A year in Nagasaki

Final Entry

2006-08-20T22:07:00.000+09:00

In hindsight, this last year just seems to have gone by so quickly that I need to look at all the entries to realize what has happened since September last year. Has it been a good year; has it been a fruitful year or has it just been an absolute waste of time? Since I am not a philosophical kinda guy I think I just need to compare the expectations I had with the results and see what the outcome is.

Expectations: a) better grasp of spoken and written Japanese. b) getting to know Japanese people and making friends and c) see places and witness events that I could not possibly do anywhere else but in Japan.

I did improve on my language proficiency skills but, unfortunately, not as much as I would have liked mainly due to the fact that 10 Dutch students were housed together and even though I’m a rather gregarious and extravert person, I did not manage to meet and develop friendships with enough Japanese people to have good conversations with. To connect with the younger Japanese crowd was easy but never a lasting thing (the age gap is just way too big) and I didn’t manage to meet interesting folk my age (too conformist and too petty bourgeois) in Nagasaki. Even to make gay friends there didn’t work out. The only thing that I managed to do was to travel and see quite a lot of the country itself. The times spend on planes, trains and buses have been extensive and gruellingly expensive too.

Has it been a waste of time? I can honestly say no it has not. Although the general lustre regarding Japan has disappeared, I think I have come to value the things one normally takes for granted at least for now and I think that I have matured (if that’s at all possible) in more ways than one. The thing I have really come to realize is that I will not go and live without Paul somewhere again for such an extended period of time so I need to consider if continuing doing a MA (Master of Arts) in Leiden afterwards (which includes an other obligatory year in Japan) is a viable option at all.

Went to Leiden University last Monday to register for certain lectures (still not possible to do this online…..) and it felt like nothing had changed. Lectures will start on the 11th and only two more years, deo volente, to get my Bachelors.

頑張って… Gambatte……

Silver ( Montreal III )

2006-08-06T01:49:00.000+09:00

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Like in any other sports event one encounters nice and friendly people and some really unsavoury horrid folk. Our cutie from Montreal is called Louis and apart from being cute he’s also a super nice guy. The worst was called Roland, we found out afterwards, who doesn’t even introduce himself and the moment the board’s up he walks away. Absolutely no breeding there……
After three days of playing bridge I had sort of reached the end of my tether. We did remarkably well on Wednesday morning but in the afternoon I caved in much to the dismay of my partner Pim. So no medals for us!!
The Dutch do very well where medals are concerned so the gold medal for Ellen and Jolanda (tennis doubles) is not a big surprise. Swimming and cycling is another discipline we do well.
Needless to say that I’m very proud of my husband Paul, however, for getting the silver medal for the cross country run.

The general atmosphere here in Montreal is wonderful and walking through the “Gay Ghetto” on Sainte Catharine in the evening gives you quite a buzz.

Last night we went to “Outsplash”, a closing performance by several swimming clubs. Two Dutch ones…: Ketelbinkie from Rotterdam (2nd place) and Upstream from Amsterdam (3rd place). Winner was the group from Melbourne, Australia.
Apart from partaking in a sport you can also go and watch a lot of other ones. Anne, Paul and I went to the diving on Thursday morning and the body building extravaganza in the afternoon. They call body building “Physique” in US English and “Culturisme” in Quebecois French. It’s amazing what these men (didn’t see the women) can do with their muscles. Country and Western and ballroom dancing are also very popular here.

Today is the big day for Paul, Nick and Anne as they’re doing the half-marathon. The weather is good, breezy and not hot. We were all there cheering them on as the passed by.
This afternoon at 4 pm. is the closing ceremony with Liza Minelli as the main attraction (hope she can still sing with all those drugs keeping her standing upright). Should be fun anyway.

And this is almost it. Flying back home via Munich to good old Amsterdam tomorrow and that basically concludes my year in Nagasaki. It won’t be my last entry since I still have to evaluate the pros and the cons of this year.
One of the cons is the absolute nasty attitude of the teachers at Nagasaki University. I got an email from Bart saying that only 5 students will receive their certificate. Apparently you must have 7 credits in the 1st semester and 7 in the 2nd but did they ever tell us that….no. So for those who got only 5 or 4 credits in the 1st semester and subsequently worked their asses off to make the total of 14 credits will not receive the certificate. Well I’m sure you know what I think they can do with their precious certificate……#$%&*%$#

Need more Zen ... maybe .. In with anger out with love......

Bridge ( Montreal II )

2006-08-02T22:00:00.000+09:00

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On Sunday we met Kathy White from Toronto for lunch and walked around the old part of Montreal down at the Saint Laurent River. A lot of development going on there; lots of new condos plus renovated lofts and all dirt cheap. Montreal has a nice feel….French charm, American efficiency and everybody is just so friendly……
They also have a big Gay Pride Parade here but unlike Europe, The US and even Toronto it is just very political and certainly not a party. Hardly any music or weird and wonderful people to watch...just banners in French demanding this or the other. Gave up after 2 hours and had "Tonkinoise"....the local chinese type of food. Yammie.

Pim and I started the Bridge competition on Monday morning at 9 o’clock and despite the fact that I hadn’t played for more than a year the result at the end of the day wasn’t bad…: 5th place. In other words you can only go down. We’re with 10 players from Amsterdam (the same ones that also went to Sydney) and we’re having a lot of fun. But it’s difficult to focus for two times three hours per day.

Time for a bit of relaxation was called for and so in order to celebrate Pim’s birthday (40 once again) he had invited a whole group of friends for dinner in the old part of Montreal. Since Hans and I had just come in from Honolulu we did a Hula greeting and gave all the guests a Lei. I have just never been so embarrassed in my whole life. But it’s amazing how quick you adjust and I just wanted to go on dressed up or rather down through the whole town.
Next time I will not hesitate to shed my clothes “en plein publique” and go around looking like a sad old queen.

Outgames 2006 ( Montreal I )

2006-08-02T21:49:00.000+09:00

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Most of the participants in this humongous GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender) sporting event called the Outgames 2006 arrived last Friday the 28th in Montreal, Quebec. Apparently there are more then 14.000 participants from well over a 112 countries. Got a message from Pim that due to heavy storms in Chicago about 400 flights were cancelled last Thursday and he would be stuck there till Saturday due to heavily oversold flights to Montreal.

We’re in a rather seedy part of town with loads of beggars and tramps plus an overabundance of sex shops but the apartments are really spacious and pleasant.
We registered for our specific sports (Bridge in my case) and bought tickets fro the grand finale of the swimming tournament Out Splash (a.k.a. Pink Flamingos in Sydney).
Had dinner in the evening in “The Gay Village”, full of drag queens and the like.

Saturday was spent exploring Plateau Mount Royal, the elevated district of Montreal, nice parks, small streets with tons of restaurants and street side café’s.
The main drag down is called Rue Saint-Denis with boutique stores, bars etc. The weather is great not too hot and a nice breeze.

After gathering at the Holland Garden, the place where the Dutch participants can congregate and be entertained by Dolly Bellefleur, a drag queen from Amsterdam, we all went to the Olympic Stadium where the opening of the Outgames took place. The Dutch by wearing the colour orange made a big impact upon entering the stadium, singing and waiving orange flags. We saw K.D. Lang, up close performing various country songs and Martha Wash doing her “It’s raining men” routine. Apart from several other artists we could also see Cirque de Soleil give a great show (they originated here). It was an absolute blast.
After one last drink in Rue Sainte Catherine it was definitely time to hit the hay.

Mahalo nui loa

2006-07-28T08:37:00.000+09:00

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Some things you can get addicted to and the one thing that I really love in Japan is miso, the fermented soy bean paste that is used in soups.
I had to stop in to a ramen shop to get a bowl of miso ramen plus several toppings and to make it a little more spicy I added karashi miso (Also fermented soy paste but with chillies) Loved it.
Today is our last day in Honolulu and we’re flying out at 4.15 pm. on the friendly skies of United to Chicago and from there on to Montreal for the Outgames 2006.
Had to say goodbye to Hula’s and all the pretty and not so pretty boys.
Just as to show how it is situated I took this picture of Hula’s from the park across.
Mahalo and see ya’ll in Montreal

Aloha

2006-07-24T17:55:00.000+09:00

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Arriving at an airport way before your flight can be good or it can be bad, depending on how you look at it of course.
Kansai, Osaka’s international airport at 3.30 pm., ready to check in with United for my flight to Honolulu (HNL) at 7 pm. Due to oversold flight to HNL the following offer:
Go to San Francisco (SFO) now and from there to HNL arrive there two and a half hours later than scheduled but in First Class all the way plus some USD on top of that to be redeemed for a future flight. You have to decide now as the flight is about to depart.
“I’m glad I can be of assistance” I mutter and luggage retagged, I run to the gate with my money check and new boarding cards.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, United is sorry to inform you of a delay for flight 886 to SFO due to air traffic control. As soon as we will get clearance we will start boarding”. Two hours later we do indeed board the aircraft. Fabulous flight of course with flat beds, great food, champagne plus all the attention one could need. To cut the story short I finally arrive 8 hours later in HNL and basically missed out on a day at the beach but in time for Happy Hour at Hula’s.

I passed the date line and so even though I left Japan on Saturday the 22nd at 5.30 pm. I arrive in SFO on Saturday the 22nd at 10.45 am.

We have this great two bed roomed apartment, sundeck, huge kitchen, fancy TV and CD player ………. but no wardrobes and drawers. Who ever designed the lay-out of this place wasn’t thinking. So a week of living out of our suitcases will be our fate.
The weather is super; the surf great and floating on our water beds in the ocean is a delight.

Do we really have to leave next Thursday………….???

Sayonara II

2006-07-22T09:05:00.000+09:00

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Even simple things can in Japan turn out to be extremely difficult and in the end can end up being very annoying like cancelling a cell phone subscription. It is not an easy task and in my case an impossible one.

I went with Alexandra to the AU KDDI store where I got my cell phone in order to cancel the subscription. “Can I pay cash for the total sum please” I said. Yes, no problem the sales person said. She subsequently disconnected my phone from the system, printed some forms (one of which was a 3.150 Yen fee for cancelling abruptly which I knew) and then proceeded to phone all kinds of people. After half an hour it turned out I couldn’t pay cash and I couldn’t pay through the bank. They put somebody on the phone to tell me in English but the person could only stammer “wakaranai” meaning I don’t understand. I left to go to bank to close my account and when I returned Alex was still there, having to explain that she was not Paul and what her relationship with me was????
There seemed to be no solution to the problem so one hour and a quarter later we left the store still not understanding why we could not pay……….??
So either I’m 10.000 Yen richer or I will be stopped leaving the country or worse I will never be allowed to re-enter this country.

Mai and Akitaka took me for dinner to this beautiful place called Ume no Hana where a traditional Japanese food is served. We had a tofu menu and by Jove the thing one can do with tofu. Different tastes, different structures and different colours all are accompanied by several cold or hot dipping sauces, dashi broth and condiments. Simply loved it.

I really do hope to see them again in Amsterdam or where ever in the world. Even Akitaka seems to have acquired an ambition to venture outside of Japan and have a better more relaxed way of life.

My Taxi is waiting ... got to go.
Bye, Bye Japan

Sayonara I

2006-07-21T09:35:00.000+09:00

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This is my one but last entry here in Japan. I noticed how my entries have changed from observing the unusual, the fascinating and the odd to just the trivial. That probably means it really is time to go. The novelty wears off and all that remains are the banal day to day occurrences.
So for the record.:
Had my last dinner with Diana on wednesday at our favourite Yakitori place (her treat). She has decided to stay on in Nagasaki for another 6 months but concentrate on writing articles for Canadian newspapers and trying to find a job as a journalist either in Vancouver or Toronto after her time her is up.

The caretaker of the building (the witch) came to check up on my room to see if all the precious furniture and fixtures were still there. She managed to screw up the air-conditioning at the same time. There’s definitely a jinx on her…..

I attended the last lecture of our head teacher Takano Yasukuni (wonder why his parents give him the same name as that infamous shrine) who was surprised to hear that I was leaving on Saturday. “Had I filled in the proper forms”, “Had I notified the authorities”, “Had the Emperor himself been informed of my leave” .. It’s funny how people’s concerns here are with formalities. Are they too afraid to interact on a direct emotional level I or was he just chuffed for not having been informed immediately.
I did manage to have a nice chat with my favourite teacher here called Nagai. In my view she a little borderline which makes her seem probably a total wacko to regular Japanese. She has lived in Colombia for a long time and misses that “how to enjoy life attitude” that Latinos have. She’s not too keen on Japan (by the way she’s from Osaka, the most informal and straight forward kind of people in Japan) and their weird working ethics. She still has a year to go and wants to return to Colombia a.s.a.p. I invited her to come on over to Amsterdam when ever she feels like and she told me she will.

Together with Bart, Kim, Rob, Colin and Alex I had my last dinner on Thursday night at Tenguto a.k.a. butakimchi because that’s what we eat there most of the time.
Today I will withdraw all my fortune from the Shinwa bank 親和銀行 , discontinue my cell phone subscription, buy a book on Japanese noodles, have lunch with Alex and will have my absolutely last dinner with Mai and Akitaka to whom I have bequeathed in my utmost generosity my Epson state-of-the-art printer and copier.

Saul will see me off at the station on Saturday morning and then I’m off to Hula’s Bar and Lei Stand. Every time is MaiTai time…………..

My friend Christoph has just arrived in Tokyo for business but I won’t be able to see him unfortunately and Aty is worrying that I will start partying the moment I set foot on Oahu all the way through Montreal till I get back to Amsterdam. I also have to take care of my health so she says.
She knows me well.

Meshi 飯

2006-07-19T11:57:00.000+09:00

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It appeared that I had accumulated more stuff than I had anticipated and in the end needed to ship 4 boxes with about 18 kg each in contents back to Amsterdam. It costs about € 60 per box (overland/boat shipment and takes about 45 days) so that’s quite cheap considering the costs of having a shipping company do it for you. Of course I know that some of the stuff could have been left behind (sheets and pillows, sake bottles) but then again, apart from the obvious sentimental reasons, I really didn’t want to leave anything behind in this country.
Since I’m flying via TC1 (US/Canada) the piece concept luggage rule is applicable instead of the 20 kg. That means I can take two peaces of checked luggage weighing no more than 64 kg together.

“Impeccable” アンペキャブルwas impeccable. It turned out that is is situated on the 2nd floor of the same building that houses Club “Jah Rules”, the first and only place I ever went dancing here in Nagasaki. They served a “Menu Fixe” so you basically eat what they serve that day. Of course you can inform them of certain things that you really do not like. Since Christoph doesn’t eat fish he was served other meaty things. The six course menu was a wonderful concoction of French food with Japanese touches… very refined and of course great attention was paid to the presentation. We downed it all with a great rosé wine and could even speak French with the owners.
On top of that I received a wonderful book from Saul called Meshi about seasonal dishes with rice. The word meshi, same character as the word han 飯 (meaning rice or also a small bite) comes from mesu 召す an archaic word for eat and drink and you still hear it being used in the polite meshiageru 召し上げる .I will have to translate the rest with my word tank since it is of course in Japanese.

I’m basically ready to go now. Do not feel like going to lectures anymore, just waiting for the days to pass by quickly.

海の日

2006-07-17T23:39:00.000+09:00

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The official beginning of the summer season in Japan starts on the weekend of Umi no hi 海の日 , or day of the sea, a recently introduced national holiday on the 3rd Monday in July to celebrate the ocean. The day marks the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876. That weekend all of a sudden the beaches are clean, you can get food and beach amenities work plus the fact that tons of Japanese descend on the beaches en masse. And they do love to bring their toys…anything to float on.
I prefer the solitude of the beach though, no screaming kids, dogs or crazy Japanese.

We had dinner tonight at the house of Yoshi and his wife opposite the medical faculty. It was a big place by any standard and huge for Japanese standards. They prepared an enormous dinner for the Dutch students. We met Yoshi last year on a street car and he , noticing that we were Dutch and he himself having studied in Delft for a couple of years, took us to our first Japanese restaurant in Nagasaki. He has now just come back with his wife from Holland and decided it would be nice to have us over for dinner. After several beers, sake etc. I decided it was time for the old man to leave.
Did manage to sell my bike to a recently arrived Dutch man, called Eric, who’s here on an internship at Mitsubishi.

On top of that I sold my side table and lamp too.

Here are the backs of the cards that Paul has send over the last 10 months...... It certainly did keep me going.

p.s.
Tomorrow Saul is taking me out for dinner in the “best French restaurant in town” called “Impeccable”. Alex and Christoph will join us. Looking forward to all these nice things this last week.

Love

2006-07-15T14:52:00.000+09:00

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At times people and men in particular can be extremely stubborn and thus ignoring the well meant advice of others.
Last Wednesday Christopher and I ventured out to the island for a day at the beach. Netting had been put about 100 meters out in the water to prevent any waste or jelly fish coming into the swimming area, the beach had been cleaned and pontoons had been anchored in the water so you could swim there and then sun yourself and dive in the water every so often. Christopher decided he was somebody who didn’t burn so there was no need to put on any protection. Well you can imagine the result……… so bad that he had to go visit a doctor to get medication and he’s still suffering. When André and I went on our honeymoon in 1982 to Rio we too decided that having gone to so many sunny spots in the world we wouldn't need any thing at all.... the result was a honeymoon without sex.

