Kate in Hagi-shi, Japan

Farewell Japan

2008-09-02T14:57:00.004+09:00

I have arrived back in Australia now, actually I'm now back in Canberra, having spent a couple of weeks in Melbourne with my family. So I suppose I have had a good chance to reflect on my time in Japan.

To begin with I obviously learnt a lot. I had to learn a fair amount of spoken Japanese to get by everyday in my small town. I also had to learn how to use spare time. I don't think I have ever had that much spare time in my life, and I doubt it will occur again. I learnt how to hold my tongue, how to read people who say "yes" regardless of whether they mean yes, no or maybe. I learnt how to bow (and am having trouble stopping). I learnt how to choose my friends - wanting to avoid really sickly sweet girly girls. I learnt how to spend long periods of time without speaking English, or speaking at all early on in my year before I had learnt much Japanese. I learnt to rely heavily on the idea of 'it will all work out' and to trust people when they say they are going to do something to help - usually involving filling out forms for me in Japanese.

Of course, there are heaps of things that I am going to miss. I am going to miss the food, and the travel opportunities - a large part of that is that living in Japan can actually be cheap, cheaper than living in Australia! I am going to miss how safe Japan is, though I tried to avoid feeling too safe. There were other JETs who didn't lock their bikes, or their apartment front doors, but I tried to keep up all my good habits (coming from somewhere less safe than Japan). I loved my bike, and it's super useful basket. Also, I am definitely going to miss living on the beach, and the Japanese summer. I grew very used to the humidity, and in July just gone I was far more comfortable than I was in the August last year, when I had just arrived.

I am going to miss my friends, though I have great excuses to do some serious (english speaking) world travel. Carla and Melody, from Missouri, became my friends in winter, and probably saved me from being so down in winter. I really valued my Japanese friends who persevered with English for my benefit, rather than making me feel like they only wanted me around to practice their English. I loved having friends/pseudo-family who didn't speak English at all, and were patient enough to let me speak very slow Japanese. I found it far easier to understand them rather than reply, but it was great that they helped with my Japanese, without making me feel like an idiot!

I am not going to miss the Japanese winter, and their backwards ideas of heating. I did not enjoy winter, and being cold all the time probably made me feel unhappy to be in Japan. I am also not going to miss seeing the school kids and their crazy school hours. Really, I just feel sorry for them, not having a chance to have 'unplanned' time. I am also glad to blend in with people around me back in Australia. No matter how long a foreigner lives in Japan, how competent they become at the language, they will always stand out on looks alone. With only 12 foreigners in Hagi (population 50,000) I was always noticed. Whilst there were benefits, the disadvantages were pretty extreme (ending up on the cover of the local magazine was probably the worst moment).

I definitely want to return to Japan, for holidays, and probably to live. I really enjoyed holidaying in many big cities of Japan. My favourite was definitely Tokyo, but I would also love to live in Osaka, Hiroshima or Fukuoka. However, I think it's time to spend some time in Australia first!

Some TDL Love!

2008-09-01T19:46:00.002+09:00

On our last night in Tokyo (for all 4 of us together) we went out to Tokyo Disneyland for the night. If you go out there after 6pm then it is only $30, as opposed to close to $60 for a full day pass. To be honest, I probably couldn't have lasted a whole day and night out there - too many screaming kids, though being Japanese kids they didn't really scream that much!

Basically we arrived at 6pm to make the most of our starlight pass, and rushed to a couple of rides after admiring the Disney Castle. Actually, TDL is an exact replica of the original Disney Land in America, so TDL is the 2nd happiest place on earth! We went on a Wild West rollercoaster, and then the Pirates of the Carribean ride - some of the animatronics were amazing!!!

After that the plan had been to find dinner - around 7.15pm by this time - but the queues for the parade were building up, so we grabbed a spot. Being Japanese, all the families had brought tarps to sit on. We, being foreign, had not, so a TDL staff member rushed over with maps of the park for us to sit on, rather than sitting on the clean ground. The best part about the parade was that everyone stayed seated! It meant that we could all see really easily, and that it didn't get too hot!

The parade is called 'Dream Lights' - all the floats are covered in thousands of LED lights so everything sparkles! The characters' costumes are also covered in the lights, as were the costumes of the dancers who were dancing in between each float. Where the character was played by a human being they spoke English - usually the actors are foreigners anyway - but the mechanical creatures that spoke talked in Japanese. It was so funny listening to Winnie the Pooh and Nemo speaking Japanese.

As the parade drew to a close we got up and RAN to the queue for Big Thunder Mountain - in the end we only had to wait 20 mins - we had checked out the ride before the parade and the queue was at least 80 minutes! After that ride we ran some more, pretty much across the park, to get to Space Mountain, where once again the queue was tiny - this time way less than 2o mins.

So in 4 hours we managed 4 rides and to see the parade, so I think we did pretty well in terms of getting value from the pass. Of course on the way out we had to do some shopping! The shops were so full that as people were taking things from the shelves there were staff members restocking the shelves! insanity! Katie and I bought Minnie Mouse ears!

AAAHHHH

2008-08-09T18:01:00.002+09:00

I was going to write about how awesome Tokyo DisneyLand was, but right now I am annoyed about checking in to get home!

So, MONTHS ago I booked a direct flight from Narita (TKY) to Melbourne, and paid for it. Then about 4 weeks ago my travel agent contacted me and said I had to be re-routed through Sydney, with 1 hour and 20 mins to make the connection, including customs/immigration etc. Was not happy, but Qantas aren't flying direct to Melbourne anymore apparently, or at least they weren't today or yesterday. So I said fine, and just hoped that the customs thing would work.

When I came to Japan we were allowed 1 hand bag, a laptop and a small suitcase as carry on luggage. Today, when I checked in, I was told I was only allowed 1 piece, despite the people ahead of me carrying on a pram and 3 bags between 2 people. She wanted me to pay $540 to check in the mini-case, as if! So basically I just was entirely unhelpful and appeared on the verge of a nervous breakdown and she kept making more suggestions that would be cheaper. Finally it got to the stage where I had to remove my laptop from its bag, and wrap it in a towel and put it in a plastic bag and promise to put it inside my mini suitcase at the departure gate. I had to put the laptop bag into my checked suitcase (making it 28kg!).

Also, I am not allowed to wear my thongs onboard the plane. I also had to promise to change into shoes at the departure gate. Obviously, my intention is to do neither.

However, now I feel I would be pushing it too far if I buy duty free stuff here, so may just get it in Sydney... But I may also just get it here and put it in my mini case - which does have room in it, rather than put my laptop in it!

Am also worried that when I check into my domestic (Melb to Syd) that they will crack it over the amount of luggage I have. Well they can just deal with it, after all I wasn't supposed to have to make that change!

Aaahh, so annoyed with stupid Qantas.

Tokyo, how I love thee

2008-08-09T14:46:00.002+09:00

I really love Tokyo. Really. I would LOVE to live here. I mean, I do love BIG cities, but I think Tokyo is so much fun. Anyway, enough of that.

The girls and I arrived in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon, after a 5 hour train ride (including a half hour break in the middle at Osaka). We easily found our hostel, given I had been here before, and Ange, Katie & I left Erin to sleep whilst we walked up to Senso-ji - the big Buddhist temple near here.

The temple was packed, as always, though in the heat people weren't lingering so long. After we saw the temple we went shopping! Or rather, the other 2 went shopping! We found a reused Kimono shop, where we spent serious time, and Ange spent serious money! Ange got a Kimono and a jacket, and Katie bought 2 jackets. I tried some on... of course, but didn't buy anything.

We went back to the hostel, and as usual had another shower, and then all 4 of us went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building - free view over Tokyo. When you are up there at night it really feels like Tokyo is so ginormous, as the lights stretch so far!

On Friday we did some shopping in the morning. I know it sounds like we're doing a lot of shopping this trip, but we're browsing a lot of the time, really! Or buying things for other people! I promise!

Then we went to Iron Chef Chen Kenichi's restaurant. I had made a reservation ages ago, but no one on staff spoke much English the day I called so I wasn't able to get more directions that which subway stop to get off at. This meant it took us ages to find the restaurant, and once there we were hot & sweaty - what a surprise.

Katie and I decided to live dangerously, and ordered the lunch set meal, a menu I could only read about half of. The other 2 (avoiding seafood) ordered meals, and they were fabulous! Ange says Beef with Oyster sauce is ruined forever! Anyway, Katie and I had a 6 course lunch - small courses though! We started off with sea cucumber, which has a texture that is really strange, but the taste was so good that we just kept chewing! The other courses were: beef with miso paste, spicy prawns, mushroom soup, chicken with amazing oniony sauce & chilli tofu. Katie and I agree that the beef & prawns tie for number 1!

Our waiter was really funny. He spoke some English, but it was really strange, so I swapped over to Japanese, and just translated for the others. He was really worried that things would be too spicy, or something, or that 1 soup came out before the other (Ange's before K & I) even though K & I had the set, and the others just had ordered individual dishes! Then he offered to take a pic of all 4 of us together, and insisted on doing 1 photo with each of our cameras!

Oh, K & I also had a dessert course - some kind of jelly, but the spoon even came chilled!

After that we did some book shopping - for the plane - then headed back to the hostel, to quickly change for Tokyo Disneyland! However, that will be the subject of my next post, as I am off for my next adventure now!

August 6th in Hiroshima

2008-08-09T14:32:00.002+09:00

Ever since Faye told me about her experience in Hiroshima on August 6th, I've wanted to go there for the Peace Day ceremonies. I had thought that I would go last year, but I think that was a bit optimistic - I had only arrived in Hagi 6 days earlier! However, this year I was determined to go - and told Erin, Ange and Katie that I was doing that before they even booked their plane tickets!

We got into Hiroshima the afternoon before (5th). I had had an easy run in from Osaka, but the other 3 had gone mental criss-crossing Japan (coming via both Himeji and Miyajima) so they were tired. Hence, the evening of the 5th was a quiet one. I suppose that wasn't bad given the early morning that awaited us.

We left the hostel around 6.30am, grabbed breakfast at 7-11 and headed over to the Peace Memorial Park to try and get seats in the shade for the 8am ceremony. Luckily the unassigned seats were under marquees, though ages away from the front (as would be expected). You weren't allowed to take photographs during the ceremony, but I really think that it is unphotographable (if that is a word). It's really about the speeches, and listening to the music. What surprised me was that both the Japanese PM and the UN Secretary General were there and there was practically no security. Before the ceremony we attempted to fold paper cranes to add to the pile - but the directions were a LOT confusing. All 4 of us eventually managed it, but they certainly weren't terribly attractive.

Probably my favourite part of the ceremony was when the doves were released. They stayed in their flock as they flew overhead, and it was quite beautiful. All the speeches, except that of the Japanese PM, were provided in the opposite language (Japanese-English I mean) so it was easy to understand what was going on.

After the ceremony we went into the museum. It was insanely busy. Seriously. Luckily I had been through before, and had only recently been to Nagasaki, so I knew a lot of it, but the other 3 took a while, so they could actually read the information at each exhibit. I just waited in a/c comfort, so I was fine.

Some shopping, and lunch ensued, and then we decided to go to Hiroshima Castle. Actually Katie wanted to go early in the day, but then was tired, as were the other 2, so I was going to go by myself, but all 3 of them talked themselves into coming! It was so hot in Hirosh, and we were so sweaty by the time we got to the castle - even though we only had to walk a few blocks from the tram stop. It wasn't even humidity that was making it uncomfortable, lately it has been really hot in Japan, and the sun is strong!

The castle was totally rebuilt, given it was flattened by the A-bomb. However, in their infinite kindness, the Hiroshima City Council (or whatever it is called) decided to build it down the bottom of a mountain, so at least we didn't have to climb up just to get into the castle. The castle is refurbished, vaguely correctly, for the middle floors (2, 3 & 4). The 1st (ground) floor is just the ticket booth, and on the 5th floor there are just seats and vending machines!

