-two. So we sat there and watched the world go by (or at least lots of Japan) and then it was home for steaming, steaming Nabe.
Nabe is one of the the best autumn-y foods in the world. The big, big, fatty, fatty, fatty pants sumo wrestlers eat a version of it called Chanko Nabe. And thats all they eat. Although they do eat it six times a day. First you need lots and lots of beer.
Next:

One (1) enormous clay pot.
One (1) table top gas cooker ring.
More (more) beer.
Some (some) Chanko soup base - like a soy-y chicken soup.
Lots (lots) of thinly sliced pork.
Tons (tons) of veges - mushrooms, cabbage, spring onions that sort of stuff.
Lots (lots) of chicken meat balls.
Heaps (heaps) of tofu.

Bung it all in the pot, on the ring, on the table, sit around said table, drink beer until food is cooked, drink beer while eating, drink beer while more food is cooked, drink beer while clutching belly and moaning. Fin.

Ladies and gentlemen...I give you....the nabe.

Thursday dawned cold and rainy. We made an executive decision to do very little and I am pleased to say we stuck with that solid plan for most of the day. 3 O the Clock came around and we decided to go and adventure up Mt. Gokurakuji which at the time was swathed, cloaked even, in cloud. we strapped in, turned our brave faces on and drove up the hill. It was totally covered in cloud. It was a slow drive but at the top? Ooooooh misty. And what goes well with mist? Thats right. Deserted Japanese temples built in 1562. Oh and the 8 meter tall wooden Buddha just sitting there, in the mist, looking all serene like, and being the biggest wooden Buddha in all of Japan. It was snaaaa-aaa-zy. Then we strolled to the equally mist covered "Snake Pond" and , while not seeing any snakes, we sure did get our fill of pond and it was good. Sushi was had for lunch including Shane taking in the dreaded 'fugu' puffer fish sushi. I didn't have any because I was the only one who knew where the hospital was.

Right. thats enough. Go outside and do something constructive with your time dammit. I will report back soon.
Goodbye.

Oh. And a big old fashioned "You Go Girl" to Arch for continuing to send through some of the grandest updates from the very depths of South East Asia. Snazzy.