Chillida

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Yesterday was good day with lotsa sunshine and the temperatures are going up ........

Went with Alex to the Nagasaki Prefectural Museum for Modern Art 長崎県美術館 created by architect Kengo Kuma to see an exhibition by the Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, who makes enormous robust sculptures from terra cotta, alabaster but most importantly from forged iron. The ones here are mere models and studies for the big ones dotted around the globe.
For more info see : http://www.eduardo-chillida.com/index.php?id=1&L=3

Had coffee afterwards outside in the sun with Jenny and Diana, who we ran into coincidentally .

The Japanese are by no means very tall people, especially down here in Kyushu but Christoph and I were quite shocked to find some motorbikes that must belong to some very small Japanese indeed.....

Fushimi Noriaki

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Embarked on a ambitious project this week ... I bought a literary novel called "Majo no musuko" 魔女の息子, "A witch's son" (2003) by Fushimi Noriaki, a gay activist and literary critic who has already written "Private Gay Life" (1991) and is also a contributor to several main stream papers e.g The Japan Times as well as the editor of the Gay magazine "Queer Japan Returned". It has won the Bungei prize for fiction. It's in Japanese and it's difficult. Some of the words are especially difficult to trace (mostly the sexual ones) but I do consider this a serious challenge and should be able to pick up some sexual innuendo and slang going along. Mark J. McLelland, a postdoctorate fellow of the University of Queensland has mentioned him as one of the main gay writers in present day Japan.
I have never read a book in Japanese so this is a first for me.

Planted some coriander seeds last february and they are flourishing......so there will be a lot more Thai curries prepared in this kitchen the coming months.

Remodelling

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One of the things all Queens have in common is rearranging the furniture once in a while to see if one can improve on perfection. Well I did succumb to this state of mind too and since there isn't a whole lot of room in my little abode the options are indeed limited. The bed can can only be moved a couple of meters up or down and all the other things have to fit around it. But in order to be able to get to the balcony with the summer coming without having to climb over the bed all the time I deemed it necessary to make the changes. Hope you like it...just in case you notice any difference at all. I do and that's the most important thing.. isn't it?
The little doggie lying on the bed is a present from Paul ........ as a reminder of him actually. He keeps an eye out for me......

Ear, Nose and Throat

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Having suffered from clogged up ears for a couple of days now and trying to get the smear out myself with cotton buds and even a toothpick (how stupid can you get and needless to say to no avail) I decided it was time for a visit to a clinic. Asked at the local pharmacy and they directed me to Dr. Egami who runs the ear, nose and throat clinic, jibi inkó ka 耳鼻咽喉科 in Sumiyoshi, an area just up from the University. In a very modern and sleek building he looks at the patients and tells them what's wrong and while examining you (in my case the ears) you can watch on a TV screen what he is doing......... an innovative and learning experience indeed. Never knew that one's ear can hold so much stuff.
He managed to clean out the left ear but the right one was so clogged up that I have to come back for another appointment next Saturday at 09.00 am. Had to get some drops to loosen the rest up or to liquidify it as he so nicely put it.......
According to Chris this is way Too Much Detail (TMD), but the thing is I can hear again and you know me...just love to share....

The mere 10 minutes or less he spends on you will set you back an average of ￥4.500 so no wonder he can have his own clinic designed and styled by a top architect....

p.s.
The pictures are of course from his own website.

Penang

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Since we wouldn't need a car on the island of Penang (named after the indigenous Pinang Palm tree) we took the Nice bus from KL station to Georgetown. A friend of Isaac, Ken, took us during rush hour to the station and we just about made it.... It takes roughly 4 hours and is very comfortable. Reclining seats, some food and drinks are provided and there are only 22 seats in the bus and all that for 50 RM one way (4.41 RM per Euro).
The Eastern & Oriental Hotel was everything we thought it would be...colonial grandeur at it's best. It had suffered from the tsunami last year but only slightly so. Huge rooms and bathrooms etc. but furnished like your Granny would have loved it. Call buttons for your personal butler in each room, fresh fruit each day in your room and a fabulous pool.
We hadn't prepared ourselves for Penang at all in the way that we hadn't looked up anything on the internet beforehand (so unlike us) so we wandered around the town without actually knowing where we're going. But we found the Penang museum.. a treasure trove of information on the town itself and the people that shaped it. There are so many cultures that make up Penang, the Malay, Chinese, Eurasians, Burmese, Indians, Armenians, Japanese and Europeans. Some of the groups mixed and some not at all. The most successfull group were the Chinese (also known as the Baba Nyonya) who built some beautiful mansions to show off their wealth amassed through trade. The most beautiful are the Cheon Fatt Tze mansion and the very ornate Pinang Peranakan mansion. See picture.....

The other interesting feature here in Penang is the abundance of Kongsi, or clan houses of the different Chinese clans. Used for the settling in and general wellfare of their clansmen. The most famous being the Khoo Kongsi established only in 1850.

