OH CANADA!!!

Today I am happy to be a Canadian because
today Canada became the third country in the world to fully legalize same sex marriages (Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands are now the axis of acceptance). I am proud to be from a country that acknowledges that gays and lesbians have just as many rights as their straight counterparts.

Congratulations to all my friends in the queer community.

Let's getting married!!!

As Luciano would say... "hevorrrrusioneh!"

Here's something for you all to ponder and comment on. Last week my mom sent me an email asking me for some advice for her friend who is venturing into the murky waters of dating a Japanese man. Here's what she wrote:

OK got a Japanese dating question for you. Generally is the guy or the girlthe more aggressive? Do guys wait for girls to ask them out? [My friend] is seeing this Japanese guy. He's here going to school-early 30's. They do all kinds of things together, dinner, sports whatever. She feels that he reallly likes her, and there's definately some chemistry there, but he has yet to make a move. He walks her home, and then at thedoor it's all awkward, because she thinks it's kind of like he's waiting for her to do something. Does this sound like a Japanese dating thing or is he maybe just too shy, or maybe not really into anything more than dinner.

Having already been in a Japanese relationship that ended with me being fairly unsatisfied with the whole ordeal, I feel that I am now too jaded to answer this question unbiasly. So it's up to you my fellow foreigners in a foreign land to comment and throw in their two cents. What do you think? Ladies, I wanna hear what you have to say and J-boys (if any of you are reading this) what do you think?

Hit "comments" to post your reply. Me and my mother's friend patiently await your nuggets of knowledge.

Hey kiddies,
for all of you that missed the talent show, the fabulous Shirley has posted pics and video clips on her website for you all to savour over and over again. There's even a little snippet of my and Jeff's venture into the dangerous world of whiskey infused jazz.

check it out http://imageevent.com/taiwangrrl/talent

Cheers
J

MIE DESU YOU THA BEST! GO MAMAS!!!!!

This weekend was the Nagano womens' football/soccer (please choose the appropriate word for country) tournament. The mamas fought hard and as a result made it farther than any other mamas team had in the past. Unfortunately a long night of pounding gin and shaking our booties on the dance floor, paired with the fact that our first match was against the second ranked team in the tournament didn't work in our favour during the second day of elimination rounds. But we had a wicked time dancing, driving, shooting and yes, even scoring (for some of us both on and off the field).
Sadly enough this is our last tourney as the 2004-2005 incarnation of the Mie mamas. Soon almost half the team will be returning to their perspective home countries and a new batch of bright eyed, bushy tailed football hopefuls will be dawning the royal blues in hope of achieving glory.

Tourney Tally:
Games won: 2
Games lost: 3
Injuries: none really, one bruised finger (Robin) one vomit inducing ball to the stomach (Joe) one egg creating face ball (Andy) but nothing was broken or sprained which is a first for the mamas.
Alcoholic beverages consumed: far too many
Number of times John felt strangely uncomfortable being the sole man in the company of 13 women: many
Number of times John felt strangely aroused by being in the company of 13 women: more than many
Number of times Ruth took off her shorts on the pitch: 1
Number of wrong turns on the ride up and down: several

General tourney rating: Fabulous!

Cheers
J

It's tourney time...whip out the banner, the mamas are coming to town!!!

This is John C our "token Englishman". It was a strange coincidence that every women's team seemed to have an englishman on the sidelines yelling stuff at them. Luckily enough we brought one along too. He did very little yelling however. But he did draw us this highly useful diagram with detailed instructions. If you can't read it, it say "Ball goes in here" and there is a picture of net. It was a very helpful tip and the diagram made it even easier for the "visual learners" to grasp.

It was all football and friendliness up in the high mountain peaks of Nagano.

