Interesting.

I am sooo behind with this blog! So sorry to all the dedicated people (I think it's just you, Flor :P) who read this regularly...I'm having trouble accessing the net - I think the sucker who owns the wireless is starting to be clued into real suckers like my flatmate and I...or maybe it's just my lappy playing up. I have been downloading like mad and my poor computer must have snapped.

During my trips about town I have started to notice the weird, wonderful, or plain, wtf?!?! Lets start with hairstyles. I have seen hairstyles so ridiculous I can't help but gawk. Is it a wig? Extensions? Did they go to CUT HIDE? For the classic Jekyll and Hyde look #1 I've seen this girl with dead straight long hair on the left side and then Shirley Temple curls on the other. She was like the walking billboard for the before and after shots for the Magic Curling Wand. What was amazing was that there was a clear delineation between the left and the right...there weren't any 'stray' hairs fuzzing up the middle. Jekyll and Hyde look #2 was another girl who had her left side bleached blonde and the right side black. You kinda get the feeling that you're talking to two people as opposed to one. Another dude I gawked at had dead straight side parted fringe but then the rest was a tight curly bob like Ronald McDonalds. This was a YOUNG MAN we are talking about! He looked like a middle-aged mum (See-lai) with a school boy cowlick. My reaction was like those stupefied sideshow alley plastic clown heads with spaced out eyes and dislocated jaws that swings from side to side, with cheesy circus music running over the intercom. Well, my personal intercom was playing a tinny 'Nooooooooooo...' as I swing my head robotically from side to side. Hahahahha! And people say that what's fashionable here will hit Australia in a few years time. Look out boys! Maybe you should jump in the fashion wagon early! By the way, you should pluck your eyebrows too while you're at it. Make sure you get that drag queen arch. Don't get me wrong though, people here generally have really magazine perfect hair...I'm especially impressed with guys' hair styles. (Some of them defy gravity). Being scruffy isn't part of their vocab unless it's a look they want to achieve in the first place. (Prolly took them 3 hrs and 2 cans of hair spray) Even then it looks effortless and cool grunge and not like normal homeless people hair. I feel so hobo compared to them all! I step out of my front door looking decent but it immediately gets windswept as I pedal like a mad woman to the train station. As I struggle to pat it all down my hair gets all messed up again when the train winds itself onto the platform. The effect is like a giant grass blower. I had glanced at my fellow commuters and they have no difficulty at all! For some, their hair just don't move. Even if ties are flapping, clothes are rippling, cows are flying, their hair are a beacon of calm amidst a sea of chaos. For others, their hair float about but lands sophisticatedly like they had just been professionally styled. Argh!

Talking about trains, I had a really gross guy sitting next to me last week. He wasn't dirty or anything but I felt unclean and infected because of the frequency and the ways in which he was rubbing his face. He would make loud sniffling sounds and then rub his nose with all his fingers before proceeding to rub his eyes and his entire face with his whole hand, while continuing with his loud sniffling noise. I usually don't give a crap if people want to get relief from an itch, but this dude was doing it every couple of seconds. (I actually counted...every 7.5 secs) Like he was addicted - and really going for it, treating his hand like it was some tissue that you snuffle into. It's disturbing on so many levels. Makes you think why he is itchy to begin with which leads to what he has and if it's infectious. Even the lady standing in front of him moved a step away from him, so no, it's not just OCD Charlene.

The other day I witnessed these two business men saying farewell (lots of bowing included). One obviously was lower ranked and therefore bowed alot more and alot steeper than the other one. When the farewell finally farewelled and the higher ranked (HR) went up the stairs to his platform, the LR followed him to the base of the stairs and watched the HR go up until he can't see him anymore. He even bent his knees a little to see if he could still glimpse HR. Then he stood up, waited for a little while just in case HR comes back before turning away to go to his own platform, all the while casting glances behind him in case HR comes rushing back to give him a hot kiss and a hug. In order to view this whole exchange I had to first pretend I was a bit lost, not knowing which platform I was 'supposed' to be going to (it was a big station..lots of platforms) and when I realised it will go on longer than I expected, I whipped out my trusty mob and pretended to text message. Sly, I know.

