Oita Times

Moving on...

2010-11-12T19:30:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone pops in for a look we've started a new blog for our next trip, check it out and follow us around AFRICA!!!

http://snapshotafrica.wordpress.com/

Cheers

A hard days work!

2010-07-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

The view of the Kuju mountains as you drive towards them

Two mountains were left on my 'to climb' list as of last weekend. With the rainy season over and the long hot sunny days of summer well in control I took advantage of the 3 day weekend and set off to the Aso-Kuju National park. My goal was to climb 2 mountains; Mimatayama and Taisen, both about 1750m.

The Valley between the two peaks I climbed...green, green and more green!

The solo self timer summit shot (Yufu dake in the background)

Up and away by 5.30am I was almost the only car on the road. Thick cloud and the dreadful feeling it would end up raining accompanied me for most of the 1 1/2hr drive inland. Fortunately as I exited the forest onto the Kuju plateau I was greeted by cloudless blue sky and the towering peaks directly ahead! I had bitten off a lot on this trip as most people would take two days to climb both these mountains. Leaving the car at 7am I could tell it was going to be a great day!

View from the summit of Mimatayama looking down over the valley and Taisenyama in the distance

The climb up to Mimatayama was stunning; 360 deg views, low cloud in some of the valleys,no one else around and the steaming vents of an active volcano as a perfect backdrop. The route off was a little more frustrating as I selected a closed and no longer maintained track. The bruises on my bum and scars on my legs show it was not as much fun as I had hoped. After reaching the valley floor the only way to go was back up the other side as I started the climb for the summit of Taisen.

More stunning views....

By now I was feeling a little tired as I'd hardly stopped to rest but with another mountain peak only an hour or so away I knew my reward would be a lengthy break at the top. However as I reached the tops some clouds rolled in and the view was gone! By now I'd finished all my water and thirst was setting in. It was 11.30am and I set a goal of 1.30pm at the car and home by 3pm.

This didn't leave me anytime to dwell on the task at hand so instead I proceeded to run down the track choosing speed over steady footing. On a number of occasions other Japanese climbers gasped at the young white man who was rocketing passed. After filling up my water bottle in the valley I had yet another climb up and out over a pass before descending back to the car.

The cloud in the distanced is caused by the active volcano on Aso san

Amazingly I made it home bang on 3pm. A great day out climbing two mountains with a total of 1310m ascent!

Half way up Taisen looking back towards Mimatayama (right)

A little caterpillar I found, the longest break I took was photographing him!

You've got mail!

2010-07-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

I had a nice surprise in the mail this week when out of the blue I received a letter in the mail from the old vice principal at my school who now teaches elsewhere.

To Mr Nathan

You will be leaving soon.
With the mere thought of it, I feel very sad.
Now I am full of a sad feeling.
I really regret losing you.
Good-bye is a sad thing to say, but I must.
What dreams do you have in your heart now? What hopes do you have?
A life filled with hope is strong.
Never forget hope is the greatest weapon in the world.

Finally I will give you the message below.

Nothing is irredeemable in youth. Rather, the worst mistake you can make when young is to give up and not challenge yourself for fear of failure.

There are only two ways to live. One is to end up defeated after complaining and blaming your surroundings. The other is to open the way by yourself with domitable spirit, no matter what circumstances befall you.

I hope you will contribute to the establishment of a humanistic world as a world citizen capable of shoulderly responsibility for the borderless era of the 21st century.

Good luck, and much happiness!!

Swimming in the rain & Samurai sayonara (goodbye)

2010-07-10T00:15:00.000-07:00

This is a combination of blogs I wrote a few weeks ago... they are a bit out of date now though but oh well. Meg has been keeping you all well updated on her school life so I figure it's my turn to add something.

Tramping in the rainy season was always going to be a wet experience so in hindsight it may not have been the best decision. With a forecast of.....rain..... the decision was made to go ahead with plans to climb Mt Okue. This mountain was at the top of my to do list as it's remote location and unique limestone features make it stand outa little from the standard volcano style mountains around this area. It felt more like tramping in NZ than Japan as the rain pelted our heads, the rivers were in full flood and theforest was full of the most amazing green colours. I guess the hot humid feeling was still uniquely Japanese!

A scouting mission was established on Saturday to check out the river crossings. If these were impassable then our hopes of climbing Okueyama would be over. After walking for an hour we reached the major river crossing and it was obvious to everyone the torrential rain had made it uncrossable! Another hour back to the cars and we returned like soaked river rats. The only thing to do in this situation was to soak our bodies in an onsen.

So I can't tick the Okueyama box but nevertheless it was an interesting weekend in the hills.

On another note....

No one likes saying goodbye and I think it's sometimes harder when you know you'll never see the person again. Unfortunately we will have a lot of that over the next month or so as we slowly but surely move through the leaving process. Some goodbyes will obviously be harder than others; I'm certainly not looking forward to saying goodbye to my students, or to the Tomooka family and my tramping friends.

I've decided to make the process as simple as possible and not leave them all to the last week so on Monday night I ended my career as a samurai and had my final kendo class. Of course it ended up being the best one yet and made me want to go back next week! I was given the honor of fighting all the members and sitting with the sensei (teacher) at the end so I could give a wee speech in terrible Japanese. I won 3 of the fights and scored some points against the really good guys so I was pretty pleased with my effort. I hope they weren't going easy on me!

Art

2010-07-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

I'm always really taken aback at how good Japanese kids are at art!

I can remember absolutely hating art class at school because I always felt mine was never as good as the rest but here all the kids just seem to have a natural ability when it comes to drawing or painting!

Here's a selection of paintings I have seen the progress of from start to finish... this is of course the finished product but I could see the potential of how great each one was going to be from the minute they put pencil to paper!

Fun times with family

2010-07-04T05:07:00.000-07:00

If you thought bowling in New Zealand was cool... you've never been bowling in Japan! I seriously don't know why I was surprised but the shoes came out of a vending machine! I mean how wicked is that! It was double cool becuase we went with my brother Mike and his PARTNER Bec who are visiting as well as Jo, Tom and the kids...

Going bowling was actually the last in a long line of things we did with the 'gang' this weekend... we had a delicious meal out together on Saturday night (thanks Mike and Bec) followed by many a laughs as Nathan attempted to cut his own hair on a chair on the back lawn (thanks Bec for fixing it up) and then topped off with with a delicious birthday cake to celebrate Nathan and Tom's birthday (thanks Jo).

Let the goodbyes begin...

2010-06-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

With just a little over two weeks to go before we finish up at school I said goodbye to the first of my nine schools today.

With just 13 kids at this school I have had so many more opportunities to interact with this group of kids than I have had at any of my other schools and so saying goodbye was actually pretty hard.

It was mighty strange at the end of each lesson saying "see you" but having to leave off the "next time"... the kids still said it (bless them!)

The final photo with all 13 students at the school

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders clutching the cards I made them

You have no idea how excited I was to finally be able to eat my entire school lunch... the kids at this school think I am the world's fussiest eater because school lunch was always particularly bad on the days I would visit this school!

The two 2nd graders posing for a photo with their prized cucumbers and one tomato that they had grown as part of their science class.

I felt chuffed but really bad when they gave me their cucumbers as a present... they also made me an origami frog!

We're back!

2010-06-24T02:21:00.000-07:00

It seems we have completley neglected our blog over the last month and have only managed a couple of entries!! I could blame it on the soccer world cup as that has taken up a lot of my non work time but in all honesty there just hasn't been much to write home about! June is the start of summer and it's already 30degrees everyday and as sticky as a marshmallow! The humidity only just lets up over night but by sun up it's back! Things are about to get much worse too. June is also the rainy season so it rains pretty much everyday, although the last two have been stunning! These things combined with the fact we are in mega save mode has meant no extreme adventures. Time is winding down very fast and we only have 4 weeks of classes left. Then 2 weeks sitting at our desks over summer holidays and then it's all over! A month of traveling after that and then we arrive back in the mighty ChCh on Aug 28th! Wow time flies!

Some of the fields in Yamaga....lots of work!

Jichan driving the planter and bachan in the background on her wee get-a-round scooter

Last weekend was a break from the norm and quite an exciting one at that - rice planting! Slowly but surely ever rice field in Japan will be filling up, most already completed. We went to Jo's and checked out how it's all done.

The machine delicately placing a few roots into the mud - incredible.

Driving off into the sunset

Cos he's a guy

I'd like to say I played a key role in the process but in all honesty I did virtually nothing and was problem more of a pain in bum than anything else! But when there is a photo opportunity I'm not far behind! After flooding the fields for a few weeks (using an amazing system of diverting water from the creeks) the fields are covered in calf deep mud and prime for planting. A fantastic machine with thin metal wheels chugs through the mud and somehow delicately puts a few rice plants in the ground, all in perfect rows at a perfect distance apart! Where the machine can't do humans take over and plug the gaps. Watch out for the snails, frogs and snakes!

Making more of a mess than anything else....this patch won't end up growing....sorry Tomooka family.

Back in the day it used to all be done by hand and apparently the whole community would turn up, plant the field, then move onto the next one, eventually doing everyone's! It was really cool to see how it works and another example of how hard the farmers here work.

I couldn't wait until lunch

ScHOol

2010-06-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

School life is super exciting at the moment with my main class, who are easily my favorite group of students and have wonderful English, off to NZ on saturday for a 10 day school trip! Beppu is a sister city with Rotorua and my school is a sister school with Western Heights HS. I've been doing weekly presentations on NZ covering topics like; food, maori culture, sports, school life, Rotorua and Auckland. The students are buzzing with excitment and I can't wait for them to see NZ first hand! I hope they handle the drop in temperature...30deg to snow in a day...hmmmm.

Another thing I do at school is a WORLD ENGLISH BOARD. It's updated every month and features world news, local news, sports news, a country in focus section and a competetion. Each article is bilingual. I don't actually know if anyone ever looks at it but it gives me something to do on quieter days!

With the socccer world cup only days away (oh yea!!!) I've adapted it a little. Now I have a valid excuse to peruse the internet for scores!

Our ESS club has also been busy making roast chicken! The ovens in the cooking room are a real novelty (can you believe I've only used an oven twice in a year!) Man I miss roast chicken!

No school day would be complete without something 'unusual' happening...Japanese culture always has some interesting twist around the corner. Here 3rd grade students present their "marching" to the whole school. A very interesting display in how group culture rules society.

Bits and pieces...

2010-06-03T03:13:00.000-07:00

Osashi buri! Long time no see!

