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J O U R N A L
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Saturday, November 29
[Seek]posted by peter at 20:17 .......Ooh, a night out in Tokyo.
What does one wear?
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[Weekends]posted by peter at 17:29 .......Oh it's been good, it's been good. A whole bunch of us flounced off to the Human Body exhibition near Ginza... absolutely hideous, lots of cadavers mounted on stands with bits of flesh peeled back and bones chopped up and whatnot. I think I saw the ugliest thing I've ever laid eyes on... it was the top of a skeleton with all the ribs removed, the face partially deconstructed (although they left a single eye there for good measure) and all the nerves (still intact) draping down over the skeletal remains. Kind of like an 80s metal tshirt in real life. Absolutely, totally hideous, yet strangely interesting. Those crazy folk, cutting people up in the name of science. You could even touch some of the cadavers, but I was not the least bit interested in that idea.
Then we walked the outer grounds of the Imperial Palace, which is a beautiful, spacious park flanked by moderate skyscrapers. All of the trees are carefully manicured, and the splendid autumnul colour scheme made the location very pleasant indeed. (If you ignored the biting cold. The last two days have been icy; I think something must have blown in from Siberia.)
I went out in Roppongi and Shibuya and Omote Sando yesterday evening. A tatami room is a delightful setting for a Singapore Sling, but I won't go so far as to suggest that it was the same notion as sitting near Somerset Maugham in the Raffles Hotel.
My neck has been strangely out of alignment. Probably something to do with being sandwiched onto trains in the middle of the night; I think I was in direct contact with six other bodies. The stops and starts are the worst.
Today I collected my alien registration card (what a charming concept) and then met Jordy and Genta at Mizonokuchi, where we lolled about for a few hours. I've remembered that being in Japan probably doesn't exempt me from having to give Christmas presents. Oh well.
I just bought a hairdryer and a few more plants, including a pink azalea, a yellow pansy and a weird ornamental lettuce or cabbage or whatever... it has a blue centre.
Also, my bank card finally arrived today, carrying a lovely sum of money in the form of a salary advance. That's Y120,000 that I cannot just write off in a fit of consumerism. I repeat, I CANNOT view this sum as disposable income.
That is all.
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[Plans]posted by peter at 10:12 .......I remembered the other thing I was going to write about:
One student told me that the only reason she's learning English is because she wants to marry a foreigner. Um, yeah, she was wearing her school uniform at the time.
Two hours until more fun in the city... I'm contemplating buying a skull-and-crossbones scarf as a bit of a two week treat. I feel like I've kind of done the skull thing to death, especially since I like ghosts now (but they're not very forthcoming). There will always be space in my cupboard for a bit of deathly imagery.
How lame, I've found myself laying out potential outfits on my bed in the mornings... with only two days off per week you have to maximise the cool factor in the minimal time that you have. The skull scarf would complete today's combo so perfectly, and it's only 1900 yen so surely that's reasonable?
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[2 days]posted by peter at 23:35 .......Oooh, it's my weekend!! :D I'm so excited I could just die.
Today a student told me she works at a hotel in Shibuya and refused to elaborate. Hmm. And I wonder how many more Sony engineers I'm going to meet in my time? The great part about this job is that I get to find out about new people all the time, which is one of the things I love most in the world. It's like a form of sanctioned interrogation/prying. The bad part about this job is that it's full time.
I'm slowly diversifying my diet too, which is good news indeed. I'm off to some sort of human body exhibition tomorrow, at Tokyo International Forum. Should be interesting.
I had something else to mention but I can't for the life of me remember what. Maybe I'll recall it during my sleep.
[pros|cons]posted by peter at 11:47 .......Things that I like include:
- the apparent culture of gift giving from students to teachers. Yesterday, one student brought in a massive giftwrapped box of delicacies from a heavenly New York-based patisserie. It was so nice to have a little piece of Fifth Ave in the office. Another student brought in shell-shaped muffins that she had baked herself.
- crazy discussion topics. One student has seen over 150 films this year, so he talked movies before moving on to the subject of hair product and body mass indices.
Things I'm not so sure about include:
- the fact that they all think I'm 17. Some of the cheekier students actively tease me about it. It's all very good natured, but really...
