hanging on your words, living on your breath, feeling with your skin

still no big Japan update. I don't really have it in me at the moment. feeling a little delicate on a number of levels.
it's about the only time the word delicate can actually be accurately applied to me though which amuses.

now. to enter the taekwondo competition on the 20th or not? on one hand I'm completely unprepared, it'd be fighting black belts and I might get injured for whitby. on the other I could do with a good kicking to get me out of this apathetic rut I'm in and it'll give me something to spend the weeks before whitby concentrating on and it may boost my fitness a little.

hmm.

WOOLSTOCK III

Woo! it's all official like!

at the end of may - at the club!

http://www.woolstock.co.uk

3 days of mayhem within staggering distance of my house/fuji hiro and some marvellous bands to boot!

RARRR!!!

coming?

Japan the Second

in hommage to the write up of my last visit to japan I shall yet again utilise the power of bullet points.

Notes from my Hols

• yet again with the rain on the first night and umbrella-fear. we all bought them this time as they were only£2.50. how can an industry survive producing £2.50 umbrellas? by making them a little shonky - both mine and Neal's were broken by the end of the first night - but in a truly british stylee we carried them for days rather than throw them away


• it's really shocking to see whale on the menu


• not all things on sticks are tasty - at least one of the bits of yakitori we ordered on the first night was chicken skin


• the glutinous balls are surprisingly tasty and possibly nutritious


• Iain will eat almost anything once - this is useful


• they don't seem to 'irrashaimasen' quite as much and as alarmingly as they used to


• if you order stuff like starters and mains at the same time they will bring them at the same time or in some really random order - order one lot of food, eat it, press the bell, order more food


• for 'camembert' read 'philadelphia'


• the park hyatt is so posh that it *doesn't* have squirty japanese techno toilets


• also it doesn't give you moist towelettes before you eat because you are obviously posh enough to wash your hands in the restrooms first aren't you


• there's not a whole pile of nightlife in miyajima island after 9pm


• but there are an alarming number of people wandering around in dressing gowns


• all the health benefits of a brisk walk up a mountain are quickly eroded by eating 1.5 large chocolate bars per person when you reach the top


• the Japanese sometimes hide video games characters in their temple gardens to see if you are Paying Attention. possibly.


• Designer Hello Kitty is just plain RIGHT!


• 11 course Traditional Japanese meals are pretty fucking scary I can tell you. even if they *do* lack steamed kitten faces. why was there an oyster in a tea pot? TELL ME!!


• Just because you can fit into size L Japanese Lolita costumes does not necessarily mean you should


• There are no more bear ears


• There are Giraffe ears. having 4 bumps on the top of your head seems like extra value


• breaking the LCD display of your SLR film camera before you even get to Leeds Bradford airport is remarkably full of fail


• Louis Vuitton is as common as fuck


• Osaka is actually pretty good


• you can never buy too much tat. I appear to have nearly run out already


• the cute has got recursive - everything wears a costume. I have an uber cute seal rendered paralisingly cute by being in a removeable pink fluffy bunny costume. neal has the same seal in a bee costume. and a hello kitty in a CAT costume... erm...


• you can buy some pretty hot looking boy love by the looks of it in shinjuku


• goths are the same the world over. there are clearly only 10 or 12 different goths on earth. I swear we meet a Japanese version of Fudge


• the rooms in the akasaka prince are really nice even if you don't get an upgrade. but hell why not try for the upgrade cos those suites are even nicer


• large, deep hot mineral spring baths make your boobs float


• whalesharks have entourages


• watching the column of spinning anchovy for too long can give you neck ache and make your head go funny but it's very pretty


• it's some how *very* british to get terribly surprised and excited that that big boat just there is the QE2


• the japanese do not appear to have heard of VNV nation


• it's possible to get sick of fish pretty damned quickly


• it's even more shocking to see turtle on the menu


• if you don't look out of the window in a curry house in toyko you could be in a curry house here

I'm sure I'll think of some essential ones later and add them. tired now :)