Gary's Boring Blog

Cheers West Ham

Just like last year, West ham disappointed me. Thie bid to go straight back into the Premier League failed, and the club will now be forced to sell it's best players for the second consecutive year. Very, very painful for a West ham fan.

The only bright spot really was this story from Australia. Dave Lewis, an Australian Hammer, found out that the game was not being shown in Oz. So he bought the TV rights, and got pubs in all the big cities to show the game. In the end around 4,000 Palace and West Ham fans on 11 locations across Oz managed to see the game. Quite an organizational feat.

Obviously, this doesn't change the result, but it restored a little of my faith in the power of fans in this era where money seems to be the main factor in World Football.

http://www.australiansoccer.com.au/public/article/show.asp?articleid=7649&menuItemID=

Makes you proud to be British

Also from the Guardian, this time with a link.

British woman gets pregnant.
Doesn't want the baby.
Decides to SELL the baby on the internet.
Gets interest from a potential couple, and takes a deposit from them.
Gets interest from a second potential couple, and takes a deposit from them.
Gets interest from a third potential couple, and starts negotiating a deposit with them.

She has baby, which is immediately taken into care, and she is arrested, convicted of fraud, and sentenced to 2 years in prison.

As I said, just makes you proud to be British, doesn't it...

UK Censors

After I harangued the conservative US media's attitude towards sex and nudity, and was opposed by a couple of Americans in my comments, here we have an example of British prudishness. Just to show you Paul, that when the Puritans left to live in your part of the world, some stayed in the UK as well!

In a new add for voting in EU elections, the theme is supposed to be one of choice. A short clip shows a baby trying to decide whether to go for the left nipple or the right nipple. In Italy, Germany and France, this ad was shown on daytime TV. In the UK, the British Board of Film Classification gave it a U classification, for Universal. The Cinema Advertising Association decided that the shot of the nipple was "too overtly sexual" to be shown at British cinemas.

Mmmm, sexual. Can't even begin to argue with that. The fact that it was the advertising watchdogs who blocked the naughty nipple reminds me of the arguments in both No Logo and Free Culture.

Last word to Julia Brown, Labour MP, who said "If the British are offended by bosoms, why do we have millions thrust in our faces every day by the tabloids?" Why indeed...

(from The Guardian, but not in the online version, apparently)

West Ham - Play-Off Final??

When I started blogging, just over a year ago, I wrote about how painful it can be to be a football fan, especially a West Ham fan. The Hammers had just got relegated from the Premier League. This lost them huge amounts of TV cash, so they basically had to sell most of their best players. A much-changed West Ham team had a decent-enough season in the circumstances, eventually finishing 4th in the table, and in a play-off place.

Last week, the boys did me, and East London, proud, by winning the play-off semi-final. This Saturday, they play in the final. They are therefore just 90 minutes away from bouncing back into the Premier League at the first attempt, which would be a very impressive feat.

The problem is, THIS GAME IS NOT ON TV IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!! I really cannot face the thought of listening to the whole thing on the radio, but that seems to be my only choice. HELP..................!

Train Tales

I have talked before about the pleasure and fun there is to be had from wedging your body into a confined space for 2 hours a day, and sharing body odour and recycled air with hundreds of other people...

Anyway, here is another train tale.

I was patiently waiting for the train the other day, with some other passengers, all tired after a long day at work. We dutifully lined up on the platform where the sign said 'line up here'. As the train pulled in, from nowhere, a middle-aged businessman craftily sidled up to the front, to push in. Since I was second from the front of the now-quite-long queue (line), he was stood slightly in front of, and to the side of me.

'This cheeky bugger is not going to push in front of the 20 people who have been waiting properly for 10 minutes', I thought. As he moved forwards to get on the train, without thinking, I put my arm in front of his chest and stopped him. 'Hang on a minute', I said. His look was a mixture of shock and bewilderment. 'Everyone here has been lining up - please wait', I continued, to which he replied 'OK'.

That's the end of the story. No fight. No almost-fight. No argument. Just a 'excuse me, please follow the rules' sort of statement, followed by a fairly simple acknowledgement. If I ever wonder why I like living in Japan, I need to imagine how the above story would have turned out in England...

5 Years Together

It's the 5th anniversary today of when Megumi and I started dating. I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank her for her love and support over the last few years. I'm sure we will have many more anniversaries to celebrate!

A few of the highlights of the last 5 years:

* trips to Guam, Sapporo and Okinawa together.
* trips to Tokushima to spend time with her family, England to spend time with my family, and Malaysia, which we enjoyed with Megumi's parents.
* various different events with the Saitama Jets football team, from weekend tournaments, to Christmas and year-end parties, to just hanging out and having lunch with team members and their girlfriends/wives.
* just going out for dinner at local restaurants, or fancy ones at hotels in Tokyo
* lots of great birthday parties, especially the beer garden on the top of Seibu in Ikebukuro, and my 30th at the Smuggler
* getting married in Virginia, then a great party in Shibuya
* the World Cup
* the creation of Rosie

PICTURES

MP asks for video replays!

