06/28 - Root Blue, Go to Busy Shinjuku

A blast from the past

and some shelter from the rain

for Mune's old team


A face in the crowd

when there are this many faces

is the smile of light



Saturday afternoon is the perfect time to take in a baseball game, so Tim and I headed to the Seibu Dome today for the second time, to see the Saitama Seibu Lions take on the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. It was raining pretty heavily, so it was a good thing the Lions play in a dome, even if it is open all around the perimeter. I wanted to catch a game this weekend because I wanted to see the Hawks, since they are current Toronto Blue Jay and personal favourite Munenori Kawasaki's old team. Mune played for the Hawks for ten years, amassing tons of awards and winning two Japan Series titles. It was also a good weekend to go because it was Lions Classic 2014, which meant that both teams were wearing throwback uniforms. The old style uniforms looked really cool, featuring some colour combinations I would not describe as common in North American pro sports. The Lions wore light blue with red and green trim, while the Hawks were decked out in white uniforms with brown pinstripes and orange trim. The best part of the hawks uniforms was that their batting helmets had the head of a hawk painted on them as though the player had a bird's head. (Check out the styles here.) I thought it was funny that even the team sponsors were from the past. Every team in Japanese baseball has a company name in the title, generally the company that owns the team or a company owned by the team's owner. Seibu is the name of a huge conglomerate that runs department stores and train lines among other things, and SoftBank is one of the largest cell phone providers here. But for this weekend, in their throwback unis, the SoftBank Hawks were once again the Daiei Hawks. Daiei is a supermarket chain here. When we researched some of the history of the Lions that day I found out some interesting facts. First, the Lions actually used to be located in Fukuoka, the home of their opponents. Second, a very famous Blue Jay once played for the team. Tony Fernandez, a player who hilariously played for the Blue Jays four separate times in his career played for the Lions in 2000, a year before his last stint in Toronto. Jays fans should all forever love Fernandez not only for his own play, but for the fact he was also part of the trade that brought Joe Carter and Roberto Alomar to Toronto. Alomar and Carter were instrumental in the Jays first World Series in 1992 and then Fernandez joined them in 1993 when he was traded back to the Blue Jays and helped the team win their second straight championship. I think it's super cool he is part of Seibu Lions history too, even though he only played in Saitama for one season.

Tim and I bought tickets for the outfield section, so we could be in the area with all the diehard fans, but when we got to right field where all the Lions crazies and the band were we realized there were no seats for our section, just some green carpet on the concrete. We took in a little of the pre-game ambience before heading to a section where we could stand comfortably and look for some free seats. We had to use the guise of buying some KFC to get into a nicer section.

I wore my Blue Jays #66 Kawasaki t-shirt to the game today, even though I was cheering for the Lions. I was happy that the Lions won their second straight with me in attendance rooting them on, but I wanted to rock my Kawasaki t-shirt to the game anyway. On the train after a boy and his mom wearing Hawks gear checked out the shirt, front and back, with great interest. Then an older guy who was wearing tons of Hawks merchandise looked at my chest and said "Blu-ey Jay-soo". I smiled at him and showed him the name on the back and he grinned at me for the rest of the ride.

After a brief stop at home, I headed out for the night. I met some of my former students and friends in the incredibly busy Shinjuku Station. The station has the Guinness World Record for busiest transit hub in the world and has over 200 exits. Luckily, my friend Yoshi organized our meeting point, going as far as to warn me to go to the East Entrance, not the Central East Entrance. I was a bit bewildered but luckily Yoshi spotted me, then with the help of his phone we found our other two friends Yuki and Koki. The four of us went and walked through the Golden Gai, an area of tiny alleyways full of absolutely tiny bars. Then we walked around Kabukicho, Tokyo's "Sleepless Town" to find a place to eat. Kabukicho is named after a Kabuki theatre that was never built and is supposed to be a bit of a seedy area but I didn't see anything other than a staggering amount of people. We had to hunt a bit to find a restaurant that could fit us in and when we finally did we had to wait for and take a busy elevator up to the 6th floor where it was, so we could eat some Kyushu food. The food was delicious and the company was great. All three of the gentlemen I shared supper with have fantastic English and I got to witness how hard they worked to achieve their impressive skills while they were in Vancouver. It was very nice to catch up with them, Koki and Yoshi for the first time in Japan and Yuki for the second.

When we finished Yoshi and I walked together to the station while Yuki and Koki went to play some billiards. Shockingly we ran into Harris, a teacher I met at our company's orientation day almost two months ago. It was a huge surprise to spot an unexpected familiar face in such a hellaciously busy place, so we took a few minutes to chat and share some of our Tokyo experiences. Harris, now used to basic level students, was also impressed with Yoshi's English. When he told Yoshi how good his English Yoshi replied "You flatter me." Which modestly did more than confirm Harris's belief.

06/27 - Like One Direction

You can have some fun

looking in one direction

singing your voice out


Tonight after work Aykut and I headed back home and changed clothes before going out for dinner at the closest restaurant to our house. We had a drink on the walk over. Myself, I tried an alcoholic can of green tea, which tasted just like green tea even though it was %4 alcohol. We had a nice dinner and a good chat and Aykut poured the plum wine he had with him into the orange juice he ordered, which was absolutely hilarious. After dinner we went back to our apartment building (PINUS) and met up with Lauren. The three of us took a leisurely stroll out of Higashi Murayama into Tokorozawa. On the strip by the station we played a couple of arcade games and while we did our friend Tim showed up.