It's 7.15pm, all the windows and doors are open, we're wearing as little clothing as possible, it's still about 25deg and the great NZ soundtrack is cranking out of our speakers. This all means one thing!.......SUMMER is here! Oh yea! 1st June officially signals the start of summer in Japan and the weather is certainly on cue. Lets hope the rainy season (June) doesn't show up this year??!

Things have been a bit busy lately and time is whizzing by, we only have 6 weeks left of school and only 3 months until we are back in Aotearoa! The to do list is growing everyday but over the last few weeks we have ticked a few of those boxes. Here's a look at them:

Baseball! The only pro team anywhere near us is in Fukuoka so a few weeks back we visited the Yahoo dome to watch the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks play the Saitama Seibu Lions. We lost (badly) but it was heaps of fun! We're still cricket fans though!

Summer time camping. Yes Rob we have used the tent! A group of JETS headed into Miyazaki prefecture (area of the foot and mouth outbreak!!) for a weekend of fun in the sun! The water was super warm, the sun didn't stop shinning (megs sunburn to prove it), and many laughs teaching the Americans how to play cricket!

Mukade! These dangerous centipedes have a habit of finding their way into peoples homes during summer....we are no exception! NOT COOL. But easily killed with my trusty bamboo tramping stick hahahahaha.

Fireflies. How the hell they make their bums glow I don't know but man it's cool! Just imagine a lot of little tinkerbells everywhere. This is what a 5min exposure will get you.

A (big) Cave

2010-05-27T01:59:00.000-07:00

What's a 4 letter word starting with a 'C'?? ...cove....coat.....cups....cats....cone...comb....

CAVE

Good guess everyone! Clap your big hands.

We went to a cave. It was big. It was dark. It was surprisingly warm. It was raining outside. We couldn't camp so we stayed in a cabin. It was in Yamaguchi prefecture. It is called Akiyoshido. It is the biggest cave in Japan. It was cool.

The end.

The last of the sightseeing....

2010-05-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

The Temple of Heaven park was the kind of place where people watchers are in heaven (hehehehe). Picture a very large park covered in trees, concrete paths, open terraces and several temples. Now think of 100's people going about their normal daily lives Chinese style. Sitting on a park bench we could see groups of people dancing, playing diablo, singing, playing music, Chinese hacky sack, Chinese chess, checkers, tai chi, acrobatics and heaps of other games.

It was a true feast for the eyes and a great insight into how locals relax and unwind. The atmosphere was electric and made you want to stick around all day just people watching! The temple itself was incredible and the whole experience easily outdid the Forbidden city and Tianamen square.

Here's a sample of some of the cool stuff going on

The Summer Palace was also super cool, even on a super hot day. This was the place the emperor used to go to have a 'holiday'. It's actually more of a lake than palace or park as three quarters of it is covered in water. The palace section itself was way better than the Forbidden City and again it just had that atmosphere that adds to an occasion.

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

2010-05-21T00:29:00.000-07:00

A trip to Beijing would not be complete without a visit to some of it's world famous temples and parks.

Unfortunately our time in the capital coincided with the 'golden week' holiday period, the 2nd biggest holiday in China behind their New Years. This meant crowds, queuing and the inevitable wait to take a step forward. Not to be put off by this we embraced our Chinese side and ventured out with the crowds.

Top on our list was the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square. The Forbidden City was the home to China's emperors and their families for thousands of years. It got its name because it was off limits to commoners for over 500years and was literally a city inside a city. Today it is probably one of china's top 3 attractions and EVERYONE on holiday went there at the exact time we did. We thought Hong Kong and Tokyo were crowded but they were nothing compared to this!

It was probably a combination of the huge crowds, intense heat, slow moving mobs of people and the gross amount of rubbish that left us feeling a little bit disappointed. Overall it was an impressive place but it certainly didn't live up to our expectations.

Chairman Mao would be proud of this mean looking security guard. I think it was illegal to take his pic but I was pretty sneaky about it.

Inside the Forbidden City

We got lost in these alleyway/mazes

Take my hat off to the people who designed it and built it..impressive!

Swim? The whole City actually has a HUGE moat around the outside of it. This is just a stagnant stream.

Where's Megan? (Note; she is not wearing red and white stripes). Japanese people would have 2 neat and respectable lines with people controlling the flow. Chinese just push like a rugby scrum and hope for the best.

Roof tops. Can you spot the Ninja Assassin?

Posing it up. And no we are not wearing matching clothes!

Spectacular view from the top of a hill in the park across the road. Actually the best part of the whole experience. The place is just to big to take it in. This spot does the trick though!

Crazy Beijing...

2010-05-14T04:43:00.000-07:00

The very first thing that struck us when we arrived in Beijing was the noise! In Japan it is a very rare occurrence to hear someone using their car horn so when confronted with hundreds of cars all using them at once... it was more than a little deafening to the ears!

The second thing that stuck us was how crazy the driving was! I have seriously never seen such blatant disregard of the traffic rules! The center line means nothing, pedestrians are free game and red light-green-light-red man-green man = who cares just go, shut your eyes and hope for the best!!

In Beijing I'm pretty sure there are just as many, if not more, bikes than there are cars. I'm talking everywhere you look there is something whizzing along, ducking and diving in between cars all the while trying to dodge people trying to cross the busy roads. When we weren't preoccupied with being scared for our lives it was great fun seeing just how much one person could carry on only two wheels!

They really will eat anything!

2010-05-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit excited about all the Chinese food we were going to eat on our trip. If I had to rank the foods we've missed while living in Japan, Chinese would be somewhere on that list. The guide book certainly talked a lot about how amazing it is and I was more than excited to try out some real 'street food'.

One of the best things about traveling in China was how cheap it was, even in a major city like Beijing most things were ridiculously cheap and coming from Japan (possibly the most expensive place in the world to live/travel) it was a real luxury. Here is a example of what things cost:

600ml Chinese beer or 600ml sprite for 3-5RMB = 40-60 Yen / NZ$1

Ice block for 1RMB = 13 yen / like NZ10c

1RMB bus fare or 2RMB subway anywhere in the city = 13-26 yen / NZ10-20c

And the list just keeps going.....

Onto the food, no one really wants to read about everything we ate (or didn't)....pictures are much more fun!

This market had everything and anything you could imagine including hundreds of people (not for sale though)

These dumplings truly were morsels of love

Apparently this is gecko but we think it's rat!

You could pick any raw seafood and have it cooked...or not

These guys were still wriggling on the stick...but yummy! Trust me I know

Seahorse anyone?

How you eat these without taking out an eye is anyone's guess!

You name it, they eat it

Toffee fruit...my god...normal food!

Baby birds...enough said (look at the eyes, CREEPY!!!)

The Olympics Beijing style...

2010-05-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

If we'd gone off the advice given in the Lonely Planet Guide we would have totally bypassed the Beijing Olympic stadiums in fear of being knocked over by tumbleweed - luckily for us we tend not to use those guides as Bibles!

We stood for like 5mins waiting for a gap in the crowd...bingo!

Watch out Michael Phelps (you can't see all the people that were staring at us and taking pics...hilarious)

Usain Bolt would only manage a silver against this speedster!

Another queue for a pic, but who can resist these adorable fellas!

The Great Wall of China...

2010-05-09T03:28:00.000-07:00

We have the perfect excuse for the lack of blog entries lately... we've been in China - Beijing to be exact!

I don't think either of us expected to love Beijing as much as we did... it far exceeded all expectations and left us wanting to explore more! We decided to spend all 10 days in the one spot rather than braving the overnight trains to places far and wide - a decision we didn't regret for a second given the sheer enormity of what Beijing has to offer.

We took over 1000 photos, went to some incredible places, met some amazing people, came home with some bargains and have many stories to share!

Like always we'll break our trip down into several different blog entries - the first one being the Great Wall of China! Click on any of the photos to make them larger!!

Rather than opt for one of the many touristy sports along the Wall we decided instead to don or walking shoes and do a 12 km trek from Jinshanling to Simatai. When put in perspective 12kms of the 9,000km total is barely even a drop in the bucket but boy did we have to work hard for every one of the steps it took us (did I mention we only had 4 hours to do it in???).

Along the way we passed through 30 different watch towers

It's incredible to think they built the Wall along the ridge line

Nevertheless it was by far the most amazing experience either one of us has ever had! To say it was incredible doesn't even begin to describe how truly mind blowing it was! The walk itself was far more challenging than I was expecting... think steps built for giants, 70 degree uphill climbs and unstable footing. Not to mention the 30 degree plus temperature with no wind and no shade!

The unrelenting climb!

But what goes up must come down... then up... then down... then up...

However, despite the thumping heart rate, shaking legs and suffocating heat i'm pretty sure we both walked the entire way with smiles plastered on our faces!

Us with our tag-along guides who walk the entire way with you in the hope you'll buy something off them at the end (we bought a book about the Wall)

We were lucky enough to meet an awesome couple from Australia on the 3 hour van ride to the wall who we ended up spending several days with... it was neat to share the experience with other people who were just as excited about actually being on the Great Wall as we were!

Practicing our Kung Fu panda pose with Nathan and Sofia

Paradise mountains

2010-04-27T05:33:00.000-07:00

Another weekend down and another successful tramping trip. This time we headed south for 2hrs to a range of mountains that divide the prefectures of Oita and Miyazaki. As we drove the narrow and windy road higher and higher into the hills the more I felt like I was in paradise! There were no small towns, houses, rice fields or signs of human existence. It truely was the most remote location you could get on our island. Here are some pics....

Mum and Dad's visit....

2010-04-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Well they have long since been and gone but it's never too late to make a blog entry about it!

It was great having mum and dad come and visit us and being able to share a little slice of our time here in Japan with them.

Turns out I hardly took any photos while they were here but here are just a few....

A day in the hills without rain!

2010-04-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

It had to happen some time, a fine days tramping!! On Saturday I organized a JET tramping trip to Kyushu’s highest mountain Kujusan. This was the first mountain I climbed back in about September last year.

It was a beautiful day with blue skies and slowing rising temperature. We have been very unlucky lately as the spring weather has been nothing short of crap. Rain, rain, rain and more rain.

Being such a beautiful day it was quite busy and humans dotted the landscape like little ants. After climbing Mt Kuju we traversed around a few other peaks and a beautiful mountain lake before making our way back down. The mountain was still wearing its ‘winter’ clothes as the crappy spring has meant low temps and a late blooming of flowers; no snow but stark naked trees and only the slightest hint of things starting to green up.

