An understanding of Japanese would be beneficial for this one...(parts are NSFW)
...but not this! Ah, it really captures the lighter, happy-go-lucky side of violence against women in a way that only the Japanese can. However, I contend you to get "I was robbed by two men" out of your head before tomorrow...
And bugger me if that guy at the end doesn't look like Hunter S. Thompson. Or a tortoise.
OK...you are witnesses...at the birth...of Andy's Jap Blog Mk. II. On the bass...Derek Smalls (wait, that's over-stretching the reference somewhat)
MORE posts! MORE random inanity! MORE posts no-one will read!! MORE complete and utter drivel hoisted upon an uncaring online populace! MORE I say!!!
Yes, this blog has sorta died on it's ass since I started my new job & new life in Nagoya...largely because I deem my everyday life unworthy on documentation. Nevertheless! I shall endeavour to update this sucker at least once a week.
Part of the reason is...my Japanese sucks...partially due to my complacency and laziness...but largely coz I'm dumb...anyway long rant short I want to start writing blog entries in Japanese again, for the practice, to force myself to think in Japanese and stop relying on the stuff I already know...so, we'll see what transpires there. Lots and lots of horrible, broken Japanese is my guess.
Another part of the reason is that sometimes I feel I need to force myself to appreciate the uniqueness of my situation, and that it is a situation many (no doubt more deserving) others would be very happy to be in...so I wanna take a closer look at the minutiae of my daily life...and bore you all with it! Yay!
...and I'm noticing the amount of times I've forced myself to use the phrase "force myself to do XYZ" in this post...that can't be good, can it?
Oh well...let's do!
Hello! Er...people tell me I should write this thing more often...and I'm bored...so here you go, even though nothing hugely noteworthy has really happened recently...
Had a little housewarming a few weekends ago, lots of fun...we drank, talked, played UNO, were subjected to my selection of strange musics, and watched Kure Kure Takora (a 70s TV show I believe I may have mentioned here some time ago) . OK, it was a lot more fun than it probably sounds.
Went out with work twice last week...first was a gathering of most of the company gaijin in the Nagoya area, being for the benefit of two foreigners joining the company from the (nearby) University of Toyota...or something along those lines, I was a little fuzzy on the details to be honest, but either way it was nice to meet the company's foreign contingent, put faces to names, etc. Second was a gathering of one of the departments I work as a part of, being for the benefit of the lovely Hamaguchi-san, who has left us for Osaka. Hamaguchi-san has been my de-facto babysitter since I started last November, looking after Mr. First-time-working-in-Japan and all of his dopey problems, a mantle she always bore with the utmost kindness and good nature; so I in particular will miss her.
Work is otherwise going well...been a little slow recently...mostly non-urgent proofreading stuff...translation jobs come up occasionally, which, frankly, are a lot more interesting, hehe. One came up today in fact, which lead to me to check the plural form of "antenna" (it involve the antenna of a car radio)...did you know that "antennae" is usually only used in biology (e.g. insect antennae) but "antennas" is usually preferred in technological terminology (e.g. radio antennas)? You didn't? You mean you have a life? Well screw you then.
The weather has been a bit more stable since my last post...bit of snow, but it hasn't settled...ain't half cold though...
Hmm, what else can I say?...not much really...so here's another completely arbitrary cat picture! (since they seem to be gaining in popularity on this blog)
It's been snowing here today...and not inconsiderably so, as these photographs will hopefully testify...
I haven't seen snow like this since...I can't really remember...so it's something of a novelty for me. But for those of you who happen to be from snowier climes...here's a completely arbitrary picture of two cats in a basket!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!
Right then, I've finally got an internet connection in my new apartment, so hopefully I'll be updating this thing a little more often. Is anyone actually still reading? If so, you have my sincere thanks...
To summarize my current state of play, for the lazy/indolent: I am living in my very own apartment in Nagoya (Tenpa-ku). Currently very minimalist (i.e. I haven't bought much furniture yet). I work in Nisshin (just outside of Nagoya) proofreading and translating owner's manuals for Toyota.
I'm just back from visiting friends & fam in the UK for Christmas. Very nice to see everyone. Flight back was slightly problematic, in that the co-pilot of my connecting flight was suddenly taken ill (at least that's the airline's story, resulting in me having to spend a night in Helsinki. However, BA/Finnair put us all up in the airport Hilton, which was really very nice indeed. Helsinki was a bit on the brisk side though (about -5c during the daytime). The next day I could only get a filght to Osaka which meant getting back to Nagoya via several trains, which I particularly enjoyed because I hadn't slept at all on the 10 hour flight from Helsinki. Oh I do like to moan. Still, back now. And jetlagged...I slept 12 hours last night, hehe...
First day back at work today...I was a little scared as I felt like I'd forgotten most/all of my Japanese...struggled through somehow though, hehe. The morning was taken up with a new year's conference, held in a conference centre right out in the middle of nowhere (if you don't believe me, check the satellite view...fields aplenty!).
Well, off to bed I think...(jetlag)
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