The four of us were deciding where to go next when a guy from one of the several karaoke places on the street came over and started speaking to us in English. He was very nice and quite funny, so we chatted with him for a bit and he continued to lower his price for us. He ended up offering us nomihodai (all-you-can-drink) for an hour for around 1,000 yen (about $10 Canadian) and a cheap price to do the karaoke. We decided to take the offer, but before we headed in we wanted to get a picture with him, which led to one of the most memorable moments of the night. I asked a girl standing nearby to take the picture (in Japanese) and she agreed. While she took my phone to get the picture one of her friends, a guy, started shouting to me. He yelled "You look One Direction! One Direction!" This marks the third time since I've been in Japan that someone has told me I look like One Direction, which I guess means I look like five different people who are all much shorter and smaller than me, but also seems to be meant as a compliment.

Another of the most memorable parts of the night was when the guy who had convinced us to choose the establishment came back to our room to check on us. I turned the tables and did some convincing myself. I convinced him to sing a song with me before he left, his choice as long as it was English. He picked Usher "U Remind Me" so we belted it out together. "You remind me of a girl...that I...once knew...see her face whenever I...I look...at YOUUU!!!!"

The karaoke was a lot of fun, but in typical Paddy-level exuberance for singing, I blew out my voice almost immediately. This comes with the territory of making up for a lack of talent with all-out effort. It was quite cool that our group included a Canadian, a Turk, a New Zealander, an American, and briefly a Japanese fella.

06/26 - Poetry in Motion

When the rush begins

every moment vital,

do not hesitate


This post could be made on any number of days, but this morning was definitely a shining example of what the train can be like on our morning commutes. When we got to Tokorozawa station, we headed for our platform as per usual. From the top of the stairs you have a good view of the platform and any trains arriving on either side. Often we time our walk to the station pretty well, so when we get to the platform there's just a minute or so before our train arrives. There are often people rushing and running around the station in the morning. We sometimes join them, as it's important to get in line for the train before it arrives to get a good spot. A standing spot still, but there are better more comfortable places to stand. On days like today though, we can see the train arriving at the left of the platform and know we have to hurry down the stairs to get in line before all the people getting off the train on the left join the line for the train on the right, while all the people in line for the train on the left squeeze through them to get on the train the others are getting off. If you think that sentence is complicated you should see what it looks like in person. People rushing at each other and darting in between each other on a crowded platform while trains pull up and get filled up in no time at all. It's pretty impressive and would actually be a joy to watch if you didn't know you had to enter the fray yourself.

Getting a seat is rare enough that when Aykut and I both got a seat one day this week we actually took a picture. When we got on the train we actually grabbed the only two seats that hadn't been rapidly snatched up and they were across from each other. A gentleman next to Aykut spotted that we were together though and gestured that we could switch seats. It was very polite and allowed us to get the snapshot. I call it, The Professors.

06/25 - Ichi-go, Ichi-e

When it gets humid,

please, eat, drink and be merry

'til your heart's content


Today on the way to work I definitely felt the humidity. I've felt too hot even on the comparatively cool days. However, it was no matter because I was already excited for our post-work plans. My two coworkers, Simon and Aykut, and my friend Masa had made a plan to go to Shakey's, a pizza chain in Ikebukuro after work. At the restaurant they have tabehodai, or all you can eat. It's buffet style and the buffet has a section of pizza, a section of dessert pizza, a section of pasta, as well as a salad bar and some french fries, curry, and of course, rice. I caused a stir by putting the curry on top of the french fries on offer, in true Irish style. It's very common to order curry and chips at the chipper (fish and chip shop) in Ireland. I always try to eat it once when I'm there visiting my family. Obviously it is not common here though, as one of the girls working behind the buffet started laughing right away and tapped the girl next to her, they both laughed and I smiled at them and told them it was good. The pizzas came out very frequently and had lots of choice. Some of the options were quite interesting. There was some delicious tuna pizza, pizza with mayonnaise on them and lots of pizza with corn on them. The dessert pizza had some interesting flavours too, with coconut-mango, blueberry and apple pie pizzas. We all ate a ton and it was quite a fun night.

On the train on the way home Masa taught Aykut and I a great Japanese expression, which he very correctly said is a good one to know considering our circumstances. It is "ichi-go ichi-e" and it means "treasure every meeting, for it will never recur" or basically is used to describe once-in-a-lifetime moments. I think a direct translation would reduce it to "first chance, first meeting" but I could be slightly off. According to Wikipedia it is "linked with Zen Buddhism and concepts of transience." I was very grateful that Masa taught us the phrase and took a picture off of the dictionary entry he looked up on his phone so I wouldn't forget it. I think it is a beautiful phrase, but in a funny way it also nicely summed up our evening. I was very happy to have tried the buffet pizza joint, but I don't think I really ever want to go back.

06/24 - Does it bollocks, People matter

Friends will stay with you

no matter where you venture

for people matter 


Today was definitely an interesting day, despite the fact I didn't actually do anything really out of my normal daily routine. I enjoyed my classes today, as we worked on phone conversations. One of the exercises involved students putting phone conversations in order. I wrote my own phone conversations for them to read and order. For the informal conversations I used common situations in Japan, such as meeting a friend to eat sushi. For my formal conversations I chose two situations, making a reservation at a restaurant and making an appointment with the doctor. In each conversation I referenced one of my best friends. I used the name Dr. Huang in honour of my homey Paul "Ubiquitous" Huang who is currently in med. school at Queens University. For the restaurant I used the name "Nomad", which will be the name of my best buddy in Vancouver Taylor Burnham's restaurant when it opens some time this year.

