FASHION ELEGANCE

Saturday May 29.  Taking some friends around the ancient city of Inuyama, home of National Treasures, the Inuyama Castle, the Joan Tea Room and many other cultural and historically important attractions. Dressed for the Tour Guide occasion in a Sponge Bob Square Pants t-shirt. Really lent an air of sophistication and elegance to the day.

TONGUE

Dinner this evening was at a Korean BBQ, Yakiniku restaurant, where one of the specialties was cow's tongue! EEEeuugh! If something has been in a cows mouth for any length of time,  I don't want to put it in my mouth!!

ANOTHER HAT

Wearing my other hat,...on the road, off to see clients for the advertising agency side of PPF. PPF handles advertising and promotions for a wide range of clients from restaurants to airline companies, beverage makers to hotels. Today was a meeting for a potential new radio campaign to promote a local company,...more details soon!

STAR WARS 32ND ANNIVERSARY

Monday May 25, 1977, Star Wars first opened in movie theaters across America. Co-incidentally, May 25 2009, my home page hobbies site Star Wars page, featuring photos of my Star Wars collection went up,...check it out!!

WALKATHON 1

Sunday 24th was the day of the annual charity Walkathon. Once again I was the MC for the day long event, this time held in Nagoya's Tsuruma Park.
The new Mayor of Nagoya, Mr. Kawamura was there, along with a number of other dignitaries

...he even participated in a few laps of the Walkathon...

And the bands began to play. My job was to introduce the bands and acts, and to keep the stage rolling while the bands changed, also information announcing and hosting the raffle draws etc.

WALKATHON 2

The Casablanca Restaurant Belly Dancers were worth watching, and one of the few attractions I decided to stay on the side of the stage for,...Mmmm, Dinner tonight at the Casablanca??
There were rock bands, Japanese pop bands, Country & Western bands, Japanese drum bands..

There were belly dancers, ...Hula dancers, ....Line dancers,...baton twirlers,..

Everybody enjoyed themselves, especially the kids from the Nagoya International School who helped put this event together!

IN MEMORY OF 3

On this day, May 20, 1996 actor Jon Pertwee passed away. He was 76. Pertwee played the 3rd incarnation of the Doctor in the long running BBC series Doctor Who from 1970 to 1974.  

Jon Pertwee was known as the "Dandy Doctor". His was the first Doctor I saw as a young child. and the story where plastic dolls came to life had me screaming for Mum to come and change the channel. Pertwee was in America at the time of his death, attending an American Dr. Who convention. (Incidentally, the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton also died at an American fan event 9 years earlier in 1987)    Tonight at the PPF office,  a showing of Planet Of The Daleks could be in order. 

SHOW US YOUR COCONUTS!

Saturday 16th, on stage at Nadia Park Department Mall for the Tahiti Festa 2009

While it was cold and raining outside, inside was tropical, as some of Japan's top Tahiti Dancers rustled their grass skirts and shook their hips and their and coconut bikinis...
The crowd was entertained by 3 dance groups providing 6 shows, interspersed by talk shows and quiz games.
Ah, Tahiti, a pristine Pacific Paradise,...these ladies have helped me decide that in my next life, I want to come back as a Tahitian Coconut.

TAHITI

This weekend I'm MC'ing the Tahiti Festival 2009 at Nadia Park Shopping Centre....been going thru' the brochures, brushing up on my Tahiti trivia... looking forward to those coconut bikini tops and grass skirts... wonder what the others will wear...

LET'S GAUGUIN!

At Nagoya's Boston Art Museum to check out the Paul Gauguin exhibition, and featuring some of his works created while in Tahiti. I wasn't aware that Gauguin created wood carvings as well, and some of these were probably more impressive than his paintings. There were some nice frames too!

KODO 1

All dressed up in kimono....Today I took part in the traditional Japanese art of Kodo, awareness-enhancing through the appreciation of scent. This practice dates from the Period of Civil war, and was a popular pastime of the Samurai elite. This school is one of the very few remaining Kodo schools, and the current master is the 21st in line of succession.
Tiny incense chips are burned in this small hand held brazier. Samples are sent around, and everybody is supposed to remember the names of the places the scent invokes. 
After trying 3 samples, the master then adds an untried 4th sample, and the 4 samples are mixed up and sent around again. This is where the game begins.

KODO

After sniffing the sample, you write what you think each smell represented on a small piece of paper. The sensei then collects all the papers and tallies up the points. I had written the first 3 correctly, but then swapped 2 and 4 around, meaning I only got 2 correct.

