A rule to remember.........You should never start writing letters if you don't know what you're going to say, and you should NEVER ever ever under any circumstance start to write a blog if you're in the same mindset aforementioned......... Ok so I have already broken that rule now.
Well last time i wrote to all of you, i bleated about the food, driving, electronics and general way in which this wide eyed walking zebra (zebra being the nick name some of the children gave me when they first saw my new hairstyle) was not ready for this environment......
but now!!!!!
Im still baffled at times by this culture! I have so much to tell - but only a limited amount of time before i lose you (if i haven't already) with interest of my tales.
Lets start with my travels - I went to a place called Nara. It is a beautiful city where deer roam the streets and only attack you if you dont have food for them, I just wanted to pat one without having to pay for over priced rat food for crying out loud! In Nara i went to a temple called the Todaiji that would dwarf even the largest of dutch folk...... there is something about a massive structure made of wood that supersedes the wow factor of something really huge made of concrete or iron..... maybe only just.
After that i stumbled blindly into another temple where they were about to have a little prayer session - i wanted to experience it for myself so i waltz on in also..... my cousin wasn't having a bar of it and went back to the car - "religion is for the religious" he proclaimed - of which he is not.......... i am not religious myself as most of you know - but i did want to see what all the fuss was about......... my error in curiosity was made here if i wasn't prepared for emotional discomfort. Sure enough i walked in and sat near the front on my knees like a good catholic school boy (no pun intended) and I was surrounded by 50 others...... within 5 mins that 50 had turned into at least 500 and this is where i lost speculative count. Ok ok so im sitting in a temple looking like a lost European puppy with a zebra mane haircut with almost front row seats and then about 15 mystic looking hooded priests walk out and one of them bangs on a huge gong! Everyone claps four times and folds over to praying position and chants some chant............ its at this point in time i feel as thou im not ready to witness the sacrificial killing of a young virgin child - and even thou i may have witnessed the killing of millions of lambs in my lifetime - this is one time i wouldn't be to comfortable with reliving my meat works days......... luckily it didnt amount to this but it was 25 mins of chanting and bowing and clapping i had to endure, and at the end of it all, as strange as it had been - im glad i didnt join my cousin to sit it out in the car....... it was a moment in time that wont leave my thoughts quickly.
I thought as i left the temple my religious experience was going to end there - little did i know (theres a theme of not knowing much building here isnt there?). We got beer essentials and returned to our hostel........ this is where i learnt outside of the temple this religion is based on getting waste faced and having a good time. Back at the hostel i think my cousin and i were the only ones not committed to this religion and everyone was drinking themselves batty. We found our room and were shortly after introduced to two wonderful blokes who came for a beer with us..... those two very quickly turned into five (one of them just so happened to be the head of the church and was the most battered - he was genuinely charming) and thus proved to me that its not what you drink but who you drink with that makes for good conversation.
I could go on and on about the strange events of that evening but if i haven't already lost you then im about to if i dont change the topic.
So i travelled to Kyoto the next day - google it for an explanation i shall have to deliver this story another day.
The school and children are fantastic - i try to recall what it was like to be young and believe anything and everything - when i was a child i remember travelling with my father to the south island one time on the bus and the driver said "on your left hand side you should be able to see the ferry......." i looked for what seemed like my whole childhood but couldn't see the FAIRY...... this is the only comparison i can make but i remember being so disappointed years later when i found out the true meaning, so i try to be as clear and as obvious with the children as possible.
My boss is fantastic and has bent over backward helping me get established...... he gave me a laptop the other day so im well chuffed..... i have an apartment that i shift into on the 11th for which he lent me the bond for also......... i think it was something like 2 months in advance and gift payments blah blah so its not small money.
My cousin has been fantastic - i know 2 days in the same room as Kane can get on your wick very quickly - but he has weathered the storm like a trooper.........(although he did shoot me and draw blood the other day) hats off cuz.
Food - hmm im still chucking back something new each week and my latest venture that stands out for me was caviar (fish eggs)......... yes i could gorge myself on the food here. Im coming home fat my friends ha ha! "Yeah right" - a fat Kane ha ha ha.
Now as usual im going to complain about the driving - but im going to keep reserved about it, i just want to reiterate that its worse than my driving on the right hand side of the road. Speaking of driving on the right hand side of the road, I saw a bloke on a scooter the other day casually riding on the right hand side of the road - either he had just come back from the states or Europe or he just thought it was ok and he could fit between the gutter and all the oncoming traffic........ either way he was an idiot.
Well if you have made it this far with the "Kane version" of brief blog then well done! I miss all 6 of you very much and the comforts of familiarity are present............
Hey just quickly - anybody managed to catch that pig spreading his cough in NZ? And if any of you have caught the cough but not the pig - well in the words of a wise man who once said.......... best thing for you is to "go walk it off".
Ja-ne from the Zebra (Zespri silver) abroad.
K
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