There are Japanese people who believe that their pet dog cannot swim…??? So of course it needs a swimming vest with a handle on the back so you can teach it how to swim at the same time.

Finished the day with cool beers at the Wharf and dinner afterwards with some friends

Annette and Jesse moved into the International Student House yesterday the 14th and Alex, Kim and I decided to make a dinner for them and our friend Tony. The guests brought drinks. I hope they will throw a house-warming before I leave next Saturday. Managed to convince them that the mirror and lamps were an absolute adornment to any home…….

One of the things I will miss are the regular small packets that Paul would send me from Amsterdam stuffed with magazines, cheese, newspaper clippings, drop (Dutch liquorice) etc. and always accompanied by a nice card with a loving scribble on the back.
God, do I love that man and I just can’t wait to see him again in Montreal at the end of this month.
Promise…: Will never ever go abroad again for a longer period of time without him.

Agnoek

2006-07-15T00:47:00.000+09:00

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The Monday was spend going to all the main tourist sights in Kyoto. Saw Nijo castle (the old residence of the Shogun) with its nightingale floor and beautiful garden together with hordes of American school kids, the Kinkakuji (“The golden temple” which was way too kitschy for Hans) together with busloads of Chinese tourists and finally that morning the Zen rock garden in the Roanji temple.
After lunch we headed for the Imperial palace where we were to take part in a free English guided tour at 2 pm. Had already made the reservations online at the Imperial Household Agency …. Real easy.
Just like the tour Chris and I took in the eighties, one still couldn’t understand the tour guide even though she now carried a microphone and amplifier. But she didn’t bat an eyelid and went on with her tour undeterred by questions and not understanding faces. People just wandered off and looked around themselves.

Agnoek, who is a fellow student of mine at Leiden University, came by our house and after drinks we all headed for the “River Oriental Restaurant” where we had more drinks and a fab dinner. Leave it to four queens to drool over our stunning waiter (Nigerian-Japanese hybrid) who could have done with a just little less attitude.
Agnoek will return the beginning of September to Leiden and her place will be taken by Rianne.

Had breakfast at Starbucks once again and then Marco went to Kansai Airport to take the plane to Haneda, Hans & Pim left on the Shinkansen for Shinjuku and poor old me had to go back to Nagasaki. What a great couple of days this trip has been. I will see Hans and Marco again next week in Honolulu and Pim in Montreal on the 28th for the Outgames.

Machiya

2006-07-13T14:04:00.000+09:00

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On Saturday the 8th July we got on the train (46 minutes) to go to Nara, the old 8th century (710 - 784) capital of Japan. Apart from the ubiquitous deer, Nara is known for its shrines and temples like the Kofukuji, the Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") the world's largest wooden building which houses the largest Buddha statue in Japan and the Kasuga Taisha, the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwara clan. The buildings were stunning and the weather swelteringly hot. Had a nice walk through wooded landscapes and enjoyed the view over Nara from the Nigatsudo ("Two moon hall") in the afternoon.

Coming back to Osaka we noticed that the summer sales had begun. In Hep 5 ( shopping mall) the shop attendants (or specially hired staff) were shouting their lungs out and swaying placards stating that the Sales are on. The noise was deafening.......... The reductions (50%) are huge compared to the regular 2 thru 5 percent discount. Unfortunately there wasn't anything that we fancied.....so, alas, no overdose of shoppingbags.

Sunday we left for Kyoto for the last three days of our communal trip. Through Alex Kerr I managed to rent a typical "machi-ya", a Kyoto town-house with on the ground level a tearoom, tatami rooms, garden en furo (wooden bathtub) that overlooked the small garden plus sleeping quarters (Futons of course) and a comfy couch on the 2nd floor. Great location close to the river with it's array of restaurants and bars. The house has only one snag and that is that it was build for small Japanese people so you really have to be careful not to bang your head time and time again.

After an evening walk along the river streets and through Gion (the old Geisha quarter) we had a Tonkatsu dinner (deep-fried pork but also chicken, prawns and potato croquets). It was a first for me. Honestly though I do prefer the more subtle flavours of this land.......

Atomic Bomb Museum

2006-07-11T23:14:00.000+09:00

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Even though I'm not too keen on Nagasaki I still feel some pride in showing my friends the place I have called home for the last 10 months. I even went to places I hadn't been to before.
Since wednesday wasn't a day to go to the beach we decided to see all of Nagasaki that day. From Glover garden to Deshima and from the Suwa shrine to the Historical museum. This was the 2nd time I acted as a guide (first time was in May to show Paul around) and it's nice to be able to share insider info with others. The guys were also impressed with my mastery of the Japanese language not being able to read, write or speak it themselves. This year has not been wasted so it seems. The only complaint about Nagasaki was the Japanese breakfast in the hotel (rice balls and miso) so they had to venture out to Starbucks for their cinnamon roll and latte.
Thursday was spend at the monuments erected here to commemorate the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki at 11.02 a.m. on august 9th. There is the Atomic Bomb Museum (you certainly do not come out a happy camper but more wondering if humans will ever learn at all), the Peace Memorial Hall (very modern, sleek and very impressive because of its austerity) and the Nagasaki Peace park.
Did the beach in the afternoon and the onsen afterwards. It's always nice to get out of the city and enjoy the boatride.
Dinner with Saul and Alex & Christoph at our favourite Yakitori place in Hamanomachi.

Took the train to Osaka to check in to Hotel Kinki (very cheap place for ￥7000 for a double room without breakfast) bang in the middle of the Doyama area with friendly staff.
First karaoke experience for Hans, Pim and Marco in Frenz. Unlike Tokyo there is no "Happy Hour" system at 6 pm in Osaka and bars do not open up untill 7 or 8 pm and do not get crowded till after 10 oçlock. Did the Bears Bar and also Bacchus and had a great time with Japanese and gaijin alike.

It's the 11th July ............ so here's to Chris....
"Happy Birthday" 誕生日おめでとう (Tanjóbi omedetó)

Barbados

2006-07-04T23:37:00.000+09:00

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The boys love Japan. After Russia, China and Korea they think it's just absolutely squeaky clean with friendly smiling folk (irasshaimase いらっしゃいませ ) and great food. I will try and let them taste as many varieties as possible from the ubiquitous sushi and sashimi, via the okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) and udon (noodles) to agemono (fried foods).

Paul is leaving next sunday for his first assignment for the British Department for International Development (DFID) to the Caribbean. This is new territory for him so starting of on Barbados will be just fab. He will probably stay on for some more days... wish I could come along.

Spend our day visiting shrines, having coffee, and just having a great laugh. July 1 through 15 is the time of the "Hakata Gion Yamagasa" in the Hakata district of Fukuoka, linking it by name to the famous Gion Matsuri in Kyoto. Several mikoshi (palanquins) are carried on the shoulders of brave men in a race through the city while onlookers throw water. For more info click on the link.

On the train back from Fukuoka to Nagasaki the weather turned rather rainy and after nibbles and beer here at the International Student House we experienced the downpour together with the onset of a slight typhoon on our way to the restaurant . Soaked... absolutely soaked.

Somehow I don't think it's going to be beach weather tomorrow......

HMP

2006-07-04T23:07:00.000+09:00

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One of the things I will definitely miss will be my weekly sessions with Saul over coffee or beer. It's always great to get together and talk, complain and discuss world politics and other pressing (or non-pressing) matters. Time really flies. He invited me for a farewell dinner before a go to the best French restaurant in town called "Impeccable"..... I certainly hope that the place lives up to its name. He was surpised to having received a substantial bonus even from the University here and he's spending some of it on me. I even get to invite friends......Wow.

Went to Fukuoka this monday to pick up Hans, Marco and Pim from the "Beetle-ferry" from Pusan, Korea. The ferry was 15 minutes late (highly unusual in Japan) and of course being the foreigners they had to unpack everything in order to clear customs. White middle aged Dutch men are more likely to smuggle drugs into Japan then any Japanese or Korean of course.

It was great fun to see my friends again after such a long time. The moment they came through the doors we just chatted non-stop, got shown all the pictures from their (H & P) Trans-sibérian rail trip and after a couple of beers and a delish ramen at the Raumen-Stadium (Don't know why they call it raumen instead of ramen) we ended up wit more beers in our room in the hotel having a Pyjama Party dressed in the silly, way to tight, blue cotton hotel coats. But it felt like being 20 all over again........

The weather in Amsterdam has reached tropical temperatures and people are swimming in the IJ-haven in front of our house in Amsterdam plus sailing all day on the canals with plenty of booze and finger food. I'm so looking forward to get back on my boat again in august.. can't wait.

Ayaan & Verdonk

2006-06-30T17:11:00.000+09:00

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Well the Dutch government of prime Minister Balkenende collapsed last night over a dispute involving our ex-member of parliament Somali born Ayaan Hirsi Ali (on the left) and our minister of immigration Rita Verdonk (both from the same Liberal Party VVD). And who is to blame... all eyes are on Lousewies van der Laan, the head of coalition partner D66, who apparently wasn't satisfied with just a reversal of the procedure of stripping Ayaan of her Dutch citizenship because of a (white) lie about her name in order to obtain Dutch citizenship years ago. It tells you something about the troubled situation the Dutch have with outspoken members of the public or parliament for that matter.
No idea when the next elections will be...but my guess is that there will be a change of government (with a much softer approach) soon.

Just put my furniture out for sale via e-mail to all the people I know here in Nagasaki and I certainly hope to flog it. The rest I will send by mail (by sea is very cheap) back home. Will take about 45 days but that's OK.

Had lunch for the last time with my conversation partner Kenichi, who gave me his bronze medal for winning the Kyushu Kendo championship. Love it. It's a very heavy and beautiful medal. Kenichi hopes to be a Japan champion one day but that will take much more practice he tells me and also more insight and wisdom on how peoples brain functions. It's not just a fight but a battle of wits.

It's still pouring down even though the weather forecast had stated that the rainy season would definitely end on the 28th June. How can they be so wrong...?? After having been adviced to put on the airconditioning in order to prevent your clothes and everything else from going moldy I've actually done so and it feels better too. Another piece of advice was to put a 15 watt lamp in your closet (apparently this is done in Indonesia).

Received also my last package from Paul. It's funny how things indicate the end of an era..well just a year actually.
The next group of Dutch students has been chosen to come over here and enjoy the blessings of the Japanese educational system.

Asakaze

2006-06-25T22:17:00.000+09:00

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Had a wonderfull dinner tonight at a typical Japanese restaurant called Asakaze (cannot read these kanji, so don't know what it stands for..probably just the name of the place) in Shianbashi with Akitaka and Mai. Had great food and it was just nice to see them again. I do love the vinagred jelly fish 水母 or 海月 but pronounced kurage and had fugu (blow fish) for the first time. Apparently the people who do die from this fish do so because they're not content with just the white meat but like to eat the intestines and it's there that the poisonous gland is situated. About 15 people die annually by eating this delicacy.

Learned a lot about the inflexibility and rigidity of the Japanese again this night. Apparently Mai had a chat with the head of the Internat. Student center, Koji Takehiko 小路　武彦 and she was adviced not to associate anymore with the Dutch students because "they" are lazy and do not study. It's funny to see how easily the Dutch are blamed for the fact that their beautiful course doesn't bring in the desired results instead of trying to communicate with the students to find out why things don't work out.
The stupidest thing here is the 80% attendance rule. You must have the 80% otherwise you forgo the credit for that subject. So if you miss a couple of lectures because of sickness or whatever reason then it's basically no point continuing a tedious lecture because even if you would do very well at the exam or presentation.. you will not ever get that credit.

They will reconsider this exchange programme now with Leiden...well not to worry ......there are not many applicants anyway. I think a prestigious university like Leiden should try and get more students placed at Tokyo University, Keio, Waseda and Kyoto where they can also attend some really interesting lectures about the arts, law, politics etc. instead of just outdated language courses. And putting 10 Dutch students on top of one another doesn't really help to improve your language proficiency skills either.

By the way it's so humid here at the moment (湿気が多い) that the mirror in my room is steamed up.. like a bath room mirror. Everything is damp.. clothes, paper, magazines even the Dutch liquorice is sweating. Had to put it in the fridge. Reminds me of the stories Niels told me about his time in Dhaka, Bangladesh where because of the humidity this green goo came out of the stereo equipment. Now I know what he means......

Rey Camoy

2006-06-24T22:14:00.000+09:00

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This being the rainy season till the end of June I nevertheless went to the beach last wednesday and it didn't rain. Since Mitsubishi is one of the biggest employers in Nagasaki because of the huge wharfs and docks here, I thought it was not more than appropriate to take a picture of one of the many wharfs here in the harbour.

Had Spanish fare for dinner with Saul in a restaurant called "Cancun" on Deshima Wharf. Both the cooks (Miguel from Mexico and Carlos from Madrid) helped us to find something nice to eat and it was great. Lots of Serrano ham, Scallops and Albondigas (meatballs in a spicey sauce) plus the ubiquitous tortilla chips with guacemole.

Today was spend at the prefectural museum visiting the exhibition "Rey Camoy : A Retrospective 'Listen to me' " together with Saul and Kim.
Rey Camoy 鴨居・玲 (1928-1985) was a painter from Kobe who played a leading role in the Western-style painting scene in the Kansai Region and in 1969 won the Yasui Award, which honors emerging talents in painting. The exhibition displays more than 110 works that represent his, often dark anf freightening universe. It looks like in most of his paintings he dehumanizes people and the one on the right looks decidedly like Nosferatu. This by the way is the painting called 'Listen to me' or 私の話を聞いてくれ in Japanese.

Alex and Christoph have embarked on their journey to Shanghai for a week. I always wanted to go there but haven't had the chance yet. I'm curious what they think about it.

Mori Tower ( Tokyo IV)

2006-06-19T15:20:00.000+09:00

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Last visit was to the famous Mori Tower in Roppongi where mister Mori has created this immense building with observatory and art museum on the 52nd floor. This area apparently has the highest real estate prices in Tokyo. There was an exhibit on modern African Art called Africa Remix. Loved Samuel Fosso with his series of self portraits from sailor, drag to the chief who sold his people into slavery (see picture).

As stated before the world is a small place indeed.
I ran into Donald Fountaine at Advocates together with a friend of his called Chris who lives and works in Singapore, Bangkok and Tokyo. It was so nice to have witty repartee once again and just laugh your head off over a couple of G&Ts while checking out the comings and goings of everybody. Chris has tons of iron on his body where one can only see the ones dangling from his earlobes and has to imagine the where the other two kilos are.

Was late for my dinner with Damion. We met at the überhip Cafe Montoak in Ometosando (designed by ken Hashimoto in 2002) for more G&T and Caipirinha. Had Okonomiyaki in Shinjuku and then just hit the nightlife. I danced for the first time since years and was checked out as well. I made me feel really good. The drink to have at Arty Farty is called "Okinawa"...Japanese shochu with cranberry juice. Tastes like lemonade but has a great overall effect. Arrived home around 03.30 and just fell into bed. Woke up at 11.00 so had to do without breakfast; made it just in time to the airport and snoozed all the way to Nagasaki.

Had dinner at Milan, an indian restaurant, with Alex and Christoph (who's back here till the end of July).
Early night............
Two more weeks to go before Pim, Hans and Marco arrive. 楽しみしてるよ

Sumida river cruise ( Tokyo III )

2006-06-19T14:24:00.000+09:00

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There is this newly renovated and build up area in Tokyo Bay with offices, convention centres, hotels and residential areas. Like the Docklands in London but then an ugly version. A nice way to visit this is to take the Yurikamome monorail for 240 Yen (cheapest one way to the next station) and then just go all the way to the end and come back on the same train. It's quite interesting to see how the Japanese can construct the most beautiful buildings among otherwise lots of really ugly ones. They just love concrete; the more the better.
The Fuiji-television building is really something though, very 21st century.

Got off at Hinode station to take a 40 minutes cruise up the Sumida river all the way up to Asakusa passing underneath 13 bridges. Water in general and harbours in particular have something quite fascinating and despite the hustle and bustle are also quite peaceful for me.
The house on the river side on the right is very un-japanese as it has big windows and an airy feel to it. It must be great to live there.
Passing through Asakusa after having been there many times I suddenly realize that all the stuff that I thought so wonderfull there you can basically also buy in the 100 yen shop around the corner.

Rushed to meet Bram for lunch in Takadanobaba, the area close to Waseda University. Had great Thai food in a basement restaurant for 900 Yen all you can eat buffet. It was nice to catch up and hearing about his plan to spend a couple of weeks in a Zen Buddhist temple near lake Biwa to find some tranquility.
Hope to see him and his girlfriend in august in Amsterdam.

Tokyu Hands ( Tokyo II )

2006-06-19T13:13:00.000+09:00

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It's a small world even in Japan with its 137 million inhabitants.. I met Miho, a friend of Diana, on the plane coming from Nagasaki. She's doing an aroma therapy course (involves flying up to Tokyo once a month).

Friday afternoon I visited the Okura Museum of Arts. It's a private small museum run by the Okura Hotel chain where the exhibit Japanese heritage art like the as National Treasure registered "Samantabhadra on an Elephant" bronze plus scrolls, paintings, swords and Noh masks belonging to the Okura family. It's a beautiful building established in 1917 in Minato-ku right in front of the Okura hotel. This area of Roppongi 六本木一丁目 is very green, hilly and just a delight to live. Needless to say this is where a lot of the embassies are.