Thankfully the active volcanic vents were in fine form throwing up a cloud of steam, not quite as high as Iceland’s volcano though!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2010-04-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry if you are a fan of planes and automobiles but this blog is only about trains, the title was much nicer with them included.

It is common knowledge Japan has one of the worlds leading train systems. There is almost nowhere that tracks haven't been laid. Three classes of train race around the country side everyday carrying millions of commuters and a far smaller number of travelers. You haven't experienced real congestion until you've been on a rush hour train in Tokyo. Firstly there is the Shinkansen or bullet train which reaches almost the entire length of the country (apart from a section on our island!!!), it speeds along at close to 300km/h and turns a multi day drive into the fastest trip of your life. They have their own special tracks so no stray dogs or drunk idiots end up on the windscreen.

The Sonic

Next are the sonic trains which travel on all the normal lines and only stop at select stations which are warranted busy enough. They seem to move at about 150km/h.

Finally we have the local trains which stop at every station regardless of size. The smallest stop I have seen has no conductor, building or ticket machines, it is but a rusty, lonely and spider infested shelter.

A Local train

Life on the trains takes on a whole new meaning and for the first 4ish months we were here I was a slave to their shackles. (cue dramatic music). Over this period I devised a set of rules which I believe every train user should follow.

-Don't be more than 2sec late to the platform or you will miss it. If it says 3:23pm it will depart at 3:23pm.

-Don't try and con the system by paying for a shorter journey and thinking you'll get away with it because it is 11:30pm and it is the last train AND there is never a ticket man at that time. When you do this it will be the only time in history the ticket man is still there and they WILL stop the train until you pay more.

-Try not to run to the train in the middle of summer, jump through the doors and then put your arm up to hold on. Others will hate you.

-Once on the train don't pay any attention to the seats marked for "Elderly, Pregnant or Disabled", no one else does and they are the best seats on the train.

-You have three options to entertain yourself, 1-sleeping; close your eyes, let your head fall to the side and bump into the person next to you repeatedly, 2-use your cellphone, 3-more sleeping with some snoring.

-Don't make your way to the door early and politely ask people to move. Wait until the last minute then run as fast as you can with your arms out aiming to knock people over. It's more fun and the old grannies set pretty high scores. Once out of the train you can be slow and polite like normal.

-If the carriage looks full push harder. Because we live in the rural wilds the next train is a 3omin wait, so push. Someone will pop out the other door and make room for you eventually.

A not so busy local train carriage

Spring time

2010-04-08T05:19:00.000-07:00

Hanami in Beppu Park

It seems that spring is finally gracing us with it's presence....about time! It kind of feels like we have been in a holding pattern weather wise for the last month. With winter pretending to finish around and end of Feb, March looked as though it might bring the warmer weather...instead we had wind and rain. Luckily for us though that appears to be all in the past and we have been enjoying quite an important part of the Japanese year.

Spring means a number of things in Japan. Firstly it is the new financial year, businesses report profits and loss, and this year things aren't look to good for the Japanese economy. Japan Airlines, Asia's biggest airline, is losing 1 billion yen a day (NZ$15 million), has filled for bankruptcy (surprise) and is axing 16,000 staff immediately! Toyota continues to look bad as there cars speed off while the handbrake is on and the general vibe is the economy is rubbish.

Secondly, it is the start of the new school year. Something I have found very strange. Unlike NZ the Japanese school system runs from April - March with only a small break in between the school year and a big break over the summer (July/August) holidays. This means teachers only have a max of 10 days to prepare for the year ahead. What makes things even stranger is that most teachers change school during this time. Teachers are not employed by the schools directly, instead they answer to the board of education in each city/town. This means teachers/secretaries/principals are often switched around each year, especially if you do not have your 'teaching license'. For example, my school has about 45 teachers and 26 of them are new thins year! What makes things even stranger is they only have about 4 days warning before they are required to move! Crazy.

So over the last week it feels like my job has changed a lot. I have a new desk, with new teachers, new students and a whole bunch of new classes.

Lastly it's cherry blossom season. If you had to use one thing as a symbol for Japan it would be a tight race between Mt Fuji and cherry blossoms (sakura). The Japanese go crazy over them. As they only bloom for about 2-3 weeks it is a short lived period that everyone makes the most of. The traditional event is 'hanami', basically a picnic under the trees with family and friends. Not wanting to miss out on the fun we have had a few of our own hanamis and a bonfire on the beach!

The Rugby 7's

2010-04-07T01:31:00.000-07:00

The stadium at night

There really is no other way of describing the Hong Kong Sevens without including the word ‘party’. Having already spent 2 months in HK I knew exactly what I was in for in terms of Hong Kong itself but with Asia's biggest sporting event in town it added a whole other dimension to things.

There is probably no other place in Asia which is as westernised or English friendly as HK, remembering it was British up until a few years ago. This means a few things; firstly it’s easy choosing what to eat, secondly the food and especially the supermarkets are a real mixture of western and Chinese, thirdly everything is in dual languages and if not then it’s the Chinese which is missing,finally, every British person who left when HK was handed back to the Chinese comes back for a visit while the sevens are on. I guess it’s a good excuse!

The stadium has to be one of the most amazing stadiums in the world; I challenge anyone to find one that beats it. On one side you have jungle, thick, green and uninviting. I know from experience it takes hours to make any progress ‘walking’ through it. On the other you have the world’s best skyline, 100’s of buildings reaching upwards and as night falls you have the worlds best night skyline with award winning light show. Even though you are there to watch rugby it’s hard not to spend half the time looking around.

The south stand is party central. With a max capacity of 6,000ppl, for safety reasons, it’s the place to be if you are more interested in beer than rugby. Everyone is dressed up and costumes range from where’s Wally, Steve Irwin, Arab princess, Ginger bread men, police men and flight attendants right through to things not even the person wearing it knows what it is.

South stand antics

The rugby itself was incredible and I can see why 7's it has been included in the Olympics. It is easily better than the normal '15' a side version as each game is fast, fun and action packed. Every team has a chance of winning and the crowd is always happy, even when their team doesn't do too well. Hong Kong was a crowd favorite with seemingly every one of the 40,000 people cheering for them. England was next in line as the ‘home team’ with sides like NZ, Australia and South Africa only being supported by true fans like us. Needles to say we weren't well liked. Thankfully though France was the least favorite team, booed every time they touched the ball!

The battle begins

I was almost jumping on my chair after the first few minutes of the final, with a 14-0 lead I didn't think Samoa would come back to beat us...maybe it was the crowd support that got them there in the end.

Highlights: Watching a streaker run the length of the field, climb up onto the goal post and jump up and down on the crossbar before jumping off, evading the security guards and playing with the ball at halfway, pretending to give up and then racing off again before being tackled trying to get off the field.

Having two old poms behind us analyze each move and talkig as though they could do better. "Oh if only he'd passed it he had a man on his outside and he could have got a try...by jeez this really is amazing isn't it....I mean look at them what are they doing....Oh this really is great isn't it.....I got upgraded because I wasn't happy with my hotel....

Eating a mince pie.

Asking the old lady infront of us where she bought her sausage roll and after I told her I hadn't had one in 8 months she gave me half of it.

Overall it was a fantastic time and I highly recommend making a trip to HK.

Hong Kong by day...

2010-04-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong is one of those cities that make you go wow! From the enormous skyscrapers to the millions of double-decker buses, the mix between the old and the new, wild jungle and spectacular views it really is a feast for the senses!

Not knowing really what to expect I was totally blown away by the sheer enormity of some of the buildings! I’m pretty sure I’ve come home with a permanent crick in my neck from constantly looking up!

Highlights:

The Peak Tram – an old school cable car that whizzes you up about as high as you can go in Hong Kong to reveal the most spectacular views across the city! It was the perfect place to get a different perspective of the island and to see just how much of it is still covered in wild jungle! It’s not for the faint hearted though as getting to top is harrowing enough but getting down is even worse given you have to come down seated backwards! The gradient is so steep that if you were sitting forward you would fly right off your seat... it’s also goes surprisingly fast so it felt a little too much like a rollercoaster for my liking!

The Rugby 7’s – Nathan is going to do a separate blog on this but it was totally worth coming to Hong Kong for! It was awesome being in a crowd of 40,000 all cheering for different teams but all there to have a good time! Fun times all round!

Stanley Bay – This is definitely where you would want to live in Hong Kong if you had the money! It’s hard to believe you’re even still in Hong Kong when you’re standing around the other side of the island to the city on beautiful white sand beaches, where the pace is a million times slower and there is open space for miles! The market over there was also pretty awesome – as were the cafes on every corner and the amazing supermarket we spent ages wandering in!

Giant Bronze Buddha – Giant doesn’t even begin to describe how enormous this thing was! It was bigger than gigantic! On a regular day there is an amazing 6km gondola that takes you out to it, complete with glass bottoms and unbeatable views (so we’re told) - however we were unlucky enough to encounter the windiest day in the history of Hong Kong (ok maybe not but it was pretty damn windy!) so the gondola wasn’t running. Instead we had to catch a bus with a million other tourists in town for the rugby over the most twisty-turny roads I have ever been on! But... despite the ridiculously windy day and the thousands of steps to get up close to it, the Buddha was incredible! I have no idea how high is stands but it sure was huge! There was also a really interesting monastery there which we enjoyed spending time looking around and comparing to the temples and shrines we have seen here in Japan. We loved all the bright colours and intricate artwork that it was shrouded in floor to ceiling.

We did so many other amazing things too and like usual took hundreds of photos but seriously loved every minute of it!

Hong Kong by night...

2010-04-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

After dark is when Hong Kong really comes alive... but I can assure you the city is anything but dark! I would love to know just how many skyscrapers there are in Hong Kong but based on the number of lights that shine our across the city at night it must be a staggering number!

A major highlight for us was the spectacular Symphony of Lights show that plays every night. Basically it’s a 10 minute light extravaganza synchronized with music in which many of the city skyscrapers are lit up in a variety of colours using spotlights and laser beams etc. It’s no surprise that the night cityscape is considered one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world – the lights themselves are amazing but coupled with the way they reflect and twinkle in the water makes them that much more spectacular.

Hong Kong also has a number of really wicked night markets that are a hive of activity until the early hours of the morning. If you can stand the jostling that inevitably goes on when you have hundreds of people all trying to walk down the narrow alleyways lined with stalls then not only do you deserve a medal but also a bargain or two along the way! It was really interesting seeing the different selling styles of the stall holders – The majority were ultra pushy and would practically accost you on your way past all the while yelling in your face “you want copy bag, copy watch, I give very good price”. Then there were the ones who sat there half asleep, barely lifting an eyelid as you tried to ask how much something was. We soon learnt that unless you were seriously interested in buying something it was far better not to touch or even look out the corner of your eye at anything because as soon as you did you were more often than not swooped on!