Met up with Sulynn (a fellow student from Nagasaki) and her boyfriend Joey Tan to have dinner at street stalls (known here as hawker stalls) and to sample the delicious Penang laksa, a curried soup with shrimp paste...a treat indeed. Had coffee and huge cakes for afters.
Like in Thailand, here too you can have a massage but a more gentle one than the fierce pressure point massage in Thailand and they use oil too. They concentrate on the ligaments and by Jove, you feel like a tenderized chicken afterwards.......

Feels like home...

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After Paul had left for Amsterdam on Thursday night it was my turn to go on Friday. Isaac dropped me off in the morning at KLCC (the enormous upscale shopping mall underneath the Petronas Towers) to exchange something from the Royal Selangkor Pewter Company and to do some last day purchases since it's Alexandra's birthday on the 1st April next week.
Had a last night dinner with Isaac at a Szechuan restaurant (the Chinese province of Szechuan actually means four rivers according to the characters 四川 ) with some good spicy fare.
There is something very relaxing about a last day somewhere with the flight not untill midnight and you've got nothing planned except packing and having a G&T before heading off.
To go from KL to the Airport is really simple with the KLIA express (every 15 minutes and takes half an hour). One warning do not check-in at the city terminal there if you're flying Malaysia Airlines because the staff there will charge you for every kilo overweight that you have (they get a bonus for it!!). It's one way way of making a profit on cheapo tickets but it will definitely alienate passengers.
Was very lucky with my seat on this full flight...a whole row of 4 seats to my self so stretched out and slept the whole 6 hours.
The funny thing is that coming back to Nagasaki feels a bit like coming home. I think it's the familiarity of the surroundings more than anything else. After the train ride from Fukuoka, Alex picked me up at the station to catch up on the latest going on and the local gossip over a cup of coffee.

KL

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Kuala Lumpur or KL as it is known by the well traveled has one of it's busiest weekends ever........ and no not because of our my arrival but because of the Formula 1 racing event here. People from all over the globe are here to watch Schumacher c.s. perform in their Ferraris and other powerful racing cars this weekend. Commercialism abounds in this town with stands of Tag-Heuer, Mercedes Benz et alia on every side walk where you're enticed to buy whatever you can lay your hands on.
Even our hotel "The Maya" is crammed with people but luckily they're not in the spa, where we bubble away in an oversized Jacuzzi after a day of shopping and lunching. We dine in street stalls as well as in hip lounge places (the Dry Martini's are too die for...!!) and to top it all of we indulge ourselves on chocalate cake for afters at a place called "Dôme", known here as "Do me" since it full of cruisy queens and Greg, Susan, Isaac, Paul and me of course.
Moved to the house of our friends Isaac & Tony (still in Dhaka) yesterday and tomorrow we're off to Georgetown for a sun drenched vacation. Going by bus (called Nice) with only 22 seats and it will take about 5 hours to get there. Will see SuLynn too (a fellow student from Nagasaki University)

Had a fab dinner in a ...yes, I'm afraid so, Japanese restaurant in the Shangrila Hotel with delicious soft shell crabs, Jelly fish with cucumber and sea weed and other delights.

Real Vacation....

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Today is the I have been really looking forward to....hop on the bus to Fukuoka, stay a night and then continue tomorrow morning onto Kuala Lumpur for a whopping 9 days to be with hubby and to escape this place for a while.
Days of shopping, Poolside G&T's and in general the good life await me...... both in KL and in Georgetown, Penang. Staying in the überhip Maya hotel in KL and in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang (see pool picture)
Will see lotsa friends in KL too, Isaac, Susan and maybe Tony too.

A friend of Kim, called Kars is staying in my room for a while so apart from Rudy the place won't be deserted completely.
So I will not be updating my blog for a while... "zannen né" so you'll just have to cope but I'm sure you'll manage.
See ya..

There is a god after all...

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Just got the news in, well a rumour more to the point, that our angry Professor of our "Prestigious University", daigakumeimon 大学名門, in Leiden is no longer the head of the department of Japanese Studies. Apparently it's not a voluntary resignation or as the say in Japanese 'kibó taishoku' 希望退職 ,but untill we will be officially notified nothing is clear.......
Here is another odd discrepancy in the Japanese way of thinking.
The University here starts a Masters program in clinical tropical and infectious diseases for international medical students and doctors in April. Well they haven't got a curriculum, no list of reading materials and no defined budget as yet and apparently nobody (including management and lecturers) wants to be bothered with this. On the other hand a great deal of time is spend on the opening ceremony i.e. what dignitary is staying in which hotel, when is pick-up time, what are the seating arrangments, who is saying what etc.
It can probably be explained by the Japanese distaste for having to deal with anything financial (merchants and the like were the lowest class within Buddhist Japanese society) and their fondness of decorum and ceremonies (any country that had no rituals, ceremonies etc. was deemed 'uncivilized' ). So the loss of face through not performing according to ceremonial rites outweighs the international shame of just not having your basic finances in order and making a success of this new Masters Program.