In the eighties and nineties the area just west of Shinjuku station used to a bit run down but now there is a huge shopping mall with 14 floors called Takeshimaya Times Square. On the floors 1 thru 7 there is this fabulous store called Tokyu Hands. Majella had already told me about it because it has everything you need or (not need but) want. From fancy-party dress to timber flooring. You can spend an afternoon there and still want to come back.

Had a drink at Advocates, a gay bar in Shinjuku nichome, where you can stand outside and watch the world go by. Talked to tons of people and it's reminiscent of "Happy Hour" in the April in Amsterdam. The have a "Beerblast" everyday from 6.00 pm till 9.00 pm. You pay ￥1000 and you can drink as much beer as like within these three hours. Loved it.
The photograph on the right is by courtesy of QTMagazine.com

In the evening I planned to have dinner with 'Opera man' Minoru for his birthday so we met at Shinjuku station. He is a 42 year old opera groupee who goes to the opera three to four times a week and hangs out at the hotels where the singers stay and collects autographs, photographs and anything else he can lay his hands on. He's quite annoying too. During dinner his life story came out (not a pretty one) and he basically lives in a virtual opera world. He's constantly mailing, texting and talking to his "opera friends" about where to meet the Divas etc.
There is this famous phrase in the movie 'Muriels Wedding' where Muriel says "If only life could be as good as an Abba song" or something like that. Well he wishes life could be as good as the Opera....but he should know that most operas end in death and despair.
Go out and get a life.......

Andrea Chénier ( Tokyo I )

2006-06-19T11:39:00.000+09:00

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Japanese love their manga and anime (manga animation) to that extent that even All Nippon Airways has decided to feature Pokemon on its 747. Quite a sight..........

It was pouring down with rain when I finally came out of Ueno Park JR station in my 'smart-casual' attire to go and see Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan 東京文化会館 .
I had thought to go first to the hotel in Shinjuku but Tokyo is a lot bigger than I once again thought, so schlepping my carry-on from Haneda airport I arrived wet and sweaty. My contact for the Opera, Minoru, was there to hand me the ticket and up I went to the gods. I hadn't been sitting up that high up since going to Covent Garden in the seventies. But at least then it was only a fiver instead of the 27000 Yen (€191) I had to pay now for the same pleasure. José Cura was wonderfull though and Giordano's music mesmerizing to say the least. This horrid looking typical 60-ies building was finished in 1961 and has an Egyptian feel about it on the inside. Maybe something to do with Aida as the opening performance?

Friday was museum day and I decided to go and see the "Contemporary Paintings and Prints from China" Exhibition in the Japan-China Friendship Centre in Bunkyo-ku in the morning. Quite close to the Tokyo Dome and you have to exit the IIdabashi station.

I'ts a tiny place but the paintings and prints are huge (mostly 200 x 185) and basically realistic. Very interesting indeed and ofcourse nobody there so I had the place to myself.

My favourite painting is one in the Tea House Series by by Chen Anjien.

My Student card came in handy and would so for all the other places to come too. 'A penny saved is a penny earned' so the saying goes......

World Cup ( Bangkok II )

2006-06-13T12:18:00.000+09:00

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The latest and newest up-scale shopping mall in Bangkok has opened up and it's called Paragon.Apart from the regular Fendi, Gucci etc. stores they have a huge 'Paragon Department Store' and lots of artsy antique and furniture stores as well as high tech stores. Look at the picture on the left. For some reason it surprised me to see these little dolls here with their racial features being so extremely accentuated even though it's done in cutie colours. In Holland or elsewhere for that matter there would be an uproar. P(olitical) C(orrectness) apparently hasn't ventured this far yet.

Had lunch with Steve on Sunday afternoon in his swanky appartment with floor to ceiling windows, roof terrace and a 180 degree view over the finest parts of Bangkok. Since most of the land around his appartment block is owned by the royal family it will not be built on for decades at least so the view over Lumpini Park and the Race course will remain unchanged as it is.

It's amazing how many people one knows in a city like Bangkok and run into. Even though Cliff, Marleen & Arkom, Dirk, Jan and Louis weren't in town because of the long national holiday we did run into Phillipe on Sunday late afternoon after a relaxing massage at Silom massage parlour. We hadn't seen him for quite a while. He lost 15 kg and during that time and has become a regular Muscle Mary by going to the gym four days a week. Didn't even want to have a piece of cake in the coffee place.
I'm pondering whether or not I should maybe be trying to get my gorgeous bod back in to shape or just let it go its natural way of steady decline.

Even though I'm not a big fan of football (soccer for those on the other side of the pond) Paul and I decided to see the last half of the Holland v. Serbia match on Sunday evening in the Balcony, this infamous gay place in Soi 4. Well it was absolutely boring.
Holland being in the lead with 1 - 0 the strategy was probably to be on the defensive and by god it showed............

Time went by really quick and before I knew it I was back on the plane to Fukuoka. Not long to go now and then I'm outa here..........

p.s.
Japan doesn't have daylight saving time. In effect that means that it gets light just before five in the morning and the sun will set at around 7.30 pm. It's sad cause there is just nothing nicer than sitting on Deshima Warf with a beer in the evening while it's still light.

Bhumibol ( Bangkok I )

2006-06-12T12:50:00.000+09:00

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Arrived friday afternoon in Bangkok and had arranged to meet Paul (coming in from Dhaka one hour later than me) in the arrivals hall. Time passed but no Paul. Tried to phone and guess what.. already in a taxi to go downtown. Luckily the cab hadn't turned on to the expressway so after a quick turn-a-round the cab managed to pick me up from the airport.

During the Kings celebrations everybody but really everybody is wearing yellow shirts, T-shirts or polos. And yellow candles were lit at 19.20 for King Bhumibol and indeed all over the country the national anthem was sung. It was a quite a sight in Bangkok where everything comes to a halt and everybody knows the lyrics. Unlike the Netherlands where only the first two stanzas are remembered if you're lucky.

Where just checking in at Centre Point, our home away from home, when Marco showed up. It was his last night before going to Peking to meet his boyfriend Arend for a two week holiday in China. Marco will also come over to Japan with Pim and Hans on the 3rd of July. Instead of going to Soi 4 we went to Dick's Café on Surawong

Had dinner in an Italian place called Delicatezza on Thor long in Sukhumvit on Saturday night with David and Scott and even though there is no Italian cook in sight the food was absolutely delicious be it also rather pricey for Thai standards. The boys will come over to Amsterdam in August for a joint visit to friends in the U.K.

Finished saturday night in the gay ghetto in Silom's Soi 4 for a drink in the Telephone bar. Then went back to our appartment for a well deserved rest.......

U.K. Drought

2006-06-08T19:42:00.000+09:00

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At times when walking through Nagasaki i feel like I look like I'm wearing a mask like the one shown here. People here are prone to staring at you for no apparent (in my eyes ) reason but then again beauty isn't given to many so I do understand their fascination with mine.

Well it has finally hit the Japanese papers as well...the severe drought in the United Kingdom. The Japan Times devoted half a page to the subject explaining about the fines if one is caught using water unnecessarily (who defines that ??) and the fact that the basins haven't been renewed for ages and thus are leaking great amounts of water every day. In Chris' parallel blog he had already mentioned it but just never thought about it.

Today we had two lectures in the Rangaku 蘭学(Dutch Studies = Western Studies) series in the City Historical Museum 長崎市歴史博物館 . Not that the lecture room was more beautiful or the lecture more interesting but at least there was time to visit the museum shop. They showed us old (18th century), stained and about to dissolve Dutch documents from quite a distance so our breath wouldn't make it fall apart all together.
We now have to write down in Dutch the almost unintelligable writings by an 18th century Dutch guy in Deshima.

Tomorrow I'm off to Bangkok for the weekend to see Paul. We're going to meet up with Marco tomorrow night ( he will also come to Nagasaki in July ), with David and Scott on Saturday and Steve on Sunday.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej acceded to the Throne as Rama the IX of Thailand on the 9th of June 1946, when he was only 18 years of age and these 60 years on the throne will be celebrated in style this weekend. I hope they don't cancel my flight or Paul's for the minor VIPs coming in.
The royal barges event will take place on monday..... so unfortunately we'll have to give it a miss.

I became a member of a Japanese internet group that puts people in touch with similar interests and ususally in the same place. it's called Asoboo meaning let's visit and let's play. And guess what I was contacted by a chap in Aichi prefecture, called Minoru who loves Opera. So now I will go to Tokyo next thursday to see Andrea Chenier by Umberto Giordano performed by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in the Tokyo Centre for Performing Arts in Ueno Park. Faberoony......

Live is good....

p.s.
There is news that my friend Pim might not come to Nagasaki after all since the guy who is taking over his dentistry practice for half a year has fallen ill all of a sudden.
Hope he can find another replacement though......

Hiroshi Abe (Osaka III)

2006-06-05T14:57:00.000+09:00

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On my last day in Osaka, Teru and I dediced to go to the Floating Garden Observatory on top of the Umeda Sky Building 梅田スカイビル , a modern and sleek looking arch, almost like La Defense in Paris. The point is that there is no garden. One should apparently look out over Osaka and think of Osaka as a garden (if I understood the Kanji correctly). It offers a stunning 360 degree view over Osaka.

There is an exhibition about a new movie by Bruno Ganz called baruto no gakuen バルトの楽園, literally translated from the German "Musikgarten der Bärte" or in English "music garden of the beards". There was a POW for german soldiers during WW I in Japan and they created a small orchestra. The main Japanese character Iko is played by Hiroshi Abe ... a very good looking Japanese guy. He's 42, not married so there is a lot of speculation about him.
What do you think... straight or gay...?

In the Museum of Modern Art in Osaka, which is an underground museum with just an architectural piece sticking out, there is apart from the Picassos and Anselm Kiefers also a lot of Japanese modern art and the one person who in my view really stands out is Yasumasu Morimura. He inserts his own face into photographic copies of the paintings of fundamental icons of Western art such as the Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh's self portrait where he's just cut off his ear.

Like everything else all good things come to an end so after a late lunch I went back to Nagasaki by Shinkansen and regular express. There is an enormous tunnel connecting Honshu and Kyushu and the train takes about 10 minutes to get through it.
Can only say what a great town. Will definitely go again.

p.s.
Last year during a religious anthropology lecture by Margarita Winkel at Leiden University we talked about a little temple in the Hanyaku Station in Osaka and how it was preserved despite the railway company wanting to destroy it. And I actually saw it. It's tiny and now it is used mainly by commuters since the locals have moved away to the outskirts of town.

Frenz (Osaka II)

2006-06-05T10:47:00.000+09:00

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After Lunch ( duck meat in broth plus udon) at a Noodle place called Imai 今井 , in the middle of a busy pedestrian shopping street we went to Shitennoji 四天王寺 the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan, established by Prince Shotoku who introduced Buddhism to Japan in the 6th century. It has a beautiful 4 tiered stupa. There were plenty of statues of the Bodhisattva Jizo too, the guardian deity of infants and children.

To rest our weary legs we ventured to the Osaka branch of Café de Flore, that famous place in Saint Germain de Prés, situated in a underground shopping mall. It looks like a mini version complete with a terrace, bottles of champagne etc. We indulged in Pernod and Suze with water and ice. Great...!!

After a snooze we decided to do Sushi. Takeshi, Teru's friend joined us too. Last year in Kobe he was suffering from a bad toothache and guess what .. we meet again and voilá the toothach is back again. Either that makes me the tooth fairy or he has a chronic tooth ache problem.

Over dinner you hear the strangest things. I knew that the Japanese Business Federation, known here as the Keidanren 経団連 , is a very powerful lobby and part of that iron triangle (Government, Bureaucracy and Big business) but they also manage to block medication to come in from abroad. In this case Takeshi, who is a psychiatrist, cannot prescribe Prozac or other efficient medication for depression because the Japanese pharmaceutical industries are still in trial runs and till they can produce and sell their own they just block the import of it. It's absolutely scandalous since there is a lot of depression related suicide here (e.g. people get together via the internet and commit suicide together). Consumer groups are not big and certainly not influential. The contraceptive pill wasn't allowed in till just about a couple of years ago under the pretext that more trials needed to be done but in reality because doctors here were making more money from performing abortions than writing out prescriptions.
When Viagra however hit the world and was quickly released here without any trials.. they couldn't keep the contraceptive excuse going so now it is finally available to women here too.

Teru and Takeshi were knackered so I had to go out by myself. Ended up in Frenz, a tiny but very lively place run by an English guy called... Paul. Had a lot of fun and talked to a million people (so to speak). Definitely a place to visit again.

Nozomi (Osaka I)

2006-06-04T23:01:00.000+09:00

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It appears that sometimes I'm really confused.. I mixed up the travel dates to go to Osaka. Tried to go through the ticket gate at Nagasaki Station but I was stopped.. It said 3rd June i.s.o. the 2nd. Had to go to the JR ticket office to change the dates to one day earlier and luckily you can change your journey once only. Looked at the hotel reservation and yes ... that too was for the 3rd. Called the Tokyu Inn and thank God they still had a vacancy for friday night (There was a big baseball game on on Saturday..!!) and they too changed the dates....
Getting older isn't all that wonderfull ...... apart from loosing your shape you also loose your memory.

I finally made it to Osaka, the big city in the kansai region and not too far from the old capital Kyoto. The trip per train (regular from Nagasaki to Fukuoka and then by Shinkansen to Osaka) takes about 4 1/2 hours. This was the first time I have travelled on the high speed Nozomi train (300 + km/ph) and it's quite a thrill. You even hear the wind blowing when it makes a bend. It wasn't very full (not surprising for 27.000 yen for the round trip) but it's quite an experience.

Arrived at Shin Osaka station and from there you it takes a 3 minute ride on another JR line to Osaka station. Teru was there to meet me (he had just finished working at the University of Kyoto where he is an associate professor at the Law faculty). Went for Okonomiyaki and lotsa beer (it was 25 degrees there, humid and no wind). It was just great to see him again after we had met in Kobe last year in July.

After a drink in a gay bar called Physique (a little noisy for my liking but nice never the less) I just hit the hay.............

The Tokyu Inn is very conveniently located in the Umeda area and a 3 minute walk to all the gay bars.... Fab.

After breakfast I met Teru and we decided to do history first (there are not many old buildings left since the city was heavily bombed during WW II as a compromise they didn't bomb Kyoto; similar agreement as to not bombing the Cathedral in Cologne).
Started off with the Osaka Museum of History opposite Osaka Castle. Very interesting to see the development of Osaka (It had been the Capital of Japan before Nara in the 7th century and in 1583, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who accomplished the great task of unifying the country, chose Osaka as his base and constructed Osaka Castle, making Osaka the political and economic center of Japan.
They have a nice life-like reconstruction of the court life in the Museum plus an over abundance of Bunraku dolls. Bunraku 文楽 is the Japanese art of Puppetry and two or sometimes three men in black will make each puppet come alive. Especially the facial features like eyes, eyebrows and mouth can be changed in order to create diverse looks on the dolls face.

Hokkaido

2006-05-29T18:58:00.000+09:00

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北海道 or "northern sea street", is Japans most northern island with Sapporo (winter olympics 1972) as the main capital. The flight from Fukuoka takes about two hours. The domestic flights in Japan are operated on a no-frills-system but unfortunately with normal fares; in this case 250 euro for a round trip. So just coffee or tea, juice and water is for free and the rest you have to purchase.
Bernard and Majella were there to pick me up and after lunch at the airport we set out to Noribetsu, a place known for its sulfur geysers and Japanese onsen.
We stayed in a smallish Ryokan where dinner and breakfast were included. It is served in your room. All Japanese fare so lotsa dishes and since you sometimes don't know what it is you just try it and either love it or hate it. Apart from the geysers and nature trails there is not much else to do.
An extremely dull shopping street with shops that sell all the same carved stuff. But we didn't care since the weather was great, the people in the Ryokan extremely friendly, the food very tasty, the onsen small but inviting and of course just hanging out together was the main goal.

Coming back from our small hike on Saturday afternoon we saw a big black limousine parked in front of the Ryokan and plenty of guys in black suits. After changing into our Yukatas we went down to the onsen. And there was a real life Capo di capi Yakusa. An elderly man completely covered in blueish tattoos. Apart from his head, hands and feet everything else was covered by irezumi 入れ墨 as it's called here. He wasn't all that friendly, grumbling a bit but for us it was quite a sight.
Here is an example of this kind of tattoo.

We also made a very interesting visit to a museum dealing with the indigenous people of Japan called the Ainu. Most Japanese wrongly so think of their country as a mono-ethnic society and the Ainu, having been treated rather badly through processes of assimilation etc. are now down to about 24.000.

On Sunday Majella & Bernard flew back down to Tokyo and I had to fly back to Fukuoka and then take the train to Nagasaki. Alex and Saul were waiting for me at Urakami station and from there we went to have a great Italian dinner with superb coffee and cake for afters.
Sauls treat..!!

If you like Opera, Lieder or Oratoria then here is the site for you... Viva la Voce.
It's a Washington DC based internet radio station and has two Opera performances per day plus lots of other interesting things to listen to. You will also find the listings for the day itself plus a monthly schedule for the Operas.

