Jottings of Japan

A new life

2007-02-27T20:01:00.000+09:00

I've been staring at my keyboard for about 5 minutes now, wondering how to start this post. It's been so long since I've written something that it would be wrong to continue as if the posting-drought didn't exist.

But I've restarted this blog a number of times, and I don't want to rehash the "been a while" posts that I've written before.

You can tell by the flow - or lack thereof - of this post that I'm out of touch.

I was chatting to N the other day (so glad I have here with me here in Australia) and we both said that we miss our blogs. We missed sitting down and putting our thoughts, experiences, dreams and feelings into words for anyone and everyone to read.

So here I sit tonight, wondering whether I should get back into blogging.

But I'm really tired. So I think I will leave the wondering for another night.

Random post

2006-09-25T01:52:00.000+09:00

So, I haven't written in a long time, and now I am in Germany. I have been here for about 5 days I think. Before that I was in Ireland for a bit over a week.

And everything has been going so fast. Ireland was a lot of "old" with beautiful scenery. Germany has been a lot of beer (what else could you expect when you go to Oktoberfest?) and lots of expensive cars. Taxi drivers drive Benzs and Police drive BMWs. Prost!

Bought some Birkenstocks, went to see a mad man's castle (the inspiration for Cinderella's abode) and made friends with drunken locals. One guy knew three English phrases: good morning, good evening and happy hour.

Tonight I am off to Paris - only 10 hours by train. Will be there for a few days before moving onto London. Can't wait!

Right, that's the short of it.

Last night in Japan

2006-08-03T21:15:00.000+09:00

Well, it's come down to it. I can't believe it, I really can't. I still feel like I will see all these amazing people tomorrow; like I will walk into school on Monday morning with a cheery "ohayou"; like I will ride another crowded train into Shinjuku; like I will return to my mountain hamlet and hear the cicadas cheer... I can't believe this is my final night in Japan.

I had an awesome three years. I met some amazing people, had some amazing experiences, ate some amazingly weird food and overall had an absolutely amazing time.

I will try to keep this blog going once I'm back in Australia. I'll see how I go with that, considering my mum has dial-up internet.

Mata ne, Japan.

My desk

2006-07-14T15:40:00.000+09:00

It's Friday afternoon and everyone is off doing homeroom stuff. The tea lady and I were chatting for a while, and I said I should do something productive. I told her I might start cleaning out my desk (it needs to be cleaned). Straight away she said "mada mada mada!", meaning "not yet! not yet! not yet!" She told me I still have plenty of time to do that. Her desk is next to mine, and she said if I cleaned out my desk now, she would be sad everytime she looked at it. And it's too early to be sad.

She's so sweet, my Japanese mum.

Searching

2006-07-13T16:34:00.000+09:00

I don't get that many hits on my blog. Usually, it's only people who know me that read what I write.

But every now and then, people come across my page by chance. They type something into a search engine, and Jottings of Japan shows up in the results.

Here are some of the things people have searched for and found my blog:

1) Thorpedo
2) JHS Japanese Speech Contest
3) Yakiniku Tongue photo
4) "How to body rubbing"

I hope Jottings of Japan provided these people with the answers they needed.

Surprise

2006-07-10T14:58:00.000+09:00

On Saturday night, I went to a surprise birthday party for a friend. The party started at 8pm, but I was on my way back from Tokyo so ended up arriving fashionably late with N around 9:40ish.

About 11 people were there to celebrate. Food was ordered in from one of the best restaurants around (Hyakuzen) and the drinks were flowing.

The host of the party disappeared at one point, and returned wearing only his Y-fronts and sunglasses, and was yielding a bag full of stuff from the 100 yen store. We played a batsu game, which is where you play some sort of game, and the person who loses/makes a mistake has to partake in some sort of penalty. The game we played was "takenoko" or bamboo shoot. It's difficult to explain the rulese - one of those games you have to play to understand.

Anyway, N and I were a bit reserved at the beginning, but then N grew a bit bolder and decided to be more active in the game. She paid the price.

But a good night was had. Stayed the night, and woke up to a huge breakfast and great music.

Approved

2006-07-07T11:35:00.000+09:00

I have just found out that my CRV has been approved for import into Australia. Now, I just have to get it on a ship out of Yokohama.