I hope that using their names brings the same good fortune that other recent efforts in my classroom have. If you're unaware I'm fairly superstitious when it comes to my sports teams. I was quite disappointed that the Jays got swept by the Yankees recently and realized that when the team was on an absolute tear at the end of May and early June I had been putting up some Jays decorations at home and in my classroom. I had been planning on using a couple more Jays pictures for some lessons later in the week, so I decided to put them up yesterday and today. Low and behold the Jays won both days, with some rather fortunate plays going their way.

If you don't believe my classroom decorations could have an effect on a professional baseball team half the world away (which is pretty rational), then at least appreciate this story about superstition and my classroom. In Vancouver early this year a student asked me what a voodoo doll was. To explain I drew one on the whiteboard of a student of mine who had a good sense of humour and had been giving me a hard time. He was a skateboarder and always carried his board around, so I drew the voodoo doll on a skateboard. Then I demonstrated the use of a voodoo doll by drawing pins stuck into his shoulder and some fire around his hands. The class thought it was a very entertaining drawing, as I actually made it look quite a lot like him. The next day, he didn't show up for class and sent a message to another student in my class to explain. He had fallen off of his skateboard the night I drew the voodoo doll and hurt his shoulder and both wrists. He even went as far as to say his wrists felt burnt because he had scraped them on the asphalt. I thought my class was playing a trick on me and that it was pretty funny, until they convinced me they were indeed telling the truth. When the student eventually got to school later that day I saw his wrists and could tell he was in bad shape. I felt so bad and gave him a gentle hug right away. He told me it was not my fault, because he didn't believe in that kind of stuff. I had never fully believed in voodoo dolls either, but that whole situation definitely made me reevaluate my thinking. So there, incredibly anecdotal, but hopefully entertaining, evidence that what you see in Paddy Watson's classroom can have an influence on the outside world.

Switching from that eery story to another, after work that night I was walking around Ikebukuro in an area I pass every day, very near the station. I crossed a crosswalk that I cross at least a few times a week, noticing before I did that a large crowd was gathered outside a couple of restaurants and a store that face the street. I took a peek over everyone to see what they were looking at, but I wish I hadn't. On the sidewalk, there was a dead body. There were tons of police cars, ambulances and firetrucks around and they were closing off the block and connecting streets. News crews were also beginning to show up. I later found out that a man had crashed his car into the sidewalk and a storefront, killing one woman and injuring seven others. The driver had been on drugs, something that is pretty rare in Japanese society. My students filled me in on what had happened. They said it was the first news story the night it happened and the next day. While they all knew he was on drugs, interestingly, they did not know what drugs or anything more about it. It was a sad thing to witness, especially in such a safe country and a little bit worrisome considering it happened in an area I frequent. At least I can't draw any connections between my classroom and the incident.

Today made me think about how much people matter, so below I have posted a great little scene from the movie Brassed Off. It's got a great line in it, which was used at the start of the famous Chumbawamba song, "Tubthumping", which led to my title.

06/23 - Making Progress

Move a small amount

and each day things will improve

as you will, yourself 

Today I had my second session with the lovely old lady who does acupuncture and massage next to where I work. This time I went prepared, having learned some important vocabulary. The two key words I learned were neck (kubi) and pain (ita or itami), but I also learned some phrases and vocabulary passively (ESL teachers term meaning you would know it when you hear it but not well enough to produce it yourself). It really helped out and the therapist seemed really happy that I had made an effort, although she seems really happy about everything all the time. Her laugh is hilarious and contagious. Interestingly enough, she tried to figure out more about my ankles this time. I have some issues with them and did my best to explain their weird features, such as the extra piece of bone, a chip that sticks out just above my right foot. She managed to figure a lot out, which was great. She's basically doing what my physiotherapists in Vancouver do, attempting to add a little more movement every time they work on me.

This led me to a great new Japanese phrase. As she demonstrated the plan on a small skeleton in her office, she continuously said "sukoshi zutsu". Over and over. Her eventual translation was "little move". My students helped me learn about the phrase and it is quite versatile. The phrase, I now know, can mean a little movement, or can mean little by little, or can mean improving slightly. I thought it was a great phrase to know because I am trying to improve my Japanese little by little. I also think it is a great idea to try to improve at something every day of your life as well.

少しずつ  (sukoshi zutsu)

06/22 - "This is the only natural inclination of men."

Just walking around

to just kinda check stuff out. 

Just looking around. 


Today I spent the day with Cathal again, after crashing at his hotel last night. It was the first time I had slept in a bed since April 30th when I stayed at my dad's house in Calgary the night before flying to Japan. It was nice to sleep in a bed and even though I had to share it with Cathal it was king size, so it was like having a bed to myself. In the morning it was also nice to be in a hotel, as I took advantage of the luxuries offered, AKA I took as much free shit as I could.

For the day Cathal and I traipsed around Tokyo, first visiting Ometesandō. It's a lovely, slightly ritzy area, with the district of Shibuya. Sometimes it's called Tokyo's Champs-Élysées. Unfortunately, our plans to walk around a whole lot were kiboshed by the fact that when we got to the station exit to the street it was pouring rain. Using an umbrella but still getting wet, we managed to walk for a little bit, to check out a fantastic store called Winged Wheel. It's a paper that specializes in "fine paper and custom printing". They have many amazing cards, invitations and envelopes. It's sounds like an odd choice of store for a couple of dudes to go to, but Cathal and I love stationery. The staff probably didn't even need to know that we had shared a bed the night before to think we were gay, since we rolled up sharing an umbrella and then discussed the colour combinations of cards and envelopes. We both bought a few things, for shockingly low prices, which they then beautifully wrapped. Nothing like buying a nice envelope which is immediately wrapped in another, free, nice envelope.

Next we headed to Shibuya for some lunch, where we waited a bit but got into another location of the sushi restaurant we ate in the last time Cathal was in Tokyo. The sushi was again very good and we didn't make any mistakes with the green tea powder this time. (Read about the last trip here.)

