Motorbike licenses in Japan

A few facts about getting a first time license in Japan:

Most people go to large, fully licensed schools that have massive practice courses, dozens of vehicles of all types and heaps of staff.

This doesn't come cheaply, with a full car driving course costing about 300,000 Yen (1,500 quid) and a bike course costing about 200,000 Yen (1,000 quid).

A first-time driver at one of these schools has to take over 25 lectures in addition to the 20 or so practical lessons.

It is possible to go to a smaller, unaccredited school without the lectures, but apparently the pass rate is well under 20% with most people taking the test over five times.

It's all in Japanese, of course.

On the plus side, the quality of instruction I've received so far has been excellent, with a 400cc Honda bike kitted out with a few dozen different coloured lights (so the instructor can see exactly what I'm doing when) and unfailingly polite and friendly service. Which you would expect for a month's wages, but hey.

Anecdote: My Japanese is far from perfect, so yesterday when I first tried proceeding slowly in low gear by slowly releasing the clutch, the instructor walking backwards in front of the bike told me to 握って 'ni-gi-tte' (a verb I didn't know) it sounded to me like 逃げて 'ni-ge-te' (run away). I released the clutch to go faster, when he wanted me to grip the clutch and thereby slow down! He had to back-pedal pretty fast =P

Anyway, bikes are unexpectedly fun, and I'm looking forward to being licensed!

Pokemon underground

The 'stamp rally' held on the Tokyo underground network last year, complete with map, stamp book and 'mystery' stamps at some stations. Pokemon. On the Tube. Try picturing that in London?

Note the seven stamps, carefully chosen and diligently collected by a young lad and his harassed mother. I heard he wasn't able to get his first choice of Pokemon at some of the most popular stations since they were packed to the rafters with young-uns and stressed parents.

F*ing daft

I love this choice of brand name - how could anyone have not noticed it when it was launched? The choice of imagery complements it perfectly, and I saw a few one-storey high posters in Tokyo. The effing collection and basic effing are just my favourite picks. Most excellent.

New year's swim

The Hakodate 'tradition' of beginning the new year with a swim. Snow all around, a light snowfall, beautiful sunny conditions and only two people daft enough to do it in town at the time. Cold.

New Year 2008

In Japan the real parties take place during December and January, with the 'end of year' parties (literally 'forgetting the year') and 'new year' parties. New Year's Eve itself isn't necessarily a big deal unless you are young and in a major, modern metropolis.
Kasi, my new and wonderful co-worker, pours a large measure of sake in the well-appointed home of Mineko-san. Mineko was bored since her husband was away so she laid on a big spread of food for an end-of-year party and invited a bunch of random people. Cosy.
The shrine we cycled to after midnight to observe the 'Hatsumode' New Year traditions.
Chihiro and friends.
After picking out a fortune, most people tie up anything other than the best fortunes on these strings or nearby trees. I got the smallest possible amount of good luck (but not bad), Chihiro and Kasi one step better, they all ended up on here. I like the fact that people can and do draw really bad fortunes, but have the option of avoiding such a fate by tying it up in the shrine.
Having a lion eat your head is part of the deal. No-one has told me why yet.
As we were leaving we saw this group getting their photo taken by a nearby policeman.

Chihiro's birthday

There was curry and cake, rum and whisky and a fine time was had by all. Except Kasi, who nearly died from one of her many allergies, but that seems pretty normal for her.

Oh, and hey, the blog is back, maybe.

Still alive

Just lost interest in the blog for a while.

Here's a picture of Chihiro at 6am post 'thesis complete' party. Damn did she look good =)

Amazing thing is, she knew that every other girl at the party would be wearing a black dress, and every guy a dark suit. Funny thing is she had difficulty choosing between a frilly, fluffy pink confection and this slinky red number - her mum and aunt recommended the pink, natch =P

Confetti

No photo available for this one, but I love the tale told to me by one of my students yesterday.

"Nippon Hamu" (Japanese ham - literally, all the teams here have brand names for names, "Yakult" "Softbank" etc.) recently won the Japanese league and are officially the best baseball team in Japan, which is cause for celebration here in Hokkaido, their home prefecture.

The mayor of Sapporo wanted a parade with confetti, to emulate similar parades as seen in New York, but the ministry responsible for keeping the town clean wasn't so keen.

The deal they worked out was this: A paper company donated the required tonnage, and it was cut into 5x5cm squares instead of the usual confetti-sized pieces. This was done so that it'd be easier to clean up after the event.

Apparently no machinery exists for confetti-throwing, and it couldn't be done by hand since most of the buildings are only about ten storeys high, so the staff involved hacked together numerous buckets with short tubes and fans to propel the precisely-cut confetti the requisite distance.

During the event, announcements were made to the effect that cleaning costs would be high after the parade, so if everyone wouldn't mind, could they assist in picking up the confetti and disposing of it in the bags provided?

Apparently everybody, from the youngest kids to the oldest spectators, and "beautiful women and men" participated in the clean up operation.

She told all this to me to illustrate a "beautiful story of everyone working together to achieve a dream", and I don't think she understood why I was laughing so much...

It's good to have a purpose in life

Yes, they do mean the jelly. Er, and/or the fruit.

Toothpaste and tabacco

I picked this up without reading it first, and I should have known better. Salt flavoured? Fucking salt- motherfucking- flavoured toothpaste?! Gack!

In happier non- gag-reflex- inducing news the best ever anti-smoking campaign continues to entertain.