Snow - The Tower English musical

I'm posting this video here, not because I think you need to work on your English, although you probably do come to think of it, but because it features views from the Tower English homestead - and has cameo appearances by K-chan, Emma and a speaking part for Yoshie.

Oh yeah, it snowed the other day, but guess that's not big news for folk in the rest of the world.

Something else that's been taking up my time...

Why did the snake cross the road?

...to get to the other side. Oh, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Look what we came across the other day on our way to the lake. The fellow in the video told us that the snake is a regular visitor and all the neighbours are used to it.

You're not in Leicester anymore, kiddoes. 

Ode to enjoyable wastes of time

It's been a while, huh? Well, here's a little ditty that K-chan has been working on, y'all may appreciate:

Rocking and rolling (the dough)

Hey there, betcha thought I'd forgotten about you? Nahhhh, 'course not. Here's a little Sunday bread-making to warm your hearts.

I told you there would be fewer posts and more of the kids...

Message from the President

Recovered from the rock and roll archive...

Yes, there it was in all it's faded glory. Here's a transcript of what Sherriff-sensei said (or meant to say):

Sherriff-sensei: Hello (applause). Let me introduce myself, I'm Patrick Sherriff. Nice to meet you. In 2007, I escaped from Britain (laughter), that's why my Japanese is not very good, my guitar playing is not very good and my singing is no good. But, I'm very good at being taught, er, teaching English. My conversation school, Tower English's phone number is 04-7100-1235 (laughter). Do you understand?  Let me repeat... do you have a pen? 04-7100... OK, with apologies to Mr Lennon...

Miyauchi-san: Got to sort my strap out... time for a commercial break. Let Mr Sherriff talk to you...

Sherriff-sensei: Nice weather today, isn't it? ... OK, Let's start the lesson.

(Well, despite battling a drooping microphone stand and an urge to sing flat, it wasn't too bad...)

After dinner entertainment

In a little over 36 hours (that's a sun-down and a half in old money) I'll be strutting my stuff as a bone fide Foreign Entertainer, singing and dancing for my supper. But before I do my take on Hey Jude by the Beatles and Sing by the Carpenters (there was no avoiding it) here is a warm-up act with Emma's own version of Hey Jude and Katherine's Ponyo Ponyo routine she is learning at school. Take it away girls:

 

Once more, with feeling

Just figured out how to upload to Youtube, which means this here video is now global, baby. Wow. Anyway, it shows a bossy but quite good older sister showing the ballet ropes to a younger, but quite forceful sister - all in our living room/classroom. 

Compare with here, from half a year ago.

First day at nursery school

Sorry for not posting much recently, hope this makes up for it.

Natural selection

Here's a picture I snapped at about 4.45 pm on the seaside at Kamakura on New Year's Day that I forgot to share with you all. It's a little taste of the forces of nature, which we gave thanks to at Kamakura's largest shinto shrine below, wishing for a lucky new year in health, business and miscellaneous life, with several thousand other folk. In order to do that, we were shunted around by loudspeaker, in a very unnatural way:

Far better was a little local shrine a stone's throw from where we were staying, where, apart from an impatient foreigner (me) we could get on with it at our own pace:

Compare with the shrine round the corner, back at the ranch, by clicking here.

A very belated Happy New 'un

Here's the pesky video that refused to upload, anyway, without further ado:

Reggie Perrin's worst nightmare

I came across this video (courtesy of Andy in Tokyo) of the horrors of the morning rush hour. The video looks a little old, and most rush hour journeys are not quite this cozy, but this kind of thing does go on, it has to be said. This one's for you, Dr Datsun Kildare. Once again, can I just re-iterate, there are definite advantages to working from home. Oh, excuse me I think I dropped my newspaper...

 

Window shopping, Oba-chan no Harajuku style

Tower English raised its drawbridge last weekend (it's a rare thing to have two days off on the trot, hence the tardy return to blogging ways for Tower Tales) so the Tower troupe trooped off to Tokyo to visit  old friends. I took the opportunity to video us walking down the street, which, while not earth-shatteringly interesting, gives a slice of life one Sunday afternoon at the fag end of 2008 in an area known as the Oba-chan no Harajuku (fashionable area of Tokyo for grandmas). Compare with other meaningful shopping experiences here. 

Highlights...

• 0:14 Shoe shop (not much use for me as most shops carry shoes only up to 27cm in size - about size 9 in old money.)
  
• 0:30 Manju shop (flour balls with sweet beans inside)
• 0.52 bloke whose job is to greet customers
• 0.58 another greeter
• 1.15 fibre glass green-tea flavoured ice cream
• 1:28 fashion conscious oba-chans (grans)
• 1:43 bored kid playing a computer game while waiting for his mam.
• 2:27 either a Buddha or a sweets display, not sure which.