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[Downpour]posted by peter at 23:12 .......It's a shame we're not allowed to socialise with students, because the coolest grrrl has been in my lessons a few times this week.
Kannako is a rock chick; she likes the Stones and the Kinks. She works in a record store, looks wonderful, sees live bands and wants to be an event organiser. There's no creepy spin on this (in case you were wondering, I did not come to Japan to find a Japanese girlfriend)... I just think we could have a lot of fun.
It's a shame that so many male foreigners act like such vile pigs in this city, because it means that no single guy can go and live in Tokyo without some shadow of a doubt as to his intentions. (I speak only of the particularly predatory foreigners... there are plenty of people enjoying genuine relationships, which is wonderful. But some people really are just plain awful, and unfortunately I've already been subjected to their unintelligent banter. It was nobody I live or work with, by the way.)
Well it rained and rained and rained today... absolutely ridiculous. Of course I have a totally inappropriate 200 yen umbrella that my friend Genta found on the side of the road. It is entirely too small, and therefore fails to keep my legs dry, leaving me no choice but to rock up to work with wet legs. Quite lame.
I wore my worst tie today, and thus felt a little insecure. My flatmate said I looked like a clown, and I thanked him for his tact. Someone else once told me the tie looked like something Carlos Santana would have worn. I think I can almost get away with it if I pair it with a white shirt, but it will definitely be one to push towards the back of my closet.
Oh, and it seems my eldest sister, Miriam, will be moving back to Adelaide with her family. That's quite exciting news, after all her years spent in Fiji and Darwin. Obviously I missed the humidity-gene... Japan is gonna kill me when summer hits.
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[Winter]posted by peter at 23:52 .......At the moment, my front door opens to reveal a splendid red tree. Just like the Shaun Tan book. I find it strangely inspiring in the morning as I descend the spiral staircase, out of the canopy.
All the trees are changing now. Winter is taking hold and leaves flame red like quiet fires. Rain sets in and powerlines trace the grey sky. It's cold on the outdoor platforms.
The city is breaking out into elegant coats and layer upon layer upon layer. I'm wearing a scarf to work; it flails and mingles with my striped tie.
A traffic light near my apartment emits a creepy synthesised bird sound whenever it's time to cross. It sounds like a bird chirping on Neptune (or something), and is most eerie when the light is fading. Much more atmospheric than the strange (and thankfully brief) outburst in Tokyo station, which reminded me of a child crashing and banging on a theatre organ.
Every so often I stop and think just how excited I am to be living here.
[Your job is your life]posted by peter at 11:04 .......I don't want to become one of those people who integrate teaching methods into their everyday conversation, outside of the workplace. Last night I caught myself making an awful hand gesture that is exceedingly useful in class, but completely embarrassing anywhere else. (In case you are wondering, I'm talking about the 'OK' signal, with thumb and forefinger joined in a circle, and every other finger extended.)
I'm also conscious of the fact that I no longer have to talk slowly once I've left work. I've met some long-term teachers who can't seem to separate the classroom from the real world. I never want that to happen to me.
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[Sunday in the office]posted by peter at 20:08 .......I've not exactly been on the brink of emotional breakdown, but there have been times when I've wondered what it is that I'm doing here. I think I've portrayed myself as being a little bit too cool for school and at ease with the whole 'expat' thing, but it has not been totally easy.
That said, a thousand blessings on the person who brought the Bagel & Bagel franchise to Futakotamagawa, and to the Japanese as a whole for embracing foreign trends. Things such as this put joy in my heart; oh that roast vegie bagel was a treat.
I really like the school I'm working at – it's conveniently located near a megaplex of Parisian designers and not far from a river. It's opposite the train station and the other teachers seem really fun.
Not sure about working on Sundays though... it means I can't hang out with the freaks in Harajuku.
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[Arm socks, stripes]posted by peter at 20:16 .......This city is essentially many smaller cities joined together by a train line. Today Anna and I went to Tokyo itself... ie. the area around Tokyo Station. It's like a different world. Maybe it was because we got there at dusk (having already passed many hours in Shibuya... I tried on the military green 3/4 length jacket with a faux fur trim that I've been eyeing off for a while), but there was something wonderfully eerie about the streets. Only in a good way. It was like a scene from a Wim Wenders film – red lights blinked atop each and every building, all slightly out of time so the sequence evolved like a message to the space creatures. The moat around the Imperial Palace glittered under the streetlights, but beyond the water, large pines stood silently in the darkness.
