Blogs from Kagoshima, Japan, Asia - page 5

Well, well... what do you know? As my imminent departure drew near, someone figured it was time to ease up on the clouds. Frustratingly so, the blue sky began to peak out again. I guess someone wanted to make sure the weather wouldn't keep my plane grounded as if to really make sure I got off the island pronto. Naha's immediate proximity to the airport meant that I could just casually check out and walk a few hundred meters to the nearest monorail station, and then find myself at the airport concourse some fifteen minutes later. The whole process of leaving my room and securing a boarding pass didn't even take 30 minutes. Quite impressive. Domestic flights in Japan generally seem to board around fifteen minutes before departure, so with more than an hour to spare ... read more

Deafening thunder storms all night mean an sub-optimumly overcast visit to Sakurajima, Japan's most explosive volcano, which skulked shrouded in mist like a London office worker with the flu hiding under a towel sniffing hot Vicks. Trying to take it easy for a change, we took a bus tour designed for the Japanese touring mentality, which begat 12 minute stops at each site. Our gigglesome guide seemed to have been on the happy baccy - she could barely inhale for laughing. Saw some lava - meh, I've seen better. What a travel snob! Had a bowl of Happy Meal priced blue collar ramen for dinner, having asked for directions when standing right outside the place - damn, Kanji (chinese characters) are hard to recognise! Chased the cheap noodle soup with coffee and cake costing twice ... read more

Sometimes I wonder about Japan. Recently I have made a habit of browsing the Asahi (English) newspaper cover to cover during my free periods. The world is a fascinating place but I always find myself drawn to the back of each edition where they feature Japanese news. This is where you find the juicy stuff: corruption, murder, scandal. There never seems to be a shortage of sensational stories. In the last two months we’ve seen Shibushi featured for police corruption that led to innocent suspects being tortured into confessions and government corruption that resulted in the minister of agriculture committing suicide. We’ve watched as the new Prime Minister, Mr. Abe, has stood by said minister despite calls for an investigation into excessive spending by his department, denied the existence of comfort women during WWII and ... read more

I believe I have committed the sin of all blogging sins…I have gone over a month without an update! I failed to report the blooming of the cherry blossoms; I didn’t disclose any details about my Aussie friend Tim’s second visit; I even attended another wild dance party in the city without a peep. I believe I have gone too long to revisit those events, but having received several requests for an update I will write about my latest adventure. To be honest, except for a couple of exceptional weekends, I had settled into a bit of a rut since my last update. My days were on an unwavering schedule (wake up, eat breakfast, walk to school, spend 8 hours there, do some form of exercise, walk home, cook dinner and make lunch, go to ... read more

As promised, here are some photos from the wedding reception I attended on Saturday. In many ways it was similar to a Western reception; it was held in Kagoshima’s swanky Hotel Welview and consisted of an 8-course traditional Japanese dinner, a beautiful cake and copious amounts of champagne, beer and shochu (the drink of choice down here, made with fermented sweet potatoes). Everyone was seated around round-tables in a reception hall with a head table for the bride and groom up front. As usual, speeches were made by several people, though these seemed to be more professional than at a Western reception: our school Vice Principal made a speech to the groom (my coworker) and I have a feeling the bride’s employer did the same for her. Maybe their friends spoke, though I couldn’t understand enough ... read more