lovers and haters!!!!

hi all!. its the 27th today, and the weirdest instance happened today.
scene: OCAT, square, near namba walk, near work
time:3:30 pm japan time
who: jan, shiv, kim,dom, and a crazy irate japanese supremisist!

so there we were, just minding our business, when we noticed out of the corner of our eye that a small man was screaming at us in japanese. He had this crazy menacing look in his eyes. sort of like a cauldron of pent up japanenese hate for all people non-japanese.
this man stood about 10 ft away from us, for a good 10 minutes yelling and shouting profanities. shiv picked up on some of his words, but just a few, not enough to know exactly what he was sawing. he was pointing at is and getting really mad. the strangest thing is that no one, NO one did anything. they let crazy crazy-son just yell at us. so we stood there and just ignored him. That made him really angry. we took a picture of him, and he went nuts. he walked over to us and started shaking his fists. the thought in all of our minds was "hmmm if we hit him, i think we will get deported". he just came real close, but no punches we swung. we left the scene soon after. and we all stood there in shock.

we had just been reemed out by a japanese supremisist.
What that guy said, and the extreme hate he had for gaijin (foreigners) is probably not uncomon to what feelings and thoughts many japanese people have. the difference is that he "SAID: what some people think. this man was the personification of some peoples inside thoughts.

has it tainted us. hmm not really. on a whole i think many people talk about us beheind our backs. it seems to be quite common when we talk to other people at work about their experinces. But it hasn't made us bitter. this guy is just one guy who had the guts to say what he feels. i'm sure many japanese share the same dislike for gaijin, its just that they dont say it out loud.

there are also these grey vans that have the old style japanese flag on them and they have loud speakers that blast out things like "gaijin devils" " we hate gaijin" "gaijin go home" etc.... we haven't seen these vans but some people from work have. yah! can't wait!

last night we went to our first japanese lessons. It was great. we went with fiona (N ireland), lee (manchester), dom&kim (britan) and us. it was a great walk there, it started to rain, but lee did tell us about NOVA soccer matches that go on every monday. shiv is excited. the classes were in a elementary school class room, and run by a group of super friendly, energetic japanese people. The teacher that me, shiv and kim had was sort of sketchy, hyperactive, neorotic, and twitchy. over all he had a weird vibe, but he was a good teacher. we learned to pronounce and write some simple japanese sentences.

our teacher did say the funniest thing though. well he didn't say any thing, we wrote it in his traveling white board tablet avec white board marker. he didn't really talk at all. he wrote everything down franticly, then erased it.
so he wrote: married or lovers?. on his whiteboard and pointed at me and shiv. me, shiv and kim all laughed. we pointed to married. them he pointed at kim. and she pointed to lovers. "dom is my lover".
alot of japanese people get their words from a word converter machine, but they use the wrong words. we taught him the word "common law". but from this day foreward lets all introduce our other half as "my lover"!!!!

next week we get to make new years cards! shiv was the Golf (in nova grading, golf is the highest level for japanese-english speakers) in our group. the teacher was suprised he knew all his hirigana, and could read the words the teacher wrote on the board (Show Off!). me and kim were boiling piles of jelousy inside!

it was great, a good evening out with friends, learned alot and it was all free. cant wait till next week.
on the way to and from class we all got talking about what we enjoyed about work. here's some of the points we noted last night
1. you work with people from all over the world. 500 in the MM center. so there is always some one new to meet and talk to
2. you live in good proximity to other people from work, so you can meet up and hang out. we have heard of some english companies that really spread out their staff, and have a small # of people working at each branch/school
3. you get to teach!!. you dont just sit and stare
4.you get to talk to people from all ove japan each day, so you get to learn about all areas of the country, and get good travel tips about places from students
5.each day is different. you see some students a few times, but most often you get a whole brand new batch of students every day
6. nova attracts lots of age ranges and types of people (eg, shiv grannystudent that loved common, thalib kwali, kanye west and all hip hop!)

it was a good convo indeed, made the evening really nice.
hmmm now i feel all warm and fuzzy. hope every one is having a good time in the snow. its +18 here. BWAHAHAHAH....BWAHAHAHAHHHAAAaaaaaaaaaa..............................


shiv is singing along with the tv. a old stlye japanese singing show is on, and the bastard can read the hirigana. i must go. this is too golden!


jan and shiv
ps we will try and post the pick or the japanese supremisist!

