I am not running for office

Today the year 5s are on an excursion which means that MAYBE I will get to eat my food when it is hot in the staffroom! How exciting! Yesterday the lunch was again a bit dodgy, they seem to love the whole fish situation here, it comes out every second lunchtime. I always ask the kids "Do you eat the head on this fish?". Some you do, some you don't, best to make sure, don't wanna be eating any more fish heads than I need to. The woman who is the general office lady person (ie. does nothing) is always taking charge of the lunch dishing up scenario and lately has taken to making "helpful" comments about my method of dividing the food, or of laying out the trays, or whatever she can find to pick on. My general tactic with such people as her is to just ignore them completely and continue doing things my own way - a course of action that is particularly effective here because all social norms dictate that I should at least acknowledge that I've heard her if not adjust my actions accordingly. So when she says "That plate has more salad than the rest", I don't say anything and just keep doing what I'm doing whereas the other teachers she tries it on with are all "Oh really? Let me fix that up immediately, sorry, sorry, so sorry, sorry, I really can't be sorry enough. Golly gosh I am bad at this job aren't I! Thank you for pointing it out. Sorry again." Picture me rolling my eyes extravagantly in the back. Hilariously, and perhaps rather predictably, whenever she is in control of a serving spoon there are always bowls with heaps of rice in them and bowls with hardly any, and then she hands out the trays to people's desks herself to make sure her favourites get the most food. Clearly this is why I get a smaller portion everyday :) Office politics, huh?

There's some kind of English study going on in this school next year so in preparation for that they have suddenly decided that all the homeroom teachers need to be participating more in my classes. I am not so sure they need to. All it means is more work for me because I now have to explain what I will do in class to the teacher beforehand. They are always busy and I hate talking to people at work, so I have just printed out a heap of "English Lesson Outline" sheets and will just slip them love letters before their classes. I reckon they'll apreciate that more since they can hardly be expected to remember such small details about a class someone else will be conducting in 3 or 4 days time.

Last night I was at the Konko Hospital getting some blood taken (and getting the results back in only 20 minutes too!!) and ran into one of my year 4 students from Rokusho. She told me that she missed my English classes cos they were fun and that made me feel a little bit bettter about what I am doing here. I miss that school too, where no one ever looked over your shoulder, or made stupid jokes about your hairstyle, or any such stupidity.

Dusk

I had a bit of an odd weekend. Spent both Friday and Saturday night out having a few drinks. Saturday I went into a bar that I can neither pronounce or spell in Kurashiki and caught up with some work people. I've turned into a bit of a whiskey drinker lately and this place is great cos they put the whiskey on a rock. Just one big sqaure chunk of ice. I'm easily amused. But not so great was how they ran out of whiskey right after my first drink. ??? So I reluctantly switched to umeshuu (sake with plum). I decided to stay the night at someone's house rather than catch the last train back since I had to be in Kurashiki the next day for Spanish class anyway. I was feeling heaps dodgy the next day since I had been wearing the same clothes for well past their useby date, and had had little sleep. But the Spanish class was fun. Mostly older Japanese ladies so we were well provided with refreshments and snacks. The teacher is actually Spanish which is a relief. I was sitting next to a bloke from California but we only spoke in Japanese and Spanish the whole time, it was quite amusing! It was interesting and kind of refreshing being unable to understand what was going on around me, I quite liked it. Mostly at work I think I would be better off if I didn't understand what was going on too :) The classes only run every 2 weeks though so I will only get in about 4 lessons before I leave. Still, something to do.

