One thing I noticed about being in Colombia was just how much yellow, blue and red there is lying about the place. It is because these are the colours of the Colombian flag and they are everywhere, in houses, on churches, in car show rooms, sculptures and even on top of flag poles too. I’m not sure of the reason for this but it is nice that people take a bit of pride in their national colours unlike in the UK where the flag has been hijacked in the past by horrible racist organisations and even now is still struggling to get over it.

The colours of the flag are not only on inanimate objects but on people’s wrists too. For a very long time it has been popular to wear various bracelets depicting the Colombian tricolour, I first became aware of it when my Mum returned from a trip and gave me one. It remains on my wrist too, after many years, because it is one of the few things I have to remind me of her. For a cheap little bracelet it’s stood the test of time well, although I did need to get it restrung while there last time.

The name for these bracelets is Manilla Colombiana which straightforwardly enough means Colombian Bracelet in English and they are worn by just about everyone over there. The bracelets are made out of just about anything, I’ve seen them made from beads, metals, wood and all sorts of other stuff.

However I was shocked when, while eating lunch with some of the kids I teach in Japan, one of them pointed at the bracelet on my wrist and asked me why I was wearing a ‘misanga’. Not knowing what the little fellow was talking about I tried to explain as best I could about the manilla but he just looked at me confused.

It was only when I returned home that I discovered that in Japan they have manilla of their very own called, as the little kid had told me, a Misanga (or ミサンガ).  To the Japanese though the little bracelets are not an expression of national identity like in Colombia but a simple good luck charm. Apparently when the misanga fails off your wrist by itself your wish gets granted. Generally these things are plaited and can come in just about any colour. The word comes from Portuguese and although it does refer to bracelets there too, in Portugal and Brazil these bracelets always have beads.

During the 90s when the J League was just getting off the ground it became popular to wear misanga of your team’s colours to support them, this has since extended to include baseball teams and athletes. It is mostly JHS and High School kids who wear them.

Both manilla and misanga remind me of the friendship bracelets that I remember the girls used to wear at school during my youth, the difference being though that those were simple plastic hoops, the only thing that made them interesting was that girls used to wear tens of different colours at once.

One thing (plus a watch) is enough for me.

In Japanese there are lots of set phrases, I don’t mean like set phrases in English such as “take a bath” or “make a promise”. I mean that in certain situations people always say the same thing. I guess they are a kind of tradition.

There are examples everywhere, when it is time to eat a meal people will say いただきます (itadakimasu) and upon finishing will utter ごちそうさまでした (gochisousama deshita). The translations for these expressions are hard to pin down, if you do it literally they are “I humbly receive” and “It was a feast” respectively but that does not make too much sense in English.

Usually when I come across them on TV shows they are translated to “Let’s eat” and “Thanks for the food”. I’m not sure if this sums up their meaning exactly (especially with the first) but it’s close enough for me, especially as they aren’t really any English equivalents, unless you count saying Grace.

Such phrases are also used when leaving or entering the home. When someone leaves to nip to the shops or go to work they will say いってきます (ittekimasu) and whoever is left says いってらっしゃい (itterasshai). When returning to the house people will say ただいま (tadaima), which is responded with a おかえりなさい (okaerinasai) by the people within.

Again when you translate the phrases literally they some a bit strange. The Leaving the House Set become “I’ll go and come back” and “Please go and come back”, while the Returning Set are “Just now” and “You have returned”.

Like with the eating phrases there are no set expressions that the English say in these situations, so you have to be a bit creative when translating them properly. I guess it is best to go for “I’m off” / “Have a good time” when going and “I’m back” / “Welcome home” when returning.

The reason that I am telling you about these now is that living in my flat in Japan, with two friends, I have never had any compulsion to say these things. And why should I? I’m English after all, as are they (kinda), and we should pride ourselves on being able to come up with suitable different greetings depending on the situation.