In the castle we dressed Katie up as a samurai, and she almost died from overheating whilst wearing it. I think it was all polyester, so it was sweaty when she took it off, so I saw no need to put it on!

We went back to the hostel, all sweaty again, and showered before heading back to the Peace Park for the lantern floating. We got there around 6pm and made lanterns, and set them off down the river. Then we just settled in to watch them, and all the people, as it got dark. Finally we rounded off the day with a great dinner - the highlight of which was some salmon sushi for Katie and I (the other 2 don't eat seafood, their loss!)

I am so glad I went to Hirosh for August 6th. Despite the ridiculous amounts of sweating we did, it really was a great day.

The only thing that remains unanswered in my mind is about the pilot who actually dropped the A-bomb. It's not that I want to send him hate mail, rather I am interested to know how it changed his life. Given most army (etc) people return from war changed in some irreversible way, I wonder how this event changed that pilot's life. I wonder if his family knows, what his kids think (if the has kids). However, for many great reasons, his name remains unknown.

Kyoto, you lose

2008-08-04T21:05:00.003+09:00

Well, I spent less than 24 hours in Kyoto this visit. Already it has been demoted to my fifth favourite city in Japan. (1. Tokyo, 2. Osaka, 3. Hirosh, 4. Fukuoka, 5. Kyoto)

The blonde brigade (Geoff's name for them) and I played in the Kyoto station, and Erin coped with her fear of heights to go up and down the vertigo inducing escalators with us. Of course, her reward was a choice between the two 11 storey shopping malls attached to Kyoto Station. Once again, Angela got a bit 'spendy' but as she rightly points out, she has been waiting for this trip for a long time, and doesn't know when she will come back, so who cares if she buys a few souvenirs???

We went to our hostel, which was K's House Kyoto, the nicest one we will stay in the whole trip! I stayed just one night (Sunday night) and the other 3 are staying for a 2nd night.

Anyway, we went to the hamburg/ice cream restaurant that the boys & I ate at in Spring vacation. In Spring the boys and I shared 2 ice creams between the 3 of us, but we decided to have 1 each... maybe because we would never be able to agree on just 3 I guess! After ice cream we of course had to go and do karaoke! We managed to put it on a setting that gave us a score after each song, and Katie & I topped the list doing Ashlee Simpson! We got 92 (out of 100 we hope). Karaoke was also a good time for the girls to try some sake. Don't think any of them really liked it, but Erin said after a few sips it was drinkable!

Nara!

2008-08-03T17:41:00.002+09:00

Angela was meant to come to Japan in the spring break with the boys, and had desperately wanted to go to Nara. When her knee surgery/blood clot meant she couldn't come, the boys and I nixed Nara from our itinerary. However, I am glad that we went this time! We only really spent a day there - the Lonely Planet recommends 2 but given that most of Nara's sites are outside ones and that it is so hot we really just picked the highlights.

At our hostel we had a palace! We had an 8-bed futon room for the 4 of us, so we were really able to spread out! It was a little out of the centre of town, but so was the other option, so we just had to take buses in and out for sightseeing and dinner. We spent most of our full day in Nara at the park. we started out by eating our breakfast along way away from the overly friendly deer! There were little carts from which you buy biscuits to feed the deer, but as soon as someone had purchased the plastic wrapped biscuits the deer would attempt to eat the biscuits plastic and all, and then the person's clothes, and bag! The other 3 girls all petted the deer and ended up with smelly hands, so I just looked at them!

In the park there are a lot of little temples and shrines. We stopped to look at the outside of most, but only went into Todaiji - which is where the big buddha is housed. The buddha is about 20m high, and there are a few other mega statues in the building as well. There is a piece of wood, like an oversized tree stump that has a hole the size of the buddha's nostril cut through it. You are meant to wiggle through and then get good luck! Of course, little kids were doing it left, right and centre, but Angela saw an adult manage it!

The temple I think is one of the largest wooden structures in Japan, if not the world, and it is amazing how long it has been standing - given most sites in Japan are concrete refurbishments following WWII bombing or earthquake damage!

In Nara I managed to introduce the girls to some more Japanese food - Omrice which is an omelette wrapped around fried rice and Umeshu, a plum wine! Also, for dinner on the 2nd night in Nara we found an Italian restaurant and I had pizza with capers, anchovies and OLIVES! I love olives... I think I have already mentioned it many times, but the first thing I eat back in Australia will be olives! And I'm not fussy, I will eat any and ALL types of olives! Hint, hint!

Nara was much bigger and more industrial/urban than I had expected, though the park does take up a large proportion of the downtown/central area. However, when you get off the train it does just feel like most cities in Japan.

First Stop: Osaka

2008-08-03T17:11:00.002+09:00

Katie and I took a bus/train from Hagi - sneakily rode the Nozomi caerd despite the fact that Katie, with her JHR pass, wis not supposed to ride those super fast trains for free - the JR pass can only use the slow and medium speed bullet trains - not that they are very slow! We ended up at the hostel shortly after 4pm and met Erin and Ange who had arrived much earlier!

We decided to head off to Spa World. It is an 8 floor building at the top of which there is a 'family' swimming area - meaning that swimsuits are required! There are a couple of waterslides, a couple of rooftop spas and a big swimming pool - actually it's more like a ring of a pool - there are all kinds of toys/equipment to play with in the middle. It was really nice being outside in the rooftop spa whilst day turned to night. After we got out of the pool we weren't allowed to go into the locker room wet - they expected everyone to strip off in the elevator lobby (women on the 4th floor, men on the 6th) and then walk over to the lockers. Even the Japanese girls who got told to do it at the same time as us looked a little surprised! Katie, Ange and I got dressed there, but Erin was a hussy and walked through the locker room half naked!

Whilst in Osaka we also went to the castle, which has been immaculately restored on the outside, and then inside it is all airconditioned, and the exhibits are museum quality! Outside of the castle, so people could cool down, you could sit under a small marquee and have mist spray on you - so nice in the 35 degree weather! We also went up to the top of the Umeda Sky Building, which has an amazing view of Osaka/Kobe - no idea where one city ends and the next begins! The building has got such reflective glass windows that if you stand in the right place it looks as though there are 3 floating observatory decks! Getting up to the deck is pretty fun - there is a glass lift most of the way, and then the final 5 floors are ascended via a glass escalator that goes diagonally up between the 2 towers!

We also went to Amerika-mura - or as Katie likes to call it 'America World'. It's basically a Japanese interpretation of teen America, filled with crazy Japanese fashion! Out there was also the Rock n Roll museum - a shop with some pretty amazing rock memorabilia.

We managed to try some osaka style okonomiyaki, and we will have the hiroshima style once we are in Hiroshima.

The Osaka heat/humidity was a bit of a shock to Ange and Erin - Katie had already spent 3 days in Hagi by this stage so was vaguely acclimatised. But I think that they are dealing with it quite well! Of course, I told them how hot it would be, and how humid, but I guess they thought I was exaggerating! Although, I don't think you can truly understand a Japanese summer until you have lived through it, and as this is my 2nd I am dealing with it quite well!

On my way....

2008-07-29T22:47:00.002+09:00

Well after a year, to the day, being in Japan it is time for me to begin my slow journey home. Honestly, I have had so many farewell parties and last days at school that I have felt like I have been on the verge of leaving for a while. Also, I haven't really been sad yet. There are definitely people I will miss, and who I want to see again, but I'm not worried about missing them yet. I guess when I came to Japan I didn't have anyone who was waiting to see me, but when I return to Australia I have all my friends and family to look forward to seeing again. I also have developed a huge network of friends all over the world, so I am looking forward to using that as an excuse for some more travel! Though, when have I ever needed an excuse...

It was great to have Katie come and visit, I think it has made the leaving part really easy! I have been able to include her in a lot of final things, including the cleaning of my apartment!

Tomorrow she and I will get up, and wash the bedding for Lucie, the next person to live in my apartment, and once the gas, electricity and water guys have come so I can pay the final bill, we will be on our way to Osaka to meet up with Ange and Erin!

I guess I will be sad when I am on that last bus out of Hagi...

Katie does Ikebana (and so did I)

2008-07-28T21:42:00.003+09:00

On Sunday I had my last ikebana class, which Katie was lucky enough to be here for. Obviously she was pretty much baffled by our teacher - but then Carla and I don't understand her all that often either! Kiyoko is so friendly and nice, but she speaks so fast, and uses language that I have no way of knowing - all about the flowers and plants.

Anyway, Carla and I both took it in turns to explain to Katie what she was meant to be doing, and it turned out pretty well.

Anyway, the upshot of Katie doing ikebana is that she has arrived safely. I thought she was going to die yesterday, her first day, in the Japanese humidity, but today she is coping pretty well. She hired a bike so we can get around easily and the brakes are super squeaky, in true Japanese style. So far she has eaten a lot of free dinners! As I am leaving Hagi in a couple of days I had arranged a couple of dinners with teachers who I am going to miss, and because Katie was here she got to come! I suppose it's an easy way to try a lot of Japanese food all at once!

Busted!

2008-07-27T10:50:00.002+09:00

I have developed a bad of habit of just agreeing with people when they are speaking Japanese and I have lost the flow of the conversation. I just say "yes, yes" or take my cues from their face and smile or frown accordingly.

This meant that I told a guy who worked on the boat out to Mishima that I was married, and only managed to just catch myself before I said I had a baby!

Most recently I was shopping with my friend Eriko, who is Japanese. The shop assistant was talking to me about the prints of the bags they have - they are all special and limited editions and stuff. I was beginning to not understand, but I just kept nodding and smiling. Eriko though knows the limits of my Japanese so she knew I didn't understand the shop assistant anymore. So Eriko told the shop assistant - but I understood Eriko when she said it!

A letter of recommendation?

2008-07-25T18:22:00.003+09:00

I asked my supervisor for a reference letter to use in that job hunt that I am absolutely not looking forward to! She has pretty rubbish English - she does try, but life can be very difficult, and conversation very slow. So after I explained the concept of a letter of reference (which apparently is unknown in Japan) I then informed her that the letter needed to be in English. You should have seen her face fall! I relieved her mind a little by saying that I would fix up the English afterwards.

So what she did was write a letter in Japanese, and then had 100 other people in the office check it. Not really 100, but the signatures that had approved the letter were numerous. Having received approvals she then typed the letter into an automatic translator which resulted in some humourous comments.

Often I was referred to as an 'it' or 'the Kate Price'. The whole letter was very formal "in the teaching of English in the elementary schools of Hagi City..." and apparently I possess an "ardor to work"! The best part was the way the computer program translated 'Hagi shi' into Bush Clover City - which is the literal translation of the kanji for Hagi but sounds hilarious!

The letter concluded by recommending "the Kate Price"

Horror of Horrors

2008-07-24T16:20:00.003+09:00

Scrunchies are cool again! All over Fukuoka and Nagasaki I saw J-girls with scrunchies in their hair, and scrunchies in all the shops! No!

My last long weekend

2008-07-24T15:41:00.002+09:00

This weekend just gone I was lucky enough to wrangle a 5 day weekend - combining a long weekend with my final days of holiday leave. I decided to go to Nagasaki and Fukuoka - south of Hagi.

It took around 5 1/2 hours to get to Nagasaki on Saturday morning. Actually, one of the trains was really fancy - it had fake wooden floors, leather seats and glass paneled doors. Once there I was lucky to be on a tram with a nice driver, because I didn't have the correct change, but I turned up at the hostel too early! They were out on their lunch break, so I had to wait outside for a while, luckily there was a nice breeze and a chair in the shade.

