Christmas

Yesterday, after a weird series of coincidences which I am too lazy to write about, I ended up in a second-hand store at 10 o'clock at night at the other end of Yamaguchi (we are talking a 2 hour drive from Hagi). Although I didn't buy anything I did discover that even Frankensteins monster is getting into the holiday spirit:



Although he does look pretty much how I feel about this season.
Also, is it just me or is there something very wrong with 2 horses dressed up as santa?

schmeh

So last weekend I went to Fukuoka for a Japanese test. The best thing to come out of the trip was this:

Yep, Generosity happy sticks. Unfortunately my hands were full of red bull and chips for a late night study session, so I couldn't grab a pack, and I haven't seen any happy sticks since. I really feel like I missed out.

In other news, a few weeks ago my last 3 fish went to the big toilet bowl in the sky . . . well, they went to the medium-sized toilet bowl in my bathroom, but I like to think they went happily. They were the only fish I had bothered to name because I thought they were going to make it. They were: Mo, because he had a moustache, Ho, Mo's gay lover, and Bro, the cool fish. At least I think of them whenever I go to the bathroom.

Already???

So last night around 9pm my friend texted me and asked if I could lend him a hand with something. All unsuspecting, I agreed. I assumed it couldn't take more than an hour, especially considering I had to be up at 5:30 the next morning to catch my bus to school. 3 hours, 2 coffees and a pile of chocolate later, this was the result:

My friend insisted it was time to put the christmas tree up in his shop window, and he refused to believe I'm not a big fan of christmas (except for the chocolate fish!).

I can already hear mum playing christmas carols while she makes mince pies. :)

SNOW!!!!

Yep, we had the first snow today and man was it cold! I was at one of my mountain schools and it snowed there from 8:30 until 3:30. At least the students had heaters in their classes - the teachers room was freezing!This is me waiting for the bus. I had knee length woolen boots on, 5 layers, a beanie and 2 hoods and I was still chilly!

Winter is definitely here! Oh, and I'm down to 7 living fish.

the next post

As I said in my last post, last weekend was the Hagi Jidai Festival where I wandered around and played games and stuff. This is one of the games:

You get a plastic hoop with paper in the middle and a bowl for about $1.50, then the idea is to try and scoop as many fish as possible into your bowl before the paper rips. However many fish you catch you get to keep. Now, I admit I didn't exactly think it through, but I figured I'd be lucky to get 1 and I really wanted to give it a go.

I caught 10 fish. 10. Bugger. After carrying them around in their litle bag, I decided I should head home, so I wandered back to the bike park. Unfortunately, someone had knicked off with my bike. I was not happy. Thankfully Lucie lent me her old bike, which was a horrible ride but at least I could get around.

2 days later ( and 2 dead fish later, although I reckon thats not bad) I was on the bus at 7:30am heading to work at one of my middle-of-nowhere schools, and right next to one of the bus stops was a bike that looked suspiciously familiar. That night at 10pm I went back with a friend and sure enough, it was my bike. The only damage was that the chain guard had been ripped off. My friend got his mum to drive their ute out, and they brought me bike back to my apartment. I was stoked. The next day I sprained my ankle and yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. So things are great:)

finally, an update

Well, lots has been going on in the past month including halloween, tea ceremonies, getting hit by a motorbike, and heaps of other stuff, so here are the pictures:

(Mum, this means you're going to stop nagging, right?)

Um, yeah. I was riding my bike back from the supermarket and a motorbike T-boned me. I did a great dive over the handlebars and ended up with the great big bloody cast for a few weeks. Sorry for not telling you, Mum.

A group of us went to a tea ceremony house where we got to take part - well, I couldn't but I got some good photos which I'll post sometime. Kneeling in the front are James, me, the tea ceremony lady, Shak and Lucie.

These are the kids of Sasanami Elementary school. We had a party. It was fun. My arm was still in a cast, though. Grrr.

These are the kids of Koma Elementary, all three of them. Our Halloween party was awesome!

Last weekend was the Hagi Samurai Festival. I got to take part in my first year and Shak and Lucie did this year. I think I preferred not being in the parade because it meant I could talk to my students, play some of the games (see next post), eat a whole lot of junk and just wander around. Below is the princess of the parade. She was adorable!

Grrrrrrr

Just a quick note to bitch about Japan:


My internet has been inoperable since September 18th - hence the lack of bloggage. Yes, I have been desparately trying to sort it out, and I wasn't too worried for the first few days because I was provided with a number for English assistance. Hah! I have been calling this number constantly for almost a month now and every time I get the busy signal . . . except after hours when I get the answering message informing of their business hours. GRRRRRR!!! This has not made me love Japan. I am considering biting the bullet and calling the Japanese line despite barely understanding what people are saying to me in a general conversation, let alone a real business conversation. I can't do anything today, anyway because it is a public holiday. I am at a friends house being an internet leech :)


Ok, here are a couple of pics to make me feel better:

On my way to school a few weeks ago I almost stood on this metre long snake. It scared the bejaybahs out of me!

