The Kims Night Out
Now Playing: Girl from Impamena
Topic: Nagoya life
Being heartily sick of the incessant Spring rain, my own cooking, and festering indoors with the flu, I boldly ventured forth all the way down the road to a little restaurant near Hongo station with my Fabulous Flatmate Kimberly. It is much less intimidating to wander into a completely unknown establishment where you can't read the menu and have no idea what you'll get, when you're with someone! Turned out it was a gorgous little izakaya that specialized in seafood - all beautifully presented Japanese style. Even with raucously drunken crowd of rowdy salarymen in the room next door, it was a delightfully pleasant "Kimmish" night out. That's definitely one of the best things about Japan - discovering the culinary gems hidden behind even the most unprepossessing exterior...

Intrepid Mum
Topic: Familien

Mum has been traipsing around China for a couple of months visiting all sorts of interesting places and doing some English teaching on the side. Here she is looking fit and fabulous in Guilin (I think).

Today's Word Thing
Now Playing: The Cat Empire
Apparently, everyone is sick of looking at Tiny Beers, so due to popular demand, here's a new entry, though if you scroll down you'll notice I've been back blogging, albeit very slowly! Thus the hidden life of Kimji is revealed bit by tantalizing bit... aherm.

My Fabulous Flatmate Kimberly got this cool article from the Smithsonian magazine listing interesting foreign words. So seeing as I'm currently masquerading as a language teacher, it seems entirely appropriate to edify you with these gems:
Andrew Marvell may have done well to describe his "Coy MIstress" as a nakhur, Persian for "a camel that won't give milk until her nostrils have been tickled." Or there's nedovtipa, which is Czech for "someone who can't take a hint". Hmm, can think of a few of those. I hate being forced to be polite. Occasionally though, I will get overwhelmed by a situation and achaplinarse i.e. "hesitate and then run away in the manner of Charlie Chaplin" as certain Spanish speakers in Central America apparently do.

In summer I'm much taken with the Malaysian kontal-kontil, "the swinging of long earrings or the swishing of a dress as one walks", the sensuous nature of which may, with a bit of luck, induce some flirtatious mamihlapinatapei: "a shared look of longing where both parties know the score yet neither is willing to make the first move." Nice one from the Fuegians in Chile.
The more I hear about the Inuit, the more I think they're a highly sensible and civilized folk who have got cooperative living in cramped quarters down to a fine art. Forget the 50 words for snow - areodjarekput is the way to go, where one "exchanges wives for a few days only". Unlike the Easter Islanders, who decimated their island no doubt due to the antisocial act of tingo, "to borrow things from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left."

But you can't beat the Krauts for inyerface, telling-it-like-it-is brutal honesty. They don't mince words, the Germans. Remind me next time I'm drowning my sorrows in a giant tub of cookies 'n cream icecream to watch out for piling on that Kummerspeck (lit. "grief bacon"), "excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating". Oh yeah.

My absolute favourite is this one: Forget "the face that launched a thousand ships" Backpfeifengesicht is "a face that cries out for a fist in it". Now that, my friends, is Teutonic pithiness at its best. You gotta admit, it's poetic.

Karaoke
Now Playing: Pink
Topic: Nagoya life

As you all know, I do not sing - at least, not when sober. So I was naturally extremely skeptical about karaoke before coming to Japan. Now, I freely admit that I am a karaoke convert. It's nothing like the appalling spectacle of public humiliation that karaoke seems to have become in other parts of the world, where entire restaurants and hotels are subjected to someone's tone-deaf caterwauling. Shudder! No, here the humilation is confined to your close circle of chosen friends, preferably at some ungodly hour in the morning, when everyone is as blotto as you are and will either be deaf or anmesiac in the morning, so all is forgiven and forgotten. Basically you hire what looks like someone's lounge room with tacky vinyl sofas and lots of beer from a vending machine, and proceed to scream your lungs out in the manner you find most cathartic. Tonight we had a particularly fine chorus rendition of "Danny Boy" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" in 3 part (dis)harmony, and an operatic version of Celine Dion from Joe-Joe, while Niculina, Soonhee and I mimed "Three Little Girls from Meisho" ala Gilbert et Sullivan.

Kim-sized Beer
Topic: Japan Weirdnesses
In case I haven't mentioned it before, Japan is probably the only place in the world where I am a giant. I love being a giant! Not only are the people small, the beers are too. My flatmate Kimberly discovered these perfect tiny pints you could just snort up one nostril and not even notice.
On being proffered one when he came over, Joe was completely outraged and indignant. Note to self: new take on ancient Japanese custom - if you want to get rid of visitors who have overstayed their welcome, instead of offering them tea, give them a Tiny Beer. (Not you, though Joe!)
PS: Jo Mynard has updated her blog! For nerds only: cross-reference Tiny Beer at Jo's Blog

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Now Playing: Jazz and lots of it!
Topic: Friends
Dinner with the Kims:
From left: Haldane, Kim, Geo, George, Soonhee, Bruce, Megumi, Antoine, Kimberly.

Ok so this was a classic example of what happens when you get a bunch of drunkenly pedantic academics together: we finally had to resort to Wikipedia to settle a lengthy dispute about whether there really was a King William IV and what his exact relationship was to Queen Adelaide (of the wine), and decided that it must have been William IV of Pakistan that Joe was talking about...

Joe wrote:
I really think the last photo should be titled:
Revisionist Historian Haldane questions the trustworthiness of commonly accepted wisdom concerning the reign of 'William IV', believing a sino-judaio-christian-arab conspiracy of posting false pages. His next book, 'Stalin was nice' (Following the bestseller 'Goebbels was great') is out soon...

Happy Birthday Dr Dived!

Cheese, Grommit!

Farewell Brennan
Now Playing: Omara Portundo
Topic: Friends
Distance and duties divide us,
But absence will not seem an evil
If it make our re-meeting
A real occasion. Come when you can:
Your room will be ready.
(W. H. Auden "For Friends Only")

Sydney friends
Topic: Friends
Whirlwind tour of Sydney! So great to catch up with old friends.
1. Mans!
2. Dr Weevil (Would you let this man operate on you? Apparently he's an opthalmologist (Also known as Yves). Currently AWOL: last seen in the wilds of Patagonia wearing same Hannibal Lector grin)
3. Maria and Lilla; 4. Kate having indoor picnic

Silly Hats
Topic: Familien
As you all know, I was finally released from my years of bondage in the Ivory Tower late last year, and took the opportunity to celebrate for as long as I could get away with it. At my parents' insistence I had to play dress-ups in a very silly hat and gown and ponce around the Great Court at my old alma mater, Sydney Uni, taking happy snaps to commemorate joining "The Race of Doctors". To tell truth, I thought the whole thing fairly pointless - I mean, not only could I not make it to the official Ceremony (thank goodness I escaped that tedium), but what did the Silly Hat matter when what really counted was surviving the thesis? But in this case, older and wiser heads than mine prevailed, and I am very grateful that my parents made me wear that Silly Hat. There's definitely something to be said for rituals after all - they bestow a sense of ceremony and closure that I wish I had more of in my vagrant gypsy life. So, it turned out to be a fun family bonding occasion - just me, Mum, Dad and Lili, basking in the temporary glory of The Hat. It was indeed a happy day.