16 Questions with Blair

I read this article in The Japan Times the other day.

It was an article asking some person in Tokyo a number of questions. 20 to be precise. (I have answered 16 of them.)

I thought that I would answer these questions for this blog.

Name: Blair Leighton
Age: 44
Nationality: New Zealand
Occupation: Blogger extraordinaire
Likes: Sports - Rugby, Cricket, Crossfit, Reading, Blogging
Dislikes: Rude people, zombie people, my culinary indiscipline.

1. What do the kanji that compose your first name mean? Would you say they match your personality? My name in kanji is 武礼亜. 武 means weapon. 礼 means polite and I have no idea what 亜 means. Am I a polite weapon? I don't know.

2. What do you love about living in Japan? I like Tokyo. I like the big city and although it can get annoying at times, I like the hustle and the bustle.

3. Where do you go to escape Japan? Why would you want to escape? It makes it seem like a prison sentence. It's my choice to live here, why escape?

4. Whom in Japan do you most admire? I think it is changed over the last few years but very few sports people have ever decided to try their luck overseas. However in the last 20 years more and more sports people have moved overseas and that is good to see. I do respect the people who go for example, to Moldova to play soccer or they go to Australia to play baseball. I think that is great for their sport careers as well as their lives in general and all power to them.

5. What's the strangest question you have been asked in your job? "Do you have traffic lights in New Zealand?" I couldn't think of a smart-ass answer to that one so I just said yes.

6. What is your Japanese comfort food? Curry rice, closely followed by karaage. In fact, karaage on curry rice is heavenly.

7. If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be and what would you eat? Cleopatra. We would eat grapes and she can feed them to me.

8. What would you like to be doing in 10 years time? I'll keep that one to myself for the time being.

9. What song best describes your work ethic? The Feeler's "Stand up." It is very special for me for reasons I would rather not go into.

10. What's the biggest joy in your job? When people come up to me and say they read such and such post.

11. How do you relax when you aren't working? I wrote a post about the England rugby player, James Haskell. In the video attached to the post he says that he likes to sit down, play some music and write. He finds that really relaxing. I agree with him. I like to do that too. As I am writing this, I am in a comfortable chair and got music playing in my ear and I feel very relaxed.

12. What would you take to a deserted island? I was actually asked this yesterday at my gym. I am a great fan of the Tom Hanks' movie Cast Away. In the movie Hanks' character is stuck on the island for four years. I was reminded of the parody of the movie. (See below)

So, what would I take? Well, same as what was in the package, satellite phone, fishing rod, water purifier and an inflatable raft.

13. What's the most exciting/outrageous thing you have ever done? I came to Japan when I was 18. For a boy from Palmerston North, New Zealand, that was pretty scary.

14. What's been the most embarrassing moment in your life? I don't know. That's a good question. I remember at high school playing volleyball at lunchtime and making a mistake and the whole gym cracking up at my mistake. That wasn't very pleasant. In fact I don't have a very good association with volleyball. It isn't my favourite ball sport.

15. What do you want to be if you are reborn? I have heard this a few times, "an expat wife." So I'll go for that.

16. If you won $1 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money? I would think of ways to make it $2 million. Also look for ways to make a 5% income from that money. $50,000 is not that much in today's climate but it would be a good start. Boring I know.