Obligatory cherry blossom photos

I feel the title pretty much sums this post up.

Bucket list update

So I found some police watching a busy stretch of road,crossed right in front of them and waved.I think it was the wave that convinced them not to even bother asking me to use the zebra cossing 50m down the road.
mission = success

school art stuff

This is why I will miss teaching - I get to draw (badly) and still get compliments

just a quick update

After staying inside for most of Sunday cleaning and mucking around, I figured it would be nice to get out and go for a wander around the area. There are a heap of roads that I have always wondered where they lead, so I decided to head down one and find out.

I found:

• ·      an old wooden bridge that was mostly rotted through but set on railroad tracks, so still crossable,
• ·      an abandoned orchard,
• ·      an old cemetery, and
• ·      an old shed.

And that was before I found this:

At the top of the hill just as I was about to turn and head back into town, I noticed a tiny old trail that turned sharply and led into the forest. I had to see where it led, so I wandered down and found the road in the picture above. Thinking about it now, it probably wasn’t the smartest move, considering the area is rife with monkeys, wild boars and bears, but everything seemed quiet and the most wildlife I saw were some birds, a lizard and tonnes of mosquitoes.

Anyway, at the end of the road (which led straight into the forest and up a bloody mountain) was a dam and this:

I couldn’t find any markings or anything, it was just a random rock standing on end. Pretty cool, huh? After that, I headed back home – what was meant to be a 10 minute leg stretching turned into a 90 minute hike. Well worth it, though J

The Bucket List

In the next three months I have to:

1. Do pre-work karaoke with at least 2 other ALTs
2. Have a girls weekend in Fukuoka – shopping and clubbing.
3. Talk the Hagi ALTs into a water gun / balloon fight at Shizuki Park
4. HAVE the water gun fight at Shizuki Park.
5. Go to Tokyo Disney Sea.
6. See The Naked and Famous live.
7. Completely fill my purikura (miniphotos) book.
8. Finish the management course I am taking.
9. Swim across the Hagi bay.
10. Beat every one of my students at ‘rock, paper, scissors’
11. Volunteer for something. Anything.
12. Jaywalk in front of a police officer
13. Sneak a McDonalds McMuffin into the office.
14. Eat only potatoes for every meal for 3 days.
15. Teach my students some New Zealand slang – nah, bro, etc
16. Eat raw chicken
17. Eat whale.
18. Eat more sushi.
19. Cook a fully Japanese meal all by myself.
20. Introduce friends to Flight of the Conchords.
21. Roast a chicken.
22. ROAD TRIP!
23. Have a conversation with a complete stranger entirely in Japanese without them thinking I am American.
24. Find and photograph a monkey.
25. Go bowling.
26. Go one week without falling over / crashing my bike / bumping into someone or something / destroying my knee (this one is going to be difficult)
27. Go out drinking and return home at a reasonable hour and without a hangover in the morning.
28. Go one day without speaking any English.
29. Go one day without speaking any Japanese.
30. Walk to the top of the local volcano.
31. Eat at 5 restaurants I have never been to within Hagi.
32. Go to an onsen (hot spring) one last time.
33. Get a henna tattoo.
34. Watch a sunrise when I am sober.
35. Watch a sunrise when I am not sober.
36. Convince friends to visit New Zealand within the next 5 years.
37. Remember to photograph and record the above for posterity.

Can anyone think of any others?

Spring

My last Spring in Japan has definitely sprung, and it is bittersweet. The cherry blossoms have been and gone in the space of about 8 days. I took 2 photos of the same tree one week apart (to the minute):

That is pretty much what it was like all over Hagi. Light pink everywhere for one week, then the green rot set in and the whole city looked like it had a really bad case of  chicken pox . . . if chicken pox were green, and grew on trees.

My point is, that is was over really quick and I didn’t get the chance to enjoy it because of my incredible ability to procrastinate for weeks at a time. A Hagi friend invited me to a cherry blossom BBQ a few Sundays ago, and I had every intention of going, as soon as I finished an assignment for the Human Resources paper that was due the following Monday.

Sunday morning I was up nice and early (read: 10am) and decided I couldn’t work in a dirty apartment, so out came the vacuum cleaner. Then I had to get my laundry done for the week, and while that was in the machine I figured I might as well do my dishes so the whole place was clean and I would be ready to complete the assignment.

The plan was great, the execution not so good. The rest of my day went something like this:
10am – 1pm: cleaning, getting distracted by toys and shiny things, checking my email.
1pm: Obviously lunchtime.
1:30pm: Wash my lunch dishes so the mess won’t distract me.
1:40pm: Remember my clothes and hang them out to dry. Proceed to check them every 15 minutes to see if the are done.
1:45pm: Get my books out and sit down at my computer.
1:46pm: Realise I need to have a bottle of water to stay hydrated.
1:50pm: Get a text from friends asking when I would get to the BBQ. Reply that it should only take me a couple more hours and I will be there.
1:53pm: Finally start working.
…
…
…
1:12am: Text friends to see if they were still out. They weren’t.
1:25am: Bed.