After a trip back to Cathal's hotel to collect his bags, since he was leaving for Australia that evening, which allowed us to have a cup of tea and me to take advantage of some free fruit and snacks in the executive lounge, we headed to Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station is very cool and has a nice old look to it from the outside. We went to the neighbouring Kitte building, which is formerly the Tokyo Central Post Office. Kitte means stamp in Japanese. The building has the original, preserved facade of the 1930s Post Office which is made up of very cool white tiles. It also has the original postmaster's room inside, restored, and the headquarters for the Japan Post Bank, which is my bank here. The sliding automatic doors to enter the building are incredibly tall and inside there is a huge open foyer with a super tall ceiling, stretching up above all seven floors. There are chains that hang down from the ceiling to mark where tall columns used to be. There are tons of nice stores and cafes inside and an Onitsuka Tiger shop. Lots of the stores specialize in items that are very skillfully designed or have to do with design, a favourite of Cathal's. It was a great place to spend the last little bit of Cathal's visit with him, since we're unsure when the next time we'll see each other will be, and where.

Today's poem and title were written using lines from Jerry Seinfeld's famous stand-up comedy set "I'm Telling You For the Last Time". Since Cathal and I just spent the day checking stuff out, I thought it was fitting. Jerry says:

You wanna know what men are really thinking? 'Cause I could tell you. Would you like to know?
Alright, I'll tell you. Nothing. We're not thinking anything. We're just walking around, looking around.
This is the only natural inclination of men. To just kinda check stuff out.

While I can't say I think Cathal and I don't do much thinking, it's an absolutely hilarious bit that fits well with a good lazy Sunday.

 

06/21 - Nature's Greatest Green

Everything is gold,

that is a moment you've found

in good company 


Today was a day I'd been looking forward to for a while, because it was the day that my good friend and surrogate brother Cathal would be back in Japan and able to meet up. It was also a day marked on the calendar because of the Japan-Italy rugby game, the last of the summer internationals here. In the morning I met Cathal in Shinjuku and we took a stroll around. I got to introduce him to the pancakes available at Family Mart convenience stores, of which he is as big a fan now as I am. The pancakes come in a sealed package of two. They contain butter and maple syrup inside each pancake, so you don't have to apply anything and so that there is no mess. They may sound weird but they are ingenious and absolutely delicious. After the pancakes and a chat we went into BICQLO, which is a store that is a combination of two of Japan's most common stores, Uniqlo and Bic Camera. It's weird that a clothing store and an electronics store would be combined, not only under one roof but with the floors and items intermingled, but that's Japan for you. Can you imagine The Gap and Staples, or Roots and Futureshop, opening up stores that sell khakis and t-shirts next to televisions? Even that wouldn't be as weird though, as Bic Camera also sells food and has a wine and beer section, just feet from headphones and televisions. The store also has an outdoors section on the top floor where you can buy camping gear and a futsal court on the roof.
(You can read about the ideas and offers of the ridiculous collaboration here.)

After BICQLO we headed to Sendagaya and had a tea on a patio next to the station. We had to meet Clayton there because he was coming to the game with us. While we waited and chatted we noticed some interesting styles walking past. The best was a really really old grandma who was wearing a very plain old lady style matching grey shirt and pants. Paired with the all grey outfit was a pair of stunningly purple nike runners. It was fantastic! We also saw an ancient woman pushing around three dogs. Two in a stroller contraption and one in a tote bag hung on its handles. The dogs all looked desperate to get out and walk around as the woman took painfully slow step after painfully slow step. The people were entertaining and Cathal and I had a great chat ranging from philosophical ideas to nonsensical impersonations of Irish accents.

After we met Clayton we walked over to Prince Chichibu, the rugby stadium. It was busy around as the stadium next door had a baseball game starting at the same time between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the Orix Buffaloes. We got into the rugby area and went to purchase some tickets. Right before I asked for some tickets at the ticket window a woman said "Hey are you buying tickets?" I told her I was and she asked if we wanted some free ones. Obviously we did! She gave us two free tickets, so we only had to buy one, which the three of us split the cost of. Then when we got into the stadium we soon realized the seats she gave us were much better than the ones we would have bought. We were in the fourth row. Although one of our tickets wasn't actually in that section there was enough room for us to fit. We probably wouldn't have even been able to get all three of us into that section if it wasn't for the fact we were three white guys with confused looks on our faces as we walked in.

The pre-game action was really cool from our up-close position. A stereotypical Italian opera singer sang the Italian national anthem and a Japanese woman in traditional dress sang the Japanese one. I've never seen two anthems back to back that so accurately reflect the demeanour of their citizens. Two Italian fans higher up in our area belted out their national anthem, one of them with his shirt off. The Japanese fans were typically reserved during theirs. The first half was fantastic, with Japan jumping out to an early lead with a nice try, and surprisingly matching the Italian physicality all over the field.

At halftime, I met up with my friend Mizuki and her friend Saori on the stadium concourse. I brought the two tickets for our section and gave one to each of them so they could get into our section and come sit with us. They thought it was hilarious. Definitely not a very Japanese thing to do, but there were free seats so it really didn't matter. So if you're counting, we got five people into the good section with just two good tickets, both of which were free.

Japan held on in the second half, scrummaging very well to close out the game. It was a pretty remarkable performance since Italy is famous for having a good scrum. With the win Japan headed up the rankings to 10th in the world. Which is really great for them.

