One more day!

Ok, I'm pretty excited now. Tomorrow I am heading to Singapore and Malaysia! I guess I should probably pack, but most of my clothes are still wet from washing them yesterday. Did I mention its cold? Haven't had any more snow since the weekend, but a couple of frosts and some rain is more than enough for me!
Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Years! I'll bore you all with pictures and stories about my trip when I get back.
BYE!! :)

Christmas

What can I say? It started snowing today. Most of you know I'm not a big fan of christmas, and some of you know I can't stand snow, so today was a double whammy.
What's worse is that I was outside walking home when the first flakes started to fall. This is becuase of a bit of bad luck.
The other day I was at Rosie and Dans house watching a DVD. I was also chewing on the keyring Marlborough our barman had given me. It was a smirnoff one with red liquid in the middle. It exploded in my mouth, and instead of helping me, Dan and Jo just cracked up - thanks guys. So anyway, after the DVD I rode home (15 minutes across town), climbed up to the third floor (2nd in Kiwispeak) and suddenly realised I had left my keys at Dan and Rosies house. Back on my bike and back across town. But halfway there, my front tyre went flat. So I walk my bike to their house, only to walk straight past because I wasn't paying attention, looking up a few minutes later and thinking: 'where the hell am I?'. Finally I got my keys and made my way home. and then the next day, I fell over at school and bruised my knee - its a good bruise, though.
So you can understand why I'm not in the flashest of moods at the moment. Ah well, at least I am leaving for Malaysia and Singapore in 5 days. It will be weird to hear english spoken by more than 3 people!
Happy christmas!

It's beens a busy week

Well, once again, I've been pretty slack. And because I have a pile of lessons to prepare before tomorrow, I'll make this short:
This week I have been to Yamaguchi by myself for the first time and not only managed to NOT get lost, I also went and saw one of my favourite JTEs perform in kyogen, which is japanese comedy. I only understood a little, but it was still pretty funny.
Matt and I went to Tsuwano (in the next prefecture over) where we made paper, had lunch and climbed up to a shrine halfway up a mountain!
The other night, being a Friday, Dan, Matt and I met Furusho-sensei (our supervisor) at our usual bar and decided to make a night of it. I am ashamed to admit that kareoke was perpetrated - sorry guys. I finished the night trying to ride home not entirely sober - not a good idea! At least I didn't crash, but it was a near thing - I swear that concrete wall came out of nowhere!
Saturday was a bit of a waste day - somewhere between 6:30 and 8am I swore off alcohol altogether, but by about 10am, my resolve was wavering, and by 10:30 I changed my mind entirely! Which is probably a good thing, because our christmas party is next Saturday.
And finally today, Rosie and I hung out because Jo and Dan were in Hiroshima. It was great, we wrapped presents for the christmas party, watched DVDs and in the evening went to a salt water onsen - heaven.
I reckon I'm prepared for the week ahead - its going to be a doozy!

New stuff to talk about

Sorry guys, I've been a bit slack lately - heaps has been going on.
Last weekend I got to be a samurai lord in a city-wide festival. The city invited 3 kiwis to take part, so I jumped at the chance. It was pretty cool. We were dressed in traditional samurai kit, and that stuff is heavy! There were 13 lords (I have visited their graves) in Hagi, and I was the 13th - Mohri Takachika. The other kiwis decided I was the Last Samurai - I wasn't impressed. I was also the smallest person but one out of all the samurai (including the Japanese samurai!). I think this picture about sums it up:







Simon, me and Jo before the armour was added. This is the basic yukata (robe). What you can't see is about 3 layers of cloth for protection - hot!!!

The sandals were pretty sexy. Made of a kind of flax like plant, they are sort of like jandals, but the thongy bit wraps right around the foot.






Anyway, we each had our own banner carried by a school kid - they were dressed in apprentice kit - and we had to walk down the main street of the city to the temple, where they gave us sake (strong, too!) then let us go and get changed. The walk was over a kilometre and it was a mission, but fun too. I reckon everyone in Hagi must have a photo of the crazy gaijin dressed like samurai.

Also, the other day we had a Thanksgiving eating event at an American ALT's (Assistant Language Teacher) house. It was great. We started eating at 3, and didn't finish until 10. I was ok, because I stopped eating at 3:30, but some of the others were practically comatose!
The weather was crap, but it was unbelievable good to just get away from japanese food and manners. Did I mention that before every meal you have to say 'Itadakimasu' and afterwards: 'gochisosoma deshita'. It gets really annoying! And then there is chopstick etiquette. Don't get me started, I could rant for hours!
Let's just say there is a right way and a wrong way of doing EVERYTHING in Japanese society.

