Ayaan & Verdonk

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Well the Dutch government of prime Minister Balkenende collapsed last night over a dispute involving our ex-member of parliament Somali born Ayaan Hirsi Ali (on the left) and our minister of immigration Rita Verdonk (both from the same Liberal Party VVD). And who is to blame... all eyes are on Lousewies van der Laan, the head of coalition partner D66, who apparently wasn't satisfied with just a reversal of the procedure of stripping Ayaan of her Dutch citizenship because of a (white) lie about her name in order to obtain Dutch citizenship years ago. It tells you something about the troubled situation the Dutch have with outspoken members of the public or parliament for that matter.
No idea when the next elections will be...but my guess is that there will be a change of government (with a much softer approach) soon.

Just put my furniture out for sale via e-mail to all the people I know here in Nagasaki and I certainly hope to flog it. The rest I will send by mail (by sea is very cheap) back home. Will take about 45 days but that's OK.

Had lunch for the last time with my conversation partner Kenichi, who gave me his bronze medal for winning the Kyushu Kendo championship. Love it. It's a very heavy and beautiful medal. Kenichi hopes to be a Japan champion one day but that will take much more practice he tells me and also more insight and wisdom on how peoples brain functions. It's not just a fight but a battle of wits.

It's still pouring down even though the weather forecast had stated that the rainy season would definitely end on the 28th June. How can they be so wrong...?? After having been adviced to put on the airconditioning in order to prevent your clothes and everything else from going moldy I've actually done so and it feels better too. Another piece of advice was to put a 15 watt lamp in your closet (apparently this is done in Indonesia).

Received also my last package from Paul. It's funny how things indicate the end of an era..well just a year actually.
The next group of Dutch students has been chosen to come over here and enjoy the blessings of the Japanese educational system.

Asakaze

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Had a wonderfull dinner tonight at a typical Japanese restaurant called Asakaze (cannot read these kanji, so don't know what it stands for..probably just the name of the place) in Shianbashi with Akitaka and Mai. Had great food and it was just nice to see them again. I do love the vinagred jelly fish 水母 or 海月 but pronounced kurage and had fugu (blow fish) for the first time. Apparently the people who do die from this fish do so because they're not content with just the white meat but like to eat the intestines and it's there that the poisonous gland is situated. About 15 people die annually by eating this delicacy.

Learned a lot about the inflexibility and rigidity of the Japanese again this night. Apparently Mai had a chat with the head of the Internat. Student center, Koji Takehiko 小路　武彦 and she was adviced not to associate anymore with the Dutch students because "they" are lazy and do not study. It's funny to see how easily the Dutch are blamed for the fact that their beautiful course doesn't bring in the desired results instead of trying to communicate with the students to find out why things don't work out.
The stupidest thing here is the 80% attendance rule. You must have the 80% otherwise you forgo the credit for that subject. So if you miss a couple of lectures because of sickness or whatever reason then it's basically no point continuing a tedious lecture because even if you would do very well at the exam or presentation.. you will not ever get that credit.

They will reconsider this exchange programme now with Leiden...well not to worry ......there are not many applicants anyway. I think a prestigious university like Leiden should try and get more students placed at Tokyo University, Keio, Waseda and Kyoto where they can also attend some really interesting lectures about the arts, law, politics etc. instead of just outdated language courses. And putting 10 Dutch students on top of one another doesn't really help to improve your language proficiency skills either.

By the way it's so humid here at the moment (湿気が多い) that the mirror in my room is steamed up.. like a bath room mirror. Everything is damp.. clothes, paper, magazines even the Dutch liquorice is sweating. Had to put it in the fridge. Reminds me of the stories Niels told me about his time in Dhaka, Bangladesh where because of the humidity this green goo came out of the stereo equipment. Now I know what he means......

Rey Camoy

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This being the rainy season till the end of June I nevertheless went to the beach last wednesday and it didn't rain. Since Mitsubishi is one of the biggest employers in Nagasaki because of the huge wharfs and docks here, I thought it was not more than appropriate to take a picture of one of the many wharfs here in the harbour.