After the game we all headed to The Hub in the area so we could watch the NZ-England game. That location of The Hub is very rugby-themed and was packed for the game. I managed to piss off some English fans that were sitting near us with my comments about who I would cheer for over England, which I won't repeat here, but no harm was done. Tim came and met us to watch his beloved All Blacks and we had a great time. It was a nice reprieve from the sun, which was not kind to my exposed arms, to be inside. Also, I'll never complain about an afternoon spent watching two rugby games. The only problem was the day made me wish I could be playing right now.

For the night, Cathal and I went to a couple pubs, but we were pretty tired. The most entertaining thing that happened was we decided to add our table onto the table of a group of Japanese guys. It turned out that they were celebrating thirty years of service for their elementary school teacher, which is a pretty funny thing to celebrate. We learned that in Japan an elementary school advances with his/her students and teaches them for all six years. It's a really cool idea. It's a great situation if you have a good teacher who really cares about their students. Obviously this teacher had made quite an impression. They bought a round of drinks for all of us and we toasted their teacher. After they asked the names of my teachers from elementary school. I listed them all and they decided that Ms. Smart had the best name. Yes I actually had an elementary school teacher named Ms. Smart and she was a fantastic influence in my life. Then we all toasted Ms. Smart. It was fun and hilarious. Some of the guys had good English skills, while others were lacking but tried really hard to speak to us. Only one member of the group said nothing and that's because he was asleep at the end of the table.

Today's poem and title reference Robert Frost's famous poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". It is talked about in the book I'm reading and I think it nicely sums up how I've lately. I have just one month left and everything is great, but the time here can't last forever, especially the time with great friends like Cathal which is even more fleeting.

06/20 - Roll With It

With a heavy heart,

say "you'll never walk alone"

in the early hours

This morning I got up bright and early to head to Ikebukuro to watch the Japan-Greece World Cup game. I went with my friend Tim to The Hub for the 7 AM kickoff. The Hub is a British-themed chain of pubs that are everywhere here. There's three around Ikebukuro Station alone. We had to pay 3000 yen to get in, about 30 Canadian dollars, but that included 2000 yen worth of 500 yen tickets for food or drink that we can use at any time. Hilariously, everything offered on their World Cup menu was 500 yen. They only open so early for the games, yet the World Cup menu had the following breakfast options: fish and chips, chicken and chips, edamame and corn dog and chips. All drinks were 500 yen, so you could get a meal or a beer or a cocktail or a juice or a ginger ale all for the same price. I ended up eating fish and chips for breakfast, something I hope to never again do for as long as I live.

The place was packed full of Japanese fans eating the odd breakfast choices and drinking beer even though it was 7 AM. Smoking is allowed inside pubs here too, so the whole place was filled with smoke, which was absolutely disgusting. Despite all this, the atmosphere was pretty cool, as everyone was really into the game. Almost every person was wearing a Japan jersey and had some other Japan Soccer fan items on or with them. Even the staff were wearing Japan soccer jerseys. They were all wearing the away jerseys so you could distinguish them from the patrons. They all had different names on the jerseys and I thought it was funny that the manager was wearing the jersey of Japan's captain, Makoto Hasebe's, complete with the Captain's armband to denote that he was in charge.

When we came in we were also given a Hub-branded Japan Soccer towel scarf. I thought it was cool and made me a bit happier to have paid the entry fee. That is until I looked around at everyone wearing them and saw what was written on them. Across the scarf "You'll Never Walk Alone" was written. This is the slogan of Liverpool FC, a team, as a Manchester United fan, that I hate. Tim told me that the slogan is used all the time in Japan, at club games and international games. It's like the tagline of Japanese soccer. I'm pretty sure only the Liverpool supporters that live here would know anything about the slogan's connection to the Hillsborough disaster, one of the worst disasters in football history that led to the death of 96 people. I'm going to keep the scarf for my mom's husband Geof, since he's a big Liverpool supporter and it actually is a pretty cool memento or souvenir. Just not for me.

Sadly, Japan only managed to draw the game against Greece, giving them just a small chance to qualify for the next round. All of the fans around us, including the one who tried to chat with us about the World Cup in incredibly limited English, looked quite sad. We discussed the permutations that could lead to Japan making it through their group, then headed off for work. I changed out of my Japan jersey and into my work shirt, both of which reeked of cigarette smoke. I had a headache for most of the day, although the variables were not controlled enough for me to know what should garner more blame, the cigarette smoke or the fish and chip breakfast.

Today's title is a reference to the Oasis song "Roll With It", thanks to their album being in one of the weirdest displays I've ever seen in such cookie-cutter pub.. The title works since I had to roll with the scarf and the smoking, as well as continuing to hold out hope for Japan's qualification. The display had an Oasis album, not "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?" or "Definitely Maybe" either, a skull, a clock and weirdest of all an apple which someone had written pint prices on in permanent marker.

After work I went for "omerice", which is an omelette full of rice with my coworkers from my campus, one of the teachers from our university's other campus and the two administrators from our company that deal with us and our school. The omerice was not terribly exciting, tasting pretty much exactly like you'd expect an omelette full of rice would. The place was pretty interesting though. It was sort of Alice in Wonderland, with a lot of nods to what is someone's skewed vision British culture around the restaurant and on the menu. You could buy an omelette stuffed with rice with a burger on top of it that was named in honour of London's double-decker busses. The food was pretty good, with the omerice, the reason we came, being the blandest of everything I ate. The conversation was very good too, but I was certainly a bit tired and ready to go home after leaving home before 6 in the morning.

06/19 - The Best Medicine

Nothing beats laughing. 

Jokes are not Universal, 

but laughter sure is. 


