Inakamono

Power Rangers

I met the Power Rangers in Starbucks today. Who'd have thought?

Licence Renewed

I drove to Matsuyama to get my driver's licence renewed. I arrived at the Motor Registry at 12.55, went up to the second floor and found queues 15 deep at each of the 4 numbered reception windows. At 1pm an alarm rang, the curtains were pulled back from the windows and business began. Step One - pay. Step Two - fill out the forms. Step Three - eye test. I was shown three circles with a small piece nibbled away (ie, not unlike the letter 'C' in various stages of falling over) and I had to call out whether the nibbled bit was above, below, left or right. Step 4 - hand in the forms. Step 5 - photo. Japanese people normal marvel at the fact that I am smiling in my drivers licence photo (apparently a big no-no in Japan) but they will marvel no longer - today the camera operator snapped the shot almost as soon as my bum hit the seat, and now I have a very Japan compliant non teeth-revealing photo ID. Step 6 - attend compulsory lectures and videos.

First time licence renewers have to attend two hours of driver education. A spiffily dressed old guy entered the lecture room and said "Konnichiwa". Naturally I replied. Out of the 12 people in the room I was the only one. I sensed that the surly twenty-somethings around me just wanted to get through the process ASAP, and didn't want to waste time on things like greetings. Mr Spiffy went through some road accidents stats, new laws and basic road sense. A few of his points were so obvious they could have been left unsaid ("Most senior citizen accident victims get barrelled because once they have successfully crossed a road at a certain point they thereafter assume it is safe and don't bother looking") but some were wryly poignant ("Young people taking sharp curves have to realise that you can't argue with the laws of physics") He then showed a couple of videos. I couldn't get over the comments from pedestrians regarding whether they should look at when crossing at pedestrian crossings : "I don't look - it is the cars' responsibility to stop". There was even a warning about using child safety seats, a warning which anyone who has driven in Matsuyama knows is ignored by most mothers who choose instead to plonk children in the passenger seat, un-restrained.

The whole process was smooth and painless and three hours after walking in I was finished and in possession of a snazzy new (non-smiley) licence.

Reoma World

Today was school excursion day. We assembled on the oval before walking a short distance to the 9 huge buses which would transport us to New Reoma World amusement park in nextdoor Kagawa Prefecture. I was with class 302 in bus No 2, and the teacher in charge was the charismatic 25 year old Kondo Sensei. As soon as we boarded he whipped out the bus mic and had everyone introduce themselves and then quiz the two Kiwi boys on board. The interviewers were all girls and naturally the subject turned to....... girls.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No"
"Do you want a girlfriend?"
"Maybe..."
"What is your type?"
"Err..sporty"
"Yes! And..?"
"Intelligent"
"Oh...damn"

Despite being in the responsible position of interpreter and guide I wanted to go on at least one ride. Problem solved - I escorted one of the NZ teachers when she went on the rollercoaster. As we waited in line I noticed 135kg judoka Yosuke beaming at us. At 135 kilos he is hard not to notice. He smiled at the NZ teacher and began chatting.
"Do you like Japanese food?"
"Yes..."
"Good, good" said Yosuke.
"Looks like YOU certainly do!" said my diminuitive colleague Kyoko, grabbing Yosuke's ham sized upper arm. He roared with laughter.

New Reoma World looks like it was built during the bubble and then fell from glory. It went bust once and the current incarnation (hence the "New") was the result of a makeover two years ago. Not a complete makeover though - the park was home to a deserted hotel, a collection of poorly maintained South East Asian villages, a depressing zoo and an ever lamer dog zoo which consisted of dogs in wire pens in a concrete courtyard. The students had the right idea - stick to the rides and icecream.

After 4 hours of play everyone lined up at the entrance, filed back onto the buses and fell asleep. Except my bus. Kondo Sensei spoke to the driver, produced a couple of karaoke song books and mics and the last thing I remember before dozing off was high school girls singing pop songs.

Back at the school the calligraphy club did a demonstration in which two girls, barefoot, drew kanji on large sheets laid on the floor (with brushes, not their feet). Then, dictionaries in hand, the club members assisted the New Zealand students to write their kanji of choice. Typical selections included "dream", "cherry blossom" and "parent". Less typical selections: "fertility" and "vengeance".

Five o'clock came and the homestay parents came to collect the NZ students. I told Yosuke's mum how friendly he had been when we ran into each each.
"He went on the roller coaster?" she asked, and laughed.
"Yeah...."
"We were afraid he wouldn't fit in the seat!"

Cream Lemon (くりいむレモン)

Cream Lemon is the cinema adaption of the one of the stories from the manga series of the same name. It gives nothing away to point out that this is a tale of incest - the DVD cover says "Ami's first love was...her older brother" but the pair are siblings by marriage not blood, removing most, but not all of the squeamishness. Think about it - if you were 19 and you lived with a 17 year old girl (and Muraishi Chiharu as younger sister Ami was pretty hot) and you both fancied each other and your parents went on an overseas trip leaving you all alone in the house together, and it was summer .... First time director Yamashita Atsuhiro 山下敦弘　does a good job of showing the tension, attraction and affection between the siblings, but he kind of skips out on all the issues stemming from this illicit love and the ending made me think he couldn't work out how to resolve things and rushed off a less than satisfying conclusion. Don't let that put you off - well worth a look. And one last thing - don't feel guilty if you too fancy actress Muraishi Chiharu 村石千春- she was born in 1984 that puts her at 20 at the time of filming and well out of dodgy territory.