I've got tomorrow off, so I'm heading into Yamaguchi city to see my favourite JTE perform in a noh-kyogen comedy play type thing. Hopefully I'll be able to follow it - I'll let you know:)

Holidays and onsens

You would not believe the weekend I had. It was a three-day holiday, so on Friday morning I got picked up at 7am by one of the teachers from Kawakami Junior High and we went to the bus depot where we meet other teachers from KJH and left Hagi. Just after 8am we picked up the last teacher, and as soon as he was on the bus, out came the alcohol. I'm not kidding, they had beer, cocktails, whisky and sake. I managed to avoid drinking until about 9:30 which I reckon is pretty good. We drove to Nagasaki, which is on the bottom island (Kyushu) of Japan (hagi is on the main island, Honshu). It took us 12 hours of pretty solid drinking and rest stops every few hours. On the way we stopped at a museum on a small island off the coast of Kyushu. It was 2 stories and the entire first floor was dedicated to whales and hunting them. I didn't know until the tour guide took us over to a poster and pointed out which species were the tastiest. They had dioramas, photos, actual weapons and all sorts of stuff. I felt sick. Then one of the teachers asked me what I thought about eating whale. How the hell do you answer that without giving offence?? And then the gift shop had kujira kaari (whale curry) for sale. I was glad to leave that place.


On the island off the coast of Kyushu

We also saw this huge budda statue and a few other touristy things before arriving at the hotel (5-star, nice.). I was the only foreigner there, and I kept getting started at, especially when I spoke in Japanese.


Outside the hotel

The hotel had an onsen, which is kind of like a public bath. The men have a separate area to the women. You get undressed in one room, then walk through to the onsen, where you sit and have a shower, then hop into the hot pool and just relax. It is fantastic. It gave me a chance to talk to the other women teachers who are usually too shy / scared to talk to me.
We had an enkai (party) a little later, where the alcohol continued to flow, then watched some tycho (said tie-ko) drumming and a few of our party took part in a karaoke competition.
At midnight, me and 2 other teachers went to an outside onsen (rotemburo). It was f*****g cold outside, but the rotemburo was great. The stars were out and the moon was full and we were on the top floor of the hotel - amazing.
The next day we did some sightseeing around Nagasaki then came home - it was a long drive but I had an amazing time.


Outside a samurai castle in Nagasaki, sorry its sideways.


The sunset on the last day

Then on Sunday I had a bunkasai to attend at Akiragi JHS. This is my favourite school, and the kids were great. I had an awesome time even though I was absoluted stuffed.


Some of the boys from Akiragi JHS

On Monday I made it to school only to be sent home sick, and I'm still sick today. But hopefully tomorrow I'll be ok.
Next weekend I am dressing up as a samurai lord and taking part in a city-wide festival! Cool, huh?

yet another update

Yesterday I had dinner at one of my JTEs’ (Japanese Teacher of English) house. Unfortunately, he lives an hour away from Hagi and my place, so I had to stay the night there. His daughter is my age, and she had a friend staying as well, so the three of us ended up hanging out, talking and watching movies.
Dinner was a typical Japanese meal: sukiyaki. It’s kind of like an indoor barbecue with beef, lots of mushrooms, salad (with raw salmon) and some other stuff. You dip the meat into raw egg and then eat it. It was good. I was a little dubious at first, but I figured when in Rome. It was a good meal, and then the alcohol started to flow. At one point, I had 6 cups and glasses around me, and only one of them was non-alcoholic. I had wine, beer, Japanese sake, a melon spirit, and Mongolian alcohol.
The Mongolian stuff tasted like meths. I had a tiny sip and it burned right down my throat. I couldn’t speak! I have new-found respect for Mongolians – if they can drink that stuff they have to be tough.
I slept on a futon in a tatami room (very traditional) and had a great night’s sleep. Mind you, the alcohol may have played a part in that.
This morning, I had a usual Japanese breakfast: fried egg, green stuff (still don’t know what it was), rice, miso soup and green tea.
Good times.
By the way, the hot teacher from yesterday’s school is at today’s school :)

