You can be my Yokohama

I took a quick jaunt to Yokohama last weekend to visit with Kotaro Watanabe, who just came back from three weeks travelling in Taiwan. It was pretty chill, not doing much but eating, talking about music, film and work. (Up until last December, Kotaro was a producer of Japanese Adult B-movies)

Ryoko, me and Kotaro

On the Sunday, Ryoko Watai came from Chiba, to hangout with us and see the sights of Yokohama, including Landmark Tower – a rather unimpressive office building, which has an observation tower on its 69th floor and Asia’s fastest elevator, clocking at 750km/h. And although I don’t care too much for tourist attractions, heights or speed, I unenthusiastically went up the tower. The 360º view of the city of Yokohama and its harbour was a pleasant surprise, accentuated by the clear weather conditions.

A view of Yokohama Harbour from Landmark Tower

We also went to Yokohama’s world-renowned Chinatown. Now, I’ve been to the Chinatowns in Toronto, San Francisco, New York City, Montreal, Manila, Sydney and Vancouver, and let me tell you the uniqueness of Yokohama’s Chinatown lies in the fact that it is impeccably clean. I’m not talking clean in the way people try to describe Winnipeg or Perth. No, no, no…people actually sit on the curb to eat their ¥90 steamed buns, without a scrap of garbage, rotting fruit, or dead animal lingering at their feet. In the air lofts only the aroma of roasting chestnuts, barbecuing duck and steaming dumplings, as opposed to burning rubbish, decaying produce and rancid fish carcasses which I’ve come to equate to Chinatown. I know that it’s the middle of winter, but I get the feeling, summer in Yokohama Chinatown is still a pretty agreeable experience, nasal wise, compared to, say, the corner of Spadina and Dundas on an August afternoon.

The cleanest Chinatown ever!

Unfortunately, I don’t read as much as I want (or should), and the Doods always inspires me to read by including reading material in his care packages to me. Along with my Hockey Night in Canada trivia game and Maple Leafs’ toque in my Xmas package, the Doods sent me a novel called Lamb; Or the Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. This book follows the story of Jesus (Joshua), as retold by Josh’s best friend Levi (Biff). It’s a hilarious recount of the parts “omitted” by the gospels or Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, taking the piss out of religion and its rituals. I recommend it, especially to anyone who has any knowledge of Christian-Judeo teachings. If you dug Monty Python's Life of Brian, I think you'll dig this novel.

Social Page update

A couple of social announcements to make.

I failed to mention back in November when I was sooooo busy, that Colleen Fava, my dear friend from my high school days, got marraiged to our high school mate Joe Duplantis, or as I affectionately call him, Joey of the Plants. They tied the knot in scenic Utah, USA.

Speaking of marriage, the ever lovable Jamie Nelson Gilbert – my partner in crime back in the ad agency days at HYPN in Toronto, as well as my roommate in Melbourne, Australia – got hitched with the ever lovable Teresa in her homeland of New Zealand at the beginning of January.

I wish them all the happiness in the world.

On an extremely sad note, Daniella Bernard, a beautiful and sweet young lady who worked with me at HYPN, passed away on January 1 after a long illness. I photographed Daniella for my “Brunette” photo show back in 2001 and she will be missed by her friends and family.

Hockey Day in Canada

As the CBC -- One of the Canadian national broadcasters -- celebrates their annual "Hockey Day in Canada" on January 13, I did a bit of Hockey celebrating of my own.
I arrived at Bowers English School this morning to find two overseas packages in the office addressed to me. The first one was from James Shaddick, my old roommate from Melbourne, Australia: He sent me my two Toronto Maple Leaf jerseys which I had in storage in Melbourne for 4 years. He also sent me a tube of vegemite. It's funny, because just yesterday, I had a hankering for some vegemite -- the vile, black yeast-spread that Aussies put on bread. I even went to the foreign food supermarket looking for some, but to no avail.
My second overseas package was from my brother the Doods: He sent me a "Hockey Night in Canada" trivia game. For anyone who has never drank with me on a cold night anywhere, I am a trivia hound, and hockey is one of those subjects which I have an above-freakish level of trivial knowledge.
Thank you, James and Doods. Now if the Leafs would only get their collective heads out of their asses to make the playoffs, I'd be a much happier hamster.
As they say, you can take the boy out of the Canadiana, but you can't take the Canadiana outta the boy.