As well as all the little nick-knacks in the markets there was also a variety of tasty-goodness food stalls. It’s true that as you walked past some of them it smelt more like you had walked through someone’s fart rather than a food stall but on the whole they all looked and smelt pretty appealing! We were quite taken with the steaming bamboo baskets of Dim Sum as well as all the ducks hanging by their necks waiting to be cut up and served.

The Lonely Planet Guide was dead right that if you’re in bed before 11pm you’re missing out the real Hong Kong!

Shoe madness!

2010-03-23T01:02:00.000-07:00

For anyone that’s not familiar with Japanese culture you may not be aware of the social protocols that go hand in hand with shoes.

Unlike Western culture where shoes are just as much a fashion statement as the clothes you wear, here in Japan you could wear hessian sacks on your feet and no one could care (well where we live and work anyway... I’m sure if you were in Tokyo with the millions of fashion savvy youths it might be a different story).

In Western culture it’s totally acceptable to wear your shoes inside, be it in a house, school, church etc. But in Japan shoes are really only worn to get to and from places and are generally taken off as soon as you get to where you are going and then replaced with a pair of “inside shoes”.

Having to take your shoes off everywhere you go has its up sides... like the house is always cleaner because you’re not traipsing dirt etc in from outside, you don’t have to worry if they match your outfit seeing as you’ll be taking them off anyway and one pair of shoes can last for a ridiculous amount of time.

However, having to take them off everywhere you can also has its down sides... like the smell! Come summer time when it’s 30 odd degrees outside and you’re sweating like a pig being in a room with 25 kids all without shoes on can be a little over powering! Then there’s the chaos at your front door of having various pairs of shoes lined up waiting for their next outing... not so bad when there’s just two of us but if you’ve got visitors and the genkan (the place where you take your shoes off) is as small as ours it gets a little out of control! Not to be out done of course by the frantic few minutes or so that inevitably takes place at a restaurant when it comes time to try and find your shoes again only to discover that they are no longer where you took them off (luckily on all the occasions this has happened the waiter has simply moved them).

One place I do think the “no shoes inside” policy has been taken a little over the edge is at school. In all likelihood every school has different rules about this but at one of my Junior High Schools I really think it’s gone a little far... as in it’s regulation that every student has a grand total of five pairs of shoes all of which are worn at different stages during the day!

So let me break it down for you: each student has a pair of “outside” shoes (usually the latest Nike or Adidas sneakers in the most garish colours you’ve ever seen) that they wear to and from school. Once they get to school they then put on their “inside” shoes (plastic slip-on ugly things... they all wear identical ones but can choose either green or blue) that they wear for the majority of the day in the majority of classrooms.

But this is where things get a little out of control for my liking... if they are going into a classroom that is lucky enough to have carpet on the floor (like the computer room or library) they must take off their “inside” shoes and put on a special pair of “carpet only” shoes (again every student has the exact same pair).

Shoe number four comes in if they are going to the gym. Now this is quite a process as they first have to take off their “inside” shoes and put on their “outside” shoes for the 5 metre (literally it’s only that far) walk to the gym. Once there they must then take off their “outside” shoes and put on their “gym” shoes (again these are regulation school uniform shoes so they all wear identical ones). This marathon effort is then repeated once they have finished in the gym and head back to the main school building.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more ridiculous they then have yet another pair of shoes they must change into when they have science class or food technology etc... these shoes are proper shoes as opposed to the open-toed slip on ones they wear to other classes, I guess as a safety thing.

Of course no trip to the toilet would be complete without a shoe change too! Which I guess in actual fact brings the total to six pairs of shoes! Whenever they go to the toilet they must take off their “inside” shoes and put on special “toilet” shoes. It’s not uncommon to see a queue of students a mile long outside the bathroom waiting for the special “toilet” shoes they must put on before they can enter.

If it sounds complicated that’s because it is!

In case you’re interested that means there are around 2,000 shoes on the school grounds at any one time!!

Meat and bread

2010-03-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Where do I start with a headline like that!....Today was pay the land lady day, a monthly event on or just after pay day, the 21st of each month. (Side note, who invented monthly pay?! Feels like forever before I am rewarded for my efforts). Pay the land lady day is an exciting event and a lot of thought goes into when we actually pay her. This is because she owns a wee bread shop attached to her house. I like bread. Especially bread that is not full (almost oozing) sugar.

If we have timed our visit right and the gods are on our side we are blessed with a big fresh bag of takeaway bread. Usually enough to last the weekend and particularly good with an egg or two on top or Jo’s amazing jam (thanks Jo!).

We have learnt through a method of trial and error to show up around 4.30-5pm. This is a perfect time as her day is winding down and she is eager to see any unsold bread go to a good home. Thankfully that good home is ours. Many months back we made the mistake of going too early and we were sent home with nothing, this has not happened again!

Today we came away with a walnut filled bread log (apparently called a tank loaf), a chocolate chip bread log/tank loaf and about 8 small buns.

Now these buns might look yummy but hold your horses. DO NOT just dive right in and swallow it in two bites. I believe they should come with a warning label.

WARNING: THESE YUMMY LOOKING TREATS MAY CONTAIN WEIRD THINGS THAT WILL CAUSE FOREIGNERS TO SPIT OUT. ONLY EAT IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCED WITH STRANGE JAPANESE BREAD FILLINGS OR HAVE NO REGARD FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH.

I am in no way knocking our land lady/baker, she is awesome, but some of the fillings leave me wondering if I am in fact her unsuspecting lab rat. For example some have a whole potato or kumara inside! Talk about a carb rush. Some have azuki beans, a purple bean paste. I have also been hit with a mouth full of eggy custard and another full of cream.

Moving on from bread we find ourselves at the meat section. During the last few supermarket visits we have been eyeing up a large piece of meat that looks somewhat out of place in a Japanese supermarket. This is because it is actually meat with no fat, aka a steak, not the standard thin slices of fat with some specs of meat on the side! We had been apprehensive about getting it as we thought 1) it was probably whale tongue 2) it was probably animal food 3) there was just no way it was ‘western meat’. After having dinner with a friend and finding out she buys it and it is actually only beef from Australia we quickly added it to our trolley and devoured it for last nights dinner. And it was really good!

Finally, on Friday night we went out for yakiniku. This is Korean BBQ and almost the only non Japanese food you can get. Basically you select a whole lot of meat (thin slices that are at least a third fat) and cook them on a hot plate at your table. Very yummy. The owner was a hilarious Korean man who spent the whole meal at the side of our table grinning away with only half a mouth of teeth while telling us NZ meat is not good. The best thing about yakiniku is that you can eat it mum!!!!

The 'rain man'

2010-03-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

You almost expect a samurai to come charging out!

With winter slowly fading away and the mountains losing their snowy peaks tramping season is once again kicking off. I'm very lucky to have meet some very keen trampers who live in Oita city and who seem to spend every weekend out in the hills. Although I am by far the youngest of the bunch, even younger than their kids, it suprises me how fit and fast they are.

The team at the top

Last Sunday we headed out towards Hita, a town about 1.5hrs away. The weather was supposed to be fine but unfortunately yet again this wasn't the case. This annoying problem follws me every time I go tramping in Japan and the people I go with have now dubed me "the rain man"! Every time I tag along the forecast is wrong and it rains. Case in point last Sunday, cloudy with fine patches became complete whiteout and misty drizzle. The beautiful view from the top was nowhere to be found. Don't worry though, it cleared 15mins before we got back to the cars!

Misty mountains

One thing the Japanese love to do is soak in onsens, or as we call them hot springs, there is an onsen on every corner in Beppu and just as many dotted around the country side. If you find a building it's either an abandoned school, convenient store or an onsen. I have had 3 trips to them so far but still can't decide exactly how i feel about them. There is certainly something relaxing about soaking in hot water butt naked while watching the forest around you but it's all the other stuff that's a little uncomfortable. Even though I am shaking on the inside and feeling totally uncomfortable I have to keep telling myself that that is only how I feel, to the locals it's just another nude person. I have now relised that if I want to tramp with this group soaking naked is part of it, everytime they tramp they onsen.

I think we go....that way!

50% of the people I ask say "no way, no bears in Oita" the other 50% say "oh yea, we have bears in Oita!". Who knows. The locals don't seem too.

Japan does it again

2010-03-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Over the last 3 weeks I have experienced a number of feeling and emotions related to living in a foreign land. Sometimes life here can be pure bliss with aspects of it so easy, enjoyable and rewarding. At other times it can be so frustrating and painfully different I wished I owned a teleportation system so I could escape for an hour or so!

As you are aware I use a speedy scooter to race to and from work. About 3 weeks ago I found out I was driving my scooter illegally, not only breaking the rules of my contract, work visa and licence but also meaning I had no insurance cover...eeek! For some strange reason an international driving permit does not allow the use of a scooter in Japan, even though my NZ licence does (and an international licence is just the NZ licence translated into Japanese). Not even any of my teachers could understand this with one of them even saying "what's common sense in Japan is just crazy anywhere else in the world".

After some investigation my only option was to get a Japanese licence! Oh boy I thought, now the fun starts. I knew from previous experience (like when we moved here) that any official type thing is a painful and tedious process.

First step was to put together all of the documentation I needed; NZ licence, Alien registration card, Passport, Certificate of Alien Registration, special drivers licence photos and application form. Second step was to have my NZ licence translated into Japanese, this required a 2hr trip to the only Japanese AA centre in the whole prefecture and more cash. Third step was to book an appointment at the drivers licence centre and after waiting 2 weeks thats where I headed to today.

The licence centre is a massive building with a driving course the size of 2 rugby fields. The system in Japan is very different (as you can imagine) and you don't actually sit a test on the road. The driving course is complete with traffic lights, railway crossings, bridges, lanes, pedestrian crossings, in fact it is a complete replica of a real street. This is where they sit their driving tests! Because NZ and Japan have virtually identical road rules Kiwis don't have to do a driving test (hahaha Americans!) so I expected the process to be quite simple. I was told it would be a short interview. 4 hours later I can assure you it was not a simple process!

20 odd people on scooters practicing on the course

I won't bore you with all the details but here is a sample of some of the questions during my 'interview' and my mental responses in ( ).

-When did you first get your licence? (how the hell do I know, look at the piece of paper in front of you!!!!)

-And it expires in 2014? (I guess so...look at it!!!!!)