Group shot

Afterwards our senses were once again challenged with a cup of Matcha green tea.

The house and garden dates from the late Edo Period, the early 1800's.

Just sitting and looking at the garden is relaxing, and a great way to reflect on another traditional experience.

KIMONOVER

Yesterday it was blue jeans, today a traditional Japanese kimono,...I'm off to try KODO, the Japanese art of sensory enhancement through aromatic wood burning....

BLUE JEANS

What's unusual about this photo?  It's Casual Chris day, ...I'm wearing jeans! 

I have just one pair of jeans, and this is the first time I've worn them in at least 5 years. 

Shirt and jeans, both Calvin Klein. 

BOYS AND THEIR TOYS

Saturday May 8. Spent the day taking photographs of my Dr. Who and Star Wars collection to put up on my Home Page "hobbies" section. It was a great opportunity to get all the old toys out and go thru' all of the stuff I've accumulated over the last 30 something years. Problem was, nothing went back into the storage boxes the way it came out...

CHRIS COMMUNICATION

My friend Chris is from Chili, he works as a web designer. When we get together we speak Japanese, as I don't speak Spanish, and he doesn't speak English. This morning we were talking about music and he whipped his i-pod out to show me what he's listening to, not only our names, but our music tastes match! INXS, Culture Club, Yazoo, a whole host of 80's New Wave artists, even some underground stuff! The sight of 2 foreigners, both called Chris, both speaking in Japanese and getting all excited about music had the whole office amused for hours....

STAR BORES

Last month I went to a Science Fiction Museum and specialty shop in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture. Amongst the various costumes and props on display, including the original Terminator robot and a 1978 Battle Star Galactica Cylon warrior costume, was this, Dot Matrix from the Star Wars parody movie, SpaceBalls..........
Although a long time Star Wars fan, I hadn't gotten around to seeing this Mel Brookes comedy SpaceBalls in the fear that it might have been sacrilegious, however a friend said it was funny and that I should check it out. I recently came across the DVD going cheap.....  

And that's exactly what it was! 

ANTIQUE I-POD

I've spent the last 2 days selecting songs to update my i-pod. I keep it in the car, and it's been about 8 months since I last updated it, so I'm pretty sick of the current selection. I've just put 394 songs into it, all selected from the PPF record library..... Now I have to put all those CD's back,....
And here it is, my 2004 i-pod mini. Not as mini as the current i-pods of course, and an antique in computer time. This was given to me by the staff of KISS-FM, Kobe, where I used to do the weekly countdown show, before undertaking the Friendship Flight project, flying a helicopter from Melbourne, Australia back to Nagoya, Japan. I wanted one to listen to music during the flight, however the 1983 model AS 350 heli didn't have the sound jack to support it,...never mind.   So, by updating the i-pod for the car, does that mean I won't be listening to the radio?? Only Radio-i, 79.5FM!!

EYE POD

At long long last it's time to update my i-pod. Looking for songs to input in my production company, PPF's record library. The library features about 5,500 CD's or about 9,900 hit songs. All CD's, artists and their listed songs are registered in a computer for easy access.  Big question is, why do they call it an i pod, when it's designed for the ears?

BOYS DAY SAMURAI ARMOR

May 5th is the Boys Day Festival, families with boys display Samurai armor or models of armor and helmets. In my house, Samurai armor is on display all year round... Above is my main suit, a tousei gussoku armor on display in my living room
This is an early to mid Edo Period (1603~1868) " bitsa"set made up of "bitsa" one armor, "bitsa" another,...various pieces. The haidate thigh protectors I got in Australia, the do, body armor at an antiques fair, the hanbo, chin and throat guard at a separate antiques event, the chochin kabuto helmet and the chu-sode arm guards I bough off a friend.  
This is a restored tatami gussoku light munitions armor dating from the late 1500's and stands in my dining room. For my home, it's boys day every day!

GOLDEN WORK

This week is Golden Week, Japan's longest holiday period of the year after the Obon Holiday in August and New Years. Not for me, it's Golden Work as usual. (On Air at 79.5 FM)

CAUGHT OUT

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, down by Nagoya's Shonai River for a BBQ with friends, ... 
Another group having a BBQ nearby approached and asked, "Are you Chris Glenn?" I answered in the affirmative, "Yea, we thought so," they said, "We recognised you from your red sox..."