What do you get if you cross a bump of chicken with a gunning sausage rag?

A funny coastal, wooded lump with a temple on top,
Sado's eastern coast


We've had a relatively quiet time since Christmas, between the weather and Caroline's studying. We have managed out for the odd bit of fresh air as there has actually been a few sunny days amongst the cold ones. Click on the picture above and it will take you to some pictures of us mooching up a big lump of rock and around a light house, both on Sado's eastern coast near Maehama JHS, where I teach once a fortnight. I had a great last lesson with the really nice third grade class there recently. There's only four in the class and just one girl, whom I tryed to teach how to play the guitar now and then. I think this was requested after I did an impression of Elvis singing and playing 'House of the Rising Sun' (a beginner's favourite) on the guitar in class. I can actually do not a bad singing impression of Elvis and try to belt out a few of his numbers at karaoke - Devil in Disguise, King Creole and I tried Big Hunk of Love once but the version of the music wasn't up to scratch. I've also had a running gag about sausages in the class, which started for some reason last year, but we've managed to keep laughing at it every week since. The best was the other week when I was asking them about what music they liked and they were reeling off the Japanese pop bands - SMAP, Mr Children, Orange Range and a pile of other bollocks that I couldn't care less for (it all gets played on school radio at lunch time). There's also a band called Bump of Chicken that aren't as bad as the other J pop guff. It has to be said that the Japanese bands have some poxy names. I however, asked one of the boys if he liked Bump of Sausage, continuing my sausage theme. For some reason this resulted in the biggest sausage laugh yet. Good old sausages, funny in any language. Anyhoo, for the last lesson the students requested that I let them listen to some popular music that I like. Great idea, and a nice way to depart in English class. Music for me isn't something that I want to ram down other folks ears, it's a matter of personal taste, but they were genuinely interested to hear what I was into. I wasn't being a self indulgent plonker. I've been listening to all sorts of stuff over here. There's a chain store in Japan, a bit like HMV and Blockbuster combined where you can rent CDs on the cheap. I've been listening to some older stuff, as is my want, the best of which has probably been Neil Young, who has me burning for my guitar, and some talent, at home and in my dreams respectively. I've also been listening to the odd Blur album. They were the best band of the Brit Pop generation, hands down, in my opinion. Because of them I've also given Demon Days by the Gorillaz a good grilling. It's a few years old now but is a very different and great album from start to finish. Between this lot and other odds and sods, I've been listening to some probably very popular music. I'm not that bother where it comes from these days, just as long as it's agreeable on the sound palate. It's funny, at school I would only listen to a very certain kind of dance music though my out look on life was very open. Nowadays, I'll give anything, within reason Robbie Williams, a listen though my opinions on life are hardening faster than a teenage bump of sausage at the back of a bus. There's a directly proportional relationship in there somewhere. As mentioned previously we're going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers next week. I've really love their last few albums dearly. We saw them play Murrayfield after they released By the Way. This concert should really have been in Glasgow, but. The latest offering is a double album and is simply excellent. There are only a couple of tracks that I'm not that fussed about but there is so much good stuff and such variety. For me it's the RHCP's white album. The Killers' latest album is a belter too. I read a review on rolling stone's website about this, which was so wrong that the reviewer can't have given it enough time to infect his rocking melody bones, dumplin'. I therefore made a CD of recent songs that I liked including; RHCPs, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, The Strokes, The White Strips and even flung on a bit of patriotic Franz Ferdinand. I've been listening to the Magic Numbers' and Muses' latest LPs, which I'm enjoying. In the pipe line is the Kaiser Chiefs new album, I've heard a couple of songs on the radio both which I enjoyed. I really liked their first album 'Employment'. We saw them perform a great show in a small venue in Osaka, last winter, and felt very privileged. The Views' album is also on it's way, along with the Kooks, who we saw just before the Artic Monkeys (both great) at Summer Sonic with Nez and Suzi in Chiba. For the last class I managed to convince the English teacher that we should go along to the music room, which is isolated out on a limb in this small new school, as it has an awesome sound system that can be cranked right up. He was right up for this and is actually a bit of a sound system buff (that's not cockney rhyming slang). I introduced each band and song and gave them a little bit of information about the band, where they are from, ages, etc., which album the song was on and previous albums. I ended up playing 'When you were young' by the Killers, I like this simple yet catchy tune. Next, one of the kids wanted the Artic Monkeys, so I played 'When the sun goes down', and didn't explain the great lyrics. I gave them a taste of an old Daft Punk tune 'Around the world' and tried to give them an idea of what dance music is about. Gorillaz nicely quirky 'Feel Good Inc.' was next. Last, I finished with 'Knights of Cydonia' by Muse, which was immense when it built into a face melter of a guitar riff blasting out of the quality Japanese sound system. Easily the most sublime lesson yet as along with the nice people, blasting music, sausage gags and facilities, the scenery surrounding the classroom is unbelievable. On one side we look out over a few terraced rice fields, the land then drops sharply over a wee cliff into the sea, beyond which we could see the mountains of the mainland faintly on the horizon. Out of the other side we can see a fantastic view of Sado that encompasses rice paddies, old Japanese dwellings, hillside forests and the largest mountain on the island, snow capped Kinpoku San, all on a sunny day.

I've had a few other good last classes lately with a couple of my third grade English elective classes, where we baked short bread. Not easy to get the kids through this in fifty minutes without making a mess, and I had to take the time to bake everything in the oven afterwards. But still good fun none the less.