Michael: More Oran Mor pics that I wasn't able to upload last time - for some reason













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... and some frescoes in the building

Michael: The Beatson Institute had it's annual International Conference this week, celebrating 24 years of Ras in Cancer Research (.. for those scientists among you reading this!) and it was great to be plunged into this area of research for me. Last night was the conference dinner and ceilidh.

Ceilidh band in Oran Mor

It was great to be part of this very Scottish experience. A ceilidh (a visit) is basically a big Scottish style party with Scottish dancing fuelled mainly by beer and whiskey. This one was held at a beautiful church called Oran Mor, in the West End. In keeping with tradition, the haggis was piped into the room, ceremoniously addressed and lanced. Sorry I don't have any pics of this - but I wasn't close enough to the front!

Ceilidh dancing in Oran Mor

I did, however, manage to get some pics of the dancing and even some video. Not sure how this can be posted to the blog, so I'll have to email these to you by request : )

The lanced haggis turned out to be a stand-in though, because our entree of haggis, neeps (turnip) and tatties (potato) was a neat little stack, done very 21st century style. It was excellent! The remaining courses were very international. Roasted chicken breast served with kipflers and other assorted vegetables and a VERY rich creme brulee served with (Scottish) shortbread.

The ceilidh was a great opportunity to get to know members of the lab and the Beatson a bit better and pick out who was uncoordinated and who wasn't!
The conference itself was EXCELLENT. There were a great many big players in the Ras research field including the original discoverers present and I've learned heaps. I won't bore everyone with further details here.

Ian : after much tramping around, wildly variable attitudes from real estate agents towards the requirements that need to be met by new arrivals to the country and a few anxious squables between us, we found a great place to live through the Gumtree website - a private landlord who seems lovely and none of the stumbling blocks for new arrivals that the estate agents had.

So, here's our street !

Double glazing & gas central heating !

Michael: All the household items and our two bikes that we shipped from Australia in mid-April arrived last week. Ian had to help the delivery guy to carry the boxes up the two flight of stairs as he arrived without any kind of trolley for the job! Unfortunately (fortunately?) I was at work. We've organised all these items over the weekend and the place is starting to feel very like a home. It's amazing how having a few of your own items and books around you suddenly makes a flat a home.

Ian : some more of Glasgow city centre . . .


The Glasgow Film Theatre is similar to the stylish Astor cinema in Melbourne.


... no idea.


This scottish tableau seems to suggest a cheeky intimacy and a penchant for very short skirted armour.


The gateway to the upmarket shopping area of Merchant Square.


I should actually snap some of the detail of the school of arts. The architect is the one who's only remaining Australian example is a school in Melbourne's Albert Park.


Groovy laneways !


I think this lovely little place in Buchanan street is an old fashioned English style cafe with quant decor and horrible food. I would've thought for a people who have chips with everything, they'd be able to make good ones !


The east end of Glasgow.

Ian : May 23rd and we arrive in our new hometown


The Glasgow sky welcomes us with sunshine and rain in equal measure.


The view from our room at the Heritage Hotel near the West end district of Glasgow.

Luckily, the hotel is very close to the West End area where we've worked out is a nice patch to live in and is close to Michael's work.


The Kelvinhall Art Gallery & Museum, near the west end -


Get the tiny little underground tube from West End to St. Enoch station in the city centre and you surface near this striking travel centre.


A statue of Scotland's first ever First Minister looks down Buchanan Street mall where, no matter what the weather, you'll find shoppers ! lots of 'em !



near the Glasgow council offices.


In front of GOMA - the Glasgow somethng of Modern Art.
It warms the heart and makes me feel at home to see some irreverence. hehe !
or maybe it's artistic criticism ?


The foyer of GOMA.


Glasgow has a wide variety of architecture

Michael: It's great to see Ian go wild with the camera whenever we go to a new place. It took us twice as long as it should have to walk around the city centre as he was stopping to take pictures every 10 seconds or so! Still, the results are worth the effort and my impatience. : )

Ian : So, next we got to London , but just for 24 hrs - opened a bank account, got connected to a UK mobile phone network and caught up with the lovely Mark, who knew of my ledgendary love of Yorkie bar chocolate ...

Michael: His gift to Ian was about a kilogram of Yorkie type chocolates!




... and had dinner with Johan and Aliki, Michaels collegues from Melbourne, now working in London.



