Think calm thoughts and the rest will follow.

Today it is snowing, well actually I just glanced out of the window and I think it has stopped but when I was on my bike (there's one for Mr Tebbit) coming to work it was snowing. I know its not really such an amazing fact but it ties in nicely to my Onsen story.

An Onsen, if you didn't know is a Japanese Spa, and they are really popular here lots of people take long weekends to go to famous Onsen. Fortunately there is on close to Kyoto at a little village called Karama. Its up a long wooded valley and altogether in a very beautiful and peaceful setting. So you buy a ticket from the vending machine and then give it to the nice lady - why she doesn't sell the tickets I couldn't say. After disrobing you walk in your birthday clothing out into the outside, then sit under a tap that does boiling hot or freezing cold water and scrub yourself very thoughrally. I should point out that the air temperature is around zero. Then once the washing is finished you walk over to the large pool of steaming water and climb in - gently - splashing is rude. So is having soap still on your body, very rude, luckily a nice man pointed this out to me just before I filled the pool with soap. Major faux pas narrowly avoided. Then you soak, and soak some more. At first I thought the water wasn't hot enough and I'd get that gradual realization of cold you get as your bath cools. But after a while the water really feels hotter and by the time you have been there for an hour or so one begins to spend more time cooling of sitting on the edge than sitting in the water. Its a fantatasticly relaxing experience I felt rather faint on the way home the warm glow of my skin seeped into my mind - felt very stoned in other words.

If you saw a man dancing apparently aimlessly at a major intersection you'd think he way crazy, right? Well there is just such a man in Kyoto. We often see him outside the 100 yen Sushi restaurant. It looks like Tai-Chi only slower. I must admit to a few giggles at his antics. I was very surprised then when I went to meet a friend for a pint to see the self same guy sitting talking to said friend. It turns out he isn't really crazy, just a performance artist. He has had a show in the Pompedu Centre in Paris. http://www.paris-kyoto.com His name is Mori-San and he also writes some great reports/poems about his dancing, I'll try and get hold of some and post them up for ye.

Another strange Japanese custom for your scrap books. In Nagoya, there seem to be a lot of strange things about that place, moving into a new marital home is a big event. In fact the need to impress ones neighbors with your wealth and status is such that you don't just rent a truck and move. No you rent a glass truck so your new friends can see all your possessions. Now some people might not own very much, but enterprising tuck rental firms will lend you extra trucks with fake furniture in them just to look good. Crazy, surely everyone must recognize the rented trucks by now, or perhaps they think Japanese conformity extends to interior design? Seems like a lot of effort and expense to me.

The grand slam dream remains alive, although it caused me to crash my bike at high speed into a lamp post on my way home from the pub, war wounds.

Hope all are well,
Roger

Home is where you burn your hat?

That's strange isn't it yes it is doesn't really make any sense. In fact its so bad I'd change it but it was the title I used yesterday, you see I wrote a lovely long entry yesterday full of fun and information and somehow through stupidity and random clicking of the 'yes' button managed to loose it all. I'll try and recapture some of the magic though.

The title stems from the fact that for the second time in the five short, months I have been in Japan my house mates has tried to burn the house down. I have by the way recently moved house (more about that latter). Funny story first. Zoe, the new house mate went to sleep on our first night in the house, this was after a few celebratory drinks at the very cheap (Y181 a beer) drinking and eating place at the end of the road. Unfortunately she went to sleep with the heater on. I knew nothing about this, it wasn't until I received a mysterious apology by text the next day and asked why was she apologizing that she said 'You didn't notice the fire?' Well no actually I hadn't and neither had Zoe until it started to burn the shirt she was sleeping in. It was all okay in the end although Zoe's heater futon and shirt are now beyond knackered!

So indeed a new house its very nice and rather old over 80 years we are told. Its a traditional Japanese house lots of space and very atmospheric. We are paying about half of what the old Nova provided apartments had cost us before and are living much closer to work and town. I may have told you that I used to live on the wrong side of a very large mountain well now I don't I may also have complained a little about occasional annoying room mates well that over as well. All in all a very satisfactory move. It also explains why some of you haven't heard from me for a rather long while - sorry.

valentines day was last week on exactly the same date here as it is at home - weird hey? Well this is another imported festival that Japan has taken to its heart and made all its own. The city was wreathed in pink leading up to the 14th. There are some noticeable differences though on valentines day in Japan its not about exchanging gifts, no far more sensibly its about Girls giving gifts to Boys, who smile and say thank you. In fact they don't even have to fancy you if they work with you they are expected to bring presents, so there was a lot of chocs (sorry there were) to be eaten. And if you were a really lucky chap as one teacher (who for contractual reasons will be known as ******* also because its fun writing *******) of my ken who received a large pink box of chocs from a student who had been lying in wait for him, not discreetly but in front of all his work colleagues and students, his face matched the box perfectly, how can you feel for someone's embarrassment when beautiful girls are trying to feed them? It seems at first to be the perfect situation for men but the ladies have it all worked out. You see there is a thing called White Day on the 14th March when the guys are meant to reciprocate the gifts, but its not enough to just give sweets back no, on white day your gift should be at least 10 times more valuable than the one you received so chocs become diamonds!

