Wigan Rugby League - the other love of my life
As most of you regular readers know, I spend a lot of time here on my blog talking about diving here in Japan. It’s true, diving is my main passion in life at the moment and something I could go on and on (and on and on and…) about. But it’s been far too long since I’ve mentioned the other passion in my life, and one which still takes up a fair amount of my time here in Japan: rugby league.
I’m a big Wigan supporter and have been since around 1995. My first game was actually a Challenge up Final in 1992 against Castleford, and although winning, the passion that my father was hoping to instill in me in that event didn’t transpire for some reason. And the less said about the next match I attended (the 1993/4 Regal Trophy Final against Castleford at Headingley), the better. Memories of that still haunt me! But then on December 26th 1994 I went to Knowsley Road for the big local derby game against St Helens. A full house of 17,300 was in attendance, and myself, my father, uncle and 2 of my cousins (one of whom now plays for St Helens) were all at the game supporting Wigan. I remember it pretty clearly that we were stood in the middle of the St Helens supporters at the home end of the ground, but unlike football matches, we never felt uneasy about where we were. Wigan won the game 32-25 and I recall Gary Connolly getting either sin binned or sent off (I think it was the latter). I don’t know exactly what clicked inside me that day, but from then on I was hooked. That year was also the year I went to see my first Ashes Tests between Great Britain and the Aussies. I also managed to see us beat them in a single Test (something not too many people can say these days!) - a great win at Wembley following Shaun Edwards’ attempt to decapitate Bradley Clyde resulting in him being sent off in the first half, and a Jonathan Davies try in far left hand corner from where we were sat. I remember as Edwards made that tackle the entire stadium inhaled in a “oh dear… that’s not good” kind of way!
Would you like a moth with your chocolate, sir?
A company perhaps little known to you all, but huge in Japan, is called Fujiya. Established back in 1910, it has been a mainstay in Japanese confectionary for almost a century, but a number of scandals have emerged over the past few weeks which could lead the company to complete self-destruction. The co-president (and grandson of the founder), Rintaro Fujii, resigned around 2 weeks ago, but more issues are still coming to light. It’s very possible that he knew this was just the tip of the iceberg and left the ship before it really started to sink. Continue reading this entry »
Are Japanese women “birth-giving machines”?
The Japanese Health Minister obviously thinks so! In an effort to become even less endearing to the female population of Japan, Hakuo Yanagisawa on Saturday was quoted as saying “The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head”. He said this in explanation of Japan’s declining birth-rate, but the speech then continued on this bizarre note. After this wonderfully sexist, he kept apologising for using the word “machines” earlier in his speech. Later in an interview he tried to give justification for his words, “In order to make it easier to produce an image, I used the word child-producing machines”.
Now I’m sometimes not the most PC person on the planet, but the Health Minister saying something like that is off the scale! The only other explanation could be that he’s watched The Terminator a few too many times and has started to think that we are all cyborgs under the flesh! Needless to say, womens’ rights groups are up in arms about this one, and rightly so. Japan is very much still a male-dominated society, with very few women in roles of power in the public or private sectors. I don’t know this for sure, but this could be how a lot of older mainland Japanese men (the Health Minister is 71 years old) view women. There are a few organisations which work to improve womens rights and networking within business (e.g. FEW - Foreign Women in Japan for non-Japanese), but these face a lot of resistance in a society which is still dominated by the old guard. Continue reading this entry »
“Memories of JET” - I’m a published writer!
Well, with this blog getting more hits each week, I feel like John Grisham! I would like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to visit my page, read the articles and look at my photos. There are loads of other sites you could be looking at, so I really appreciate your time. As I’ve said before, if you want me to write about anything in Okinawa or Japan specifically, just let me know and I’ll try to say a few words about it.
And I got another little boost this week, by finding out that an article I wrote has been published. In Spring last year I was contacted by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) in Japan. They were making a publication to celebrate 20 years of the JET Programme (the reason I came to Japan), and someone had recommended me to write an article for them. I was naturally honoured and put a lot of work into a piece that I thought would show people why I enjoy teaching here in Japan so much. I submitted it at the end of May last year and heard virtually nothing since. I sent CLAIR an email in September asking if my article was going to be published, and they told me they would inform me “next week”. I then heard nothing and started thinking that they had just binned the article, or thought my recommendations for the future of the Programme were too radical. But then yesterday our principal handed me a copy of the article, telling me the head of the Prefectural Board of Education was very impressed I had been asked, and with the quality of my writing. I was naturally thrilled, and below is a copy of the article. So if you’ve got a few minutes and an interest in my line of work here in Japan, then read on…
Prehistoric frilled shark found off Japanese coast
Not satisfied with catching a shark that makes Jaws look like a tadpole last week, a “prehistoric” shark has been found off the coast of Awashima in Shizuoka on Sunday. Don’t worry - Godzilla has been put on alert by the Japanese SDF incase any more of those things decide to come up! These sharks are usually found at depths of 600-1000m/1800-3000ft and are around 1.6m/5ft in length. As you can see from this picture, it looks like a bizarre combination of a shark and an eel. Maybe the name “sheel” would have been better than it’s real name of a frilled shark, or Chlamydoselachus anguineus.
