Is there anything more exciting than the day before a big trip??

Last night while walking home quite late from showing R a different route back to his little fishing village I ran into Yamamuro and the volunteer firies. They all started acting rather foolish the moment I rocked up, and because they were in a group I guess they were feeling a little bit braver than usual. Yamamuro introduced me to the chief and a couple of his mates and then all the others started coming over to shake hands with me. Yamamuro decided to be his usual helpful self and point out all the single lads for me at which point a few of them thought it wise to inform me that they "love foreigners and want to marry a Russian". Yeah right. Nice to meet you too. I told them they should move to Hiroshima, lots of Russian hookers there for them. What is it with the Japs and Russians? They love em. I guess it's because they generally tend to fit the gaijin stereotype - that is tall, thin and blonde. But what is with announcing it to people like that? I don't go to parties at home and hear blokes I have just met saying "I love Asians, I want to marry a Malaysian", in fact, the last thing you would hear a bloke at a party talking about is marriage! (unless it's one of those parties that occurs after a wedding in which case you may hear more than the usual amount of blokey marriage conversation). And, I guess to a lot of people these days that kind of statement could be taken as a little racist really. How can you narrow your search field down to a particular nationality unless you believe that everyone from that particular country has similar characteristics?

Anyway, after this display of juvenile behaviour I was keen to head on home so Yamamuro walked me home. He started talking about his marriage woes, which was actually quite interesting for me because I have never had the inside goss on a Japanese marriage before. Seems he has got himself into quite a mess. So after all this talk I didn't end up getting to bed until about 12:30, probably a good thing because it meant I fell asleep immediately rather than lying awake being excited about my flight tonight. This morning I packed my toothbrush and I am all set. I unplugged my fridge and brought the three remaining beers with me to school and put them in the fridge here. All intentions of taking them home and giving them to one of my neighbours, but if I forget to pick them up it might not be a bad thing. Emergency supplies for after particularly bad classes...

So the plan is jump on a train to Okayama, shinkansen from there to Shin-Osaka and train it out to Kansai where I get on my plane at 1:30am. Arrive Phuket 9am tomorrow, somehow find mum at the airport and head to the nearest beach. :)

EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Typhoon season

It is now typhoon season in Japan. That means that every night during the news they show these highly detailed maps with swirling clouds and stuff and show the typhoon's predicted trajectory. It is heaps of fun for me cos we don't get that stuff at home. Typhoon number 7 passed away to our east and all we got of it was some slightly stronger winds yesterday. Typhoon 9 was no where near Japan, it passed over Taiwan and still it made it onto the map so I started wondering at which point they decide to give a typhoon a number, thereby identifying it as weather than affects this country. Even though it didn't even go near Okinawa it was still counted as Japan's typhoon number 9. Hey, just have a look at the word typhoon again;

TYPHOON

How silly is it!!

But you can do that with any word really. Last night I had salmon steak for tea. Yummmm. With a banana. Can't get much better than that. All that's left to eat now is a tomato, 2 slices of bread and a kilo of chocolate - oh, and 3 cans of beer!!

Banana Boat dadumdadumdum

Yesterday I spent hours riding on a large inflatable banana towed by a boat. Well, sometimes I was riding it, sometimes I was being thrown from it... Yamamuro, of Nishi fame, and co and I went to a beach on Yoroshima (which used to be an island before they filled in the sea between - just for fun as far as I can tell) and hung out all day. We had a BBQ (Japanese style - all meat no salad), beer, plenty of sun and some shade. The banana was heaps of fun. The water was heaps warm so it was more fun to be thrown off actually! Although the water was heaps filthy - I don't reckon I will be going back to that particular beach in a hurry! At the end of the day we did the Watermelon Bashing (I re-named it). This involves a blindfolded and disorientated person holding a large stick and attempting to smash a watermelon open. It took about 9 people but we eventually cracked it open! Above is the photo of the demolished item in question. My arms and legs got a bit burnt and unfortunately I was wearing the same bloody shorts I am always am so have managed to burn in my terrible shorts tan line again. Will remedy this at the end of the week when I am sunning myself on a beach in Thailand...

Yeah, so Thailand - only 4 days away now! I am getting heaps excited. Paid for my flights on Saturday so now I actually have tickets. Only thing I don't have is local currency because the banks here are useless. Will have to wait until I get to Kansai for that, and hope that they have what I want! I have started the process of eating everything left in the house instead of going shopping which is making for some interesting meals... I had soup for breakfast for example. And thanks to a particular generous friend I have a fridge full of mini chocolate bars to consume before Thursday too since they won't survive out of the fridge long in this heat!! Damn, I am forced to eat chocolate!