Sweet!

Inspiration

2006-07-07T08:52:00.000+09:00

I went out for dinner with a friend the other night. She is taking over from me as the secretary for the Gunma JET Council. She doesn't have very big shoes to fill, I must say. I wasn't exactly the most productive secretary Gunma JETs have ever seen. Sure, the minutes were typed up and any correspondence dealt with. But above that, I didn't really do much else.

It had been a long time since I had hung out with K, and had a decent talk about, well, whatever we felt like talking about. I realised (again) as I was sitting there, eating my fried chicken and veges and having a conversation about Australia/American/Canadian polictics, just how amazing K is. She is knowledgeable, she is entertaining, she is sarcastic, she is beautiful, she is endearing, she is... awesome. She's the kind of person who inspires people. She's the kind of person who makes you want to be a better person. She's the kind of person who makes you want to do things that make you happy; things that you are passionate about.

I think it was the last time I will see K before I leave Japan. But I know that she is one person I will definitely keep in contact with post-JET. Thanks for the past year, K.

http://kristineinjapan.blogspot.com/

Four weekends to go!

2006-07-02T16:54:00.000+09:00

Yep, only four weekends to go til my time in Japan is done. And I have to go to Tokyo on every one of those weekends. So this weekend, I am making the most of being in my house by cleaning up and going through three year's of stuff. Actually, it's more than three year's worth of stuff, because my predecessor left stuff in the cupboards, and her predecessor left stuff in the cupboards. For some reason, people on JET think their successor is going to want a fax machine that doesn't work, or a set of purple fluffy ear muffs, or a plastic container that, well, I don't know what it's meant to do. I mean, when you move out of a house or apartment under normal circumstances, you don't usually think "Oh, maybe the next person living here who I have never met will want this stuff that I have never used before. Best if I leave it here for them rather than throw it out." But I'm not going to do that. I'm throwing all this crap out. (I hope you appreciate my efforts B!)

Yakiniku

2006-06-30T14:45:00.000+09:00

Today is the last day for the school nurse who has been here since April. To say thank you, all the teachers went out for yakiniku (Korean BBQ) last night. I realised that in the three years I have been here, I have never taken a photo in a yakiniku restaurant, so I took my camera with me and took a few photos.

For dessert, I had orange sorbet served in a frozen orange. Very cool, very tasty.

And yes, that is a plate of tongue in the second picture.

Meeting

2006-06-26T16:03:00.000+09:00

I am in a meeting at work at the moment. We have them every second Monday starting from 3:10pm. The first few meetings I tried to pay attention and tried to follow what was going on by reading through the agenda. After about 10 minutes I got tired/bored/distracted and ended up surfing the net for the remainder. Now, I know to prepare some "activity" for myself to do during the meeting. Today's activity: draw a fish for shougakkou class next week.

The other problem with these meetings is that they run past my finishing time. My day ends at 3:55pm. It's currently 4:05pm and the meeting shows no sign of coming to an end anytime soon. Sometimes Kyoutou-sensei sneaks up to me and tells me I can leave whenever I want. I might try to make eye contact with him soon and see if he gives me the "ok" to crawl out of the staffroom.

But I haven't finished my fish yet. Will work on that some more.

Congratulations!

2006-06-26T11:42:00.000+09:00

B and K are the proud parents of baby Lucas Alexander, born 25th June 2006.

Congratulations!!

Omedetou!

2006-06-23T11:52:00.000+09:00

That is what I have heard from every teacher here at school from the moment I arrived this morning. I didn't even know the score of the Aust v Croatia game, so I assumed we had beaten them. I just said "thank you", though and came straight to my desk, turned on my computer and logged into the SMH.

Ok, so we didn't beat Croatia, but we drew with them, which was enough to put us through to the final 16. Woah. Good on you boys! And it was enough to cause the teachers to congratulate me.

Australia hasn't played in the world cup for 32 years, and now we are down to the final 16. Australia never ceases to amaze me how it can always rise to the occasion, and achieve what some people may consider to be the impossible.

At the Olympic Games, Australia was strong in the baseball, Japan's adopted national sport. We managed something there that wasn't really expected. And now we are in the knock-outs of the World Cup, preparing to face Italy.

