Get them while they're hot

David is laughing at me. He asked me if our lives are so uneventful that the only thing I can think of to blog about is a couple of KitKat bars….

I’m sort of blogging about KitKats, but only because they are a good example of what I am going to go on about today. We often get annoyed in our supermarket as they get a really good product in, we buy it for a couple of weeks and then we never see it again. This has happened with countless things: a good wine, a type of cake, a breakfast cereal, a type of tea etc etc. Usually luxury items now I come to think of it.

I think I finally get it however. The fact that these items are a novelty makes them appealing to the Japanese market and they sell out. People are always interested in something new, especially if it is foreign. If we were always able to get say, a particular French style cheesecake, it probably wouldn’t sell that well. We Europeans don’t understand this because we rely on particular items being there every week just for when we happen to fancy them.

The best example of seasonal novelties like this has to be the KitKat bar. I have seen so many varieties during my time in Japan, but now I know not to get too attached to them as they will only be around for a few weeks. For autumn / Halloween this year Nestle have brought out two types: caramel flavour and conker flavour (OK, chestnut then). I can send you one if you like, but you have to get your orders in fast before they sell out.

Rockford rocks

I feel like I know Rockford personally. My clever friends Elaine and Matthew have just finished putting together their epic project: a recorded story all about the adventures of Rockford the dog complete with songs and even some animation. It's brilliant! He has a website where you can read more and download MP3 files.
www.rockfordsrockopera.com

They haven't launched it officially yet, so I am letting you in on something big! You can even buy the CD box set from their website. Real collector's items. Enjoy!

Off to York

I went to the airport today to say goodbye to my seminar students who are off to study English in York for a semester. I am really going to miss them.

I was wondering what they were doing with their hands in this next picture. Can you see what they are spelling out (click to enlarge)? hahahah! It's harder than it looks!

Weekend music

First, a trip to Tower Records in Sakae to buy some new stuff and some old stuff (Prefab Sprout - haven't heard them in years). Next, off to Aichi Prefectural Hall for a spot of Wagner, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky. Tickets courtesy of Ito-san from the library who plays a mean oboe.

Dedicated followers of fashion

It's still boiling hot in Nagoya. The thermometer in my office registered 31 degrees yesterday, and no, we don't have air conditioning. I can handle it because I know autumn is coming. I go into a hot stuffy class second period. Nana and Shouko are wearing thick black tights and woolly dresses. I ask them whether they are hot. And the answer?

"Fall collection"

It doesn't matter how hot you are, you've got to keep up with the season's look. I am still in summer frocks and sandals, so I guess I don't have it. There again, I don't have the pressure of a 20 year old college student to look fashionable.

Gwen and Nancy - aren't you missing all this?

Robots

We have all heard about Japan’s aging population and there are often articles about the shrinking labour force in the papers. In an article in today’s “Daily Yomiuri” the dean of Tokyo university’s graduate school is quoted as saying “in the type of aging society that we foresee, the situation will likely get to the point where there will be little choice but to get some help from robots”. Exciting stuff, but it makes us laugh that immigration is not even considered an option. The Japanese would rather have a robot looking after them in their old age than a foreign nurse for instance. We are wondering when they are going to invent English teaching robots and send us all home.

Korpiklaani

Korpiklaani: blonde giants of various ages with loads of hair dressed in leather waistcoats. More metal than folk as you couldn’t hear the violin and accordion like you can on their album, but they are a good, fun live band. They sang in Finnish, Sami and English and they have some hard-core followers in Nagoya who wear the t-shirts and sing along to the songs. The only bits I joined in with were things like “beer beer” and “let’s drink and enjoy”. Korpiklaani like their beer. They even shared some with the audience…

Big hairy men from the forest

I love autumn in Nagoya as it’s the start of “gig season”. At the weekend I was checking out which bands were playing here over then next few months and writing dates in my diary. I hadn’t heard of most of them, but that hasn’t put me off before. The first gig of the season is on Thursday: a band called Korpiklaani who describe themselves as “pure Finnish folk metal”. I checked them out on MySpace and they sound awesome, like a Finnish Pogues. I can’t imagine who is going to be at the gig apart from us. Is there a Japanese housewife following perhaps, or are Nagoya’s wholesome punks going to appear from nowhere like they do occasionally. I’ll let you know after the gig on Thursday.

http://www.myspace.com/korpiklaaniofficial

Everyone is leaving me!

First Kazue, then June, then Sarah, then Nancy, then Gwen. It's not over, Today I went to the airport to say goodbye to 5 of my clever students who got scholarships to study a semester at Manchester university.

Everything has a face (part 5)

I haven't done one of these for a while, have I?
Cute kiwis have faces in Japan. Makes me feel mean reaching for that spoon....

Yakushima

32 things I loved about Yakushima

1. It’s beautiful! It looks like Hawaii.
2. The ancient, giant cedar trees
3. The macaque monkeys
4. The well-maintained network of mountain trails
5. The weather. We were lucky and had very little rain
6. The tame, beautiful deer
7. The quiet beaches and clear warm (East China) sea. Perfect for swimming.
8. The strange shaped granite rocks
9. The cheap accommodation. We stayed at mountain huts for free and paid just 3000 yen a night each for a comfortable, private air-con room in a family house on other nights.
10. The baby turtles we watched being released at night on Inakahama beach
11. The food: flying fish, smoked mackerel, chicken sashimi and tofu caprese especially.
12. The island colours at sunset: the sky, the sea, the clouds and the mountains.
13. The orange-coloured mineral bath in a private cave overlooking the sea at the ryokan we stayed at
14. Having a beer at sunset at Inakahama beach
15. Yaku Sugi (Cedar) land. Lots of paths and interesting trees.
16. The toad we encountered on our hike
17. Our Rent-a-car: it was only a sluggish Toyota with a slipping fan belt, but it meant we could explore the whole island easily
18. The bougainvillea
19. The views from the top of the mountains
20. The trendy restaurant with the wooden deck outside (next to the river in Anbo)
21. Swimming in the sea at Isso beach and realizing that the volcano on the nearby island was actually smoking!
22. The giant boulders in the rivers
23. The changing landscape in the mountains; one minute mossy dense forest, the next could have been the Rockies, the next could have been north Wales or the Peak District
24. The 2nd and 3rd generation cedars – younger trees growing on ancient stumps
25. Swimming in the river which runs through Yaku-sugi Land
26. Dinner at the up-market ryokan in Inakahama – lots of sushi and boiled lobster in broth
27. The strange banyan trees
28. The views along the coast
29. The views of the mountains from the coast
30. Waterfalls
31. Our favourite lunch spot; a Hawaiian-themed restaurant in Anbo overlooking the sea
32. The museums about the island and UNESCO

And a few things I am less excited about….

1. The mice that “haunt” the mountain huts at night looking for food
2. The shared bathrooms
3. Squat toilets
4. A week without my tea
5. A tropical island with no fruit? I was hoping for fresh passion fruit, oranges and mango, but only found them made into cakes and biscuits in souvenir shops
6. Sitting on the floor a lot














MORE PHOTOS HERE!