-When you sat your learners how many questions where there in the test? (Holy shit your kidding right???! I have no idea, if I said 5,000 would you even understand me!?)

-Tell me what you were tested on in your restricted test? (lets seeing, oh yea, flying a kite with my hand tied behind my back! What do you think mate? Driving)

After half an hour of this I was beginning to wonder if it would be easier just to get in the car and drive around the course!

But finally I walked out with a Japanese licence!

You know it's STILL winter when...

2010-03-11T04:55:00.001-08:00

You wake up to yet more snow on the hills (the view from our driveway)

You do an entire crossword! (Thanks mum!)

You make microwave brownie (again, thanks mum!)

Last but certainly not least, you know it's STILL winter when.....you catch Nathan on camera breaking it down Nate diddy d dog styles!

Funeral... I mean Graduation

2010-03-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting on Friday when I attended my first Japanese junior high school graduation ceremony but i'm quite sure I wasn't expecting to feel like I had walked straight into a funeral!
Like Nathan said in his last blog, graduations over here are a big deal! Unlike at home where graduations are really only reserved for University etc, at the end of the school year here every level of schooling has a ceremony dedicated to those graduating.
I think it's a great idea to celebrate the end of one school era and the beginning of another -"celebrate" being the operative word!
But what I discovered was that rather than celebrating the new beginning and everything they had achieved, graduation was instead about mourning the end of school as they had known it.
My first hint that is was going to be far from a happy occasion was when I arrived to find everyone dressed in black head to toe... a message that clearly wasn't passed on to me seeing as I turned up wearing grey pants and a pink top!!
The next sign was the ridiculously sad music they played while the 3rd graders paraded in - it was enough to bring a tear to anyone's eye!
Then came the eulogies (speeches) by various people all of whom not once cracked a smile, joke or even looked faintly to be happy for the school leavers. Parents sat weeping, teachers sat with their eyes cast to the ground while the students literally spent the entire hour and a half sobbing.
When it came time for each student to have their moment in the limelight by way of coming to the stage to receive their certificate I thought surely this must be when the mood will lighten a little.... But no.... from the time they left their chair, got their certificate and went back to sit down they had each bowed an impressive 8 times... how they managed to do this in between sobs is beyond me!
It was then time to sing the school song one final time... something that proved just too much for everyone (it had all got too much for me so even I had a tear by this stage).
And just when I thought it couldn't possibly get any worse the principal then handed over the 3rd grade flag to be wrapped and bound and from what I could gather 'laid to rest' - but not before being carried out like a coffin with everyone following in its wake.
So there you have it! Certainly not what I was expecting but interesting all the same! I wonder how the elementary school one will compare next week! Surely there will be at least one smile!

Smiles all round

2010-03-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Over the last two days a couple of things have occured that have once again made me smile and think about how lucky we are to be here and experiencing some cool stuff. A lot of what we see and do no normal tourist can experience.

On Monday it was school graduation. All of the 3rd grade students have finished their 3 years at senior high school and are now embarking on their new lives. Graduation is a BIG deal in Japan and from what I can gather easily the most important moment in the lives of these young Japanese rascals. It was so important in fact that Sunday (my day of rest, relaxation, recreation and recuperation) was set aside as practise day! You can imagine the smile on my face at 8am Sunday morning. Anyway with Sunday over the real ceremony was on Monday at 10am, with everyone seated at 9.55am; parents waiting, students anxious, me wondering if I should have gone to the bathroom or not and just the general hype of such an occasion things were ready to go! But no, we sat in the semi dark, watching the clock until 10..... then bang! It was go time.

The ceremony was a great insight into the old school traditional Japan, one not always obvious in everyday life. It was run like a military exercise with all the long and emotional speeches one would expect. There was quite a lot of bowing, crying, singing, a thunderstorm (outside) and even a power cut just to make things exciting. I wish I had photos to show but I believe I would have been shot if I stood up with my camera.

After this (jumping a few hours and a long explanation about how I am now in the processes of getting a Japanese drivers licence) my supervisor and I went out in search of an instant picture machine, after finding one and having my pic taken he offered me a drink from the vending machine. I ended up with a hot can of coffee. How awesome; hot, can, coffee. Who would have thought it was possible. I have seen heaps of these all over Japan but not being a huge coffee drinker I never take much notice. That has now changed. We sat in his car and drank our coffee while he made jokes using the word 'cheers'. "Cheers to your pictures", "Cheers to us", "Cheers to graduation". I wonder if he got one with alcohol???!

The English on the can tells us "This coffee is dripped one by one person by one"

Tuesday, today, and I have the day off. I caught the train to Oita and had to get re-entry permit for my passport as well as paying a deposit for flights to China. On my way home and in desperate need of a haircut I stopped at a local barber just down the road. Interrupting his TV watching time he proceeded to cut my hair, pausing every 3 mins to listen to an explanation about how a tsunami is caused.

I love Japanese haircuts. Here is a highlight real of today's experience; forehead shaved, back of the neck shaved, the inside,outside and lobes of my ears shaved, a 20min old school style beard shave complete with really sharp blade and man wearing a face mask, hair washed, shampooed, conditioned, face moisturising and head massage. 1 hour of relaxation and money well spent.

To top it all off the trees are blooming! Not long until the famed cherry blossoms come out!

That’s a bit cheeky!

2010-02-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

Last week on our trip to Space World while we were amongst a crowd of people dressed up in their costumes (read Megs blog below if you’re a bit lost here) we witnessed these two shellas wandering past.

Forgetting other people speak English in this country I said to Megan, in a rather loud voice, ‘do you think these two are dressed up or do they always look like that!?’

Much to my surprise they heard me, needles to say I was given a rather disgusted look. We believed they were from some Eastern European country and travelling with their sugar daddy. Every time they took a step the skirt (or lack of) rose up enough to reveal some cheek.

With Megan posing in a shot I managed to sneak this image!

You may think I crossed the line capturing this but I can assure you every person walking behind them saw the exact same thing without any effort at all! Even the strange people in costume thought it was a bit much!!

Space World

2010-02-22T02:39:00.001-08:00

In need of a little fun and excitement over the weekend Nathan and I took my niece and nephew to a near-ish theme park as a promised Christmas present.

Having just been to Universal Studios we weren't too sure how Space World would compare but we were pleasantly surprised... we would probably even go as far as to say it was better!

There was a great balance of not so scary rollercoasters we could all enjoy as well as a few heart in the mouth ones only Nathan and Jo were brave enough to queue for.

Our visit just so happened to coinside with a "cos-play" event. There's a really funny culture of dressing up in crazy, random costumes here in Japan - something none of us can quite work out - but basically the park was overrun with people walking round wearing strange costumes complete with wigs and the most ridiculously high shoes! It certianly gave us some extra entertainment!

We had an excellent day with Jo and the kids... hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!

Ready Steady Cook!

2010-02-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

At school we have an ESS club, the idea is that we get together twice a week and students can practice their English, spending time with a 'native English speaker' (me). It's a simple, straight forward idea without many things that could go wrong. The one key component, apart from people actually showing up, is using English. This is where we hit a speed bump. Plain and simple the students just don't use the English they have and would much rather resort to their native tongue, a very common problem any English teacher faces. At times it's like getting blood out of a stone!

This aside we still plow ahead with our activities, usually parties, a good excuse to eat chips and chocolate. On Tuesday this week we broke the mold and ventured into the school home economics room to do some baking!

I don't know how we did it but the chocolate cake was amazing, the cookies were little treats of treasure and the pikelets were slightly tough but covered in jam the Japanese members didn't know the difference. I was a master chef directing traffic and fending off teenagers who would rather eat the batter than the finished product (when they weren't looking I would sneak some).

Run faster!

2010-02-15T04:09:00.000-08:00

After a lengthy break you'll all be pleased to see the blue text author is back! Not that Megs hasn't done a stella job of keeping you all posted on the goings on. Round of applause for her. Thank you.

This evening's blog will commence with a pictorial 'look back' at a school event we had last week.

The school marathon.

Yes each poor soul has to run a marathon (actually 15km for the girls and 20km for the boys). To make matters worse the first half of it is up the hill and the second half is right back down. Just when you want to collapse with the pain of a 10km climb you get spun around and fall all the way back to the finish line. They certainly know how to break them down.

Surprisingly all the students did an amazing job and the winning time was a speedy (actually I think he had a rocket on his back) 1hr 19m. Considering it's virtually a half marathon and half of it is uphill that time is very very fast. Trust me.

I think the Japanese are built to run. A little like the Kenyans. Maybe the difference, when comparing Olympic medal tallies, is that one country has lions to make your training more realistic and one has a world leading train system to take you between villages. Just comparing physical appearance most Japanese have the slender figure of a long distance athlete. Maybe they should borrow some training lions.

That aside each student completed the race with great enthusiasm (well most of them) and I certainly enjoyed directing traffic and yelling at them to run faster!

Anticipation at the start line

Sprinting off the start line

The journey begins

Mothers hard at work making soup at the finish line

All smiles at the finish

TV star...

2010-02-13T04:39:00.000-08:00

When i'm not teaching 6 year olds how to say "I like apples" one of the more random aspects of my job is to help present an English TV show for the local cable channel.

"Lets Enjoy English Conversation" is basically a five minute show that airs several times every day with the same episode running for an entire month.

Basically myself, one other ALT, an English teacher and a film crew of two get together once a month for an afternoon of hilarity as we each stumble our way through our lines in front of a camera.

Each episode is on a different topic and filmed in a different location. We are given the script when we arrive and pretty much have 5 minutes to memorize our parts...it's fair to say we are the worlds worst when it comes to remembering our lines so what should probably only take about half an hour to film takes all afternoon!

The aim of the show is to help teach conversational English so each episode is basically me and the other ALT having a scripted conversation about something completely random which the English teacher then explains in Japanese.

It's actually quite a bit of fun but boy am I glad we don't have cable... I have never seen an episode and never want to... especially when you have random people in restaurants coming up to you saying "aren't you the girl off TV?"

Fashion

2010-02-11T03:58:00.000-08:00

It's got to be said that the Japanese have very strange ideas when it comes to fashion! I can give you many an example but the one that has us dropping our jaws everyday is the ridiculous "uniform" Japanese girls seem to insist on wearing during winter.

It doesn't matter how bitterly cold it is, how much snow is on the ground, how freezing the wind is... the list goes on... everywhere you look girls are wandering around wearing nothing more than tiny little skirts, bare legs and skimpy jackets that have a token fur hood.