The tiniest ducks I've ever seen swam near (shimmering wakes suggested the advance of dark armies), and I felt like I'd discovered real Pokemon.
We got a list of vegetarian and macrobiotic restaurants. There aren't many. First my organic vanilla and bush fruit extract almond and honey soap, and now this restaurant list. I'm so at one with the earth.
Shibuya received me back to its mayhem. Worst train ride ever; nearly got crushed at every single station. Home now, a bit bored, might make some phonecalls and then have an early night.
I need to buy a hairdryer.
By the way, why would you hide a city's main Tourist Information Centre on the 10th floor of an insignificant building? There are some things I will never understand.
[Train me, train me]posted by peter at 01:10 .......I've spent the last few days training at Ebisu, and tonight as a finale we all went to this groovy little upstairs club that felt just like being in Melbourne. The work has been mildly stressful so far, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Some of the students I've taught have been very interesting, including a professional golfer and a lady who has been overseas 48 times to go to various operas.
Ebisu is a VERY rich and expensive area, so you get a lot of 'bored rich' types.
Apparently the area I'll be working at (some multisyllabic, unpronounceable place) is similarly wealthy. Which I'm kind of happy about. Not that I'm elitist, but I'd rather talk about high fashion and culture than teach new words to bored, uninterested salarymen.
Reading back over that I really sound like an awful person, but I don't mean to.
I've got the day off tomorrow, which refreshes me because I can break out of the corporate world and go crazy on these mental streets. Talk soon.
Ooh, looksie!!
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[Here in Tokyo]posted by peter at 22:25 .......I:m here above one of the world:s busiest intersections in one of the most expensive Internet cubicles ever (in terms of square metres of real estate, which translates to yen per hour), so I:ll keep it brief. And this keyboard has an odd arrangement, which is making this difficult, so I:m not even going to bother ironing out the errors.
My first day of on the job training went well, but I:m feeling a little exhausted now. I think what I:m loving most about Tokyo is the fact that nobody ever seems to go home... even now it:s hard to move about the streets.
I:m more confident about food now too, thanks to fun dinner and drinks last night in Shinjuku. Oh, I think I:ve just had one of those annoying mental blanks (you know, the sort that really kills social interaction), so I think I:ll just attempt a graceful exit and say goodnight. Or should that be sayonara? My gosh, I NEED to learn this language.
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[Harajuku]posted by peter at 20:43 .......Hmm, clicks for Harajuku. It would be my 100% perfect place were it not for million-yen monthly rent and lack of support for the vegetarian lifestyle choice. So many groovy people wearing so many great things; tiny alleyways bursting with amazing fashions and genuine Bathing Ape, oh my gosh a jacket is like a month's wage. After careful assessment I decided it isn't worth that much to me.
Chris and I meandered amongst the Harajuku freaks, who were every bit as wonderful as the Fruits book would suggest... amazing neo-gothic outfits abounded, as did blue contact lenses and bizarre facial masks. I liked the ones who wrapped bandages around their heads and drizzled fake blood liberally. All this in haute couture.
I for one felt very validated when the two of us were stopped in the street by a Japanese fashion student who asked if he could take a photo of us... as if we would say no... just have to hope it wasn't for a 'worst fashion victims' assignment. Later in the day I sat on fresh chewing gum in a train; oh I could kill the person who left it there, bloody subvert.
We never made it to the design expo because it wasn't actually in Harajuku. It was in Tokyo Big Sight. Thanks to whoever designed the misleading flyer, fancy neglecting to cater for people who can't read/speak/write Japanese. We walked back to Shibuya via a lovely park and then made our way to Tokyo Big Sight, but it took so long to get there (didn't I say this city never ends?) that by the time we arrived we had to leave. Oh well.
Seems the crazy woman is a fixture in Shibuya station... she tried to nab me again today. But I was one step ahead this time, and escaped her clutches.
