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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Thursday, December 12, 2002 |
Hmmm. Not good. The main item on the news this evening was the decision by North Korea to reopen a mothballed nuclear power plant. As the BBC reports, this is ostensibly to make up for a shortfall of electricity caused by the ending of heavy oil shipments to North Korea by the US and its allies, but there is, obviously and understandably, the fear that the plant could be part of a nuclear weapons programme...
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 J-List
Subway lines in Tokyo
- Ginza
- Marunouchi
- Hibiya
- Tozai
- Chiyoda
- Yurakucho
- Yurakucho (New Line)
- Hanzomon
- Namboku
- Asakusa
- Mita
- Shinjuku
- Oedo
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I don't know quite what, but something made me want to listen to 'A New World Record' by the Electric Light Orchestra. As soon as I put it on, two things struck me; firstly, how long it had been since I'd played it, and secondly, what a superb album it was. A really great album played loud, especially 'Rockaria!'.
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I had another play with iMovie this evening, using some footage of Hiroshima Bay I took on the way back to the office from Kirikushi. I have to say that the camera-work leaves a lot to be desired (using a video camera is a bit like learning to ride a bicycle- you have to learn not to wobble), but the film effects possible with iMovie are excellent. I think that the more I get used to the camera and the software, the more I'll be able to use what has the potential to be a very powerful set-up to its full extent. I especially like the fact that even though I'm completely new to video and video editing, I haven't needed to use iMovie's help once yet. In fact, there's only one fly in the ointment: the picture quality. I'm not sure whether it's the camera, or the software, or the settings; I'm going to have to sort it out, though, before I go too much further.
Anyway, here is the movie (3.6MB). A word of advice: play it with the computer's sound off. I haven't got as far as messing with audio in iMovie, and at some points the wind is quite loud...
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Finally! Tonight is the first night this week when I have nothing I have to do. It's good to get out, but equally it's pleasant to be able to spend an evening at home every now and again. I'm going to make my 'Cheese and garlic bacon and eggs' and lots of coffee, I have plenty of toyu, so I won't be cold, and I can watch television or a DVD while updating the Breakfast Show and building up my lemonade empire. An almost perfect evening, really...
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I'm getting really fed up with the lack of road safety here. I can understand why people get road rage!
After my close shave in Miyanohara on Tuesday, on the way back from Kirikushi this afternoon I encountered no less than three more examples of dangerous roads (no- dangerous people using the roads):
Firstly, driving through Ozu, I suddenly came across a bag of fertilizer sitting in the very middle of the road! Let's get this straight: there was nobody about, just a bag of fertilizer, abandoned. In the middle of the road. Just after a humpbacked bridge, so it wouldn't be seen. For goodness sake!- did it not occur to whatever idiot abandoned the fertilizer that doing so in the middle of the road might be dangerous? And in any case, who in their right mind drags a big heavy bag (and we're not necessarily just talking about fertilizer here) all the way to the middle of the road, and then leaves it there?
Then, driving through Miyanohara, an almost repeat of Tuesday's close shave, except this time with a man on a bike. Straight out in front of me, without looking. Totally, completely, utterly oblivious to the fact that there was traffic, that there might have been someone apart from himself using the road.
Then- and this one takes the biscuit!- just as I approached the traffic lights at Sejo-guchi, they turned red, so (of course) I stopped. But that didn't seem to bother the idiot behind me, who simply drove round me and turned left, as if the traffic lights didn't exist! I really can't believe this- I mean, ignoring traffic lights is almost an everyday occurrence here, but ignoring a car waiting at a traffic light- actually driving round the car!- really is incredible.
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Final lesson of the year at Kirikushi Elementary School today. With the second years, we did the origami Santa Claus lesson, which went well. Even something as simple as this, I've found, takes the full 45 minutes when the lesson is with the lower years, which is good, because I don't have to plan something that only takes 10 minutes or so to fill up time after the origami. It's always amazing how different the children in a class are, though: some children are able to fold the paper perfectly, whereas some children are completely clueless, and can't fold the origami even if I stand in front of them and show them exactly where to fold. I tell them to fold along a line, and they- for some reason- think that this means that they should fold along a random line tangential to the line I've shown them...
With the fifth years, meanwhile, we made scones. This is always an easy class, because there are only twelve children, and also because the teacher is supportive. Even here, though, the range of the children's abilities is huge- and oddly enough, it was the boys who were far, far better. The girls just flapped around, and didn't even manage to weigh out the ingredients without help.
Anyway, we made griddled scones, which are excellent for a 45-minute lesson, because frying in butter is far quicker than baking. The scones were a little flatter than I'd expected, but the taste was properly scone-like, and the children enjoyed them, I think. This was the first time I'd used this recipe, but the lesson went well, and I think I'll do it again sometime. The only thing to be careful about is that the scones are very easy to burn, but apart from this the whole recipe is very shogakusei-friendly.
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Sometimes confirmation that what I'm doing is worthwhile comes in the most unexpected ways. This morning, just outside the office, someone from another of the sections stopped me and asked whether the International Club's event on Saturday was open to children from outside the town. The son of one of relatives of this man comes to the International Club every time, and when the boy didn't get the information about December's event, he phoned up the man who works in the same office as me, to get him to ask me if he could come. It's good to know that he looks forward to the events so much!
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 20/1/03; 2:29:33 pm.
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