Driving School

So last night was japanese language lesson night (plus thursdays). more on those later. the language lessons are in a place called The Friendship Centre, its a kind of modern high tech community centre. anyway, the car park was full, so i parked in a back street. now, malaysia, you literally can abandon your car anywhere and its cool, pavements, fields, in front of hospitals...anything, its cool. japan is a different kettle of fish, put it this way, in order to buy a car, you have to prove that you have a car parking space at home. you have to submit a diagram of the parking space to the local council, with measurements, and the police come around and measure the space to make sure its ok, BEFORE they allow you to buy a car.....i kid you not. so, it was night time, in a small back street, needless to say i got a ticket...well, i think its a ticket, there was something official stuck to my windscreen, i need to get it translated at work, maybe ill be deported! so, we left (myself and 2 colleagues who also attend the classes), at the first lights, they were red, when they went to green, the car in front didnt move....so i waited....still nothing...so in true malaysian style, i gently gently beeped my horn...only to discover that the right filter was still on red...doh! embarrassed is not the word...so, out of sheer embarassment, and the fact that i didnt want to wait for the light to turn green, i decided to take the road going straight on, so, i put the car into reverse to get around the car in front.......bang! there was a stomach churning crash and thump....obviously i failed to see the car directly behind..double doh! so i turned into the side, the 3 of us having just come from a beginners japanese class had to sort out a car crash. anyway, the protocol here is that you have to report all accidents to the police and they come and produce a report etc.....the unofficial way is to just agree a cash settlement on the spot...so all 3 of us got out of the car, two young lads/guys got out of the other one, we inspected the damage, and my car was fortunately completely fine....the other car had a smashed number plate, now in england, id have been stabbed by now! but these guys were lovely, they shaked our hands, and said it was ok, we had just learned the word for sorry that night, so we just kept repeating 'sumimasen! sumimasen...!' anyway, we were all best mates after 5 mins, we shook hands again and we all left happy, they wouldnt even take any money for the number plate...... i heart japan indeed.....

tonight i had my hair cut again....3rd time in 6 weeks, i now have it really short, shortest ive had it in years and years. theres a hairdresser next door to my apartment block, called 'chevaux' (its french you know!...) anyway, i did the usual of walking in, pointing to a picture of a model in mens health and asking him to make me look like that...well, the hair anyway. the only words of english he spoke, was when we were finished, he smiled, and said, 'ah, brad pitt!'....needless to say he got a significant tip!!

went weight training with garth after hair cut, now cant lift my arms to eat me noodles! am currently slurping them like a true japanese, with my head down like a horse!

car crashes today = 0
unidentifiable food at lunch today = 3
noodles now on my living room floor = 6 and 1 unidentifiable vegetable
t-shirt stains from noodles = 1

tomorrow is my first work 'drinking party'....surely followed by karaoke.....i feel a cold coming on

sayonnara

Glen-san