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J O U R N A L
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Tuesday, August 31
[Very literal]posted by peter at 11:07 .......I was wrong about the cleaners. It was just a once-off. You know, not a weekly thing. We don't need that.
This is the most sick and disgusting house in the world. Now the manager is paying house residents to clean the kitchen (but not the toilets it seems). For 850 yen an hour you wouldn't get me anywhere near those germ-ridden surfaces. I don't get out of bed for less than ten thousand dollars a day.
Hayama was the most wonderful thing this month. Sarah and I arrived in the rainy night and of course missed our bus stop, meaning that we had to trudge beachward in a particularly vaporous sort of rain that seemed to infiltrate all the spaces beneath our shared umbrella.
Anyway, at the beach pre-typhoon waves crashed in while obscure electronica screamed out over tiny speakers in the temporary timber bar. Laser lights and twirling Japanese hippies and genuine vegetarian fare... we ended up staying all night rather than taking the planned route home. Waking up in a 200 year old timber house and picking one's way through a multitude of sleeping forms (and smashing your skull on an overhead beam) makes for an interesting start to the working day.
And then on Sunday night I visited Ms Jaye in Saitama. Oh the pan-prefectural life, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it.
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[Mucous with yer meal]posted by peter at 09:30 .......I must be back in Tokyo because there is a gross old man next to me chomping food and sniffing incessantly.
I've been in Hayama. It was so so good to get out of the city for a time.
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[Snared]posted by peter at 18:00 .......Well I just bought one rather expensive and impossibly unnecessary WINTER COAT. Um, excuse me but aren't we still in the horrid throes of the monsoon or whatever you call it?
Obviously I was deceived by the FULL WINTER RANGE they've got going on in the stores at the moment. Somebody please keep me out of Marui from now on.
The jacket will look wonderful with a scarf.
Bread and water for dinner anyone?
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[Parabolic]posted by peter at 12:15 .......I'm sick again, with some South Korean thing brought back by my friends. Just in time for my weekend.
I have been especially unsettled in the last week or so, and the prospect of other countries seems more and more appealing. Claire just moved to Shanghai, and I can think of worse options.
Then again, maybe this illness is just messing with my brain.
In December I want to go to Hokkaido and watch icebergs drift in from Russia.
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[Fireflowers]posted by peter at 16:23 .......At very long last it actually feels almost cold. I selected a rather light summer workshirt in celebration of the fact. I hope to freeze. But I forgot my tie which added significant expense to my day.
On Saturday night we stood on the roof of work and watched fireworks over the Tamagawa. Afterwards we all went down to the riverbank and lay about for a couple of hours.
It is said that this event heralds the end of summer, symbolically or otherwise. Let us hope fervently for the latter.
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[Weekly yasumi]posted by peter at 20:44 .......T'was a very bizarre weekend, with a sleepless night in Shimokitazawa followed by a near-sleepless night in Koenji, and then a ride on possibly the world's most terrifying rollercoaster.
It was in fact my idea to go to Korakuen, having seen the twisted networks of steel on several occasions, but nothing could have prepared Marc and I for the horror that awaited. After an initial more-or-less vertical drop, the coaster powers on through various twists and turns and even passes through a hole in the side of a shopping centre, before coming to a practically-instantaneous halt. Utterly dreadful.
We then went for a walk through the book district, I bought another Evelyn Waugh novel (Vile Bodies this time), and then we walked all the way to Hibiya. Ridiculous really.
Last night Genta and I met a very strange Japanese guy who insulted both of us and then showed us his feet. That last part is not an idiom – he actually made us look at his feet. I think the insults were unintentional... maybe just linguistic limitation. Oh the strange things that happen beside vending machines in the middle of the night.
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[The book district]posted by peter at 12:41 .......Strange that here, in the very centre of the city, is where things seem most normal. Sometimes I think I live and work in annexes of suburban hyperreality. Rich suburban hyperreality.
Strange how venturing into the very thick of things, under the shadows of buildings and rollercoasters, can remind you that even in this city there are normal people leading normal lives.
And I just bought an Evelyn Waugh book.
[Bacterial]posted by peter at 09:46 .......After 7 long and vileness-filled weeks, we now (today!) have new cleaners in the house. Indeed, sick as it sounds, this pleasant abode with its 50+ residents has been sans cleaner for the best part of 7 or 8 weeks, I forget exactly which, having tried to block the hideous reality from my mind.
The new cleaners seem very keen. They commenced the massive clean up this morning, and have been very smiley and friendly. It's the sort of fresh-faced eagerness that comes with first days on jobs. I passed them in the hallway and got nods and semi-bows; I did the cursory response but all I could really think about was how I could possibly get my hair under control.
I can't imagine it will take them all that long to realise just how many filthy pigs reside here and become less interested in interacting with anyone on any level, and I can't say I'd blame them.
I'm about to take a random journey on the Hanzomon line to somewhere in the middle of the Yamanote district, in search of second hand books. In some ways I am running late.
And before I forget, the one thing that does sadden me about my Olympic disinterest (and by this I do mean neutrality, not active lack of interest) is that I feel that I have somehow missed some aspect of Bjork's life (it's too hard to find the umlaut HTML this morning), but at least I have been made aware that she has a new album out in the next month or so.
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[For health]posted by peter at 23:26 .......As for reading material, well I am currently devouring a copy of The Hours which I discovered under the bathroom sink and stole. I saw no reason to leave it there gathering dust. I recently powered through another Murakami book, and to be honest I am not sure I 100% enjoyed it. Ultimately, however well written (and, let's face it, however trendy), I find unresolved stories to be eminently dissatisfying.