Had Spanish fare for dinner with Saul in a restaurant called "Cancun" on Deshima Wharf. Both the cooks (Miguel from Mexico and Carlos from Madrid) helped us to find something nice to eat and it was great. Lots of Serrano ham, Scallops and Albondigas (meatballs in a spicey sauce) plus the ubiquitous tortilla chips with guacemole.

Today was spend at the prefectural museum visiting the exhibition "Rey Camoy : A Retrospective 'Listen to me' " together with Saul and Kim.
Rey Camoy 鴨居・玲 (1928-1985) was a painter from Kobe who played a leading role in the Western-style painting scene in the Kansai Region and in 1969 won the Yasui Award, which honors emerging talents in painting. The exhibition displays more than 110 works that represent his, often dark anf freightening universe. It looks like in most of his paintings he dehumanizes people and the one on the right looks decidedly like Nosferatu. This by the way is the painting called 'Listen to me' or 私の話を聞いてくれ in Japanese.

Alex and Christoph have embarked on their journey to Shanghai for a week. I always wanted to go there but haven't had the chance yet. I'm curious what they think about it.

Mori Tower ( Tokyo IV)

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Last visit was to the famous Mori Tower in Roppongi where mister Mori has created this immense building with observatory and art museum on the 52nd floor. This area apparently has the highest real estate prices in Tokyo. There was an exhibit on modern African Art called Africa Remix. Loved Samuel Fosso with his series of self portraits from sailor, drag to the chief who sold his people into slavery (see picture).

As stated before the world is a small place indeed.
I ran into Donald Fountaine at Advocates together with a friend of his called Chris who lives and works in Singapore, Bangkok and Tokyo. It was so nice to have witty repartee once again and just laugh your head off over a couple of G&Ts while checking out the comings and goings of everybody. Chris has tons of iron on his body where one can only see the ones dangling from his earlobes and has to imagine the where the other two kilos are.

Was late for my dinner with Damion. We met at the überhip Cafe Montoak in Ometosando (designed by ken Hashimoto in 2002) for more G&T and Caipirinha. Had Okonomiyaki in Shinjuku and then just hit the nightlife. I danced for the first time since years and was checked out as well. I made me feel really good. The drink to have at Arty Farty is called "Okinawa"...Japanese shochu with cranberry juice. Tastes like lemonade but has a great overall effect. Arrived home around 03.30 and just fell into bed. Woke up at 11.00 so had to do without breakfast; made it just in time to the airport and snoozed all the way to Nagasaki.

Had dinner at Milan, an indian restaurant, with Alex and Christoph (who's back here till the end of July).
Early night............
Two more weeks to go before Pim, Hans and Marco arrive. 楽しみしてるよ

Sumida river cruise ( Tokyo III )

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There is this newly renovated and build up area in Tokyo Bay with offices, convention centres, hotels and residential areas. Like the Docklands in London but then an ugly version. A nice way to visit this is to take the Yurikamome monorail for 240 Yen (cheapest one way to the next station) and then just go all the way to the end and come back on the same train. It's quite interesting to see how the Japanese can construct the most beautiful buildings among otherwise lots of really ugly ones. They just love concrete; the more the better.
The Fuiji-television building is really something though, very 21st century.

Got off at Hinode station to take a 40 minutes cruise up the Sumida river all the way up to Asakusa passing underneath 13 bridges. Water in general and harbours in particular have something quite fascinating and despite the hustle and bustle are also quite peaceful for me.
The house on the river side on the right is very un-japanese as it has big windows and an airy feel to it. It must be great to live there.
Passing through Asakusa after having been there many times I suddenly realize that all the stuff that I thought so wonderfull there you can basically also buy in the 100 yen shop around the corner.

Rushed to meet Bram for lunch in Takadanobaba, the area close to Waseda University. Had great Thai food in a basement restaurant for 900 Yen all you can eat buffet. It was nice to catch up and hearing about his plan to spend a couple of weeks in a Zen Buddhist temple near lake Biwa to find some tranquility.
Hope to see him and his girlfriend in august in Amsterdam.

