...except when there's earthquakes!

Fever at Blue Note

Talk about frustrating! Fever were good, but the venue, the much venerated Fukuoka Blue Note, really disappointed me. It's expensive to get in to, has ludicrously high drink prices and on top of all that you can't take photos (although that didn't stop me taking a couple of dodgy ones while nobody was looking). Anyway, I'm boycotting it! Along with Karaoke-kan.

Mars attacks!

More nostril fun!

Congratulations!!

Wow!! Much more beautiful than my nostrils! The lovely Jun-chan on the day of her graduation. For more photos see The Daily Shashin.

My nostrils, of course!

The hairs up here make excellent yoshin detectors.

You're yoshin me, mate!

Yoshin, yoshin, yoshin! Those yoshin keep a coming! I've had enough now! I just wish they'd stop because most of Fukuoka seems permanently on edge!

The numbers game

The yoshin keep coming, about 150 so far, experts say they're expecting another big one soon, the weather is terrible, sakura is still not here and I have a hanami party in three days. The TV weather people say sakura will blossom in four days, one day late for the party, my house is still a mess, I have been to karaoke twice in the last two days, three times in the last five, all in the same establishment, twice in the same room, have sung the same songs three times and, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm getting a little sick of karaoke's computer generated soundtracks and rather dodgy nama-biru. Will probably go to karaoke twice this weekend, making it five in eight and will probably end up singing the same songs five times, possibly at the same place. Talking of five, the wind today seems like it's gale force five, but the yoshin are magnitude 4 and the number of times I've been hit on the head this week is three. The number of minutes spent cleaning my apartment is two, likewise for the number of earthquake injuries I have, and the number of people in my bed last night was one. But...and this is the best bit...the number of English lessons remaining in this academic year is a big, fat, smelly zero! That's right! Zero! So that's something to cheer about. Get in baby! Now for some more lovely earthquake photos...

Flog me gently!

On my recent trip to Malaysia I was surprised by the number of newspaper articles I read about the flogging of illegal immigrants. If you've ever been to Malaysia or are simply interested in a government which routinely flogs its people, then you might want to take a quick look at this short BBC article.

The scene of terror!

Well, yesterday we had a few more yoshin. The biggest one, a magnitude 5.0, came at about 4pm. However, I was on the train so I didn't feel anything. And I finally posted my earthquake pictures today on my Daily Shashin site so please check them out!

In other news, it seems that my good friend and fellow comedian Skip has just started a blog. Please click here for a wonderful journey into the unknown world of the Skipster!

And it was the last day of classes today for the current academic year! YES!!

Quake can't stop us!

Despite the earthquake we still managed to get it together and put in a performance to be proud of at International Bar on Sunday night. Click here for photos!

Yoshin 余震

It's amazing how you learn new words in a foreign language especially when, all of a sudden, a particular word is said or heard constantly over a short period of time. The word currently on everybody's lips is yoshin, and it's a word I'd never heard before until two days ago. We'll come back to yoshin later...

So, yesterday I finally got home a full 30 hours after the quake struck. My house was not so badly affected. Many bottle and books fell, as well as the TV, but it was nothing like what happened to Jun's house.

In fact, it seems that being on the 12th floor meant that the experience was a little more violent than it would have been had I been in my 3rd floor apartment. Japanese buildings are made to withstand earthquakes by moving with them, and this building proved to be no exception. As I mentioned before, I was thrown a full two metres across the room and cracked into the wall, my right shoulder taking most of the impact. It still hurts today.

Okay, back to that word yoshin. Yesterday was reasonably calm but last night, between 11pm and 1.30am as I was watching TV, I felt a number of yoshin - known in English as aftershocks. One of them, around 11.30pm was particularly big and I kept on feeling them as I tried to get to sleep. Every time I felt myself dropping off I would be re-awoken by a small tremor. It was not the most relaxing experience.

