As The Great Tim Bisley said.
I can't be bothered to write about the rest of the time Paul was here. He is meant to send me some stuff about it but I have not got it yet. Basically, the next few days of the holiday I had were a bit of a write off due to "inclement" weather. It rained very heavily, and incessantly, for three or four days. But it wasn't a typhoon apparently. Well, I went back to work more tired than before the holidays but actually quite pleased to go back. Paul continued to go out to random places in Tokyo and we were back to normal - the default position it felt like he had been here for so long!
We watched a few films and stuff too. We watched all 26 episodes of the first stage of Initial D in three or four nights. Scarily addictive. Paul also watched a couple of Miyazaki Hayoo films - namely "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke" [US titles]. And was very impressed. He was visibly "blown away" by Spirited Away.
Paul being here was pretty decent. I was quite wary of spending such a long time with him (or anyone really). I think the quality of Radiohead was too high for anything to go wrong really. Maybe my opinion has been swayed by the lovely presents he has left me. A genuine surprise.
I was actually half expecting a present...of Paul still sat in my room refusing to leave[B]. Instead I came in to a fairly tidy flat and two things on my desk: a card and a box. Rather excellently the box contained a "Neo Geo Pocket Color" (the name - they can't spell colour unfortunately). The card was even better as Paul had drawn it himself - a picture of Pikachu and Doraemon both saying some Japanese (kanji too so I cannot read it - "peace" allegedly). Inside he wrote some Engrish and, nicest of all, he had written "arigato gozaimashita". Which means "thank you" for things you have done in the past. I'd like to think that he meant "Thanks for everything" which is how it was translated in an anime we watched.
Paul being here was pretty decent. I was quite wary of spending such a long time with him (or anyone really). I think the quality of Radiohead was too high for anything to go wrong really. Maybe my opinion has been swayed by the lovely presents he has left me. A genuine surprise.
I was actually half expecting a present...of Paul still sat in my room refusing to leave[B]. Instead I came in to a fairly tidy flat and two things on my desk: a card and a box. Rather excellently the box contained a "Neo Geo Pocket Color" (the name - they can't spell colour unfortunately). The card was even better as Paul had drawn it himself - a picture of Pikachu and Doraemon both saying some Japanese (kanji too so I cannot read it - "peace" allegedly). Inside he wrote some Engrish and, nicest of all, he had written "arigato gozaimashita". Which means "thank you" for things you have done in the past. I'd like to think that he meant "Thanks for everything" which is how it was translated in an anime we watched.
Well I ended the day pretty pleased but I do kind of miss Paul. We had some interesting chats and it was nice to be able to speak normal English at my normal rate with somebody that would understand me. So it[C] begins...
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. By this, I think I mean the idea of having a more "genuine" experience without the influence of people that knew me. This was possibly the reason I made an instant, unfair judgement on John when I first met him - it was almost as if I was a little fearful of having someone see through me. I had a number of visitors over the years and the majority (with some notable exceptions - I fell out with a couple of people in ways that I had not done before or since) were very positive but I would definitely place Paul in the upper echelons. He wanted to see/do things but he was almost unfussy as to what they were and I think the country grabbed him in that time.↩
B. He returned to work in Japan himself and spent a similar length of time in the country which I think has to be partially because of the time we spent together.↩
C. The "it" beginning was really just my "real" time here - without the stabiliser of having a friend there - now I would have to make some new friends. Making new friends is a tricky business and I did not do too badly in this period of time - I would still count a decent number of people I met as friends - and some of them even "good friends". It was a good time and age to do it and I was massively more successful at forging new relationships in Japan than at any other time, especially university to which I can compare the times quite closely.↩
---All lettered footnotes were written in 2015---
A. By this, I think I mean the idea of having a more "genuine" experience without the influence of people that knew me. This was possibly the reason I made an instant, unfair judgement on John when I first met him - it was almost as if I was a little fearful of having someone see through me. I had a number of visitors over the years and the majority (with some notable exceptions - I fell out with a couple of people in ways that I had not done before or since) were very positive but I would definitely place Paul in the upper echelons. He wanted to see/do things but he was almost unfussy as to what they were and I think the country grabbed him in that time.↩
B. He returned to work in Japan himself and spent a similar length of time in the country which I think has to be partially because of the time we spent together.↩
C. The "it" beginning was really just my "real" time here - without the stabiliser of having a friend there - now I would have to make some new friends. Making new friends is a tricky business and I did not do too badly in this period of time - I would still count a decent number of people I met as friends - and some of them even "good friends". It was a good time and age to do it and I was massively more successful at forging new relationships in Japan than at any other time, especially university to which I can compare the times quite closely.↩
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