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Will's Tour Diary - updated daily!
Will's tour diary - What? Why? When? Where? - Shows - Seminars
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Woke up feeling a little worse for wear. Richard wasn't about to win any beauty contests either. We farewelled Ortwin and Suzy, and then freshened up in the onsen just around the corner before heading for Nagano City for our interview with Mr X - the reporter from the Yomiuri Shimbun.
We were on time. The reporter was late. He turned up and apologised - he had been out drinking the night before and had slept in. When we ushered him into the Genkimobile he looked at us nervously, as if he was weighing up the chance of being kidnapped by the two strange foreigners in bright yellow and red t-shirts saying "GenkiEnglish"
We convened at Denny's where we spent a good 2 hours telling the GE story. I added that our dream was to do a show in Ehime with pop-idol girl group Morning Musume. Afterwards Mr X paid for breakfast (we should have ordered more expensive dishes). We went to the nearby Lawson convenience store to copy some press articles for him, and it was there I noticed a poster for Morning Musume, advertising a CD collection interestingly titled Sweet Morning Box 2000.
Leisurely drive to Misato-mura. On the way I paid my speeding fine at a post office. The guys behind the counter said "Where did they catch you?", and then advised me of the speed traps further down the road.
We arrived at Misato-mura Primary School right on 4 pm. Lots of genki students. It was the biggest, most modern school I have ever seen. We needed a map to find the entrance. The village was clearly loaded. Inside we had a natter with the Principal, and then spoke with the resident CIR Anna Warren, and Keiko Maruyama - the teacher who works with her. While Richard warned against the evils of using katakana to teach English, I showed Keiko a trick for differentiating between 'fly' and 'fry'.
(We were puzzled why a place with a population of over 10,000 was still called 'mura' (village) and not 'cho' (town) - generally any place with a population between 4000 and 40,000 is designated a town. The Principal confided that the local apples are a bit famous and sell under the name "Misato Village Apples". "Misato Town Apples" didn't have quite the same ring, so the place was in no hurry to apply for town status)
We took Anna to the station (after airing the Genkimobile) to meet a friend from the UK, and the four of us headed off for dinner. On the way Richard and I were distracted by a shop crammed with Star Wars merchandise. The two girls were looking at us as if they had suddenly found themselves on a date with two 15 year olds, but when they saw how much fun we were having getting our picture taken with the life sized Darth Vader they ended up joining us.At an okinomiyaki restaurant Clare described her ordeal at Kansai Airport where she was interrogated for 4 hours and after a thorough search of her luggage failed to produce anything more potent than Oil of Ulay, she was told she would have to stick around until her gastrointestinal system produced the goods. At that point Clare started crying and the customs people let her go. This story was good enough to even overshadow Anna's tale about the Japanese woman who walked up to her at a local bar and slipped her the tongue.
Anna tried to direct us to the Matsumoto Fire Festival, but after getting lost, and making countless u-turns we arrived at Asama Onsen just as the festivities had concluded.
We did however visit a sewing teacher. Don't say we don't know how to show two women a good time.
Will
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Opinions expressed in this diary are personal views of Will Jasprizza. They do not necessarily represent those of Genki English, especially where he is slagging people off or making jokes which sounded better at the time!!! Please be understanding!
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