"I'm not crying...i'm just persprirating out my eye!"

so......
hello lads and lasses! last week was a national holiday. it was my birthday week last week.
p.s shiv just said "this is how we roll, can't test" all the while he was dusting his new lap top with a specially made electrical shammy and using his special blower to remove dust without actually touching his computer.!

so.. back to my birthday week. my birthday was on nov 14th, and when i got to work dom and kim gave me a big brown bag. it was from the 315 yen store. it had a new touque, a pink box, a kettle and a scarf in it. it was a very random gift, but very thoughtful because i needed a new touque!

later on that evening, i though shiv had nothing planned, because by 630 we still hadn't done any thing for my b day. but he came through and he told me we were going on a trip on the subway. we got on the green line (chou line) and got off at osakako station., and to my surprise a HUGE ferris wheel awaited us.

We got on the ferris wheel, and from ground level, it looked big (but not scary). But from 120 Metres in the air, we were both freaking out. We were as high as the suspension bridge that goes across the harbour to get to Kobe. I has sooo scared and so was shiv.

After the ferris wheel we walked around the grounds then looked for something to eat. To our suprise, this area of osaka did not have izakayas (pubs) all over the place, or places with plasic food displays or englsih menus. We were'nt really feeling the area, so we went back to namba area and went to one of my new favorite restaurants (CoCo's)

let me tell you about Co Co;s. its a do it your self curry restaurant chain. you pick yor sauce, then your rice amounts, then your toppings. they have very japanese toppings, so its not out of the ordinary ro see some one with a pork curry, (level 3 hottness) topped with breaded calamari, corn, mushroons and an egg.
weird, but amazingly tasty!!

the next night we went out with friends from the MM center (multimedia). and we went to a 280 yen bar. so converted into CDN. every thing (EVERTHING) is $2.80. beer, all drinks, shish kabobs of chicken heart, gyoza, french fries, spicy chicken gizzards, miso soup, omlettes. everything. so every one ate and drank alot.

highlights of the night (or low lights...)
1. dom showing up in a kilt
2. Dom and josh doing chilli pepper and wasabi shooter. through their noses (a la jackass)
3. all of the rounds of weird food coming in droves
4. dom and josh peircing their hands with toothpicks dont ask
5. walking around downtown osaka at night and stubling into a twilight zone english pub, with a weird freaky south east asian lady ......

it was indeed a fun night. me and shiv went home after we were weirded by the scene in the pig and whistle pub, but others stayed out till the wee hours at some kareoke bar.

the next day we went to kyoto. a city full of "slightly different temples". it was great to take the train there. i felt like i was traveling in a movie across europe on a big adventure. we found a nice taiwanese lady that walked us from the station all the way to the tempe grounds. that was very nice of her because we were quite lost and litterally looked like 3 crazy tourists.

it was wonderful to see greenery. and we went to a huge buddhist temple in this huge park. it was very nice. walked around all day, and then took the train back to osaka and took our bellies to shakeys pizza.

oh shakeys!!
this week the adventure starts with me and shiv traveling to Nara to find the deer and feed them stuff!
luv jan

My legs are so numb from walking toooo much.....

ello mates. this post will be revamped. but today was such a long day, and my legs are pooped. the day started off real early with jan going to the bank to set up a bank account. Then jan running home because she forgot her Hanko (japanese kanji name stamp), then jan running back to the bank with her Hanko. The to Mcdonalds to meet shiv and pete.
Together, team cool went to meet Mai, a realtor, and saw an apartment. The apt was a 1DK. 1 bedroom, dining room and kitchen apt. Shiv and I are looking for a 1LDK (1bdrm, living room, dining room and kitchen). Pete, our friend from work liked the apt, and i think he will take it.