I finally met my other housemate last night. I think we'll all get along well. Tomorrow is my job orientation. I'm starting to feel a little concerned about my food difficulties (sure I can cook things but I'm so limited by my lame kitchen)... I really need to go to the Tokyo information centre and pick up a list of vegetarian and macrobiotic restaurants (bless the person who thought of it), and just generally keep my eyes open. The last thing I need is to become malnourished. So far my general excitement (such as that generated by a visit to Snoopy Town) has overridden hypoglycaemia, but that can't go on forever.
I bought some cyclamen for my room last night. I want to get some nice paper or fabric to line the walls too. Anything to 'warm' it up a bit. I'm still finding the tatami smell overpowering; I suppose I'll get used to it one day.
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[Yokohama]posted by peter at 16:43 .......Did I mention that two days ago somebody described me as 'outdoorsy'? I believed the adjective to be a little inaccurate.
As I expected, there's been no let-up in the strange experiences with total strangers. Yesterday in Shibuya, a seemingly normal old woman beckoned me from among the train station throng, grabbed my hand, yanked me down and whispered something in my ear. Of course I had no idea what she was saying, so I shook my head and tried to look puzzled. She continued speaking, and didn't seem to want to let go of my hand. But I just couldn't stay there listening to the Japanese language, so I pulled away and she looked somewhat disappointed/upset. Hopefully I haven't put her off foreigners for life. And on my first day here, a man came around to inspect the apartment (which basically meant cleaning my recently-vacated room) and ended up giving me a Tokyo guidebook. Of course I refused numerous times, but he persisted, so I guess he did actually want me to take it. I did my best to express my gratitude in fragmented phrasebook Japanese.
Today's journey to Yokohama revealed a somewhat sterile city with impressive architectural notions but not much soul. It bills itself as being so incredibly cosmopolitan, but in my opinion it kind of has the ambience of a Westfield shopping centre. I did find Snoopy Town in one of the multi-storey shopping complexes, so that was a definite highlight. As was the giant Ferris wheel with its big digital clock.
It costs more and takes longer to get to Yokohama than it does to get to Shibuya. And the trains are about 10 degrees hotter. So I'm not sure I can think of any real reason to go there again... certainly not for the second-rate foccacia I 'enjoyed' in the dockland precinct.
Although, seeing the Japanese equivalent of Skunk Anansie perform live in a record store was a real highlight!
Oh, I'm a little bit tired. There's some possibility I'll be going out tonight (I haven't really done the beer-drinking-foreigner thing yet, but to everything there is a season after all), so that could be fun. I'm pretty sure I'm going to an art and design festival near Harajuku tomorrow. Yuck, to think I start work on Monday, it's going to cut a big chunk out of my life.
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[Tokyo]posted by peter at 21:09 .......Well, honestly, where to begin?
Clicks for Shibuya, that's all I can say! What a wonderful district; it seems that all of Tokyo's young and interesting folk bust their way out of the train station and congregate in its bustling streets. I found about 4000 items of clothing in various department stores that I absolutely need, and about 1700 that I might just think about, don't want to rush into anything.
I met up with Chris although I was over an hour late because I lost his phone number and then couldn't find the meeting spot because I was in the wrong area (I don't know what made me think we were meeting in Shinjuku when clearly all the young, interesting folk go to Shibuya) and because I can't decipher a single Japanese character I couldn't for the life of me find an Internet cafe and when I did it was 200 yen per 10 mins and then I got his phone number but the nearest phone booth didn't work so I had to find another.
Anyway, eventually we met up and went for a very necessary Indian lunch on the 5th floor of some building or other. Then we went to Starbucks and watched the waves of people roll over Shibuya.
I love it here so much.
My apartment is ok; mine is a 'traditional' room with tatami matting that smells a bit stale (and my balcony overlooks a barren wasteland between two apartment blocks, and there's a stray cricket ball resting amongst the weeds which I find very offensive). It's reasonably spacious, although the kitchen is completely unsuitable for domestic godhood. No cakes to be baked here, let me tell you. My suburb is bustling and well serviced; a pleasant mix of the frou-frou (ie. minimalist fruit shops which I will shop in, if only to induce hysterics in the girls hiding out in the cold room like last time), the cute (flower and plant shops everywhere) and the functional (ie. supermarkets, a department store and numerous bargain basement things).