Michael: It was great meeting up with Aliki and Johan at a small Italian restaurant while in London. Unfortunately Kumi couldn't make it as she was not feeling too well, but I'm sure there'll be other times since we're now on the same continent! It is a good thing that the company was so great since the Italian restaurant was quite disappointing overall. Definitely not up to Melbourne standard.

Ian: ... and did some shopping and lunching on Oxford Street.

gotta luv a man in a suit !

... and out of one too !


Michael: Absolutely no comment.

Ian : I've found a few more pics of Japan !


Osaka


Interior - Nanzenji


Japan does it's bit to attempt to stamp out the notoriously dangerous practice of walking AND smoking at the same time !


... sometimes you just cant leave it up to the stuffed bear to catch fish.
They just haven't got a clue you know !


They do national park entrances really well.


Despite the Japanese having an aversion to any part of the body being uncovered in public, this guy didn't seem to care.

Hello and welcome to our life since we left dear ol' Melbourne !

Ian : First , i'd like to share some images from 10 kilometers above Australia, Papua New Guinea and a reef :





Michael : I am sure most of you are eager to hear about Japan. In a word, it was fantastic. I really enjoyed spending some time in a culture that is completely new to me, and the small everyday challenges like making yourself understood were extremely enjoyable and rewarding. I can now order a table for two at a restaurant like a pro (Fu-ta-ri ta-bu-ru-de o-ne-gai-shi-mas)! Of course, it was more of a problem understanding what people said back to us.


We spent one night near Tokyo when we first got to Japan, this was in a town called Narita close to Tokyo airport since we arrived very late at night. We made our way to Tokyo city proper early the next morning and then took the Shinkansen (bullet train; Shin - new, kansen - railway) to visit our friend in West Japan (in a little town called Nagahama). Btw, if anyone is thinking of visiting Japan, I can thoroughly recommend the Japan Rail Pass. It makes travelling around very convenient and cheap. They have English speaking staff at the JRP offices at all the major shinkansen stations in Japan, so it’s easy to reserve seats.
rice paddies everywhere footpath shrine
Nagahama shopping district

Nathan and his partner Akira picked us up at a small town called Maibara and took us out to lunch at, of all places, an Italian restaurant. I have to say, it was nice, but certainly not Melbourne! Nathan took a few days off work and we spent the first day in and around Nagahama town. Nathan described it as the country, but it turned out to be a city about the same size as Brisbane – but a lot more interesting (sorry Natasha!). Until we got to Nagahama, we hadn’t met a single Japanese person that couldn’t speak reasonable English, so this was the beginning of our immersion experience in the Japanese language. We were able to pick up a few words and phrases quite quickly.

Nanzenji



The next day Akira took us to Kyoto and we saw one of the oldest and most important temples in Japan (Nanzenji) where the tea ceremony and Japanese Buddhist philosophy reached their most developed form. It’s more mundane claim to fame is this enormous two-storey (actually about 10 modern stories high) gate, which was once the hiding place of an outlaw. He didn’t end well though, as he was slowly poached in boiling water when discovered. Charming, eh?




Akira , Nathan's partner & lovely guide

Kyoto is just dripping in history. It’s full to the brim with temples and shrines but also has other little gems like the Philosopher’s walk – a little path next to a canal that was used by a Kyoto University philosophy professor for his daily constitutional. This is now a tourist attraction, so it’s lost it’s pastoral charm somewhat, but is still definitely pretty. We did the walk, about 2km, but it was very hot on that day, resulting in a bad headache. I later found out that I was coming down with the cold that Ian had been nursing all week. Thanks Ian!




We went back to Kyoto the next day and saw the ancient castle (Nijo-jo), which was fascinating. The Japanese do gold leaf in a very different way to the Europeans. At a time when high baroque was all the rage in Europe, the Japanese were trying to simplify and clarify their arts. Nijo-jo has two palaces, only one of which is open to the public on a regular basis. Ninomaru palace has some great painted all panels that use a lot of gold leaf. The themes are very simple, but beautiful. All the rooms are kept dark because the light affects the paintings, but the gold makes them glow in the dimmest of light. The whole place is filled with this low, warm gleam. Very nice.
Nijo-jo

Arishiyama

As you probably know, you almost always take your shoes off to go indoors in Japan. Most buildings have a gengkhan, a low area near the door where you leave your shoes before stepping up into the room proper. It was at Nijo-jo that I first realised how great it felt to walk on wood – in socks. The floors are made of wooden planks with matt surfaces, on which people have been walking for many years and these feel quite satisfying underfoot – like eating hot stew in a warm house on a cold day. Sorry, that was the best comparison I could come up with!