Anyway, here's a handful of photos from my house. Most of the best photos are on my other memory cards which have gone inexplicably AWOL. Check out my Daily Shashin site tomorrow for some better pics.

A weekend of drama

I'm not really sure where to start. I could write about Saturday's comedy night in which my good friend Skip and I were participants, or I could talk about last night's sayonara party for Michelle and Brad which had us singing and dancing until 7am. Or I could talk about the earthquake.

But, I'm not really sure if there's much to say about the earthquake. Of course, it was terrifying, I thought I might die, and I am amazed I escaped with only light injuries. It's definitely not something I ever want to experience again and it was not fun and it was not cool. I'm just glad the aftershocks now seemed to have subsided because they are almost worse than the quake itself. They leave you constantly on edge.

So, is Fukuoka now a fully paid-up member of the 'Japan Earthquake Belt Club'? And should we expect more to come in the future? It seems that the answer to both these questions is a definite 'YES'!

FUKUOKA EARTHQUAKE

At 10.53am this morning, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck under the sea bed just off the coast of Fukuoka. It was strong. It was scary.

I was at Jun's flat, on the twelfth floor of a city apartment block. She was out doing some early morning errands. I felt some vibrations and stood up. I was initially surprised because Fukuoka is not known to suffer powerful earthquakes. But then the force increased. I was thrown right across the room as everything, shelves, books, CDs, light fittings, mirrors, came down. I hit the wall hard. It seemed to go on for a long time. When it stopped, I tried to get out as quickly as I could, but more shakes followed. Half-dressed and terrified, I grabbed my camera, headed for the stairwell, and ran down the stairs and into the street. I immediately started taking photographs.

Soon after I realized I have slight injuries to my right achilles and right shoulder.

Coming to Japan, I secretly hoped to experience an earthquake but what happened this morning, without comparison, was the most terrifying experience of my life. I don't want to go through that again. It seems that everybody is okay though. Japan is well built and injuries and deaths are low. Click here for the bbc.co.uk news report or here for the Japan Times.

So far I have been unable to get back to my home in Maebaru. I will hopefully get there tomorrow and then I can check the damage. I imagine it will be a complete mess. I'm particularly worried about my microwave, TV and stereo which are all on flimsy tables and shelves. I'm also quite concerned about my bottles of wine and rum and the mess they will have surely caused if they smashed onto the floor. But after weeks of procrastination I really did need to tidy my house anyway, so maybe this will actually force me to do it this time!

And...there's just been another aftershock as I write. The building is wobbling from side to side...this is not nice. Suddenly twelve floors seems very high...more later...

My time as a bad cat!

A throwback to my Gato Malo days in Spain! Here I am performing in the 'Palace' at a private party we put on for a friend. We managed to get about 150 people to come and we played a killer set! However, as a singer and songwriter, I've definitely come a long way since then. I suppose it's always nice to look back with satisfaction and to know that, even if other people think I suck, I've made a lot of progress.

The Most Popular Brit in Japan

Who's the most popular Brit in Japan?

David Beckham? Sean Connery? John Lennon? Harry Potter? Well, they all come close but they don't come close enough!

Actually it's me! No, only joking! Rather Winnie the Pooh, better known in Japan as Pooh-san, wins this particular contest by a healthy distance. Almost every kid, even the boys, loves this little bear and it's not uncommon to see the overwhelming majority of a junior high school class with a cuddly Pooh-san dangling from their school bag, their pencil or some other part of their being. I've even seen fully grown adults with Pooh-sans dangling from thier mobile phones. It seems that the cult of the Pooh-san in Japan is extremely healthy and I, for one, find it mildy disturbing.

Hurray!!

The three day weekend is here...

問題

今週、問題がありました。

かいさつぐちはおなかがすいていたので、ぼくのきっぷを食べました。

駅のスタッフはかいさつぐちをあけて。チケットをさがしました。２０分ご、かれらはチケットを見つけました。　電車２つにのりそこないした。　そして、仕事におくれました。

The Roadshow Continues

Recently I've been experimenting with the inclusion of a piano in my live set. I am lucky enough to have a fantastic pianist and a wonderful person to assist me in this project, Jun. You can catch us both at International Bar on Sunday night as we attempt to change forever the face of live music in Fukuoka, or something like that!