Ah, it makes ya proud to be an Aussie.

Little guy

2006-06-20T18:35:00.000+09:00

An ex-student came to visit the school yesterday. She had just gotten back from a 10 day school trip to New Zealand. It was cool to see her. She has changed so much since I taught her two years ago. Very much a grown-up high school student.

I still teach her younger sister at the Junior High. She said she heard from her sister that I was leaving in August, and that she bought me a farewell present in NZ: a little sheep key ring.

It really is going to be hard to say goodbye to all these amazingly wonderful people.

*sigh*

ソーピード Thorpedo

2006-06-19T10:05:00.000+09:00

The latest in sports drinks here in Japan - Thorpedo. Ian even makes an appearance in the TVCM, showing off not only his swimming ability, but also his ability to talk underwater.

Japanese people seem to love him. I was at a dinner last night when a lady I had met earlier in the week approached me. She told me that her daughter, who was sitting a few tables away, heard that I was from Australia and wanted to know if I knew Ian Thorpe. I told her to tell her daughter that yes, we are quite good friends. She called her daughter over, and told her that Ian and I go way back. She was so excited! I pulled out my mobile phone and said "Shall we call him?" That was when she realised something was up.

Check out the official Thorepdo website at www.thorpedo.jp

I THINK Viv can, I THINK Viv can...

2006-06-16T08:36:00.000+09:00

I decided the little purple car I'm buzzing around in at the moment needed a name. The sounds of "V" and "B" are difficult for Japanese people to distinguish between, and therefore some people hear Vivio as Bibio. I told my friend I was on a quest to come up with a name for the car. She thought long and hard about it, and then told me: In Japanese, "bi" means beautiful, and "o" means man. So "beautiful beautiful man". Not bad, not bad. But it's a bit long. The whole idea of a nickname is to shorten the original name. So I decided on Viv.

Anyway, I was driving Viv home on Tuesday at about 10pm when suddenly, the blinkers stopped working. They were working fine before, but when I went to indicate at one intersection - nothing. Not even a hint of trying to indicate my intended direction. Checked to see if they worked using the hazards - yep, hazarding was an option. (Is hazarding a word? I have been using it ever since I have been driving in Japan, because drivers here use their hazard lights all the time. So much so, there needs to be a verb for it.) But the poor drivers behind me; if I did hazarding at every intersection, they'd have no idea where I was going.

Also, it was a rainy night... and the wipers started doing some funky business on the windscreen too. It took them 3 attempts to get across the windscreen each time. "I can't see! I can't see! I can't see! Oh, I can see!"

So I took Viv to the doctor on Wednesday morning. They fixed the blinkers, but the wipers... Now, I only have high speed wipers. Well, no that's not true. I can use all the speeds of the wipers, it's just that I have to put them on high speed first, let them do their thing for one cycle, then take them down a notch, let them do their thing again for one cycle, then take them down a notch until I get to the desired speed.

Ah, Viv. I'm not going to miss you.

Music weekend

2006-06-12T14:28:00.000+09:00

For the first time in a long time, I slept in my house onFriday night. Had an awesome dinner with J-kun at Danbeena in Kasakake before retiring home for some much needed rest.

On Saturday, I had the welcome party for the students from Arizona who are doing homestay with families in the city. The reception was ok; good food and drinks. But the highlight was the taiko performance at the ends. The kids got a go at banging the drums afterwards - I'm sure the performers regretted letting them do so straight away.

Once the festivities were over, it was straight to Tokyo for a rehearsal with my Oneesan for our duet. The rehearsal went well, and we were pretty confident we would be ok for the real thing.

Went and checked into my hotel, and then jumped back onto the train to head into Shinjuku to meet up with some boys for a few drinks. Only problem was - the train I needed for the last two stops had stopped moving. Someone jumped in front of it and halted the entire line. So I took a taxi to Shinjuku and met up with my friends there.

Stayed there for a few hours, chatted to people who have lived in Australia before and who know people I know, and then went home to the hotel.

Up at 9:30 and back into Shinjuku for a lesson with a Yamaha Electone Demonstrator. She was awesome, and gave me some really good tips for my upcoming concert on 29th July.

