Just cos they're funny!

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

School lunch from hell...

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

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

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

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

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...

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!