Dream Factories and Japanese Cowboys

Headed out to Chiba this weekend to spend the end of O-Bon with Ray and Chie on Friday night, and Tatsumi on Saturday.

Chie has a new job at a placed called the "Dream Factory". Her company employs a slew of operators who take calls from compulsive gamblers who want tips on the upcoming weekend's horse-races. She gets paid per tip (she even out-tips her boss, the so-called Head-Tipper) and the following Monday has to handle calls from all the gamblers whose Chie-tipped-horse didn't win. As the week progresses, the cycle starts again. Man, and I thought recruitment cold-calling was bad.

So why is it called the "Dream Factory"? Her boss asked her when she started, "What is your dream?" Chie said her dream was to own her own apartment, so her boss has taken her under his wing to help her achieve her dream. Which is all very well and good, but at what price society's gambling ills?

On Saturday, after a drunken night/morning of Aussie red wine, karaoke and terrorising locals with our conbini-bought fireworks (Ray and I really shouldn't be left alone with fire) we woke to screaming hangovers. Luckily, an hour away, Tatsumi was recovering from one himself, so I didn't feel so bad about not being quite so chipper.

The idea was to camp out Saturday night on nearby Kujukuri beach and go swimming in the balmily searing temperatures, but alas, it was wet and miserable. This sure aint no f!@#$in' summer I've ever heard of! Instead, we hung out at the West-End Bar in Mobara with 10 of Tatsumi's friends, Matt and I lasting 'til the piss-poor hour of 11pm.

Tatsumi did a home-stay with Matt's parents a few years ago and is a refreshing mix of Aussie ockerness ("Me Holden's fucked mate, it's fucked" - yep, he had his beloved FJ Holden shipped from Australia, but, well... right now it's fucked) and Japanese diplomacy. He's also an annoyingly charismatic dude, has so many buddies it makes your head hurt and proudly confesses; "I am Japanese Cowboy"! He didn't arrive home 'til 9 this morning.

Tatsumi's family is very cool, and at least one of the clan is a little oddball. One of the customs during O-Bon is to leave cucumbers or eggplants at the graves of departed loved ones. Apparently, cucumbers and eggplants are the preferred "vehicle" for returning from the dead to the land of the living. Tatsumi's grandmother, though, likes to chop up the eggplant and cucumber for this tradition, to which she gets the piss taken out of her by her family, "How the hell are our ancestors supposed to get back on diced cucumber???"