Meeting the lovely Jaye has been a recent highlight, and it has been a double bonus because otherwise I may never have visited the children of the revolution izakaya in Shibuya, with its communist era propaganda wall decorations and random portraits of Audrey Hepburn.
Current coffee budget: approaching $AU15 per day. And that's for two, plus a light snack.
Current grammar paranoia: do I sometimes allow the word 'ago' to precede the word 'since'?
Current pronunciation issue: my big Australian vowels, ie. the 'a' in 'day' and the 'o' in 'no'.
Current physical insecurity: hair. Am I too precariously dancing the triple-point of hip, kitsch and vile?
Current source of indifference: the Olympics. This year, I really don't care at all.
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[Tokyo. Now. This moment.]posted by peter at 23:30 .......Real friends probably wouldn't write about such things, but one of the funniest things I have ever seen was when Sarah's face swelled up after a combination of polluted seawater and several knocks from surfboards, doors and so on... but what really had me on the floor (I am a horrid friend, I know) was when she used two bandaids to prevent the anti-inflammatory cream from rubbing off, but chose to arrange them in the shape of an upside-down cross on her forehead.
Never have I seen anyone look quite so evil in all my life... names like Linda Blair spring to mind, but even her head rotations seem almost endearing by comparison.
As I said, I am a vile friend. Not worth knowing really.
Actually Sarah is one of the best people I have ever met.
Today, today, today... any more humid and I would float... fortunately Ms Momo had a bit of a mission to accomplish in Shibuya, thus creating the perfect excuse for lunch and shopping. I bought a cheap Omni Trio CD (how mid-nineties, and honestly, it isn't very good) and a very wonderful wristband with tonnes of studs in a strip of nicely-woven fabric. I have found the world's most wonderful Asics trainers, but of course they don't have my size.
Yesterday I did the most random thing ever and went to one of those baseball hitting grounds, where a machine basically fires a volley of baseballs at you, and you swing and connect as best you can, if indeed you can even muster the coordination.
I had bumped into an old workmate by utter chance in Shinjuku station (as you do in the world's busiest train station) and she suggested the idea. My reception was, as you might predict, somewhat lukewarm, yet I found the sport oddly satisfying.
And to my horror it seems that I have been roped into playing tennis with some Japanese friends in early September. Me. Tennis. Really. What will I wear?
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Some time has passed due to computer fuckups etc.
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Oh the horror. I just went ten pin bowling with my Japanese language exchange buddy. Me. Ten pin bowling. Absolutely never. And there were high fives all round at times, revealing again just how different my culture is from the one in which I live. It was actually wonderfully fun, but really... a baseball hitting centre, a ten pin bowling alley and the potential for tennis... is this a new phase in my existence?
If so, I'm scared.
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[Several varieties]posted by peter at 23:24 .......Tonight has turned into another one of those random evenings which I could never have predicted, and I must ask myself exactly why it is that I am sitting in this smoky Internet cafe on the edge of Tokyo after having binged on French toast. Probably because Sarah dragged me along more or less by the nape of my neck, insisting that I might as well go but she would never really force me. It's amazing how psychologically manipulative people who call themselves 'friends' can be sometimes.
But it all begs the following question: how have I reached a stage in my life where I can be lured into doing something simply because it involves a ride on a suburban bus (oh my gosh they are so relaxing and comfortable, you have no idea, the trains sail overhead jammed with squashed up individuals while we luxuriate on sparsely populated seats and enjoy light conversation) and the possibility of something unhealthy yet irresistable.
It's all rather interesting, no?
Everyone has been a bit soul-searchy since the suicide, and little wonder. Sarah theorises that our generation has no real problems so we invent our own. It's hard to disagree when living in a world where every immediate need is met with the exchange of currency and a smile, although please recognise that there are some very clear boundaries about what is and isn't a purchasable commodity as far as I am concerned.
Work was the easiest thing in the world today.
[To my horror]posted by peter at 10:29 .......Wearing a white tshirt.
I think my nipples might be visible.
A thousand curses upon this summer and what it does to one's repose.
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[Friday]posted by peter at 23:22 .......An overnight quake, a glorious lunch, the Hello Kitty anniversary exhibition and more humidity than you can point a meteorological device at... now I am in a bar in Kawasaki and almost all is right with the world.
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[Under the flicker]posted by peter at 23:43 .......Suitably exhausted, having just walked from Mizonokuchi to Noborito, via Futako-Shinchi. It took Marc, Ms Guttman and I the best part of 3 hours to complete the mostly-riverside trek.
The first part of today was spent more or less in cafes, and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way.
I'm thinking about buying an acoustic guitar, but is this just folly in the land of small living spaces?
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[Time, place]posted by peter at 12:49 .......Apparently the police found the suicide very amusing. Another act in the foreigner parade, evidently. Cause for joking, obviously.
Fuckers.
I'm just trying not to think about things too much.
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[Some kind of planet]posted by peter at 19:59 .......Now the moon is red. This morning someone I vaguely knew walked to a local crossing and waited by the tracks.
Not least of all the fractures is the one that's been left in our little community.
[The thicker days]posted by peter at 13:49 .......Oh yuck I just said "see you in the office" unconsciously. I wasn't even being ironic.
What am I turning into?
A friend of a friend just flung himself in front of a train and I know it's not all about me, but still I don't quite know how to react.
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