This week the next month's teaching schedule starts, for which I need to print heaps of materials, but the only printer that will fit the thick game card in it is broken. SO typical! Anything that seems simple, never is. Speaking of which, I am just looking out the window at the year 3s on the oval while they all attempt to skip. Are all kids this unco? There are only about 2 of them getting it right, the rest are just whipping themselves in the legs repeatedly! Some of them probably deserve it though ;)

Oh yeah, I put in a picture of the view out of my kitchen windows just a little after the sun went down. I bought a new camera. Finally relented on the Digital SLR issue and I am not sorry about it. I spent all yesterday arvo playing around taking pics and it is so great to just be able to stuff about and if the picture doesn't work out, you can see it straight away and try again. Previously I was developing rolls of film all the time only to get one or two good shots out of it and at $15 a roll, that's expensive. I have been thinking about it for a while and then my neighbour got himself one and I was all green about it and thought, well what the hell is the point of doing all this dull work if I can't get something I want with the money I earn? Took a fair amount of this kind of self-dialogue to get myself to part with the money though! It was heaps funny at the shop though. I had already done heaps of research on the net over the latest cameras so I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted. I was having a scroll through the menu of one camera when the salesgirl who had been stalking me for the last 5 minutes finally got up enough courage to talk to me and the first thing she said was "I wouldn't recommend that camera." Oh? "Why not?" I ask, already preparing to be amused. "It doesn't take good pictures." Oh yes, this is the camera that Canon produce simply as an example of what NOT to do - how silly of me. What a stupid thing for her to say! I raised my eyebrows at this in indication that she should perhaps expand a little on her claim, but all she did was say "These ones are better" and gesture in the direction of some $2000 cameras with a bazillion megapixels and functions that I would never need. Right-o love, whatever. I ended up buying the camera that she didn't recommend. And you know, I think it takes pictures just fine! Plus I ended up getting a tripod, case, 512MB card and a filter into the bargain. Can't go wrong. Suffice to say, if the photos I take are shit, it's because I am a crap photographer, not because the camera is crap :)

Australia Day Bash

Well I am sure everyone is currently gathered around a BBQ listening to the JJJ countdown rather than reading this, and how jealous do you suppose I am about that? Today the school had some musicians come in and perform for the kids and tell them a few things about music and musical instruments. It was quite good really and I think the kids enjoyed it. Plus it meant two of my classes were cancelled! So this arvo I'm just going to get stuck into some prep for next week and then I'm off to the Aussie Bar in Okayama for some amber ale and hopefully some Aussie-esque conversation. One thing I decided today; all those who cannot clap in time with music depsite there being 306 others around them to act as an example should NOT be allowed to attend musical performances. I'm not sure what the bigger crime is, these people not noticing they are out of time, or not caring?

Anyway, celebratory blue text today; here's to the first steps for a regression to the White Australia Policy. CHEERS!! Here's to less artsy fartsy classes and more real classes in school. CHEERS!! Here's to Warney getting back with the wife. CHEERS!!

Japanese comedy strikes a chord

Last night I was watching this HILARIOUS tv show. Every week this group of comedians get up to all different stuff. One of the spots is where the men all dress up as ladies and go to the 100yen shop with a special guest (who is usually a real woman) and one by one they have to take something from a selection of items in front of them and buy it. If the item scanned comes up as anything but 100yen they lose. So there's maybe 10 items there, and one of them will be worth like 45,000yen rather than 100yen. The next spot they do is get all dressed up as insects, the men crickets, the 2 women bees (one of the men is a dung beetle and rolls in a giant ball of shit with his legs up in the air and says something every now and then) and perform ridiculous acts. This weeks one was The Shortest Skipping Rope. They had to take turns jumping through an increasingly short skipping rope. If they stuffed it up the women eat something really smelly, like garlic cloves, and breathe into a pipe onto their face. It's great. Last night they got down to a 5cm skipping rope!! I was laughing my arse off :) The funniest thing though is when they do the sooky lala early 20s man and his mum skit. This guy sits in his room all day playing computer games and his mum is always coming into his room to clean up (and apologise for disturbing him) and they always end up in a huge fight. Last night she came in and asked if she could play the game with him. He let her, but then she was really good at it and he freaked out and they had a fight. It's hard to explain why it's so funny if you haven't seen the way Japanese mothers treat their fully-grown-but-unable-to-look-after-themselves sons. Even funnier is the commentators they have calling the tension in the bedroom as it all escalates towards a fight. Yeah Wednesday nights are pretty ok for TV here.