Laughter, they say, is the best medicine. Today I laughed a lot. I planned a funny lesson with my students, where they could practice a dialogue about their daily commute, but substitute in different kind of vehicles. This meant that the students would have to say how they actually commuted, then after say that they came to school by plane every day, or by roller skates, or by rickshaw, and so on, and then adjust the amount of time accordingly. I wasn't sure all the students would fully get the humour in it, but they all seemed to really embrace it. It was very funny. Students were talking about their difficult commutes through Tokyo on camels and unicycles. The nicest part of it all was that the students were making me laugh, something they couldn't do, at least intentionally, when I first met them 6 weeks ago. I've really gotten to know them well and they have definitely improved their speaking ability. It's fantastic.

In my free speaking period I organized a debate about whether or not soccer is the best sport in the world on account of the World Cup. We had two sides and on the side that was supposed to argue that soccer was indeed the greatest sport on the planet, were two very funny higher level students that come for that period. One of them I call Wolverine, because he introduces himself as Wolverine, his favourite of the X-Men. It's quite a funny schtick, which has led to him calling me Captain, after he said I looked like Captain America and I told him no way, I was maybe Captain Canuck but never Captain America. He likes to walk into my room and shout "Hi Captain!" His partner in the debate, and good friend, is a huge soccer fan. So, to annoy him, he decided to argue during their planning stages that curling was actually the greatest sport in the world. His reasoning was that if you have a physical problem you'll probably lose at soccer, but you could still win at curling. When his partner said there were no famous curlers he started making up names of curlers and saying how they were legends. They said a lot of other funny stuff too. They make a perfect straight man and wise guy combo.

Even though the whole day was funny, my typically hilarious last class of the day was still the funniest. My 62-year-old student had everybody in hysterics. For the first part of the lesson, students had to name different types of transportation, not knowing what they would use the vocabulary for. I instructed them to start with the easy ones, car, train bicycle and then go for more interesting forms and vehicles. His group said car first and he immediately replied with "SKIS!" as though they were the second most common way to commute in Tokyo. Everybody was amused. Then he wanted to name another form of transportation but couldn't think of the word in English. He did an elaborate mime routine, where I thought he was trying to look like he was vomiting, before someone guessed that he was talking about an elephant. They were right, but his actions were unlike any elephant I've ever seen. The vomit motion was to depict the elephant's trunk by the way. Finally, everyone including myself lost their mind laughing when we began our conversations. The students were supposed to begin saying the truth, that they commuted by train, or bus and train, and then change to funny answers for subsequent conversations. Our resident comedian however told his partner right off the bat that he commuted "BY SPACE SHIP!" and thanks to his big voice everyone heard. He added "IT TAKES ONE MINUTE! BUT VERY EXPENSIVE!" He's such a crazy funny old rich man that it actually was in some ways believable. It was a hilarious moment I'll never forget.

06/18 - How to get, how to get to...

Excuse me Ma'am,

can you tell me how to get...

to Rikkyo Street?


I had the Sesame Street theme song stuck in my head all day today. In my classes this week we've been learning how to give and practicing giving directions. This has lead to me hearing "Can you tell me how to get to..." about a thousand times, often delivered in a slow or staccato manner. My students have gotten noticeably better throughout the week, but some of the exercises call for them to ask "Can you tell me how to get to..." then pick a place off the map, so they still pause right at the point where my brain wants me to shout "SESA-MEEE STREET!" The lessons have been great, but one negative point was a listening exercise where characters gave each other directions in an old west town. They have cowboy style accents which is entirely unnecessary for my basic level students to have to listen to. One of the cowboys even says "Much obliged" instead of thank you. I'm not going to teach my students to say "much obliged" in a Texan accent. Although it has given fuel to my Hank character, the Texan who speaks Japanese.
(More on him here if you missed it: http://bashoandfukuro.blogspot.jp/2014/06/0528-chatting-shit.html)

The Sesame Street theme song being in my head all day did make sense, since it is a beloved children's show and my day started off with a lot of kids around. On the train ride to work in the morning we ended up next to a large group of schoolchildren in their uniforms. The boys stayed separated from the girls, as I suppose is an international standard. However both groups stared at me a fair bit. There was a lot of giggling from the girls when I got on the train and I could tell they were talking about me. Aykut even commented on how they were definitely talking about me. Unfortunately, we had no idea what they were saying. One girl in particular stared at me the whole ride. She found ways to squeeze and slide into different spots as the train filled up yet still maintain an angle at which she didn't have to break her unrelenting stare. That was not the funniest thing one of the children did though. A boy who couldn't have been more than 12 and who was trying to show off his "abs" to his friends early in the ride started impersonating the hand gestures I made while talking to Aykut. Everything I did he mimicked earnestly right after. It was pretty hilarious.

Another great part of my day was during my free speaking period, where I had my students plan a tour around Vancouver using some Vancouver maps I brought from home. They had to use the direction skills they'd been learning to direct another group to a list of places I gave them. It was really cool and they asked a lot of questions about the cool spots in Vancouver. It was funny to hear them guiding others to everywhere from Kits Beach to Gastown, without ever having been there. They were pretty impressive too, even using the information I gave them to work interesting facts about notable landmarks into their directions.

Finally, my last class of the day was a lot of fun. My oldest student, yet the one with the most childlike spirit came early and brought me coffee. I don't like coffee but it was a very nice gesture. We had a good chat. He told me lots of interesting things as I helped him with his homework and prepared him for the lesson, to help him follow along as much as possible. The funniest part was how he told me his grandchild didn't like him. I asked him why they didn't like him and he said his wife believes it's because he has "BIG...VOICE!" Which he definitely does. It took me a while but I got it out of him that it was a female grandchild, but he kept referring to the singular girl as his "GRANCHILDREN!" I laughed when he told me, after acting out trying to get his grandchild to come to him, that his grandchild is only six months old.  I said well they can't walk then, no wonder they aren't coming over to you. He said "CAN'T WALK. CAN'T SPEAK JAPANESE! CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH!" as though he was really disappointed. What a useless six-month old. Guess she should start watching Sesame Street.

