Ippoippo

Pretty much finished everything. Stuff is being collected tomorrow for shipping… so, we’ll be living out of a suitcase for a while. We vacate the house on Thursday.
Wednesday night is our last meal in Matsudo, so we’ll be going over to our favourite place… Garden Magic (on top of the Ito Yokado store). Yuko and I will miss that place a lot, as we really get on with the staff there. The girls at the restaurant seem genuinly sad that we’ll be leaving as opposed to just seeing some custom disappearing.

This weekend was a bit of rush. We flew down to Yamaguchi, and this time I remembered to have my camera with me when we flew over the top of Mount Fuji. Fantastic view. Yuko’s gran isn’t doing so well, so it was very good to see her (as we suspect, trying not to sound too morbid, we may have no other opportunities to see her while ’she’s with us’). Then it was onto see the main family house in the area. Although not as many people were present this time (as compared to the first and second time we’ve been), it was a very fun food and drinks session. Once again, the sushi/sashmi from ‘Boss’ was great. ‘Obaa-sans’ onigiri (rice balls) were fantastically tasty once again. We also got rather drunk again… but unlike when we went there for the second time (back in March/April this year), the tiredness of the early start for the flight that day didn’t get to us.
This time, we were all in a mood to party, so we headed off to a Karaoke joint (minus two of the older ladies, and one of the 17 year old chaps). I ended up doing a fair bit of singing, often in drunken duets with one of the uncles (with his renditions of songs in ‘katakana English’).
We will miss the gang down in Yamaguchi… and maybe we can visit them sometime again in the future. We’ve promised to look after the kids should they ever come to the UK to visit or study.

Looking around… saw in interesting little story. Seems that some Japanese tourists get annoyed when they go abroad and then when they decide to eat Japanese food… discover it’s not quite as Japanese as they’d hoped. So, the government is setting up some kind of reviewing system… aka a Sushi Police… to determine if a place can be called ‘Japanese Restaurant’.
I’m in too minds over this one. I think it’s a huge waste of money. But, I understand part of the sentiment. I too find it irritating when I want to eat ‘proper’ Japanese food, and end up with a generic Korean/Chinese/Japanese mixed offering.
However, there are times, when it’s good to Japanese food ‘localised’ to the local country. I guess, maybe the local restaurants shouldn’t label themselves as authentic Japanese as a lot of the Chinese run ones did in Melbourne.
It’s quite amusing in a way though, because the Japanese themselves aren’t exactly guilt free when it comes to ‘localising’ foreign food… I mean, what with wonders such as Ebo-Mayo (Prawn and Mayonaise) Pizza, or their version of Curry.

Anyway, that’s enough ranting for the day. This could be my last post while in Japan, as net access is going to be flakey for the next few days.
I just want to say ‘Thanks Japan’ for treating me pretty well, and expanding my horizons. It’s been fun, and a part of me is very sad to be leaving. Yuko and I are on orders to come back as soon as the ‘first child’ is old enough!!! And who knows… the way my job is, I could end up being sent here for a couple of weeks anyway for this project that’s just starting up here.

Today is my last day in the office (I finish work on Monday next week, but on Friday and Monday I’ll be working from home, and tomorrow is a national holiday here in Japan).

There is quite a good selection of Japanese related stories out there today….

First up is a fascinating website, with information and old photos taken during the immediate years after the end of WW2. Having lived in modern Tokyo, it’s always interesting to see old Tokyo. You can see for yourself over at this site.

In the world of crazy world of Japanese politicians, somebody seems to have noticed Ishihara’s excessive spending.. The trip to the UK was most impressive, given how much money he spent for a short meeting.
Mind you, there’s also this rather CRAZY situation in Tochigi. Talk about lazy…. spending 6 million yen of your OWN money, so you didn’t have to process all the paperwork! Nuts :)

Finally, there is one thing I will miss in Japan…. the washlet. A marvelous creation. However, it’s should be treated with caution!

….. it’s one those things that are SOOOOO bad, they are quite amusing.

This is the DEFINITIVE edition of “The Final Countdown”.

The singer is so talented, he even sings as the backing vocals! :)

Been catching up with the BBC news site. There were quite a few interesting stories.

Japanese Self-Sufficient Houses

First up, was a push in Japan for self-sufficient housing. There were some interesting comments.
Houses made of aluminium are attracting a lot of interest. Aluminium frames last a long time - almost 100% of the metal can be recycled and even if it is, it does not lose its strength.

They are lightweight; they don’t need harmful preservatives to stop deterioration… the list goes on.
Hmm, not sure about this one. Aluminium is a recyclable material, but at HUGE energy cost, so I don’t think this is a viable building material.

This section though, I completely agreed with. In many ways, the UK housing industry seems to be the same as the Japanese.
The difficulty, he says, is that the construction industry is not interested in long-term vision, just short-term profits.

“Much more money is spent on paying a famous actor to do a commercial to advertise a property than will ever be paid to an architect to design something truly innovative.”

The ITER Project

I’m in two minds over the ITER project.
The first thing is, scientists are still saying it will be available in less than 50 years. They’ve been saying that for 50 years now! The other issue is, do I think we can ever set up the infrastructure in time. I don’t think we can.
But there is a more fundamental issue. IF this ever works, and it works in time, we run the risk that mankind will carry on as we are now, in a world of endless, non-sustainable consumption. There are some interesting comments, over at the BBC Have Your Say section on this.

Finally, if we as a species and our masters in government try desperately to carry on, business as normal right till the very end…. will we end up with this…...
Who would have thought the beginning to an Australian film had the POTENTIAL to be so prophetic! I certainly hope it isn’t though. Depressing, but powerful stuff.