(From the BBC)

The MP for Durham, Gerry Steinberg, has tabled a Commons motion backing the use of video replays in football.
Steinberg's action has arisen after Sunderland had a controversial last-minute goal awarded against them in the play-off defeat by Crystal Palace.

The motion called for: "...playback facilities so that incorrect decisions can be rectified." It continued: "...thereby preventing one man running and determining a match based on incorrect decisions."

Fantastic reaction!

This is what happens when football becomes a business rather than a sport, and when people basically stake their livelihoods on winning or losing football matches.

It reminds me of the Italian whiners after the World Cup in 2002, who were convinces that there was a conspiracy against them. Some people seem to forget that the inconsistency and human fallability of the referee is part of the game. Not a perfect part, but a part none the less.

And, by the way, what on earth is a politician doing getting involved???

The Power of Google

I was a bit bored the other day, so messed around on Google looking for links to the Saitama Jets, the football team I play for. There, I ran across the blog of one Will Bragg, formerly Wild Bill, crazy Jets defender. I also found the blog of a guy playing for the Aomori team, who we regularly play against. Since we beat them last time, I kindly pointed him to the detailed match report I wrote, just to rub it in!

Finally, the Aomori guy, Francis, had this link to a great page about reasons why NOT to study Japanese. Amusing for those of us who have struggled to master this language.

Not only is it not simple, it's probably one of the hardest language you could ever want to learn. With THREE completely different written languages (none of which make sense), multitude of useless, confusing politeness levels, and absolutely insane grammatical structure, Japanese has been crushing the souls of the pathetic Gaijin since it's conception. Let's go over some of these elements mentioned above so you can get a better idea of what I mean.

All in all, a very worthwhile 5 minutes of googling.

Ian Doll

This wooden doll is Rosie's new toy. With it's shock of red hair, it was quickly christened Ian, although it is a little trimmer around the middle than my Dad, the real Ian.

(photo courtesy of Megumi's blog)

Japanese Pension Scandal (AGAIN)

No wish to be boring here, but, since my last scoop:

Naoto Kan has resigned.
A bloke called Koizumi has admitted that he too, did not pay his pension premiums for 6 years. (At that point, paying was not mandatory)

I don't want to jump on the hysterical bandwagon the Japanese press seems to be generating about this. It seems clear that, for self-employed workers (including politicians), the rules on payment and non-payment are far too complicated for most people to understand. If nothing else, this whole debacle will presumably result in these rules being simplified.

67% of people in a recent poll said that they did not trust the currently elected politicians to pass bills reforming the pension system.

I'M BACK

I have been busy being poked around by doctors (what a bore), and then my Grandpa Ian and Grandma Marlene came to visit from England. We had lots of fun!!!

If you want to see some new pictures of me, go to the usual place, my gallery, or take a look at the new gallery of photos of my grandparents.

Customer Service, UK-Style

Cory has a great post about useless customer service in England. He chronicles how inflexible people in England can be about following 'the rules'. I have written about this before, with all sorts of problems and service inadequacies being blamed on 'the system' in jolly old England.

Good timing, really, because Dad and Marlene have been marvelling over how great Japanese service is. The department store staff always smile, they wrap your gifts beautifully, and at the hotel we stayed at in Nikko a small Japanese lady half my size insisted on carrying our rather heavy bags. Apparently, it is not like this in the UK, giving me further proof that a Garner revolution in customer service is needed when we eventually go back to Blighty.

It's a BOY

-"It's a BOY!"
-"But it hasn't got a willy!"
-"A miracle - a boy without a willy."
(Pause)
-"But a boy without a willy is a girl..."

-"It's a GIRL, it's a GIRL...."

Rosie is a girl, no doubt about that, but that's not to say she won't want to play football...

(bonus points for those who can spot the skit above, who said what, in what series, and any other trivia surrounding this hilarious show)

Pension Scandal Resignations

Fukuda has resigned, Kan Naoto is considering it apparently.

(new pics of Rosie will be up soon - Dad and Marlene are in town and I have been really busy!)

Pension Scandal (again)

Anyone living in Japan will have heard about this, but just to provide a summary:

-37% of non-company-employees in Japan do not pay into the 'compulsory' national pension scheme

-faced with less revenue, and more pensioners to pay benefits to, the Japanese government spends LOTS of money on a campaign trying to force the 'non-payers' into paying

-the government chooses to use actress Esumi Makiko as the figurehead for this campaign

-News leaks that Esumi Makiko has not paid her own pension contributions

-Esumi apologises in public, and pays all her back payments

-News then leaks that first 3, now 7, major Japanese politicians have not been paying their premiums. One of the non-payers is Kan Naoto, the leader of the opposition party, another is cabinet member and Finance Minister Tanigaki, who was not paying his premiums even when in charge of the ministry responsible for the overseeing of the pension scheme.

Apparently, the percentage of non-paying politicians in the Cabinet, at 38%, is marginally higher than the rate of non-payers in the general population. Oh dear...

Click here for Japan Times story