Jap Blog 5th August 1996

“Niwa niwa niwa, niwatorii ga iru.” A Japanese tongue twister. “In the garden there is a bird, and the bird is a chicken.”
“Omae aho ka!” A bit nastier. “Are you stupid you arsehole!”
“Achi ike” – bluntly, “Piss off”.

Yukinari’s mum hired a car for the day for us [author’s note – did I mention that the Japanese are a generous people? I’m sure I have]. We went to Matsuejo (Matsue castle). Pretty good. Interesting garden. Then the Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum and then his former residence. He was an a European, born in Greece to an Irish father and Greek mother who lived in Japan. Also Matsue Buke Yashiki – ancient residence of high ranking samurai. Also visited Matsue Histroical Museum “Koun Kaku”. Yukinari drove us out to Izumo Hinomisaki where we had soba noodles for lunch. Visited the “Girlfriend Temple” – En-Musubi. Here the plan is to throw some money into the large twisted straw, clap your hands and say a prayer. I picked up some money from the ground, why use my own, and got it to stick into the straw, clapped my hands and thought to myself, “Girlfriend please” [author’s note – wasn’t too long after that Mi-Kyoung came into my life].

The Japanese have low unemployment. Just how many people do you need to put up a sign?

Drove to Todai lighthouse and ventured up to the top. Walked down to the waters edge, the Sea of Japan, stripped down to our jocks and had a swim. I became high dive champion. Back to Matsue and filled the car up with fuel. I’ve never seen so many people at a service station. They even guide you onto the street. Something like three people cleaned the car as it was being filled by another. No wonder petrol is so expensive [author’s note – they don’t have price discounting wars in Japan at petrol stations. Rather, they have service wars. Some things about this country are not easily explained]. Had tea. Rang my sister in Australia.

- posted by Hammy @ 8:17 am