James' Song

I had my Japanese lesson this morning with Watanabe-sensei (the Time Mistress), though it was not so bad and I managed to keep my energy right through to the end of the class, giving spritely and chirpy answers. It was not so bad and we learnt the three different ways of using a kanji dictionary: hands-on. They are quite cool to use. You can look up kanji by reading (pronunciation), stroke count, or radical (kanji bit), which is useful in case you know some of them but not others. There are an awful many kanji as well. The books were quite big, bigger than the bible I have, I reckon, but printed on thicker paper.

After class I ate curry rice before coming home on the bus with Drummond. James has been a bit down, maybe, recently, frequently snapping at things and generally seeming devoid of purpose, so we decided to write him a song. We did that when we got home, which took only about 30 minutes. Drummond just invented the tune instantly; it was the lyrics that took the time, but they are truly beautiful. We also recorded us singing it on Drummond’s mini-disc player. We had a lot of fun doing that. I want to get a copy of that too.

I did some of my homework and also took all the postcards down off my wall. I had 51. I am not sure what else I did, but afterwards I went to tea ceremony. I did it twice today: one normal one and another ceremony using the tray that I can do back at home. The teacher also gave me a couple of pots of tea, as well as a whisk to bring back. On top of that, she gave me some photos of me doing the ceremony in her house and another DVD of some tea programmes and some kabuki from New York. I hope this one works, as I cannot get the other one she gave me to play. I am trying to hack the DVD to retrieve the data, but I think I may need to buy a program to do it for me. We shall see. Anyway, I also have her business card now, as well as a postcard on which she want me to write my address. It was fun making the tea again. Very peaceful. I realised this even more today, as Oh-san and I crept out for dinner halfway through (which we ate with Drummond as well) before returning and I could notice the change in atmosphere. I like it.

We finished reasonably early today, at about 9.30 as two of the girls did not come today. I came back upstairs with my bag of goodies. Drummond, Flick, and James were around, so Drum and I played our song to James. He laughed a lot, so I think he liked it.

Lament to James

Jamezu (Jamezu), Jamezu (Jamezu),
What’s wrong? (What’s wrong?)
Is it something to do with your life?
…Yes!

Lately, you’ve been acting kind of strange,
So distant, completely out of range.
So we’ve decided to write you a song…
…about…

A wonderful bird, feathers so bright,
But tainted by melancholy,
Trapped both by and in his shitty life,
Of oh so wasteful folly.

Poor Old Jamezu

Chorus
Everyday’s the samezu,
It’s such a shamezu,
His life is lamezu,
So devoid of aimzu,
But remember that namezu,
Cos he’ll find famezu,
And like a phoenix from the flamezu,
He’ll rise again, he’ll rise again,
He’ll rise again, he’ll rise again.

James, you’re like a piece of chewing gum,
That’s been spat out on the ground,
But you’ll be found.
Even though no one gives a toss who you are,
Remember that one day, maybe, possibly,
It’s a long shot, pretty unlikely, a miracle,
But you might just be renowned.
Maybe not, probably never.

Repeat Chorus