Higashi Festival

Monday night I ate a few oysters but they really weren't floating my boat. I can't find Worchestershire sauce here and bacon is heaps expensive so I didn't do the Kilpatrick thing, just a bit of cheese or something. Meh, they weren't that yummy and pretty labour intensive and i was hungry so I just gave up and ate some bread instead.

Today there was a festival type arrangement here. Each of the classes had made games, like sideshows at the Royal Show, for us to play. I wandered about from room to room and did a few things, won a few origami prizes and so on. The year 6s had set up a ghost tunnel in the gym and some of the year 1s came out in tears! I just got sprayed with water (a lot) and walked into a lot of walls cos I couldn't see where I was going! Now I am sitting completely alone in the staffroom with no idea where everyone has gone and I really don't want to find out cos it might be that they are cleaning up or something and I'd rather just sit here :) Lazy git that I am.

Fire Fire

Sunday morning I was up at the crack of dawn and getting into my suit, doing my hair and other things that you normally not find me doing on a SUNDAY at all, let alone so early. WHY??? Well, I had to attend the Volunteer Firefighters Ceremony. Hirai picked me up, 2 other local foreigners were already in the car, and off we went to the huge completely underused hall in Yoroshima (a tiny town where nothing happens which leads me to believe the hall was built with dirty election money). 20 minutes later our suits are covered up by a massively oversized, thick, heavy traditional firefighting jacket, a navy blue bowlers hat, white cotton gloves and a sash proclaiming that we are Asaguchi City International Representatives finishes the look. We look five kinds of ridiculous but the 6 strangers crammed into the office with us watching us change tell us we look "cool". Yeah right. We had not one but TWO TV cameras shoved in our faces while we sat on the couch waiting fo rthe ceremony to start. We were exchanging varius smart arse comments and attemtping to avoid having our faces caught on camera the whole time. They don't even ask, or introduce themselves, they just start filming! Then an extremely nervous reporter from local TV came in and asked us some very stupid questions like "What is your impression of the firefighter's ceremony?" to which I replied "Well, we haven't seen it yet have we?" and she backed off fairly quickly. Mean, perhaps, but come ON it was way too early in the morning to put up with that kind of stupidity. Then the wives of a couple of the official type dudes came in and started taking pictures of us. Somehow conversation turned to my experience with crime in my house and the older ladies said that it was "Just beacuse you are so pretty, everyone wants to have a look at you" What?? Is that supposed to make me feel better? Is it supposed to be a compliment? And it is also kind of insinuating that if I am goodlooking I should expect, and deserve that kind of attention. Oh yes I am so flattered that a cretin with a penchant for ladies underwear has chosen me as his amour.

Anyway, after those few comments we were ushered upstairs and onto the stage and placed into seats on the second row on the right side of the stage. The left side was also set up wth seats which filled up with various old men dressed in ill fitting navy blue uniforms, some with a rather alarming amount of gold braiding hanging off their shoulders. One bloke, the BIG VIP, even had a couple of bodyguards with him! We foreigners were introduced basicaly straigtht away and had to stand up and salute (which I "forgot" to do). We then had to turn and face the Japanese flag and sing the national anthem. Have you ever heard the Japanese anthem? It is very somber and a bit like someone's funeral and in the end it kind of just trails off like applause at a half arsed show. Weird. Then all the handing over of awards and so on started. It was SO dull. Everytime somone got up to talk or to present an award (which there seemed to be a million of) they would have to bow to both sides of the stage, bow to the flag and then start talking, and when returning, the whole procedure in reverse. Ridiculous. One funny thing was how some of the older guys would try and do the official feet turning thing like they were soldiers on parade or something. But they clearly were unused to it and being fat had poor balance so they would swivel around and wobble like a gymnast who isn't going to get a medal, huffing and puffing. Another funny thing was how they all kept falling asleep! At least we weren't the only ones to find it boring.