Dancing in the street

Sorry I missed the last couple of days, but I was busy having a few days off in the real world. Anyway, (ab)normal service has resumed... may I present an odd slice of street life it was a my, er, pleasure, to witness:

Now, I don't know about you, but when I see a white-bearded chap dancing barefoot maniacally down the middle of the road, I tend to think he's not all there (or he's recently escaped from KFC) and perhaps should be avoided for safety's sake. But not round here. This is art. Public art. Free public art.

All I would add is, you get what you pay for.

Pleasant little numbers

I'm chuffed. Last night I was looking at the Tower Tales analytics (that means numbers - you can too, just click on the number of visitors at the top right) and was pleasantly surprised to find my usual Sunday/Monday tally of two relatives and a couple of passers-by looking for low impact aerobics (it's odd what search engines will throw up) was multiplying before my very eyes to more than one hit an hour. Granted, these are not numbers to get Murdoch worried, but for a site that doesn't do sex (as much as it would like, ahem) and has an awful lot of gratuitous chat about my family, what gives?

Well, in a moment of foresight between glasses of cheap Australian plonk from the Seven-11, I registered this blog on the Total Politics site and blow me, political uber-blogger Iain Dale graciously put a link to Tower Tales (see the post below for the link). By the way, get well soon Dad (Grandad). This non-political, non-aerobics-related video shot today is dedicated to you.

Birthday treat

It was my eldest's birthday on Friday, and to celebrate we braved a three-hour trek today to the other side of Tokyo to visit a key shrine in the cult of the kawaii - Puroland - home to hundreds of singing and dancing 20-somethings dressed as Hello Kitty and her litter. Puroland is a massive building filling a city block devoted to the high priestess of cuteness and her minions, the Sugar Bunnies. Naturally, my girls felt right at home, but after tolerating the unadulterated sweetness of the place for five hours, I could barely contain the urge to do something adult (I settled for cracking open a beer). It was all too reminiscent of Tokyo Disneyland. I can't bear to write much more, so without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, believers and non-believers, I give you Hello Kitty. Enjoy the show...

... this poor chap certainly did:

Shichi-go-san, part III - or 'Give us a twirl, girls'

Is it possible to move gracefully while wearing a kimono? The fleeting beauty of the kimono-clad young geisha serving green tea with subtle nods of the head and flashes of the nape of the neck is often celebrated. But how easy is it to actually get up and move in something that takes an hour and several pairs of hands to put on? Well, here is a video from the girls' 7-5-3 ceremony to demonstrate how to move with - here come some technical terms -  all the bits and bobs that hang down:

Speaking of moving gracefully, did you know on Sunday, I'm running a half-marathon round the lake near my house. You can still sponsor me here. Why should you?

• Reason #4: Every five pounds (¥1,000) raised means four new books for the poorest people in the world. If they read all of them, they are more than qualified to be Vice President of the USA.
  

Insider's view - Shichi-go-san Part II

It's not everyday that you get blessed by a shinto priest (pictured above), and even rarer when you video it and put it on the internet for everyone to see. Granted,  these are not the most exciting clips you can get on the internet. I'm aware that there are far more "world's funniest cat/dog/rabbit on a treadmill" clips than anyone could possibly dream of out there, but I figured you don't see this everyday. Normally, the closest even an adventurous tourist might get to this is wandering aimlessly around a shrine wondering what on earth it is all about. Well, wander/wonder no more. The first clip features our friendly parish priest getting the attention of the gods and chanting a prayer to wish good luck upon the handful of three, five and seven-year-olds gathered for their 7-5-3 ceremony:

Have you even been blessed by a shinto priest? No? Well, here's your chance, just bow your head reverently when he starts, er, doing his bit:

Speaking of doing your bit, on Sunday, I'm running a half-marathon round the lake near my house. You can still sponsor me here. Why should you?

• Reason #6: Donate even a little, and then I'll stop going on about it, and get back to funny videos of cats on treadmills and mildly subversive swipes at Republican presidential hopefuls.

They call him the wanderer...

It almost makes you feel sorry for McCain when you see his performance in the second presidential debate lampooned by the American talk show establishment. Almost, but not quite:

But then, read the thoughtful endorsement of Obama by cult journo Christopher Hitchens here, and you can actually feel sympathy. McCain deserves a break, and a seat, but not necessarily in government.

Speaking of sympathy, do you have any for me? Remember, I'm pitting my 37-year-old, instant-coffee-fueled body against the wilds of Teganuma lake in a half-marathon a week on Sunday. Many thanks to those who have donated to the charity Book Aid (you've both been very kind), but for those who haven't, brother can you spare a digital dime? Click here to help me on my way.