Still in 大聖院 temple, this gate was covered in these paper stickers. I don't exactly know what they are for, my girlfriend told me it had something to do with sumo... Anyways, it looked really neat.
Temple stickers
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Monthly Archives: February 2007
Ultraman and friends
Taken in 大聖院 temple in Miyajima, I have no idea what they were doing there:
Hiroshima Report
I'm back home, in good old Saitama. As usual, the trip went like a breeze, I arrived 20 minutes before my flight, checked in, passed security and boarded my flight all in one stride. Not the shadow of a line anywhere, a wonder for french guy used to american and european airports. Then once I got to Haneda, I still had 2 hours of train to reach the hell-hole of Saitama where I live... まあね、しょうがない！
In the 4 days I had left, having lost 3 to the flu, here's what I managed to accomplish:
- Visited 平和公園 and the Peace museum, as seen in the attached photo of the A-bomb dome.
- Went to 宮島 and got to see all the sights. However I missed the monkeys at the top of the island since the ropeway was not open yet and the fast road by foot had been destroyed by a typhoon and they were rebuilding it.
- Checked out the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art.
- Shopping in 本通, the little Shinjuku of Hiroshima.
You might say "It ain't much!" but the purpose of the trip was to spend time with my girlfriend who moved out 2 months ago, not sight-seeing. That mission was accomplished. I'll post more photos of stuff I saw in the coming week.
Almost dead
So I arrived saturday afternoon in Hiroshima, it's now wednesday evening and I've only started visiting today... Why? would you ask me. Well as soon as I got here I fell sick with influenza type A as they told me at the hospital on my 2nd coming...
I peaked somewhere at 39.5°C and was litteraly stuck in bed (people who know me know I'm rarely sick and take my word seriously here) for 3 days until a nice doctor finally gave me that wondrous drug: Tamiflu.
They say here on TV that Tamiflu gives you hallucinations. My girlfriend even locked the windows of our bedroom to prevent me from jumping out if ever I were to believe I could fly, like a japanese woman did last week. Well I can't say I saw any hallucinations but I had really weird dreams that night...
Frivole et Cocue
Off to Hiroshima
In a couple of hours I'll be leaving for 広島 by plane to see my girlfriend for a week.
We're planning to go to 宮島 to see the famous torii in the sea and a little one-night trip to 九州 at an onsen. Wish me good luck meeting the parents...
Valentine brownie
Wednesday, my girlfriend told me to be home at 8PM for a Valentine Day surprise. And here what I received by special delivery:
A hand-made, heart-shaped Valentine brownie. Isn't she a sweetheart?
愛ちゃん、ありがとう！愛してるよ。
Wedding party
I went to a friend's wedding party this weekend. Nothing fancy, just a nice meal at a french restaurant with everyone dressed out for the occasion. They got married in December but the party was only now.
We ate good food, talked a lot and of course all got pissed drunk. Fun was had by everyone.
She wants to suck me dry
I read via Thomas' blog that Segolene Royal, the leftist candidate to the french presidential election in April, plans to tax French citizens living abroad.
Retrouver une citoyenneté fiscale
Il n’est plus acceptable que des citoyens français parviennent à échapper à l’impôt en s’installant hors de France. Nous proposons de définir une contribution citoyenne qui sera payée en fonction de ses capacités contributives par tout Français établi à l’étranger et ne payant pas d’impôt en France. C’est une voie analogue qu’ont notamment empruntée la Suisse et les Etats-Unis.
For those of you who don't read French, it means that even though I live in Japan, pay Japanese taxes and have nothing that ties me to France except my passport and a weekly phonecall to my parents, I'd be considered as an evil capitatlist trying to escape from my citizen's duties and would have to pay taxes as a solidarity gesture to my fellow compatriots.
Now I'm really pissed off that through their incompetence, the French consulate in Tokyo marked me as "votes in Paris" even though I replied to all their mails that I wanted to vote in Tokyo. Now I won't be able to make my voice heard against this infamy...
Sparkling Café
¥50 at my company's コンビニ. Tastes like diet coke with a strong and foul coffee aftertaste... I can't believe Nescafé makes this crap, and the best part is the slogan:
You can enjoy authentic coffee taste and refreshment.
The guy at the shop told me some guy on the 現場 bought a whole 24-can box of it when it was in promotion. I'd want to see the man who actually likes the taste of this abomination...
JLPT results
I received my 日本語能力試験 (otherwise known as JLPT or Japanese Language Proficiency Test) results today after more than 2 months.
No surprises, I passed. Actually I got a nice 87% but it was only level 3 which is not that hard. I probably could have made level 2 with a lot of work and dedication, but I didn't feel like investing so much in that last year.
Here is the official description for level 3:
The examinee has mastered grammar to a limited level, knows around 300 kanji and 1,500 words, and has ability to take part in everyday conversation and to read and write simple sentences. This level is normally reached after studying Japanese for around 300 hours and after completion of an elementary course.
Office move
Yes, it's been planned for 6 months. On February 13th my office will not be in small town of Kohnan-machi anymore but in the much bigger city of Kumagaya.
Actually, my office isn't moving to the city, it's more of the city that's moving to my office. As of 02/13/2007, Kumagaya will officially expand and absorb Kohnan-machi. This happens all the time in Japan, small towns regroup whenever they become too close to become a bigger entity and have more weight in the political system.
Why is it good for me? Well I'll get to change the address on my business card from 江南町 (the 町 meaning "small shitty town") to 熊谷市 (the 市 meaning "slightly less shitty city"). It's still the boondocks of 埼玉県 (Saitama is commonly viewed as the lamest prefecture in Japan), but at least it's looks a little less like as the dull manufacturing plant in the middle of the rice fields and rusty shacks that it is...
Racist magazine – 外人犯罪
After seeing a blog post about this magazine: 外人犯罪, I knew I had to buy it before it goes out of print. So yesterday after work, I went straight to the Familymart 30 meters away from my home and purchased a copy to keep as a collector's item.
It's a special edition magazine about foreigners in Japan and the crimes they commit, perpetrating the idea that the gaijin community (and especially the Chinese and Koreans) are the source off all the problems in an otherwise perfect Japanese society. This theme has been very popular on TV lately...
Especially keen to me is that page about interracial couples, with very interesting comments accompanying the photos (see the flickr page for translations of some of them).
I might be really naïve and know I should be offended and outraged, but I find such material fascinating as it reminds me that this is an inherent part of the Japanese society in which I've been living for over a year and wish to stay much longer. I had a good laugh at it and so did all my gaijin friends at work to whom I showed the magazine.
The guys at Japanprobe.com are staging a boycott of Familymart and want to take action against the magazine's publisher.