Then I met Oneesan in Ginza and we went to the competition hall. We were number 29 out of 43. It was the ensemble section of the Electone Stage, so 330 people partipated in total. Was huge!

We played pretty well. Ok, so I made some mistakes, but even the best guys do, right? We had fun, and people seemed happy with our performance.

Then I came back to Gunma, and got back to my place around midnight.

Those pregnant fish

2006-06-08T13:16:00.000+09:00

I mentioned in a recent post that I don't eat pregnant fish. Well, today, we had pregnant fish for lunch. And because some of the staff are away today on business trips, there was more to go around. I had 3 of these battered whole fish (yep, heads and tails too) filled with their little eggs inside.

I ate with the Year 5 students and they asked me why I wasn't eating the fish. I explained that I don't eat pregnant fish. So one girl decided to show me how much she loves them by biting off the head and crunching away. She smiled while doing so, and showed all these little yellow eggs all around her mouth and on her lips... If she was trying to show how good it tastes, she was going the wrong way about it. All she did was make me want to vomit and confirmed my dislike for pregnant fish.

Hopefully tomorrow's lunch is much more edible.

Goodbye CRV, hello Vivio!

2006-06-06T08:25:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was a sad, sad day. I drove my CRV for the last time in Japan. It is currently being deregistered so I can prepare to send it to Australia.

So for the next two months, I am driving a rental. It's a yellow plate car which means it has the engine of a lawn mower. And it's two doors. And it's purple.

It is manual, however, which is kind of fun. Though when you do 80km/h, it doesn't feel very safe. The whole thing shakes and buzzes like it's about to blow.

I think I'd prefer safety over the fun of a manual. Ah well, I guess it's only 2 months...

From a friend

2006-06-05T15:49:00.000+09:00

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round,
or listened to the rain lapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight,
or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
Do you run through each day on the fly?
When you ask "How are you?" do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed
with the next hundred chores running through your head?
Ever told your child, "We'll do it tomorrow."
And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch? Just call to say "Hi"? When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift...Thrown away... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

Introducing lunch

2006-06-05T13:07:00.000+09:00

I don't think I have ever posted pics of the school lunch I eat every day, so today I took a photo. And here it is.

Today we had rice, miso soup, some kind of vegetable salad and two pieces of squid. Oh, and two apricot-halves.

I'm not a fan of squid, but because I eat with the students, I try to eat whatever is put in front of me. I actually managed the two pieces today.

However, I draw the line at a few things that turn up in school lunch every now and then. I don't eat fish with heads, I don't eat pregnant fish, and I don't eat natto.

My fridge is working, but...

2006-05-31T11:21:00.000+09:00

I usually leave my computer on at night, especially when I'm, er, "getting stuff" from the internet. So, when I woke up this morning and found that my computer was using battery and not power, I was a little surprised. I looked at the modem - all the lights were off. Flicked on the light switch - still in darkness. Hmm. I walked out of my room and into the kitchen. That's weird. The fridge and microwave are still working. Maybe it's just the circuit in the other room. Flicked the switch for the kitchen light. Nothing.

I went to the breaker and had a look. Everything seemed normal. I flicked the main switch, waited a few seconds and then switched it back on. I heard the fridge whir up again, so I checked the lights again. Nothing.

I called my neighbour to see if she was having any problems. She was already at school, but said that only the powerpoint where her washing machine is plugged in is working. She went to work early and took everything from her fridge with her.

I got to school and asked the other teacher who lives in the same apartment block as me if she had power. Only the powerpoint where her TV is plugged in is working.

There is something weird going on here.

I called T at the BOE, and he asked me to meet him at my place. So I drove home and let him in. He also tried the breaker - still nothing. So he called an electrician. Apparently the guy is working on it now.

I hope I have power when I get home. Though at least my fridge is working.

Weird...

ちょっと分からない・・・ I don't quite understand...

2006-05-30T12:19:00.000+09:00

I was marking tests yesterday, and I noticed that even on the second trial, one student didn't manage more than 4 out of 20. This student isn't the best student in the class, but usually she does better than that. I mentioned my concerns about her to the English teacher.

Me: Did you see K's score on the test?
T: Yes.
Me: I was a little surprised. Is she ok?
T: Yes, she's ok. She goes to juku (cram school) so she is busy with that.
Me: Ok...
T: Yeh, so she doesn't have enough time to do her school work.
Me: ...