Tokyu Hands ( Tokyo II )

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It's a small world even in Japan with its 137 million inhabitants.. I met Miho, a friend of Diana, on the plane coming from Nagasaki. She's doing an aroma therapy course (involves flying up to Tokyo once a month).

Friday afternoon I visited the Okura Museum of Arts. It's a private small museum run by the Okura Hotel chain where the exhibit Japanese heritage art like the as National Treasure registered "Samantabhadra on an Elephant" bronze plus scrolls, paintings, swords and Noh masks belonging to the Okura family. It's a beautiful building established in 1917 in Minato-ku right in front of the Okura hotel. This area of Roppongi 六本木一丁目 is very green, hilly and just a delight to live. Needless to say this is where a lot of the embassies are.

In the eighties and nineties the area just west of Shinjuku station used to a bit run down but now there is a huge shopping mall with 14 floors called Takeshimaya Times Square. On the floors 1 thru 7 there is this fabulous store called Tokyu Hands. Majella had already told me about it because it has everything you need or (not need but) want. From fancy-party dress to timber flooring. You can spend an afternoon there and still want to come back.

Had a drink at Advocates, a gay bar in Shinjuku nichome, where you can stand outside and watch the world go by. Talked to tons of people and it's reminiscent of "Happy Hour" in the April in Amsterdam. The have a "Beerblast" everyday from 6.00 pm till 9.00 pm. You pay ￥1000 and you can drink as much beer as like within these three hours. Loved it.
The photograph on the right is by courtesy of QTMagazine.com

In the evening I planned to have dinner with 'Opera man' Minoru for his birthday so we met at Shinjuku station. He is a 42 year old opera groupee who goes to the opera three to four times a week and hangs out at the hotels where the singers stay and collects autographs, photographs and anything else he can lay his hands on. He's quite annoying too. During dinner his life story came out (not a pretty one) and he basically lives in a virtual opera world. He's constantly mailing, texting and talking to his "opera friends" about where to meet the Divas etc.
There is this famous phrase in the movie 'Muriels Wedding' where Muriel says "If only life could be as good as an Abba song" or something like that. Well he wishes life could be as good as the Opera....but he should know that most operas end in death and despair.
Go out and get a life.......

Andrea Chénier ( Tokyo I )

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Japanese love their manga and anime (manga animation) to that extent that even All Nippon Airways has decided to feature Pokemon on its 747. Quite a sight..........

It was pouring down with rain when I finally came out of Ueno Park JR station in my 'smart-casual' attire to go and see Andrea Chénier by Umberto Giordano at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan 東京文化会館 .
I had thought to go first to the hotel in Shinjuku but Tokyo is a lot bigger than I once again thought, so schlepping my carry-on from Haneda airport I arrived wet and sweaty. My contact for the Opera, Minoru, was there to hand me the ticket and up I went to the gods. I hadn't been sitting up that high up since going to Covent Garden in the seventies. But at least then it was only a fiver instead of the 27000 Yen (€191) I had to pay now for the same pleasure. José Cura was wonderfull though and Giordano's music mesmerizing to say the least. This horrid looking typical 60-ies building was finished in 1961 and has an Egyptian feel about it on the inside. Maybe something to do with Aida as the opening performance?

Friday was museum day and I decided to go and see the "Contemporary Paintings and Prints from China" Exhibition in the Japan-China Friendship Centre in Bunkyo-ku in the morning. Quite close to the Tokyo Dome and you have to exit the IIdabashi station.

I'ts a tiny place but the paintings and prints are huge (mostly 200 x 185) and basically realistic. Very interesting indeed and ofcourse nobody there so I had the place to myself.

My favourite painting is one in the Tea House Series by by Chen Anjien.

My Student card came in handy and would so for all the other places to come too. 'A penny saved is a penny earned' so the saying goes......

