土曜の夜 (Saturday night), Lab-Z, Fukuoka City

My favourite Japanese food!

ラーメン

おいしいだよ！

さよなら！

For the last two years there have been six ALTs in our office. Conor and Keisha (not in photo) both returned home within the last week or so. Catherine, second from left, departed Fukuoka this afternoon with about 25 people turning out to see her off at the airport. And by this time tomorrow Rory, pictured far left, will also have gone. That leaves Shannon and I, the only remaining survivors, to battle it out for another year.

And while I'm at it, I'd just like to say farewell to one or two others who have made my time in Japan so enjoyable: Emily, Jake, Aaron, Katie, Osi and Porsha. Best of luck! Hope our paths cross again soon!

オッシーちゃんのさよならパーティ

**To see more photos of Dave Taylor and Nanbanjin at the Voodoo Lounge, please visit my music page**

今日は・・・

二日酔い！

A weekend in Hita

We spent the weekend in Hita. The reason for our visit was to play a gig on the Saturday night, but our time there also coincided with the climax of the Hita Yamakasa Festival on Sunday, which was truly awesome. Huge teams of men and boys heaved and pushed their way - expertly guiding huge and extremely heavy yamas - around town all day, non-stop! Guys sitting inside would play pipe music whilst onlookers drenched the participants in water. Some of the yamas were so tall that they would pose serious threats to the overhead wiring (sorry for the crap picture. I took hundreds of analogue shots, but this was all I got with the digital compact).

And despite a hangover, the day's events fully reminded me why I came to Japan in the first place and why, after two years here, I am still happy to be living here and not ready to return home yet. As far as I was concerned, this was Japan at its best!


And you've gotta love Japanese magazines, don't you? I've decided I'm going to start buying a few on a regular basis, see where it'll take me...

Weekend jaunt...

Off to Hita to play a gig. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to post tomorrow.

In fact, I have decided that from now on this page is going to turn more serious, more deep. I want to deal with topics such as immigration, history textbooks and controversial shrine visits. I want to work out what the hell this country is all about. Why are the Japanese so bad at English? What does it mean to be Japanese? If you are born in Japan of foreign parents, live all your life in Japan and go through the Japanese education system and speak and write perfect Japanese, are you still a gaijin (hate that f**ing word)? Or what if you were born in Brazil, of Japanese parents, lived in Brazil all your life, never been to Japan and don't speak a lick of Japanese, are you then still classed as Japanese? Or Brazilian? Or both? And another thing, why do so many Japanese look down upon haafus? Is it because they are contaminated? And what about the Koreans? And the Chinese? Why are they so mistreated? And why do most Japanese think foreigners cannot learn their language? Or use chopsticks? And why is it that Japanese music is so bad? Why do so many Japanese girls like foreign men? What's in their handbags? Do they really need to walk like that? What really goes on in Nakasu? How many sex slaves are working in Fukuoka? And why do the Japanese seem to be ignoring the threat of HIV?

These are the kinds of questions we need answers for.

On Saturday there was a party...

**Best of luck Keisha!**

やまかさ

So, Yamakasa this morning!

Up at well before dawn and biking into town for one of the highlights of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa Festival, a street race involving seven humungous teams as they try to carry enormous 30 feet tall floats round the city whilst geting drenched by spectators with hoses and buckets. This all starts at 4.59am.

Anyway, the whole city turns out and despite the early start, it is well worth going to see! I'm knackered now though! Luckily, the good Hakata folk have the sense to put it on a Friday morning, therefore putting the weekend (in this case a three day weekend) within touching distance! Here's a couple of photos. To see more you know where to go...

The Daily Shashin


4時やきとり！ 4am yakitori


If you like male bums then this is the place to be!

Apology

Apologies to Jake.

La Vache Qui Pise has been informed that the following article can be found when doing a google search on 'jake kenny':

Jake and his mate win a lot of money!

And there is even a photo!

Contortionist

Here comes the rain again...

Chiyo, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City, Japan, 10-7-2005, 6.18pm

楽しかったよ！

Wow! What a great time we had at Tupelo last night! Thank you to all those who made it out! If you missed it, don't worry, maybe see you on the 26th?

Karaoke Klub signs off in style!

Neighbourhood friends

I've been seeing a lot of these things recently round my neck of the woods. At about 30-40cm long, these presumably harmless snakes are a joy to behold. This one, however, seems to have been rather unfortunately run over by a bike.

**I have a few rather lovely photos from last night's final Karaoke Klub of the year. I'll get round to posting them tomorrow!**

Flags at half-mast

London...I am thinking of you!

Thanks to everyone who e.mailed me after yesterday's bombings. I know a lot of people who work in the city and who use the Tube on a daily basis, but as far as I am aware all of my family and friends are safe and well.

Thank you.