Ahoy-hoy

This is kind of bad, but I’m sitting at the principals desk at one of my junior highs, just mucking around because I only have one class today and that isn’t until after lunch.
All the kids are getting ready for their bunkasai (Culture Festival), so its pretty relaxed here. I swear the vice principal is playing computer games on his lap top and the hot teacher here is just mucking around.
You may have caught the reference to a hot Japanese person. Ok, I admit it, some of the guys here aren’t that bad. At first I wasn’t fussed, but the other day I just kind of clicked, and suddenly, half the guys I see are pretty good looking. Sad, but true.
I guess it comes from being surrounded by them all the time. A few days ago there was a German couple on the same bus as me and I couldn’t help staring at them because they looked so . . . foreign. That kind of explains why I get stared at all the time. One time when I was in the supermarket, I actually got followed around by this old guy who wanted to know exactly what I was buying. It was kind of creepy, but we did get warned. I’ve also been stopped in the street by people wanting to know if I’m American (bad), and when they find out I’m a kiwi they get really excited.

Anyway, on to other stuff.
Yesterday, I bought a new camera. The stuff over here is a lot more advanced than in New Zealand (you guys should see my cell phone – it’s amazing). It’s a great little camera and was pretty cheap considering (I won’t tell you how much). The scary thing is that it is all in Japanese and THAT DOESN’T BOTHER ME! What is up with that?? When I first picked it up and played around with it, I didn’t even notice the lack of English – sick. Reading the katakana (like the Arabian alphabet, sort of) was automatic and made sense.
Here’s an example of what katakana reads like:
supootsu sentaa - sports centre.
basu kaado - bus card
pasukon - personal computer

Makes perfect sense, right?
I’ve already been here too long!

And it's only 2 o'clock!

What a day I've been having. I was teaching at Hagi-Higashi Chugako (East Hagi Junior High) today. I had three classes of 3 nen-sei (14 / 15 year olds). The first class was like an advanced English volunteer class. The only thing was, after I introduced myself, I didn't understand a word! It was entirely in Japanese. I found myself wondering what the point was, but welcome to Japan.
My next class was pretty painful. There were 4 boys acting like little s**ts the whole time (there is no discipline in Japanese schools), so I finally stared one kid down, and got the other three to stand on separate corners of the room for the rest of the class. The teacher did nothing, so it was a little frustrating and I didn't know how far I could go, but at least next time I'll be prepared.
The funny thing is, my next class ran like a dream. The kids listened, asked questions (in English !?!) and got into the games.
I managed to finish by 1 o'clock, unlike poor Jo, who is still there and only had her first class at 1:20.
I then headed to the Board of Education and sorted out when I am taking holidays, went shopping for some bare essentials - a hair dryer, some Ribena and some biscuits and chocolate, then got home and booked my flights for Singapore and Malaysia for Christmas. It's very exciting. . . . And it's only 2 o'clock!

Quick catch up

Its been a good week. I got a free bus ride to the end of the run one day, and ended up having a conversation with the bus driver about New Zealand, Japan, where he comes from and a few other things. I was quite proud considering he had less english than I have Japanese!
I managed to finish school at 2 o'clock each day, but considering most of my schools are up to an hour away from Hagi, it wasn't that early a finish.
My biggest achievement was definitely managing to run all my classes at Oi Junior High (Chugako) by myself, in English and without referring to the textbook, which is an awful resource.
This weekend has been pretty productive as well. Friday we had an impromptu party at Rosie and Dan's place. The supermarket was selling Smirnoff vodka for 1000 yen (about $15), and we couldn't resist!
The next morning (late), I went round to Dan and Rosie's again to help with the clean up, then ended up going with Dan to Hagi-Higashi Chugako to help with speech coaching. One of Dan's students won the regional contest and is going to Tokyo soon, which is fantastic - Dan is so proud!
In the afternoon I had an amazing facial. It was an hour long, and included a skin test; head, neck, hands and feet massages and some free samples for only 2000 yen ($30)!
We then drove into Yamaguchi city and went shopping (did I mention we got paid on Friday?). I managed to get a bag for my travels in December (going to Malaysia and Singapore), some books and a fantastic feather down pillow on the cheap!
And finally, Sunday. Had a sleep in, which I really needed seeing as I'm usually up before seven during the week to catch buses, boats and trains. Then decided I was in a baking mood. Four hours later (and three trips to the supermarket later), I managed two batches of toffee and one disaster. I was quite proud. The toffee is edible, too!
So, this week I've got two days at Hagi-Higashi Chugako, and a different school each other day. Yay.