World Cup ( Bangkok II )

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The latest and newest up-scale shopping mall in Bangkok has opened up and it's called Paragon.Apart from the regular Fendi, Gucci etc. stores they have a huge 'Paragon Department Store' and lots of artsy antique and furniture stores as well as high tech stores. Look at the picture on the left. For some reason it surprised me to see these little dolls here with their racial features being so extremely accentuated even though it's done in cutie colours. In Holland or elsewhere for that matter there would be an uproar. P(olitical) C(orrectness) apparently hasn't ventured this far yet.

Had lunch with Steve on Sunday afternoon in his swanky appartment with floor to ceiling windows, roof terrace and a 180 degree view over the finest parts of Bangkok. Since most of the land around his appartment block is owned by the royal family it will not be built on for decades at least so the view over Lumpini Park and the Race course will remain unchanged as it is.

It's amazing how many people one knows in a city like Bangkok and run into. Even though Cliff, Marleen & Arkom, Dirk, Jan and Louis weren't in town because of the long national holiday we did run into Phillipe on Sunday late afternoon after a relaxing massage at Silom massage parlour. We hadn't seen him for quite a while. He lost 15 kg and during that time and has become a regular Muscle Mary by going to the gym four days a week. Didn't even want to have a piece of cake in the coffee place.
I'm pondering whether or not I should maybe be trying to get my gorgeous bod back in to shape or just let it go its natural way of steady decline.

Even though I'm not a big fan of football (soccer for those on the other side of the pond) Paul and I decided to see the last half of the Holland v. Serbia match on Sunday evening in the Balcony, this infamous gay place in Soi 4. Well it was absolutely boring.
Holland being in the lead with 1 - 0 the strategy was probably to be on the defensive and by god it showed............

Time went by really quick and before I knew it I was back on the plane to Fukuoka. Not long to go now and then I'm outa here..........

p.s.
Japan doesn't have daylight saving time. In effect that means that it gets light just before five in the morning and the sun will set at around 7.30 pm. It's sad cause there is just nothing nicer than sitting on Deshima Warf with a beer in the evening while it's still light.

Bhumibol ( Bangkok I )

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Arrived friday afternoon in Bangkok and had arranged to meet Paul (coming in from Dhaka one hour later than me) in the arrivals hall. Time passed but no Paul. Tried to phone and guess what.. already in a taxi to go downtown. Luckily the cab hadn't turned on to the expressway so after a quick turn-a-round the cab managed to pick me up from the airport.

During the Kings celebrations everybody but really everybody is wearing yellow shirts, T-shirts or polos. And yellow candles were lit at 19.20 for King Bhumibol and indeed all over the country the national anthem was sung. It was a quite a sight in Bangkok where everything comes to a halt and everybody knows the lyrics. Unlike the Netherlands where only the first two stanzas are remembered if you're lucky.

Where just checking in at Centre Point, our home away from home, when Marco showed up. It was his last night before going to Peking to meet his boyfriend Arend for a two week holiday in China. Marco will also come over to Japan with Pim and Hans on the 3rd of July. Instead of going to Soi 4 we went to Dick's Café on Surawong

Had dinner in an Italian place called Delicatezza on Thor long in Sukhumvit on Saturday night with David and Scott and even though there is no Italian cook in sight the food was absolutely delicious be it also rather pricey for Thai standards. The boys will come over to Amsterdam in August for a joint visit to friends in the U.K.

Finished saturday night in the gay ghetto in Silom's Soi 4 for a drink in the Telephone bar. Then went back to our appartment for a well deserved rest.......

U.K. Drought

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At times when walking through Nagasaki i feel like I look like I'm wearing a mask like the one shown here. People here are prone to staring at you for no apparent (in my eyes ) reason but then again beauty isn't given to many so I do understand their fascination with mine.

Well it has finally hit the Japanese papers as well...the severe drought in the United Kingdom. The Japan Times devoted half a page to the subject explaining about the fines if one is caught using water unnecessarily (who defines that ??) and the fact that the basins haven't been renewed for ages and thus are leaking great amounts of water every day. In Chris' parallel blog he had already mentioned it but just never thought about it.

