/Osaka

Arrived feeling slightly haggard in chilly Osaka.

Jetstar flight was not very pleasant: air-conditioning was pumped up to the max; witnessed first hand an old lady throwing up her spaghetti & meatballs (let me tell you, the gay steward was not happy about that projectile motion).

Then the correlation between the 2 dawned upon me: air con up, smelly cabin down.

Watched 7 episodes of 30 Rock (so funny! had to gag myself. thanks Gregan). Didn't managed to get much sleep. Everything attempt at leaning on those malleable head rest things was disconcertingly rebuffed. The damn head rest things kept giving way. I think the weight of my head was working against me.

Heading straight to Hiroshima tomorrow morning (at 6am). Meanwhile, a few of my fave familiar Japanese things: a) stumped (again) by the train system; b) massage chairs; c) vending machine katsu curry; d) vending machines with lost in translation drinks; and e) my all time fave (along with bidets and those funny anti-smoking campaigns) the return of the fogless mirror!







Off to bed ... need to get up in a few hours.

/start Japan

This blog needs some defibrillation ... stat!

Doing last minute packing before my midday flight to Osaka, Japan, including packing BYO dinner - courtesy of the general no service/dinner policy at Jetstar.

I have been listening to my Japanese 101 podcasts on my iPod. At least time around, I can say "mama" (meaning average). Probably won't be of much use since most things are above average over there, including the bidets!

So stay tuned ...

There is always ... hope

There is a packet of cigarettes in my room (vestiges of Japan trip .. and yes it remains untouched - why am I justifying?) that embodies such delicious irony.



I'm not sure if it is deliberate mockery, but hey, if a tobacco company can get away with "hope", we deserved to be mocked. I wonder if the characters in the box is a caveat of some sort, which is a perfect segue to an article I read on forbes.com titled "Seven Laughable Warning Labels". My faves were:

Product: Frankel's Costume Superman costumes

Label (on Web site): Warning: This costume does not enable flight or super strength.

Product: Rowenta's irons
Label: Do not iron clothes on body.


So I have promised myself a quasi-epicurean banquet of the arts this year. I started off with a Beyonce entrée. Irreplaceable Bootylicious Beyonce probably fails the remoteness test for arts, but pop culture can be considered artistic - ask Nicole Kidman, who turned up with her daughter. She is the lady on the left side of the 5 empty seats (1st photo). Highlights included the all girl band, the inclusion of a variety of musical genres, and the various set designs/costume changes.

Banquet mains featured a serve of faux foie gras - Swan Lake @ the Capitol Theatre.


I must admit, ballet is not my preferred choice of artistic expression, but there's something rather majestic and spine tingling about 32 human-swans gracefully moving en masse in perfect harmony. So if you are complete ballet-newbie like me, you will not have known that many different endings exist for Swan Lake, ranging from romantic to tragic. We got a tragic ending, for more reasons that than one. The principal Prince Siegfried injured himself just before the intermission and couldn't continue on to Acts III and IV. His understudy was not particularly adept at twirling the swans, and was also slightly vertically challenged.

I now understand why there is a Matthew Bourne version of Swan Lake. The Prince did seem rather obsessed about dancing with the boys. The only thing that pulled his attention away was a swan, despite a plethora of willing female suitors.

More banquet mains basting in the kitchen ... stay tuned ...