Whilst in Nagasaki I went to the Peace Park area, and unfortunately I couldn't help but make mostly unfavourable comparisons to Hiroshima. In Nagasaki the park is a lot smaller, and looks less well cared for. The Peace Museum is a lot smaller, but has about the same number of displays so it is both repetitive and overwhelming. However, in Nagasaki there is a Rememberance Hall. 2 floors underground there is a hall filled with glass pillars which water runs down. The victims of the atomic bombing desperately wanted water but there was none that had not been affected by the radiation.

In Nagasaki I also walked around the Chinatown area - which was smaller than I had been led to believe - and I also went to the Glover's Garden. A Dutch family, unsurprisingly named Glover, lived in Japan briefly after it re-opened following the self-imposed isolation from the West. The family didn't seem to do much, so the restorations weren't that exciting! And it was just so hot! It was so much hotter in Nagasaki than in Hagi.

I had heard that the feeling in Nagasaki was decidedly anti-American but I certainly didn't pick up on that. I felt that the museum was balanced, as it is in Hiroshima, and there were no restrictions on where foreigners could go. On that point, across in Iwakuni there are plenty of signs up excluding foreigners from bars and restaurants as the foreigners are US Marines from the Iwakuni Base (and are unwelcome).

On my last morning in Nagasaki I wandered down Temple Road despite the rain. There is a major temple at either end of the road, various small temples along the way, and a seemingly continuous ceremony running behind all the temples.

In Fukuoka I went to the Asian Art Museum. While is has a large collection it only has a small space so whilst I enjoyed what I saw I would have liked to have seen some of the other works that I read about in the gallery guide book.

I also went to the Yahoo! Dome and saw a baseball game. First of all, I must say that I am still entirely unsure of the rules. There was lots of stuff that I imagined would exist in an American game - cheerleaders, mascots. But there was a crazy MC, a foreigner who spoke Japanese well but using English intonation so it sounded a little crazy! Then there were all these organised cheers and songs and dances. The craziest thing was that at the end of the 6th innings all the fans blew up these long balloons (but left them untied) and after singing and dancing with them they were all released and as the air escaped they all came back down. I really did think at the time the other 51,999 people in the stadium were speaking a different language and were probably from a different planet than me. I spent most of the game confused, but it was really fun.

Who is Kate Pnie?

2008-07-24T12:39:00.003+09:00

Whilst I have been here I have gained many extra syllables, often referred to as keito puraisu san, or keito sensei, and I have realised that I quite enjoy having a short name, and have encouraged students to drop the 'to' from keito, trying to get them to just call me 'Kate'.

Often I need to spell out my name so I spell it out "ke" "i" "to" so they understand it. Japanese people tend to have problems with the pronunciation of an individual 'a' and if I try to spell it out 'k-a-t-e' and often they write 'k-i-t-e'. However, I have not had any problems with my surname, until now...

I received a copy of the PTA newsletter from Hagi Nishi JHS and there was my smiling face, proclaiming my ambition (from when I was in the 9th grade) and below my photo was my name. "Kate Pnie". I mean seriously, how long did I work there? Did no one actually know my real name?

Daiko

2008-07-19T19:02:00.003+09:00

Last night I went to my ikebana teacher's house for dinner with some of the ALTs. She fed us an awful lot, and then we went to a karaoke place that she practically lives next door to. Of course, we were drinking with dinner, and most definitely whilst we were doing karaoke. In Japan there is no 0.5% blood alcohol - here it is zero tolerance, so I was a little confused about how we were going to get home, and get Shak's car home too (given he had driven us all to her house). I just figured we would get a cab between the 4 of us - making 4 stops - and that Shak and Matt would carpool out to her house the next day to retrieve Shak's car.

No. In Hagi there is a service called Daiko. When you have had a drink and need to get you, and your car, home, you call the Daiko service and tell them where you are. A guy comes in a cab and drives you home in your own car. It costs ￥1000 and though I rode in the cab I didn't have to pay any extra! Awesome...

Goodbye Messages

2008-07-18T10:20:00.002+09:00

Over the last few days I have been collecting many letters from students at different schools. I thought I would share some favourites with you all.

Firstly, there was/is one message that leaves me entirely confused. "You are very bocis" - anyone who can explain/interpret that one gets a prize!

Otherwise, I have had many comments on 'big voice', something I say to the students a lot in a country where it appears they are actively discouraged from opening or moving their mouths whilst speaking. While this may work in Japanese - given intonation is nonexistent - in English class it is a big problem! So I picked up a habit from my old (favourite) English teacher of saying "big voice" to the students I couldn't hear. As a result I have received messages like "I like your big voice" or "I was impressed with your big voice" or just "Big Voice" written in large letters across the card.

Most kids say they won't forget me, but I'm not naive enough to believe that! One 9th grade boy wrote "I'll never forget you (Maybe)" and quite frankly I admire his honesty!

A few kids have written that I look "fine" - but I am not entirely sure if they realise what that means, aside from using it as a response to "how are you?" ("I'm fine thank you and you"). A few more have written that they love me - which is nice, but again I don't think they entirely understand it's meaning.

I do like the ones that are written to me but talk about me in the 3rd person, like "I like Kate" or "I will miss Kate". I especially like the ones who have directly translated 'sensei' and refer to me as 'Kate Teacher'.

Of course there are plenty of interesting grammatical mistakes, or straight out mistakes. I like the one that says "Kate's class is easy to under" - presumably 'understand' or "Thank you all very much" - that's right, the kids have decided I have multiple personalities...

Probably my favourites are the ones that are sincere - from the kids whose names I learnt (which is a big accomplishment given how many kids I have taught this year), and then the ones that talk about how difficult English is!

End of School!

2008-07-16T13:55:00.004+09:00

Each day I have been to a school in the last couple of weeks it has been the 'Last Day'. Some schools make a big deal - ceremonies, cooking, games - whereas another made all the students write me a letter then read it out in front of the class!

Today at Sanmi it was a good day. All the students had one final English class as one big group, and we had organised a treasure hunt. The kids were in teams of 6 and had to talk to different teachers, and run around the school, to get more clues. After the hunt the school captains made a short English speech and gave me some flowers. So that was pretty fun.

Then all throughout the lunch break the primary school kids filtered in with cards, letters and completely random presents! For example, the 4th graders either had to make me something (most of the girls made jewellry) or give me something they prized (one boy wrote a message to me on his baseball). For some reason some of the girls had written all over seashells to give to me!

The 6th graders had made me a photo frame (with a photo of me with the class in it) and had stuck little messages all over it. Finally, the 1st/2nd graders came in with a photo of us all together.

The schools that I have left so far I have been sad to leave. I have good memories of most days at these schools, so it has been nice to have proper opportunities to say good-bye to all the kids, and the teachers.

As yet, the new JET to replace me is undecided. The girl moving into my apartment is taking different schools, and the Board of Education hasn't decided who is taking my schools. So part of my leaving regimen has involved writing a letter about each school and leaving it there for whoever comes next! I am of course a little worried that no replacement has been appointed - though the schools are way more worried!

Leaver's Party

2008-07-14T12:29:00.003+09:00

This weekend we had AJET Leaver's Party in Hagi. Most JETs from all over Yamaguchi-ken came up to Hagi to have a beach party - BBQ, beach olympics and a sand sculpture competition. For the sculpture our group buried Mika, the 8 year old daughter of one of the other JETs and transformed her into a Greek Goddess - complete with a seaweed dress and seaweed hair.

The party was supposed to kick off around 2pm, but of course it didn't. We may live in Japan, but it seems that none of us have picked up their punctual habits! Actually, I had 4 people staying at my place, so when they arrived in Hagi around 1.30pm we did get to the beach pretty quickly - better than sitting around in my hot apartment. So actually, we were on time, but when we got there only the organisers were already there! So of course we got roped into helping set up, and clean up the beach.

We had a marquee set up, and 4 BBQ's on the beach to cook enough food for the 40 or so people who were there! We had lamb & kangaroo burgers, various kinds of sausages, and some gross american hot dogs! Of course there was some vegies - corn, potatoes, salad and macaroni & cheese - once I mixed some wholegrain mustard into the macaroni it tasted ok.

The water here is quite clear, but full of seaweed! Also, there were heaps of starfish just floating on the sand. Steve had brought his surf board, but given the beach is a bay with flat water he didn't get much use out of it!

After our team had come 2nd in the Beach Olympics we headed back to mine to shower, and then go to the party. Some of the JETs had formed a band, so they played, then there was some DJ time. Finally we were kicked out of the bar at 2am, some people headed to Karaoke, whereas my aparment people were hungry, so we went to a 24 hour restaurant for a late night snack!

The next morning we woke up and went back to the beach for a quick swim. It started raining quite heavily, so we left and went for lunch before all my guests took their buses home! After they left I had to vacuum all the sand out of my apartment! Although Dom (one of my guests) had already swept up the sand from my kitchen!

Goodbye Japanese Class

2008-07-13T16:01:00.005+09:00

Well on Friday night it was time for the Japanese class farewell party. It was out at a big game complex - bowling, karaoke, video games, batting cages.... The party had originally been planned as a costume party, but I thought that idea had been shelved so I just went in normal clothes which was a mistake. One of the teachers was fully decked out in a kimono, another in a weird hybrid of hawaiian shirt & charlie chaplin, and the 9th grade assistant had on a duck suit! One of the ladies kindly lent me a headband with a snowman on it, and lent Alex a cowboy hat.

We had a big room in the karaoke section, and after paying 4000 yen (about $40) they started bringing out ridiculous amounts of food, and drinks, and we had karaoke all night. Finally we ordered desserts. In true Japanese style the women ordered too many. Basically Japanese people always order too much food, and somehow manage to eat it all. I think it is the training from having to clean your tray at school lunch. Every party I have been to organised by Japanese people, there has always been way too much food, but the skinny Japanese people just hunker down and eat!

The Japanese class teachers did a lot of karaoke - they love singing all these old songs that are awful. They also love singing Carpenters & Beatles songs. I had never heard The Carpenters song 'Top of the World' but now I know the lyrics, without even intending to learn them. I even managed to sing my first Japanese song - with the 9th grade assistant - it's a song called PopStar, and every so often there is a line in English which means I could catch up in the song when I got a bit lost in the kanji!

Last visit to Mishima.

2008-07-09T21:09:00.007+09:00

From Wikipedia: Tanabata is a Japanese star festival, which celebrates the meeting of Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). The Milky Way, a river made from stars that crosses the sky, separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar.

Basically, at lunchtime we made origami to decorate the tree where the kids had already hung cards that had their dreams/ambitions written on them. The maths teacher, who speaks a little English, made the kids each teach me a different origami piece (luckily there are only 4 kids). After school we hung the origami in the tree.

After the origami hanging we had a 'farewell ceremony'. The 9th grade girl had to give a short speech, and then each kid had to ask me questions about my plans are back in Australia. For dinner I met the Elementary and JHS teachers at the restaurant that is open for dinner (the other one is open for lunch). We had a bit of a party - though didn't stay out too late because all the teachers start work really early (earlier than I get up most days if I'm honest).

Then today at the Elementary school we had a double English class. We started out by making fairy bread. The kids just PILED the sprinkles on to fat slices of sweet Japanese bread - all bread here is sweet, even if there is vegemite on it. One of the girl's thought she was making cake - so piled butter on top of the sprinkles for decoration!

After they kids had pigged out on sugar we made paper aeroplanes, and had competitions to see whose would go the furthest, and finished off the 'party' with a bunch of games that invovled the kids running around like maniacs - maybe not the best idea given how hot and humid it is everyday, but they seemed ok, though dripping with sweat afterwards!

These 'farewell events' were just the kick off to a long string of farewell parties to come. I am kind of annoyed that I couldn't just organise one party - basically people don't like to mix with people they don't know, as a result there are heaps of farewell parties. Also, I really prefer to have the farewell party and then leave - the string of parties makes it feel like it is still ages until I leave.