Today we had two lectures in the Rangaku 蘭学(Dutch Studies = Western Studies) series in the City Historical Museum 長崎市歴史博物館 . Not that the lecture room was more beautiful or the lecture more interesting but at least there was time to visit the museum shop. They showed us old (18th century), stained and about to dissolve Dutch documents from quite a distance so our breath wouldn't make it fall apart all together.
We now have to write down in Dutch the almost unintelligable writings by an 18th century Dutch guy in Deshima.

Tomorrow I'm off to Bangkok for the weekend to see Paul. We're going to meet up with Marco tomorrow night ( he will also come to Nagasaki in July ), with David and Scott on Saturday and Steve on Sunday.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej acceded to the Throne as Rama the IX of Thailand on the 9th of June 1946, when he was only 18 years of age and these 60 years on the throne will be celebrated in style this weekend. I hope they don't cancel my flight or Paul's for the minor VIPs coming in.
The royal barges event will take place on monday..... so unfortunately we'll have to give it a miss.

I became a member of a Japanese internet group that puts people in touch with similar interests and ususally in the same place. it's called Asoboo meaning let's visit and let's play. And guess what I was contacted by a chap in Aichi prefecture, called Minoru who loves Opera. So now I will go to Tokyo next thursday to see Andrea Chenier by Umberto Giordano performed by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in the Tokyo Centre for Performing Arts in Ueno Park. Faberoony......

Live is good....

p.s.
There is news that my friend Pim might not come to Nagasaki after all since the guy who is taking over his dentistry practice for half a year has fallen ill all of a sudden.
Hope he can find another replacement though......

Hiroshi Abe (Osaka III)

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On my last day in Osaka, Teru and I dediced to go to the Floating Garden Observatory on top of the Umeda Sky Building 梅田スカイビル , a modern and sleek looking arch, almost like La Defense in Paris. The point is that there is no garden. One should apparently look out over Osaka and think of Osaka as a garden (if I understood the Kanji correctly). It offers a stunning 360 degree view over Osaka.

There is an exhibition about a new movie by Bruno Ganz called baruto no gakuen バルトの楽園, literally translated from the German "Musikgarten der Bärte" or in English "music garden of the beards". There was a POW for german soldiers during WW I in Japan and they created a small orchestra. The main Japanese character Iko is played by Hiroshi Abe ... a very good looking Japanese guy. He's 42, not married so there is a lot of speculation about him.
What do you think... straight or gay...?

In the Museum of Modern Art in Osaka, which is an underground museum with just an architectural piece sticking out, there is apart from the Picassos and Anselm Kiefers also a lot of Japanese modern art and the one person who in my view really stands out is Yasumasu Morimura. He inserts his own face into photographic copies of the paintings of fundamental icons of Western art such as the Mona Lisa and Vincent van Gogh's self portrait where he's just cut off his ear.

Like everything else all good things come to an end so after a late lunch I went back to Nagasaki by Shinkansen and regular express. There is an enormous tunnel connecting Honshu and Kyushu and the train takes about 10 minutes to get through it.
Can only say what a great town. Will definitely go again.

p.s.
Last year during a religious anthropology lecture by Margarita Winkel at Leiden University we talked about a little temple in the Hanyaku Station in Osaka and how it was preserved despite the railway company wanting to destroy it. And I actually saw it. It's tiny and now it is used mainly by commuters since the locals have moved away to the outskirts of town.

Frenz (Osaka II)

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After Lunch ( duck meat in broth plus udon) at a Noodle place called Imai 今井 , in the middle of a busy pedestrian shopping street we went to Shitennoji 四天王寺 the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan, established by Prince Shotoku who introduced Buddhism to Japan in the 6th century. It has a beautiful 4 tiered stupa. There were plenty of statues of the Bodhisattva Jizo too, the guardian deity of infants and children.