Holiday J-Tour...Part 4

The final stop on my Holiday J-Tour was Tokyo, where Kohei Oshima helped organize a dinner with KGIC students Ryoko Watai, Masato “Mark” Takahashi, Lisa Yamada, Sadatomo Yoshida and Kyoko Inoue.

It’s been over a year since I’ve seen Mark, Kohei and Kyoko, who attended my dinner party in Tokyo on my first day in Japan back in November 2005. Of course Sadatomo was also at that first party, but I’ve seen him a few times since. I haven’t seen Lisa since I left KGIC, same as Ryoko, who just got back from Toronto two months ago.

Me, Sadatomo, Lisa, Kohei, Ryoko and Kyoko

Mark and Me

Our dinner was spent mostly reminiscing and going over the latest round of news and gossip: Lisa got married a few months ago and she’s six months pregnant, Kyoko is in a relationship with an unnamed former KGIC student, even spending xmas vacation with him in the Philippines. Kohei seems to be inventing rumours about me and Mayu during my Osaka trip, and Mark will be getting married on April 7.

All this and we managed to call Mayu and Yuuki Imamura in Osaka, Masayuki in Nagoya, and Toshi in Okinawa. Mark even attempted to call Trevor Marshall in Toronto, but I told him it was 7am and Trevor would kill us if we woke him up that early!

After all this, the girls went home and the boys went to a dance club until 5am. I am currently hanging out in Araya Solomon’s apartment while he is in California visiting his mom. I will return to Shizuoka tomorrow and try to restore what’s left of my liver, lungs and brain cells.

Holiday J-Tour...Part 3

I loved Kyoto so much that I spent an extra day there more than planned, doing more sightseeing with Keiko. I got to tour Kyoto in the snow…the first time I’ve seen snow in almost two years! I visited many historical places, including some huge temples and the steps featured in the movie The Last Samurai. We then met Erina for my final lunch in Kyoto before I got on to a bus headed for Nagoya.

Tom Cruise has nuthin’ on me, boy!

Despite a heavy winter storm along the highway, I arrived in downtown Nagoya right on time to meet two more former KGIC students. This time, it was the unforgettable Nanase Mizuno and Masayuki Nakura. Nanase is known for her energy and bubbly personality and Masayuki is known for his multiple facial piercings.

Nanase, Me and Masayuki waiting for a table at Yamachan

They took me to a popular Nagoya restaurant chain called Yamachan, which serves fried chicken wings, a Nagoya specialty. We talked about Toronto and all the students that I’ve seen on the trip and ones whom they’ve lost touch with. Living between Osaka and Tokyo sometimes leaves the people of Nagoya in limbo, as far as people visiting them.

Most of the time, Nanase and Masayuki were mockingly arguing, saying that although they rarely see each other, every time they do get together, they continue from the last “argument” from which they left-off. It was really quite amusing, almost like a comedy routine and it kept me in a permanent smile.

Boxing Day in Nagoya

After we accompanied Nanase back to her train home, Masayuki and I were joined by his hometown friend Hiro for drinks and Japanese lessons at their local bar in the suburbs, before we crashed at Hiro’s house.

The next day, Masayuki, Hiro and I went to lunch at a great traditional Unagi (barbecued eel) restaurant before I got on the train back to Shizuoka, where I took a well needed vacation from my vacation.

NEW YEARS EVE
I spent the majority of New Years Eve day not doing too much of anything, except cleaning my apartment and watching DVDs. I watched the movie Trading Places, just to hear Eddie Murphy say “Merry New Year!” That evening, I headed off to my regular bar, Pot, where I rang in the New Year eating Soba noodles, the traditional New Years Eve fare, and popping hand-crackers.

I pretty much spent the evening as a Stony Curtis watcher and listener of conversations of people who couldn’t speak any English, and then watching them all pass out, one by one. (Paraphrasing the wise words of John Bender from the Breakfast Club: “I guess you could call it social…demented and sad, but social). I got home just in time for another long honoured tradition: watching the first sunrise of the year pop up behind a bevy of clouds before I, myself, passed out.

New Years day was even more unproductive. I woke up at around 3pm and postponed my leaving for Tokyo, where I have my final scheduled meeting of students, until tomorrow… I’m just too lazy to travel today!