X-mas

The weather is sunny and not too cold and it feels great to be back home in Amsterdam, where Paul and our friend Nancy have made the house look very Christmassy..... with a tree and prezzies. After Paul picked me up from the airport and a fab prosecco to celebrate my homecoming we headed over to Leon & Stefan where we had a X-mas eve dinner..relaxed atmosphere and good food. Arrived back home at 12.30 am. and crashed after more than 26 hours on the go.
We unpacked the prezzies yesterday morning from Cambodian scarves to Cookbooks from Dar es Salaam and Starbucks coffee from Nagasaki.
Today we will go tou my in-laws in Alkmaar where we will have dinner and a generally merry old time.

Will

On friday the 23rd before leaving for Fukuoka, I received news of the passing on of my favourite sister in law and dear friend Will van Agt on the day before. She had been ill for quite some time with breast cancer and had undergone several chemo therapies over the years.
I so much hoped to see her during the holiday but this was not to be.....
The funeral will be on Tuesday the 27th in Bilthoven.
She will be much missed by all who knew her.

Winter Wonderland plus...

As already said before this is the coldest winter in Nagasaki for over 20 years and last night the winter snow storms hit us, resulting this morning in some beautiful snapshots.
Just couldn't get out of bed for the last two lectures (apparently only two people went!!) but took these pictures instead to show you what snow in hilly Nagasaki looks like........

Will have Udon with Alex and then shopping for last X-mas gifts with Aki, my tutor. Apparently there is this secondhand Kimono shop that we just have to go to........

P.S.
In the Stargate Atlantis SciFi series an other tasty guy has just appeared and will be a permanent member of the team...his name in the series is Ronan Dex and in real life Jason Momoa and yes he's from Hawaii (featured in the surf series "North Shore").
Cute or not cute...you decide...

From one Geisha to another....

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****

Wishing you all a very

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Merry Christmas

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and

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a wonderful 2006

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from

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Nagasaki

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*****

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Only a couple of nights.......

This last week is witnessing an utter lack of interest on my part to go to any of the lectures anymore since A) it is still very cold (according to the paper the coldest winter Nagasaki has seen since the last 20 or so years !!) and B) I just can't be bothered anymore. But I still get up at an impossibly early hour, make breakfast (same thing everyday : toast, ham and strawberry jam and orange juice), hoist myself into the shower and then set off on my bike. Five more nights before I'm back in Amsterdam and let me tell you I'm looking forward to it.
During this cold weather the Exchange student division of the University organized a cultural exchange between the nations attending lectures here with food (to be prepared by the students themselves) and presentations also by the students. So the dutch contingent made "Hutspot", a winterdish consiting of mashed potatoes, onions and carrots plus meatballs. There was also Mihoen Goreng with Ajam smoor (Indonesia), cold springrolls (Taiwan), and food from Korea.

All of this happened outside by the way...
A group of Japanese students performed a dance while being scantily clad and freezing their butt off....... and the Chinese came with an old fashioned Dragon dance. As you can tell by the massive crowds..the interest was huge.

Here in appartment nr. 501 we cook once in a while for each other with Bart doing Italian fare, Ruud will experiment (has never cooked before in his life..not even an egg, before coming to Japan) and I will do whatever takes my fancy and whatever is available. I did bring a lot of foodstuffs from Bangkok and will send even more from Holland over here.