However now that I’m spending a month on holiday, staying with my family in both England and Colombia, I’ve suddenly found myself saying these things when leaving and entering the home. In a family environment it just feels right for me to say them. To tell you the truth it is freaking me out a bit. No one else in my family knows any Japanese, I think my Dad knows “Arigatou” but I’m not actually sure he knows what it means, so it is a bit weird that I have the desire to say them.

It is strange that this piece of Japanese culture, one that I’m not overly familiar with as I don’t live in Japanese family homes very often, has seeped into me. I wonder if I will continue to say it once I’m back in Japan and also what other Japanese mannerisms have flowed into me, just waiting for their moment to surface.

Hitler has only got one ball,
Göring has two but very small,
Himmler is somewhat sim’lar,
But poor Goebbels has no balls at all.

Above is a song delightfully sung by British school children since the 1940s, there is nothing young children seem to like more than to spread the word of the state of the German wartime high command’s testicles.

The tune used is much older however. The Colonel Bogey March was written in 1914 as a song for soldiers to march to. Since then it seems to have been used and often lyrics added for many different purposes such as selling oil, building bridges and insulting Germans.

During lunch at school one day I was shocked to hear my students start singing their own version, which went a little bit like this:

サル　ゴリラ　チンパンジー
saru gorira chinpanjii
monkey gorilla chimpanzee

サル　ゴリラ　チンパンジー
saru gorira chinpanjii
monkey gorilla chimpanzee

サル　ゴリラ　サル
saru gorira suru
monkey gorilla monkey

ゴリラ　サル　サル　チンパンジー
gorira saru saru chinpanjii
gorilla monkey monkey chimpanzee

A far more simple and less insulting version than what the British like to sing but where does it come from and why does every Japanese school kid I come across know it?

It all stems from a Japanese TV show called Minna no Uta (Everybody’s Songs). The show is broadcast as 5 minute shorts and used as filler between regular programming, sometimes the shows are aimed at children and at other times they are used to introduce new pop acts to people. The format has obviously proved successful as it has been running since 1961 and is still shown today.

Back in 1963 Minna no Uta, in one of their children’s segments, introduced the above song to the tune of the Bogey March and it stuck. It must have struck a cord with someone as over time it became popular with children and now is sung up and down the land. There are even actions, as shown by this lovely diagram I made.

Quite why it got popular I’ve no idea, the Japanese wiki page I’ve been getting my info from didn’t disclose that information so I can mearly leave you with a Japanese performance of the song for you to sing along to instead.

Those who have been reading my blog, or just about any other Japan based blog on the internet will know that Japan is the home of a ridiculous amount of different Kitkat varieties. From apple to zunda (mashed edemame beans) the range really is literally something to write home about.

However now it is time for Britain, home of the Kitkat, to strike back. Upon perusing the chocolate aisle in my local petrol station I came across a type of Kitkat I had not seen before, named Kitkat Senses.

Not content with simply being a new flavour of Kitkat, this Senses bar is a whole new shape entirely. The bar is split into 5 chunks, each with the Kitkat logo on them. The chunks are filled with the classic wafer, atop of which is a “caramel cream” hazelnut filling. I guess it is Kitkat’s answer to the wonderful Kinder Bueno.

Upon biting into the bar you realise the filling is much heavier than in a Bueno, it is not creamy or smooth. In fact the texture reminds me more of the filling you get in a coffee cream Quality Street than a Bueno.

After a bit of digging around on the internet I discovered that this Kitkat is not new at all but was first released in 2008 along with a Girls Aloud (where are they now) powered PR push. Much seemed to be made of the fact that it only contains 165 calories so you can eat it without a sense of guilt. This implies that the bar is very much aimed at dieters (women).

For a Chocolate Bar named Senses it doesn’t really inspire much other than a sense of disappointment. The bar is ok but really isn’t anything compared to some of the incredible flavours available in Japan.