Above: My students plan/pose with their Vancouver maps. Below: My fantastic BIG VOICE student.

If you haven't seen it before or don't know the song I was talking about, here's Jimmy Fallon and The Roots performing the Sesame Street theme:

06/17 - Hidden "Treasure"

So that's where that is!

I wondered where it had gone/

This must be the place. 


Last night on a run, as is becoming commonplace, I discovered some more new interesting things in my area. I found some potentially good restaurants, including a Himalayan one, and a very intriguing looking men's vintage clothing shop. It was closed on my night time run, so today on my way home from work I decided I'd check it out. I had noticed they had a lot of sneakers and shoes, as well as some sports jerseys, so I was excited. Inside the store was absolutely packed with merchandise, ranging from the downright awful to the quite cool. There was definitely a focus on trying to look "American" style and stock "American" things. There were several old baseball and basketball jerseys. Lots of cool sneakers, including some Rasheed Wallace Air Force 1's. Can't say I expected to see any of 'Sheed's signature kicks in Japan. There were also a lot of Dr. Marten's and many pairs of boat shoes and Vans. Some of the favoured Japanese "American" styles are pretty hilarious. There are a lot of shirts that have American gas or motor oil companies on them, both newly produced ones and vintage ones that go for some pretty high prices. There are also mechanic coveralls and overalls that they sell that some people really like to wear. They even wear them with mechanic patches and things on them. Dickies are also really popular, I suppose for similar reasons. I'm not planning on dressing like a grease monkey any time soon, no matter how in vogue it is. I didn't buy anything today at all, but I am very curious to know where shops like the one I visited get their stock. I think I could actually make some decent money selling some of my old sports gear here.

The haiku for today references the band Talking Heads. As I have mentioned before I have been listening to them while I run here and their music really seems to fit the vibe. I actually was listening to Tapes 'n Tapes on last night's run, who I think have a similar style. They are like a modern poor man's Talking Heads. However, the whole experience of finding then visiting the store and its environs just made me think of the song "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads.

The picture below shows the doorway of the shop. I had to take it because it looks like it be a picture of my best buddy Taylor Burnham's closet. He is a big Yankees and Packers fan (one of those two things is excusable). I actually stayed in his room at his parents' house in Kelowna and saw some of his high school clothes when I was driving to Calgary from Vancouver before coming here. These two items would not have been out of place.

06/16 - Ladies and Gentlemen

Standing six foot two,

from Calgary, Canada

Paddy Wa-ta-son! 


Exiting Ikebukuro Station this morning, as I do every morning, albeit from different exits, I was greeted by a line of women holding signs. They seemed to be championing some sort of good cause and they were all holding their hands up for high fives. Most people were ignoring their requests to "high touch!" A high five is known here as a high touch, in "Katakana English" or the adopted terms from foreign languages into Japanese. Not sure why they couldn't just use high five, but high touch does make sense. Some students have expressed confusion, thinking that high touch was an English term not a bastardized version, and also at why it was five, I guess not thinking about there being five fingers on a hand. I did not ignore the line of women, instead slapping high fives with them all the way along. The combination of reaching the top of the steps and entering the daylight and the street to a line of high fives was hilariously similar to a player introduction at a college or NBA basketball game. As a result, I couldn't resist writing todays haiku in the style of a stadium PA announcer hyping up a player. If you think it's cheating to write my normally two syllable last name as the three syllable "Wa-ta-son" then you should know that's exactly how everyone says it here. On my bank card and identification my name is written in Katakana resulting in a phonetic based proxy of my name. The pronunciation ends up being "Pa-ta-ri-co To-ma-su Wa-ta-son". In the Japanese language all the words end in vowel sounds or an "n" sound.

Another couple interesting sights, carrying on with yesterday's theme of interesting clothing articles. I had a student come to class wearing a shirt that said only "Do I give a shit!" in large block letters. She definitely did not know the shirt was profane and I didn't want to permanently ruin it for her. Not sure why they went with that punctuation choice either. More startling, in the cafeteria today when I finished lunch I saw a girl with a large leather and canvas duffel bag. It was navy and cream coloured, and looked quite nicely made. On the side, embroidered on, it said "Pougue Mahoune". It was definitely not merchandise for the band The Pogues and it's existence is beyond belief. What bafflingly mislead designer or company decided to stitch that onto their classy looking bag? If you're unaware, "Póg mo thóin" means "kiss my arse" in Irish.

06/15 - Emotions, or something, on your sleeve

To wear how you feel

turning yourself inside out

bearing which you hold

Today Japan kicked off their World Cup for real. I had planned to get up at 6 to watch the Italy-England game at home, then head to Ikebukuro to watch the Japan game at 10 with my buddy Masa and other friends. Unfortunately, Masa went to Ikebukuro before the Italy-England game and all the pubs were already full. Everywhere you could possibly watch the game was packed, including baseball and soccer stadiums where they sold tickets for viewing parties. I ended up just watching both games at home on Japanese television, which was pretty entertaining nonetheless. The first game was great to watch, since England lost. I'm not a big fan of the Italian team, but I had to cheer for them on the day. It was funny seeing the score at the top of the screen with both team's names written in Katakana. It was also funny seeing infographics, like the one pictured below featuring famous firework conductor Mario Balotelli, showing familiar faces but Japanese writing.