伊王島 II

2006-05-24T22:39:00.000+09:00

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Today was my day off and the perfect day to go to that wonderful get-away-from-it-all place called Ioujima. The small island in Nagasaki Bay. Took the Cobalt Queen II, one of the ferries that take you to the islands here at 11.50 and arrived at the beach at 12.30.
On the right you see one of those ferries.

Had sandwiches, chips (crisps in the UK) and water for lunch on a otherwise deserted beach. Only one woman with (probably her) child showed up for a moment but for the rest it was just me. Taking swims in the crystal clear water, reading the Japan Times, listening to Salome, my favourite opera by Richard Strauss and baking in the sun ....... what a way to spend a perfect afternoon.

Set off for the onsen and had a good soak for an hour and a half. Finished off with Kare Udon (a curry soup with thick white noodles) and a pint of beer..... Pure Bliss.

One of the things I really like in Japan is the simplicity in design. With durable and basic materials they create little gems like the entrance here to the onsen on Ioujima. Black weathered wood, white paper lanterns and a trickle of water beside the walkway. Simply stunning.

Back on the boat and returned home baked to a crisp and absolutely knackered by an overdose of fresh air and sun.

Paul has send a package from Holland with an orange tie for Rudy, an orange hat for Mads, an orange band for Bart and an orange boa for me to watch the Soccer World Cup in style. Just don't know anybody with a TV. Maybe there is an Irish Pub somewhere in Nagasaki (they're everywhere else in the world so there must be one here..) where we can watch it.

Picnic

2006-05-22T15:18:00.000+09:00

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Not being an outdoor kinda guy I was just a little apprehensive about going on a picnic with some other residents here at the dorm in the wilds just outside of our part of Nagasaki. The climb was steep (lotsa hills here..) but the view was definitely rewarding. Visiting the great outdoors basically means visiting other living beings their habitat. After the plaid was layed down, the food (Vietnamese springrolls, Japanese nigiri rolls and fresh strawberries) and drink was put out ready for consumption the the little buggers just appeared out of nowhere and started nibbling away at the intruders. Alex got bitten severely. But we just didn't care and were determined not let a minor hindrance interfer with our pleasure. The food was great and a good time was had by all.
Visited a christian graveyard afterwards on top of a hill to enjoy the view over Nagasaki.

Decided to have dinner at room 501 and so Chinese dumplings, left over chili-con-carne and curry were enjoyed by everybody. Since Alex and I had to do a power point presentation the next day about Amsterdam we decided to do a try-out right there and then. The red light district, koto no chimata 紅灯の巷 as it is called in Japanese , coffeeshops and Gay pride plus a bit af Culture (van Gogh and Rembrandt) was duly addressed. The audience loved it........

Gijsbertus Willem was delivered into this world on the 21st May by his proud parents Maartje Craemer and Michiel van Klingeren. Congratulations !

Being here in Japan I missed out on the Eurovision Song contest and the party held in honour of it at Ton & Diek's place last Saturday evening. Holland didn't participate apparently (no news here in Japan about this event) and according to Paul a horrid "Hard Rock" song from Finland won. Well apart from dried reindeer meat, watching to many SciFi movies from the looks of it (picture of the band Lordi on the right) and a high suicide rate there isn't a lot else going on so they really needed a break.
Good luck to you I say!

Another Saturday Night

2006-05-21T09:56:00.000+09:00

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Yesterday was one of those preciously beautiful days when the sun was out plus a little breeze and a comfortable temperature of 25 degrees. Could do my washing again and hang it out to dry as that has been an absolute impossibility with the rain gushing down here.

Met Naoko for coffee and she corrected some homework for me. In Japan they use the system of kishótenketsu 起承転結 , translated as "logical development" for an essay, or any other kind of writing。Well needless to say I failed in the Japanes way of logics. 　

We celebrated my roommate Bart's birthday (turned 24 ) lastnight in a sort of a dive just above the Lawson convenience store (where we get our coffee to stay awake during the lectures) next to the University. Never knew there was this watering hole on the first floor and with Karaoke too.
For 2000 Yen we had that famous "nomihodai" for three hours plus some food. It started at 5.30 pm so everybody was absolutely plastered when we came out. Even the 19 year old girl who isn't supposed to drink any alcohol (you have to be twenty here too do that) was quite gone.
The old fart i.e. me ventured home but everybody else (this being Saturday night) continued to wherever to drink, dance or frolick........

p.s.

a small item recieved via E-mail..........

Qte

The man on the left, wearing a fabulous vintage chiffon-lined Dior goldlamé gown over a silk Vera Wang empire waisted tulle cocktail dress, accessorized with a 3-foot beaded peaked House of Whoville hat, along with the ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in The Wizard of Oz, is worried that The Da Vinci Code might make the Roman Catholic Church look foolish.

Unqte

Boot

2006-05-19T10:46:00.000+09:00

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The big buzz of course is the release of the movie "The Da Vinci Code" by Ron Howard and yes I'm definitely going to see it. Especially since Opus Dei made such a stink about it. I saw the trailer and it's awesome (sugoi 凄い as they say here). Ian McKellen is in it plus Tom Hanks so it can't go wrong.

Latest news from our Department of Japanese Studies in Leiden is that Prof. Boot wil definitely leave the department as per the 1st June and will continue to do research and publish but for another section of the University and as such will also vacate his office at "the Arsenaal". He will, however, still assist PhD students.
What a way to go........ Whatever you may think about him he is an absolute treasure trove of information and the bad thing about it is that we now have lost both Prof. Boot and Prof. Kersten, who has returned to Australia.
In academic struggles like this there are just never winners but only losers. Not only the parties concerned both also the students who will have to do without the expertise of these people.

It's still pouring down ....... got totally drenched last night coming home despite carrying an umbrella. I heard the rainy season will last till the end of June... Bummer...

Talking about professors.. I had lunch with Saul on Wednesday in a fabulous Chinese restaurant near Sakamoto Campus (his treat) and afterwards a tour of the new Institute for Tropical Medicine of Nagasaki University. It's a new "State of the Art" building, situated next to the old one and even connected to it but that only shows how decrepid the old building is.
I was quite impressed and they even have a museum full of animals and parasytes (dead of course) plus tons of photographs depicting the multitude of ailments one can succumb to when visiting foreign tropical lands. It doesn't make you a happy camper.. it could even give you nightmares.

Vodka

2006-05-15T22:30:00.000+09:00

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With most of my homework done yesterday I ventured down to Hamanomachi to have coffee with Saul at 4 p.m. and we sat there talking for more than an hour and a half on the one coffee (they must have loved us !) and decided it's time to take matters in our own hands and try and see as many concerts as possible in the weekends anywhere in Japan, from Grand Opera to Noh Theatre. We will check the pages of the Japan Times to see what's on and where.
Knowing that I wont be able to get a certificate here anyhow I've decided it's no use trying either. To spend the remaining time here in Japan doing what's interesting seems more of an option. It's quite a burden of my shoulders and life looks very good all of a sudden.

Got cruised on the street for the first time here by a cute guy on a sporty bike.. and guess what I lost my touch to react for some reason. Just went bright red and continued on my way leaving him standing there ......

Some times a quite ordinary evening can turn into a surprisingly interesting one. Last night after a quite dinner with Alex to get rid of the left overs from the day before, Diana turned up with a bottle of wine and Rudy and Mads came with more plonk. Vodka and mango juice mixed plus shots of a unknown but potent substance were knocked back. Bart joined a little later and a merry time was had by all with some stunning revelations about what turns you on ..... Won't go into the details but it's quite interesting to see how preconceptions abound, how some people have no reservations and how others hold back.
Hit the hay at 3 a.m....................

Having talked about oddities the other day I just noticed how the Dutch have a very strange and most unhygienic one too. It's called "het duizend dingen doekje". It's piece of cloth used in the kitchen to clean surfaces and anything else ( apart from the toilet bowl, but then again you just never know ) that needs cleaning but for some reason hardly ever gets cleaned it self. It just remains there for weeks on end waiting to be used when ever we need it. If it's lucky it gets thrown in to the washing machine but not too often ofcourse. Alex is absolutely horrified by it and won't even touch it. We love it and if nothing else it's a great boost for our immune system.
It's the pinkish dirty cloth on the left hand side of the sink.

Oddities

2006-05-13T15:58:00.000+09:00

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When living in an other country you notice little oddities that would be totally unthinkable in other parts of the world again.
The Japanese like to occupy a seat before going to get whatever it is that they want (be that a coffee, ramen etc.). They do this by putting their (hand)bag with their personal belongings on the table or even their cell phone. They then leisurely stroll around doing what they have to do and return to find the cell phone or anything else that they have put down for that matter still there. And everybody respects it too. Everywhere else it would have gone in the blink of an eye but not here in Japan.
The other thing here is the seating in the street car. In the beginning I made the mistake of getting up for mothers with children, old battle axes with tons of shopping or any body else that would be more in need of a seat then me. After getting up and offering your seat to a mother she would then put her child on the vacated seat and remain standing. The old women would put their grocery bags on the seat and would also remain standing in a choc-a-bloc street car.
In other words I had vacated a seat for mere grocery bags.!!!
The school kids have caught on to this odd way of behaving (in my humble view) and really do not even think of getting up for the elderly or mothers.

My thanks by the way to known and unknown sympathizers for my temporary infliction of self pity. It has certainly has helped for me to get a clearer focus on what's important and what is absolutely not.

Depressed

2006-05-11T09:31:00.000+09:00

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I think that I finally hit that stage of severe depression. Just by looking at photographs send to me from Amsterdam with everybody having a good old time, I start crying and can't stop crying.
I feel like crawling under my blanket and just never ever coming out again. I even start to dislike people that I normally care for and on top of that I developed a nervous twitch in my left eye that isn't going away
I can honestly say that I have never felt this way before and it's quite frightening.

Going to a shrink won't help (lost in translation) and drinking it away isn't my thing either.

What to do. Thought about packing it all up and just leave. On the other hand only three more months to go. Will go to Hokkaido on the 26th May to see Majella & Bernard for the weekend and the boys from Amsterdam are coming over on the 3rd of July.
Paul will tell me not to exagerate and keep it up but I'm so terribly tired day after day that I feel I don't want to keep it up any more.

Boy's day

2006-05-10T22:37:00.000+09:00

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One of the things you see here at the moment are the huge paper or nylon carp streamers 鯉のぼり attached to bamboo or steel poles and flying in the air. They are here because of Boy's day or as it is known here tango no sekku 端午の節句 on the 5th of May. I will hold a small speech about this tomorrow so I do know a bit about it.
You don't see them as much in the cities (lack of space I guess) but they're everywhere in the country side and look quite spectacular.

After the Sakura, Cherry blossom season we're now in the Azalea period and by Jove they're absolutely gorgeous and they come in all colours. The pink or more to the point the fuchsia reddish ones certainly top the bill.
Never thought about vegetation much actually but maybe the years count and your priorities change. Anyway hope you like the colour too.

Latest news .... Diana plans to get married to her big love Mitch. They have met three times and know one another since three months via internet but the wedding is now planned in September. Why would you want plain sense to interfer with your happiness.. right !!

Dai ichi Karyuudo

2006-05-10T21:54:00.000+09:00

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Totally forgot to tell you about the fact that Martin and Walter went to Warmond in April to pick up my little boat the 第一狩人 and moor it in the harbour in Amsterdam for the summer. The weather had actually been good during the whole trip but it started to drizzle in the end. One unfortunate mishap... Martin's Dad, Marius fell in the water but luckily in the harbour so close enough to home to shower and to have a stiff drink. Thanks guys for doing that.
In the picture Martin is figuring out which way to go after leaving Warmond... can be quite tricky.

One of the most famous things in Brussels is "Manneke Pis", a statue of a little guy peeing on the street. But guess what .... Fukuoka also has it's own "Manneke Pis" right at the back of the Kushida shrine but decently covered with a small red piece of cloth.

Had my first Skype conversation again with Paul back home. Seems already quite a while ago since he was here. Miss him greatly.

Since Pim, Hans and Marco are coming to Japan in July I had the honour of getting their ferry tickets at Hakata Station for their trip across from Pusan, Korea to Fukuoka, Japan. The ferry-boat is called the Beetle...I sure hope it isn't full of those little creatures. I will be there at the quay waving my flag to welcome them and showing them around. Will definitely take the whole week off and after that it's only one more week till my departure on the 22nd of July to Hawaii.

Downpour and Bugs

2006-05-10T21:20:00.000+09:00

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The weather has changed all of a sudden (just like in Holland I hear) with high temperatures and humidity. And it has started to rain. It's almost like those tropical rains a steady downpour for hours on end but here it goes on the whole day. On top of that the bugs are back and in droves. The mosquitos are few yet but a kind of green beetle has shown up and they're everwhere. They don't do any harm but make a racket flying around and hitting the lamps.

After a nice weekend in Fukuoka with Paul it was back to the old horrid university with it's decrepid teachers... can't wait to go back home and leave this place in order never to return.
We really had a nice time and apart from visiting my favourite Kushida shrine, eating ramen in Canal City, buying sporty goods for Paul and almost a very nice Issey Miyake jacquet for myself and drinking G&T's we didn't do much else.

Having left Paul at the airport on sunday I went back to Nagasaki by bus to come home to a hedonistic feast.. a dinner cooked by Mads and orchestrated by Rudy. Several courses and fingerfood and wine to start of with were laid out. The guests Kim, Alex and Femke (friend of Kim) and myself had a very delightful evening. Way to much food but this was a once in a ........ occasion.
Kudos Gentlemen!!

Glover Garden

2006-05-05T09:12:00.000+09:00

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When the period of national seclusion was ended in 1854 after more than 200 years a couple of entrepeneurial English came to Nagasaki and tried to start up business here. One of the most successful ones was Thomas Glover. He lived on a slope overlooking Nagasaki harbour and now this site where former foreigners used to live is now a major tourist attraction. Wonderful houses with wrap around porches, an abundance of roses and sweeping views. Went there on thursday with Saul and with three million Japanese. Jam-packed is the word here. This also the place where Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly" is located and there is even a statue of one of the most famous Japanese sopranos, Tamaki Miura, of course in the part of Butterfly.

The curious thing about Glover is that he sided with the insurgents who wanted the emperor back as Head of State and get rid of the Shogun. I think he had a good feeling about where history would lead and after the fall of the Shogun in 1889, known here as the Bakumatsu, and the beginning of the Meiji era, he had a good amount of friends in the government to safeguard his business interests.

Curry Dinner

2006-05-03T23:34:00.000+09:00

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Forgot to tell you that last friday we finally did get a new toilet seat ... modern and sleek. !!!

Yesterday Paul and I left for that little island called Ijoujima 伊王島 , a twenty minute ferry ride from Nagasaki. Booked the one and only hotel there (cottage like accomodation with a veranda looking out on the bay of Nagasaki) for the night inclusive of dinner (Seaside BBQ), breakfast and onsen. Met Pim and his Dad on the ferry too. After a bit of beach time it was time for dinner. Unfortunately it had turned extremely windy and cold so the BBQ was bit of a let down. Sitting in the hot bath, however, in the evening and watching the stars certainly made up for it. Today we spend another day on the beach baking and finally returned back on a full boat.

Mads and Rudy cooked a curry dinner for Alex, Naoko and us. We brought the wine and Ｎaoko lotsa strawberries (called ichigo 苺 in Japanese). Apparently we will have a repeat performance coming Sunday.

Arita

2006-05-01T10:32:00.000+09:00

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A lot of pottery and porcelain is produced in Japan and one of the oldest and most famous pottery towns is Arita, in the Saga prefecture just north of Nagasaki. On Sunday Paul and I together with Saul were taken on a tour of Arita at 08.30 in the morning by three nice Japanese ladies, one of which works at Saul's office. In "Golden Week" they hold the pottery fair and the whole town is just crammed with stalls selling pottery. From the most hideous multicoloured to the most wonderfull plain and simple designs are for sale. Personally I wasn't too impressed by it all. Didn't even take a picture. There is, however, one exception and that is the artist Tatsuya Sakamoto 坂本達哉 where Saul bought a Lapis Lazuli coloured almost translucent porcelain plate. Stunning.
Had lunch in a rococo palace that appears out of nowhere and looks somehow a little out of place here in Japan. But then again they have the Holland Village and Disneyland too. Stuffed ourselves to the max.

After lunch we did visit one more town called Hamisa, where another pottery fair took place. Must say that here I bought 4 beautiful porcelain bowls for soup or whatever takes your fancy. two shiny white ones and two dark blue ones.
Got back home at around 7.30 at night and were totally knackered.

Full House

2006-04-30T20:39:00.000+09:00

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My apologies for causing some of you anxieties and withdrawal symptoms by not keeping my weblog up to date. It's been more than 10 days and that really has been the longest ever. Never realized how many do read my weblog.
Thank you all for the mails expressing concern about my well-being and yes I'm OK Just didn't have anything interesting to say. I know that sounds odd coming from a person who thinks that he always has something (interesting) to say......

Left friday for Fukuoka to pick up Paul on saturday morning at 08.00 at the airport and arrived just in time. After a delightful train journey arrived here at around 11.15 and met Pim's Dad, Peter Paul, on the way to the dorm. Bart and Gijs' family are arriving today too and they will go on a tour of Japan next thursday.
Paul Janssen, being Paul Janssen, decided that since it was Queen's day the room needed decorating with small flags !!!

