Cheap steaks, Cultural mistakes, Possible megaquakes?

I had expected an uneventful week but alas. Photos will have to go up seperately, technology is resisting me today.

It is a bit cheaper here in some ways but not in others, manage to buy about a kilo of lean meat for a tenner in the grocery store which is nice but then pay almost the same for 8 apples?

A humbling week overall coming to the realization that i am a massive foreigner in this place. When walking down the street drivers in cars passing by visibly turn their head to stare at the alien. Not in a bad way, just for curiosity sake. I also got the chance to practice my japanese this week in the presence of my future colleague. Did a few school visits at the start of the week and the supervisor asked me to introduce myself. Walked into a staffroom filled with expectant (soon to be shocked) faces and proudly rattle off my four lines of stunted japanese:

''eh, watashi wa callum, ireland-jin desu, yorushiku onegai shimas''

Despite the apparent butchery of their language and insult to their culture/heritage/national identity, they smile politely, nod and clap, proceeding to introduce themselves. Repeat this process 3 times at three different staffrooms. Meet the principals of these schools also - every conversation with someone is preceded with an awkward pause as they wait for me to bow in the place of a handshake and fumble through the formalities. Ask the supervisor for advice on remembering names and am informed that they don't remember the names either and not to worry, always encouraging.

Side note - if i have the youtube open in a different tab and then go back into the youtube tab they try burn an ad onto my retinas instantly. but when i am not in the youtube tab there are no ads? they are tracking when i am watching it or what? following my activity across tabs?

Aside from meeting the future colleagues, was also invited for a meeting with some elderly residents of the town in order to help them with learning english. Some very interesting people , all quite old and still active which was great to see. Got some nice recommendations for food and places to see including a 3000metre mountain which i inquired into further. Apparently i will need to buy a bear bell because the bears also like hiking apparently. Another interesting conversation cropped up then which was the different approaches to dealing with bears, in America they use bear spray which is an extremely potent pepper spray and also bear firearms (surprise surprise) as opposed to the bear bell. I hope to never be anywhere close to a bear but a combination of both seems the best. A bear-zooka perhaps. Or a bear-dozer. Bear with me... :P

Another interesting encounter this week, managed to meet the mayor of the town (again shocking him with my incredible japanese talents). A nice fellow, showed off his english and encouraged us to take care of the city and try to stay as long as possible. There is an air of seclusion in the town, it is surrounded completely by mountains and if there were no roads or trails out you would be almost justified in thinking there was nothing else. It is a bit truman show-esque. Everything you need in the mountain bowl, no need to look outside! Mayor was nice though and saw him again at a firework festival.

The town actually is packed with tourists, apparently there is some festivals coming up and saw one of them on friday. Consisted mainly of big fireworks then a few small ones then a few big ones again. They had been doing it for 41 years at this point so not really an ancient tradition by any means but it still drew a crowd. What i did find funny was the fireworks were handheld and they were those fountain type ones, so theguy holding it was just getting showered in sparks for about a minute, not only this but they were doing it on a wooden platform so another guy had to constantly wash the thing down with water etc.

Speaking of potential fires, thursday marked the first bit of real drama here. I was on the phone with a friend just explaining the quiet calm nature of the town and how it will not be so energetic etc when sirens begin to sound off directly outside the apartment. Naturally i think 'f*ck did i do something now' but no knocks on the door so i let it pass. then all the power just cuts out and i think ah feck, earthquake or something, so i sprint out the door and throw on the closest attire i can find. Dressed in an interesting blend of swimwear, suit shoes and stained shirt, i do little run down and out. Directly across from the apartment is quite the inferno and three fire engines. All the neighbours are out in their pyjamas etc with similar looks of curiosity. I hang around waiting for the fire to be drowned out by the many hoses on it.

At this same time, i check the phone and see a lovely message from our supervisors reading as follows

''The earthquake that happened this afternoon...linked to the Nankai trough...JMA issued the MEGAQUAKE ADVISORY... people think it might happen soon... no such thing as being over prepared''

Could not help but laugh at the MEGAQUAKE terminology. Supposedly happens every 200 years or so and kills a few hundred thousand people each time. Sweet. I am sure the earthquake would have to register itself with japanese immigration first before coming though so there should be a fair amount of warning before anything like that. Speaking of paperwork, it has been another week of files and fiddling as i am still getting set up with direct debit transfers form the bank etc. The monetary shackles are being firmly applied as they try to tie me down with 'responsibilities' and the like. Oh you have to pay for your electricity, oh you have to pay for your water. Who came up with that idea. It is ironic that nobody chooses to be born as far as we know and then we are forced to pay if we intend to stay alive. Play this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale when you reread that.

Anniversary of the little boy and fat man this week. Apparently some world leaders were pissed off that Japan did not invite israel to the nagasaki anniversary ceremony. Can anyone explain why countries turn into little teenagers over things like this. ''oh they didn't invite israel, well i'm not going if israels not going, you know japan is such a BITCH for this, don't they know we're all friends with israel''. it is a bit comical if you ignore the dead children and forced starvation and all that. #righttodefendourselves

I have been hunting for some dj decks to do some practicing again, there seems to be quite a few secondhand places in tokyo which have them in stock for a nice bargain so i will go for a little dumpster diving as soon as i get the car sorted (again some more paperwork issues as well as a lack of a driving permit:p). In the meantime i have been listening to the creations of far more talented people to satisfy the bass needs. Few bangers in amongst them and good for if you want to grind through something laborious such as a job. Here are a couple of links ;

https://youtu.be/ISXhUchD59o?si=cwz-ZTH5zaFX-Vn_

https://youtu.be/h8zJ5xhz7uM?si=VE7DuGaIMUnb4g9G

https://youtu.be/ZTtVzjRphqc?si=cOqOJSTNGyVJbGHp

That is basically it, i will fix the photos and do one with them in context.