That doesn't make sense to me. Especially the fact that it seems acceptable for a student to not do his or her school work and subsequently fall behind, all because he/she is too busy with cram school work. Hmmm.

Even after three years, Japan surprises me sometimes.

Hisashiburi Gunma

2006-05-29T14:51:00.000+09:00

For the first time in a while, I spent the entire weekend in Gunma. No Tokyo this weekend, which really was a nice change.

On Friday after work, I hopped in my awesome CRV (I really love my car) and headed down to N's territory - The Bash. She was patiently waiting for the NTT guy to come and set up her phone line for internet (for the second day in a row), and when I arrived he still hadn't shown up. After fiddling around with the wireless adapter and trying to guess the neighbour's internet password for a while, we ended up walking to the train station and going to Takasaki to the beer garden.

The beer garden is open from 6:00 - 9:00pm with last orders at 8:45pm. We arrived at 8:30pm and the lady on the door wasn't going to let us in. We told her our friends are waiting. No. She said it's a waste of money (which it would have been - about $30 each). N suggested 2 for the price of 1. No. But our friends are waiting. Ok, 2 for the price of 1. Get a pitcher and drink fast.

After getting kicked out at 9:10, our friends headed to karaoke, but N and I decided Starbucks was more our scene. A yummy chai tea latte and 2 cookies later, we were back on the train to Maebashi. Watched a bit of telly before calling it a night.

Up at 10:30 Saturday morning, and off to AEON shopping mall in Ota. There was a grand purchase to be made that day. My new bicycle. Rover brand. Folds in half. Blue. Cool. Very exciting. When it came time to put it in the car, though, I couldn't work out how to fold it up. And it was raining so I didn't want to stand outside trying to do something that seemed completely impossible. So with a few encouraging words from the Aussie vernacular, I got the bike in the back of my CRV. Phew.

Then it was off to M's house for a weekend of nothingness. I always go there when I go to Tokyo, and I only have time to scoff down the awesome breakfast her mum makes me. So this weekend was going to be a slow, relaxing weekend there.

The evening was spent watching tv, and then we went to the local okonomiyaki restaurant for some awesome food. M's mum, dad, another friend F and I all drank 3, 1L bottles of beer each before sharing another 2 between us. Feeling very happy (and a little sore after some kids in the restaurant decided to use me as their jungle gym) we headed back to M's house for some more tv and sleep.

Sunday was a lazy morning, with breakfast at 11am. Then at 1pm, we decided to go to Costco in Chiba. Took just over an hour to get there, then about 2.5 hours shopping, and then just over an hour to get home.

When we got back, the weather had cleared so M and I went riding - my bike's debut. (I think I need to name my bike. Suggestions are welcome). Went over to D's house to drop off cookies from Costco and to invite him over for dinner.

D and E both came over for dinner and chats, and then I left for home around 10pm.

It was a great weekend - and I love my bike.

The countdown

2006-05-15T17:26:00.000+09:00

So, it's 2.5 months til my stint in Japan comes to end. I can't believe it. (You will hear me say that many many times over the next 10 weeks, I'm sure.)

I have been incredibly busy lately. My sister and her beau came to visit a couple of weeks ago. They were only in Tokyo for three days in transit to their new lives in Dublin. It was awesome to see them and have them in "my territory". Next time I see them, they will be playing tour guide for me in Europe I hope. Can't wait!

Also been a bit under the weather of late. Had to have a camera put down my throat last Friday to check out my insides. Apparently I'm all clean. But I NEVER want to do that again! It hurt so badly. And even before I went in, I was over it. From the waiting area you could hear other patients gagging as the camera went down. EWW.

This coming Sunday I have my Electone Grade 5 exam. I'm nowhere near ready for it, so I feel a fail coming on. But the good thing is if I do fail, I only have to resit the sections I failed, not the whole thing again. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though.

Have also been on a huge centipede-killing crusade this week. Have had seven of them so far - in 7 days. Not happy. Hopefully they are all gone now. They should be after the amount of poison I've put out. The last one I found (about 30 minutes ago) was already dead. So that's a good sign.

Ok, going to post some pics from Tokyo and leave it at that.