Admittedly, there were a few times when I took a break, but most of the time was spent writing the paper. The result: a 16-page masterpiece sent to my lecturer on time and one missed BBQ. My last spring BBQ before heading home.

So like I said; bittersweet. But at least I’ve finally sorted myself out and am on top of the rest of my reports. As I type this I have a completed report waiting for to be sent, and a freshly marked assessment sitting on my table that I am considering framing because I got 100% on it! (Consider this my moment of bragging . . . ok, I’m done)
I’ve also finally realised that the next three months really are the last chance I have to do all those things I’ve been meaning to do over the past five years, which mostly means waking up on the weekend NOT hungover, hanging out with friends every spare minute we have, and creating a ‘Japan Bucket List’ and ticking at least 2 things off every week. Speaking of which, pre-work karaoke = done.

oops

So Dad kindly pointed out that I posted the same pic twice instead of the field being plowed in my last post. To make up for it,here is a photo of Dad on a merry-go-round at Disneyland. Enjoy.

Rice planting

Its heating up quickly here in rural Japan which means one thing: rice.
First the fields are flooded to drown the weeds that grew over Winter, then the farmer comes along and plows the field into a muddy swamp which gets reflooded,left to settle then planted by machine if the farmer is rich or by hand if poor.
Some schools have a field the students plant which is always fun and messy - the perfect combination!

The perfect example

I feel like this Japanese clothes (I think) shop wanted a simple name that would sum up all things British. Did they succeed or not?

Procrastination at its finest.

So this is what I get up to when I really want to avoid studying. This one took me 3 days to do - I won't show the folder I have that is full of these things.

Aaaaaand we're back

So I'm just going to pretend the last few months didn't happen and start up again with what we did last Sunday: eating and drinking.

The cherry blossom season is in full swing, so we decided to barbecue at the park (we being Shak, James, Rachel, Marc, Wayne and myself).

James, Rachel, Shak doing what they do best.

After way too much meat we decided it was the perfect time to introduce Wayne and Rachel (the Americans) to cricket. I also discovered how difficult it is to take an action photo while you are supposed to be fielding. This is about the best I could come up with:

Yeah, I totally missed catching this ball. It was painful.

And finally the team photo: 



Quite possibly the perfect way to end the weekend - the muscle pain on Monday pretty much summed up how we all felt about the start of the week, too.

Slight digression

Will put up more pics of my awesome holiday soon, but I just got back from a quick jaunt around Hagi port with my camera.  We have had snow everyday for the past few days and the wind was screaming in off the water, so my hands are frozen and my cheeks are burnt, but I had fun playing around with my camera. 
83 photos later, there is only one that I like.  How depressing is that?  Anyway, here it is:

Best Holiday Ever. Day two. Night time.

I met up with Rachel and James and we headed out to Harbourland for dinner and fun.

Lots of lights and stuff.  Pretty. 

There is a small amusement park at Harbourland.  We had a race on motorised animals.  I may have rammed Rachel and cut James off.  Totally worth it, though. 

Waiting for the ferris wheel.  It was cold!

I don't have any photos of me riding the Thomas the Tank Engine kiddie ride because I still reckon that was engineered by the others.  See, we had agreed that the loser of rock, paper, scissors would have to ride a kiddie ride and on the first round Rachel and James kicked my butt!  Let's just say the photos have a decidedly grumpy Flick in them.

We had dinner at an Italian place and ended up chatting to one of the chefs - an Italian guy who had lived in Japan for 17 years.  Then we wandered into town and found a cool little bar for a few drinks and some nachos.  The perfect ending to the day.

Best Holiday Ever. Day two. Daytime

So Rachel and James headed off to Himeji for the day, which gave me time to do some shopping (more on that later) and then make my way to a bird park, which I had found online completely by chance and wasn't really sure what to expect.  It was well worth it.  Here are just a few of the tonnes of pictures I took:

Birds!  The green ones started to comb my hair with their beaks.  You could hold them and feed all the birds in the aviary.

Yes, that is a toucan on my arm.  That beak was scary!

 I timed it perfectly for a small bird show I didn't know was happening.



 This guy was part of the show.  He kept buzzing us.  It was awesome!

 I got to hold an owl!  It was big, too.

 The feathers on this little guy were unbelievably soft.

The photo before this he looks absolutely adorable, but then he gave me the stink eye.  Much better.

There was a pool of medicinal fish.  For 100 yen you got a small towel and as long as you wanted to have your feet or hands nibbled on by these tiny fish.  It tickled like mad!  Got rid of all the dead skin, though.  It was strange to be doing this in a warm glass house while the snow poured down outside. 

The lobby and restaurant area and shopping areas were all in these massive glass houses with hanging flowers and pools with lillies in to eat around.  I totally lucked out on this find.  Recommend it to anyone who is heading to Kobe!