I can't express just how manky I felt when I finally arrived, as I'd been in the same clothes for over 24 hours. Tokyo just doesn't ever end, so it took a couple of hours to get from the airport to my apartment, even in a bus that took all the expressways and whatnot.
It's nice to be finally exploring this place after all the waiting that was involved. Waiting for flights, waiting to be collected from the airport, waiting to finally be delivered to my accommodation... There were some efficiencies in the journey, for example, I was very blessed in Melbourne because I scored a taxi driver who took me to the airport for the same cost as the Skybus, because he was going there anyway. We dropped Jess at the corner of Queen and Flinders, and she screamed very inappropriate things at very high volume – a fitting send off if you ask me.
I've met loads of fun people so far, oh it's such a melting pot of cultures here. Tomorrow I'm off to central Yokohama to see what that has to offer. Anyway, using my flatmate's computer so don't want to take too long... will write soon.
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[Narita]posted by peter at 10:19 .......I've arrived. I'm stuck at Narita airport, sandwiched between broadband Internet kiosks and three vending machines. Two arduous flights later.
Managed to get about 4 hours' sleep last night, but only after ordering a Manhattan from the steward. And I think I've seen I capture the castle and Charlie's Angels 2 about four times each.
But I'm actually very excited; it's just that I'm among the last of the group to depart for my apartment and therefore most of the fun people have gone.
Only two mins left on this machine... gotta go, will write more later!
Oh, and I bought a lovely Swatch. Very sleek indeed. :)
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[Travelling]posted by peter at 09:56 .......Will write when I can.
:) ♥
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[Hideous to my ears]posted by peter at 13:42 .......I don't really dig the 'last goodbye' thing. It helps to remember that I've already got my return ticket booked; it's just a question of when. I lunched with Brooke today on a busy city lane, and I feel kind of violated knowing we won't be able to bitch around town again for a while.
Are Swatch watches still ok? I'm not sure how I feel about them. But I'm thinking I probably need a watch, and I want neither an overblown precision-movement corporate board meeting type device, nor a hideous digital timepiece with altimeter, tachometer and 7 lap timer. I just want something light, functional and almost impossible to notice. Thus I was considering a very thin, black, insignificant Swatch.
Which is why I need to know whether they are still ok. I don't want my watch to be a stylistic weak link; I'll get by with my $2 travel alarm clock if need be. I haven't worn a watch for years anyway.
Well I am getting excited now. But what's the bet I end up with the lamest housemates ever? They're probably worrying the same thing, so I'll take solace in that notion.
Fat lot of good my Japanese phrasebook has been so far. Not that it's a bad publication; it's just that despite reading it twice, I have retained absolutely nothing. But don't they say that necessity is the greatest teacher of all? Somebody did say that, didn't they? They should have.
I'm actually waiting to see whether my new $2 alarm clock even activates at the preset time. *waiting* ... *waiting* Yes, it absolutely did. My, what a jarring sound to awaken me to the Yokohama dawn.
And I'm not ready to go back to full time work. Nobody is interested in hearing this, but I'm just not ready. I enjoy passing my days with cultural pursuits and social activities. It's life-enriching.
Oh, and who's going to see me off at the airport tomorrow? Nobody. Kind of reminds me of The Great Gatsby, where no-one shows up to his funeral except for that man with the glasses. Then again, I suppose most people are actually working on an average Wednesday afternoon.
I must remember to book a taxi.
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[Busy times]posted by peter at 16:28 .......Bought yen and traveller's cheques today; got good exchange rates, particularly for the cash. Felt weird handing over hundreds of dollars in exchange for 6 strips of paper. Japanese currency looks antiquated, like something you'd expect to find on display behind the glass of some fuddy duddy's teak cabinet.
Also visited Jurlique and handed over money in a decidedly whim-like fashion. It's good to have one's priorities utterly skewed at times such as these.
