Saipan from the Nikko Hotel

Goto-san is a very generous boss. She gifted the entire Hop-step-jump team a 2 day trip to the white sands of Saipan. So this past month, we’ve been rotating in groups of 6 and jetting off to a tropical island that I bet none of you can find on a map. I stepped off the plane and onto American soil for the first time, and took in Saipan’s soupy, humid air. 2:00am.

I opened my eyes just a few hours later. I met Richard from Aquasmith in reception and in no time we were humming across the blue to our first dive spots near Tinian Island. The diving in those spots was just ok, a nice refresher, though the water was incredibly blue and the colours underwater were vivid. The dive of the day was at the Saipan Grotto, a world renowned cavern dive. The entrance is formed from a large partly collapsed cave. Once under the water there are 3 entry/exit holes that glow bright blue from the open sea behind. Once we had passed through the hole on the right we emerged into a coral garden and saw a turtle glide by over head. We passed through more nooks and cranies and then paused.. in front of me were my first sharks, 2 nice sized white tip reef sharks chilling on a sandy bottom. Richard and I checked them out but when we got closer they zipped off. Though they aren’t man eaters they looked very mean and cool nonetheless! (more…)

Looking down on Saturday’s Mikoshi

The Sanja Matsuri in Tokyo’s Asakusa is the big one, one of the famous Matsuri’s of Japan. Naomichan and I followed her friend Rie through the crowds and back alleys to vantage point of a restaurant overlooking the throngs below. This was the Saturday, the day when all the mikoshi from neighbouring communities are welcome in with their shines, more than 50 in all.

But Sunday was the main event. There are only three Mikoshi on this day representing the three resident deities of Asakusa Shrine. Its a scrum, madness and not for the light-hearted. To touch that shrine is an honour most people can only dream of. (more…)

Gifu Crows Nagano 07

So, I’ve gotten back into playing the beautiful game recently. Every Sunday the Gifu boys get together for a kick, and a few times a year we play in tournaments throughout Japan.

We went into the recent Nagano comp full of confidence after winning a small Nagoya tournament a few months ago, where I picked up the golden boot for the tournament with 5 goals. (more…)

I’ve been there countless times. Its a laid back retreat near Gifu Park, plays drifting house music, and has an interior that rustically fuses Asian styles. Downstairs are pottery classes and once in a while there’s live Jazz. Gifu’s best kept secret cafe. They do a great Pad Thai. Iwao lives there.

So I was at an Izakaya with some of the Matsuri team a short while back. The usual unusual assortment of dishes were scattered around the table. This one’s new, I thought, as I picked up the raw fish in my chopsticks and ate the mincey flesh. Not bad, what is it Naomi?

‘Whale’

???!!!

So you’ve had a laugh at engrish.com . Here are a few of my own entries I spotted in a store. Guess the meanings

SKY KEEPER the game which missed is nothing

MAKE UP ONES MIND determining is courage. The way things stand, when that is not arranged or the time of determining comes

…or this scary one (If I see someone wearing it should I tell them?)

US MARINES 74-81 | JAPAN TOUR, GODS HELL HOLE | NEVER AGAIN

Now, go on, have a laugh on me. As my Japanese is becoming more conversational I’ve been learning about context… Yaru and Suru are both verbs meaning ‘to do’. I thought they could be used quite interchangeably, though Yaru was maybe less formal. Conjugate verbs by adding ‘tai’ and you can express ‘verb + want to’. I was on the street with Naomi mixing Japanese and English when I blurted out ‘YARITAI’. Naomi froze, stunned. I’d just tripped over the slang for ‘wanna f*ck?’

Or this one for gold. In a previous post I was describing ‘anko’ the red bean paste in Ichigo daifuku. I always get this confused. For those of you who didn’t pick it up, my blog read for a few days that I like eating ‘unko’. SHIT.

Lol.