I have many more things to tell you and I would if I hadn't lost them yesterday and didn't have to go to work now, I'll post more tomorrow or the day after - till then keep well and happy,

Roger

Ties from Thais

Now I know I haven't finished my chrimbo holiday blog updates and for this I apologize, it may appear in the near ish future I still have some notes, lots of picture and memories so there is a good chance it'll be back. But I have something interesting to write now so rather than waiting that's what I'm going to do.

(I have not finished the spell check on this I'll do it asap - so until then just live with it OK?)

I have just returned from Thailand. Its a really very nice country, which might not sound like a ringing endorsement but really it is. The people are incredibly friendly, noe this may be because of a contrast with people in Japan who are less than friendly at many times. However (which is a good way to start a sentence) my negative feelings about Japanese people have been proven very very wrong. As I was flying back from Bangkok I had that brief sinking feeling when the person who sits next to you wants to chat for the whole flight. But my seat mate turned out to be a truly fantastic person. Noriko is her name and with her husband she runs an import export company between Japan and Thailand. We chatted about many things, and for the first time, perhaps because it was totally free of any kind of work situation, I was able to talk to the locals about things more interesting than shopping and other senseless nothings. When we arrived at Kansai airport Noriko introduced me to her husband, after saying hello I started to fret a little because it was rather late and I needed to catch the first possible train, but they kept talking and talking, eventually I started to make my excuses to leave. But they were having none of it and marched me off to the car park, to cut it short I was driven by these wonderful people all the way back to my door a good hour or hour and a half out of their way! What nicer welcome could you ask for, than all your bad thoughts being thoroughly contradicted?

So I made it safely home with my large bag of shopping. Fifteen new CD's brought for the price of one CD on Grafton Street and three futon/cushion/mini-sofa type of things and a pile of new Thais (irresistible joke - sorry). And all this and some more for less than fifty quid, a rather economical country if that is what you need.

(Peter Stringer has just put Ireland in the lead again - thank phew)

So about my trip which is probably more interesting than my return and shopping... I arrived in Bangkok and met up with Pippa and her friend Suzy they had arrived form India the day before and by a fantastic piece of karmic luck wangled themselves a place in a five star hotel for the night so were very refreshed. We spent a night carousing in the seedier parts of the Thai capital, meeting amongst other interesting personages a man who claimed to have been a Gay Porn star but turned out to have done a little shoe modeling, and an Irish jockey who was torn between a desire to lope off with the certainty of the hooker leaning on his shoulder and a desire not to look sleazy in front of the lovely Irish girls (Pip and Suze) he had just met. He stayed with us.

We then headed on down along the gulf of Thailand towards Cambodia in a Thai public bus. Now this isn't the National Express, these are fantastic busses you get snacks and drinks and very comfy seats all for almost no money, and service with a smile, except when girls in short skirts splay their legs across the seats. We arrived in Trat and took a rickety taxi down to Laem Ngop on the coast. Laem Ngop is mainly just a portal to Koh Chang our destination a few miles off the coast but we rather enjoyed ourselves, we had a cracking meal on the side of the road. By now I was really beginging to enjoy the heat and the slight disorganisation compared to Japan, but really the heat waqs fantastic. After dinner we took a wander down the pier to watch the fishing boats loading up with ice, although this might not sound so interesting seeing a man stick his leg into a machine that was happily turning 6x3 blocks of ice into cubes you cant fail to enjoy yourself!

finally the next morning we made it to Koh Chang our island paradise. I had been told that this was a virtually undeveloped place, things had certainly changed. We stayed on lonely beach, which really wasn't very lonely, but it was lovely. Long white sand and not too many people I think int the aftermath of the Tsunami the Islands in the gulf are much busier than normal. I developed a small tan by the end of the trip largely due to the care taken of me by the girls looking exasperated when I tried to sunbathe without sun block. Mostly lots of time was spent chilling and eating and enjoying some reasonably priced drinks. But we also did a little activity, one day we spent four hours Kayaking out to some pretty islands in the bay, on one we met some really cheerful artists from just outside Bangkok. Another day saw us risking life and limb speeding round the island on Mopeds, the last time I drove one was on exchange in France and I ended up in a ditch. We discovered a beutiful restaurant on the other (much more peaceful) side of the island where myself Pippa and Pia a Sweedish girl we had met had some relly spendid food only slightly spoiled by a phycotic cat. So a most relaxing time was had wich has made it even harder to come back to the drudgery of Nova. I also partook of a Thai Oil Massage, ohhhh, very relaxing, I did get the giggles a few times as the massage got closer and closer to my more 'nether' regions I hadn't realised how tickelish my inner thighs were. The most disturbing thin was the elderly German in speedos ohhing and ahhing all the time only a few inches to my left. I fely thouraghly revitalised at the end despoite my giggles.

There were probably many other intersting things I should add to this but it is now late and I want to focus on the last few moments of Irelands rather lame perfomance aganst Italy, if you want more details, and I'm happy to give them, e-mail me; I like it or leave a message I like that too.

All the best keep well,
Roger

p.s Better news I think Hickie has it sealed but why would you ask me for Rugby results.