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Last weekend, I went to Sculpture by the Sea. This is one of my favourite annual free events in Sydney, along with Tropfest (the world’s biggest short film fest).

I am a huge fan of modern/contemporary art, what I like to call “novelty art” coz I’m a huge fan of novelty.

This year’s Sculptures weren’t as good as previous years but I was introduced to the work of an artist called Christo. This dude is Awesome with a capital A. He wraps shit. He wraps stuff up and calls it art or rather “environment installation art”. Genuis, I say. In this particular exhibition he had wrapped up a giant sea cliff rock. His past artworks have included wrapping up a bridge, a building, and wrapping up an island (Little Bay in Sydney).’The Umbrellas’ was another of his works set up in Ibaraki prefecture in Japan. According to Wikipedia two people died during its construction and exhibition.

He is currently working on ‘Over the River’ - not a wrapping per say, but a covering of the Arkansas River in Colorado, expected to be complete in 2012.

His website is here: click here

Christo is a Bulgarian artist and he and his French-born wife  (they both coincidentally share the same birthday as well) spend their time wrapping up existing structures to create their own “art”. What a great concept. His wrappings have been called “revealment through concealment”. Christo says of his works;

                “Do you know that I don’t have any artworks that exist?

                              They all go away when they’re finished.”

                    “I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone
                                           than to create things that will remain.”

昨日,  私は献血した。

Have been too busy lately to update my blog, so I’m slowly trying to update it again.

I have about a month left until my contract is up so things are getting busy…packing, cleaning, teaching, farewells, etc.
I am going to a Japanese wedding this weekend. Am excited about that.

Our good friend Makiko is getting married and we have been invited to the wedding, reception and nijikai.
MCs Skye and Jeff will provide commentary in Japanese and English. It will be a small, private wedding of about 30 people.

Looking forward to getting dressed up, eating, drinking and being merry.

In other news, I’m also going to Hawaii next week, for one week. Hawaii ii na!
A week of sun and bumming around on the beach.
Going on my own. Late notice but any takers??

Will be nice and relaxing. Yay!

Back in February, I won a new 2007 model 4GB iPod Nano.
I entered a competition in Japan in December last year. Apparently I was a winner so they mailed it to me.
It still remains in the case. I haven’t opened it yet. It’s so slim. And it has the movie feature.

I am in the processing of updating my blog and transferring blog entries from my previous blogsite (getjealous) to this one. It dates back to 2004. It’s going to take me a while.

Yay. I feel satisfied (sense of achievement-wise).
I just finished my 履歴書 (Japanese resume).

I’m off snowboarding tomorrow.

Today I had the day off work because I went to the dentist to have another of my wisdom teeth removed.
Just before Christmas last year, I got the first tooth done.
During my time in Japan I have been experiencing tooth pains for about 9 months.
I finally got them checked out and had X rays to discover that my wisdom teeth had come through. Two needed to be removed as soon as possible.
So, I got one removed last year (the left bottom).
I opted to get them taken out one by one over a course of a few months. I wanted to avoid going to the hospital in Japan.
If I go to the local dental clinic to get them removed they will only do one at a time because they can only administer local anaesthetic.
So today, I got the second one done (left top).
It wasn’t too bad. I had the local anaesthetic. The most painful part is the lip-tearing. My lips get really sore from all the pulling they do to the mouth.
The last wisdom tooth that I got removed needed stitches to the side of my inner mouth, however this time, I didn’t need stitches. Today’s tooth extraction wasn’t so bad. It started hurting once the anaesthetic had worn off. Eating is also a little slow and limited. Just sticking to soft foods and liquids.
It was a really big tooth that they pulled out. It has left quite a hole in the mouth. I feel as though my jaw and teethline will never be the same though since the wisdom teeth have come through.
Some time in the near future I will need to the get right side of my mouth done as well. All four wisdom teeth have come through.
It is surprisingly really cheap to have your wisdom teeth removed in Japan. Back home they would cost about $2000.
The first tooth I had removed was the most difficult one and it only cost $40 for the whole procedure including take-home antibiotics and painkillers. Today’s tooth extraction was only $11 (including take-home antibiotics). Super cheap to get them done in Japan. I also have a really good dentist here in Japan. He is extremely skilful and he talks to me in English and really looks after me. I also have a really good car mechanic in Japan. He is super nice and they always do minor work on my car for free.

We have had a real cold snap lately. Unbearably cold outside. This morning it snowed, so it was quite a nice day just to rest and stay at home.

Now I’m officially on school winter holidays. Yay.

Earlier this week I got one of my wisdow teeth removed and had a couple of days off school. I got the stitches removed yesterday. Will have to go back next year to get the other ones removed. I opted to get them done one by one. Getting them all done in one go would have required me to go to a Japanese hospital which I want to avoid at all costs. They also let me keep my wisdom tooth. It is sitting in a little clear plastic box.
I got the stitches taken out yesterday.

Tomorrow I’m off to Tokyo. Spending Christmas in Tokyo for a couple of days before heading to Kyushu island for a week or so.

Merry Christmas!!!!

The Aussie dollar dropped 10 cents in the last week alone. Now is the time to send money home. Hopefully will be still be low next week when I send money home. Yay for payday next week. I get paid monthly. Sometimes it’s hard to hang out for payday especially this month. I bought a car and paid for insurance all in cash.

100yen was about 106 Australian cents last month, now it’s 92 Australian cents.

But Australian shares are doing really bad, well, at least my ones are.

Off to Sado Island (off the coast of Niigata)  for the next few days where I shall spend the last of this month’s pay. Damn shame it’s raining. Hopefully it will clear up.