SHUTTER CHANCE

In the studios today for a photo shoot for both a new series of print ads for a mobile phone company, and also for promotional pics for the new 79.5 FM Radio-i line up. First it was the Make Up chair, which took the longest time of all,...it takes a looooong time to make me look presentable!!
First was the mobile phone company print ad shoot....after setting it all up...
I just pretend to be enjoying a movie on the phone, and the cameraman does the rest,...easy. You can see the ads in Flying Postman and other magazines from January around Central Japan...

DINNER AND TOYS

Saturday night I went around to my friends' house to play. I took my Dr. Who figures to show Michael, a Scottish Australian friend and fellow Dr. Who fan. After dinner, we opened up the toy box, and then...
After a bit of a chat, on came the DVD of the latest Dr. Who episode, Waters Of Mars! Brilliant story, and a bit of a scary one too! Looking forward to the next episodes around X-mas time!

Cheers Michael!

FIRE! FIRE!

Been hearing sirens for the past 20 minutes, and have had the Fire Departments helicopter buzzing overhead...went for a look and lo and behold, the emergency hospital just down the road from my place is on fire! At least 12 fire tenders were on site, with the big ladder stretched to the top floor of the hospital... Police had stopped 2 lanes of the 4 lane road that runs past my home and office building, and the media was out in force too.
Well, there you have it, my bit of excitement for today...now to get those pesky media types off my doorstep,...

ROCKET

Sunday Nov 22, up VERY early and out to the former World EXPO 2005 site to MC for the All Japan Water Rocket Contest 2009.
Special guests included Japanese actress Adachi Mika, and EXPO characters, Morizo and Kikoro! The event featured over 100 contestants from all over Japan competing for the longest flight of a water powered rocket, and also a target landing event.
The rockets were all shapes and sizes, and all powered by water pressure. The longest flight of the day was achieved by an 11 year old, who set a new Japan record with a flight of 156.1m!
Among the demonstrations was this 3 stage water rocket, which reached a height of 300m!
It really was an exciting and interesting event. Just the demonstrations alone would have made for an interesting day, but the excitement of competition has me looking forward to next years' event.

MATSUMOTO REIJI

One of the special guests at the water Rocket event was Japan's "God of SF", Matsumoto Reiji! In Japan, he holds the same rank as George Lucas!

After the event, the master of animated SF series signed my flightsuit! Lucky!!

So now this flight suit is officially a space suit!

HOT CHOC

Winter is here and so it's HOT CHOCOLATE time! (see, every rain cloud has a silver lining,... somewhere) and this is brilliant, a block of chocolate on a stick, that you melt into hot milk!
There are 6 flavors available from a specialty shop here in Nagoya, imported from Belgium. Bit expensive at about ¥450 a pop, ($4.50) but what a great way to beat the winter blues! Chocolate is my favorite to date, ....

TV COMMERCIAL 1

Friday 20th. Filmed the latest in the Nagoya based home design company, Auring Homes' TV commercials. Director Kageyama san's concept for this shoot was no script, no plan as such, just allow me to "gate-crash" a meeting between prospective Auring Home clients and have some fun with them. The last series of ads featured me walking through one of the Auring Homes display houses and filming my comments and reactions....
The main camera followed me into the model home show area,...again, everything was unplanned and ad-libbed, and so we had no idea how things would turn out.
The clients were shown into a room. They knew they were going to be in a commercial, but weren't told what was going to happen, or who was going to appear. They thought they'd be invited to say a few lines about their new home after the meeting....
With no real plan in mind, I barged into the meeting with the camera in tow,....

TV COMMERCIAL 2

I entered the room and just started playing around with the customers. Various hidden cameras around the room caught the action, and the director will select a number of takes to create the new TV ads.
Auring Home's marketing manager, Segi San watched on from the stairwell. The laughing you hear on the end of the current series is his voice!
At the end of the shoot, we green-screened me holding up the Auring Homes logo...Special effects will be added later.
The latest series of TV commercials for Auring Homes starts on air late December and runs for at least a month on various Central Japanese TV stations.

SPACE FLIGHT SUITS

Spent the evening putting astronaut and JAXA (Japan's NASA) patches on my flight-suit in time for next Sundays Water Rocket Championships. At least I'll look the part...