RUN!!

When people make for the emergency exit in Japan, they really go! I love this man, he is on every door in the new school.

In Okayama today catching the festival and meeting new JETs. Mostly Americans, 3 Aussies. Nice crowd. See if we can't get some touch footy action out of them! Will go now to finally pay for my flights at the travel agent from hell. Will they take my money?? Will they let me fly for free? Do they even have my tickets? Only time will tell...

Sake + Jo = Loud in any language

Wow. Last night was SO much fun!! The people who came from Nishi were all the ones I really actually like. About 9 of us all up. We gto stuck in early and for some stupid reason I decided to forsake my usual beverage of choice and have a crack at some sake. Shilly billy. The converstaion at the restaurant was hilarious and Yamamuro got pissed as a fart and was all telling the waiter that his beer glass wasn't big enough (it was practically a jug) and the waiter was all apologising as though it really was his fault. They must have been glad to see the back of us. Bloody hell, I didn't even have to pay for it! I totally forgot about that. I was the guest of honour.

Caught the last train home and went on to a wee karaoke box of Yamamuro's mates and sang and drank further with just the 4 of us. Oh man, today my head is thumping!! I came into work an hour and a half late. No one cared. There are only 3 of them in the office besides me. Oh, I managed to have a word to Yamamuro about Monday. He asked me a week ago if I wanted to go water skiing with him and some of the nishi crew but I couldn't cos I can't take any more holidays. I told him that if he rings up the school here and "requests my presence for something" at Nishi all day I can get out of school. He's gonna call today!! Totally working the system and loving it.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. Yesterday the new ALTs for the middle schools in Konko and Yoroshima arrived. They are both Aussies. Hirai asked me to come to the BOE and help them out and I arrived just as they were signing their contracts and getting their certificates and stuff. Afterwards they had a big sit down and wanted to tell them stuff about their workplace, what to wear, how to take sick days and stuff and they got me to translate! It was HEAPS of fun. Hirai can speak English, but when I am around he usually tends to slip into Jap and let me translate for him because it makes him so nervous using English. So for an hour or so I was actually using all those years of study for something kind of specialist!! It was heaps exciting - sure it's not the UN, they weren't discussing who's hiding what nukes, but I was still acting as an intermediary for communicative purposes! So yesterday was a good day for my Japanese - I actually felt like I haven't been wasting my time over here. So yeah, just gonna take a few moments to be heaps pleased with myself if you don't mind.

:)

Drinking party!!

This weekend there is some kind of festival going on in Okayama. I am going to see it, if only because this Saturday I am finally allowed to pay for my flights. Turns out to be way more expensive than what I was originally told, but that's just what tends to happen over here I reckon. Next time I go anywhere I will just book it all myself on the internet I reckon.

I found a bakery in Okayama that makes scones. Plain ones and ones with sultanas. Yum. I don't have an oven so I am heaps excited to find a place I can buy them if I get a craving. They are bloody expesnive though, about $1.70 for a fairly small size. But you take what you can get over here. This place also makes real wholegrain and multigrain breads which are pretty much impossible to find here. I should put up a picture of your average loaf of bread. I'll do that tomorrow if I get time...

Tonight is the party which Nishi arranged to say goodbye to me with... I love how they just call it what it is; a drinking meeting. nomikai. We're not interested in eating, talking or anything but drinking. Easy. I'm excited.

Bludging

Well, I have been deprived access to the internet the last couple of days. My new school, Rokusho, has had their connection sliced by the demolition crew on the school yard and they don't seem to be in a hurry to fix it. I have been going a little mental without access to mail, and hence friends. Yesterday arvo we three CIRs just took off home, each saying we were at each others schools. It worked out nicely. I went home, cracked open a tinny and had a snooze in the sun. I have a fridge full of beer now thanks to a generous neighbour who also left 6 massive peaches which have constituted a vast portion of my diet over the last couple of days.

My new school is double the size of Nishi and the building itself is brand new. The staff room is quite large and my desk is unfortunately positioned right in front of the principal's. Aside from the lack of internet thing it is all going well there. The teacher's have left me to my own business which has allowed me to sneak out early and generally do as I please. Lately I have just been working on the translation they asked me to do, which is coming along nicely. Tomorrow a couple of new teachers for the middle schools in Konko and Yoroshima arrive so Hirai has asked me to help out with them... not sure what he wants me to do. But anyway, my party with the Nishi crew is tomorrow night so I won't be helping too much after 7pm... The girl who is coming was in my Jap class at Adelaide Uni last year... small world huh? The bloke is from Sydney I think. Hopefully their arrival will mean more bludging opportunities for me... Yay!!