Back at home we would use a whole array of not so nice words to call them but here it's considered totally acceptable to wear next to nothing even though it's literally only a few degrees outside.

CRAZY!

And while we're on the topic of 'fashion'... check out this wedding dress displayed in one of the many bridal shops about the place.... I rest my case!

Spidy

2010-02-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

Meet Spidy the spider... he is our friend.

The weekend that was...

2010-02-06T22:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went from being hermits at home to social butterflies flitting about the countryside! Things kicked off after school on Friday when we jumped in the car and headed to a nearby town called Nakatsu to stay with an English friend of ours who was dieing to play tour guide to all the local hot-spots! After a night of way too many Japanese snacks, a delicious made-from-scratch curry (thanks Dash) and giggling over stories from school we set off the next morning to check out the Nakatsu castle.

If you've been to Japan you'll know that once you've seen a castle or two they all start to look the same but this one was much bigger than others we have seen and made for the perfect back drop to try out our sweet jumping poses!

From there we headed out to the countryside to a famous tunnel which was built by hand way back yonder by a monk who for some reason felt he needed to devote his life to such a mission. It was pretty impressive and once again lent itself nicely to a few more sweet jumps!

And with that... the sights of Nakatsu were all done and dusted so we headed back into Yamaga to spend the afternoon and night at Jo's. Not only were we treated to an amazing roast lamb meal (we were seriously in heaven) but we also got to make and decorate not one but two kinds of cupcakes for the kids' school fair.

Which is of course where we spent all of this morning! It was actually a lot of fun to the see the kids that I teach letting loose and enjoying themselves without having to constantly stand in lines and bow! The morning started with mochi making... both Nathan and I showed our muscles (or lack of) by having a turn during the pounding process and then moved through to the kids entertianing us with an operetta... we might not have been able to understand a word of it (we did pick up that it was about a fox... and at one point the words for cold, snow, blue and red were used) but Emily did an amazing job with her solo part in one of the songs!

The morning ended with what they call a Bazzaar... basically the school fair part when lots of random stuff gets put out that you can buy along with lots of yummy food. We came home with lots of the baking Jo had done... some of the cupcakes we had made... and a touch lamp from the 60's (random!) but it only cost 100 yen - who can resisit a bargain!

Temple hopping pictures

2010-02-04T03:19:00.001-08:00

Hello again,

Feels like ages since I wrote anything on this blog! To be honest there hasn't been too much to report lately! Outrageous Fortune (a NZ TV series for all the international community who read this)has secured all our spare time and taken over our lives, so until we finish it don't expect any dazzling reports about our life! You won't have to wait long though as 3 episodes a night is eating through the series very quickly.

So with nothing interesting to write about here are some pictures we took a week or so ago exploring more of the fantastic temples and shrines the area has to offer. Enjoy!

Just cos they're funny!

2010-01-30T23:29:00.000-08:00

You might need to click on each photo to make them big enough to read!

School lunch from hell...

2010-01-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

School lunch today hit a new low... and by low I mean waaaay low!

As in.... WHALE!

Yip that's right.... I was served up a big plate of WHALE!

Did I eat it? Hell NO!

Did I make sure everyone around me knew why I wasn't eating it? Hell YES!

I felt like a traitor just having it on my plate in front of me!

The Critter kingdom

2010-01-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

No words - just pics! Here are some of the wildlife we caught on camera during our trip south over Christmas.

Hermy the Hermit

Cocky the Crow

Gary the Gecko

Crabby the Crab

Burt the Butterfly

Kimono photo shoot

2010-01-21T03:57:00.000-08:00

This is one of those blog entries that we never quite got around to writing - but seeing as I only had one class today...

A few months back we asked my sister’s mother-in-law (Bachan) if she would be willing to share her amazing kimono collection with us so we could spend the afternoon taking photos to send home as Christmas presents - and of course so Nathan could pretend to be samurai warrior!

The photos speak for themselves but the time and effort that goes into putting a kimono on is not easily captured by camera. Bachan literally spent hours making sure each step of the process was done in the proper way - that each tie was knotted perfectly, that the folds were in the right place and the layers in the right order etc – all the while teasing Nathan about his big belly! (Which to be fair has got a little smaller living off rice).

We had lots of fun and a few giggles along the way but are damn pleased we don’t have to dress like it every day - if not for the time it takes to put it on and take it off then for the sore back you get from being so rigidly tied in!

"Fun" run

2010-01-18T04:11:00.000-08:00

Sunday was one of those beautiful winter days where there was no wind, the sun was out, the frost had gone and for a moment you think winter is over. Actually looking outside from my perch at the work computer Monday also looks like one of those days. Unfortunately I've been assured that winter is far from over and February is the coldest month of them all, Oh yea!

Anyway getting back on track. A while ago I was asked if i wanted to participate in a 5km "fun" run. I had been doing the occasional run after work, a nice 3.5km circuit along our (yes we own it) waterfront and figured an extra 1.5km as part of a fun, social, slow and relaxing "fun" run wouldn't be a bad idea. long story short I am now of the opinion "fun" runs are just not apart of the Japanese psyche. Apart from spending half the day lazing in the sun at the beach, the absolute euphoria of finishing without stopping after no training for a month (damn that Christmas break) and seeing the kids run two great races there wasn't actually anything "fun" about the run at all.

500m in - still feeling good....
note the old gramps in the back with the blue nappies, don't let him deceive you, he's a quick wee whipper snapper

Strangely the event was setup like a national time trial!!? With each category broken into small groups so every person could be timed. This meant instead of a mass start with 200 odd kids running 1 or 2kms they had about 15 races with 15 kids in each. Needles to say this dragged on a bit. We were OK though, we had secured a highly prized section of the beach and were enjoying the spring like weather. It wasn't until I learnt I was running in the under 30 category (no problems so far) with a bunch of super fit high school track and field athletes (oh crap). You see the thing is school clubs train everyday. This meant a bunch of high school kids who were already in prime physical shape now had the added advantage of having trained everyday for their junior and seniour high school lives. I smelt a hammering. My "fun" run had just turned pear shaped!

Not wanting to finish 10minutes behind everyone else and stick out anymore than i already did (as the only "foreigner" running) I asked to have my entry changed to the 0ver 30 category. Figuring my lack of hair would aid me in `looking` 30 I didn't see any reason why they wouldn't let me. Obviously i am bald enough and there was no problem with me joining the older ranks, as long as my time wasn't counted in that category and I couldn't win a prize. Like I was ever going to finish anywhere other than at the back!

The support crew

Standing at the line warming up I was sizing up my opposition, feeling slightly happier I was racing people nearly twice my age I started to pick out the slow ones in the group. Yip I thought, i'll beat him, him and him. Bang, the gun went, we were off. It was about 8 steps into the race I realised these old buggers might look slow and as though they need to lean on a pole while standing around but obviously once they had forward momentum they were unstoppable. As the race progressed so did I - towards the back - I went from wanting to beat a handful of people to just wanting to finish regardless of my position, this was supposed to be "fun" after all, right?

Feeling the burn

Pleased to have finished but my dreams of being an elite Japanese runner were shattered.

The Haircut

2010-01-17T00:16:00.000-08:00

After putting it off for as long as I could bare having may hair looking like a scruffy rag I finally took the plunge and went for a haircut.

Back at home getting a haircut is of course no big deal but here in a country where I don’t speak the language and have hair about as different to theirs as possible I was more than a little nervous about letting someone loose on it with a pair of scissors. Not to mention the fact that Japanese people tend to either have one of two hair cut styles... long or short... both of which have fringes that hang in their eyes.

Nevertheless 6 months without a haircut wasn’t doing me any favours and so after driving past a hair salon everyday both to and from school I finally forced myself to actually stop in on the way home from school yesterday to face my haircut fate.

I was a little dubious seeing as I have never actually seen anyone in the salon getting their hair done but was greeted by a friendly guy who seemed more than happy to have a go and my untidy mane.

My Japanese managed to get us through the awkward first questions like ‘can you cut it now?’, ‘how much will it cost?’ etc but as soon as I sat in the chair and he started spraying my hair with bottled water the old fashion way my heart began to sink as I pictured myself walking out with hair no better off than what it was when I walked in.

So here I was freaking out slightly trying to figure out if it was a blessing or not that I couldn’t see myself in the mirror clearly (I had to take my glasses off and the chair was just that little bit too far from the mirror for me to get clear vision). The guy had next to no English and so my Japanese was put firmly to the test as he asked a whole range of questions from ‘how much do haircuts cost in NZ’ through to ‘where have I been in Japan’ etc.

Before I knew it the cut was over and he was telling me to put my glasses back on. I was sure only about 10 minutes had past and sure enough when I looked at my watch it had taken him a mere 13 minutes to cut my hair which was well below my shoulders to just above my chin. After a short intake of breath at how short he had cut it (I had asked for it just above my shoulders) I started to get up out of the chair to take off home to hide with a hat on.

“Would you like it shampooed? It doesn’t cost any extra”. At this point I really felt I had nothing to lose so followed him over to the chair. Next thing I knew I was being tilted back by an electronic armchair and then covered with a blanket, my face covered with a fragranced face mask and headphones playing music put into my ears. This is where the whole “it’s way too short” shock miraculously evaporated from my mind as I relaxed into the most amazing shampoo I have ever had – all done by an electronic shampooing machine! I kid you not it was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced at the hairdressers! I lay back with music playing in my ears, my face covered in a face mask and all the while my head and hair were being massaged by varying water pressure – which I was given a remote to control. One word – AMAZING! What’s even better is that it went on for 10 full minutes!

When I was forced to come out of my relaxing shampoo coma I was then led back to my chair where he set about blow drying what little hair I had left. I truly felt sorry for the guy as he had no idea just how long it takes to blow dry my thick head of hair! He started off on the lowest setting and every few minutes he would increase it confused as to why my hair still wasn’t dry! I got the feeling if he had known it was going to take him 15 minutes to dry it he wouldn’t have bothered. But seeing as he still had no other customers he then decided to style it for me. So it was back out with the hairdryer and a whole array of brushes and he spent the next 20 minutes curling the ends under so it sat perfectly from front to back.

And so... while I still think I look like a mushroom I don’t hate it as much as I initially and will most definitely be going back - if for nothing else than an amazing shampoo!

I do however dread to think what my hair is going to look like tomorrow when I’ve washed it – as we all know it never ever looks as good when you do it yourself!

Kyoto by night...