This weekend is "Tall Ships Weekend" here and basically it is a smaller version of Sail 2005 in Amsterdam. But some great Japanese ships are here like the Nihon Maru 日本丸 and the Kaiwo Maru 海王丸 . They are all lit up so perfect for pictures. Alex asked for a free poster which is now our one and only decoration in the living room of appartment 501.

Organized dinner for my friends in Nagasaki in an area called Shianbashi, the redlight district here full with wonderfull places to eat, . Once again a "Nomihodai", drink all you can with food thrown in as well. Great but just a little too much to drink, I'm afraid.
Just for your info from left to right.: Yang Xiang a.k.a. Shanghai Tony, Akitaka and Mai from Nagasaki, Alex, Diana and her new love, Mitch, Saul from DC and Aki (my tutor) from Nagasaki.

伊王島

2006-04-19T23:18:00.000+09:00

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Wednesday is my day off during the week which basically means studying in the library or at home but today together with Alex and Anja, a friend from Amsterdam, we ventured out to a delightful small island called Ioujima 伊王島, about a twenty minute boat ride from Nagasaki harbour. You can buy a combined ticket for the ferry ride and onsen together for 980 Yen.
After a wonderfull walk beside the sea we arrived at a small man made beach with just us on it. made sand castles, walked in the surf and just lazied around. All the while the sun was shining brightly with temperatures well above 23 degrees.

Went to this onsen where the outdoor baths 露天風呂 look out over the sea all the way to Nagasaki ..... wow!! Had the best curry udon ever (must have been more than a liter of in a huge bowl) filled with tender chicken pieces and drank a tasty beer. Then the rain that had been predicted for the whole day but just never materialized started all of a sudden so we had to run to the boat and made it back home safely. Definitely a thing to do when visiting Nagasaki, folks!

Skype seems to become more and more of a hype. Since I started out last september with just Tobi in Dehli and Karen in Geneva as contacts, I now have about 35. Well I guess you can't beat a good working and free product. Paying for phone calls will be thing of the past... mark my words!

Toilet

2006-04-19T08:36:00.000+09:00

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As you probably know the bath rooms in Japan are basically undersized (definitely for tall Dutch folk) and made out of one plastic mold. That also means that the components are not the sturdiest one can imagine. When we arrived here in October our toilet seat was broken but taped together with a tape more durable than the toilet itself. But alas, that too came to an end. About a month ago it broke and suffices to say it's no longer a pleasure sitting there. Went to the caretaker, kanrinin 管理人 of the building two and a half weeks ago but so far no luck. She claims that she needs to order it via the internet...no you cannot just buy it in a store; dimensions, colour and other specifications have to be in order. She then proceeded to put some non-matching white tape around it as a make do solution. I ask her every monday where the seat is but the answer as always is : it's difficult, isn't it! 難しいね. I wonder if we will ever get a new one before we have moved back to Holland.

The draw for the new appartment had put us in place 52 (right now 47) for one and place 3 (now 2) for the other appartment we wanted. The people before us have now 72 hours to respond and if not than maybe we will hopefully be the proud owners of a new appartment. Have just no idea how many applicants there were but it there must be lots. There must have been thousands if you consider that there are about 50 appartments and at least 50 applicants per appartment .. and they're not cheap either. We must be a rich nation......

Had a small drinking binge last night with Mads, Rudy (both in suits!),Pim and some newly acquired Japanese friends... and guess what no hang-over!!! The picture is a little fuzzy but so was the evening......

Suzy

2006-04-16T12:30:00.000+09:00

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Once in a while I get a little uneasy when the image of Suzy pops back in my mind. Suzy used to be a stunner in her days, a well sought after model in the sixties. She came from a small German village close to Frankfurt and had moved to London in the beginning of the sixties. Unfortunately life became too confusing and like many of her generation she became a total junkie. By the time I met her in 1975 (she used to live next door to my friend Alfonso in Inverness Terrace in a tiny dirty room, living of soup that she heated up in the can itself on a small electric stove) she couldn't have sunk any lower. She was pleasant when she wasn't too incoherent or had "gentlemen friends" over but most of the time you just couldn't communicate with her at all.
As one is getting older the frightening images of how one could end up surface so now and then. I know that I'm not in her position, eventhough I eat mostly soup and live in a tiny room here and feel quite lonely at times. But I cannot help wondering how close people sometimes are in just losing it all in a matter of minutes; something happens in their head, they make a succession of wrong decisions and voilá there's no turning back.
There must be so many folks out there who travel that god forsaken path while the rest of us just think that life is naturally good to us or more to the point should be good like we''re sort of entitled to it.
It just scares me...... but I do count my blessings every day and do consider myself a lucky guy.

Akitaka and Mai

2006-04-15T14:48:00.000+09:00

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I have two conversation partners here in Nagasaki, Kenichi and Akitaka.
As it happens Akitaka lives with Mai, another student who speaks not only excellent english but dutch also, having spend a year in Utrecht with a guest family three years ago. Well last night Alex and I were invited for dinner there. Alex brought a bottle of expensive wine and being Dutch I thought flowers would do nicely. Mai cooked a fab meal with specialities from her hometown Miyazaki. Chicken, crabs and maki rolls. This is all the more fabulous considering they live on a stamp and with just one (1) burner in an alcove kitchen to cook on.
A good time was had by all and way after midnight we grabbed a cab back.
This weekend I already have to start studying and doing my homework... not a chore I'm looking forward to but it's just got to be done.

My other conversation partner is a student (again) here at the university and studies physical therapy; basically a study to find out the best ways to help people who suffered a stroke etc. He is a fervent Kendo fan, the traditional Japanese sport with the wooden swords and takes part in regional championships as well. Since the Japanese do not like to go into the sun, Kenichi while on holiday in Phuket, Thailand, a couple of weeks ago and looking at all those europeans sunning themselves had a go at it but never thought to put any cream on.. well you can imagine the result. The expression used in Japan to describe that you look like a lobster is strikingly similar be it that they use another animal: a boiled octopus 茹でたこ.

Paul has left for Dhaka, Bangladesh to work for 2 weeks and will then come over here... yeah. Finally he too will be able to sample the delights of Nagasaki.

Today is the day that Paul and I will hear if we were lucky in a draw to be the new owners of a still to be build new and bigger appartment in Amsterdam...I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Incommunicado

2006-04-11T09:07:00.000+09:00

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Lectures have started again as of yesterday and together with Alex, Kim, Mads and Pim (who only received 4 credits out of the 7 needed in the 1st semester) we have to try and get another 10 this semester. Seems like an impossible task but we choose the subjects without tests ( where ever possible) and one hour where you get 2 credits instead of one. The latter should also be the most interesting one since it's about Rangaku 蘭学 , Dutch studies. The study of the dutch physicians, astronomers and the like that came here in the 17th century and introduced new revolutionary techniques to operate on people, draw new celestial charts etc. Up till then everything was based on Chinese "science". A new generation of Japanese scientists came to be and a lot of dutch publications were translated into Japanese. We will follow lectures on the campus but also in museums and other interesting places around Nagasaki.
Today is the first day (after 4 days) that I am actually able to update my weblog since the traffic is so immense at the moment. Gijs has a new computer and together with everybody else downloading anime and god knows what else 24 hours a day, at least for me in the corner creates a breakdown in the system and therefore I am not able to Skype, open my mail or get on the internet. I hope it will improve soon as this is highly annoying.
On top of that it has been pouring down for the last couple of days and I mean continously. Got totally soaked yesterday coming home from the University.
O yeah... the good thing is I have wednesdays off. So a nice interlude to do something else than hang around the campus.

My friend Saul has started conversation class, Kaiwa, in our centre and he was very pleased to get in on a intermediate level but after yesterday's first hour he seemed rather dissapointed:

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"It wasn't quite kaiwa. I think I'm going to be subjected to gaijin japanese for 3 months. This is much worse than bad english. One participant spent five minutes introducing herself, and was totally unintelligible. And we applauded!"
unquote

Well that's what Japanese people do......... applaud the effort. Wake up and smell the coffee!!

Busy, busy, busy busy

2006-04-06T10:03:00.000+09:00

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In sharp contrast to my complete idleness here in Nagasaki (sleeping in, going to look at cherry blossoms, going to the onsen, leisurely dinners and chatting away over a coffee at Starbucks) at the moment before the lectures start again tomorrow, the folks back home are going through a "no time for nothing" period. Meetings all over the world, following small courses to improve on something or other, organizing other friends lifes, relationships breaking up, prospects of buying new appartments and on top of that still having to do the shopping, cleaning and ironing one self.
The old adagio "have a free evening next month on the 3rd, so let's meet then" seems to be back en vogue again.

Had to change my e-mail address on my mobile phone yesterday because of an over abundance of spam/junk mail that started about 4 weeks ago and increased to being send at every 5 to 10 minutes. I wonder how long the silence will last this time around.........

Hans, Pim and Marco are busy organizing their trip over here and it doesn't seem to go smoothly via their travel agency (I think you're better off doing it yourself) that cannot even organize a round the world ticket for them......... But they're coming and that's the most important part.

Had a stroll over a Buddhist cemetery where at the entrance the Kannon Buddha stands on top of a giant turtle to protect the place. The graves are certainly not poor men's graves, look very well kept and there are a lot of fresh flowers. Since it is situated on a hill top the view over Nagasaki harbour is absolutely stunning ( it'll better be if you have to be there for eternity!).

Tomorrow back to the University for our first orientation about the coming semester (which lectures we're going to have, what books to read etc.). I'm actually looking forward to it.

Sakura

2006-04-02T14:31:00.000+09:00

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One of the biggest events in the whole of Japan is the "Sakura" 桜 season. The before totally barren cherry trees start to bud and bloom within a matter of days at the end of March through the middle of April, where the ones in the southern prefectures will ofcourse bloom earlier than the ones up north. People will go and see them with friends and family and even organize picnics and boozing parties in the evening in the parks. This is called "Hanami" 花見, where Hana = blossoms and Mi = to see. The colour is either white or a beautiful pale pink. Here in Nagasaki the best known place to go to is Tateyama Park 立山公園 , located up against a hill and close to the Suwa Shrine. But even the little park opposite our Student Hall is just crammed with these trees and the local residents have put up lanterns to make the place look more festive.

Celebrated Alexandra's Birthday last night with the well known Nomihodai in a place close by. Unfortunately it was absolutely pouring down when we came out so needed to take a cab home.

Today too...lotsa rain but things seem to be improving..... well, you know the saying: every cloud has a silver lining.........

Chillida

2006-03-31T23:50:00.000+09:00

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Yesterday was good day with lotsa sunshine and the temperatures are going up ........

Went with Alex to the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum for Modern Art 長崎県美術館 created by architect Kengo Kuma to see an exhibition by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, who makes enormous robust sculptures from terra cotta, alabaster but most importantly from forged iron. The ones here are mere models and studies for the big ones dotted around the globe.
For more info see : http://www.eduardo-chillida.com/index.php?id=1&L=3

Had coffee afterwards outside in the sun with Jenny and Diana, who we ran into coincidentally .

The Japanese are by no means very tall people, especially down here in Kyushu but Christoph and I were quite shocked to find some motorbikes that must belong to some very small Japanese indeed.....

Fushimi Noriaki

2006-03-30T00:16:00.000+09:00

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Embarked on a ambitious project this week ... I bought a literary novel called "Majo no musuko" 魔女の息子, "A witch's son" (2003) by Fushimi Noriaki, a gay activist and literary critic who has already written "Private Gay Life" (1991) and is also a contributor to several main stream papers e.g The Japan Times as well as the editor of the Gay magazine "Queer Japan Returned". It has won the Bungei prize for fiction. It's in Japanese and it's difficult. Some of the words are especially difficult to trace (mostly the sexual ones) but I do consider this a serious challenge and should be able to pick up some sexual innuendo and slang going along. Mark J. McLelland, a postdoctorate fellow of the University of Queensland has mentioned him as one of the main gay writers in present day Japan.
I have never read a book in Japanese so this is a first for me.

Planted some coriander seeds last february and they are flourishing......so there will be a lot more Thai curries prepared in this kitchen the coming months.

Remodelling

2006-03-29T22:00:00.000+09:00

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One of the things all Queens have in common is rearranging the furniture once in a while to see if one can improve on perfection. Well I did succumb to this state of mind too and since there isn't a whole lot of room in my little abode the options are indeed limited. The bed can can only be moved a couple of meters up or down and all the other things have to fit around it. But in order to be able to get to the balcony with the summer coming without having to climb over the bed all the time I deemed it necessary to make the changes. Hope you like it...just in case you notice any difference at all. I do and that's the most important thing.. isn't it?
The little doggie lying on the bed is a present from Paul ........ as a reminder of him actually. He keeps an eye out for me......

Ear, Nose and Throat

2006-03-29T20:56:00.000+09:00

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Having suffered from clogged up ears for a couple of days now and trying to get the smear out myself with cotton buds and even a toothpick (how stupid can you get and needless to say to no avail) I decided it was time for a visit to a clinic. Asked at the local pharmacy and they directed me to Dr. Egami who runs the ear, nose and throat clinic, jibi inkó ka 耳鼻咽喉科 in Sumiyoshi, an area just up from the University. In a very modern and sleek building he looks at the patients and tells them what's wrong and while examining you (in my case the ears) you can watch on a TV screen what he is doing......... an innovative and learning experience indeed. Never knew that one's ear can hold so much stuff.
He managed to clean out the left ear but the right one was so clogged up that I have to come back for another appointment next Saturday at 09.00 am. Had to get some drops to loosen the rest up or to liquidify it as he so nicely put it.......
According to Chris this is way Too Much Detail (TMD), but the thing is I can hear again and you know me...just love to share....

The mere 10 minutes or less he spends on you will set you back an average of ￥4.500 so no wonder he can have his own clinic designed and styled by a top architect....

p.s.
The pictures are of course from his own website.

Penang

2006-03-26T14:11:00.000+09:00

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Since we wouldn't need a car on the island of Penang (named after the indigenous Pinang Palm tree) we took the Nice bus from KL station to Georgetown. A friend of Isaac, Ken, took us during rush hour to the station and we just about made it.... It takes roughly 4 hours and is very comfortable. Reclining seats, some food and drinks are provided and there are only 22 seats in the bus and all that for 50 RM one way (4.41 RM per Euro).
The Eastern & Oriental Hotel was everything we thought it would be...colonial grandeur at it's best. It had suffered from the tsunami last year but only slightly so. Huge rooms and bathrooms etc. but furnished like your Granny would have loved it. Call buttons for your personal butler in each room, fresh fruit each day in your room and a fabulous pool.
We hadn't prepared ourselves for Penang at all in the way that we hadn't looked up anything on the internet beforehand (so unlike us) so we wandered around the town without actually knowing where we're going. But we found the Penang museum.. a treasure trove of information on the town itself and the people that shaped it. There are so many cultures that make up Penang, the Malay, Chinese, Eurasians, Burmese, Indians, Armenians, Japanese and Europeans. Some of the groups mixed and some not at all. The most successfull group were the Chinese (also known as the Baba Nyonya) who built some beautiful mansions to show off their wealth amassed through trade. The most beautiful are the Cheon Fatt Tze mansion and the very ornate Pinang Peranakan mansion. See picture.....

The other interesting feature here in Penang is the abundance of Kongsi, or clan houses of the different Chinese clans. Used for the settling in and general wellfare of their clansmen. The most famous being the Khoo Kongsi established only in 1850.

Met up with Sulynn (a fellow student from Nagasaki) and her boyfriend Joey Tan to have dinner at street stalls (known here as hawker stalls) and to sample the delicious Penang laksa, a curried soup with shrimp paste...a treat indeed. Had coffee and huge cakes for afters.
Like in Thailand, here too you can have a massage but a more gentle one than the fierce pressure point massage in Thailand and they use oil too. They concentrate on the ligaments and by Jove, you feel like a tenderized chicken afterwards.......

Feels like home...

2006-03-26T13:13:00.000+09:00

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After Paul had left for Amsterdam on Thursday night it was my turn to go on Friday. Isaac dropped me off in the morning at KLCC (the enormous upscale shopping mall underneath the Petronas Towers) to exchange something from the Royal Selangkor Pewter Company and to do some last day purchases since it's Alexandra's birthday on the 1st April next week.
Had a last night dinner with Isaac at a Szechuan restaurant (the Chinese province of Szechuan actually means four rivers according to the characters 四川 ) with some good spicy fare.
There is something very relaxing about a last day somewhere with the flight not untill midnight and you've got nothing planned except packing and having a G&T before heading off.
To go from KL to the Airport is really simple with the KLIA express (every 15 minutes and takes half an hour). One warning do not check-in at the city terminal there if you're flying Malaysia Airlines because the staff there will charge you for every kilo overweight that you have (they get a bonus for it!!). It's one way way of making a profit on cheapo tickets but it will definitely alienate passengers.
Was very lucky with my seat on this full flight...a whole row of 4 seats to my self so stretched out and slept the whole 6 hours.
The funny thing is that coming back to Nagasaki feels a bit like coming home. I think it's the familiarity of the surroundings more than anything else. After the train ride from Fukuoka, Alex picked me up at the station to catch up on the latest going on and the local gossip over a cup of coffee.