When I was on the way to my local post office I happened to stumbled into a small pack of Japanese monks who were just walking about individually chanting really loudly and continuously, stopping randomly in front of a shop to bless it (more chanting and bowing). They were wearing Vietnamese-like rice paddy straw hats, blue and white robes and clogs. No one batted an eyelid. Except me of course. I was thinking if a group of people of any religion went around chanting loudly and blessing buildings in Sydney they'll get told off or worse, get rounded up by the police for 'being a public nuisance'. These little things are what makes Japan so special :P

I think local elections are coming up so alot of politicians are doing the rounds in my work area. They do so by holding speeches in the town centre on top of a little plastic podium and chanting (I guess) patriotic slogans. They are also surrounded by bodyguards(?) or supporters (paid?) who wears "I love Wako" on the back of their green bomber jackets. In effect, there are more of them in the crowd than the average citizens. They also like being driven around in a little van with taped speeches blaring over the megaphone mounted on top while the people inside wave like the Queen, with white gloves on. Kinda like a Mr Whippy van but no kids or adults will ever draw close or whoop with glee. If there happens to be a person standing close to the kerb, he or she will most probably have to shake the hand that is offered through the window. It's not just Wako, it's everywhere else as well! I think it's their kind of thing as opposed to Aussie politicians taking 'business trips' to Thailand and Bali for 'conferences' and having 'business lunches' with $500 bottles of wine and caviar.

Another funny cross cultural exchange between Aussies and Americans: Who knows what graham crackers are? My flatmate was utterly astonished when I told her I have no idea what she was on about. I think it must be so common and part of their lives that it must seem like I was asking her what eggs and milk were.

Now for some work related news: I had Kids Training last week! I can officially lead a class with short people. I haven't yet but I think I will have to soon. The training was ok but it wasn't hands on. It was all theory and 'simulated' with other trainees. I think we all felt really dumb, having to hold hands with each other and play 'games' and sing songs. It would be heaps better if there were real, live kids (you won't feel so stupid because your patronising 'Hoooowww aaare yoooou? I am saaaaaaad!' would be justified) But using that voice to people who are adults and who are well versed in English just seemed...a tad retarded. It was a long day. Towards the end, everyone was struggling to stay awake. We had to sit on the floor in a circle the entire time to 'create the atmosphere' and also because we had to simulate the lessons (which are chairless) so every one of us were getting numb bums and backs. I sat next to the instructors (who had a bench to lean on) which I realised were the best spot because I could close my eyes and they wouldn't be able to see me because I'm not facing them. So I took naps in between. Keep your friends close but your teachers closer! Haha!

My colleagues at my branch were having a chat about sumo wrestlers (the tournament starts in the second week of May...I think I will go and watch it live!) when our supervisor (he has alot of interesting tidbit info about everything) mentioned that sumo wrestlers don't wash the cloth that hides their bits and bobs because it's very unlucky. Ewwww! Can you imagine a sumo wrestler being on the circuit for 6 years and never washing the sweaty, stinky nappy?!? I'm thinking there must be something underneath that which they wear...like a giant g-string...but he was doubtful: 'The garment is quite skimpy already, I mean, it's just a line down the crack. What can they wear that's thinner than a line?' Good question. I don't want to know. Some guy then piped that it's the same for self defense/ martial arts type of sport about not supposing to wash the belts. Another then said maybe that's why black belts are the highest because they are the dirtiest. You start at white when it's the cleanest, then it starts to get mouldy from sweat turning it a bit blue then yellow; the mould get older so turns greenish brown, before finally, the belt become black with mould.

On another occasion they were gossiping about teachers who never made it pass probation because they were so bad. I was dumbfounded because this is the cruisest job I've had to date and can't believe people can stuff it up so much that they get fired. I was told that particular person farts loudly during class and blames it on the student sitting closest to him; (Giggle!) and how, after the bell rang 5mins ago, he would still sit in the teachers' room fiddling and reading magazines. When asked why he's not in the classrooms, he would reply, 'Yeah I'm going soon' but would still sit glue to the seat.

Another funny thing I remembered: I am so used to students giving me one word answers (ie/ What's your name? Hiro) that when a student said "Call me Kazu" I thought his name was Komikazu. Everyone in the room laughed. I thought it was hilarious too.