Bumped into Emma in the city too! See, these things don't only happen in Adelaide!! She was here today for work; I had no idea but it seems fate guided our paths. Also in the city at the moment is Sonia. I love the way she just breezes in like this; keeps the brother/sister bond strong. :) So I stayed at her hotel last night and we walked along the Yarra this morning. She may very well have nailed the art of the bread and butter pudding, but she had to hand it to Jess, Shannon and I for our effort last night; we used a combination of white bread and brioche, and it was abundant with four fruits cheat's compote (ie. St Dalfour).
Today was so productive. I photocopied documents, visited the bank (numerous times), watched a movie and even found time to squeeze in a chat with Filthy Ange.
Speaking of Shannons, it seems I'm very distantly related to the current Australian Idol finalist, through my mother's side. Not sure that I'm happy about that.
I'm really enjoying Fear and loathing is Las Vegas... it's absolutely hilarious. Hate the film though. The weather is ideal for sitting out on the front verandah in the westerly sun, enjoying a terrific book.
Oh, Monday night rolls around again, bringing with it a whole swag of brilliant television. I've invited friends around, but have warned that under no circumstances will I be distracted from any aspect of the shows on offer. TV is #1 tonight, folks.
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[Running, circles]posted by peter at 10:56 .......What is it about a horse race that legitimises creepy, feral and disgusting behaviour on the city streets? And what is the point of going to all the trouble of looking elegant in the morning if by late afternoon you're just going to end up vomiting into a bin on Swanston St? Or having strap marks seared into your skin by a vindictive November sun? Or being heard shrieking unintelligible nonsense into a mobile phone while crushing a hat and breaking a heel on a drain grate?
It's like all these normally reserved, up-tight Melburnians cast all caution to the wind and unleash pent-up angst in a blaze of semi-bourgeois drunkenness.
I went to the Espy with Brooke last night, which kind of made up for the fact that she was feeling unwell on her birthday the night before. However we didn't stay long, because at one point it was like a light was switched on and we suddenly felt a bit embarrassed to be seen there, amongst stray racegoers who were shimmying and staggering near the stage and attempting to interact with us. Two words: walk away.
Then my tram arrived late and subsequently got caught in the Chapel St crush – that street was even more vile than usual for a Saturday night. Fortunately our tiny cottage is a place of refuge, and I was glad to get home.
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[Healthy mind]posted by peter at 14:59 .......Continuing the theme of alternative living, today Brooke, Jess and I ventured to the Live Cruelty Free expo at a community centre in Kensington. It took us long enough to get there; we got trapped on the City Loop (I swear I will never, EVER understand it) and then got lost in Kensington, even after asking a shop assistant and a construction worker for directions. Eventually a taxi proved the only option.
Finally, the community centre appeared, bright flags and incense drifting over the horizon. We ran the pleasant gauntlet of vegan products, animal rights stalls and aura photography; sampled dairy-free chocolate and a range of soy meats; lunched on veganburgers (mine had faux fish as the pattie); had our vertebral alignment electronically analysed by a chiropractor armed with a laptop and strange probes; got thoroughly massaged (I didn't) and occasionally listened in to some of the speakers who were inappropriately positioned on a stage where they could be totally ignored by all but the attentive few in one row of chairs at the front. Not that they didn't have interesting things to say, it's just that they became background noise.
Brooke bought me a badge with a picture of Ronald McDonald slitting the throat of a cow and shouting "Eat death!" Fabulous.
Earlier this morning I'd breakfasted on Rathdowne St, where I thoroughly enjoyed ricotta pancakes with lavender icecream and honeyed poached pear. Also emerging is a bit of a lavender theme... the other night I consumed lavender shortbread, and there is a healthy plant blooming in our garden. It's very soothing.
Today has been invigorating because I feel I have discovered and explored new areas. It was starting to get me down, feeling that I'd already been everywhere in Melbourne. Not so.
It's not even evening yet! How exciting: back to St Kilda tonight and who knows what after that? Oh my gosh, it's my last weekend in Melbourne. At least I know I'll be drinking beer in Shibuya sometime next Friday... aah, Tokyo. :)
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[I believe it's worth...]posted by peter at 19:34 .......We just went to a great vegetarian restaurant where there were no prices published and each customer was encouraged to have an internal conversation and consult their conscience to decide how much money to drop into the donation box. They referred to it a social experiment that fights globalisation and restores earthy notions of communal living.