Year End Party

One of the things Japanese people like to do is celebrate and so any old occassion will do. The most notorious ones are the famous c.q. infamous "Year End parties", Bonenkai 忘年会 .
The department where you work, the clubs you are a member of or whatever organisation you belong to will organize one of these...so however many organisations, so many Bonenkai you will be expected to participate in. It is once again a get-together with that fabulous "drink-as-much-as-you-can" system with food thrown in. This time we (dutch students and our tutors) headed for Deshima Wharf where we had very good G & T's indeed and a sort of Chinese fondue. A pot with hot broth you put vegetables, meat and noodles in to, let it simmer for a while and then you pick out whatever is left or whatever you can find again and eat it. Loved it. The G & T's were rather strong here so could only manage 6 or 7. Headed for a Starbucks afterwards with Alex to have a couple of strong Café Lattes. Had a hangover for the first time while being here in Nagasaki...
Witnessed a beautiful scenery today ..... snow showers while the sun was shining ..really amazing.
One more week and I'm off to Amsterdam. Paul is already in Chang Mai, North Thailand, for a conference/debrief or something and will fly back home in a couple of days. I'm sure there will be a X-mas tree and loads of prezzies (for me ???) under it...One can hope, can't one?

Duvet

In order to combat the extremely cold nights here (we already witnessed snow flurries and cold rain...) I finally bought a Duvet...93% Eider Down... and boy it did keep me warm...didn't want to get up this morning. Not that that is anything abnormal but then again now was really special.
With the Yen having a favourable exchange rate to the Euro now I didn't feel all that bothered by the price either ( a whopping 26.000 Yen).
Today is Christoph's last day here after a whole month. He will go back to Frankfurt first and then back to Amsterdam. But will be back in March...so Alexandra hopes.
Bad news came in that the sister of Aty, Jopie, suffered an attack and is halfway paralyzed plus suffers from Aphasia, a disorder where you want to say something but you come out with something else..e.g. you want to say salt but you say pepper instead or even worse nothing at all. So Aty going back and forth to Vlaardingen, close to Rotterdam where her sister lives. I hope she will still be on her feet and not exert herself to much.
Doesn't sound good at all......

Misora Hibari

After having been a little "under the weather" as the English say, a little sick that is....I'm back on my feet and running. Went to the University Hospital for a check-up (met a really nice doctor of tropical medicine, called Yoshimune, who did the examination) and she even phoned back to give me the results. No Crypto-sporidium, Amoeba Dysentry or Giardia to be found as a possible cause of the tremendous diarrhea I suffered. It's now in a lab and as soon as anything shows she will let me know. Diarrhea is called geri下痢, the same word for excretia, the shits etc. No medical term is used. The examination lasted only a short while but all the paperwork once again made me stay there for more than two hours...typical.
Things are improving though and my appetite is defenitely back.
Had dinner with Mads and Alexandra & Christoph last saturday in this really nice place ( owner, wife and the cook at the right)where we had Yakitori やきとり(roated pieces of chicken and/or vegeatbles on a skewer) and tenpura 天ぷら (big prawns and vegetables coated in a batter and then deep fried) but also clams, asari アサリ and scallops, hotate ホタテ...delicious and a treat from the owners.
On top of that we received a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau from a guest (on the right) in the restaurant.
I think it's the mere beauty and sophistication we radiate that makes people behave like that...don't you think?
They had songs playing by a singer called Misora Hibari 美空・ひばり, very well know torch song performer who died in 1989. She is performer of Enka, popular japanese songs but in a traditional style with a high tear jerking quality. Very nice music indeed.

Back again...

After a horrendous flight (fuller than full) flight from Bangkok to Fukuoka airport, metro to Hakata station, Highway-bus to Nagasaki station, streetcar to Iwayabashi stop and a twenty minute walk to the international student house...I'm home again. And it is sodding freezing here (whaddaya mean subtropical!!).
Had apparently something wrong to eat on our last night in Bangkok with David and Scottie (two australian friends who been living there now for about 8 years) since my bowls seriously protested (already during the flight) and on top of that I developed a fever.....
So in the end couldn't go to the test this morning ( and I did work for it in Bangkok)..wonder if we get another chance.
It seems that my tutor Aki reads my blog as well since I got an email in which she expressed her concerns about my well being. Ain't that just the sweetest!
Thanks to Colin, who downloaded it, I was able to watch an an episode of Stargate Atlantis, the second series, with cutie Joe Flanigan.>>>>>
As soon as the other 11 episodes are downloaded I will be having a marathon session......fabulous.
Will stay in bed for the rest of the day with hot tea and good old dutch 'stroopwafels'. Already finished a 'Taai-taai pop" that Rianne had send me (amongst other things)...trying to gain a little more weight here.