It's Pool Time

2008-07-05T16:23:00.002+09:00

I've started using the swimming pool at the local community centre. To get in you have to walk through a waist deep pool of water - their version of a pre swim shower. The pool itself is 25 metres long, and at its deepest point it is 1.3m deep, but only 1.1m at either end. So obviously there is no diving. Also, there are no lane ropes, or flags to mark 5m from either end, so doing backstroke is a little slower at the end of a lap than would be in a more equipped pool.

However, entry is free. You walk in, ditch your stuff in a provided basket and walk through the 'shower'. Then you have to sign a scrap of paper an old man proffers and then you can swim. I think the water is untreated - I certainly couldn't smell any chlorine, or taste any salt. There were a couple of 'ojiisans' (grandfathers) gardening around the edges, and 1 of them told me I was the first swimmer of the season!

Staring

2008-07-02T17:15:00.002+09:00

I am not going to miss the staring. Of course, it can be cute when a 3 year old stops dead in her tracks and lets her jaw drop open as she unashamedly stares at me. However, anyone who is over 4 years old is not excused! There have been foreigners in Japan for at least the last 150 years, and there have been foreigners teaching in the public schools for over 20 years. Of course, the foreign population of Japan is only 1.6% of the population, so we are a rare commodity, however that doesn't mean we are freaks/animals in the zoo.

In Bangladesh we met people who had never seen a foreigner, who had never heard English spoken, and who had never had their photograph taken. Of course, they stared. We knew they would, and we weren't disappointed. People would stand less than a metre away and just stare at us (Geoff, Xav and I). I had my photo taken with random strangers, much like what happens in Japan.

I suppose I can excuse the staring in Bangladesh, given how few foreigners there are there. However, in Japan I am not so forgiving. I have pointed back, and replied "where" when older people have said "foreigner" whilst gesturing at me. I guess it's a small way to make myself feel better. I am looking forward to coming back to Australia because everyone is a 'foreigner', at least the way Japanese people understand it. I have tried to explain how there is no singular 'Australian' appearance, and have demonstrated with photos of my friends and sisters, but I don't think they quite understand.

My worst staring moment in June was when the new music teacher at one of my schools just stopped, pointed at me, and exclaimed the first time she saw me. I was so tempted to return the gesture...

And yes, I do live in rural Japan, but there have been foreigners here for a long time. In World War 2 the area was populated with New Zealanders, so even the older people can't claim that they haven't met many foreigners. Currently there are arond 12 foreigners, most of us teaching English, so a great many of the citizens of Hagi are exposed to us everyday but still they seem surprised when they see me at the supermarket or the post office. Students postively freak out when they see me at the train station, or around town. I guess they don't think of me existing outside of school.

At the end of the day, I will always be the foreigner, no matter if I am speaking English or Japanese, and despite the fact I have a name.

I am "English"

2008-06-29T19:45:00.002+09:00

I was talking to a previous student of mine, who has since moved to High School. We were chatting (albeit slowly) so I asked her, "Do you like English" and to my surprise she replied No. But she was happy to continue talking to me.

Usually, the kids who don't like English either ignore me, or spend the whole class being disruptive, generally yelling "Kato, Kato". If the kid likes English then usually they acknowledge me in the corridors, or when they see me out and about in Hagi.

I have one 9th grader who looks in the other direction when he sees me coming, and tries to hide under his desk when I come into the class. I try not to take it personally, and that extends to not taking pride in the kids who love English. I know it's not all due to me, and that most of them will forget me when I'm gone. I mean, the elementary kids say hello and run up to me around Hagi, but when I leave it's not like they will notice.

What surprises me the most, given the number of JETs who have come through Hagi, is that to most kids I am the representative of the english language, and how they respond to me is based on their (dis)like for english.

Work is work, fun is fun

2008-06-26T21:01:00.002+09:00

I don't think that is a real Japanese proverb, but it was told to me as the way of explaining life in Japan. However, I entirely disagree. Everything is personal, and everything is business here. I suppose it has a lot to do with the work hours they keep, and thus the relationships that are established between colleagues, and the family relationships that fall by the wayside.

Most people go to work at inhumanly early hours (we all know I'm not a morning person though, so maybe not so bad for others) and stay until late in the evening. For example, most teachers are at school by around 7am and then are still there at 8pm, and then they go back on Saturdays and for at least half a day on Sunday. As a result, teachers develop strong friendships with each other - as do people generally with their colleagues. These friendships are far more important than they are in Australia, in my experience, as your work colleagues become your only friends. You should be able to imagine that it is hard to maintain friendships with people who work in other places, let alone in other professions. Teachers go on trips together - usually during the summer, then again a couple of other times each year on a long weekend. They all pitch in and hire a bus, or car pool and go skiing or shopping for a long weekend.

Also, many teachers end up married to other teachers. That does mean that you have to watch what you say - I almost started complaining about 1 teacher who leaves the room when I enter (to supposedly teach a class together) but the teacher I was talking to luckily told me it was his wife before I said anything... (surprisingly, the husband claimed the wife enjoyed english class!)

Anyway, back to the topic of merging fun and work. In Japan many marriages suffer because one spouse is relocated regularly - every 3 years - teachers, judges, many bureaucratic jobs. As a result, kids can spend half their lives living away from one parent.

Actually, kids spend so much time at school that the teachers become surrogate parents. Japan used to have some pretty draconian corporal punishment rules on the books, as well as classes on Saturdays. Now the kids only have sports on Saturdays, and pretty much all disciplinary methods have been outlawed. Now teachers practically 'mother' the kid over any small infringement. Kids regularly have meetings with their home room teachers to discuss any emotional problems, and they even have a class called moral education (which is not just sex ed.)
Teachers go to the students' houses once a term to check to make sure everything is ok, and are just really involved in their lives.

So when I was told that 'work is work and fun is fun' is the Japanese way I just nodded (now that is totally the Japanese way) and contradicted them in my head.

At the Dentist

2008-06-23T16:08:00.002+09:00

I decided to brave the dentist. Having heard positive things about the dentist from Nicole (another JET in Hagi) I chose the "Dental Office Tojo", heartened by the English name really! Inside there were 4 cubicles, for 1 dentist, and about 7 dental nurses/hygenists. Basically the dentist goes from one cubicle to the other and does the work he is qualified to do and then he goes to the next cubicle and the nurse or hygenist does her thing - x rays, teeth cleaning etc. It is really a pretty smooth operation, though the dentist must change gloves a hundred times a day!

The other thing, Japanese dentists are really cheap. I was there for an hour, had 3 x rays and had my teeth cleaned all for less than $30. Actually, another JET had her silver fillings replaced with white ones for $6 per tooth!

The dentist's office has some cool equipment. Each seat has their own little TV so I watched Happy Feet (in Japanese) for a while, then the dentist stuck a light wand/camera in my mouth and took som photos. He showed those photos on the screen, and then he put my x-rays on the screen too! However, it is a little weird that you can hear everything going on - not that I understood it though. When they raise the seat up (before they lay you back) you can almost peer over into the next cubicle.

The dentist speaks a little english - if I speak slow enough - and I managed to explain that I have a low pain threshold. I think they think that if they touch my teeth too hard I will scream in pain. Not that that is a bad misconception, I suppose it means that if they want to do anything major then they will anaesthetise me to the eyeballs!

Happy Birthday to me

2008-06-22T17:41:00.003+09:00

(Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear me, Happy Birthday to me)

Well, in Japan birthdays aren't important. Basically they don't have parties, cakes or presents really. Often, they aren't even acknowledged. For example, I was out with a friend on friday night and she said it was her husband's birthday but that he wasn't invited out with us for dinner! So last Monday my celebrations were fairly limited.

I woke up a few mins early to open the cards and presents that had come from Aus (thanks everyone) but that was the most celebratory moment of the day! 1 teacher knew, and wished me "Happy Birthday" and then that night at my Japanese class (the informal conversation one where I go to a family's house) we had cake.

Each day, for the rest of the week, a card arrived in the mail, so it was good to stretch my birthday out! Finally, I had a small party last night. We went to a new Okonomiyai restaurant down by the beach, where you can cook your own, or they will cook it for you. The family used to have a restaurant in Hagi many, many years ago, and they are famous for their snowcones. I had a coffee flavoured one, and Carla had cocoa and milk! Mel's maatcha (green tea) snowcone had a red bean cake in it too.

After dinner we went back to Carla & Melody's house where we had birthday cake - Carla had made a chocolate volcano cake (as in the middle had kind of exploded). It was also my Ikebana teacher's birthday, and another friend's birthday (Yuka) during the week, so it turned out that the party was half guests and half birthday people!

41,360

2008-06-20T20:26:00.002+09:00

That's how many convenience stores (Conbinis) there are in Japan. That number sounds high, and mathematically, it's about one Conbini per 3000 people. However, in Hagi there are about 7 conbinis (so that's 1 for every 750o people) and in smaller places there are even less conbinis per person.

When you walk around Tokyo or Kyoto you see where all the 'extra' Conbinis are, so when I read an article on Reuters which talked about efforts by the Kyoto Government to convince Conbinis to close overnight I was really surprised/horrified. Apparently the Government thinks that it will improve the views over the city, and reduce carbon emissions. The carbon emission argument seems futile to me - I mean, the shops will still have to have all the fridges and stuff on inside. I will be really surprised if the Government wins this one!

Teaching English to Students who actually understand!!!

2008-06-18T16:30:00.004+09:00

Last Saturday I went to an 'academic' high school to help out with an English seminar. It was a real pleasure to 'teach' students who understand a bit more than "how are you?" and "how's the weather?"

Though, I use 'teach' loosely - we played a lot of games, all in English, and then had to cook lunch. As the main JET at that High School is American we were cooking an 'American Lunch' - hamburgers and rice crispy treats (which I think are kind of like the LCM bars you can buy in the museli bar section in Australia).

Hamburgers were easy - I had no intention of using my hands to mix the meat, but I was perfectly happy to let all the kids have a go AFTER they had washed their hands (I did have to eat the hamburgers eventually). The school had ordered in proper cheese - cheddar that tasted really good, not plastic sliced cheese, and we had some other salad fillings to put in the burgers. Someone joked that it was almost a balanced meal, and thus not really American... but I did explain that we weren't aiming for Maccas style burgers.

The rice crispy treats were easy to make - melt butter and marshmallows, stir in cocopops or rice bubbles - but aren't something I would hurry to make again. After all, Kelloggs makes a perfectly acceptable alternative.

After lunch we had a treasure hunt. There were 12 English clues to follow and then a sentence to de code. My team wanted to run - EVERYWHERE!!! Lucky I did that fun run training or I would have died! We actually managed to finish in the hour allotted - a feat only managed by another team - but came 3rd overall for the day.

The whole day ran smoothly, in fact I think they do the same thing every year, not that you would have known that from how stressed the English teacher was. In the week leading up he kept emailing us with all kinds of requests/suggestions. He wanted us to bring water because it would be hot (and apparently they don't have taps at the school), then he wanted us to bring towels in case we became sweaty, and finally he asked us to clip our fingernails for the cooking exercise.

Now, as many of you know, I have been a terrible finger nail biter forEVER. I am currently in a non biting stage, and have even been wearing bright nail polish to school and no one has asked me to take it off! So as you can imagine, I am quite enjoying having long fingernails, and was not about to chop them off! So I took off the purple nail polish and just tried to hide my hands all day - and as mentioned I didn't stick my hands into the hamburger meat!

Aah, Japan

2008-06-18T16:26:00.003+09:00

Today I saw a grade 4 kid limping out of school at about 12 - before lunch. So I asked where he was going - I didn't think he was about to skip lunch, (a) he's a kid who says he is always hungry and (b) he's japanese, but I was a little worried about a little kid just deciding to leave school for the day. No, he was WALKING to the hospital because he had hurt his leg. Logical, ne???