KL

2006-03-19T11:56:00.001+09:00

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Kuala Lumpur or KL as it is known by the well traveled has one of it's busiest weekends ever........ and no not because of our my arrival but because of the Formula 1 racing event here. People from all over the globe are here to watch Schumacher c.s. perform in their Ferraris and other powerful racing cars this weekend. Commercialism abounds in this town with stands of Tag-Heuer, Mercedes Benz et alia on every side walk where you're enticed to buy whatever you can lay your hands on.
Even our hotel "The Maya" is crammed with people but luckily they're not in the spa, where we bubble away in an oversized Jacuzzi after a day of shopping and lunching. We dine in street stalls as well as in hip lounge places (the Dry Martini's are too die for...!!) and to top it all of we indulge ourselves on chocalate cake for afters at a place called "Dôme", known here as "Do me" since it full of cruisy queens and Greg, Susan, Isaac, Paul and me of course.
Moved to the house of our friends Isaac & Tony (still in Dhaka) yesterday and tomorrow we're off to Georgetown for a sun drenched vacation. Going by bus (called Nice) with only 22 seats and it will take about 5 hours to get there. Will see SuLynn too (a fellow student from Nagasaki University)

Had a fab dinner in a ...yes, I'm afraid so, Japanese restaurant in the Shangrila Hotel with delicious soft shell crabs, Jelly fish with cucumber and sea weed and other delights.

Real Vacation....

2006-03-15T13:29:00.000+09:00

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Today is the I have been really looking forward to....hop on the bus to Fukuoka, stay a night and then continue tomorrow morning onto Kuala Lumpur for a whopping 9 days to be with hubby and to escape this place for a while.
Days of shopping, Poolside G&T's and in general the good life await me...... both in KL and in Georgetown, Penang. Staying in the überhip Maya hotel in KL and in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang (see pool picture)
Will see lotsa friends in KL too, Isaac, Susan and maybe Tony too.

A friend of Kim, called Kars is staying in my room for a while so apart from Rudy the place won't be deserted completely.
So I will not be updating my blog for a while... "zannen né" so you'll just have to cope but I'm sure you'll manage.
See ya..

There is a god after all...

2006-03-12T16:00:00.000+09:00

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Just got the news in, well a rumour more to the point, that our angry Professor of our "Prestigious University", daigakumeimon 大学名門, in Leiden is no longer the head of the department of Japanese Studies. Apparently it's not a voluntary resignation or as the say in Japanese 'kibó taishoku' 希望退職 ,but untill we will be officially notified nothing is clear.......
Here is another odd discrepancy in the Japanese way of thinking.
The University here starts a Masters program in clinical tropical and infectious diseases for international medical students and doctors in April. Well they haven't got a curriculum, no list of reading materials and no defined budget as yet and apparently nobody (including management and lecturers) wants to be bothered with this. On the other hand a great deal of time is spend on the opening ceremony i.e. what dignitary is staying in which hotel, when is pick-up time, what are the seating arrangments, who is saying what etc.
It can probably be explained by the Japanese distaste for having to deal with anything financial (merchants and the like were the lowest class within Buddhist Japanese society) and their fondness of decorum and ceremonies (any country that had no rituals, ceremonies etc. was deemed 'uncivilized' ). So the loss of face through not performing according to ceremonial rites outweighs the international shame of just not having your basic finances in order and making a success of this new Masters Program.

Some ritual suicides through evisceration (in english known as Hara-kiri but here as Seppuku 切腹 ) no doubt will be on the agenda soon...... Normally a good friend is standing behind you and will decapitate you in case your own attempt to successfully kill yourself has failed (insult on top of injury if you ask me)
Will keep you posted.....

Message from Leiden

2006-03-07T19:54:00.000+09:00

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One of the Japanese traits I find very difficult to handle is the "going behind your back" way of doing things here. Five of the students here just received an angry message from our professor in Leiden that our marks are not up to par. Apparently the guy in charge here, Mr. Takano decided to hop on a plane to Holland in order to convey this to our professor instead of confronting us with the results (we still haven't seen any yet) and maybe try and find a way to improve our individual results by examining the way we study. But no such luck. Apparently our professor even had to apologize for our poor performance.........
Threats seem to be really in these days and even our professor has succumbed to it: "If we do not perform better we will endanger future funding and exchange programs and make the name of our famed University a laughing stock".
Some people really know how to motivate their students.........
I recall a meeting once with him where he stated that one's input and participation are valued more highly here then the end results. Apparently not....
Some people are a little slow but try and do their best...well to no avail apparently.
Thank god I'm leaving this narrow minded country shortly for a break in Malaysia......
Spending almost 6 months here has definitely taking away the luster from the study...... meeting Japanese teachers has not been a particular positive experience and apart from being able to speak better Japanese then before there really hasn't been anything of value that was thaught to me.

Ame

2006-03-06T10:25:00.000+09:00

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Rain or ame 雨 as it's known down here, is just pouring down. The temperature is fine though about 15 degrees but still makes you feel a bit miserable. Rudy decided to come to Fukuoka with us after all and spending a weekend there was great fun.

The highlights of this trip for me were:
A) the Kushida shrine, already once visited in november of last year. It was founded in 757 and a there is a huge ginko tree in the forecourt that is supposed to be 1000years old. The grand deity, Ohata Nushina-mikoto, is enshrined here. It is mainly used for traditional japanese weddings and today was no exception. The white cap covering the woman's head by the way is supposed to hide the horns that every woman has according to legend.

B) the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (FAAM) http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/eng/home.html with contemporary art from around Asia. There was an extensive exhibit on about Lollywood Film Posters (similar to Hollywood and Bollywood but now from Lahore) and funky sculptures from India plus lots more. Modern art somehow is for me at least connected to the West and I must say how intrigued and amazed I was at discovering Oriental modern art. The Orient stood for traditional in my limited perspective and this was quite an eye-opener. Will definitely try and find out more...........

Had dinner in a Szechuan place, Xiang's proposal, and went to a bar where they had more than 700 specialty beers from around the globe, with the majority from Belgium and Germany.

Had the best ramen ever...in the ramen stadium. A delicious broth with tender pork meat, nori (seaweed), egg and chinese noodles. Add some spicey La-yu and togodashi (sesame seeds with chillies) and you're in heaven.
Fukuoka tower with its 236 meters about is another great way to get an overall view of the city. The have an observation deck (well enclosed that is) on the 5th floor..??? Yes the fifth floor but it is 123 meters up.

Normally we travel by bus between Fukuoka and Nagasaki but now we decided to take the train on the way back. Missed our reserved seat train by one minute (go figure..the trains in Japan always being on time) so we had to scramble for seats in the unreserved section of the next train. It was choc-a-bloc so had to push some old women out of the way to get my seat. Not proud of myself but standing for two hours is not what I was meant to do in life.

If you ever come to Fukuoka and have some money to spare then go stay in the "With the Style" Hotel. A small boutique hotel (16 rooms only) but fabulously decorated. Laid back but with understated elegance......check it out ::: http://www.withthestyle.com/eng/index.htm
Alexandra had already told me about it..she has a nose for these things..

Fukuoka

2006-03-03T12:05:00.000+09:00

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Well after a long silence..back again. Studying every day in the library 図書館 doesn't help to make life that more interesting but it's got to be done.

Today is the day that almost everybody is leaving town. Kim, Pim and Mads left for Okinawa 沖縄 , the tropical islands in the south. Bart, Gijs and Colin went to Fukuoka 福岡 and tomorrow Xiang and I will join them there.

Seems Rudy will have to man the fort..so to speak. Mind you he's engrossed in his new guitar..playing away.
After a nice and refreshing session at the onsen lastnight, I received a mask from the Peking Opera from Xiang. It is the face of the spirit that will (please note) bestow lots of fortune on you and we're talking material fortune here..not your 'cannot not do anything with' enrichment of the mind or likewise placebo's to make you feel better cause you ain't got anything..... Duuh!
Will let you know when that fortune comes in...!!!
Finally got around to sending lots of emails to people I did neglect for a long time. That on the other hand does give one a satisfactory feeling. Well back to the laundry, ironing etc.

Diana

2006-02-27T16:08:00.000+09:00

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Last night we celebrated Diana's birthday in her favourite restaurant called 'Doma Doma' with roughly 15 other people. It's a very nice place and we did the well known 'nomihodai' (drinks as much as you can in two hours) plus some food. The food, although delicious, was sparse to say the least. Mainly a couple of appetizers but then again the booze and the company made up for it. Japanese restaurants are not really meant to move about so a 'changement des places' was not really possible during the meal.
Luckily I was with Miho, Rudy, Diana and another nice Japanese girl. Afterwards a bit of the old karaoke where we ordered cokes and added some smuggled in whiskey. Jenny, New Zealand girl, was so kind as to give us a ride home.
Plastered is the word.........

Diana is coming around this evening to cook for us...yeah.

P.S.

Some of the anonymous comments you get on your blog are quite hilarious such as the recent reactions on Clean Air Now. Some are basically stupid and some have an added appeal cause the writer apparently hasn't mastered the english language yet....
例えば (for example in Japanese)
Quote
"perhaps we should also forbiss alcohol, sex, movies, newspapers, fredom of spech, salat and toilet papar"
Unquote

Clean Air Now

2006-02-25T11:30:00.000+09:00

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This small chapter is basically only interesting for Dutch folk.
In order to make bars, pubs and restaurants smoke free in the Netherlands a citizen's initiative has started to collect as many signatures as possible and to hand them over to Parliament in order to get it on the agenda and for the government to review the existing 'gentlemen's agreement' that the regulation would come from the sector itself.
Creating a smoke free corner isn't possible since smoke doesn't read signs and a strong lobby from the tobacco industry has installed fears that revenue will fall drastically if smoking is going to banned completely. Needless to say the figures from Ireland, Norway and Italy show a different outcome.
We need 40.000 signatures, so if you are in favour of a smoke free environment then please go to the following website and sign up !!!!!

http://www.cleanairnow.nl/asp/burgerinitiatief.asp

It's not what this country can do for you (to make it more enjoyable) but what you can do for your country... Hmmm, sounds sort of familiar.

Szechuan Tony

2006-02-24T23:16:00.000+09:00

One of the friends here is Yang Xiang from Shanghai a.k.a. Tony and tonight he prepared a typical hot and fiery Szechuan dish with all kinds of spices and lotsa chillies in it. The spices are from China and the rest of the ingredients are local. Smells a bit like Chinese medicin actually. After slicing and cooking away he went on to prepare a "Fondue Chinoise" as we would call it. A broth where you first put in the fish, then the meat, then the prawns and finally the noodles (made from green beans !) and the veggies. And my god, it's just very spicey.......especially the oil on top makes you spew fire like a Chinese dragon. Had coffee and chocolates for afters and in general a good and enjoyable evening once again.

Instead of studying (as I was supposed to do) I just sat in the sun reading the Japan times.... what a life.

Paul is leaving for KL (Kuala Lumpur) tomorrow where I will go and visit him in three weeks time. After staying with Tony and Isaac for the weekend we will go to Penang, a peninsula of the Malaysian coast. Booked a "Deluxe Suite" in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Georgetown for three nights to unwind and enjoy the "Butler service"... yes folks we have our own butler who takes care of your every whim and want.
Guess what....... I'm in dire need for an oversized bathroom once again.

Dutch Pea Soup

2006-02-21T23:16:00.000+09:00

Today is a busy day...having to meet Agnoek, a fellow student from Leiden, who is studying in Kyoto and is down here for a trip with the other foreign students in Kyoto on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education. Met at the Nagasaki Peace Park, a visitor's highlight but I'm sorry to say the first time I ever visited these premises. Since today saw a wonderful 18 degrees and lotsa sun we decided to have a coffee in the sun.
Good news...Rianne is going this september to Kyoto for a year.

Sometimes when you're in another country you have this incredible craving for your own food. So decided to make 'Dutch Pea Soup'. Had brought the dried peas and the smoked sausage from Holland but bought the pork meat, bacon, celery, carrots, oignons and potatoes here.
And it was just like momma used to make it..........delicious.

More good news.... Paul will come and visit me here the first week of May. The ways of the Lord are wonderous and manyfold. I guess too many people have told him that you just cannot not visit the place your hubby is spending a whole damn year, especially when you're traveling all over the place the whole year round. But then again I maybe totally wrong and he decided it all by himself ........... Anyway I'm very much looking forward to it.
My small travel report (in Japanese and English) has passed the test and will be published in the Nagasaki University News at the end of February.
Hmmmm...how about becoming a reporter as a new occupational passtime...??

Kyushu Trip

2006-02-21T21:31:00.000+09:00

The friendship has been restored between Alex and me after a long chat and realizing how little fun it is without one another... so I decided to join the trip we had planned for this weekend.

On Sunday morning at 08.45 we left Nagasaki to go for a tour through Kyushu, the island we're on that is. Together with Rudy, Alexandra, Miho (also the driver), Diana and Izumi we first went to Hita 日田, a town in the east of Oita prefecture where a lot of authentic houses still aboundand and where , in order to conserve the traditional and original feel of the place, even the electicity cables and phone lines, normally hung on poles above ground, have been installed underground.

For liquid lunch we went to the Sapporo brewery, close to Hita, where we enjoyed a tour through the "beer forest Sapporo". The highlight being able to drink as many beers in 20 minutes as you can and yes I'm ashamed to say we did down about 4 pints in those 20 minutes. Diana felt just a little sick but apart from that all went well. Driver didn't drink..good thing too.
Bought a great yesteryear poster to commemorate this event.

Afterwards we left for Yufuin 湯布院 , a small town famous for the hotsprings and its folk crafts like glass, pottery and Japanese paper called 'Washi' and we weren't the only ones who knew about this place; there were busloads of tourists all over the place. Rickshas were everywhere too with very nice guys towing you around the town if you were looking to do that kind of thing. Ricksha or rickshaw is derived from the original Japanese word (jin) rikisha 人力車 , meaning a car with manpower.
Snacked on every corner on kara-age (fried chicken), Taco's, yes taco's and cakes and so on and so forth.
On our way to Beppu 別府 , a very well known 'onsen town' we passed through high mountain ranges with lava flows...quite a sight. The idea was to have dinner and a good old soak in Beppu. We stayed in a fab hotel with a room that accomodates guests both in a traditional Japanese as well as in a western style. i.e. you have regular beds but on top of that you also have a part of the room that is covered with tatami mats where futons can be placed. Yukatas and kimono style coats were provided too.
The most famous onsen is called the Hyotan onsen and the specialty is to take a sandbath, meaning you dig a hole in the hot earth, lie in it and then cover yourself up again with the hot sand. Well could only take this for about 20 minutes ........ blisters were coming up all over the place or so it felt anyway. Had a good scrub and then just soaking away in the open air hot tub, the rotenfuro 露天風呂.
Beppu is especially known for its boiling lakes with mud and water, also know as the 'hells' , jigoku 地獄 ,with temperatures as high as 98 degrees with various colours depending on the main minerals inside. Tight schedule so no time to visit these...maybe next time.
After a good nights rest we continued onto Mount Aso. Mt. Aso sits in the center of Japan's southern island of Kyushu and is the largest caldera on earth, about 25 by 18 km! People always think of Mount Fuji as being the volcano but this range of volcanos is quite a sight too ...... only not today. It's pouring down and so terribly foggy that you can't see a thing.

Continued on to a theme park called Farmland, where dairy produce and all kinds of other things are on display. Spend a lot of time here buying cheese, sausage and eating Kumamoto ramen, a special ramen dish. (Ramen is the noodle that is eaten in soups).

After a long drive finally back in Nagasaki and slept extremely well.

What a great trip this has been...!!

Weird.......

2006-02-18T15:22:00.000+09:00

After having studied...well followed lectures and did homework etc. on a regular basis it's kinda weird not having to do anything anymore. Apart from a small article that I had to write for the University News about a trip to Unzen and Shimabara last november there is nothing to keep me occupied..workwise that is.
Had a bit of a falling out with Alex about a remark I made about her presentation during the last lecture which didn't go down lightly. We''ll see how the relationship will develop... Luckily her boyfriend Christoph is going to be here real soon. Planned to go to Seoul with her but not so sure now.
Had Yang Xiang (a.k.a. Tony) from Shanghai over for dinner (Thai green curry) and he had brought very strong (i.e. 52%) chinese wheat liquor and spicy pork sausages...mmm!
Billy (from Washington DC) and Cliff (from Bangkok) are in town and together with Saul we're having a grand old time. Dinner and Lunch, beer and good chatter...the good life in other words. Two collegues from Saul from the University joined us for lunch at a very nice place close to Hamanomachi. And they speak excellent english..not the jibberish kind where they think that they speak perfect english and you have just no idea what the hell is going on.

Tomorrow we have a trip to Kumamoto planned but no idea what time or anything else for that matter. Confusion abounds.
I do miss Paul and Amsterdam....

Finished.....

2006-02-13T18:44:00.000+09:00

Last friday I went for dinner with Diana and to show you how small the doors are here at times, there is a cutie picture of Diana in front of the door of the restaurant called gobansho 御番所.

Well just downed the 1st G&T cause we finished our exams 試験 ...... after a truly grueling time for me anyway. And I think they went O.K. as far as I,m concerned. Had a truly horrible night..stressed out and for what... It appears the 1st exam counted for 20% and the 2nd for 10% of the total mark. Attendance, participation and handing in your homework counts for 90% and 80%. For some people that's going to be tough cause there is clause that you must have an attendance rate of at least 80% to qualify for a credit anyway... So much for this schooling system.
Going for dinner later and not just with one beer.........