今日の西日本新聞

A group of friends and I are featured in a drunken photo on page 30 of today's Nishi Nihon Shimbun （西日本新聞）. The photo is featured as part of an article about London winning the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games and includes an interview with none other than Heneganov himself, giving his much-sought-after and expert opinion on why the games are going to London and not to Paris. Apparently the writer has made it seem like we all went out on the piss to celebrate London's victory and makes no mention of the far more important issue of Eric's birthday which was the main reason for such a wonderful gathering.

It's London!!

Well, who would have Adam 'n' Eved it? London got the games! Fantastic!

I slept through a magnitude 4.3 earthquake on Tuesday morning. In fact, I am the only person I know that didn't wake up. It must have been the malaria tablets I'm taking. They absolutely knocked me out!

And my friend Emily won 50,000 yen (374 euros) yesterday for answering six trivial pursuit questions correctly (with a bit of help from the audience) in the Happy Cock, an infamous bar in Fukuoka City! Rather splendidly she dished out the dosh to cover everybody's dinner that evening. Fair play Emily! Mucho arigatou!


A delighted Emily receiving her 50,000 yen

Saturday 9th July
The James Heneghan Acoustic Roadshow
Live at Tupelo, Tenijn, Fukuoka City. Click here for map.
Also featuring Cut Flowers, from 8pm. Cover charge 500 yen. Everybody is welcome.

British food? Disgusting?

Whilst French premier Jacques Chirac may have a point, his comment about British food being bad is not entirley fair.

Yes, it's true that many Brits each shit on a regular basis. In fact, come to think of it, most do. However, if you listen to most foreigners the impression they often have is that we are a nation of drunken football hooligans who have no idea how to cook and who eat take-away fish and chips every day (except Sundays when we eat a minging fry-up for breaky followed by a plate of BSE and potatoes for dinner). And we all drink tea at four apparently. Or something like that.

Having lived in France, Spain and Japan, all of which have proud culinary traditions, I would have to agree that, in general, the diet of the average Brit is woeful in comparison to people living in these three countries. However, that is not to say that British food is bad. I have been to plenty of fine restaurants in the UK, serving both British and foreign foods (in fact the variety on offer in the UK surpasses that of France, Spain and Japan put together) and I would have to say that, in addition to the fried junk food we seem famous for, there are hundreds of very rich, healthy and delicious dishes awaiting the foreign visitor to the UK who is prepared to look hard enough and with a mind open enough. For example, Britain has a more fantastic and more varied cheese industry than even France, and is home to hundreds of different types of hams and other meats, millions of world-class dairy products, jams, cakes, world-beating bread, excellent sauces, pickles and other condiments, not to mention dozens of delicious traditional dishes, from Shepherd's Pie to Yorkshire Pudding and gravy, most of which are relatively unknown outside the UK.

I laughed hysterically when one of my Japanese colleagues told me she almost starved to death whilst on a two-week holiday in the UK. 'The food was awful' she cried! 'I had to eat in Burger King every day!'

Well, there you go then! If you have the ambition of a dung beetle when you go on holiday, then of course you'll end up eating shit!

Pianoman?

It's been a busy weekend musically, with demo recordings, rehearsals and song-writing all keeping The James Heneghan Acoustic Roadshow occupied and without rest. Next Saturday's gig should see the debut of at least one new song, although the violin part has yet to be written, plus we've been working on a few really weird new ideas which may or may not get to see the light of day.

Nowadays I'm writing quite a bit for the piano and I hope to put at least one of my new piano compositions on the upcoming CD, which will hopefully be ready in time for Christmas. Within the next year one of my major musical goals is to introduce the piano into my solo acoustic live set, but I still don't really have enough confidence to do that yet. So, for the time being I'll just stick to the guitar.

The rain in Japan falls mainly on your spam!

Chiyo, Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City, Japan, 2-7-2005, 9.18am

Well, at last the rains have arrived! One tiny peek out of the window is enough to confirm that it's now raining like the proverbial 2 ton cow pissing on your head! It makes a nice change from that awful, sticky hot soup stuff, although the end result if you go out of the house is the same both ways - you end up drenched!

I made a rare appearance at the Voodoo Lounge ¥100 beer night on Thursday! This was a most interesting experience. Many things happened. As a result of the evening's exchanges it looks like I am going to be making my first radio appearance in Japan within the next few weeks. More about that later.

And I had that strange famous in Fukuoka feeling whilst wandering around the Voodoo. Do you know it? So many people seemed to know who I was, but I had absolutely no idea who the majority of them were. I suppose it's one of the perks (or otherwise) of being a local rock hero! I got so many 'Hey man, I really love your terrorist song' and 'Wow, that gay song was wicked!'. Really? Well in that case guys you might be interested in popping down to 'The Basement' at Early Believers on the 26th!

Currently, Jun and I are on a tight recording schedule. We want to get a basic demo of one of our songs finished by this weekend. This could be the start of great things. I want to make a four track CD, with the main song being the aformentioned The Ballad of an International Terrorist. These could indeed be exciting times!

すごい！