An hour and a half later it was all over and we were allowed to leave the stage (supposing our legs could still work). On the way back to the small office where we had started this whole charade out we were handed a bag witha largish foam box in it that was quite heavy. We were told that it contained "kaki". Now kaki can mean either "persimmon" or "oysters". I translated it as persimmon because frankly it never crossed my mind that they would give us a box of oysters. But boy did I get a surprise when I opened the box at home! About 2 dozen oysters, as big as my hand! This should be a good thing Iguess, because oysters are expensive and all that, but I have NO idea how to cook them. As I was getting out of the car Hirai went to great pains to explain that we must COOK the kaki. At the time I thought it was odd because cooking persimmon seemed odd... but cooking oysters - I thought you ate them raw too? I put them all in my fridge and thought about it for a few hours. Eventually I decided to have a crack at getting one open - no luck there. So I shoved it under the grill for a while and it cracked open. I thought that it might made me sick if it wasnt cooked properly, but THEN I thought that if it did make me sick I could get the Monday off of work... so I ate it :) I was fine, clearly, but have left the rest of them in the fridge. Today I'm going to look up a way to make them taste better on the internet and have a feast tonight.

So not your average weekend!

Yuck yuck

I think I've been pretty solid with my strange food eating since I have been in Japan. There isn't much I won't eat, and there is nothing I won't have a crack at for the first time but today I just reached my limit for small deep fried fish. A few people were away so we all got more than the usual amount of food each which meant I had a cup overflowing with these yellow stiff things, all looking at me with black black eyes. They were about 4 or 5 cm long, so big enough that you consider things like "I'm eating fish head, fish eyes, fish guts, fish poo holes...". I struggled through though and ate the whole lot of them, following each one with a mouthful of rice and a sip of milk. I thought the worst of it was over then, but when I got back to my desk after lunch I could still taste them in my mouth and visions of fish guts kept jumping into my head making me feel decidedly queasy. I cannot wait for the day when I can go back to eating whatever I decide. Living alone is great for many reasons, one of them being that you have complete control over your diet. Anything you eat is your own decision, not just because someone else brought it home, or cooked it so I have struggled with having my lunch menu arbitrarily decided for me by the school system. Especially when they decide to give me whole fish! Here's to my imminent dietary emancipation!

Well done, have a flower

This morning I had to go up to the year 5 class and mark their maths worksheets for them. In Japan you can't put ticks or crosses on the kids' work. A cross is obviously bad, but for some reason a tick is also bad. If they answer correctly you circle it, if incorrect you just leave it blank and they have to try again. When a teacher is marking a written assignment or some such, they read the whole thing and if it is right they use a red pen to draw a big spiral all over the page, over all the kids writing, and then put petals on it to make it a flower. Is that not weird? To me it is defacing the kids' work, and what's with the flower thing?

EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So far today we've had 3 crying children and 5 temper tantrums.... tops! At the other end of the happy spectrum, I had an e-mail from the BOE asking us all to confirm whether we will be re-contracting for 2007-8 or not. I gleefully replied that I would NOT be re-contracting and will be skipping out of Japan as soon as possible. Well, I didn't add that last bit since I might need them to be a reference for me and that might piss them off. Although, how can they be a reference for me when they don't speak English? Hmm, this is a concern. I suppose I really should be a tad more concerned that in 2 and a half months I will be unemployed... but I can't. It just seems like the best thing ever currently. I guess being unemployed with no savings and no prospect of finding other work would be tough, but such isn't the case here.

There's a teacher running a PE class just outside the staffrom window and he is WAY too in love with his electronic whistle. Surely there can be no need for so much shrieking? Haha! One of the teachers sitting next to me just went to the window and used the megaphone to tell them to shut the hell up! Fantastic.