This is a new patented stretching routine that me and nicki are trying to market on a mass scale. We are going to become the new "yoga twins" Hai, sturetchu shite onegaishimasu!!! Hai! And pointu onegaishimasu! Hai and thumu apu onegaishimsu!"

being the keen sportswomen that we are we managed to always keep a smile on our faces no matter how hungover or beaten down we felt. Remember kids it's not about who wins or looses as long as you had fun trying (and don't break anything)

of course our pre and post game "butt pumping" exercises also helped our cause. We even managed to get our "token Englishman" to join in after he was wowwed by this demonstration of the "token move"

at times we felt outnumbered both in skill and sobriety but all in all we held our own by keeping it real, Mie Style on the field. Our games were heavy in all the integral categories of football.

heavy on the offense

heavy on the defense

and thanks to the fact that we had 6 subs at our disposal at any one time, heavy on the sideline spectating

All in all our final tourney at the 2004-05 Mie Mama's was our most succesfull yet because not only did we make it into the top rung finals (a feat never before accomplished by any former incarnations of the mamas) but most importantly because it was our very first "injury free" tournament! Hooray!

In Japan there is a band called "Pornograffiti" that is all the rage with the students right now. Today my third year students were giving speeches about their friends to the class. "Hello, I'm going to tell you about Yusuke, he is 15 years old....etc etc."

Apparently the word "pornograffiti" is very difficult for them to pronounce because I can't begin to count the number of times I heard my students cheerfully exclaim "He/she loves pornography!"

Try keeping a straight face during that.

It provided a twinkle of joy in an otherwise dulldrum day.

Today's temp: 32
Humidity: Probably about 85%
Joe's cheeriness factor: about a 2 - it's hot, I'm tired. Luciano was going to come down to Mie to see me today but his slave driver of a boss is making him weld his whole life away. Booo! I want ice cream.
Gonna sneak outta work early today. I have to go to the post office to mail my students' penpal letters to Poland. I'm just gonna tell them that it's gonna take me an hour.

Cheers

Oh I forgot to add in my last post that I have fully bought and paid for my month long plane ticket to Thailand (and probably beyond) July 22- Aug 22 baby.

I have no plan. Travelling with some buddies for the first 2 weeks and then solo for the last. I think I'm gonna hit up Loas.

Cheers
J

Hey everyone. I'm very sorry for being such a bad blogger. I am so busy that I don't have free second to do anything. Not clean my house, not sleep, nothing. So don't feel like I'm ignoring you. I love you all...
Ugh.
My life in a nutshell:

1) Turned 25 without a hitch, my party lasted from Friday night until Monday morning.

2) I have exactly one month left in Kameyama...haven't even thought about moving/packing/sorting my shit out

3) I think that I pretty much have to admit to myself that I have a "boyfriend" type thingy. I have yet to move to calling him my boyfriend. He is still a "type thingy" and may remain that way forever. Not surprisingly in the land of "I would never find myself in this situation in Canada!" I find myself dating a 29 year old Brazillian Marxist welder who doesn't speak English. His favorite word is "revolution!" or as he pronounces it "hevorrrusioneh!"

In the beginning I have to admit that I wanted nothing more than a casual fling with a spicy latin man but he's grown on me. He's very sweet to me and perhaps the complete opposite of Daichi. He actually believes in things like affection, compliments, and other general things that Japanese men don't understand but every other man on the planet takes as second nature. Of course I don't hold anything against Daichi. He's a great friend and an amazing guy but kinda an impossible boyfriend for a girl who likes to be touched and paid attention to in public.

Anyway, me and Luciano (that's his name) are having quite a splendid time. I am learning about communism and revolution and he's learning about open marijuana laws, universal health care, ice hockey and maple syrup. At times communication can be a bit hit and miss because we speak 90 percent of the time in Japanese but slowly my portuguese is coming along. Amazingly I am picking it up 200 times faster than Japanese. Thank god for French and Italian. They are really saving my ass here.

Anyway, the Japan/Canada cross cultural exchange was a failure, let's see how well the great white North and the Amazonian jungles get along!