Just another day

Yesterday at one of my schools, I got a blood nose. I know, exactly what you want to read about.
I got up at 6am and caught the bus at 6:50 out to a tiny mountain school in the middle of nowhere with 8 students and a fantastic English teacher. I mean, this guy is great. He only speaks english in the class, he's patient and funny. And the students' english reflects that. They are really fun to teach.
Anyway, I'm sitting at my desk just going over my lesson plan, when my nose starts running. It's really rude to blow your nose in public, so I just keep sniffing. And my nose keeps running. Eventually, I start to get worried / annoyed, so I grab a tissue and wipe my nose. I look down and the tissue is red. Me being me, I didn't want to cause a fuss, so I just sat there with a pile of tissues until it stopped. It made me paranoid for the rest of the day, too.

In the end, I decided it was because of the stress I'm under. I mean, yesterday, I didn't finish until 2 o'clock in the afternoon! Hello? How am I meant to deal with that sort of pressure!?! But seriously, it's pretty good here. Everyday is different, that's for sure. Some days I finish around noon, others I'm still at school at 5. The worst thing is, I don't have a lot to do once I have finished lessons for the day. I usually prepare lesson plans at home where I can check text books and the internet for ideas, etc. but its really bad form to not do anything at work. My biggest challenge is not to fall asleep! Like I said: pressure!

Hagi Lantern Festival

It sounds exciting. It sounds like a fun night out for all. We were looking forward to seeing the Lantern Festival. Word of advice: If you get the chance to do this, don't. We arrived at seven, just in time to catch the last few minutes of dancing. We then ended up wandering down streets that had bamboo poles with candles in them set in the drains (which are about a foot deep).
I think Dan put it best when he said: "Without the bamboo, this would just be another street." We ended up going back to Dan and Rosies and watching Family Guy. This was an improvement on the the earlier entertainment.
I did learn one thing, though. Apparently it is bad to whistle after dark because it encourages snakes! Considering I've only seen 2 snakes since arriving, and neither of them in Hagi, I have been unable to test this theory.


Carved bamboo with a candle in it - woohoo.

the tourist thing

Having been abandoned by the others, I decided I should actually do some sightseeing around Hagi. Starsky (the Abu JET), having nothing else to do, came into Hagi and we made it around a few of the sights.
Our first stop: Mos Burger. You haven't lived until you've eaten here.
Then on to Kikuya's House. This place was pretty cool. There was heaps of old stuff (plates, weapons, coins, toys, books, paintings and chamber pots. The garden was amazing! I could happily spend all day in that garden. These are a couple of the many pictures taken in that place:


Tiny figurines.


A painting of some dude - real pretty in real life.

Starsky and I then walked down to the old Hagi castle ruins. It's more of a park than a castle - only the outer walls and a bit of the moat are still there, but it was pretty cool. While Starsky climbed the hill that used to be castle living space (I think), I sat by the moat and watched these adorable baby turtles swimming around. There were also these giant carp in the moat. It was perfect weather the whole day and well worth all the walking.


Castle battlement and moat.


Giant carp (and turtles, believe it or not!).

Other highlights of the day:

Getting a 30 yen (50 cent) fortune and then ripping it when tying it to the tree. I'm told God reads the ripped ones first, but I'm not sure if that was just to make me feel better or not.

On seeing a crane land across a lake from us, Starsky: "Look! A pelican!"

I think that just about sums it up. By the way, did I mention Starsky was American? :)

This is Me

The Story So Far

So I came to Japan mid-August (after crying from Dunedin to Waimate). Tokyo was big. The heat hit as soon as I got off the plane: something like 30 degrees. Having just come from winter, it was painful!
After a few days in Tokyo, I flew to my ken (like a state in America) called Yamaguchi. It was 36 degrees and I wanted to die. Got heat stroke pretty bad and went through a 'what the hell am I doing here? Biggest mistake of my life!' kind of moment. Luckily I got through it and haven't looked back since.
Thank god there are 4 other kiwis in my city (Hagi). We hang out alot. Except for this weekend: they've all gone camping and I'm staying behind.
I teach at elementary and junior high schools (6 to 15 years old). Some days are great, others suck arse!
So far I've made it to Hiroshima, Miyajima and a penis shrine. What a life.
Stay tuned for updates.