On my birthday I ran into a friend who asked me to do a favour for HIS friend and translate a brochure from Japanese to English. There were some really weird sentences, so it took me several hours to sort out, but a few days later the guy came round and dropped off a sample of his products to say thanks.

Forgot my camera

So tonight we went to a bar to hear our friends play - they are a rock band. Because I'm an idiot I forgot my camera so am reduced to trying to describe what they were wearing.

Okada (lead guitar) had actually brushed his hair. First time I've ever seen it tidy.

Chappy (bass) had a white singlet, sunglasses and enough grease in his hair to lubricate the engine of a nuclear warship.

Rocky (vocals) was wearing sunnies, fingerless white gloves, a sleeveless black vest, tight jeans and white cowboy boots. I don't think you can imagine how . . . interesting everyone looked.

On the subject of fashion, here are a couple of gems I've found over the past few days:

Do these count as short longs or long shorts??

Ok, there has got to be something wrong with a guy wearing a pink hoodie with a girls handbag around his neck. Right!?!

Finally!

Yay! After a month without my computer, I finally got it back yesterday! It has been pretty sucky without it, so here is a quick post to show you what I have been up to over the past few weeks:

Fuji Rock - a three day music festival with Japanese and foreign music and food. Awesome!

Shak and Mash after staying out until 7am.

Mash's last meal in Tokyo before going home. Yes, he is holding a litre of beer.

Yes, he did drink it all by himself.

Me and Steve at the Hagi fireworks last night.

ho-hum

sorry for the lack of bloggage - at least this time I have a valid excuse. About 2 weeks ago my computer died. I am currently relying on school computers to get access to the internet, and considering most schools only have one computer and as an ALT I have the lowest priority, things have been a bit grim.

On a lighter note, seeing as I am in Japan, I thought I should prove that we do eat sushi in the country.

This is a simple box with salmon, egg, cucumber, shrimp, octopus and squid. To be honest, I`m not a fan of squid - its really chewy, and I don`t like raw octopus - too slimy. The salmon was good and in Hagi we have a fish called `aji` (don`t know what it is in English), but it is the best (and freshest) sushi I have ever tasted!

Hardball

Yup, we are filming again. Last time it was the Enrique Iglesias spoof, this time it is a trailer for an imaginary movie - Hardball. Basic story: hard ass cops best friend and partner gets killed, hard ass cop goes looking for the bad guy to get revenge. Last weekend we got most of the scenes done. Tonight we are doing the bad guy night scene and tomorrow we are doing the massive shoot out scene. Once again I am the producer, so am in my element bossing people around. Here are a couple of shots from last weekend:

Mash is Hardball - finding 'Dave' dead.

Saranne as the femme fatale. She shot Hardball and left him for dead.

The Sunday filming crew.

Yours truly being modest - just like always. Dad, thanks for the shirt.

photography for beginners

So in Japan the fireflies come out for about a week, go into a mating frenzy then all die. It is something Japanese people like to watch, usually when they are on a date. Shak, Mash and I thought it would be a good idea, so we drove out to a popular spot and watched the pretty insects having sex for a while. We also discovered the impossibility of photographing the damn things. See exhibit A:

Yes, that IS a firefly! I have about 7 pitch black photos to compare it to.

After that, we went to a park where I faced my fear of slides (thanks, Dad) and made it down this puppy:

Before falling off this:

Shak was amused.

And believe it or not, we had not been drinking.

After another late night Sunday shop in Yamaguchi city, here are my latest engrish products:

I don't know what to make of this one. Thoughts?

Mmmmm. Now here is an appetising product. I'm taking orders now - only $1.

This was a womans bag. I wasn't tempted to buy it.

Spot the hamster

Well? Can you see her? The worst thing is, after rescuing her (3 times) I couldn't decide who was stupider: her for continually getting stuck, or me for saving her every time.

On the subject. . .

So while I'm on the subject of weird Japanese things (see previous post), I thought I would add a few more to the ever-growing list:

Yes, it does say 'Boin Boin Bust'. It is for ladies lacking in the, uh, chest area. And its on sale. There were other examples, but it was embarrassing enough taking this photo!

Sadly, this is NOT made out of ferrets. I checked.

Welcome to our favourite game - chick or dick?

You'll never believe me!

So about a week ago, me, Matt, Shak and Nori decided to drive an hour and a half to a city to watch a movie - why not, right? My one request was that whatever we watch, it was NOT a horror.

"Don't worry, Flick. Its an action movie. You'll like it." I was told in English and Japanese. How could people be wrong in 2 languages?

After an epic drive and missing the first 10 minutes of the film - long story, don't ask - we settled down and things seemed promising. Got to know the main characters, get a feel for the story. . . then the monster arrived. This wasn't too bad, until people started exploding and little spider monsters started attacking people! From this point on I spent most of the movie holding on to Matts arm with my eyes tightly shut - much to Nori's amusement.