And what a fantastic place it is. The best part is, the staff don't seem even remotely interested in your money. You drop it into a discreet wooden box, and they have no idea how much you are putting in. So you could contribute 5 cents and nobody would be any the wiser. But then karma would be out to get you. We opted for a more generous (ie. realistic) figure. The food – particularly the Japanese menu – is absolutely delicious.
It's called Lentil as Anything, and it's in St Kilda. How I love that suburb.
We're about to eat icecream and watch a food movie. (Mostly Martha.) Oh, and how I love the St Kilda Bay Swiss, which we also visited tonight. I felt like I was shopping in some glorious Manhattan food store, not that I really know what that would be like, but my mental concept matched tonight's experience. They had a significant portion of the Nigella Lawson cookware range. Jess and I just about keeled over from all the excitement.
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[Dot on the map]posted by peter at 13:55 .......At long last, the Japanese corporation has revealed that I will be living in Yokohama. Of course this information arrived electronically. I'll be paying around $950 per month for a room in an apartment somewhere in the Tokyo-Yokohama conurbation.
More interestingly, I'll be living with an Englishman and an American. Not too sure about the all-guy household thing, but I'll have to make do. I really, really, really hope that they are fun, interesting people. And I hope that they like Joni Mitchell. That will make all the difference.
So anyway, I'm a bit excited to finally have an address, and I can now begin researching the area as best I can, which may be exhausting given that most pages I am directed to by search engines seem to contain only Japanese characters.
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[Outta here]posted by peter at 21:34 .......These are the things that aren't easy. The passing of an age, the breaking of a fellowship. It's like Tolkien 101 as applied to everyday life.
Kate's at the international terminal. She catches her flight in an hour or so, some insane time. Earlier was dinner, a Jamaican restaurant, a bunch of friends new and old, seven of us, smiling, shiny, happy.
A service station and a pass for the tollway, night breezes through the sunroof, those crazy birds hanging around at the tops of floodlit towers, always, always circling.
There were tears on the pavement. Kate dragged her suitcase through sliding glass doors. I slipped into a black BMW and crashed into the night.
[Clotheshangers]posted by peter at 11:43 .......The good news is that my "wouldn't be seen dead in" clothes pile was nigh on insignificant this time around. That said, the "waiting room for the hall of shame" pile was perhaps a bit larger than I would have liked. Fortunately, by far the most popular category was "love it and cannot possibly get rid of it yet".
Yep, it's wardrobe audit time. Kind of like fashion's financial year.
As heartbreaking as it is, THE CULL simply must be done from time to time. Stocktake is one thing – it's good to account for every garment and maybe rediscover a hidden gem in a back corner – but when reduction is the stated goal, the process is not so straightforward.
The categorisation system always works for me, although sometimes I forget which bundle is which. Is this the "run it by my housemates but probably give to charity" pile or the "really don't know what to do with this so I'll send it away for my parents to store" bunch?
I looked with scorn at the "would never dream of owning this if I didn't need it for the corporate world" pile. It really has no place in my life.
Sometimes I think I'm not as ruthless as I should be, due to a combination of sentimental attachment (what an embarrassing thing to admit) and the lingering feeling that maybe, just maybe, I'd want to wear that original 1970s Puma polyester jacket again someday. Sometimes I have to pinch myself and remember that I'm not at uni anymore, and some things really have had their time in the sun.
I still don't know how I'm going to squash everything into my luggage. Particularly my seven pairs of shoes. But Tokyo probably doesn't need a pair of ageing tan Doc Martens that are uncomfortable and made of leather so therefore make me sick and haven't been worn in the last seven months, if not longer. (Need I even mention their obvious mid-to-late 90s association, which is more than enough reason to throw anything away?)
What I tried to keep in the back of my mind during the whole process was that Tokyo doesn't need anything crap. It just doesn't. There is no need to take things on the off chance that I might need them when every single day a myriad stores throw open glorious doors to that city's waiting public. I CAN buy new things.
Thank goodness I'm not backpacking. It's clear to me that I'd never be able to make such sacrifice. Two tshirts plus underwear and a copy of the Lonely Planet in a slimline contoured backpack? No thank you. I want every damn creature comfort I can get my hands on.