Some ritual suicides through evisceration (in english known as Hara-kiri but here as Seppuku 切腹 ) no doubt will be on the agenda soon...... Normally a good friend is standing behind you and will decapitate you in case your own attempt to successfully kill yourself has failed (insult on top of injury if you ask me)
Will keep you posted.....

Message from Leiden

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One of the Japanese traits I find very difficult to handle is the "going behind your back" way of doing things here. Five of the students here just received an angry message from our professor in Leiden that our marks are not up to par. Apparently the guy in charge here, Mr. Takano decided to hop on a plane to Holland in order to convey this to our professor instead of confronting us with the results (we still haven't seen any yet) and maybe try and find a way to improve our individual results by examining the way we study. But no such luck. Apparently our professor even had to apologize for our poor performance.........
Threats seem to be really in these days and even our professor has succumbed to it: "If we do not perform better we will endanger future funding and exchange programs and make the name of our famed University a laughing stock".
Some people really know how to motivate their students.........
I recall a meeting once with him where he stated that one's input and participation are valued more highly here then the end results. Apparently not....
Some people are a little slow but try and do their best...well to no avail apparently.
Thank god I'm leaving this narrow minded country shortly for a break in Malaysia......
Spending almost 6 months here has definitely taking away the luster from the study...... meeting Japanese teachers has not been a particular positive experience and apart from being able to speak better Japanese then before there really hasn't been anything of value that was thaught to me.

Ame

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Rain or ame 雨 as it's known down here, is just pouring down. The temperature is fine though about 15 degrees but still makes you feel a bit miserable. Rudy decided to come to Fukuoka with us after all and spending a weekend there was great fun.

The highlights of this trip for me were:
A) the Kushida shrine, already once visited in november of last year. It was founded in 757 and a there is a huge ginko tree in the forecourt that is supposed to be 1000years old. The grand deity, Ohata Nushina-mikoto, is enshrined here. It is mainly used for traditional japanese weddings and today was no exception. The white cap covering the woman's head by the way is supposed to hide the horns that every woman has according to legend.

B) the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (FAAM) http://faam.city.fukuoka.jp/eng/home.html with contemporary art from around Asia. There was an extensive exhibit on about Lollywood Film Posters (similar to Hollywood and Bollywood but now from Lahore) and funky sculptures from India plus lots more. Modern art somehow is for me at least connected to the West and I must say how intrigued and amazed I was at discovering Oriental modern art. The Orient stood for traditional in my limited perspective and this was quite an eye-opener. Will definitely try and find out more...........

Had dinner in a Szechuan place, Xiang's proposal, and went to a bar where they had more than 700 specialty beers from around the globe, with the majority from Belgium and Germany.

Had the best ramen ever...in the ramen stadium. A delicious broth with tender pork meat, nori (seaweed), egg and chinese noodles. Add some spicey La-yu and togodashi (sesame seeds with chillies) and you're in heaven.
Fukuoka tower with its 236 meters about is another great way to get an overall view of the city. The have an observation deck (well enclosed that is) on the 5th floor..??? Yes the fifth floor but it is 123 meters up.

Normally we travel by bus between Fukuoka and Nagasaki but now we decided to take the train on the way back. Missed our reserved seat train by one minute (go figure..the trains in Japan always being on time) so we had to scramble for seats in the unreserved section of the next train. It was choc-a-bloc so had to push some old women out of the way to get my seat. Not proud of myself but standing for two hours is not what I was meant to do in life.

If you ever come to Fukuoka and have some money to spare then go stay in the "With the Style" Hotel. A small boutique hotel (16 rooms only) but fabulously decorated. Laid back but with understated elegance......check it out ::: http://www.withthestyle.com/eng/index.htm
Alexandra had already told me about it..she has a nose for these things..

Fukuoka

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Well after a long silence..back again. Studying every day in the library 図書館 doesn't help to make life that more interesting but it's got to be done.

Today is the day that almost everybody is leaving town. Kim, Pim and Mads left for Okinawa 沖縄 , the tropical islands in the south. Bart, Gijs and Colin went to Fukuoka 福岡 and tomorrow Xiang and I will join them there.

Seems Rudy will have to man the fort..so to speak. Mind you he's engrossed in his new guitar..playing away.
After a nice and refreshing session at the onsen lastnight, I received a mask from the Peking Opera from Xiang. It is the face of the spirit that will (please note) bestow lots of fortune on you and we're talking material fortune here..not your 'cannot not do anything with' enrichment of the mind or likewise placebo's to make you feel better cause you ain't got anything..... Duuh!
Will let you know when that fortune comes in...!!!
Finally got around to sending lots of emails to people I did neglect for a long time. That on the other hand does give one a satisfactory feeling. Well back to the laundry, ironing etc.