Influence...

I think I can say in all honesty that Cockleshell Bay, that oh so quaint and wistful model-animation I watched as a small child, has had the greatest influence on my life. I remain convinced that it helped mould me into the quiet, imagination-based observer that I am today. I heartily recommend anyone out there who hasn't seen it to find an episode and bask in early 80s British tv glory. The theme music alone is worth finding... it's achingly poignant and incredibly sophisticated for such a program, underscoring the day to day activities of the very real and genuinely found characters... I almost feel like a cheese and chutney sandwich...

A barber's tale...

It was today that I realised a lifelong ambition... I walked the 20 metres from my apartment to the barber shop across the street and had a traditional, cutthroat razor shave.
The barber shop is nothing to look at. The dirty sunflower linoleum is pockmarked with long-forgotten stains and the overlying smell of the place is somewhere between used shirts and the folds of a bouncy castle. There is no expresso, fashion magazines or R&B. The only sounds are the low hum of the air conditioner, and the staccato conversation between a customer and the owner's young apprentice.
The owner looks a cross between a Japanese Detective Columbo and the kind of peripheral gangster that you see in Scorcese films, someone who would have a more successful younger brother and an exceptionally beautiful daughter.
He is a chainsmoker, a man of few words. He has numerous cheap pairs of glasses scattered around the shop, which he reached for in order to study a magazine picture of my desired haircut. He is not a waif-like glamour kitten with red hair and a perfect mouth. He doesn't soothe you with innocent chitchat. He's just a straightforward working man, no frills, no decoration, just a solid haircut for a reasonable price.
It was a great experience. I felt like I was experiencing what my grandfather would have experienced in 1950s England.
What I saw is what I got, and believe me, in this land where the exhillarating but ultimately shallow pop culture reigns supreme, it was a refreshing change.

The colour of sunshine...

Isn't orange a fantastic colour... the colour of egg yolk, the colour of lucozade, the colour of fresh carrots, the colour of sunshine. Not as dangerous as red, not as meek as yellow. Soft, yet exciting, thrilling yet gentle...

Pondery...

Why is it that we wear a ring "on" our finger, and not "around" it? Is it something to do with the physical properties of the ring? Does circular/flat denote that the quantifier should be "on"?...

???.... ok, so that's a strange question, but I'm living in Japan, I have cartoon music in my head and a too-large glass of coke before me...

Misconception?

Having never seen a dead body, I am curious to know whether it is common to close the corpse's eyelids, as you see in movies. Furthermore, is it possible to reopen the eyelids once they have been closed?...

Strange...

Certain issues seem to strike certain nerves here in Japan... take the debate over whaling. During a casual discussion on the subject, my Japanese companions started to visibly stiffen, offering only that whale populations are not decreasing, that it is the natural cycle of things, and that whales are only killed for research purposes...

... which is why whale meat is readily available at the local supermarket, I suppose? Which is why whale populations are dwindling? Which is why in the next quarter-century there is every chance that whales will become extinct?

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Japanese society for a westerner here is the seeming inability of the majority of Japanese people to engage in a theoretical, opinionated debate. Any hypothetical, Devil's Advocate style discussion seems to be viewed as a personal attack, and most people fall back on the government assertion that whales are not being killed for food, only for "research"...

Unlike cattle and livestock which are farmed for our consumption, whales are not taken from a surplus stock. As such, it seems a bitter shame that one of the oldest and most precious creatures in the earth's history should cease to exist, because of spineless ignorance and the hollow notion of "tradition"...

Movie scene

I wonder which movie was the first to use the now famous funeral-in-the-rain scene?...

If only we didn't need to sleep...

Much as I love sleeping (especially now that I am in Japan, the land of the red eyed corporate warrior), I can't help thinking about all the stuff we could be doing were we to have the extra 6 or 8 hours available to us. It's a little scary to think that a third of our lives, roughly, will be spent sleeping...

I love Japan!

Despite my occasional grumble, I do love living in Japan. How can you not love a country where you can buy a lunchbox that says "My name is Mink. It likes reading the book of an adventure. It is excited very good"?
How can you not love a country where you can buy cans of beer from a convenience store, 24 hours a day, and on that beer it says "Sheer refreshment! Open up the cool clear taste that goes perfectly with good times"? How can you not love a country where there are chocolate bars called Crunky, drinks called Calpis and snacks called Pocky?

A Possibility...

In our brains, is there every memory, thought, dream and sight we have ever had, embedded somewhere, stored much like a file on a hard disk?...

Memories...

Sitting on the train to work last week, beside a flock of high school girls on their way to a weekend basketball match, I was suddenly reminded of the times when a boy's life was dependent on appearing cool to such girls. What a demanding time, the ages 12 through 16!

Japanese Observation #5

Why is it that many Japanese people drag their feet when walking? Is it ingrained into people after generations of wearing sandals and slippers? Is it the remnants of a fad that refuses to go away? Is it sheer laziness? If anyone knows, I would dearly like to be enlightened...

A Culinary Question...

Here's something that has been nagging at me for ages... if food is so important here in Japan, why is there only one word for "delicious" (oiishii), which is always said after something is tasted I have asked numerous people this question and have yet to hear a satisfactory answer... if you know, or think you know, please tell me!

Japanese Observation #4

A great many Japanese people over the age of about 40 suck their teeth after eating, particularly salary men, particularly on the train. This seems to be the sole preserve of the upper adults of society - I have yet to see any teens or twenty-somethings do this. Where such a thing to transpire in England, it would be seen as the height of bad manners, especially in public. However, were I to do something as innocuous as silently dab my nose with a handkerchief, I would be commiting a grave social faux pas, and the said salary men would blink daggers in my general direction. How strange!
This teeth sucking also seems to function as a defense mechanism, started perhaps when the sucker (as it were) feels uncomfortable in the presence of foreigners, much as someone else would start toying with their mobile phone or start whistling.

Japanese Observation #3

In public places such as on the street and in shopping malls, the majority of Japanese people have no sense of spatial awareness. Old ladies in particular have an annoying habit of wandering in front of you, often pushing shopping carts laden with strange delights, not for a second noticing that they have caused you to come to a shuddering halt. The most vivid example I can think of happened at the train station last week. An elderly gentleman was at the head of a large throng of people scurrying towards the stairway down to street level. As he reached the top step, he casually stopped in his tracks, arched his back and flung his arms out to stretch, causing a human version of a motorway pile up. Sucking his gums (see observation #4) he then proceeded down the stairs in a lazy arc before scuffing his feet (see observation #5) all the way to the convenience store...

Japanese Observation #2

The vast majority of Japanese commuters in Fukuoka-ken would rather stand up on a long train ride than sit next to a stranger, be they Japanese or foreigner...

Japanese Obervation #1

It seems that in order to appear on a Japanese entertainment show, you have to live in Tokyo, wear haphazardly thrown-together clothes in pastel colours and act like a complete and utter wanker...