After the film, the boys decided it would be funny to jump out at me as I was coming out of the toilet. All I can say is thank god they waited til I was leaving the toilet!!

To cheer me up (or perhaps scare me more, I'm still not sure), we drove to the next city and went shopping. Shak and Matt were kind enough to model these beauties:

We also found this:

And these:

Yes, these are boys shoes. Welcome to Japan.

These are slip-on, fake crocodile skin cowboy boots. All the rage, as you can tell by Matts face!

my job

This is a part of my lesson plan for today:

Thats right. I am teaching Engrish. Now all I have to do is figure out how to speak greet and how to play fluit basket. I'm hoping it is similar to fruit basket, but I guess we will see. >_<

Why me??

Well I had a great day yesterday. Woke up at ten (come on - it was Sunday) then remembered I was going to watch Matts schools rugby team play in the Yamaguchi semi-finals. Had a leisurely shower then decided I should go and grab some food before we went, so I headed to the supermarket, leaving my apartment unlocked. 5 minutes later I got back to my apartment, tried to open the door and couldn't. At first I thought it was the soccer boys in the hall next door playing a joke, but they knew nothing about it. After attempting the old leg on the wall and pull as hard as you can, I gave up and rode around to Matts place half an hour early. When I told Matt why, I didn't get any sympathy. He thought it was hilarious! We decided to worry about it later, so we went to the rugby and, as the only gaijin there, showed everyone how we support a team. Mostly it involved screaming at the team and abusing the ref (in English, quietly). We won 89 - 0, then headed back to Hagi and back to my problem door.

After informing me that he was a champion breaker-inner, Matt went to the next-door apartment and climbed over the balcony to my balcony (did I mention I live on the 3rd floor?) where I had luckily left the balcony door unlocked! It turned out that when I had shut the door, the metal latch security thingy had swung around and locked! It is now duct-taped down and I have decided never to lock my balcony door again!

One more thing

This is an example of the photos we took last night:

Sorry it isn't very clear.

Ugh.

So I am sitting at my desk in one of my elementary schools, having just discovered they have a wireless internet connection, and I can't help but ask myself what I was thinking last night. You see, Matt, Shak and I decided to meet up for dinner. Nothing wrong with that. After hunting around Hagi for half an hour, we find a small restaurant that looks promising (and cheap, seeing as we are all broke until payday next week). We sit down and try to decide what we are going to drink, having decided that this week was going to be alcohol free. Then we noticed how cheap the drinks were. . . and that is where things went wrong.
Shak was the only smart one. After dinner (and one drink) he went home. Matt and I continued on to a 24 hour family restaurant because I was desparately in need of cheese cake! At that point, we promised each other just one more drink and then we would head home. Unfortunately, Matt had walked and we were now on the other side of Hagi from his place, so I offered to double him on my bike half way back (my house being in the opposite direction). The half way point just happens to be a bar. We felt it would be rude to stop but not go in, so we amended the promise to just one more drink. On the way to the bar, we passed our friends hair dressing salon and saw that he was still working (this is around 9:30), so we stopped to see if he wanted a drink. He was keen, but had to finish his clients hair, so we said we would wait at the bar for him.
One drink later he called and asked if we wanted to do karaoke. Matt and I were pretty relaxed and not feeling the alcohol, so we thought that didn't sound like a bad plan, but we couldn't leave the bar after just one, so we raced another one each, then went to meet our friend. The time was around 11.
Karaoke. For 3 hours. More drinks. Purikura (those photo sticker thingies). Taxi home.
I finally get home at three, and it occurs to me I have to be up in 3 and a half hours. Today, I am not as enthusiastic about school as I usually am.
So, from today, this week is a non-alcohol week. Honest.

What a week!

So Matts parents and little sister came to Japan for 2 weeks. They spent a week in Hagi and I had a blast - lots of lunches and dinners and on their last night in Hagi we hit the karaoke joint and let loose - it was awesome. Anyway, yesterday we took them to the bullet train station and on our way home we stopped at some lights and noticed this house:

I reckon they are just getting prepared for December a little early - you know Japan; always likes to be on time:)

Mum you don't need to read this post

So after a hard two hours sitting down not understanding a welcome ceremony for new teachers, Nicole and I decided we needed to chill out and unwind, which took us to our local cheap-as-chips restaurant for a couple of drinks. . . at midday.

In our defence, the alcoholic content was only 4%!

After consuming several glasses, we noticed an advertisement for part time workers:

And decided that if we worked at Joyfull we would probably look as pissed off as that chick, too. However, given time I reckon we would eventually become as indifferent as the guy. Now THAT is a good ad!

Gotta love Japan

Where else in the world can you ride around town on this:

Wearing sungulasses:

Before buying some of these:

Come on, admit it - you all want to live here, too!!