To rest our weary legs we ventured to the Osaka branch of Café de Flore, that famous place in Saint Germain de Prés, situated in a underground shopping mall. It looks like a mini version complete with a terrace, bottles of champagne etc. We indulged in Pernod and Suze with water and ice. Great...!!

After a snooze we decided to do Sushi. Takeshi, Teru's friend joined us too. Last year in Kobe he was suffering from a bad toothache and guess what .. we meet again and voilá the toothach is back again. Either that makes me the tooth fairy or he has a chronic tooth ache problem.

Over dinner you hear the strangest things. I knew that the Japanese Business Federation, known here as the Keidanren 経団連 , is a very powerful lobby and part of that iron triangle (Government, Bureaucracy and Big business) but they also manage to block medication to come in from abroad. In this case Takeshi, who is a psychiatrist, cannot prescribe Prozac or other efficient medication for depression because the Japanese pharmaceutical industries are still in trial runs and till they can produce and sell their own they just block the import of it. It's absolutely scandalous since there is a lot of depression related suicide here (e.g. people get together via the internet and commit suicide together). Consumer groups are not big and certainly not influential. The contraceptive pill wasn't allowed in till just about a couple of years ago under the pretext that more trials needed to be done but in reality because doctors here were making more money from performing abortions than writing out prescriptions.
When Viagra however hit the world and was quickly released here without any trials.. they couldn't keep the contraceptive excuse going so now it is finally available to women here too.

Teru and Takeshi were knackered so I had to go out by myself. Ended up in Frenz, a tiny but very lively place run by an English guy called... Paul. Had a lot of fun and talked to a million people (so to speak). Definitely a place to visit again.

Nozomi (Osaka I)

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It appears that sometimes I'm really confused.. I mixed up the travel dates to go to Osaka. Tried to go through the ticket gate at Nagasaki Station but I was stopped.. It said 3rd June i.s.o. the 2nd. Had to go to the JR ticket office to change the dates to one day earlier and luckily you can change your journey once only. Looked at the hotel reservation and yes ... that too was for the 3rd. Called the Tokyu Inn and thank God they still had a vacancy for friday night (There was a big baseball game on on Saturday..!!) and they too changed the dates....
Getting older isn't all that wonderfull ...... apart from loosing your shape you also loose your memory.

I finally made it to Osaka, the big city in the kansai region and not too far from the old capital Kyoto. The trip per train (regular from Nagasaki to Fukuoka and then by Shinkansen to Osaka) takes about 4 1/2 hours. This was the first time I have travelled on the high speed Nozomi train (300 + km/ph) and it's quite a thrill. You even hear the wind blowing when it makes a bend. It wasn't very full (not surprising for 27.000 yen for the round trip) but it's quite an experience.

Arrived at Shin Osaka station and from there you it takes a 3 minute ride on another JR line to Osaka station. Teru was there to meet me (he had just finished working at the University of Kyoto where he is an associate professor at the Law faculty). Went for Okonomiyaki and lotsa beer (it was 25 degrees there, humid and no wind). It was just great to see him again after we had met in Kobe last year in July.

After a drink in a gay bar called Physique (a little noisy for my liking but nice never the less) I just hit the hay.............

The Tokyu Inn is very conveniently located in the Umeda area and a 3 minute walk to all the gay bars.... Fab.

After breakfast I met Teru and we decided to do history first (there are not many old buildings left since the city was heavily bombed during WW II as a compromise they didn't bomb Kyoto; similar agreement as to not bombing the Cathedral in Cologne).
Started off with the Osaka Museum of History opposite Osaka Castle. Very interesting to see the development of Osaka (It had been the Capital of Japan before Nara in the 7th century and in 1583, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who accomplished the great task of unifying the country, chose Osaka as his base and constructed Osaka Castle, making Osaka the political and economic center of Japan.
They have a nice life-like reconstruction of the court life in the Museum plus an over abundance of Bunraku dolls. Bunraku 文楽 is the Japanese art of Puppetry and two or sometimes three men in black will make each puppet come alive. Especially the facial features like eyes, eyebrows and mouth can be changed in order to create diverse looks on the dolls face.