There is movement at the station - literally. Himeji Station has been being rebuilt/renovated/extended as long as I've been here and FINALLY it seems like something is happening.

Over this weekend they're lifting out the bridges to the west of the station and finishing the new overhead rail lines that will make the crossings near the station history and improve the traffic conditions.

I stopped by for a look-see after dinner at Everest last night (see the Himeji Restaurants page for more) and took some pics, then again while shopping today. They have the biggest mobile crane in Japan to do the job. Apparently it's 250 metres tall at its full height. As they say in the West, "That's a mighty big crane you got there," and as they say in Australia, "No shit, Sherlock!"

Still a long way to go until the station is complete, but this is a big step towards the end of the line. (pun intended)

Random playlist

I love Winamp - such a neat little program. I also really like my 300GB external hardrive sitting on the floor. At the moment I have 70 hours of tunes loaded up. 1017 songs to be exact!

Here's a sample of what I'm listening to - courtesy of the 'random' function....

From Samarkand To Bukhara - Bonus Track (untitled) - traditional music from Uzbekistan
Gary Numan - Cars - classic 70s techno-rock
Propellerheads - Take California - beats for the masses
Sonic Youth - No Queen Blues - from a live show
Ry Cooder - Brothers - from the 'Paris, Texas' soundtrack: one of my favourite movies
Big Country - In A Big Country - rockin' Scots tear up the 80s
Aqueduct - Frantic (Roman Polanski Version) - found while random searching on the Net
Go Home Productions - Daft Britney - mashup of that girl with Daft Punk - surprisingly good
Jaya Semara - Balinese Gamelan Music
Hall & Oates - Kiss On My List - the best cheese is 80s cheese
The Sundays - Joy - live performance from the French radio program in 1992. I miss this band
Kenji Kawai - Ghost Hack - from the 'Ghost In The Shell' soundtrack. Awesome movie
Kenji Kawai - Access - from the same soundtrack - so much for 'random'!
Revenge - Kiss The Chrome - Peter Hook from New Order's solo project - great bass, silly songs
Dizzy Gillespie - Theme from the cool world - When I read Chandler, this is the music I dream of...
Mazzy Star - Flowers In December - beautiful music - wide open sounds
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Gemini Spacecraft - defies decription; a classic!
Sonic Youth - Junkie's Promise - from the classic 'Washing Machine' album - gritty grind
Zbigniew Preisner - Beginning of the Story - from the 'Aberdeen' soundtrack - delightful Celtic inspired piano piece
Sonic Animation - Didley Squat - late 90s Aussie dance anthem
Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather - get the feeling I like Sonic Youth?!
Parker and Lily - The Low Lows - spacy mid-West hotel at dusk music
Grace Jones - Love Is The Drug - Miss Jones' take on the Roxy Music classic - frantic
Go Home Productions - The Whale and the Walrus - lavish mashup of the Beatles hit
Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better - HOWAAARD! This song rocks.
Tori Amos - Angie - Tori does her acoustic piano thing to the Rolling Stones ditty - like this one
Go Home Productions - Safesurfing for No One - another Beatles mashup - 'random' failing again
Barry Manilow - I Write The Songs - heh heh heh! "I've been alive forever..." Prophetic!
Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night - never really understood why myself....
Severed Heads - Someone Who Doesn't Need Their Organs Anymore - Aussie electronica; from 'The Illustrated Family Doctor' movie
Cliff Richard - Devil Woman - "Honestly, you'd think 'Devil Woman' had never been written!"
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy - Aaaah the smiles keep coming
Jane's Addiction - Stop - Air guitar!
James Taylor - Fire and Rain - another classic tune
Machine Go Boom - This Song's A Secret - any song with the refrain "I know you'll be dancing on my coffin lid" deserves a listen or three.
10CC - I'm Not In Love - going through the 70s catalogue a bit here!
Go Home Productions - Message Of Love - this time Grandmaster Flash and XTC get mixed up - this works really well!
Parker and Lily - Swim To Me - spooky space-race sounds in this one
Wilco - War On War - a great American band
The Smiths - Paint A Vulgar Picture - Morrissey croons, Marr strums; twas such a good music partnership...
Queen - Another One Bites The Dust - ooh yeah!
St. Etienne - Mr. Donut - Lounge infused pop. I actually went to Mr. Donuts today, so there you go!
New Order - State Of The Nation - not one of their best singles, but some good moments.
Little General - Beauty Fades (Dumb Is Forever) - great title! Little known Melbourne group
Midnight Oil - Short Memory - this song is over 20 years old and still relevant.
Yo La Tengo - Wasn't Born To Follow - Hoboken's finest light it up
Roxy Music - Avalon - a classic! (I wonder how many times I need to use this word today)
Slowdive - Sweet Child O'Mine - one of the mildest covers of a wild song you'll ever hear.
Jello Biafra & Mojo Nixon - Plastic Jesus - heh heh heh! This has to be heard to be believed!
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Bladerunner - starts like the Dead Kennedys, ends like a train wreck
They Might Be Giants - Someone Keeps Moving My Chair - no idea what this song is about
Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy - 80s one-hit-wonder..... thankfully!
Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love (live) - from the Stop Making Sense CD - funky
Yo La Tengo - Last Days Of Disco - Cool sounds from New Jersey
Chenard Walcker - Monome Valentine - French audio artist mashes up funk, jazz and others