Mindnumbing

I just caused a major commotion in the office by asking to have the previous teacher's posters sent to her new school. Everyday the school's send each other documents and so on with their own mini postal system. It is basically just that one admin staff goes around to each school at 11am ish each day picking up their mail, dropping off stuff and so on. Very easy, the schools each have their own car. So in my mind sending posters to Nishi is easy, I just leave it here and who ever goes to Nishi, or comes from Nishi that day, takes it there. Oh NO, of course nothing would be that simple. The size of the posters was an issue apparently. Unless it could fit inside an envelope, they couldn't send it. It's not the real mail guys, you don't need an envelope. But oh my god was there chaos for a good five minutes before someone finally found a HUGE envelope and stuffed one corner of the poster into it. All fixed. What the hell? There was no difference between the size, weight, ease in carrying of the posters before or after they shoved one corner into an envelope. I would say that folks around here are bad at problem solving except that mostly they are trying to find solutions to things that I wouldn't even consider a problem to begin with.

Serious tears

Week 2 at my new school and it's looking a little bit better. Today I have 5 classes back to back which I thought would be kind of tiresome, but they are all the lower primary grades which I have the most fun with so it's been not so bad. The 6th period today is club activities and I am just hoping to god that I am not expected to participate at this school. In my year 1 class today there was a child who cried from the moment she walked in until the moment she left. I've never seen such a thing. In fact, everytime I have seen her she has been crying. I am not sure if she has a mental problem or a personality problem but it's just incredible. She even has the tears happening and everything, they roll down her face and saturate her dress, she must drink a lot of water to keep her tear ducts hydrated...

Today it is exactly 2 and a half months until I can leave! Not that I'm counting or anything

Crazy train lady

When I was in Tokyo I saw a homeless man sleeping on a futon with blankets and everything. Homeless only in that he has no actual home, but he does have all the furnishings. Bums in Japan are rich men in India I suspect. My neighbour told me he saw a homeless man with an MD player. Yeah that's rock bottom, when you're stuck with a shitty MD player, I really feel like I want to work in a soup kitchen for that bloke.

Also, when I was in Tokyo I witnessed a Japanese lady going ballistic on the train. There were 4 or 5 Italian youths (dressed like god knows what, some mix of punk and goth) talking at one end of the carriage. Sitting opposite me was an elderly lady who was looking pretty put out by the Italian chattering. She kept giving them disgusted looks and fidgeting, and eventually she yelled out "shut up!" at them. They basically ignored her, they didn't speak any Japanese, for all they knew she was just a crazy person. The lady continues her tirade "Be quiet! This is Japan, in this country you don't talk on the trains, you sit in silence!" "ShutUP!!". They just kept talking. It was amusing for me because I could understand what she was saying, and I wasn't Japanese so it didn't make me uncomfortable. In my opinion the Italians were not being noisy. They were just talking at a pretty acceptable volume, it just seemed loud because everyone else was being so quiet, but the reason they were being quiet is because they were all travelling alone. I have never experienced so much chaos on a train as when a group of young Japanese get on together, so I doubt there was any real substance in this lady's claim that in Japan it is rude to talk on the train. She kept on yelling intermittently at them and they went on ignoring her until they eventually got off at Ginza. She got off too and followed them, trying to shoot them with death rays, except that she didn't have any so she just looked ridiculous and grumpy. It all amused me no end though. Thanks crazy lady!

Real Indian food, hmmmm

On Friday night I went out for the birthday of one of the foreigners who lives in the area. We went to an Indian restaurant and had real curry and stuff. Yum. May need to revisit the place I think. The restaurant is quite large by Japanese standards, the toilet was the talking point of the evening for some reason too. Only because it was so large, decorated a little too self consciously I thought, but everyone was raving. Funny the things that will catch people's attention here. I shared a bottle of wine with my neighbour's girlfriend and we had a private discussion of the type that only red wine seems to induce while everyone chatted around us. The table was long and skinny so I was cut off from conversation with those at the other end, which is something that always irks me about going out in large groups. Invariably I get stuck sitting opposite someone with whom I have little in common and/or little desire to talk to. Friday night was no exception. There was a small discussion at the end of the night about blogs, and how anything you write can be read by anyone who has the internet. So it is possible of course that someone I have never and will never meet knows about as much about me as all of you who I invite to read this. I do try and preserve the anonymity of those I mention in my blog, but for anyone who lives in the same area as me, it is very obvious who I am talking about when I relate certain events. This makes me a little reluctant to say what I think of certain people, even when it's an interesting story, because there is the chance the person themselves could read this. It doesn't matter if they know what I think of course, and if they have any amount of perception about them at all, they would be well aware that I am not a fan, but all the same it's just not very nice to have yourself spoken about negatively in a public areana. So what does that all mean for you? You miss out on a funny story.