New Bike Rules

2008-06-17T13:03:00.003+09:00

The new bike rule in Hagi:

"Where there is a footpath, please ride on it. Where there is no footpath, please ride on the road"

What on earth was the old rule????

I love the Post Office lady

2008-06-15T19:01:00.002+09:00

On Friday I went to the main post office in Hagi to send a box of stuff home - a BIG box of stuff. I must say that most of the stuff is either not for me or boring winter clothes.

[Side note, I hate Australian airlines and their luggage limits. I was/am only allowed 20kg so Geoff mailed me my winter gear]

So I dragged my supervisor up to the Post Office - firstly I needed a car to transport the box and secondly I thought some language assistance may also come in handy. The box I had packed my things in was too big for the post office, so I asked my supervisor to tell the Post Office that I would run over to the hardware store and buy a smaller box and then return and repack. But then the Post Office lady pulled out her knife and started making the box smaller - given that the top was a little empty - and she managed to make it small enough to be acceptable!

I love the Post Office lady...

50yen

2008-06-14T21:05:00.003+09:00

When Geoff and Xav were here we went to one of my favourite cafes (Cafe Tikal) for a Hagi mikan cappucino! When Geoff was getting out his money to pay and he dropped 50 yen. We moved the cushions and the chairs around trying to find it, but we didn't try too hard given it is about 50c (Australian). Of course, the owners saw we were shuffling about, so I explained why. We didn't find the 50 yen coin, but no problem.

So that was in March. I went back to that cafe a couple of weeks ago (the first time since I'd been with the boys) and the Manager came over when she saw me, and handed me 50 yen - they had found it, and had waited more than 2 months for me to return so they could give it to me.

Someone's trying to tell me something...

2008-06-05T13:09:00.002+09:00

There is a mini shoe shop set up in the staffroom! That's right, I came back from the lunch room to find a little old man setting up shoes for us all to try on... I think it is a message: "buy shoes... buy shoes...!" Not that I need an excuse!

Or was this the cover of the local newspaper?

2008-06-03T11:15:00.002+09:00

This is the reinterpretation of the Hagi local newspaper. Just in case I didn't stand out enough...

Carla's Birthday

2008-06-02T18:06:00.005+09:00

It was Carla's birthday about a week ago. In honour of that event, and my upcoming birthday, we both received letters inviting us to take a 'cancer test'. That's all the Japanese I could read on the letter, and Carla couldn't shed more light. I voted to toss the letter out.

Seriously though, she had a birthday party to celebrate. We started off with a dance party at her house, and then moved onto the bar on the beach for its monthly reggae night. Melody even made a cake with mix she had sent over from the US.

The reggae party was fun - though the music was kind of strange. Listening to japanese words sung to a Bob Marleyesque tune.

Stalking or Love?

2008-06-01T19:50:00.005+09:00

On Friday I was at school, eating lunch and attempting conversation with the teachers. I say attempting, because the English teacher who eats lunch in the staff room is SO SHY that she sits as far away from me as possible, so I bumble along, mangling Japanese & English in an attempt to be sociable/make myself understood.

All of a sudden the school principal comes in - he had just received a special delivery, an early copy of the local newspaper. He was so excited because on the front there was a version of 'Where's Wally' - this time, spot the foreigner. That's right, there was a street shot from the Old Fashioned Festival, and there I am, front and centre.

All the teachers were oohing and aahing over it, but I was so unimpressed. I mean it's bad enough playing live Where's Wally in the supermarket, with kids stopping and staring, and people taking notes on what is my basket, but stealth photography of me being published on the front over... bloody Japan!

Summer!

2008-06-01T19:12:00.004+09:00

The Japanese make a lot of the fact that they have four distinct seasons - as if it was something unique to them. I have tried to explain that all 4 seasons exist in all but the equatorial counties! In my mind, the problem with the concept of 4 seasons in Japan is that there is no warm up - it changes from one season to the next ON THE DAY it is supposed to. For example, when I went to Bangladesh it was Winter, and when I returned it was Spring, and 10 degrees warmer. The sudden change was exceptionally terrible last December, however I have posted copiously about my problems with Winter!

Now, it's time to move on to Summer! Today it's June 1st and it was 23-25 degrees at about 11am - fantastic. I'm ready to hit the Hagi beach many, many times. However the weekend just gone I went with a big group of Yamaguchi JETs to go and play soccer against some other JET teams, and some Japanese teams too.

We headed up to Shimane prefecture (the prefecture immediately above Yamaguchi) on Friday night, and stayed at the Little Swiss Cabins. There were 8 of us to a cabin, which were on the top of a mountain, looking out over a beach. Of course, we partied on Friday night, but the tournament organisers had thoughtfully given us a late start (just in case we had decided to drive the 4 hours from Hagi to the tournament on Saturday morning).

The boys were playing regular soccer - full size pitches with 11 players per team. They lost both games - which is the standard, though they did score a goal this tournament (a feat they did not manage last September). Our girls team were playing on small pitches (definitely less than half the rize of a regular pitch) and only 6 players per team. I played goalie in the 2nd half of our 2nd & 3rd games - and no one scored against me!

As we were playing 6 a-side we had special rules - no offsides to begin with, and a whole bunch of rules to 'simplify' the game for us. In the end, all we had to remember was not to touch the ball with our hands. We won our first game 4-0, and then at the end of the 2nd game there was some dispute as to whether we had lost 3-2 or 3-1. So we had to take penalty kicks - luckily Steph was the goalie and she saved so many, but it the end we lost the penalty kicks 1-0 (after each team had taken 11 shots at goal each). This meant we played the 'bronze medal' game, and won 2-0 or 3-0 (not sure).

Of course, after a long day playing soccer we had to party! This time, it was with all the other teams who had played in the tournament. There was a mountain of food, a Japsican (Mexican + Japanese) band, and then an African drummer. The kids all went to bed, and it turned into a dance party where Monica and I befriended a Japanese soccer team - all boys who studied Geology at Shimane University.

Finally we went to bed, and way too quickly I was being woken up for my ride back to Hagi!

(On a side note, my camera is being temperamental and I am having trouble uploading photos from my camera so once it starts behaving there will be photos on facebook for those of you with access)

How to make Japanese girls squeal (louder than usual)

2008-05-29T17:27:00.004+09:00

Making J girls squeal is not that difficult... hello kitty figures, purikura (sticker photos) and photos from Bangladesh have all done that job in the past. However, today's squealing was slightly unexpected.

In class today we were writing our diaries (I got up at 7am, ate breakfast etc) and at the end of the class the students each had to ask me a question. For some reason 1 girl asked me "what time do you take a shower" and when I said "sometimes in the evening, sometimes in the morning" the kids started squealing. Then I was asked "Do you wash your hair everyday?" and I said no, I wash my hair 3 times a week and that caused more uproar. I couldn't figure out a way to explain that my hair is now long because I am too nervous to go to the hairdresser in Hagi in case I end up with hair only 2 inches all over my head!

Finally the last question was "What fragrance is your shampoo treatment?" I answered lemon, and luckily the bell went because the kids were squealing - "remon, remon!!!!" like I was crazy!

The earth shook!

2008-05-20T15:07:00.002+09:00

Wow! I just experienced my first earthquake. Things shook for about 1 1/2 mins... nothing broke or fell over though!

The Old Fashioned Festival?

2008-05-18T23:33:00.005+09:00

Firstly, I had Ikebana, just by myself with Kiyoko. It was fun, she was crazy as per usual. Afterwards she asked if I was free. As I was, and usually it ends up being fun with her, I followed her onto a shuttle bus and ended up in the port area of Hagi. We walked up and down the streets, ate ice cream and that was about it. There were displays of old machines, old soy sauce barrels, and some old rice growing utensils... what a weird idea for a festival. Even stranger, it was packed... Seriously have no idea what it was for. After about 40 minutes we left.

(photos to come once i get back to Hagi)

Friday Ramen Club update

2008-05-12T14:41:00.005+09:00

Each Friday, after we eat our ramen, we fill out the little customer feedback forms. Not that we entirely understand all the questions, but we do have a routine of what to circle, and know the katakana to write to say what we ordered, and our names, addresses and phone numbers. As a reward for filling out the forms, every so often a customer wins Y3000 ($30) to spend at the ramen shop. My friend Eriko, has managed to win twice in 2 months! Carla, Melody and I are super jealous, and are beginning to get a complex about never winning! Especially for the other 2 girls - given that they have been going practically every Friday for 9 months! That's not to say that the store is anti-foreign, they are really friendly to us, and have come to expect us being loud in the back corner! Also, Eriko always ends up using her voucher to buy gyoza or something like that for us all. It's just that we think the store owners are probably too freaked out to call and have to deal with our rubbish Japanese!

Congratulations Eriko!

My brief encounter with fame!

2008-05-10T14:17:00.003+09:00

I was on Mishima this week at the same time as a film star! Some random old Japanese film star called Kiyoji Nakajo. He apparently is a singer and an actor. I have no idea what they were filming or why they were on a dinky little Island in the middle of nowhere. The dude wanted to tell me about his house on the Gold Coast, but the only English word he knew was "Gold Coast"

Then after my encounter with the star I took the boat back to Hagi, and it was the worst boat trip I have taken! I was worried that the boat was going to tip over or something. This photo was taken through a window in the middle level of the boat.

They love me... they really love me

2008-05-09T11:23:00.004+09:00

I have schools that tell me to go home or hide in the kitchen if there are guests, parents, or postmen expected! If there is a surprise ambush by a courier then they hurry me into the cupboard under the stairs, or close the door of my classroom! Now, this isn't at every school I teach at, but it happens often enough to make me realise that I am a scary foreign alien!

So when the Mishima JHS English Teacher started telling me about a special class in June, to which parents and other teachers are invited to attend, I was expecting her to tell me that she needed to cancel my visit for that day. Imagine my surprise when she said she would write up a plan for the lesson and send it to me, for my suggestions, so we could run the lesson easily! That's right - she wants me to TEACH in the open lesson. Whoa! I asked her if she was sure, and she said yes, she thinks it is important for the other teachers/parents to see a proper English class with me!

Actually, down at the Elementary School they have a noticeboard for the parents/community, and on the board are the dates that I will visit! Actually acknowledging my existence...

Seoul baby!

2008-05-09T10:58:00.013+09:00

For Golden Week (a public holiday bonanza in Japan) I went to Seoul for 5 days with some other JETs! Daniel, in Tokuyama, mentioned he was arranging a trip, so I jumped on board and took advantage of all his planning! We headed to Seoul for 5 days, from early Friday morning (a bus from Hagi at 6.10am) until late Tuesday (returned to Hagi at 9pm). It is hard to say what the highlight of the trip is, given so much of it was FABULOUS, and really there were very few low points.

To begin with it was super easy to get around with all English, and a little Japanese. It seemed that everyone spoke English, or some Japanese. Kids were super genki (keen) to speak to us in English, and helped us find the famous foot long ice creams! We obtained food either by pointing, or reading the multilingual menus (Korean, English & Japanese seemed standard), and in taxis we would just say the station name to get near to our hostel.

A major highlight was our day tour to the DMZ. We visited a train station from where you will one day be able to take a train to North Korea, and it will connect with the transiberian railway, then we went to an obsevatory tower, from which we could see North Koreans going about their daily business - farming. Then it was on to the 3rd tunnel. That is, the 3rd tunnel dug by the North Koreans, after the cease fire agreement had been signed, to infiltrate South Korea. Luckily the North Koreans had super shoddy equipment so the South Koreans had plenty of time to find it, once they had been tipped off to its existence! There is a monorail that you take down into the tunnel, then you can walk about 200m along it, until you come to the dynamite blockades, separating the South and the North even 300m underground.