Bangkok IV

Today is our last day here in Bangkok...I will have to go back to Nagasaki tonight and Paul will continue on to Pnom Penh, Cambodia, for another two and a half weeks of work. Dislike going back but then again...it's an experience, right!!!
We do spend a lot of time here at the pool and the interesting thing is that it's a city pool and by that I mean that it is situated on the 6th floor and that when you're swimming in it or just lounging that you see the huge buildings and hear the sounds of the street...I love it.
One of things you must do while in Thailand is to experience a massage. Thai massage is a pressure point massage. They will use their knuckles, knees and elbows to put pressure on the muscle nodes in your body. A full body massage will take about an hour and even though it may be hurtfull at times you will come out totally refreshed afterwards. It will cost you around 250 baht plus tip..according how well it went. And yes there are also sleazy massage parlours where they will do everything possible to guarantee a "Happy Ending"...if you catch my drift. But then again that is not the massage you should opt for.
Have no idea what we're going to do today but it will be fun. The temperature dopped from 32 degrees to a much coller 24 degrees last night.....apparently they have a cold (relatively of course) period here as well for about a month and then the temperature will go up again.
One of the great thing about Bangkok apart from the shopping experience is the variety of food on offer. Restaurants and foodstalls everywhere and it costs really little. A good Thai curry will set you back a mere 90 Baht (2 Euro) in a upscale restaurant that is. In a foodstall it will cost you 25 Baht. And there is an over abundance of choice from all over the world The major Shopping Malls have food courts where you can just about eat everything...fab Sushi, Ceasar salads and Malay Laksa and again for next to nothing. For those of you who have never ventured here...please come and visit (a stopover on the way to Phuket or other seaside resort)...because you will love it.

Bangkok III

Had lunch with Steve and Tom (an good old friend of his) in Kuppa, a nice place to have Brunch.
On of the things you can have made here are 'Business Cards' and since I needed a new one for Japan...I had one made, with my Japanes characters Karyuudo in yellow and my name in Katakana (YAAGA POORU) on top of my normal name......simple and yet tasteful..disagreement anyone?
Sunday the 4th was Jan's birthday and we were invited for his birthday-party in the evening on his roofgarden (with swimming pool) in Ekkamai. Lotsa dutch people ofcourse either working here or just visiting.
Dirk just moved here from HongKong and Sybren arrived for a short holiday.
Great food, great views, good music (leave that to Jan) and lots of booze. Since Paul and I both didn't feel too well..(food or just plain tired) we headed off early back to our hotel. Not before arranging to meet Marleen and her boyfriend Arkom for dinner on monday. Marleen works for the UN (had met her already in Kobe last July) and Arkom is an artist (painter) who is having a major exhibition of his work next wednesday. Will already be back in Nagasaki unfortunately.
Today, monday the 5th) is a day of rest and and a national holiday here in Thailand (the King's Birthday) so there are festivities everywhere with classical Thai dances performed on the street and just lots of people everywhere.
Christmas has arrived here in a big way...I have just never ever seen so many X-mas lights in an city...not even New York.
I really don't want to leave on wednesday...love it here, but no choice.

p.s.
It's a small world indeed...one of the people I met at Jan's party was Louis Gooren (a retired surgeon from Amsterdam, who has done some great work by performing gender altering surgeries over the last decades ad who helped change our point of view on that matter in the Netherlands) and who had just moved to Bangkok two months ago.. And yes once again we do have friends in common from San Diego..Bob & Kleon. They either stayed with us or with Louis, if we weren't there......I sometimes think that the world is just a small village and that notion of 6 degrees of separation is really only 2 or 3 degrees.!!!