After dinner we went out for some karaoke and ended up staying out until quite late actually. I didn't drink an awful lot. I seem to have acquired a taste for whiskey during my skiing trip though. Interesting. Whiskey is actually really cheap over here, I think because it's not that popular so they have to entice everyone to drink it by dropping the price a bit. Well, karaoke was fun, drunk people having a crack at loud songs always has a high amusement value. My neighbour kindly drove us home afterwards, there's no way a late night like that is possible unless you have someone to drive you home since the trains stop at just before midnight :( Saturday morning I slept in until about noon, it was great. It was kind of depressing wandering about Okayama in the arvo though, kind of "Oh, back to this again" feeling. And DOUBLY depressing having to work today. They are having some kind of stupid festival arrangement in the arvo as well which I am sure will prove to be extremely dull.

Red means STOP!...if you want to

Friday YAY!! Tonight there is a birthday party happening for one of the foreigners who lives in the next town too, so a real Friday night! I have to work this Sunday. There is an open day for parents to come and watch the classes. I don't have to do any of them classes, but I do still have to be here. But I get Monday off. My classes today were heaps better than yesterday. After the year 6 class yesterday arvo I had to give them a big lecture about how to have fun. Hopefully they'll be better next week... I just remembered something funny. When I was going over to the kindy on Tuesday to say Gday and introduce myself to the kids I was accompanied by the principal. The kindy at this school is on the other side of the river so we had to cross a couple of streets on the way, but they are only tiny backstreets. The principal actually pressed the pedestrian crossing light and waited for it to turn green. The street was only about 4 metres wide, there were no cars in sight, and we had to stand there waiting for the green man. It was hilarious. On the way back he said "This street is very dangerous". Oh yes? It's biazarre how they stick to the rules like that even when no one is watching. Often, in the cities, when I am stopped by a red light but there are no cars anywhere I will just walk across the road. As a pedestrian I treat traffic lights as a serving suggestion. If there are no cars coming, I'm not going to wait. Usually, if there is another person standing there waiting when I arrive at the crossing they will follow me across the road. But if I hadn't come along and walked in front of them, they would stand there waiting for the green man. Baa Baa!

Snowy stuff

The view from my hotel window in the morning! HEAPS of snow!

Me and my little snowman dude. Snow is heaps of fun!

Can't I just stay at my old school?

So... my new school pretty much sucks then.

The kids are friendlier, but the teachers are not. They are also very lazy compared to the last school I was at. They let the kids get away with lots that they don't at Rokusho. It seems that the kids are impossible to shut up. Also annoying is the tiny school lunch portions, and how late the kids eat. I get my lunch dished up at 12:15, when I go upstairs to eat with the kids at 12:45 they haven't even gone down to get it yet. Seems like my food is gonna be very cold this semester. And the homeroom teacher is hardly ever with his class, they are just left to their own devices. Because of this a lot of bullying goes on, the kids are always whispering secrets around the class, swapping their food, making deals and stuff. This sort of thing rarely happened at the other school because the teacher was always with their class watching them and talking to them.

I also feel a bit in the way here. There are teachers who plainly just do not want me in the school, and do not see the point of English class. Yesterday during my grade 3 class I was just having fun with the kids explaining about Australian stuff (which they had asked me about) and the teacher stepped in and just said "They don't know about Australia OK, this is ridiculous" and totally ruined the mood.

Sigh.