Lunch time, amazing Bul Go Gi (a Korean beef dish) and then we jumped on board an all English bus. In the morning the bus was half Japanese tourists, half English tourists, so there were 2 guides. However, in the afternoon we had a bus full of English speakers. We also had the cutest tour guide who was "nervousing" about taking a group into the United Nations Command area, because of all the restrictions, and the danger. Actually, when we entered we had our passports checked thoroughly (the earlier checks by Korean soldiers had been cursory at best) and then had to sign a waiver acknowledging that we might die! The 2 major rules were no pictures, except in designated spots, and no pointing/hand gestures. The no pictures thing was easy - there were plenty of soldiers watching us to make sure we didn't take any sneakily, and our guide was always telling us exactly where we could take a photo from. The hand gesture thing on the other hand... Lucy suggested we do a Prince Phillip (and keep our hands behind our backs) but then Amy kept asking me where things were, and I almost pointed twice - I swear she was trying to make the tour more dangerous! She did apologise profusely, but...

So the DMZ tour was 1 day - Saturday, and then on the other days (Friday, Sunday, Monday & Tuesday) we did some sightseeing and shopping in Seoul. There are 5 palaces in Seoul, and I went to 2. The first one is the Deoksugung, which is where the biggest changing of the guards ceremony occurs. It literally happnens on the curb of a major road, outside the front gates of the palace. So while all the tourists are crammed in tightly together, the traffic roars on by obliviously. Deoksugung is a small complex, where most of the buildings are 'Asian' but there was a very European building - I suppose the King saw photos of a European palace, and decided he wanted a similar building.

The other palace, Gyeongbokgung, is much larger. They have a small changing of the guards ceremony, and an area where people can get dressed up in traditional costumes, which I took advantage of! In the compound there are many buildings, and even more are in the process of being restored. We also took a trip in the cable cars, up to N Seoul Tower (no idea what the N stands for). The cable car ride was a little lairy - each time we went through a set of pylons the car sped up and wobbled a bit. Also, the car was very full, so it was hard to move around and look at the views. At the base of the tower, which is set on a mountain, there was a laser and water show, which looked pretty amazing. The view from the top was pretty good - though at night, from above, it can be difficult to distinguish one city from another.

Unsurprisingly we did a fair amount of eating. We ate loads of kimchi - which comes free at every meal, and many chijimis (Korean pancakes, usually with kimchi, spring onion and squid inside). Korean chopsticks are made from metal and are long and flat, so they are much more difficult to use than the regular wooden ones. Luckily, Koreans like to eat rice with a spoon, so that made the whole thing more manageable. We had some kimchi gyoza (dumplings filled with kimchi) and they were so good - an amazing combination of Chinese/Japanese and Korean. While we ate Korean food most of the time, it was so good to be in a big city with all of the range, so we had Vietnamese for lunch one day, and went to a TGIF one night for dinner.

Also, as Korea is so cheap, we did some shopping. I bought toilletries - because they have English instructions on the back, unlike in Japan where I have to guess what the product is and how to use it! They had stall after stall of cheap shoes, though I remained strong and didn't buy a single pair!

I also took a trip to an onsen for the first time. An onsen is a hot bath, and they are very popular in Japan. You go into a communal wash room and have to scrub yourself from top to toe (though you can choose not to wash your hair, and then just keep it tied up whilst you are in the bath), then you go an sit in the bath. Lucy, Amy, Tasha and I went to a 24 hour onsen, where in the women's area there were 3 baths of different temperatures, and a sauna, which was 85 degrees celcius! In Korean onsens you can pay extra and have an old Korean lady scrub you down. Apparently the scrub is amazing, but she looked a little terrifying! Lucy & I laughed over what it must be like to spend your work day in only a pair of knickers!

Seoul is actually quite beautiful - it never really suffered bombings like the ones in Japan which has resulted in concrete block buildings all over the major cities in Japan. It is also a fair bit louder than any Japanese city I have been to. I suppose that is not surprising, Japanese people seem to be the quietest and shyest people I have come across, so when you are in a big J city it is still very quiet, relatively speaking. Seoul had an amazing nightlife - one night we went to see a show, so didn't end up eating dinner until around 10:30pm and we found a really great place still open. I am definitely keen to go back, and stay at our hostel (Stay Korea) which was just like a converted house, and the owners were so helpful and friendly. We chose a perfect time to go, there were a couple of festivals going on, so the city was specially decorated, and plenty of activities to go to. One night we saw a variety of performances in Seoul Plaza, where they had 3 stages set up, and as the lights went down on 1 stage, they would come up on another to reveal a new performer.

All credit for the organisation must go to Daniel! It really was an amazing trip!

Ikebana

2008-05-09T10:57:00.004+09:00

Before Korea I had an Ikebana class. It had been a while, actually since my Spring trip around Japan, since our last class. Anyway - here is the result!

Oh Japan...

2008-04-25T12:02:00.002+09:00

I get comfortable here. Early on in my stay here I tried to forbid myself for asking the question 'why'. Quite frankly, most days that question could be asked 10 or 20 times. The problem is, that when you ask a Japanese person 'why' they seem to assume you think that the current situation is bad, so then they try to change it - when really all you want to know is 'why' without implying that it needs to change!

However, as I have forbidden the question, I float through most days without really acknowledging how crazy Japan can be! But today two events occurred which almost shocked me into asking 'why'.

Firstly, I was in the photocopying room this morning and a 9th grade boy was having his eyebrows forcibly drawn on by the school counsellor. Apparently there is a minimum thickness of eyebrow required here!

Secondly, the 8th grade boys are currently on the concrete sports field, shirtless in the 15 degree weather, practicing sumo. Seriously, Japanese kids must be made of rubber - there are practically no injuries despite all their crazy sports that they play on concrete.

The Results of Our Hard Work

2008-04-19T12:50:00.009+09:00

Yesterday I went to collect Xav, Geoff and my hagi yaki masterpieces. When we left them about 3 weeks ago, they were not so attractive (Xav's is the one on the left), but it is amazing what difference some glaze makes!

Not sure if they would sell in any of the hagi yaki shops, but they certainly are great souvenirs. Actually I am sure I have presented my mum with many more hideous art creations than these ones though!

The New School Year Shuffle

2008-04-14T19:25:00.004+09:00

I've been asked many times whether we have sakura (cherry blossoms) in Australia. When I say we do, and that they bloom in Sept/Oct people ask me if our school year starts at the same time. Apparently, the 'new life' the sakura represents is the same 'new life' of a school year! I suppose it explains why the school year doesn't start ater a long summer break.

However, the new school year has entailed a lot of changes. As I have already written about, my excellent and fabulous supervisor moved up, as did my 'chief' English teacher. But also, about half the teachers in most of my schools moved. When I arrived at the biggest school for the first time I wondered where everyone was! Seriously, I didn't recognise anyone's face! The other shock was how the schools have been rearranged. To begin with the teachers change desks, and then the rooms change. Last year the 9th graders were up on the 3rd floor, and now they are down, the closest to the staffroom (because they are the naughtiest grade!) Now, I have to attempt to learn new teachers' names (even though it will never happen, there are just far too many across all the schools I go to) and sort out my new supervisors! Also, I have to try and figure out the new school layouts, I got lost twice today already.

I hadn't realised how comfortable I was in the staffrooms, even though I didn't know anyone's names. It was quite easy to slip into the staffroom, unnoticed, and just hang out until it was time to leave. Though I complain about having nothing to do, it is quite a relaxing life here, and I was beginning to enjoy it. I only commented the other day how I was glad to finally have a 'schedule' of sorts. Now it feels that I have sort of to start again - getting the non-English speakers to feel comfortable when I am in the room is the first, and toughest challenge. It's amazing how people will run away, leave the room or look the other way when I am near them. At least my new desk neighbour is a little friendlier than the last one! Seriously, it took 7 months for that guy to LOOK at me!

Of course there are plenty of new students. However, the advantage of teaching at practically every school in Hagi means that there aren't really new faces - rather old faces in different places. The downside is that the new teachers want me to introduce myself to the new classes, but the 'new' students have already tried vegemite so I have to avoid repeat self introductions.

Horseback Archery

2008-04-13T20:32:00.005+09:00

Today I went to Tsuwano with some friends from Hagi. It's a little town, in the next prefecture up, and it's really beautiful. It's 'famous' for having more koi than people in the town - and that certainly seemed the case. Every little pond, no matter how shallow, was populated by over sized carp and outside most shops/shrines were little bowls of baby koi!

Every year there is a horseback archery display (Yabusame). There are 3 targets, probably about 100m apart. The aim is that the riders go along, fast, and shoot at each target. The targets are wooden, and if broken by the arrows, are sold as souveneirs.

Some of the riders were really going fast, but there were a couple who barely seemed to be trotting! It was pretty exciting! There were a couple of riders who didn't hit any of the targets, but 2 managed to hit all 3 and got lots of cheers! Most of the riders were older men, but there was 1 woman, 1 foreigner and 1 High School student who also had a go. The costumes were pretty amazing. They obviously had to incorporate some safety features (chest protection etc) but looked beautiful and awkward to be wearing whilst doing any form of archery.

After the festival we went and explored some more of Tsuwano. We climbed up to a shrine (piddling number of steps compared to the mausoleum we climbed to in Kyoto), but the path was lined with orange tori (Japanese 'gates'), so it was a spectacular climb, and at the top the view was great too.

Tsuwano was crowded, because of the Yabusame, but I think that it is much like Hagi in that it is old and beautiful, and each day the town would be full of Japanese tour groups!

Bye Geoff!

2008-04-13T20:25:00.003+09:00

It rained a lot in the last few days of Geoff's time in Hagi - which kind of made the bike he hired a bit useless! However, we still did some cool stuff. One night we went to a make your own okonomiyaki restaurant with Nicole.

We did try to get out and about - though Geoff looked like a bit of a doofus in his rain jacket!

Finally, it was time for him to leave, and it was finally sunny!

Tokyo Town

2008-04-10T11:36:00.001+09:00

After Xav, Geoff and I did our temple tour in Kyoto we jumped on a Shinkansen up to Tokyo. It was an uneventful 2h 45m ride, and of course Geoff had a nap on the train. We arrived at Tokyo Station, and negotiated the subway to the hostel. Actually, once we came out of the subway the hostel was super easy to find, and incredibly close. Literally less than 100m from the subway exit. We stayed at another branch of K's House - the second branch for the trip. The one in Kyoto is a little roomier, but the Tokyo one is so convenient, and quite frankly, you can't really expect to get the same amount of space when rent prices are so much higher.

Our hostel was about 10 minutes from Senso-ji, so on our first afternoon we dawdled our way up there, taking a fair bit longer than 10 mins. Senso-ji is a pretty amazing temple, huge, and crazily commercialised. All the streets leading up to the temple are filled with souveneir stalls, and people shopping!

The next day, Friday, we met up with 2 older Japanese people, whom I found through the Tokyo Free Guide service, and they walked us around Ueno, and after we separated for lunch, Shibuya.

Ueno-koen was more sakura/hanami. Basically tarps and beer and sakura. Then on the edges of the park are museums, and various national institutions, and of course more temples/shrines. The weather was really nice - definitely tee shirt weather, so the tarps were filled with people staking their places for the weekend!

The boys and I had booked lunch at La Rochelle, Sakai's (Iron Chef) restaurant on the 32nd floor of the Shibuya Cross Tower. Whoa. Nelly. So we were totally underdressed, of course, aside from some American tourists at another table. I forgot that Iron Chef finished on Japanese TV almost 10 years ago, so to most Japanese people it is just a nice restaurant, but to us it was an EXPERIENCE!

All the food was phenomonal - as expected. Notable amongst the dishes were the cold appetiser (bonito tartare), the soup (scarily green, but delicious) and the dessert wagon. Yes, a waitress wheeled over a wagon full of cakes, puddings, ice cream and jelly. We elected for the 'tasting plate' - a slice or spoonful of practically everything! My favourite was the phenomonal chocolate brulee. After lunch we retired to the salon for tea - how civilised!

