108. Just the ticket after night on the jag...

Salty ramen (chinese noodles) from a yattai (portable ramen stall) is absolutely nails after a bout of heavy sauce. Pretend to be Michael Douglas in Black Rain! Slurp that motherfucker and say "yeaaaah" like Ving Rhames would! Diamond, this is something you need to try sometime...

107. Fear ye...

Take a look at this...





Yeah, that, my friend, is my Game Face... the purchase of Perfect Dark at a retro games shop allowed this to happen. Scared? You should be.

105...

An apple whirled silently...

103

Good grief... a month and more to reply and all you can come up with is "klebb?"...

It seems that I shall have to take the lead once more and try to pull something out of the fire...

As previously discussed, a story seems to be in order... how about starting us off?

Room 101

The cheek... is it not I that replies moments after your sporadic and delay-laden posts? Is it not you that flouts the firm established rules of the blog by champing on herby grub instead of reply-eeing?

Having mentioned Room 101 in the title, I should point out that yesterday I taught a class to my second year students, and asked them to tell me what was in their Room 101. Although they failed to grasp the psychological nuances of this, and instead just thought of something that scared them a tad, there were some interesting examples, and I quote:

"Big monster is eating of the earth!! Someday, a blank planet!!"

"All sorts of gun, you choss only one, shoot with a revolver in recorded mark. Head is 100 points, heart is 30 points, a part of importance is 50 points. Fire!"

"I opened the door, and I go to in room. And then another me is looking at me."

"I'm afraid of many things.... likes cockroaches, ghost, get bad results, and failure in love and death. But my biggest fear is lonely."

"A transport accident to kill I."

"I fear drowning. I have ever had this experience when I am a small child. Yes."

"A killer in earnest takes one's life."

Ahh, they're a good bunch of kids, and I'll miss seeing them when leave at the end of this month...

Today is the graduation ceremony, and we teachers all wear black suits, white shirts and white ties, and listen to speeches and watch awards being handed out to the now-departing 3rd year students. Cue a river of tears from both students and their mothers, the former trying vainly to hide behind their hands and stop their shoulders from shaking, the latter dabbing with handkerchiefs and reapplying their make up with too much ease.

Oh yeah, and as from yesterday I know have a 100mb/sec fibre optic internet connection! I'm still Noble House, by God!

A luvverly ice cream from our yoof...

Aye, it looks like I will be Blighty bound at the end of March for a short 'moon. The stupid way that schools work here, teachers are expected to come in and twiddle their thumbs during almost every one of their official holidays, but not me. I'm leaving this donjon for good on the 22nd of March and that's that! I'll drive a herd of champing swine through the halls of needs be, but there is no way that I'm going to piss away days off on this limp-wrist bureaucracy whazz...

Tonight sees one of the only TV shows I watch in Japan - 2nd House, a chortleworthy tale about some randy young salarymen that club together to rent a "love-apartment", only for one of them to relinquish it to a foxy little scorcher (in the words of David Underwood) and fall in love with her. Despite being married to a May May type, he fancies the pink and white panties off the aforementioned scorcher and she feels the same, but being very Japanese they dither about and get into such jolly scrapes...

TV here is 1 part class, 9 parts arse. Last night there was Championship Pig Training (class), but there was also a drama about boring ugly women cooking and crying and failing to act their way out of a paper bag (arse). Last week there was will your dog protect you in the event of a violent home attack? (class), but also a variety show in which old women wear kimonos, cry and sing badly (arse).

Sorry, I have to cut this post short... I have to go and teach. Actually, I will sit there and make a kentoon whilst they study for their kanji test...

Ninety Seven

Poncing around, climbing Cobbler, whatever the hell that may be, and shooting arrers at things... sounds like a Diamond kind of holiday and no mistake..

I'm currently rereading Shogun again. I think this is the 9th time, though it could well be the 10th. Whenever I read that passage in which Rodrigues talks about the Kingdom of Naples I imagine you mincing around in Elizabethan garb, feather in your cap, someone with a lute somewhere nearby. A number of people here are a bit incredulous that I should be reading a book more than twice, let alone 9 times. Clearly not readers...

In the fashion started in the Summer with the words of Anjin Choi, I hearby introduce another of my students, Mai, who is heading to the mainland for an important University interview this weekend. As well as being as well-mannered and polite as can be, she is also a fine English student and has been a pleasure to teach. With no further ado, over to Mai:


Hello. I am pleased to meet you. In fact, today I am nervous. On Saturday I will attend an interview for my university future. I am worried that I should fail! And other things. But I will do my best. Goodbye.

Whu-cheers Mai! Take the fight to those beastly Bembridge Scholars! And don't forget to pause for elevenses!

As for you, Diamond, your pressie will be dispatched with Tangerine Flick on the next tide (Green Tea Flick was unfortunately lost in the Pacific and went down with all hands and cargo).

Well, ho hum.. I am soon to be entering the last month of employment with the high school, and I feel grand. With joss, there'll be just enough time between the end of this job and the start of the next to fit in me 'oneymoon (as 'arold Shaaand would say). With a birthday on the horizon, I have been pestering Yo-chan for a Nintendo DS with the fantastic game DS Training for Adults. Will she yield? Her leg! There's still time...