Higashi-sho - the gossip school

The teachers at my new school are the nosiest people I have ever encountered. Last night before I went home I was just checking my e-mail and Kataoka comes over, leans right in looking at the screen and asks me what I am looking up! When I replied "e-mail" he asked where my e-mail is, who I use or whatever and I'm surprised he didn't ask for my username and password too. He then proceeded to give me the 3rd degree about how many times I've been in Japan and which cities I've visited here and so on. Also said I was wasting my time skiing in Nagano when the snow is so much better in Hokkaido. Yeah, even though Nagano is good enough for the Olympics Games, it's lacking something for me. And today while I was on the computer earlier on I could hear the Head Teacher spouting off my details to a textbook delivery man like I was a recently purchased pedigree dog or something. My height, dental structure, typing speed... I'm sure it's only going to be a matter of time before they find a way to weigh me too. Slip a scale under my chair or something...

Meanwhile I am yet to teach a class here, although I did do the kindy this morning. We had fun, they are much better behaved than the kids at the other school. Today I'm just feeling worn out and a little bit resentful at having to get used to a whole new workplace again. I have a feeling that the kids won't be an issue here, but that the teachers are going to be a trial. They're throwing me a welcome party today where I have to make a speech to introduce myself. It is merely a thinkly veiled inquisition, I wouldn't be surprised if they take notes and compare them later.

Skiing is tops fun!

Well, here I am back at work. Yay!! The new school is called Higashi-sho and I will be here until the end of my contract on March 31st. The teachers all seem friendly enough. My classes start tomorrow with a morning at the kindy... Eew. But I've figured it all out and there are only 11 weeks left of teaching here. Easy. The school is about a half hour walk from my house which I'm glad about since it will force me to actually do some exercise ;) There are fewer kids here than my previous school, but not by much so I will be kept fairly busy again. It feels very wrong to be at work.

My holidays were tops. I went up to Tokyo, caught up with an old friend from when I was studying in Hiroshima. Wandered about Tokyo for a while, even did some shopping on the 2nd in the Ginza, not that I could really afford anything they were selling, even at 50%off! All the shops are getting rid of their stock in massive sales and since there's little else to do on the second day of the year everyone gets down there and spends all their new year's money. But by far the best part of the holiday was skiing in Nagano. It ended up taking a fair while to get there by shinkansen and then bus to Hakuba. But there was plenty of powdery snow and for the 2 days I was on the slopes, blue skies too! Very lucky. Skiing is heaps of fun, at first I was a bit skeptical about it all, especially after I went for a massive stack and used my face as a plough for a while. But I got the hang of it pretty quickly and after the second day was cruising down the hill without any worries. Managing to keep myself in a straight line, or at least a controlled curve might not have been quite so stressful if not for the fact that the beginngers slope was right on the edge of a sheer drop down the mountain! Had I gotten out of control and slid off the edge I wouldn't have been coming up without the help of a helicopter or a sky hook I reckon! Even though the weather was fabulous there really weren't too many people around and waiting for the ski lift really wasn't such a big deal. I have a few photos which I might put up later. But really I didn't take many, I was just enjoying myself. Besides, it's all just Japan aye!

Hope everyone else had a good break and have adjusted to being back at work without too many issues... I'll get onto that bit now :)

Can Jo ski?

Yes she can!

Pollywaffles

What's the story?

It's January

I'm in the snow!!!

Happy New Year!!

G'day 2007! Hmm, I have a feeling that I was the only one of the people I know who was up and about at 6am this morning, but then again, I am also probably the last person to see the new year since I was well asleep at midnight. My bus was quite comfy, the seats are spacious, they lean right back almost flat. Even so, after 11 hours in such a position I was ready to get out. My feet had swollen up a bit and everything! But hey, here I am in Tokyo. I spent some time this morning wandering aimlessly in Shinjuku trying to find either an internet cafe or a hotel with reasonable prices. I called a few capsule hotels but there are few which welcome females and none of them had an vacancies unfortunately. I have just decided to bite the bullet and fork out for a real hotel. I think after 3 days without a shower I might appreciate the bathroom arrangement there... It's urban camping :)