After apt hunting with Mai, we went off to Osaka jo (osaka castle). and we hiked up all the stairs and looked at all the samarai equipment. Looking at all the exhibits reminded me of this funny phrase Ush said to me and shiv about his temple veiwing time in japan. "1000 slightly differnt temples". each floor was slightly different, but not really. the best part of the castle was the hike to the castle and the top veiwing tower. It was full of hyper japanese junior high kids and the veiw from the top (over the city ) was so impressive.

After osaka jo, we walked to the subway. the past few days shiv and i have gotten out of our namba shell and taken the train and rail to outter lying areas of osaka. and boy is it grand. we went to Umeda last night and bentencho today. the train systen here works like clock work. It is crazy. i will not even attempt to expalin it because it will give me a headache.

it seems thought that there is a network of gaijin houses. or apts that cater to foreigners. they have no key money and allow month to month rent. many of them come furnished too. we found an apt. and its real nice. i will post some pics of it. many of the gaijin houses he have been to are all managed by aussie guys that know each other. well whatever.

also, we passes thorugh this amazing public park on the way to the subway station from osaka jo koen, and if you look through the trees, you see the strangest thing. a settlement of park dwelling homeless people. they are tucked far into the park, beheind thick dense trees, but you can see their bright blue tarps. its a whole community of homeless people living hidden away in the trees. you dont see many if any home less people on the streets, but they are hidden... weirdest thing i have seen in a long time.
the best part of my day though, was getting our caricature done. a guy in osaka jo koen did our portraits and i love it. we look like manga characters. and i love the bad japanese "keep a smile" title. i cant wait to frame it. ps, i like how we are both cross eyed.


came home, made dinner. pooped..
luv jan

watching extreme makeover..Japanese style

hi every one,
its nov 5th here. this past week has been alot of fun. Shiv and i started work this week. work has been a huge learing curve for both of us. well not so much for shiv because he got 87 on his quiz and i got 67.....
work is good though. we work in an office builing right downtown. i work mostly on the 14th floor. we teach people that sign up with nova how to speak english. we do it online though. so when people sign on to their computer for their 1pm lesson, i may be their online teacher.

today i had a few students that were very advanced in english. One guy i was teaching was a doctor, and he was so fluent in english, that when i asked him what a milestone in fashion history was (in his opinion) he told me

" i think it would have to be when japanese women began to wear pants" i said why is that a milestone
and he said " after the war there was a huge fire in tokyo in a department store. many men were able to get out or jump out of the window in time, but many women died in that fire because in those times women still wore kimonos of traditional dress. from that time it was allowed and socially acceptable for women to wear pants in japan.

ii thought that was a pretty good answer.
other students are so shy, they are even afraid to talk or answer questions, but others love to talk and tell me everything (whethe it is related to the lesson or not.

when i told one of my students that i was from canada. she went nuts!!!the one place in the entire world she wants to go is PEI, to see anne of green gables.
japan is amazing. this week we did orienation and i got off at 3 every day and shiv at 9. now that we are working we both get of at 3 every day.

this thursday friday we are planning to go to osaka jo. i'm so excited.
there must be something wrong, or some thing so right about me and shiv, because with out even trying we keep on finding these AMAZING restaurants. every day. oskak is one big maze of restaurants. there is a reason its refered to as "the kitchen of japan.
we also went to amerika mura, "america villiage" weirdest things we saw
1) african guys on most street corners
2)vintage stores with thse baby yakuza (ganster) jackets in them
3) people dressed like gothic lolitas

people dont dress weird in japan. its just that the country produces the most crazy people and crazy clothes and people have no choice but to buy them.

on another note, japanese tv is crazy. there is this show called "apron of love" and women from all over japan come to the show dressed like 1940's house wives and have to make traditional japanese food. the panel of men judges get too judge their food and rate them. the one with the most points wins. it is pure competition with screaming, yelling and food.

we are now watching a man make over show. also the japanese are super obsessed with being thin without working out. only using gagets. like tummy lazers and skin shakers. the home shopping network is all "brightening, slimming......yada yada"

looked for shoes yesterday. womens shoes come in small/med large and i am neither. i would be an XL. so no shoes for me :(
janet jackson is on a japanese game show.. What? i have to go...
jan