|
 |
 |
|
| |
Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
 |
Wednesday, July 31, 2002 |
 Taiko in gym
Decided not to participate in fireworks
|
|
Quotations and things overheard
'I've known what it is to be hungry, but I always went right to a
restaurant.' (Ring Lardner)
What a superb quotation!
|
|
Drama this afternoon when there was a phone call from one of the
swimming pools to say that a child had drowned. It turned out that
they'd not actually drowned, although they perhaps came close (the
Japanese oboreru means 'drown', but presumably also a state
somewhere between 'not drowned' and 'drowned').
The attendants had
called an ambulance, but the child was breathing.
|
|
If it's steak lunch, then afterwards it has to be Pino. When we went to Kihodo,Nii-kun
was there, reading magazines. Straightaway he commented that he'd
enjoyed my August newsletter article (the newsletter was distributed
this morning), in which I'd written that having the Naval Base in
Etajima has changed the attitude of the townspeople, making them more
open to outsiders; basically a short version of the article I wrote for
the Japan-US Naval Friendship Association. It's always good to get
feedback about these articles, good or bad (I suppose- although I prefer
good!).
The talk then turned to my forehead(!), and I explained that
I'd been on a warship for the day. Nii-kun is very interested in the
JMSDF, and he wondered aloud why he hadn't been invited as well. I
replied that I didn't know why I'd been invited, but next time I'd take
him along as a translator, I joked. This sort of interaction might not
be particularly significant, but nevertheless it's very pleasant.
|
|
Went to the Naval Base for lunch, and just as we were leaving the
Recreation Centre, someone shouted my name. It was the publicity officer
for the base, dressed splendidly in full uniform (the white
gakuran) despite the heat. He bowed formally to me, and told me
he was being transferred to a ship. He mentioned that his successor
would probably work with me at some stage, and then we went through the
formal 'o-sewa ni narimashita' and 'kore kara mo yoroshiku
o-negai shimasu'.
Sasuga da ne! It's always heartening to
be treated formally- by which I mean in the same way as a Japanese
person would be- and I'm glad that the Self-Defence Force hasn't
disappointed. It's especially gratifying that such an aisatsu
came from someone with whom (as far as I remember) I've only worked
closely once.
|
|
Great. After almost nothing being said yesterday, people are plucking up
the courage to comment on my red forehead today. Or perhaps it's just
that it's more noticeable today...
Anyway, I've had one person ask me
whether I drank too much sake last night, and then Umeda
commented that it wasn't hiyake (sunburn), it was yakedo
(burning)! The thing is, though, I wonder whether he might not be
right...
|
|
Web articles worthy of mention...
An article about how Japanese
tourists are flocking to Britain because of David Beckham. Oh dear. Is
it just me who is of the opinion that if there was ever a reason for
not coming to Britain, then David Beckham would rank alongside
Tony Blair as that reason?
|
|
Biking to work this morning, one of the elementary school teachers was
waiting to cross the road outside the Post Office. I was on the other
side of the road, but he yelled across, 'Good morning! You're very
sunburnt, aren't you!'
So it obviously is that noticeable, then. I
was rather hoping that the fact that I seem to look redder today than I
did yesterday was just a trick of the light, but no such luck,
obviously...
|
|
This morning is noticeably cooler. It's like sitting on top of a
furnace, rather than inside it...
I noticed this morning how the
cries of the cicada reflect the weather. When the sun blazes down from a
highlighter-blue sky, the cicadas seem to reflect the heat with their
chirping. When, like today, though, the clouds seem to promise rain, the
cries of the cicadas only serve to emphasise the slight sense of
foreboding there always seems to be here before a storm. Interesting...
|
|
Living in Washibe, there are always the mountains (the 'spine' of
Etajima) as a backdrop.
Normally these hills are a lush green, with
glints and flashes from the shiny tapes used to scare off birds from the
satsuma groves; a pleasant bucolic aspect. However, sometimes these
selfsame mountains can seem looming and forbidding, as they were this
morning. As the sky became progressively cloudier, they became more and
more dark and brooding, and, as the portion of bright sky became less
and less even as I watched, it really seemed as if the good weather was
fleeing away over them. It was in some odd way, slightly foreboding.
|
|
Breakfast Show Staple Randomhaiku of the day (from The Genuine Haiku Generator)
fearsome ferocious
bestial boatman moping meek
furry planet yearns
|
|
© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:23:51 pm.
|
|
|
|
The Breakfast Show
Weather...
FastCounter by bCentral
|
|