Portrait of a friend 4 - Sean and Kazu

Well, have you ever seen a scarier pair of unsavoury or potentially dangerous characters?

When I first arrived in Fukuoka, these fine karaoke masters took me under their wing and showed me some of the finer sights Fukuoka had to offer, such as Karaoke Kan and of course, Fukuoka Toastmasters Club! Toastmasters, you might ask? Yes, indeed, I wondered too! But it's better not to enquire any further!

To summarize, the Toastmasters are basically a group of wacky clowns who like to talk about all sorts of crazy rubbish at least twice a month in a funny little building somewhere among the back streets of Tenjin! And I've been one of them ever since the fateful day when I met these two bizarre-looking hooligans in the pub!

Anyway, Sean and Kazu (aka MC Kazu) as well as many of the other Toastmasters, have become very good friends of mine, and I'm very grateful for everything they have done for me since I landed in this fine city. Real karaoke veterans who like beer! Fantastic!

Some foreigners in Japan drink acid!

Anyway, today is White Day, the day when boys give their girlfriends something white, like Milky Bar Buttons or something. Valentine's Day, obviously, is the day when girls give to the guys so today, logically, it's our chance to respond.

Clearly invented by greedy marketing men, as you would expect in a fickle and trend-obsessed country like Japan, the masses fall for it!

And speaking of commercially invented holidays, St.Patrick's Day is just around the corner. It goes without saying that I'll be boycotting that too!

Extremely important things

Yesterday was an extremely important day. It was the graduation ceremony for third year junior high school kids. After almost one hour of excruciating boredom watching the extremely important head teacher handing out some extremely important certificates, we had to listen to some extremely important VIPs, such as the BOE boss, the PTA leader and some other extremely important guy, talking about some extremely important things. All the while there was the usual dance of bowing, sitting down, standing, more bowing, more sitting and then some more bowing, especially when the extremely important people were speaking. After all that, we sung the school anthem, the kids cried, almost all the parents cried (95% of them being bored housewives) and I counted five teachers crying. Admittedly, four were female teachers, but the other was a guy! Now, I don't really care which culture we're talking about, but the sight of a 27 year old man crying over something as silly as this is enough to make me laugh at any time of the day! I suppose it's because I couldn't give a flying monkey's toss about such things. Kids are kids, they can be fun, they can be cute and sometimes they can even become your friends, but they grow up and move on. Sure, I might even miss one or two of them but I certainly won't ever shed any tears over them. Do I sound heartless?

So, why do I dread and loathe these ceremonies so much? Maybe it's because, being British, we don't make such a big deal of things like this. We don't have graduation ceremonies at schools - only at universities and I didn't even go to mine - so how can I possibly get excited about yesterday's events?

This style of graduation ceremony is a very American concept and there would be little room for such an activity in most British schools. When we finish school all we get is a certificate in the post, and that's generally the way we like it. We can't be arsed with ceremonies where we have to listen to a load of self-proclaimed extremely important people talking bollocks. We like to get straight to the point, cutting out all the bullshit along the way.

Of course, just like in Japan, there are some elements of cheesy and cringeful American culture creeping into British society. At sports events it is now not uncommon for the celebrity of the moment to perform, Superbowl style, a truly awful rendition of our national anthem. Soul or gospel are usually the preferred styles but, regardless of who sings it, it's almost always terrible! I don't know why event organisers persevere, because if you conducted a survey of the British population I am sure that 95% of those questioned would say that they always prefered the simplistic beauty of the brass band and 80,000 voices in the stands.

Now that, if anything, is almost enough to make me cry. Although not quite.


Extremely important people? No, just salarymen!

