Apples, the choice of a new generation

Spring sunset, from our apartment

Click on the picture above to see the rest on flickr, I just uploaded plenty of pictures from the weekend for anyone that's bored.

My blogging has been a bit better lately. I'm getting more into it and have become a little better organised with the pictures (flickr makes this really easy) though I've still to plug a few gaps and update some old posts. All in good time, well before July anyway, as that's when we'll be winding up.

One update for the moment is about our trip to Osaka to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There isn't much to report other than the Japan leg of the tour was postponed until June because the singer had something wrong with his throat! Coming from the man who wrote and sang 'Can't stop, addicted to the shindig', I was a little miffed. I suppose these things happen but it was still a bummer. At least we weren't just down in Osaka for the gig and were able to move onto the next stage of our little tour without much fuss. Hey ho, back on with our show.

Last weekend was some what interesting as we were both at our respective office enkai's (Japanese after work drinking and eating party - I'll explain about in the next post) on the Friday night and I played for the first time, along with Matt (friend and fellow ALT on Sado from Atlanta, the home of Pepsi and an underwater city to boot - no surprise that it has the world's largest aquarium) for our new found Sado 'soccer' team - the Mano Destroyers. Sounds like some sort of gay sadist club, no hold on, that's the Conservative party. How come gays always get it in the ass? It still surprises me that 'gay' is still used as a derogatory term. It's like being bald. People take the pish but it's just the way some people are. Doesn't stop us from ridiculing gays, especially the bald ones. Tories on the other hand have a choice, so it's open season for them, even the shiny headed poofy ones. Anyhoo on with the show, Mano as it happens, is one of the larger towns on the island, 'famous' (every town has it's thing that it's 'famous' for in Japan no matter how lame, they draw a line at smells though which I found out to my detriment) for it's apples. The saying "How do you like those apples?" was actually started on Sado and then translated and brought across the Pacific by Robert De Niro, who buys all his San Francisco restaurant's sake from a high quality brewery on the island. There's even a really lousy picture of him next to this brand of sake in our local super market. Bobby D tried to put his own spin on this saying however, during the relatively unknown sequel to 'Taxi driver', called 'Grocer' (also directed by Martin Scorsese) with the line "Are you looking at my apples?!?". This he continuously repeats into a mirrored bowl that customer's use to weigh fruit in. An unbelievably powerful scene, especially as De Niro was brandishing a Magnum .44 pricing gun and sporting the most sinister of all shaved hair cuts, the weg. No calling him a wegetable I tell you. Not a chance, not even in a fruit and veg shop by a complacent German, you'd be sure to get your plums to play with.