2010-01-15T01:21:00.000-08:00

After 8 hours or so of sightseeing every day we wanted nothing more than to just blob out in our hotel room but to see another side of Kyoto you have to venture out at night. Our hotel was in the perfect location to check out the covered arcades that during the day look like grubby hobo stores but come to life in spectacular fashion at night. We also made sure to stroll up and down the streets known as the Geisha district in hopes of spotting one on her way to or from appointments... it was very exciting to see 3 all within a matter of minutes!

And of course no trip to Kyoto would be complete without sampling some of the amazing food it has on offer. The nearby food market is somewhere we would highly recommend to anyone going to Kyoto! It sure was an experience walking up and down the crowded aisles looking at all the strange food on offer. Our purchases were embarrassingly non-adventurous... freshly made mini donuts and a punnet of strawberries!

We unfortunately lucked out one night when our cravings for western food took over all matters of judgement and we ended up going to the British pub called the Pig and Whistle. Let’s just say it’s important to remember you’re still in Japan when ordering the likes of nachos, fish and chips or the chicken burger! We weren’t down in the mouth about it for too long though as the next night when we were on the search for some local Kyoto cuisine we stumbled across an inviting looking Thai restaurant. With the logic, we live in Japan so can get Japanese food anytime; we went in with high hopes of a tasty Thai meal reminiscent of the goodness we can get at home. And boy were we not disappointed! The authentic Thai chefs might have had something to do with it but the Pad Thai was incredible! Not to mention the fresh spring rolls and chicken, cashew nut stir-fry! Yummy!

The only other thing worthy of a mention is the restaurant famous for its desserts... while we didn’t eat there we did stop by to check out its impressive array of plastic menu items in the window... our favourite being the dessert that was priced at ¥18,000!

Yip these are all plastic! The big whopper at the top is the expensive one!

Kyoto sightseeing

2010-01-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you only have 4 days in a city as rich in culture as Kyoto – you go hard and don’t stop till you drop!

I seriously think we came home from this leg of the trip needing a holiday more than we did when we left but we had a super fantastic time (and let’s be honest... it’s not like we were coming back to stressful, run-off our feet jobs!).

Just as much a highlight as all the amazing places we saw was the incredible breakfast our hotel had each morning! There really is no better way to start a day of sightseeing than with freshly baked croissants, apple danishes, cherry danishes, cinnamon scrolls about 5 different types of bread rolls all from their very own in-house bakery – not to mention the amazing freshly squeezed orange juice and hot chocolates!

So once we had eaten ourselves to the size of elephants and wrapped up in our winter woollies we would head out with our Lonely Planet guide tucked firmly under our arm for a day of jam packed sightseeing.

With too many places to mention I will only comment on our favourites. In the number one spot would have to be Kin-Kakuji - the Golden Pavilion. Pretty much everyone who goes to Kyoto inevitably visits this spot but we somehow managed to fluke a particularly quiet afternoon which meant we could appreciate the beauty of the temple without gosling for a space to stand. We were also lucky enough to arrive at the perfect time for taking photos with the sun reflecting off the gold and into the water. Magic!

Making it into 2^nd place would have to be Gin-Kakuji – the Silver Pavilion for its stunning Japanese Zen gardens. Again we somehow managed to fluke a really quiet morning with practically no one else there (the sub zero temperature might have had something to do with it) and enjoyed meandering around the serene gardens stopping every few steps for some photos. We were particularly chuffed to time it just right to see one of the grounds keepers making some alterations to one of the amazing sand gardens – watching him etch the lines these gardens are famous for was almost mesmerising as he meticulously swept perfectly symmetrical (almost hypnotic) lines into the sand!

In a tie for 3^rd place are Kyomizudera on the hillside of Kyoto and Todai-ji in Nara which is home to the massive 16m Buddha. Adding to the beauty of Kyomizudera was the snow that was falling while we were there – probably only rivaled by what it must look like in Spring when it’s in full cherry blossom bloom. The views over Kyoto were pretty spectacular which of course meant a great number of photos were taken.

After debating whether or not to make the effort to go out to Nara we were mighty pleased we did and thought the giant Buddha was as impressive in real life as the Lonely Planet made it out to be! The Buddha lives inside the world’s largest wooden building which to be honest was just as impressive as the Buddha itself! Again a great number of photos were taken! The deer that stroll around add a bit of character – thankfully we chose not to buy food for them as those that did were harassed by them for the rest of the day!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-01-12T23:56:00.001-08:00

I know I'm interupting Megans holiday blogs but we are in the midst of arctic blast number 100! Now were certainly don't get us much snow down here as the fellas us north do but i reckon you can't tell the difference between -2 and -20 anyway so for arguments sake lets call it even. The temperature never got above 0deg today!!

Mr. Scoot with 3-5cm coverage

The one and only class i taught had a thermometer in it and it was only 8deg inside! For some reason female students still wear their tiny miniskirt uniforms....a bit stupid if you ask me! Megan and i often debate appropriate words to use with 'Snow'. My favorite is "it's pissing down", one i use often here. This is not usually accepted as Megan says it's not possible for it to "piss down with snow" but today it actually did.

Looking out over Beppu

It started during the night and hasn't stopped. Scooting to work in it was a bit of a fun, although i drove incredible slow as fear of sliding out took over. At times it was hard to see the road ahead and i was dissapointed to see no other scooter had made a path for me to follow through the snow, actually i didn't see any other sooters today for the first time since getting here.....wonder why?! I did pass a set of broken chains and a traffic jam as long as the eye could see because all of the highways were closed.

The trecherous road

I took some pics on the trust cellphone but snow never looks as could when you can't feel it on the face. These are for all you people enjoying a hot summer!

My school grounds

All aboard "whoawhooo"

2010-01-12T00:34:00.000-08:00

So after an amazing 10 day tropical island extravaganza we traded in one of Japan’s finest holiday spots for another but this time we headed a little further north to Osaka and Kyoto.

Travel within Japan is pretty expensive so when we heard about an overnight ferry that runs between Beppu and Osaka for a fraction of the cost of catching a train or flying we jumped at the chance to keep a few extra pennies in our pockets. Now I am no lover of ferries.... as in I hate them! So when I say we jumped at the chance what I really mean is Nathan jumped at the chance but luckily for me (and him) it was surprisingly a pretty sweet trip from start to finish. I’d even go so far as to say I would do it again! To begin with the ferry was way flasher than what I was expecting... it even has an onboard onsen!

But what really sold it to me was the fact that I had no idea I was even on a boat! Given that the ferry weaves its way in between a whole lot of little islands along the way the sea was dead calm and only once for no more than 10 minutes could I feel any kind of rocking at all. So anyways after boarding the ferry at 6.30pm and setting sail to Osaka we found our way to what would be our bed for the night. We had paid for the cheapest option – futons on the floors in the main sleeping area.

We were expecting just a giant room with hundreds of people sleeping on the floor together but it was in actual fact lots of smaller rooms – with people still all sleeping on the floor together. All I can say is thank god it wasn’t peak season.... if the boat had been full I can see how it would have been a less than pleasant experience. Each person is allocated a spot on the floor... you have a cubby for your bag, a blanket, a pillow made of vinyl and a thin sleeping mat. There is literally no space whatsoever been each person’s allocated spot. As in you are lying shoulder to shoulder with the stranger next to you.

Thankfully there was hardly anyone onboard so we had plenty of space between us and the next person which also meant we could nab a few extra sleeping mats to help pad the hard floor a little (much to the disapproving looks of the oldies we had in our room, who for the record would have to be the most annoying old people I have ever encountered... laughing and singing till all hours and then complaining to the crew that the TV in our room wouldn’t work... when in actual fact they just didn’t push the button... then going to sleep leaving the TV on even after it had lost reception and was making a god awful ‘I have no reception noise’ until one the others we were sharing the room with were brave enough to go and turn it off ).

Phew – I needed to get that off my chest!

So after docking at Osaka at 6.30am the next morning we pretty much headed straight to Universal Studios. I think maybe our expectations were a little too high leaving us a tad disappointed but we still had a good day jumping on and off all the rides all the while freezing our little faces and hands off (you weren’t allowed to wear gloves, hats or scarves on any of the rides). Our favourite ride was most definitely Spiderman followed by Back to the Future. We also really enjoyed the Shrek 4D movie although couldn’t understand a word of it. My less favourite was the Dream-Caster rollercoaster...

I was petrified from start to finish! I have a fear of falling so the big drop at the start was less than amusing... my eyes were clenched shut from start to finish and my face and hands were so numb from all the cold wind rushing into my face that I seriously thought I had turned into a snowman! Nathan was sitting next to me saying over and over again ‘oh my god, oh my god, oh my god’ meanwhile everyone else around us had their hands up in the air squealing with delight. The most hilarity we had was when we saw the obligatory photo they take just as you come down the big waterfall at the end of the Jurassic Park ride – our faces said it all but were nothing compared with the face of the little kid sitting in front of us!

The park was still celebrating Christmas despite it being well into January so we were treated to jolly carols through the day (cute at the time but oh so annoying 2 days later when we were still singing them) and a street parade featuring giant gingerbread, snowmen and of course Santa himself!

Towards the end the day when our noses and hands could take no more we made one last stop off, this time it was to watch the WaterWorld Movie show they perform in a big arena complete with damsels in distress, pirates doing tricks on jet-skis, jet boats zooming off ramps, canons firing in all directions and of course the manly man who comes and saves the day! But of course our Universal Studios experience wouldn’t have been complete without tucking in to a giant turkey drumstick to help warm us up before jumping on a train... this time bound for Kyoto!

Japan's last frontier....

2010-01-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

With only 4 days left of this leg of our holiday we left Ishigaki Island and headed out on another 1hr ferry ride. Our destination was Iriomote Island, a jungle covered mini amazon rain forest.

The island is pretty big but only a handful of permanent residents are scattered around it, a road runs around half of the eastern coast with a settlement at either end. Inland it is nothing but jungle, rivers, waterfalls, mountains and wildlife. We arrived at Uehara port where we were based for 3 nights. The place was absolutley dead quiet and we only saw 3 or 4 other foreigner travelers in 3 days. Virtually all the little shops were closed and the supermarket was almost out of supplies! Luckily our accomodation had breakfast and dinner even if it was traditional japanese food - rice, fish and salad for breaky...rice, fish and salad for tea = hungry!

The island itself was stunning and everything you would want for a quiet, sunny get away. Over the 3 days we explored most places on bikes, even riding 30km one day as well as a 2hr walk. We embarked on yet more snorkelling adventures and were rewarded with the best coral we'd ever seen. The beaches had the most amazing shells and although i'm not normally one to stop and collect them i couldn't help filling my pockets this time.

