Never really thought of myself as a blogger before... but it seems to be the trend of late, so I thought I'd give it a go. Apologies in advance for the boring content you will endure as I capture my life in size 10 Arial font (for the most part, anyway).
So without further ado, Let's blogging!
Forgot to mention in the post about Nagoya that while Y and I were walking around the city, we were stopped by a couple of guys working for a local fashion magazine. They asked if they could interview us and take our photo for the next issue. We weren't really dressed up at all so it was a bit weird and embarrassing. We had to list everything we were wearing; the brand name and where we bought it from. We were both very international though. Between the two of us, I think we covered Japan, Australia, Singapore, UK, Korea...
After the interview, we went on our way and laughed about it for a while. Then we thought we should go to a bookstore and find the current issue. We couldn't find it. No shop had it, so we started to think we had been done. But this month's edition was to be released the next day, so we went back to the bookstores and searched again. We found it, and went to the "fashion on the street" pages. Everyone was dressed up, and were really fashionable. We're going to look so daggy haha. We probably won't even make the cut. Ah well. It was fun.
Well this is apparently my 100th post. Pretty exciting stuff huh?
I went to Nagoya on the weekend to see a friend. J-kun drove me to Kiryu station on Thursday night so I could take the night bus to Nagoya. I had taken a night bus once before in Japan, so I knew they are a pretty good deal. Single seats that recline further than normal seats, foot rest, leg rest, blanket. However, the last time I took the night bus, I didn't take a pillow. Big mistake. So this time I took my little pillow and boy was I one happy camper. What made me an even happier camper was that I got the back seat, which is the only double seat on the bus. They only sell one ticket for the two seats it seems, so I was able to spread out and managed to get about 3 hours sleep. The reasons I didn't sleep more was because they kept turning on the lights at every stop along the way, and the bus also stopped at 2 rest areas within 3 hours. A little too much resting for my liking, but anyway.
But yeh, had a good couple of days in Nagoya and Inuyama. Didn't really do much touristy stuff; it was more like a "chill" holiday which was what I wanted.Came home on the night bus last night, took the train from Kiryu to Azuma, saw my students on the train, and then came home and slept. A nice sunny day today - perfect day to take paid leave and rest.
I was cleaning up my apartment tonight in anticipation of guests and found something that I was given in Sapporo. People were handing out pamphlets in the streets on how to walk safely on icy roads.It's pretty comprehensive. And the pictures make it interesting. Check out the guy in (1) in the Safe Walking in Winter section.
This morning we had a seitokai (student-body assembly), and I was running late. These are held in the gym so I was on my way over there at fast-pace when I caught up to two 3nensei girls. They started to go upstairs towards the music room. I asked them where they were going. After looking at each other, they said they had singing practice this morning. I asked about the seitokai and they said "Yeh, Mr Grant, just go to the gym." So I started heading towards the gym. Next thing, through fits of giggles, they're calling me back saying it's not in the gym today but in the multipurpose room next to the music room. Man, I love my kids. hehe (These two girls are the same two who stare at me constantly during class trying to catch me hiding a yawn. It's become a big joke between the three of us.)
The topic of today's seitokai was "How to wear school uniform correctly". There are three different types of uniform here - formal, sports and then the wind-breaker. Pairs of students modelled each type of uniform, but were breaking cardinal rules. Things like skirt was too short, collar was up, belt was hanging down... you know, things that I always do (well, except the skirt bit). Anyway, when the two students modelling the sports uniform walked out, the entire school - including some teachers - started saying "kakkoii!!! kakkoii!!!", which means 'cool'. The boy did look cool, I have to admit. He had his collar up. The zipper in the neck was unzipped. His sleeves were rolled up. His pants were a little low. (Again, these are all things I do. Does that make me kakkoii?)
But everything was wrong. The students aren't allowed to have their sleeves rolled up. Long sleeves are either on or off - there's no in between. The zipper in the neck must be half zipped up with the collar folded down.
I learnt something today. And I guess I should try to follow these rules too. Well, when I'm at work anyway.
Last week I joined a huge group of ALTs on the HAJET Snow Festival trip to Hokkaido. Had an awesome time. After waiting til the last minute to board the plane in Tokyo (thanks Erika), and after experiencing a little turbulence on the decent, we arrived in Sapporo around 5:30pm on Thursday.
Checked into the Hotel Mets and then N, J and I went in search of some dinner. Stumbled across a Chinese Restaurant hidden behind the 2 metre-high pile of snow on the footpath. Good food, good Chinese wine and cheap.
On Friday the three of us went to the Historical Village just outside of Sapporo. It was cold and snowy, so not many people were there. We managed to pass the time pretty quickly there, and possibly broke a few rules along the way, but it was good fun.
Then we went back into the city and went to the “Third most disappointing tourist spot in Japan” – the Sapporo Clock Tower. And disappoint, it did. We were there for about 5 minutes before moving on to the TV Tower. Sapporo’s attempt at copying the Eiffel Tower.
After that we took the street car to the ropeway and went up a mountain for the night view. But the ropeway doesn’t take you all the way up. You then have to go in a bus-type vehicle with snow tractors on it. Or, you can ride in the open sleigh-type thing behind the bus. Which is what we did. BIG MISTAKE. I have never been so cold in my entire life. It was already –11 degrees up there, but when you get coated in snow from the bus’ snow tractors and drenched in the fine mist it also creates, it feels much colder than –11. Needless to say, we rode inside the bus on the way back. Amazing views of Sapporo from there though.
Then it was back onto the street car and into Susukino for some much anticipated miso-ramen. Man it was good! After we ate and embarrassed the chef by taking his photo, we went to look at the ice sculptures. Some were amazing. Some, well, I couldn’t quite grasp what they were going for. But the Karaoke ice room with free hot whiskey and hot baileys was pretty cool.
And that was Friday.
Saturday we went and looked at the snow sculptures on Odori. They were cool! And so big. This year is the Year of Friendship between Japan and Australia (or something along those lines anyway) so two of the main sculptures were Aussie buildings. The Opera House and the Harbour Bride, right? Nope. Melbourne’s Exhibition Building and Flinders Street Station. They were amazing.
We spent about 4 or 5 hours there – even saw an Electone performance. Then we did our souvenir shopping and went back to the hotel. Dinner was at the Kirin Beer Garden. All you can eat and all you can drink for 100 minutes for 3700 yen. And eat and drink we did. J and I decided it would be nice to go and offer other patrons beer, but we were stopped by staff after only pouring two beers. Ah well, we tried.
Sunday was departure day. Left Sapporo at 11:30am (no rush for the gates this time) and got back to Tokyo around 1pm. Spent the afternoon in Tokyo shopping and then got home around midnight. A great weekend. Thanks guys!
Yep, 'tis February. The signs are up and the sales are on - all in the name of Love. In Japan, Valentine's Day is spread over two days - the typical February 14th and also March 14th. On February 14th, girls give boys chocolates. Apparently, many girls feel that chocolates bought from a store don't convey true love, so they make them themselves. Sugoi ne. Then, on March 14 - called White Day - boys return the notion by giving girls candy. Apparently White Day was started by a marshmallow company back in the 1960s. It's said the candy company was jealous of the sales of chocolate companies around Valentine's Day, so as compensation - and to further commercialisation - they created White Day.
I am making an English poster at the moment about Valentine's Day to hang up in school. Was doing some research and googled "Valentine's around the world", which brought me to this website. Pretty interesting.
