Today I spent my afternoon with Yasue, cruisin’ around various cityside venues, checking out their potential for her wedding later this year. It just goes to show, you don’t have to live within 500 metres to explore a new area. At least we didn’t end up like the cow from Hey diddle diddle.

To all my international friends, take a leaf out of the flickr blog on The Australian Lesson. It’s not just about roo steak!

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Australians in the wild before, but next time you do, just remember these 4 simple rules:

1. Keep us outside, preferably near the beach
2. Cook us something on a barbecue
3. Talk about sport, and
4. Give us a beer

It’s really very simple, and I can guarantee you will get bonus points if you also feed us lamingtons or fairy bread.

Happy Australia Day!

A Toblerone at The Atrium where the view is best from the loo. Followed by meeting up with Christie, Craig and Liz. I hadn’t seen Craig since climbing days in Squamish! After the fireworks display, we stuffed ourselves at the Blue Train Café and chatted until the last train took me home.

After discovering the hunk of dust couldn’t be removed, my little Canon went for a check up. Doctors aren’t cheap. I found there’s only one in the whole city of Melbourne who doesn’t outsource the job. It turns out the dust is stuck inside and the whole thing needs to be pulled apart. Sure, do it. What else am I going to do? So my camera is on the operating table and I’m unable to take any photos…

I feel like a painter without a brush. This is crap. I still have my eyes, so let’s take a look at some pictures.

At work, a colleage was asking about the all new Windows Vista. After the list of requirements was fleshed out and being no more capable than her current version of Windows, she joined the hesitant / reluctant. There is one great advantage though, just one…

One good reason to consider an upgrade to Vista, Microsoft’s just-released upgrade to Windows: the default set of desktop wallpapers it ships with include several from Flickr members.

If you aren’t feeling as rich as Bill and want some new wallpapers, help yourself to any of my photos on flickr. I realized My flickr pro account was soon to expire, so I topped that up with another 2 years of subscription, US$47.99. Now there’s downtime on the flickr website and the Yahoo! sign in has bastardised the start up process, even for long standing members. Don’t go poking your eyes out just yet, it’ll be back up in no-time.

So the boys at Vintech fixed my baby up and earned a wad of notes. When you have a monopoly, you too can charge like a wounded bull. Actually it was a very reasonable price and I am happy to have my camera again. Just in time for Australia Day.

Come along and see Tezuka: the Marvel of Manga, a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, before it finishes on the 28th of January. It’s $12 to get in and we can meet beforehand this Saturday 13th January 2:30pm at Federation Square.

TEZUKA Osamu is heralded as an icon of the Japanese manga movement; acknowledged in Japan as an artistic master, and revered as the figurehead of the manga and anime industries. Creating over 700 manga titles during his lifetime, he is best known in the West for his cartoons of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, which were serialized for television in the 1960s. Tezuka’s work is acclaimed for its complexity and originality and his drawings showcase an extraordinary calligraphic dynamism. His prolific manga work contains two main streams: manga ‘comic pictures’ for a youth audience, including Astro Boy, Kimba and Princess Knight; and gekiga ‘drama pictures’ – more seriously-toned, adult oriented narratives such as Song of Apollo and Ludwig B, that stress realistic effect and emotional impact. This exhibition features both aspects of his work, introducing Western audiences to the complexities and extraordinary range of the manga form.

This exhibition has been negotiated through Tezuka Productions in Tokyo. Comprising original drawings, designs for manga covers and posters, the exhibition will introduce Western audiences for the first time to the full scope of Tezuka’s artistic output.

What grabbed my attention is a few of the podcasts from curator Philip Brophy, in particular:

3. Philip Brophy talks about postwar Japan and the birth of Astro Boy (duration: 11 mins)

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6. Philip Brophy talks about how, in Japan, ‘cute’ is not always cute (duration: 9 mins)

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8. Philip Brophy delves into the darker side of manga (duration: 8 mins)

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ADVISORY MESSAGE
Life is full of interesting stuff. If you need your parent/guardian to hold your hand, perhaps you should stay at home and live a sheltered life.

Woah! Well let’s say the advisory message should be acknowledged. Among the expected cutie characters drawn up on the walls, are some ideas, concepts and characters that certainly took me by surprise. After discovering mountains of porn on a visit to Fuji-san, some of Tezuka’s sexual content on show didn’t raise an eyebrow. What did catch me off guard, was some of the psycho imagery and depressing stories. Some such as humans contracting a disease that brings out canine features, may be explained by the fact that Japan suffered for decades after the infamous A-bomb was dropped. However, others including a murdering phantom horse, write your own religion, and an ongoing theme of gender-switching folk gave me something to think about. The great contrast Japan is renowned for: there is nothing hidden about Tezuka’s mindset, yet Japanese society remains the most secretive I’ve ever known. Let’s call that a love-hate thing.

I have no comprehension of the Polish language whatsoever. All I can make out from the article is Deakin University, Computer Associates, and her name, Krystyna Fowler. So apparently the article CA zatrudnia nową osobę w dziale współpracy z partnerami is about my sister-in-law working in some really cool job.

Yesterday while cruising around in holiday mode, I received a call from Rob at Melbourne University. He offered me work for the remaining available days on my schedule for the next 6 weeks. W-Hoo! That should put my bank balance back into check. It was also the last day to hang out with student/friends Sori and Chi-hong who are dashing off to Tasmania for 3 months of farm work.

Kate is soon to arrive back in Japan and start work in her new job too. It seems like this teaching gig is paying off for all of us. 頑張って ケイト-先生
Gambatte Keito-sensei!

At 1:30AM on the first day of this year, I took this photo. Indeed the gorgeous surf chicky babe caught my eye, but that’s not why I took the photo. Anyone who has had any interaction with me over the past twenty-odd months undoubtedly has heard (or seen) mention of Kate. Seeing her name on this billboard prodded me to snap the shutter.

Even her very name has undergone a plethora of pronunciations, spellings and translations. LemonLion became Keito Chan to her flickr contacts; Keito-sensei or simply Keito according to some former students; the sound of cage has gotten a response, as has Kaich; her family call her Katie not to be confused with Katy; I call her Kate.

Just three days ago I said farewell to the one woman who has had the biggest impact on my life since April 2005. I met her in a free Japanese language lesson given at the community centre in Hiroshima, Japan. She looked like someone I could speak with when my Japanese would fall to bits.

Her friendly face and charming Leo character, her kindness and consideration, her lateness and her ever-ready humour, just some of the parts that never make the whole. Her refreshing way of cutting loose when so many other friends would hold back, be it killing a carol in a karaoke booth, learning to thrash a snowboard, or giving me chocolate breasts and a FUCK YOU key tag for birthday presents, she’d always give it her all. The keeper of my stuff during my travels to China and Tibet. The floor for me to crash on when I have no apartment of my own, she’s rather travel savvy herself. The inspiration for me to start the CELTA and the encouragement to work to my best.

This is the Kate who I saw off at the bus station. I look like shit. Well I did wake up a bit early. Sharing most memorable experiences with her in Japan and Australia, it has been a total blast, Thank you.

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New Year fireworks on Vimeo

Chris had staked out a patch of the Yarra bank, holding fast to his blanket. Sori had arrived after the first wave of fireworks had subsided. Through swelling crowds swarming over the Princes Bridge, I wove a line with my mobile pressed firmly to my ear, Where are you? With the live music blaring and colourful dancers and lights atop Federation Square, it was all quite mesmerising.