(Which isn't to say I won't do backpacking someday. I'll just be cursing my luggage a lot more than those around me.)
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[About last night]posted by peter at 15:05 .......I'm a bit touchy about the fact that I'm gonna miss the Australian Idol final. This is not a fitting outcome to all my emotional investment, and is most unwelcome.
How lame: at this time of great upheaval I should be writing posts that abound with hidden truths, but all I can talk about is television. At least I didn't watch the Melbourne Cup.
This horse race brings all sorts of strange things – things that lurk – and I speak not only of lurid hats. Messages are being written in the skies as we speak – right now there's a great big love heart scrawled in vapours – but the missives come from cashed-up advertisers and are hardly something to take as a sign.
Oh, the final piece of news is that we've got a new housemate. Jess' partner Mike has finally moved to Melbourne and is, in effect, taking my place when I move out. (Well, not exactly taking my place; it's not as though I was some form of creepy partner substitute or anything. And he certainly won't be sleeping in the lounge room.) Goodness me, the ebbs and flows of a share house; someone should write a book about it. Oh that's right, they already have, and somebody stole my copy.
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[4 full hours]posted by peter at 15:32 .......I think by now it has been well established that I love Monday night television. Absolutely love it. ♥ ♥
I feel invigorated just thinking about what awaits me this evening. Television: it's the drug of the nation and I'm practically ripping open my veins in anticipation.
Today I drank an absolutely ridiculous number of hot beverages with the lovely Viv. It was the last time I'll see her before the Tokyo thing, so we celebrated with a tasty lunch. She chose soba noodles and I some asparagus polenta thing simply entitled 'vegetarian', like, thanks for the lucid description. One of the chefs made a point of informing us that it was drizzled with balsamic reduction. He was listening in to a number of conversations at once, and joined in on several, which I'm not sure anybody really appreciated. People get neurotic about things like that; it's kind of like an interactive surveillance camera. There's no escaping big brother in cafe courtyards; you are never really alone.
Caught up with Selena too, albeit briefly, but we fitted in the proper goodbye thing and shared joyousness over her new skateboard. It's sad knowing I won't see these wonderful people for a while.
Kate's off to Fiji on Wednesday, so there's another imminent goodbye, but as they say: "fuck you, I've got a flight to catch."
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[Around again]posted by peter at 14:43 .......I mentioned narcolepsy the other day. Now I'm wondering whether it mightn't be chronic fatigue syndrome. Last night I dreamt I was driving around with a bunch of friends through an innovative housing estate. It was night, and hi-tech structures lined the dark cul-de-sacs. Somebody said "show us the future" and then our car spun and plummeted over a precipice. I even heard my bones crush at the moment of my death.
I don't tend to attach much meaning to dreams.
I've been walking around in a stupor all day... Kate and I went to Southland and I kept bumping into her as we meandered about. The Boost Juice girls weren't getting into things so much today, least not in that part of the world. The other day on Chapel St, now that's a different story, oh they were going off to 50 Cent as they blended those melons and pulverised those berries. Rock the juice bar, rock the juice bar...
I just watched and loved The Royal Tenenbaums, and am about to go and meet Claire in the city.
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[Speedy]posted by peter at 10:54 .......Well, with many thanks to Kyle, the Blerk server is now running on super fast ADSL, so this site should load a lot faster from now on, particularly for those of you who are, unlike me, lucky enough to be enjoying high-speed access. Unfortunately my current modem connection makes 'the information superhighway' sound like a bit of a misnomer.
Also, bandwidth preservation is less of an issue with this new setup, so in theory I can go crazy with images and the like. Of course, given that in 11 days I will be rendered computerless in a foreign land, anything more complicated than ASCII text is unlikely to grace these pages. (Cyber Cafes... one word: yuck.) So this site will follow a more minimalist ethos, hopefully with a generous sprinkling of zen and maybe a virtual water feature. (Perhaps I've been spending too much time around South Yarra homeware stores.)
Another Hallowe'en has come and gone with not a single spectre in sight (ignoring the Melbourne Cup wraiths I saw drifting down Toorak Rd this morning, pink feathers trailing in the fell breeze). How disappointing.
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