A new post ... finally!

Yay! I’ve finally found a moment to update the blog – sorry, mum. Um, it’s kind of difficult to know where to start. Heaps of stuff has been going on. I know I still haven’t talked about Kyoto, and that was like a month ago.
Since then I have been to Hiroshima for a baseball game, shopping and clubbing; attended a white party (no, not skin colour); gone camping and watched archery on horseback; visited a flower exhibition and been to the beach heaps.
Somewhere in amongst all this I have found the time to study Japanese, hurt my back, visit an island school with 2 students and make some new Japanese friends – not an easy task!!

Anyway, the baseball in Hiroshima. I’ve been a bit starved of sport here, so I jumped at the chance to go and watch some live. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would like it, but I figured ‘what the hell?’. I went with Chris Mack, Ginny (another ALT) and Ginny’s friend, and it was fantastic! We were sitting halfway between 2nd and 3rd (sorry I don’t know all the technical terms), and almost got brained by the ball several times. We took our own food and beer in and were sitting there in the sun for 5 hours. Chris Mack did all the explaining, and it did start to make sense after a while. The best bit was all the singing and chanting. Every player has their own song or chant, and when they come up to bat, everyone starts singing. The chants were easy enough for us gaijin to pick up, and there were even a couple of gaijin players. My favourite chant was ‘lets go, Andy, lets go!’ Then, during the seventh innings stretch, everyone let balloons go and there were hundreds of them. The balloons have built in whistles and they fly everywhere – it was really cool! The pictures I have just don’t do it justice!
Although I got a little sunburnt, as far as my first baseball game goes, it was a complete success. Well, almost. Our team lost :(

Chris Mack with his completely non-phallic balloon.

Ok, this just doesn't show what it is really like, but it was awesome!

That evening, Chris Mack and I met up with Rosie, Dan and Starsky and we hit the town. I think the highlight of that evening (aside from the karaoke) had to be when we saw a yakuza boss!! There were heaps of yakuza around, and we were walking past a huge group of them when they all bowed to this bald guy who then walked away with some tattooed woman. I have a theory that the way to if someone is a bad guy or not is to see if they are wearing a white suit (ok, so I formed this theory after watching some really bad movies), and sure enough, the yakuza boss was dressed entirely in white! Theory confirmed! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos, sorry guys.

My ‘white suit = bad guy’ theory was put to the test a little while ago, however, when I attended an ALT white party where you had to be dressed entirely in white. Basically, I decided that either all the ALT’s in Yamaguchi are evil, or my theory may have a tiny flaw. Obviously, my theory isn’t flawed, so that leaves only one possibility…

Matt and Anita - this photo is in no way doctored :)

Spiller. His face says it all.

Camping. The Yamaguchi ALTs met up with the Shimane ALTs (Shimane is the next ken / state over) for a weekend of drinking, eating BBQ and fun and games. We stayed in yerts which are these big round tent type things (made of beaver skins according to ‘Black Books’) which can fit about 10 people. We had a huge BBQ and bonfire, played soccer and threw a Frisbee around and drank lots. It was good. It was nice to meet some people from another ken, but they were a bit shy and I think we overwhelmed them. The Yamaguchi ALTs are kind of noisy / crazy / weird (myself excluded).
Anyway, the next day we all went to a little town in Shimane ken and watched some horseback archery. It was actually pretty cool. There were 4 people, and they each took turns galloping down this race and shooting at these small wooden targets at full speed. There were heaps of people there, so it was difficult to get a good photo, but it was exciting to watch. One guy fell off his horse but he was ok, and there was one girl doing it and she was a junior high school student, so only 15 years old!

The parade before the actual competition

The 15 year old student. The wood is the target.

Last Saturday I went to Yamaguchi city with a Japanese friend and we visited a ‘flower art’ exhibition, which was made up of clay and cloth flowers. My flower sensei was one of the exhibitors, so I talked to her a little and met some other people, none of whom spoke English, so I had to concentrate to speak in Japanese, and I was absolutely knackered by the time I got home. It was fun, though, and there were some beautiful pieces. Currently I am making sweet peas, which is one of the easiest flowers to make, but it still takes ages. The other Hagi ALTs make fun of me for taking up such an old-fashioned hobby, but it gets me out of the house and meeting people NOT school related, which is really difficult. It also forces me to use Japanese, and I really need the practice.

The flowers my friend made.

This is an actual bridal bouquet that a woman made for her daughter.

This piece would have taken about 2 months to make.

Ok, on to school stuff. The other day I went to Aishima Junior High, which is an island school 45 minutes boat ride from Hagi. I wasn’t worried, because I’ve never been sea sick, and I’ve been to another island school (Ohshima) before. More fool me. The waves were HUGE! I was huddled inside with 2 other people trying not to count the minutes until I could escape that damn dinghy! I had one eye on the vomit bowls and the other on the clock, except when both eyes were closed as I concentrated on not dying! The school was great, though. Just 2 students, both 15, one boy and one girl. The boy had better English than the teacher! I had fun there, and on the trip back to Hagi I stayed outside on the boat and got wet but didn’t feel as sick. I swear at one point the boat was leaning right over and I could have reached out and touched the sea. Scary! こわい　よ！

Apart from that, nothing really interesting has been happening. Just going to all my schools and hanging out with the kids. No major disasters, and I reckon I’m getting the hang of this teaching malarkey.
Today I was at Koma Junior High. 8 students. The 3rd grade (2 boys, 1 girl) and 1st grade (2 boys) are really good. The teacher, Ikemura-sensei, is the best teacher I work with because he only uses English during class, unless he has to explain a grammar point. It is awesome! And the kids’ English is amazing! The only sucky thing is I have to get up at 5:30am to catch the bus up a dirt bloody track (ok, not dirt, but really narrow – you can’t get 2 cars going past each other except at certain points) to the middle of nowhere surrounded by mountains. Freezing in winter and boiling in summer, I still love this school and I wish some of you guys would come and visit so I can show it off!!

Well, that’s it for my update. If you’ve read this far then you’ve got more patience than I have – it has taken me 2 days to write this. Admittedly I’ve been at school and had to go and teach, but, still. And I haven’t proof read so apologies for all the mistakes.
Let me know what you think and what you guys have been up to.