Best Holiday Ever. Day one

So it is Christmas Day, ten to six in the morning and my phone rings - thanks mum and dad!  I get up to a snow covered Hagi and grab all my gear and get ready to head off with Rachel and James for the weekend.

Rachel and James at the bullet train station.  Still snowing. 

We reached Kobe (near Osaka) around lunchtime and decided the best way to start the holiday was with some world famous Kobe beef.  And, man, was it worth it!  I've heard it described as 'melt in your mouth' good, but I never really understood, until now.

The chef cooked the meat right in front of us along with some veges, miso soup and a salad, then left us to enjoy.  And it was gooooood.  You take one bite of the meat and it kind of explodes in your mouth.  You barely have to chew.  I think it has spoiled me for regular beef from now on.

 The beef before it is cooked, along with bean sprouts and green stuff.

 

After being cooked.  Those are garlic chips on the right.  Officially the tastiest beef I have ever eaten.

We then did the touristy thing and checked out the foreigners area on the hills looking over the city.  It was weird to be looking at (and taking photos of) houses that were so similar to home.  I think it is official: I have been in Japan for way too long.

It was exciting to see a real grass lawn.  James even took his shoe off to check. 

After a few hours, my knee started to hurt, so I headed back to the hotel while Rachel and James kept wandering.  I saw a monkey.  I always struggle in those situations.  Do you give the man money or not?  Is it just contributing to a vicious cycle, or is the monkey treated better when it earns more?  Hmmmm.

Monkey. 

That evening we went out for dinner in Chinatown.  I forgot my camera, so I will have to get some of the others' photos.  The food was good and we all ate way too much.  Then we finished the evening at a specialty beer place with tequila shots, chocolate cake and more alcohol.  I slept well that night.

The Kobe beef meal without the bean sprouts.  Worth every yen.

christmas

It's snowing! And cold!

5cm and counting!

Yay, Winter

So there were a few snow flurries yesterday. Today is real snow and I am at one of my mountain schools. It is cold!
If I hadnt twisted my knee the other day and have doctors orders not to move around too much for thenext 2 - 3 weeks, I would totally be working on engineering asnowball fight!

Procrastination at its best

So last week at one of my elementary schools, instead of working on an assignment, I decided to make snowflakes. Lots of snowflakes. However, I didn't want the other teachers to think I was just playing so I made a poster-type thing. oh, yeah, hard at work. Anyway, I left the poster on my desk when I left for the day. I came back this week to discover the teachers had decided to put it on display. I feel like they are rewarding my time wasting abilities...still, it does look pretty good, right?

Hagi Half Marathon

So today was pretty exciting.  Hagi held a half marathon (21km) with almost 2000 entrants.  Including several Hagi ALTs.  I appointed myself official photographer for the gaijin-team and got a couple of fun photos:

This is Rachel about 5km into the race.  She still had the energy to jump.  The photos of her from later on aren't so good. :) 

 Marc, running on a bung knee, actually looking happy while he did it.

 Dex, James' cousin.  An ALT in the next prefecture.  May or may not have had a slight hangover.

 James.  Still looking suave at around the halfway mark.

 Yes.  This is some dude wearing a maids outfit.  No.  I don't know why.

So this guy saw I was taking photos, stopped, came back to me and posed. 

After the marathon I went to meet up with the others at an onsen (public bath), but apparently every other competitor and their family had the same idea, so I skipped the bath and met everyone for food afterwards.  They had no sympathy for me, desite the fact that I had biked halfway across town to take photos of them and was all tuckered out.  No gratitude!!

My view.