Since Alex loves ninki bunka 人気文化, basically making photoshots in booths with lotsa people or just by yourself, here a little collage of the most interesting ones(cause I'm in them ofcourse).

Sun and Snow

2006-02-09T14:38:00.000+09:00

While the rest of Japan is covered in snow, apart from some snow flurries we here in Kyushu are exempt from those conditions.
But it is cold..... even Starbucks in Hamanomachi (Nagasaki area) gives out green coloured blankets to ward off the cold coming through the door. Closing the door and letting people use another entrance is apparently no option. My Caramel Macchiato tastes great though especially with a variation on the famous viennese Sachertorte .

Had our 2nd exam, conversation, kaiwa 会話 , yesterday, by listening to a tape with short conversational pieces and questions and then writing down...yes writing down... the answers. Was OK I guess.

Since our Arts Professor Matthi Forrer is her for a week supervising part of the Deshima 出島 project, we decided to meet up and we even got a peek in to the newly restored house of the captain of this Dutch Factory in the 17th century, called Jan Cock Blomhoff, with authentic (e.g. the original sofa on which his wife Laetitia was depicted) and replicated pieces of furniture.
Interesting to say the least.

One house in Deshima was used as the International Club from 1868 onwards and since Japan is known for its excessive exchange of business name cards, meishi 名刺 it comes as no surprise that they had a business name card showcase made over a fireplace no less, especially for this building where members could display them.　

P.S.
Vox populi, vox dei........
Reading the newspapers once in a while gives me the creeps..setting fire to embassies seems to be 'en vogue' these days. Whatever happened to simply boycotting Danish pastries to ventilate your orchestrated (in Syria and Lebanon at least) anger and losing that little extra so you can get ready for the beach.
On top of that the ultra conservative Opus Dei has started a campaign to better their image as portrayed in Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code', soon to be made into a feature movie. Trying to vilify the book wouldn't stand chance anyhow.....
My tip:..... get Saatchi & Saatchi in.. they do deliver!!

Mea culpa, mea culpa,mea maxima culpa !!

2006-02-06T20:18:00.000+09:00

Since guilt is a major human characteristic (nurture or nature?) it's no big news that I too suffer from this infliction. I do feel guilty about not updating my blog for almost a week with no other reason than A) laziness to start off with and B) having to study too damn hard to sit the exams tomorrow and the day after. I have spend the last days from morning till evening in the university library 図書館 together with tons of other people who study there, eat there (although prohibited) and sleep there (national passtime so it seems).
I processed more than 300 Kanji (chinese characters) and I'm curious how many will stick in my mind for the test tomorrow.....they usually don't, so we'll see.

Spend another nice evening with Ruud, Alex and Annette & Jesse (two americans who study here at the university) at the Chinese Lantern Festival last thursday with all the lanterns lit up and we dressed up in chinese garb for the occassion.
Pretty in Red and Blue.

P.S.
My Arts Professor, Matthi Forrer, from Leiden is in town and Alex and I will meet him next wednesday.
Will be fun.

Lantern festival

2006-01-31T12:05:00.000+09:00

Due to the large chinese community here the inauguration of the chinese new year is a big event here and to brighten up the city, they have colourful lanterns (especially red ones) just everywhere and especially in Chinatown, chúkakai 中華街 . It lasts from the 29th February through the 12th March with every evening different events. Everyone eats white chinese dumplings and is in a good mood. I have only been during the day but in the evening it should be pretty spectacular.
The only unsettling thing I witnessed was an array of pigheads that were laid out on golden dishes in a litlle shrine (as a present to the gods I imagine). See below........
On the conversation side there is an opportunity that presented itself. Through a Japanese student here at the University, called Mai (studied in Utrecht for a year) I was introduced to an employee here at the planning department called Eguchi Akitaka 江口明孝, 31 years old, who wants to learn more and better english. At first he wanted to pay me (a first for me..!!) but I struck a deal so that we have one hour of English conversation and then one hour of Japanese. We'll meet every friday at 6.00 pm so that should be good.

Once again we have trouble with the exams here. They just put down an arbitrary date (monday the 13th) with 3 exams on the same day (duh..) knowing very well that most people will go on travels somewhere already before since our holiday starts on saturday the 11th February.
They threaten us that the Immigration office will throw us out of the country if we do not participate...???? Like they have the time, let alone the people to do all that. Really stupid. We'll see. It's definitely going to be interesting once again.
Don't you just love this country......!!!

Calligraphy

2006-01-28T23:22:00.000+09:00

The last lecture in the Japanese Culture series for this semester was devoted to the art of Calligraphy....as the word indicates..writing in a beautiful manner. In Japanese it is called shodó 書道 (the way of writing) and the two ways of writing are gyósho 行書, semi cursive style and the more artistic sósho 叢書, cursive style , also known as grass writing.
The elementary utensils used are the black mat, shitakiji下記事 to put the paper on, the paperweight, bunchin文鎮 to hold the paper, hanshi 半紙 in place, the brushes, fude筆, the inkstone, suzuri硯 and ofcourse the ink, sumi墨 (comes in a stick normally) but we used ink in a bottle.
At first we practiced the numbers one through ten but after that we could try our hand at more complex charachters.
The end result wasn't that fab so I got my teacher, sensei 先生 to write my own charachters 'Karyuudo' 狩人 and one thing is sure I certainly couldn't have achieved this degree of perfection in a hundred years.

Today we celebrated Wei's birthday, one of the Taiwanese girls here, by going to an italian restaurant with about 25 people and enjoying each other's company. It's quite funny that you speak japanese, German and English with all kinds of different people...but mostly Japanese since that's the language we all have in common. Had pasta with clams and a small beer (unlike me actually..the small beer that is) but did have still some homework to do so couldn't get too tipsy.......

P.S
For those who like to see more of 'Hadogei' videos, check out this website with several episodes.......
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=razor+ramon

Onsen

2006-01-27T00:06:00.000+09:00

One of the relaxing things the Japanese do is take hot baths, called furo 風呂 , and based on the principle of the hotsprings, onsen 温泉 , that are overabundant in this country. And we have a fabulous one right here in Nichi machi (our neighbourhood). It's open till 3 o'clock in the morning and you can have beer and food too. Tonight Mads, Colin and myself went there at around 9 pm and the only thing you need to bring is a towel to dry yourself. I don't have picture of our onsen but you get an idea of what it looks like from this picture taken from the internet.
Apart from the finnish sauna (dry) and the turkish bath (steam) they have these hot tubs inside and outside with various temperatures (from 40 up to 43 and a cold one with just 15 degrees. What you do is first of all scrub yourself down with soap and shampoo and after that you just go and sit in the hot tubs. You can soak in one and then move on to the next one with a slightly higher temperature. They also have jetstream massage and some have coloured water (due to the minerals, I think). You can stay as long as you like and all that for the amazing sum of 500 Yen.
It's going to be a once a week happening I guess...cause I came out two hours later in a total 'Zen' frame of mind and looking like a wrinkled prune.

Webcam

2006-01-26T08:25:00.000+09:00

After having thought for a while how utterly non-essential a Webcam is, I now arrived at the point that I wonder why so few people have one..... It's great. You get to see people all over the world during certain stages in the day. You get to wave, smile and send any old mimicry that you want. Bought a pair of small speakers as welll for the laptop..so I'm all set. Normally listen to Heart106.2 , a London based radiostation, Vivace, a classical station from Radio France, the american classical station Beethoven.com and the dutch Arrow Jazz FM and all that via the internet.
Next sunday I have my first meeting with a prospective conversational partner, called Naoko, a 38 year old woman. I wonder what kind of woman she is..since she calls her self "Wienerwald" as an alterego on the internet...see and be amused..!!

Spring is in the air.....

2006-01-24T16:34:00.000+09:00

Today I received a symbolic broom called hóki 箒, from Aki. One that will reap in luck and good fortune for the coming year...and god knows I do need it..... You keep them in the house and next year on the 3rd January you bring it to a shrine to be burned and...you've guessed it, get another one.
The sun is shining brightly and I've started out to create my own , be it a little one, garden with herbs (coriander, spearmint and basil) and one actual plant, the Pointsettia left over from the X-mas period. I even got a doghouse with dog ( 可愛いね ) to guard the seedlings from...whatever it needs to be protected from. Lovely isn't it?

Elementary School

2006-01-22T12:49:00.000+09:00

Last Tuesday we went for a day to a primary school in a fishing village just outside Nagasaki, called Nagasaki City Black Cape Eastern Primary School 長崎市立黒埼小学校 .
Not unlike the day we had last year at the Junior High School we were met by the kids, who welcomed us in a freezing sports　room which functions as an auditorium as well. One of us, Pim, did the counterspeech.
We made "original Dutch pancakes" with bacon, apple and just plain ones in the kitchen and to some they were a great success and to others not at all.
The fun thing about these little kids is that they are still totally carefree, and not yet embedded in the rigid social structures of Japan. A great day was had by all but somehow I can't stop feeling that I was part of a traveling "Freak Show".

A rather uneventful week passed by with my horrid cold still not completely gone. Did give a present to one of our teachers, the nicest one we have, called Kinoshita 木下 , which means "under the tree", who teaches Japanese conversation. She was pleasantly surpised to get Dutch 'stroopwafels'......I will hear next week if she liked them or not.
Did have a nice walk with Saul through Nagasaki this saturday, showing him the City Historical Museum, The Suwa shrine, Deshima island and finally Starbucks for a great 'Café Latte'.
We should do this more often..it clears your head and you get to see the delightful side of nagasaki as well.
Most importantly the sun is shining again and spring is about to arrive...Yeah..!!!!

Back with the living....

2006-01-18T11:04:00.000+09:00

Well the doctor has finally left after about a week and apart from a croaky voice there is not a lot that reminds me of my moribund week.
First lecture today and it will take a bit of adjusting to the regular life again....but I'm sure I'll manage...

In bed with the doctor......

2006-01-12T13:29:00.000+09:00

The sun is shining and it's fab 18 degrees and I'm in bed with a severe cold. Started with a sore throat and an inability to speak (to many people's delight) but now I'm sneezing and coughing away like a madman. Poor me! Did get cough drops and things to suck on but no it's not a good feeling.
I think going out with Saul last night for dinner wasn't the right thing to do either. Bundled up we met at the station and had a delightful dinner. Very pleasant guy who at around 65 decided to accept a job here in Nagasaki as a teamleader for the department of tropical and infectious diseases at the University, leaving comfy Washington DC behind for a more austere way of life.
Going to go back to bed now....will keep you posted..

Back in Nagasaki again

2006-01-10T21:09:00.000+09:00

After an absolute fabulous two weeks in Amsterdam I safely arrived back in Nagasaki last sunday the 8th January after a long trip. It takes about 22 hours from door to door.
Saw a lot of friends and family and unfortunately I wasn't able to see everybody that I wanted to see. It was tough leaving with Paul taking me to the airport but once in the aircraft it felt OK.
Alex picked me up from Nagasaki Station 長崎駅前 , had coffee and headed back home for a home cooked meal. Realized that I couldn't read a thing anymore (in japanese that is) so it will be tough starting again.
The older you get the worse the jetlag becomes....having a hard time adjusting to my new rythm. Missed already my first lecture at 08.50 this morning.

Going to have dinner tomorrow evening with Saul Helfenbein, a american friend of Tim Mackay, who will be spending a year at Nagasaki University doing research or something at the department of Collaborative Studies (whatever that is). Will find out more tomorrow.
Put some new lights up in my room ( a gift from Paul all the way from Pnom Penh) and viewed 5 new episodes of Stargate Atlantis.
Did send a package with foodstuff from Holland but it hasn't arrived yet...bummer!!

Yesterday was a public holiday, seijin no hi 成人の日 , celebrating the coming of age of boys and girls who turned twenty during the past year from April thru April. The parade through the town in Kimono's and other garb..very festive indeed. Even Penny, taiwanese, took part in the ritual and her friend Claudia decided to go along. It's rather important since as of now they officially can vote but also smoke, drink en get married without their parents consent. In other words they're officially adults.

X-mas

2005-12-26T17:32:00.000+09:00

The weather is sunny and not too cold and it feels great to be back home in Amsterdam, where Paul and our friend Nancy have made the house look very Christmassy..... with a tree and prezzies. After Paul picked me up from the airport and a fab prosecco to celebrate my homecoming we headed over to Leon & Stefan where we had a X-mas eve dinner..relaxed atmosphere and good food. Arrived back home at 12.30 am. and crashed after more than 26 hours on the go.
We unpacked the prezzies yesterday morning from Cambodian scarves to Cookbooks from Dar es Salaam and Starbucks coffee from Nagasaki.
Today we will go tou my in-laws in Alkmaar where we will have dinner and a generally merry old time.

Will

2005-12-26T16:35:00.000+09:00

On friday the 23rd before leaving for Fukuoka, I received news of the passing on of my favourite sister in law and dear friend Will van Agt on the day before. She had been ill for quite some time with breast cancer and had undergone several chemo therapies over the years.
I so much hoped to see her during the holiday but this was not to be.....
The funeral will be on Tuesday the 27th in Bilthoven.
She will be much missed by all who knew her.

Winter Wonderland plus...

2005-12-22T12:01:00.000+09:00

As already said before this is the coldest winter in Nagasaki for over 20 years and last night the winter snow storms hit us, resulting this morning in some beautiful snapshots.
Just couldn't get out of bed for the last two lectures (apparently only two people went!!) but took these pictures instead to show you what snow in hilly Nagasaki looks like........

Will have Udon with Alex and then shopping for last X-mas gifts with Aki, my tutor. Apparently there is this secondhand Kimono shop that we just have to go to........

P.S.
In the Stargate Atlantis SciFi series an other tasty guy has just appeared and will be a permanent member of the team...his name in the series is Ronan Dex and in real life Jason Momoa and yes he's from Hawaii (featured in the surf series "North Shore").
Cute or not cute...you decide...

From one Geisha to another....

2005-12-21T11:10:00.000+09:00

****

Wishing you all a very

Merry Christmas

and

a wonderful 2006

from

Nagasaki

*****

****

Only a couple of nights.......

2005-12-20T17:53:00.000+09:00

This last week is witnessing an utter lack of interest on my part to go to any of the lectures anymore since A) it is still very cold (according to the paper the coldest winter Nagasaki has seen since the last 20 or so years !!) and B) I just can't be bothered anymore. But I still get up at an impossibly early hour, make breakfast (same thing everyday : toast, ham and strawberry jam and orange juice), hoist myself into the shower and then set off on my bike. Five more nights before I'm back in Amsterdam and let me tell you I'm looking forward to it.
During this cold weather the Exchange student division of the University organized a cultural exchange between the nations attending lectures here with food (to be prepared by the students themselves) and presentations also by the students. So the dutch contingent made "Hutspot", a winterdish consiting of mashed potatoes, onions and carrots plus meatballs. There was also Mihoen Goreng with Ajam smoor (Indonesia), cold springrolls (Taiwan), and food from Korea.

All of this happened outside by the way...
A group of Japanese students performed a dance while being scantily clad and freezing their butt off....... and the Chinese came with an old fashioned Dragon dance. As you can tell by the massive crowds..the interest was huge.

Here in appartment nr. 501 we cook once in a while for each other with Bart doing Italian fare, Ruud will experiment (has never cooked before in his life..not even an egg, before coming to Japan) and I will do whatever takes my fancy and whatever is available. I did bring a lot of foodstuffs from Bangkok and will send even more from Holland over here.

Year End Party

2005-12-18T19:58:00.000+09:00

One of the things Japanese people like to do is celebrate and so any old occassion will do. The most notorious ones are the famous c.q. infamous "Year End parties", Bonenkai 忘年会 .
The department where you work, the clubs you are a member of or whatever organisation you belong to will organize one of these...so however many organisations, so many Bonenkai you will be expected to participate in. It is once again a get-together with that fabulous "drink-as-much-as-you-can" system with food thrown in. This time we (dutch students and our tutors) headed for Deshima Wharf where we had very good G & T's indeed and a sort of Chinese fondue. A pot with hot broth you put vegetables, meat and noodles in to, let it simmer for a while and then you pick out whatever is left or whatever you can find again and eat it. Loved it. The G & T's were rather strong here so could only manage 6 or 7. Headed for a Starbucks afterwards with Alex to have a couple of strong Café Lattes. Had a hangover for the first time while being here in Nagasaki...
Witnessed a beautiful scenery today ..... snow showers while the sun was shining ..really amazing.
One more week and I'm off to Amsterdam. Paul is already in Chang Mai, North Thailand, for a conference/debrief or something and will fly back home in a couple of days. I'm sure there will be a X-mas tree and loads of prezzies (for me ???) under it...One can hope, can't one?

Duvet

2005-12-14T11:16:00.000+09:00

In order to combat the extremely cold nights here (we already witnessed snow flurries and cold rain...) I finally bought a Duvet...93% Eider Down... and boy it did keep me warm...didn't want to get up this morning. Not that that is anything abnormal but then again now was really special.
With the Yen having a favourable exchange rate to the Euro now I didn't feel all that bothered by the price either ( a whopping 26.000 Yen).
Today is Christoph's last day here after a whole month. He will go back to Frankfurt first and then back to Amsterdam. But will be back in March...so Alexandra hopes.
Bad news came in that the sister of Aty, Jopie, suffered an attack and is halfway paralyzed plus suffers from Aphasia, a disorder where you want to say something but you come out with something else..e.g. you want to say salt but you say pepper instead or even worse nothing at all. So Aty going back and forth to Vlaardingen, close to Rotterdam where her sister lives. I hope she will still be on her feet and not exert herself to much.
Doesn't sound good at all......