Madrid - un año despues

Asahi Super Dry アサヒスーパードライ

J-League Soccer

I have lived in Japan for over a year and half. I watch Premiership and Serie A almost every weekend but since I've been here I've watched only about 30 minutes of J-League. Why? Beacause it's awful!

Still, this year I've decided to give it another go. The format has changed - gone is the Argentinian format of two annual domestic league championships and in its place comes the European format of one season-long championship of 34 games. So already, things are much better before we even kick off!

So, the first round of matches was this weekend. So, what did I think? Well, I saw plenty of shocking defending, woeful finishing, insipid midfield play and dodgy goalkeeping - and that was in the 60 minute highlight show! Still, it can only get better. But with most of the best Japanese players plying their trade in Europe, and with a whole host of unknown foreigners of dubious quality making up the numbers in the J-League, I don't expect to see many flashes of genius. Still, the league is young, at least by European standards, and the game is still developing here, so let's not be too harsh. I will endevour to give it a go this year!

On the results side, FC Tokyo scored the victory of the day with a 4-0 drubbing of Albirex Niigata, whilst there were home defeats for Gamba Osaka and last year's champions F-Marinos. The biggest attendance of the day (52,789) came at the Saitama Stadium, home of the Urawa Reds, who lost 1-0 to the Kashima Antlers. In fact, it was in this very stadium that the legendary Fukuoka Gaikokujin United came runners-up in the 'All Japan ALT Tournament'. We lost 2-0 to Niigata in the final.


The FGU Boys in Saitama Stadium


Sven and the boys sat here against Sweden in the 1-1 draw in the 2002 World Cup group stages

春がすき!

[Almost time for アイスコーヒー(ice coffee)! A beer to anyone who can tell me which coffee shop this is!]

The ume blossoms are out and it'll soon be time to cut out the hot coffee in favour of ice coffee. The insects will be abundant and before not too long the semis will be terrorizing our ear drums! The sakura season is just around the corner and those freezing cold bathroom mornings are behind us! What am I talking about? Well, spring, of course! And it has indeed sprung! And that's official! At least according to most people anyway!

It's been a long old slog, but the winter has gone, and we can now be happy! No more shitty weather! Long live the spring! Long live the spring! Spring is king!

スゴイ

Didn't they do a good job?

This is an 8 foot long artistic representation of the character I played at last weekend's Tiempo show. It's huge! And, if you feel the need to take a closer look, you can see it hanging proudly on the walls of the Spanish bar Sancho Panza just round the corner from BIC Camera in Tenjin. And, it just so happens that some time later this week I should have fifteen of my photographs adorning the walls of this very same establishment. So, if you happen to be in the area, please pop in and take a look!



And if you want to see some more of my photos, please check out my Daily Shashin site.

チャレンジ

今からブログに毎週日本語で書き込みします。なぜなら、日本語をもっと勉強したいからです。がんばります。

Winter 3 - 1 Spring

I came home last night at about 3.30am after playing in International Bar. When I left the bar the weather seemed okay, it wasn't too cold and I certainly didn't need to wrap up warm. Imagine my surprise, then, when I woke up this morning to see Fukuoka covered in a rather substantial-ish vale of whiteness! Yes, Winter has hit back with a vengeance! But Spring, where the hell are you, you big girl's blouse? One more strike to Winter, it seems! He is really kicking Spring's butt in the 'Battle of the Seasons'.

Anyway, I had a great time this weekend playing in Sam and Dave on Friday and in International Bar last night. Thanks to everybody who made it along to either, or like some hardy fools, to both shows! I really appreciate your support.

And thanks to Jun who played fantastically on piano!

Portrait of a friend 3 - Maki

Maki and Takamine

Maki was having a quick strum on my guitar when I asked her to pose for this shot. She is naturally photogenic and always comes out well in photos. This one, taken in International Bar last autumn, is definitely one of my favourites.

Yes...

¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Sheba en la playa

¡Feliz cumpleaños a Jules, a Jamie y a Douglas!