Why is she standing on a giant triffod pod ? No idea.

Another interesting feature of Japan is the ubiquitous vending machines. Ian was in heaven. They have vending machines for every imaginable food and drink, hot or cold. You can get hot coffee (not very good coffee) in cans at these vending machines too. I really got into the green tea beverages. Not just any green tea, but matcha – the finely ground green tea used in the tea ceremony. It’s fantastic in ice cream (they do a mean matcha and chocolate combination) and goes very well as a filling for chocolates. In Japan, there are plenty of sweet things made with green tea as the major flavouring and I tried quite a few of these – of course, I have no idea what they’re called since everything is written in Japanese. I’ve even got a stash with me here in Glasgow – and am going through it slowly! For the junk food obsessed, there are lots of Japanese snacks (also available at vending machines) with a variety of fruit, nuts and FISH! These small dried fish come in bags (like bags of chips). I didn’t try any of these and they were just a bit too fishy and weird. There are also combinations of nuts and fish in the same chip bag .


snack food and 'YOU'


Nathan shows us the finer points of shopping Osaka style !

Nathan and Akira then took us to Osaka for the weekend and we went to one of the popular gay bars run by a guy from Brisbane. The most notable thing about it was its size – the lack of it. It was about the dimensions of your average bathroom, but long and narrow. A full house was about 8 people. There were 6 others there on this night. When our party of four showed up, they had to rearrange the place to accommodate us. Fortunately, there was no cover charge, as it seems no one goes out in Osaka on a Friday night. Just as well, because I can’t imagine paying to be stuffed into that small space. The owner was very happy to meet some people from back home and had a long chat with Ian about Brisbane and old times.



Osaka is definitely shopper’s paradise, particularly if you’re into electronic gadgetry like moi. We spent most of Saturday walking around town and going to one multi storey electronics shop after the next. Nathan is very much the tech-head and speaks good Japanese, so it was a productive shopping spree. I have a few more attachments for my computer now!

The electronics supermarket area of Tokyo

We headed back to Tokyo that evening and spent the night in a traditional guesthouse (Ryokan) right in the centre of Tokyo next to the main train station. It was another great experience. A futon bed on the floor and tatami matting floors, not to mention a high tech toilet. I won’t say anymore about this last point. By the way, Tokyo train station is a huge maze and seemed about 3-4 times the size of Melbourne airport.

Ian : also one of the best parts of our stay in Japan was being treated to a proper Japanese dinner courtesy of Sae - a friend of Nathans. A wonderful night of Japanese hospitality with a very informal atmosphere.



And then there was the night Nathan took us to an Onsen - traditional Japanese bath house. It's a place for regular family soakings - a classic, gently ritualised experience of calming sensual relaxation. Similar to what I experienced back in Brisbane at Hotel Diana (called a Korean bath house) but on a grander scale.

Michael : One of the best experiences I had in Japan was a visit to the primary school in Nagahama where Nathan teaches English. He took me along one day to "assist". Getting permission for this from the principal turned out to be quite easy. I couldn't help wondering what we would have had to do in Australia. Work cover? Police checks? Third party liability insurance? Forms? Induction? Safety training? Well, all we needed in Nagahama was a nod from the principal (or was that the vice principal?). It was such a foreign environment for me. I mean, I haven't been in primary school for the better part of 20 years. The kids were very polite, but nevertheless quite lively - just like any other primary class, really. Somehow, I thought Japanese kids would be more regimented and restrained, so this was a pleasant surprise. Perhaps Nathan is having a (bad) influence on them! We did 4 classes that day, I think and the routine was that the kids thought up questions to ask this visitor, in English. I got some pretty interesting ones like "What sports don't you like?" .. umm all of them? But seriously, it was a very unusual experience and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.


Nathan took some photos of me helping some of the kids with their work. Maybe there is another career open for me if the whole science thing falls through one day! It was also great meeting the other English teacher at Nathan's school, Esther who came around that evening to play GTA with Ian and Nathan. No, I'm not that into violent computer games, I have to say ..

Karaoke bar


A groovy little U.S.style coffee shop in Nagahama

Osaka style


sleeping is the favorite pastime of Japanese commuters

Ian : Well, that's about all for the Japan episode.
The next posting will be our 24 hours in London and the first two weeks in our new home of Glasgow.

Cheers & love !