Misora Hibari

2005-12-14T10:29:00.000+09:00

After having been a little "under the weather" as the English say, a little sick that is....I'm back on my feet and running. Went to the University Hospital for a check-up (met a really nice doctor of tropical medicine, called Yoshimune, who did the examination) and she even phoned back to give me the results. No Crypto-sporidium, Amoeba Dysentry or Giardia to be found as a possible cause of the tremendous diarrhea I suffered. It's now in a lab and as soon as anything shows she will let me know. Diarrhea is called geri下痢, the same word for excretia, the shits etc. No medical term is used. The examination lasted only a short while but all the paperwork once again made me stay there for more than two hours...typical.
Things are improving though and my appetite is defenitely back.
Had dinner with Mads and Alexandra & Christoph last saturday in this really nice place ( owner, wife and the cook at the right)where we had Yakitori やきとり(roated pieces of chicken and/or vegeatbles on a skewer) and tenpura 天ぷら (big prawns and vegetables coated in a batter and then deep fried) but also clams, asari アサリ and scallops, hotate ホタテ...delicious and a treat from the owners.
On top of that we received a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau from a guest (on the right) in the restaurant.
I think it's the mere beauty and sophistication we radiate that makes people behave like that...don't you think?
They had songs playing by a singer called Misora Hibari 美空・ひばり, very well know torch song performer who died in 1989. She is performer of Enka, popular japanese songs but in a traditional style with a high tear jerking quality. Very nice music indeed.

Back again...

2005-12-08T14:43:00.000+09:00

After a horrendous flight (fuller than full) flight from Bangkok to Fukuoka airport, metro to Hakata station, Highway-bus to Nagasaki station, streetcar to Iwayabashi stop and a twenty minute walk to the international student house...I'm home again. And it is sodding freezing here (whaddaya mean subtropical!!).
Had apparently something wrong to eat on our last night in Bangkok with David and Scottie (two australian friends who been living there now for about 8 years) since my bowls seriously protested (already during the flight) and on top of that I developed a fever.....
So in the end couldn't go to the test this morning ( and I did work for it in Bangkok)..wonder if we get another chance.
It seems that my tutor Aki reads my blog as well since I got an email in which she expressed her concerns about my well being. Ain't that just the sweetest!
Thanks to Colin, who downloaded it, I was able to watch an an episode of Stargate Atlantis, the second series, with cutie Joe Flanigan.>>>>>
As soon as the other 11 episodes are downloaded I will be having a marathon session......fabulous.
Will stay in bed for the rest of the day with hot tea and good old dutch 'stroopwafels'. Already finished a 'Taai-taai pop" that Rianne had send me (amongst other things)...trying to gain a little more weight here.

Bangkok IV

2005-12-06T10:54:00.000+09:00

Today is our last day here in Bangkok...I will have to go back to Nagasaki tonight and Paul will continue on to Pnom Penh, Cambodia, for another two and a half weeks of work. Dislike going back but then again...it's an experience, right!!!
We do spend a lot of time here at the pool and the interesting thing is that it's a city pool and by that I mean that it is situated on the 6th floor and that when you're swimming in it or just lounging that you see the huge buildings and hear the sounds of the street...I love it.
One of things you must do while in Thailand is to experience a massage. Thai massage is a pressure point massage. They will use their knuckles, knees and elbows to put pressure on the muscle nodes in your body. A full body massage will take about an hour and even though it may be hurtfull at times you will come out totally refreshed afterwards. It will cost you around 250 baht plus tip..according how well it went. And yes there are also sleazy massage parlours where they will do everything possible to guarantee a "Happy Ending"...if you catch my drift. But then again that is not the massage you should opt for.
Have no idea what we're going to do today but it will be fun. The temperature dopped from 32 degrees to a much coller 24 degrees last night.....apparently they have a cold (relatively of course) period here as well for about a month and then the temperature will go up again.
One of the great thing about Bangkok apart from the shopping experience is the variety of food on offer. Restaurants and foodstalls everywhere and it costs really little. A good Thai curry will set you back a mere 90 Baht (2 Euro) in a upscale restaurant that is. In a foodstall it will cost you 25 Baht. And there is an over abundance of choice from all over the world The major Shopping Malls have food courts where you can just about eat everything...fab Sushi, Ceasar salads and Malay Laksa and again for next to nothing. For those of you who have never ventured here...please come and visit (a stopover on the way to Phuket or other seaside resort)...because you will love it.

Bangkok III

2005-12-05T13:25:00.000+09:00

Had lunch with Steve and Tom (an good old friend of his) in Kuppa, a nice place to have Brunch.
On of the things you can have made here are 'Business Cards' and since I needed a new one for Japan...I had one made, with my Japanes characters Karyuudo in yellow and my name in Katakana (YAAGA POORU) on top of my normal name......simple and yet tasteful..disagreement anyone?
Sunday the 4th was Jan's birthday and we were invited for his birthday-party in the evening on his roofgarden (with swimming pool) in Ekkamai. Lotsa dutch people ofcourse either working here or just visiting.
Dirk just moved here from HongKong and Sybren arrived for a short holiday.
Great food, great views, good music (leave that to Jan) and lots of booze. Since Paul and I both didn't feel too well..(food or just plain tired) we headed off early back to our hotel. Not before arranging to meet Marleen and her boyfriend Arkom for dinner on monday. Marleen works for the UN (had met her already in Kobe last July) and Arkom is an artist (painter) who is having a major exhibition of his work next wednesday. Will already be back in Nagasaki unfortunately.
Today, monday the 5th) is a day of rest and and a national holiday here in Thailand (the King's Birthday) so there are festivities everywhere with classical Thai dances performed on the street and just lots of people everywhere.
Christmas has arrived here in a big way...I have just never ever seen so many X-mas lights in an city...not even New York.
I really don't want to leave on wednesday...love it here, but no choice.

p.s.
It's a small world indeed...one of the people I met at Jan's party was Louis Gooren (a retired surgeon from Amsterdam, who has done some great work by performing gender altering surgeries over the last decades ad who helped change our point of view on that matter in the Netherlands) and who had just moved to Bangkok two months ago.. And yes once again we do have friends in common from San Diego..Bob & Kleon. They either stayed with us or with Louis, if we weren't there......I sometimes think that the world is just a small village and that notion of 6 degrees of separation is really only 2 or 3 degrees.!!!

Bangkok II

2005-12-05T13:03:00.000+09:00

Paul arrived from Islamabad at around 6.35 a.m. at the airport and was here at around 8 a.m. It was great to be able to see and hold one another again after such a long time (More than two months!!). Steve (who had flown in from Hanoi for the occassion) came by and before we knew it the cakes and the champagne were gone.....what a great way to start the day.
After lunch and shopping we headed for the "Bed Supper Club", where our Birthdayboy, Jan, Steve, Jeanine and I were treated to a fabulous dinner (Soup with cilantro ice cream and garlic....unusual but simply great, among other things) while lounging around in this white environment (looks like a SciFi setting from the 70's) with groovy sounds. There are other supper clubs around the globe and also in Amsterdam..but I had just never been to one..so a first for me..and no I didn't feel too old for this.
Paul received an enormous amount of emails, SMS messages and phonecalls..so his day was made!!!

Bangkok I

2005-12-05T12:39:00.000+09:00

Arriving in Bangkok is always a pleasure...the temperature, the friendly people and the vibrating city...basically a great place to be. Arrived Friday afternoon and the aiport was very crowded (had to wait almost an hour to clear immigration and another wait for at the taxistand) but I had arrived! It takes roughly 5 1/2 hours from Fukuoka to Bangkok and of course the 2 1/2 hour busride from Nagasaki to Fukuoka Airport.
Staying in the Centre Point on Wireless Road (next to the US ambassador's residence and around the corner from hip and happening LangSuan) our home away from home. It's cheap too. Huge room with kitchen and oversized bathroom (a true blessing after our tiny bathroom in Nagasaki) for 3000 Baht (about 60 euro).
Did a lot of grocery shopping in the revamped and renewed foodhalls of Central Department Store in Chidlom. Curries and condiments etc. plus cakes and a bottle of champagne for Paul's birthday on Saturday 3rd December. Early night...and no worries about tests or anything (Thanks Lotta for your wisdom and Chris for your unconditional support!)

S^%*@......

2005-12-01T13:36:00.000+09:00

Since we do not have a person here at the University that you can really talk to about certain problems you might encounter (all the japanese speak a decidedly horrendous english anyway) a weblog is good way to blow of some steam.
The older I get the more worked up I get about people's attitudes in general and the Japanese in specific. One of the things I try to do is prepare my lessons well, learn the words and participate in class as much as possible. I'm used to discuss with a teacher if there might be a small but nonetheless important problem. So today I asked my teacher what to do since we have a test next thursday and I'm leaving for Bangkok tomorrow and won't return till next wednesday..leaving no time to do any studying.
This wouldn't have been a problem had my teacher not postponed this test from an earlier date to next thursday cause she messed up the roster to start of with.
According to her I already had had ample time to study for this test (like I don't have any other homework to do !) so if I want to get my grade I better be there. There is no such thing as working together towards a solution here....so who knows, they might throw me out of the country for failing a test...You know me, not one prone to exageration in any way! I got so fed up that I just left her standing there yapping away in japanese.
We read about how important the link is between a healthy body and a healthy, cheerful mind all the time...but for some reason they have a enormous aptitude here to do anything possible as to disrupt that link.
The good thing is you learn not to speak anymore to any of these teachers about anything at all...just do your thing and let whatever happens be their problem...... Won't participate in any of the so called "fun get togethers" organised by this institute anymore either.... I've just about had it up till here...!!
At the moment I have a bad connection here cause the internet modem isn't strong enough...we're getting a new (more expensive) router so there shoudn't be anymore trouble.
Had the chance to Skype with Peter in Amsterdam for a while ....great, but with Paul in Islamabad the connex just wasn't there. Hopefully it will be fixed after the weekend.
By the way .....my Skype name is : karyuudo.....so download it and we'll talk !!
Anyway I will enjoy the coming week in Bangkok, doing the things I like most....lying by the pool, having a G&T or another grand concoction, hang out with friends and my man and do major shopping.
Goodbye japan.......

Kimono

2005-11-29T16:46:00.000+09:00

One of the lecture series we follow here at the University is dedicated to Japanese traditional culture. We already had instructions on how to perform a classical 'Sakura Sakura' dance while holding a fan and doing all kinds of things with it except for fanning ourselves and last friday we had a class about the old Kimono 着物 with a very nice Lady. The womans one is rather difficult to put on with various strings and sashes and bows but the men's summer kimono a.k.a. Yukata is decidedly easier. Just the kimono and a sash called Obi 帯 . There are two obis one is called a kaku-obi (a plain blue, grey or whatever demure colour band made out of cotton) and the heko-obi ( a more elaborate one made out of silk or polyester with a worked ending on both sides called shibori 絞り .The artist first creates a design and then the cloth is stitched, bound, resisted, wrapped or gathered by hand. Any number of these methods are used on one piece and often involves a dozen different techniques. The cloth is then dyed in natural dyes such as indigo, bark, roots, leaves, insects or resins. For each color, dozens of steps have to be altered, re-stitched, gathered etc. and the complicated processes repeated from start to finish).
There are some quite exquisite ones to be found with a price to match ofcourse.
As you can see we're all (except for Ruud) looking in another camera....distracted by the Paparazzi once again!
Three more nights before I'm off to Bangkok to see Paul for his 45th (already) birthday........

High Speed Internet...

2005-11-28T21:05:00.000+09:00

Today is the big day...my first entry straight from my own room. A high speed internet connection has been installed after about a month and a half after applying for it. Very happy indeed...:-)
So keep those emails coming cause I have all the time now to answer them as well.
Saterday we had a organized tour to Mount Unzen, a place with hot springs, onsen 温泉 high up in the mountains. Sort of a spa...and very relaxing to soak in one of those sulfur rich tubs. In earlier days (1630's about) this place was used to boil the catholics alive..those that didn't relinguish their faith by performing apostasy (i.e. putting your feet on the image of Jesus or Mary and renouncing your faith). A win-win situation for both the Shogun to get rid of a sort of 5th colony (cause the catholics would only obey the church not the Shogun) and for the faithful ( because the afterlife was a lot more pleasant than the harsh peasant life they were used to, according to the portuguese priests). Or is this too optimistic a view?
Any how we had a fab day with lotsa sunshine.
Nita Pass was a stop on the way where we had 20 minutes to look around (not a minute more) so we were unable to go up to the top by cable car to enjoy the fabulous views.
On we went to Shimabara castle, a rather beautiful white castle overlooking the sea and countryside from where the Shimabara uprising 島原の乱 took place in 1637. A peasant revolt mostly brought on by the burden of high taxes but also because the peasants were prosecuted for their christian belief (so it is said).

Here some rather stylishly shaped trees in someone's front yard....really beautiful.

Arrived back in Nagasaki at around 6 p.m. so we all had dinner in Tengu....our favourite Butakimchi place.
We have a Kanji (Character) test tomorrow so must dash.........

Birthday II

2005-11-24T13:08:00.000+09:00

First of all a thank you for everybody for your calls and emails...it was really nice to receive them..felt sort of at home again all of a sudden.
Well it's time to meet the other Birthdayboyz...Mads (15th november) and Colin (21nd november). Since we all had our birthdays this month Aki organized this evening for all three of us. The place is called Capricciosa, an Italian nomihodai (drink as much as you like place with Italian food) on the 5th floor of building next to Nagasaki Station. We had the party room with stunning views over the neon lit bay.
We were with about 15 people in all, the Dutch, the Germans, the Japanese and our three friends from Taiwan台湾. Fun was to be had by all....after a couple of beers and other cocktails and the food was good too! We all got a lot of prezzies and on top of that Alexandra had organized the birthdaycards and the presents for me. A sake, 日本酒 nihonshu, made out of potatoes 芋, imo ( a Nagasaki speciality) a beautiful plant(no idea what it is called), a Japanese grammar dictionary (God only knows...I really do need it!), a Pointsettia (for the season) and even a cilantro plant (for all the Thai cooking we do here), which must have been very hard to come by. A big thank you to Alex.....
From our tutors we got beautifully made chopsticks, a sake cup and a little puppy with a significant meaning which right now escapes me for the moment.....
Since Mads and Colin got a hentai (manga porn for perverts) for their birthday it was decided to get a gay one for me too. So the boys gave me a vanilla version of 'boy love'. The genre is called 'Yaoi" and is mostly read by young women and girls ??? It will definitely improve my Japanese language skills in certain areas !
By the way the bands the birthday boys are wearing have the saying: 私は主役です！watashi wa shuyaku desu! : I'm the star !!
We topped the evening of with this most popular of Japanese passtimes....getting your picture taken with the whole group in a tiny booth...it's hot, it's quite a lot of rolling about in front of a moving camera and a awful lot of fun.
No hangover thanks to sticking to just one kind of drink only. I'm apparently wisening up as I get older.

Forgot Walter's Birthday on the 21st (ever so sorry) but not Rianne's on the same day. So not as demented as I thought....there's hope for you out there!

Birthday I

2005-11-24T08:22:00.000+09:00

Well finally the 22nd of november had arrived. Waking up in good spirits this time...knowing that Alexandra and Christoph would be making breakfast for after our one lecture that day...a german hearty breakfast i.e. healthy and yet tasty with fresh orange juice, good bread, and lotsa fresh fruit too. It was sort of a brunch,but just a little too early for Mimosas ........ 残念ね zannen ne! You can figure out what that Japanese word means.
Opened a package from Holland (which I was not to open till today) with a big red nose, balloons and guirlandes in it...(thanks to the Family Bakker in Alkmaar)
Paul's present was a fab book on the architect of the new MoMa in New York, Yoshio Taniguchi, all the way from the big apple. Paul and I had seen a museum building by him in Tokyo and were then duly impressed.
Bought myself a little something too... called a Hounoumaku 奉納幕, an offering curtain which you normally find in front of shrines and other religious or also commercial places. Bespoke with my own characters, karyuudo 狩人 on it and some symbols befitting a hunter.
A sunny day all in all wit not much to do till 5 o'clock when we had to meet Aki to go in to town to celebrate.......

Unwell

2005-11-21T13:29:00.000+09:00

After this great weekend it was awful having to experience monday again. We have this teacher (no idea what his name is...never introduced him self or it escaped my attention) who is the rudest person I have ever come across. Throws things at you..is never ever polite, laughs at his own jokes (I think that's what they are) and even locks the classroom door when you're half a minute late (how childish can you get!). Today another prime example...I enter the room (always the 1st and on time) say goodmorning and he just makes fun of me (saying that good morning is totally wrong after 12.00 o'clock) in a malicious kind of way. It is 12.50 though...
Had to leave after 10 minutes...got very very sick all of a sudden.
I haven't felt like this as long as I can remember.
What to do? May be go back to the other two classes that I dropped and leave this one out.
God only knows.
Will sit in the sun and have a think.