...and I'm spent! Time for dinner.

More will be added to the drive.... more musical randomness shall ensue!

NOVA bashing

I guess it comes with the territory. I do work for the largest English Teaching company in Japan and so it's inevitable that it will come in for some criticism. This ranges from the balanced to the stark-raving lunatic. Today's Sydney Morning Herald didn't help the 'balanced' proportion of the criticism. This article painted the whole english teaching industry in Japan, particularly NOVA, in quite a harsh light. It got me steamed in particular that the article appeared in the 'World' section of their webpage, not in the 'Opinion' one, which may have been better suited to what it appeared to be trying to say.

It certainly stirred the pot online, with quite a few forums catching on. This one in particular caught my eye as it featured postings from one of the subjects interviewed for the article. She commented that her situation had been explained rather briefly but the gist had been put across. I wrote to her and said that the article had made her out to be quite petty in some ways, which her comments had explained far more thoroughly and in a more informative way. She replied and so I've reached a deeper understanding of the issues that were going on in her situation. A lot of sympathy, but at the same time I'd have a lot of sympathy for anyone in any job who might have been treated in the same way.

I don't have much sympathy for the fellow who sued NOVA after being sacked for deliberately flouting the terms of his contract - by dating a female student. In his position ( a senior teacher with more than a year of experience) he would've known exactly what would've happened. Anyway, if you have to date students, or hang out with them for that matter, you can always do what the Catholics do and go by their 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not be caught.

I'd like to put forward these articles and websites for your consideration.

Level Up, Yes or No?

Grassroots Design - this part of the site is devoted to his experiences in Japan and with NOVA

Markcity - a fellow Blogger wrote an article about his time with NOVA

The Unbiased Truth About Nova - tries hard to be balanced.

I'll try to step off my soapbox now.

Peace

Well, it looks like one of the symbols of Japan is getting a facelift. The Shinkansen (bullet train) is getting a new model - and what a beauty it is! One of the more recent ones looked like a running shoe, but this one looks more whale-shaped to me. Perhaps there's something in the Japanese unconsciousness about this!

Anyway, this train will be able to move at a whopping 360 km/h! Pretty soon we'll be breaking the sound barrier at ground level....

Yoiks!

Looks like the hot look for male fashion in Japan this year is going to be the girdle!

From the article: "Men are getting so much more fashion conscious these days that they're starting to pay attention to the lines of their body and their silhouette, just like women,"

It only goes to support my theory that the home of the Metrosexual is Japan. Seriously, guys spend just as long preening themselves as women here. You see them in packs down the main street or hanging out by the station. Baseball caps all on the same odd angle, pants barely hanging onto the hips (one of these days I'm going to dack one of these guys, I swear!), the same goofy spiky coloured hair, the same blank sneer - all emmaculately coiffured.

The salary-man is not immune either. All that working at the desk for 10+ hours a day and consuming vast amounts of calories (convenience store food for lunch and beer with fried snacks after work then going to bed after midnight) makes for an ever expanding waistline.

But for this happens means it's another triumph of mass marketing. The championing of the quick fix and the admission of defeat - that Japan has joined the ranks fo the western countries as far as diet and the expansion of the waistline is concerned. The traditional Japanese diet is fast becoming a thing of the past. You see young folk in the fast food restaurants all the time - feeding their expanding bodies. Type II Diabetes is on the rise here, as are the numbers of large-size clothing stores. The rise in number of curvy girls and men sporting frames that would've betrayed a past in sumo walking the city streets is plain to see.

The fact that these girdles are selling out means that the idea of diet and exercise haven't caught on at all. A quick fix and all is better. I'm sure that squeezing in the internal organs can't be good for the long term health either.

At least a new street sport can be added to 'toupee spotting' and 'mullet hunting'!