NAGOYA NECKTIE

Today's fashion reflects my interest in Japanese history...something only someone the locals would call a "Hen Na Gaijin!" * would wear...
A Nagoya Castle themed necktie, with the castle at the top and lower parts being the stone walls. With Nagoya Castle celebrating it's 400th anniversary next year, I'm sure I'll have more opportunities to wear it over the coming months,...

*Hen Na Gaijin,. lit: Strange Foreigner.

WOONG SAN SAN

Another recent guest on 79.5 FM was Korea's No. 1 Jazz Vocalist, Woong San! Her new album hits record shop shelves next month!

DELPHIC

Recent guests on 79.5FM, British trio Delphic! Interesting sound these guys create, and they've got some big name fans watching over them too!

FROG EATER

A very good friend gave me some South Australian Haigh's chocolate frogs while I was in Oz recently (She has been held in the highest esteem not only on account of the frogs mind you)
Haigh's Chocolates are a South Australian tradition, and these choc-mint chocolate frogs are a favourite!

Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat,...Chris Glenn can bite the head off a chocolate frog!

ILLUMINATION

Nagoya Station's X-mas Illumination lights are now on,...took this from the car while driving a friend to the station the other night,... the central area changes colours and patterns every few minutes. Hard to believe that X-mas is so close!

SHOAN 1

Friday 13th,...unlucky for some, but for me, it was the opening of a friends new BBQ restaurant, Shoan, in Fushimi, near the Hilton. A group of us were invited to try the new restaurant and offer suggestions on how to improve it prior to it's official opening next week. Above, waiting with tongs in hand for bits my former farm animal to cook over the coals.

Despite the abundance of past-life farm mammals on the menu, bits of former marine life was one of my favourites. These huge prawns were great!

Just the looks on our faces says a lot,... BBQ'd giant prawns,...Mmmmm,..MMmmmm,..MMM!

SHOAN 2

At the end of the night, as the group was leaving (finally) I was called on to give a few words of encouragement to the staff of the new restaurant. Instead, I rallied everyone to do an impromptu version of the samurai call to war, the Kachidoki, where swords are drawn (imaginary in this case) and the call of "Ei, Ei, OOh! " is called three times!

Staff and guests all took part in the traditional call to war,....

Despite being on his last legs, even the boss, Matsumoto San joined in,...

The pre-opening test event was supposed to have finished by 9:30pm, (10 at the latest,) but we didn't leave the premises until after 1am,... Sorry to the staff...and Thank You!   Shoan  opens Monday 16th in Fushimi, Nagoya, near the Hilton Hotel.

KARATE PART 1

Today I was MC and ring side announcer at the 47th All Japan Super Fighting Karate Championships in Nippon Gaishi Hall, Nagoya... This was the 5th year I've taken part...
This year some 2601 fighters from all age groups took part from all over Japan....
One of the perks of the job is getting ringside seats to some of the best Karate action in Japan!

KARATE PART 2

After the fights, I interviewed the winning fighters, in between interviews some kids wanted to talk too,..and being a big kid myself, I had to have a chat with them...
This year, the entire series was shown live on the internet too,...my friend Mark watched from Adelaide Australia!    Hi Mark!
The final interview was with a fighter who is also an English teacher at a local school, so we did the interview in English,...   Looking forward to next years Super Fighting Karate Championships!!

CHRIS IN SPACE

Next weekend, Sunday 22nd at the EXPO 2005 site, I'll be MC'ing the National Pet Bottle Rocket Championships, an event co sponsored by JAXA, Japan's NASA, ...the YACJ, Young Astronauts Club, Japan, ...and the Pet Bottle Rocket Association. I'll be wearing a flight suit, one of those I wore during the Friendship Flight project, a helicopter flight from Melbourne Australia back to Nagoya Japan in 2005, with the addition of a few Space patches, including this YACJ and official JAXA ones, sent to me by JAXA! Looking forward to it,... should start practicing my countdown!

6311 + 6

This is the number of e-mails I had waiting for me upon my return from holidays. I think that I should have checked them all by the time the next holiday comes around....

ELEVEN, PART 2

eleven minutes and eleven seconds past eleven pm on the eleventh day of the eleventh month.