The rice field has been growing quite nicely, the plants are pretty tall now. The field looks amazing when the wind blows and all the plants move.
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Archive for August, 2007
Sorry for the total absence of posts. I’ve been meaning to post these for a long time, but converting so many videos and then uploading them to youtube takes a long time. And I’m lazy. Anyway, it’s finally here.
This week on one of my days off, I went to see the Kamen Rider movie at Woody Town. I noticed the poster last time I was there, and after looking up the trailer I decided I had to go and see it.
I had my second haircut in Japan today. I went to the same place I went to last time, even though they are slightly more expensive than a lot of other places. It turned out to be a good decision because the hairdresser who works there seemed to remember me, and just got right to work cutting my hair without me having to go through trying to explain what I wanted again.
Knowing what to expect from a Japanese hairdresser made all the difference. When they wash your hair, the chair elevates up to a horizontal position, with your head suspended over the sink, then they put a towel over your face. Last time this was extremely uncomfortable, but this time I realised the chair is made for people a little shorter than me so I slouched a little, and it was perfectly comfortable.
Again I was amazed at how careful the hairdressers are here. Again the haircut took a full hour, and he only used an electric razor for the neckline at the end. Apart from that it was all scissors, thinning scissors, and a razor blade. He also thinned out my hair a lot, which was something I was going to ask him to do because my thick hair makes my head too hot, but he saw that was probably a problem and did it for me. Great guy.
Today, like every day in Japan, it has been exceedingly hot. Luckily a summer storm has blown in tonight, and we’ve had thunder and lightning mixed with very light rain since about 5pm.
After work I went to the Oasis to buy some food for dinner, and happened to bump into Luke and his girlfriend there. We bought our food and set off in a light rain.
Near our apartment is a stretch of road with a gap to the left where you can see a long way with no buildings, and a streetlight directly overhead. As we walked under the street light there was a flash of lightning, and we all turned to look through the gap in the buildings. As we looked, the largest (and I think only) fork lightning I’ve ever seen flashed across the sky. It was stunning. Then the light overhead flashed on again. That piece of lightning had caused the light above us to momentarily black out, and we hadnt noticed.
I cant really describe it. And to some of you this is non-news. But to me, it’s a big deal. That lightning was awesome. And I saw it.
Ask anyone from New Zealand, leaving your curtains open at night will make your room colder. The cool air from outside will come inside, and you’ll probably get sick from sleeping in a cold room. This is what I have always known to be true.
In Japan at the moment, it is ridiculously hot. I can’t put into words how hot it is. It is routinely breaking 30, and with the added humidity it feels like 40 or higher. These are temperatures that I couldn’t hope to imagine while living in Wellington, let alone Dunedin.
Because of the heat, It’s difficult to sleep at night. You turn on your air conditioning to make the room cool, but then straight away it would get hot again. I assumed this was just because of the extremity of the heat, so I was dealing with it. However, last night I had the aforementioned revelation, I’ve been sleeping with my curtains open.
If you’d asked me if I even had curtains, I probably would have said no. I didn’t even register they were there because it never occured to me to close them. It was too hot. And we dont close curtains when it’s hot. And yet, last night I closed my curtains, and the heat stayed out of my room.
Curtains truly are amazing. Not only can they keep the heat in, but they can also keep it out. We really are living in the future.
Best thing about Japan so far? Fireworks. Despite the near unbearable heat that insists on coming back day after day, this time of year is when Japan has many festivals, all with fireworks displays that seem to get better and better as Summer moves on. This Wednesday I went to Fukuchiyama with Mayumi. Fukuchiyama is about an hour and a half north from here on the JR train line.
It’s currently 3pm on Wednesday, and I just went outside to bring in my towel. The heat out there is ridiculous. Inspired to find out just how hot it is, I found this delightful weather forecast.
That’s the forecast for today. Even at 4am, it’s going to feel like 32 degrees. I’m going to a festival in an hour. I have no idea how I’m going to manage.
Last Wednesday, Neil and myself went on a journey via Takarazuka and the Hankyu rail line to Nishinomiya Kitaguchi. Nishinomiya is somewhat of a hub as far as the Hankyu is concerned, connecting the Takarazuka line to the Kobe-Osaka line. As such we expected grand things, but upon arriving were disappointed to only find a lackluster mall. It didn’t even have an arcade, and those are everywhere.
However. Being a hub, the train station is very busy. And lots of people get to the train station on bicycles. Which means there are lots of bicycles just sitting around.
Seriously, those images are real. The sun was so bright, and the bikes were so glary that they look out of focus. But they are all bicycles. And they are legion.
On Saturday the 4th of August, Sanda City held it’s annual summer festival. I was promised more fireworks, so I was extremely keen to go along. I was working until 6pm or so, and most of the other Nova teachers were heading through to the Kobe summer festival or the Yodogawa festival near Osaka. Bryan however was intending to go to the Sanda festival, so I said I’d tag along with him.
