Gaz: Big in Japan

I wish the staff would tell me what it is one of the “trouble kids” has done that has the whole school up in arms. As far as I can tell it’s something absurdly reprehensible, to the point where police were called and (if I translated correctly) the owner of the building the family are renting has threatened to kick them out over the kids actions … all the while they just keep referring to it as an “incident”. And whenever I ask what he did they just say “honto ni shite wa ikenai koto”  (tl: Something one really mustn’t do) ….. assclowns.

Anyway, it’s coming up to christmas. I have to confess this year I am a little excited. For the first time in maybe 10 years I made a christmas list and gave it to Mayumi. The last time I made a christmas list I got “Zelda: Ocarina of Time” and “Turok 2″, that’s a hell of a history to live up to, I have no idea if Mayumi can deal with it or not, this’ll be a real test of wifehood for her. I feel I managed to strike a complete success as a husband, I managed to get every single item on her list of wants, but none of them were particularly extravagant so I’m wondering if I should pull some bonus surprise gift that wasn’t scheduled to make an appearance. Your thoughts? I’m mildly concerned about the coat I purchased her, I have seldom been acclaimed for my fashion sense and purchasing clothes for women is dangerous ground for me. Plus the coat is purple, and that could be a mistake.

On Saturday evening we went to a weird event at the Misato Observatory (the big telescope thing that looks at the stars). There was a talented (yet creepy) family of bell ringers who played us Christmas songs and some general talk about stars, including some brief debunking of Christianity due to star and date contradictions. Possibly the most bizarre moment of the evening was when me and James were required to do a brief speech about Christmas, on the pretense that we were foreigners and thus have doctorates in Christmas. This was completely unexpected and a result of our kindly old Education Board chief (who happened to be running the show) deciding it would be a good idea. It wasn’t. I actually mostly blame you James Vergara (if that is your real name) as it was your idea to go in the first place.

In other news: Name my baby. Please do send me your nominations for baby names, both boy and girl. I reserve the right to choose myself or my wife as winner of this contest, but don’t let that discourage you. Currently the way things are looking is the child will have a Japanese first name, and Mayumi is really lording naming rights on that, although I do have veto power too – we’ve not really thought very hard about it but either way I don’t think my child will be called “Anthony Bruce Wayne Williams” as I had once hoped.

The other day I got a message from the legendary Jon Attfield whose think tank of Luke Gair, Chris Green and himself came up with “Wade Williams”, a play on “Wade Wilson” the alleged given name of the mercenary better known as “Deadpool”. I like your style, as a huge fan of Deadpool this plays to my tastes, yet it loses points as I’m no fan of the name base name “Wade”. Still a decent effort nonetheless, I give you seven ninjas out of a possible ten for that effort.

In previously unreported news: I took the JLPT Japanese exam the other week, whilst I doubt I attained the 70% required for a pass, it was not a complete embarassment, so I’ve got my sights firmly set on next years test.