We caused some difficulties for the staff - the menu was written in French and Japanese, and the waiters were ok in dealing with the food in both those languages, but the introduction of English threw them a little! Actually, it was quite funny - they spoke to us in French/English, and their speech was punctuated by bows!

After lunch we met up with our 2 Tokyo guides, who led us on a short loop through Shibuya before they headed home.

We headed for Shinjuku, to ascend the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building - to the free 42nd floor Observation Deck. It was getting dark, and watching the lights over Tokyo was cool! Then we headed to Yodabashi, which Xav and I referred to as 'that camera store'. It really is 8 floors of electronics, many of which we haven't imagined in Australia! Afterwards Geoff and I ate dinner, and Xav did some night time wandering, then of course we hit the karaoke booth!

On our final day of the trip (Saturday) we went to Harajuku. I have been previously on a Sunday and experienced the madness, and while Saturday wasn't as crazy, it was still pretty great! We did some shopping - kiddyland (the ice cream of the future), tee shirts in transparent cans (UT shop) and bought some souveneirs for people who weren't lucky enough to join us on our trip. Then we had lunch - at a restauarant that seemed to have more English speaking waiters than Japanese speaking ones, and then ate a crepe. We were going to get 1 between 3, but then we saw them, and wanted one each! We enjoyed a lot of J fashion, just sitting outside the shops and watching people walk past us, while we attempted to take photos discreetly!

We went up to Roppongi that evening, supposedly a hip and happening entertainment area. Not really that fun, so we ate dinner and then eventually headed back to the hostel.

Next morning Xav went horrendously early to Narita Airport, and Geoff and I made our way to Haneda Airport at a much more reasonable hour, to be at my apartment in Hagi just after 5pm

The Golden Temple

2008-04-09T09:48:00.001+09:00

I liked Kyoto – the karaoke was cheap, the food great, the sights impressive. We did have to use buses, rather than trains, to get around, and I always find that more difficult, but I handed that responsibility to Xav whom I christened ‘Mr Transport’. However, I still don’t know if I would want to spend much more time in Kyoto. I wouldn’t mind going back for a day, and a night, but not much longer. As Geoff said, it is a lot less accessible than Tokyo, or even Hiroshima, in terms of language. Also, it seemed that the night life was kind of limited to a smallish area (small in comparison to the size of the city, and its population).

We arrived, found our hostel to unload our luggage and then headed back to the train station. It’s the first train station I have seen listed in a guide book as worth seeing as a ‘sight’. It was definitely worth it, we probably spent a couple of hours riding the crazy escalators, hanging out in the sky garden, and wandering along the sky walk, before finding dinner in one of the food courts.

The next day we did the self guided walking tour, outlined in the Lonely Planet. We started the walk a few blocks before the LP start point, which resulted in us climbing 536 steps up to a Mausoleum. The old man at the entrance charged us 50 yen each, and because it was April 1st when we did this we later joked it was his April Fool’s joke on us!

Anyway, after that slight detour we followed the LP’s instructions, and hit the major sites of SE Kyoto – the temples were packed, and the gardens even more full of people enjoying ‘Ohanami’ – watching the sakura and eating and drinking, sitting on tarps underneath the trees! That night we went out for dinner and karaoke.

The following day we took on the bus system – and got excellent value out of our day pass. We went out to the Golden Temple, which was busy even at 9.15am, and to a textile centre to watch a kimono show, before doing some more cherry blossom spotting!

For our last night in Kyoto we slept in a temple, but of course went out for karaoke in downtown Kyoto before returning to the temple for bed. We took a tour of the temple the next morning, and it was filled with symbols of hidden Christianity, as it was built in the period when Christianity was banned in Japan. The tour guide – the vice-abbot – used to live in America, and had decent English. They have some seriously valuable artwork in the temple – and so in an attempt to conserve it the tours are only run in English.

Breaching the Defences of Himeji Castle

2008-04-08T12:04:00.003+09:00

Himeji Castle is meant to be the best representative of Japanese Castles, and also supposedly resembles a white heron. So we decided to stop in Himeji, and view this castle, on our way to Kyoto from Hiroshima. The Lonely Planet recommends about 3 or 4 hours in Himeji, and that’s about as long as we spent.

It was a very easy walk, straight out of the station, up to the castle. We followed the crowds, and about half way down the road we could see the castle, so we knew we were heading in the right direction.

The castle itself is surrounded by 2 lots of gardens, and a moat (though in the olden days there were 3 moats!) So after coming through the first garden we paid our admission, and went into the inner gardens, before going into the castle (or as the boys said, breaching the castle’s defences).

All the sakura were out, and as you can imagine, there were tourists galore! As each floor in the castle gets progressively smaller we were lucky that the tour groups didn’t start coming in until after we left. Though, that may have had something to do with our early start that day, so we beat them!

The stairs inside the castle were so steep – I’m not sure defensive troops could have rushed up or down considering the armour they had to wear! Maybe that’s why there were little rooms on each level for soldiers to sit in, and pour boiling oil out the windows.

The first couple of floors had most of the artifacts from when the castle was in use, but as we climbed higher it was all about the view, which was pretty spectacular.

After reaching the top, we turned around and had to go down the stairs – which was harder than going up, given how steep they were. Then we had lunch, and watched some baseball before getting a Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.

One Day in Hiroshima

2008-04-08T11:53:00.003+09:00

On Sunday morning we (Geoff, Xav, my ikebana friend Carla and I) met my ikebana teacher to go to Miyajima and Hiroshima. Kiyoko sensei (ikebana teacher) has a huge 6 seater car, although she lives on her own, so we all fit in, even with our luggage! The drive was fairly uneventful, I slept most of the way. However, it was raining, and continued to rain for the rest of the day, and into the evening.

We took the ferry over to Miyajima (1 of Japan’s top 3 views) – it was so windy, but worth staying outside to see the view across the shrine. Once we landed, the first thing I noticed were the deer – with their antlers shorn for safety. They just wander amongst people, looking for food really.

We walked through the shrine. Even in the horrible misty rain the bright orange still stood out! We even managed to watch a bride and groom having some photos taken in traditional Shinto wedding costumes. On the other side we went up into a hall, where some kids were playing taiko and singing and dancing, in honour of the girls festival (which I thought was only a one day event in March, so clearly I was wrong).

After the performance, and lunch, we headed back to the mainland on the ferry – this time sitting inside, and drove the 40 minutes or so to Hiroshima. Once there we had to find a car park, near the peace park. The car parks in Hiroshima are funny – they lock your car into place until you have paid, but to get into them it sounds as though you are about to break something underneath the car, which is just a little disconcerting.

It was still rainy so we spent some time in the Peace Museum, before a brief wander through the park, and down the shopping arcade. Then we went to the station, and met one of Kiyoko’s friends for okonomiyaki before getting in a taxi to go to our hostel.

The boys are (back) in town!

2008-04-07T12:49:00.004+09:00

Xav and Geoff arrived in Hagi smelly! They had been travelling for a while, so they were desperate to get changed! Once they had done that we went to have lunch, and go for a walking tour around the inner part of Hagi – the arcade, various residences/birthplaces/cemeteries for the Hagi luminaries of old.

Of course, along the way, we attracted a fair amount of attention. After all, 2 new foreigners are noticeable in a city where there are normally 12 foreigners. This meant that the kids stopped and stared, or gave us lollies, or wanted to take photos of us! The boys loved it, and I had to explain that it can get tiresome – especially when they tell you they saw you buying noodles and onions at the supermarket and want to know what you cooked!

I introduced the boys to Purikura (sticker photos), and we even did some with some students from one of my schools.

For dinner we had Korean BBQ (yakiniku) – totally appropriate for their first proper meal in Japan!

On Saturday we went to a Hagi Yaki (Hagi pottery) studio, watched a video which showed some handy techniques with the clay, and then we sat down for about an hour. The end results weren’t so attractive! Xav’s milk jug had kind of an awkward face around the spout, and Geoff called his mug Prince Charlesesque – so big that it needed to big handles if you were to use it.

We ate lunch in the park around the castle ruins. Some of the sakura (cherry blossoms) were out, and Xav climbed a mountain (a small mountain!) so it was a pretty good day.

That night we went out with a couple of my friends for dinner, then karaoke, then dessert. Xav managed to find himself 2 potential Japanese girlfriends – a friend of mine, and another Japanese girl who I see around a little bit. Not sure which one he is going to choose though!

This is Xav with girlfriend Number 1!

A sad day

2008-03-27T21:20:00.003+09:00

Today my supervisor told me that he is leaving the Board of Education - he is being transferred to another district to be a Principal. I mean, it's great for him, but not so good for the JETs.

Principals don't work so hard in Japan, the Vice Principals do most of the work! Also, at the BOE Tsucky works crazy hours (usually from 7am - 10 or 11pm) but at schools the latest he would have to stay is probably 7pm, or earlier. The Vice Principal stays the longest, then the teachers, and the Principal gets to go home pretty early, compared to everyone else that is!

Also, it means he has to move to that other area - he will get a small apartment and live there during the week, coming back to Hagi to see his family on the weekends. Understandably, his kids are a bit sad - actually over Tsucky's career he has spent a fair proportion living apart from them, or working so much that he never sees them. Finally he gets a job which would have him home for dinner at a reasonable hour and it is in a different city!

Our new Supervisor is an Elementary Teacher. She doesn't speak so much English, though she does try. I think that all of us at once (there are 6 of us assigned to this Board of Education) overwhelmed her earlier, and she couldn't keep up. It will be a real learning experience for us, having a supervisor who doesn't have fabulous English.

Also, my most important English Teacher (at my base school he is the guy who does everything for/with me) and a fabulous Office Lady from my base school who was helping me with my Japanese, are also going to new schools, which I won't visit. So though it's the end of the school year, and the kids are all super excited, the staff are less so as it means many changes, very quickly. Teachers get very little notice that they are being transferred, and are transferred on average every 3 years, and aren't allowed to tell people until about 5 days before they have to move! It's a crazy system...

So when I go back to my schools in about a week and a half I will most likely have new English teachers to work with, with no warning!

No longer stranded

2008-03-22T16:45:00.003+09:00

Hanging out on Mishima was not the most fun I have had in Japan. All the teachers were really nice to me - they took me to the restaurant that is open for dinner, and the 2nd evening all the teachers had dinner at the Vice Principal's house. Actually, the worst part may have been that I didn't have enough clean clothes! Or that the Vice Principal had to lend me money, so I could pay for the extra 2 nights at the Inn.

During the day it was so boring. I feel so sorry for the teachers who live there. They have to do a 3 year rotation out there, but once they have done it, they get to choose where to go next. Usually the teachers just get shuffled around to different schools every few years, with no say in the matter, so for some teachers the Mishima rotation may be worth it.

Basically, there are 2 restaurants, and 1 shop. There are a lot of vending machines - cigarettes, beer and soft drink, and you can do karaoke at the ryokan (where I stay). That's it.

Stranded

2008-03-19T14:00:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I came out to Mishima (my Island school) for the first time since October. The ferry is often cancelled in the winter, and the water is very wavy, so they don't like to send us then. However, Shak came out here 2 weeks ago and everything was fine, so I was looking forward to seeing the Mishima schools again.

Yesterday the water was so flat, the ride out here so smooth. Even over night in the Ryokan was good (and I don't really like that place). This morning it was raining, pretty hard really, and I even joked that I may want to stay another day, because the water looked so rough. But I really was just joking! Tomorrow is a National Holiday, and I had plans!

At about 1.30 a message came from the port that the ship was cancelled - the last ship of the day. Then even better news, as tomorrow is a holiday there will be no ferries all day. Great. Now I am stuck on Mishima until Friday morning. I had to get the school to pay for the next 2 nights at the Inn, and am a little worried about dinner/breakfast/lunch etc - there is no school tomorrow, so I can't even rely on school lunch!

