I popped over to a travel agent hoping to get a cheap trip home, but unfortunately I'd be travelling during "Silver Week" which is a really long weekend in September. Add to holidays to the weekend and I get 8 days of travel. But it is prohibitively expensive and I may not be going anywhere! (Okay, maybe Malaysia, I'll look into it.) So instead I spent my money on a Gachapin bag that came with my KFC Smile Set.
I also couldn't resist this! It's so incredibly tacky.
But I got a few freebies today as well. Working in the NHK building has its advantages, especially when it comes to Domo-Kun! They have a promo going on and those who sign up get Clear File and a bunch of stickers (or シール = seal). I just have to squeal, "Cool!", bat my baby-hazel eyes and they hand me one.
One of my students gave me this lovely fan of a Ukiyoe lass playing a 鼓 (つづみ or tsuzumi) a small hand drum that you hold over your shoulder and tap with your fingers as though you're burping a baby. Since my ma is stricken with a stroke she can only use one hand, thus a folding fan is tough to manipulate. This should fit the bill nicely (for next summer anyway...)
Another student in the same class showed me a photo of a newspaper from Montreal, Oct 2000. She actually attended Trudeau's funeral. Cool. In the wake of Japan's election and the turnover of governments, we've been discussing politics of late. So the photo was apropos.BTW, in addition to being Labour Day today and thus the first day of school in Canada tomorrow, September 1st is also 防災の日 (Bousai no Hi) which is the 210th day of the year and along with September 20th are dates to Prepare for the Prevention of Disaster. Since we are suffering unending rain due to Typhoon #11, not a bad idea!
4 comments:
is that a keychain of Col. Sanders standing next to a life size statue of Col. Sanders?
The title of that Col. Sanders strap literally translates to "Welcome home Colonel!"
It's a funny story- a few years back, Osaka's pro baseball team- the Hanshin Tigers, finally won the championship after an extended drought of being losers. A victory tradition of the Osaka fans is to jump into a famous local canal from a bridge. Things got carried away during the riotous victory celebration and a plastic statue of the Colonel was one of them! They chucked him in the river and there he layed for 3 or 4 years. Last year they recovered his body in the condition you see it on the left (mouldy and covered with seaweed, lichen and whatnot). He's been resored to his former deep-fried-chicken-hawking glory on the right. Dontcha' just love a happy ending?
MOKGOHAN
ah yeah. i remember reading about that in Sports Illustrated. but didn't the team go a bad losing streak after they rescued the statue from the water?
maybe i'm thinking of something else. baseball fans are a superstitious lot .
They still suck! The statue is missing a hand, maybe they need it to lift the curse!
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