Aykut came over for the second game and I donned my Japanese soccer jersey for the first time. Japan got off to a great start and got a goal courtesy of Keisuke Honda, warranting his place on almost every billboard and TV commercial in the country. Unfortunately, they ended up losing after Cote d'Ivoire snatched two goals in rapid succession. The Japanese team looked really tired in the second half. Perhaps the trip to Brazil on the Pokémon Jet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Jet) was not as relaxing as it could have been.

After a much needed nap I headed out to walk around Shibuya, in order to see the throngs of people out for the game and out because it was a nice and sunny Sunday afternoon. It did not disappoint, as it was definitely busy. It was like being in a crowded venue that stretched across a whole large neighbourhood. A ton of people were wearing their Japan jerseys, it seemed like almost half of the millions of people that were out. Even the famous Hachiko Statue, of a famous dog named Hachiko, was wearing a Japan soccer scarf. For the most part the people looked sad or as though they were trying to remain happy despite their disappointing loss. I know how they feel, since I often want to take off my favourite team's shirt after they lose, not because I don't still support them, I am very far from a fair-weather fan, but because it is really hard to stop thinking about the loss while you're draped in your team's colours.

Apart from the jerseys I also noticed some other very interesting sartorial choices. It is well-known that there are many hilariously worded English t-shirts and clothing articles here, ranging from the incorrect to the absurd. Today I saw a woman with a bag that said "cline up bitches" with the c at the start crossed out. She looked quite proper, so I'm pretty sure she had no idea what it meant. Then I saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said "MAKE SENSE". Which is what more of these shirts should try to do, so I think it was a pretty good shirt. But then, taking the cake, I saw a man in Shibuya wearing a trucker hat that said "CUNT" across the front in large letters. Who even sells that?!

I walked from Shibuya through Yoyogi Park and then to Harajuku. In Yoyogi park I got to appreciate the Greaser area, where people are always standing dressed like extreme 1950s greasers, a favourite spot of mine, and a new thrill. A large group of people dressed as some kind of green fish monster things. They looked like Power Ranger bad guys and some of them were trying to make a human pyramid. Harajuku was as cuckoo as always. But after some of the fashion I'd seen today, crazy colourful dropcrotch pants and people dressed as cartoon sailors didn't seem so odd. In the window of a shop I also saw a familiar sight, an old Raptors Vince Carter jersey.

On the train home, I saw another familiar but much more surprising clothing choice, as a Japanese man sitting across from me was sporting a Saskatchewan Roughriders t-shirt. Not sure how he ended up with the T, but it brought a smile to my face.

06/14 - The Temple and the Table Tennis Trip

Peaceful in the shade

a summer's temple all yours

to hang out with John 



Hey Blue Jays Hey Hey!

Hey Blue Jays! Kawasaki!

Hey man! Nice World Cup!


Today's haiku are obviously starkly different. I started my day very early once again, in order to watch Spain face the Netherlands in the World Cup. It was a pretty remarkable game, which made me excited to be a Manchester United fan after a rough year. Seeing Louis van Gaal and Robin van Persie high fiving after van Persie's amazing header was van-derful. After that game I had breakfast while Skyping with a few people and watching the LA Kings win the Stanley Cup. It was nice to see a couple former Flames favourites in Darryl Sutter and Robyn Regehr lift the cup.

I had a pretty relaxing day after that. I went and grabbed some lunch from the grocery store which involved an interesting exchange where the stock boy who had failed to help Aykut and I earlier in the week was training at a cash register and shouted "CHOPSTICKS!" at the old woman teaching him, after they couldn't figure out how to translate "ohashi" and I said the word chopsticks. I took the lunch to our local temple/shrine area, which has some small nice gardens around it there. I ate and read my book, by John Irving, as referenced in the haiku. It was so peaceful and felt like such a nice respite from the heat and the business of Tokyo, which I tried to convey in the poem. I wanted to reference a season as is traditional in Japanese haiku.

The second haiku, is not traditional at all. It's not all that good either, but it is entirely written in actual dialogue that was said to me tonight in Tokorozawa. Aykut and I went to play some ping pong in Tokorozawa for a fun but relaxingly tame Saturday night. On the way we stopped to play a round of the Japanese drum arcade game, this time I took time to appreciate the video screen that superimposes weird faces onto live shots of your body. Not sure though why it also said "High School Love" on the screen above us. Then we played several rounds of ping pong, then a game of darts, then a short game of foosball. We went to grab a bit to eat after. The street was pretty busy and a lot of the foot traffic was clearly from the Hanshin Tigers- Seibu Lions baseball game that day. I had worn my Blue Jays Munenori Kawasaki t-shirt. If you don't know who Mune is, he's a baseball player who has played for the Jays and currently plays for their minor league team in Buffalo. He was a star in Japan and has become famous in North America more for his hilarious personality than his baseball playing ability. A drunk guy came up and talked to me about him once before when I was wearing my Jays hat and a few other people have discussed him with me. I had a zip-up hoodie on so you could only see the front of my shirt. A guy walking past with a group of about eight people started shouting "Hey Blue Jays!" By the time I realized he was shouting at me him and his group were just past us. He then shouted "Kawasaki!" On cue, I flipped down my hoodie to reveal Kawasaki's name and number 66 on the back. Their whole group went crazy cheering and shouting, so much so that other people on the street started looking to see what was going on.

Not long after, a Japanese guy came a slapped me a cool high-five and said "Hey man!" I said "Hey" back to him and his response was to look right at my face and say "Nice World Cup!" I have no idea why he chose to say this, considering I was wearing a baseball t-shirt and nothing soccer related, but I guess he wanted to say something to me in English. It was hilarious. Aykut asked "What did he say?". So I told him, "Nice World Cup!"