Bangkok II

Paul arrived from Islamabad at around 6.35 a.m. at the airport and was here at around 8 a.m. It was great to be able to see and hold one another again after such a long time (More than two months!!). Steve (who had flown in from Hanoi for the occassion) came by and before we knew it the cakes and the champagne were gone.....what a great way to start the day.
After lunch and shopping we headed for the "Bed Supper Club", where our Birthdayboy, Jan, Steve, Jeanine and I were treated to a fabulous dinner (Soup with cilantro ice cream and garlic....unusual but simply great, among other things) while lounging around in this white environment (looks like a SciFi setting from the 70's) with groovy sounds. There are other supper clubs around the globe and also in Amsterdam..but I had just never been to one..so a first for me..and no I didn't feel too old for this.
Paul received an enormous amount of emails, SMS messages and phonecalls..so his day was made!!!

Bangkok I

Arriving in Bangkok is always a pleasure...the temperature, the friendly people and the vibrating city...basically a great place to be. Arrived Friday afternoon and the aiport was very crowded (had to wait almost an hour to clear immigration and another wait for at the taxistand) but I had arrived! It takes roughly 5 1/2 hours from Fukuoka to Bangkok and of course the 2 1/2 hour busride from Nagasaki to Fukuoka Airport.
Staying in the Centre Point on Wireless Road (next to the US ambassador's residence and around the corner from hip and happening LangSuan) our home away from home. It's cheap too. Huge room with kitchen and oversized bathroom (a true blessing after our tiny bathroom in Nagasaki) for 3000 Baht (about 60 euro).
Did a lot of grocery shopping in the revamped and renewed foodhalls of Central Department Store in Chidlom. Curries and condiments etc. plus cakes and a bottle of champagne for Paul's birthday on Saturday 3rd December. Early night...and no worries about tests or anything (Thanks Lotta for your wisdom and Chris for your unconditional support!)

S^%*@......

Since we do not have a person here at the University that you can really talk to about certain problems you might encounter (all the japanese speak a decidedly horrendous english anyway) a weblog is good way to blow of some steam.
The older I get the more worked up I get about people's attitudes in general and the Japanese in specific. One of the things I try to do is prepare my lessons well, learn the words and participate in class as much as possible. I'm used to discuss with a teacher if there might be a small but nonetheless important problem. So today I asked my teacher what to do since we have a test next thursday and I'm leaving for Bangkok tomorrow and won't return till next wednesday..leaving no time to do any studying.
This wouldn't have been a problem had my teacher not postponed this test from an earlier date to next thursday cause she messed up the roster to start of with.
According to her I already had had ample time to study for this test (like I don't have any other homework to do !) so if I want to get my grade I better be there. There is no such thing as working together towards a solution here....so who knows, they might throw me out of the country for failing a test...You know me, not one prone to exageration in any way! I got so fed up that I just left her standing there yapping away in japanese.
We read about how important the link is between a healthy body and a healthy, cheerful mind all the time...but for some reason they have a enormous aptitude here to do anything possible as to disrupt that link.
The good thing is you learn not to speak anymore to any of these teachers about anything at all...just do your thing and let whatever happens be their problem...... Won't participate in any of the so called "fun get togethers" organised by this institute anymore either.... I've just about had it up till here...!!
At the moment I have a bad connection here cause the internet modem isn't strong enough...we're getting a new (more expensive) router so there shoudn't be anymore trouble.
Had the chance to Skype with Peter in Amsterdam for a while ....great, but with Paul in Islamabad the connex just wasn't there. Hopefully it will be fixed after the weekend.
By the way .....my Skype name is : karyuudo.....so download it and we'll talk !!
Anyway I will enjoy the coming week in Bangkok, doing the things I like most....lying by the pool, having a G&T or another grand concoction, hang out with friends and my man and do major shopping.
Goodbye japan.......