HEVORRRRRUSIONEH!

J

OH GOD I HAVE WRITER'S BLOCK!!

Where is my wit? Where is the goodness! Dear God, bless me with the gift of gab!

stay tuned and pray for my literary renewal.

It's my birthday on Monday (and my party all this weekend) I hope I get some linguistic inspiration as a present.

J

For your viewing pleasure...a pictographical retelling of me and mama-san's pan Japan journey.

I have been having a touch of writers block of late so for now you will have to settle for pictures.

Oh and for those of you who were worried. I managed to find my "lost" bike key in my house...the toilet key is however lost forever. Nicki also informed me that we only drank one bottle of wine and then called me a big liar for saying that it was two in my last post. So for the record, we drank one bottle...man what a lightweight. One bottle of wine and I'm flushing my keys down the toilet!

Cheers

I have many stories to tell but at the moment no words in which to tell them.

J

This is the best Engrish sign I have ever seen in my life. The best part is that after the owner realized (or was informed of) the sexual content of his sign he tried to fix it with white out or paint or something only to have an equally informed passerby rub it off. Anyway, if you can't read it, it says "You can enjoy cocking 'jyu-jyu' your meat by yourself, as you like." Truly is there anything better than this sign? I think not! It was also HUGE!

This is the same intersection after dark. It's all things Tokyo. People, fashion, neon.

This is the world's busiest pedestrian walkway. It's hard to tell from the picture but it's pretty nutty yet completely civilized. Ahhh that should the the theme phrase for all of Japan. "Nutty, yet completely civilized"

Tokyo....well a very small portion of it. Multiply this by about 15 and you might have a better idea.

Fun times at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. I decided that I need to marry a Japanese fish monger. These guys are the coolest j-boys I've met yet. They're all chilled out and fishy in they're big boots and rubber pants. They know where it's at.

If you want it, they've got it!

octopus!

Guess what this is...?

That's right, you guessed it. They actually still practice whaling in this country, scary.

Tuna on the chopping block at the Tsukiji fish market.

Unfortunately for me, no trip to Kyoto is complete without a visit to mokey mountain, my own personal hell. However, I must admit that they weren't as scary as last time. I think when me and Nicki were there it was mating season or something because they were are rabid with lust. They were pretty chill this time.

Ahh the real life Maiko...elusive to say the least. Japanese men think they are most seductive from the back anyway.

Clearly someone's been sneaking one too many ice creams out of the "seventeen ice" machine across the street....

Jizo fashion faux pas...zget a hat that fits you for crying out loud! Pull yourself together man!

Those Jizos sure are sloppy eaters, good thing they remembered to put their bibs on.

ahhh monks...no trip to Kyoto is complete without 'em

The silver temple...unlike the gold one good ol' ginkakuji never managed to pull off what it's name entails...ain't no silver here!

The Golden temple in Kyoto...it's one of those "must see" type things.

Jizo statues are often used to represent children who have died (or in the case of Japan's extrodinary abortion rate, aborted fetuses). Women who have lost children or had abortions often dress the statues up in scarfs and little hats to keep them warm. Toys are often found around them too. This statue is modelling the latest in Jizo fashion...a stylish matching pink hat and scarf set made of the finest himalayan wool complete with yellow "kawaii" applique.

Even Buddhist monks have a sense of humour. This stair case is lined with 300 stone jizo statues...and one anpanman. Ironically the anpanman had more money on his head than any other statue. ...buddha, Anpanman..same same but different.

Ahhh the picturesque floating tori gates of Miyajima...this is what the japan tourist board would like to to think that they always look like...

What they really look like most of the time.

The atomic bomb dome in Hiroshima. The bomb dome has become a symbol of the world anti nuclear movement. It stands about 500 meters from the hypocenter where the bomb was detonated

paper cranes at the peace memorial park in Hiroshima