The island is known as Japan's last frontier and most of it's interior is untouched by humans, going off our experience it certainly fits this description!

Our foray inland in search of waterfalls

One of our many cycle rides

Sleeping on tatami mats

The view from our room

Taketomi Island

2010-01-07T23:24:00.001-08:00

The main island we had been been staying on, Ishigaki, is part of about 10 islands that make up the Yaeyama Island chain. These islands are about as far from Tokyo as you could get and still be 'in Japan'. They are only roughly 100km from Taiwan! All of the islands looked stunning and their blue water and golden beaches were obvious on the flight in, we were heading off to spend 3 days on one of them but before this we headed out to Taketomi Island for a day trip. This tiny island, only about 2km across, is like a living museum and residents have fought to keep the advances in civilization at bay.

They have banned the Japanese symbol of modernization, the convenience store (for anyone outside of Japan convenience stores are a cross between a dairy and a petrol station shop and contain everything you could imagine). The roads are made of crushed coral, the streets are narrow and the walls are made of rocks.
Besides just wandering around in what felt like 17th century Japan the highlight of the day would have to have been the buffalo cart ride. A large, friendly but apparently partially blind buffalo from Hokkaido (?? hell of a long way from home!!) called 'Tomi' pulled us around the island as his keeper chatted away in Japanese and regularly stopped to place a bucket under is bum.

Swimming with the fish!

2010-01-07T01:37:00.000-08:00

The next morning we woke to brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky, after munching through the delicious hotel breakfast we zoomed off to the airport on the fantastic monorail. After a short 1hr flight and what had seemed like a years worth of anticipation we landed on Ishigaki Island...a real tropical island... the reef that extends around the whole island could easily been seen from the plane and the turquoise blue water was so inviting!

We quickly found our accommodation, hired some snorkel gear and a car and headed off in search of blue water, a sandy beech and coral! The trusty tourist map lead us to a beautiful beach called 'Yonehara' and with the sun still warming our (my) bald head we donned the snorkel and mask and set forth into the deep blue. Literally 1m from the beach the coral began and the underwater world was truly spectacular.

All sorts of colored fish and coral greeted us and everywhere you turned it was like a new world to explore. The highlight would have to have been finding a real life NEMO family and spending a good 20mins watching them go about their fishy business. We spent most of the afternoon lapping it up and only when the mask had permanently etched a line in my face did we reluctantly get out. Back into the rental with smiles plastering our faces we carried onto Kabira bay, a stunningly beautiful bay with small islands and home to Japan's black pearl industry. With swimming banned here we splashed out on a glass bottom boat ride and spent the next 1/2hr peering through the glass at life under the ocean. Definitely worth it to see more amazing coral but our snorkeling still rated as a much better way to swim with the fishies.

As the sun was setting into the South China Sea we found a well positioned lighthouse and lookout to watch the sunset. Every tourist on the island also had the same idea! The rest of our time on Ishigaki was spent driving from one beach or lookout/lighthouse to another and enjoying wearing t-shirts and shorts again!

The town was easily explored on the free bikes from our hotel and it seemed we were a world away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life in Japan.

Okinawa part 1

2010-01-04T23:18:00.000-08:00

Hello Hello Hello,

Following on from Megs earlier blog about xmas I'll pick up the holiday theme and fill you all in on that. With winter taking a tight strangle hold on Japan we decided to bugger off south to the tropics. Most people have no idea that Japan has tropical islands and very few tourists every venture own that far. The prefecture of Okinawa is the most southern in Japan and when you look at a map you'd easily think it could be another country altogether. Most of the islands are actually closer to Taiwan than mainland Japan. Back in the day when samurais walked around and the west knew nothing of Japan the islands were a separate kingdom. Japan invaded, took control, then world war 2 came along, the Japs lost to America and those sods took over. The calendar ticked on until 1972 when it was returned to Japan. History lesson over.

After a 2hr train trip, 2hr flight and a 2 minute monorail trip (actually 12 but i had a theme going) we had made it to Naha the main city on the island of Okinawa. This is a good time to tell you i love monorails. Why don't all major cities have them, if i were the mayor of one they would do. They are cheap to ride, bloody fast, make absolutely no noise, don't affect the ground and are fun. Go monorails.

Day 1 - saw us head into town to explore the weird mixture of Japanese and American culture. The island still has several American military bases and some 29,ooo odd military dorks. You could pick them out from their awful voices and prison style haircuts. Not that we saw many as they're all in base shinning their weapons. Downtown was cool, an assortment of crazy shops, arcades, markets all with bright lights, noisy shop keepers and the exact same prices, no need to shop around at all. I especially liked the market with pigs, tropical fish and so many other weird things i had no idea what i was looking at.

That afternoon we headed to the major castle which has been rebuilt after the Americans bombed it. I have decided a castle is a castle and every wall looks the same after a while.

Day 2 - We picked up a rental car and sped north towards the world famous aquarium. I was excited to have a gps in the flash car but it turned out to be a nightmare as it was too complicated and of course in a language i can't understand. Luckily meg has learnt the art of map reading from the master himself (bring on the amazing race)! The aquarium was incredible.

The highlight was the amazing and HUGE tank with 3 whale sharks. Your probably rolling your eyes and thinking every aquarium is the same but oh no. This one is good. We jumped into the rental with smiles and took off again on the search for tropical beaches.

Day 3 - The car was due back at 11am so with sleep still in our eyes we drove south to the war memorial museum and park and the cornerstone of peace.

I had been told this place rivals Hiroshima and even though i haven't been to Hiroshima yet i can believe it. Pretty moving see the names of 200,000 people who had died written all over granite slabs. A relaxing afternoon was followed by another adventure into town and all you can eat yakiniku (korean bbq). Yum.
To be continued......

Christmas

2010-01-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's 2010 already! We have just got back from an amazing holiday down in Okinawa (blogs on that to follow) so we are a little late with the Xmas blog! We were lucky enough to be able to spend Xmas Eve and most of Xmas day with my sister and her family... not only did this mean we had the luxury of sitting by a fire but we also got to eat many of the things we would have been having if we had been at home. On Xmas eve we had a pizza and dessert party... we were leaving for Okinawa in the afternoon of Xmas day and so to ensure we didn't miss out on dessert we made an event of it the night before! Christmas Day started off with the kids excitedly opening their presents from Santa and finished with us having eaten way too much food and then having to sit on a train for two hours followed by a plane for another two! Needless to say we were stuffed in more ways than one by the end of the day!

Food glorious food

2009-12-23T02:14:00.000-08:00

A selection of amazing treats we were sent for xmas...YUM!!!

Well this may seem like a bit of a random blog entry but since it is the festive season i guess food is major part of that. Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas, apart from the odd shop playing xmas tunes and a few commercial bits and pieces there is next to no hype, 'happy' feeling, or xmas spirit in the air. After quizzing my students and teachers on how they spend xmas day the main responses were: teachers - working and students - a normal day, maybe hang out with friends or study. So as you can see for a foreigner from a xmas celebrating country might find tings a little dull and uneventful at this time of year. Even our hopes of a white xmas have ben dashed with the recent snow melting away the sun making an appearance today (our washing liked that). S, back to the topic of tonights entry....food. I feel like showing you a small glimpse of some of the food we make at home. As you'll recall our kitchen is the size of a prison cell and getting anyting done in it requires swiss like precision. We must be swiss as we are very good at it now. Buying/eating anything non japanese around here is near impossible so we try our hardest to make things at home which are westernish. Saying that it's pretty difficult to do so the food cravings come and go! It's nice to get a break from rice and fish flakes sometimes.

Above are two types of dishes we make relatively often. The top one is ramen, basically a style of noodles with veges, meat and in a broth. The bottom one is yaki soba, very similar but without the broth, a little bit more like a stir fry noodle.

Since it's a special time of year we have splashed out and used some of the supplies sent to us to make somethings that are impossible to get here. You can't beat pancakes with caramelised apple and caramel sauce, a cooked breakfast (homemade bread, bacon, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs and BAKED BEANS...omg i love them, little morsels of love in every bite). Finally kings soup and bread.

Well that's all folks. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! We are heading south to the islands of Okinawa for sun, sand and snorkelling for our holiday so if there are no blog entries for the next 2 weeks don't fear. We are ok and we will be back!

Mochi making

2009-12-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

At school last week I had an opportunity to experience another of Japan’s many traditional practices... this time it was mochi making!

I’m not really sure how to explain exactly what mochi is... I guess in English it translates into something along the lines of a rice cake... but if you’re thinking of those dry round crispy rice cakes you buy at the supermarket then you are totally on the wrong track! Think more of a dough-like consistency that has hardly any flavour and seriously feels like chewing gum when you eat it (My English teacher was quick to tell me to make sure I only take small bites at a time to avoid choking!) In technical terms it’s a rice cake made of glutinous rice pounded into a paste and then moulded into shape.

Mochi is one of the many traditional foods they have here in Japan that is made for all kinds of occasions throughout the year... New Years being one of the main ones!

So, like anything here in Japan the day started with an opening ceremony in which we all bowed countless numbers of times... I presume we were thanking in advance all the people from the community who had come to help for the day. We were then all instructed to don our aprons and head scarves... I was a little unconventional an opted for my NZ apron rather than one of their full body smocks and wore my Santa hat rather than a bandana much to the amusement of all the students and old ladies.

It’s important to tell you at this point that on this particular day it also happened to be the coldest day we have had here thus far.... as in it was SNOWING! And not just little flakes falling from the sky every now and again... I mean a full on snow flurry that latest for most of the day!

So once we had all met the inspection of the old ladies who seemed to be running the show we were split up into three groups and each assigned to one of the three processes that are involved in the actual making of mochi.

The process is as follows:

Polished rice is soaked overnight and then cooked
The rice is then pounded with wooden mallets in a traditional mortar. Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi.
The sticky mass is then formed into shapes (we only made circles) and then it is ready to eat!

I worked out pretty early on that despite us being split up into three groups there were definite gender roles... the boys did all the pounding (while the girls in the group stood round outside in the snow freezing... they all had to wear their P.E gear... so shorts!) meanwhile the girls in the groups inside did all the shaping while the boys huddle around the tiny heater.

It was interesting to watch how the whole process unfolded but I was quick to work out that the shaping of the mochi once the boys had finished pounding it outside was definitely the step to be in on as the mochi is really warm and worked wonders at defrosting my numb fingers!

I never did manage to work out exactly who we were making the mochi for but I think it was for the community to share at their New Year’s celebrations. That probably goes some way to explaining why we made a grand total of 985 mochi!