So tomorrow night there is a dinner at the Vice Principal's house which I will go to... and other than that I will be bored. My ipod battery is almost flat and I have 1/3 of an unread book.

Ikebana Today

2008-03-16T19:59:00.003+09:00

The sakura (cherry blossoms) are starting to bloom in Hagi, so today we used them in our ikebana class.

Bangladesh Jaunt

2008-03-11T15:09:00.003+09:00

I've just returned from a 4 1/2 day trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I went for a friend's wedding. Asif (a Bengali) lived with me in Australia in 2005, and I had been hanging out for the wedding ever since. 2 friends from Australia also came for the trip.

Some Basics about Bangla

Bangladesh is a small country, and only became a nation in 1971. The UN lists it as the most corrupt country in the world, and 80% of the citizens live on less than USD$2 per day. Asif's Dad (Asif being my friend, the Groom) is the District Commissioner of Dhaka. The DC is an unelected position, but is he is one of the highest ranking civil servants in the capital. As a result everything was streamlined, and made very easy for us: immigration, VIP visits to some of the sites and meals with various people. Rules and social norms were broken: foreigners in the airport and I was invited to participate in many parts of the event that are generally reserved for the men

Arriving in Bangladesh

Arriving at midday all I could see were clouds, or what I assumed to be clouds. However, it seems likely that it was really just pollution. In my time in Dhaka I did not see the sky once.

Driving from the airport to Asif's house was an adventure. In fact, every car trip was like driving dodgem' cars. Most roads have no marked lanes, but even where such markings exist they are meaningless. Cars, baby taxis, buses, bikes and rickshaws all jostle for space. The soundtrack is a cacophony of horns - from the deep bellows emanating from the buses and trucks, to the tinny little bells rung by the rickshaw drivers. To further complicate matters pedestrians cross the road wherever, and whenever the feel like.

First Impressions

On the drive from the airport to Asif's house there were 5 things that I kept noticing.

1. Pollution - which later led to headaches, and really sore eyes.
2. Power lines - many of which are illegally connected, tumble across the city.
3. Traffic - the theory in Dhaka seems to be "trust that the other vehicle will stop". To that end, we did only see 1 car crash in our time in Dhaka, and even that was minor, just resulting in a damaged door handle.
4. Staring - normally passengers have to leave the airport building to find their friends or family. This means that hundreds of Bengalis stand behind a long fence 30 metres from the airport doors, looking for their friends. This also meant that there were hundreds of Bengalis staring at me.
5. Poverty - it's very difficult to describe just how poor most people in Bangladesh are. Despite previously traveling in developing countries in South East Asia, I was still shocked. In Bangladesh there appear to be 2 social classes - the dirt poor or the super wealthy. Driving along the road that connects the airport to the city this division is obvious. There are beautifully manicured garden beds along the sides of the road, and these gardens are kept that way from coiled barbed wire preventing people from walking on them. This results in Bengalis walking bare foot, and sometimes shirtless, along what we would call a highway. When the cars stop, or slow, hordes of beggars and hawkers approach the car. It was quite confronting watching my Bengali friends not even notice these beggars, while I found it difficult to look up.

Luxury in Poverty

My friend lives in a mansion, across the street from the Prime Minister. The house was built by the British over 100 years ago. I'm not sure how many rooms were in the house - we were given a tour of the family's living area but I could see more rooms in behind. In the backyard there were at least 7 shacks for the servants to live, and more around the side for the security personnel.

At every meal we were watched over by servants, who would replace the food on our plate as we ate. There was generally 1 servant per 2 people sitting at the table. Also, when we wore traditional dress the servants would descend to help me put on the sari, and then follow me throughout the evening, fixing my clothes.

There were also several children on the property. It was disconcerting to see them running about in old, sometimes torn, clothing, surrounded by the luxury of the house. After a couple of days, using the phrasebook section of our Lonely Planet, we attempted a short conversation with these kids. Although they could tell us their names, they didn't know how old they were, presumably because they had never celebrated their birthdays. However, these kids were far better off than the children we saw begging in the street. Kids missing arms, or legs, would sit on the road, or walk among the cars, begging for a few taka.

Daily reminders that we weren’t immune from the poverty were the power outages. Each time the power went out it meant that there was no water, as electricity was required to pump it around the house. However, the area we stayed in was one of the least affected areas, as it is filled with the houses of high ranking Government Ministers.

Pre Wedding: The Holud

A Muslim Bengali wedding is composed of many parts. Prior to the actual marriage both the Bride and Groom have their own Holud. At each ceremony the betrothed takes a seat on a stage and is surrounded by food. While there are musical performances each guest at the Holud comes and sits with the Bride or Groom, paints their face with tumeric paste and feeds them.

One of Asif’s uncles explained to us that a Muslim wedding is supposed to be boring, for the Bride and Groom. Each ceremony we attended certainly lived up to that explanation. All the ceremonies seemed to consist of the Bride and Groom sitting on stages for hours at a time, and having their photo taken over and over again!

Once the Holud is complete the bride and groom must stay in their own houses until the groom comes to the bride’s house to be married.

The Wedding

The actual marriage was quite boring. We drove to the bride’s (Zafreen) house, and some segregation of the sexes was attempted. The boys I traveled with sat with the groom and his male relatives while I sat in Zafreen’s bedroom with all the female relatives. First her mother, and mother in law dressed her in mountains of gold jewelry (it took almost half an hour to put it all on), then they veiled her, and the Imam came in with 1 of her uncles, and 2 of Asif’s uncles. The bride had to utter “I’m willing” in the presence of these men, and then sign a contract. At that moment she and Asif were married – and Asif had done nothing! The Imam and the uncles then went to Asif to tell him the good news. Some prayers were sung, and Asif signed the contract.

At this stage the segregation came to a halt, and we all ate dates to celebrate. However, the bride and groom still weren’t allowed to see each other.

We went back to Asif’s house to prepare for the wedding dinner (not the reception though, this was only Thursday and the reception was not until Sunday). I was brought a fancier sari to wear, and an Aunt took me shopping for jewelry. At the Holud I was the most underdressed woman, wearing very western jewelry with my sari, so an Aunt took me to buy some serious bling.

The Wedding Dinner

At 6pm 2 costumed horses (from the Presidential Guard) arrived with their costumed handlers. Once dressed, the groom and his brother mounted the horses and were veiled with garlands of jasmine and roses. We then paraded to the dining hall. A 22 piece military band led the way, followed by the horses and a long convoy of cars. At every intersection police were controlling the traffic to allow us to pass.

At the hall Asif had to pay the bride’s family so we could go in. About $400 was paid, but even then tradition demanded that we physically push the Groom inside.

Still Asif and Zafreen were not allowed to see each other. There were 2 halls, set up identically. There were tables and chairs as far as the eye could see, and a VIP table was set up near the stage. The groom sat in 1 hall, on a chair, on the stage, and the bride did the same in the 2^nd hall. For about 2 hours photographs were taken of all the guests with the bride and groom.

At this stage she is meant to continue to look miserable, but the groom is allowed to look smug – he has stolen her from her father!

Once all the individual photos had been taken we all went downstairs. The men, the mothers, the bride and the foreigners ate dinner. Behind us the female guests poured drinks, and in front of us the waiters kept piling food onto our plates.

Finally, it was time for Zafreen and Asif to sit next to one another. She continued to look miserable, though it was clearly a struggle as she was actually happy to get married as this marriage was a ‘love match’ rather than an arranged marriage.

Hours of photo taking ensued, then finally it was time to leave. The procession returned to the groom’s house, and the bride was carried part of the way there in a Bengali version of a sedan chair.

We arrive at the house, and Zafreen stepped into a tray of vermilion dye and onto white cloth leading into the house. This is an old Hindu custom, meant to symbolize the prosperity a new wife brings into the house.

We followed the couple into their bedroom (by we I mean about 50 family members). Then we all took it in turns to sit with them and congratulate them. While we were with them the power went out and the bride had to remove her jewelry by the light of a mobile phone!

Some Sightseeing

Obviously, the reason we went to Bangladesh was for the wedding. However, we still managed to do a little sightseeing, and some shopping.

Much of Dhaka is newly built (though it looks like it will all fall down if you blow too hard). It has been ransacked of many of its treasures over time. Also Bangladesh itself is a very new country. As a result, there is practically no tourist infrastructure, and outside of the airport I saw 1 other foreigner the whole time!

We took a convoy of cars to the Liberation Memorial, Lalbagh Fort and a language memorial. The long drives also gave us a chance to see something of what life is like for regular Bengalis – the markets, the tea stands, the slums. Both the Memorial and the Fort were truly beautiful monuments, set amongst lush greenery.

To visit or not to visit

If it hadn’t been for the wedding, I probably wouldn’t have gone to Bangladesh. Going in as a regular tourist/traveler would not be for the faint of heart. To begin with, the visas are a nightmare to get, Bangladesh is not readily accessible (it took me 30 hours to travel there, because of the waiting times between flights), and once you are there Dhaka seems impenetrable. The Bangladesh Lonely Planet is the only guidebook available, but it does make a self directed trip seem possible.

My whole trip was full of amazing moments. Virtually every second something happened to make me look twice. While the wedding wasn’t exactly what Bollywood movies had led me to believe, it was really spectacular, and I feel very lucky to have experienced it.

The School Year is Coming to an End!

2008-03-03T18:20:00.003+09:00

The school year in Japan ends on March 26 and the next one starts on April 7. This coming Saturday, whilst I am in Bangladesh, the 9th graders will be graduating, all across Hagi.

Today was the last time I will visit Sanmi JHS until the next school year, so we had a 'games' class with the 9th graders.

They are a great class - pretty good English, and generally quite keen. I have had a lot of fun with them over the last 7 months. I think a big part of why we have fun is that it is a small class - only 14 students - so no one can tune out, because I may pick on them next!

The end of the class was quite embarrassing - I had to write on all their graduation message cards, and give them encouraging farewell messages! Then the students gave me a big card which they had made - mostly full of grammatically correct messages! How gratifying for an English teacher!

I am sore all over

2008-03-03T18:11:00.004+09:00

Yesterday I ran a 5km 'fun run' over mountains...

There are some famous caves near Hagi - Akiyoshi do - and yesterday there was a Marathon Festival. I was not going to run 21.25km (technically it's only a half marathon festival) but was up for the 5km challenge. I even went to the gym beforehand to train. However, I made a fatal error. At the gym, which costs $1.50 per visit, there are 4 treadmills, with all the instructions in Japanese. I have figured out how to press go, and that's about it. Unfortunately I don't know how to set it to 'incline' so I had been practicing running on a flat surface and yesterday was anything but flat - 90% of the time we were running up or down a mountain. Obviously running uphill is hard, but running downhill is just as hard!

I did manage to finish, though I certainly didn't cover myself in glory!

Respect...

2008-02-28T13:08:00.004+09:00

The activity in the 8th grade class was to make a dialogue, based on one from the book.

The dialogue from the book:
Clerk: May I help you?
Judy: Yes please, I'm looking for a sweater
C: What kind of sweater are you looking for?
J: Something green
C: How about this one?
J: I like it, but it's too small
C: Shall I show you a bigger one?
J: Yes please. Oh! This is nice. How much is it?
C: It's 5000 yen
J: Ok, I'll take it.

The English teacher made up one as an example:
Board of Education Supervisor: May I help you?
Teacher: Yes, I'm looking for a JET
BOE: What kind of JET are you looking for?
T: A cheerful one
BOE: How about Kate?
T: I like it, but is there a quieter one?
BOE: No

Ikebana - the withered parts

2008-02-27T15:44:00.004+09:00

So usually at Ikebana we just play with pretty flowers and it's lots of fun. Kiyoko-san doesn't speak English, but we gesture and get by. She owns an electronic dictionary that can speak - so when we are desperate we turn to that!

Today she wanted to teach us the 'father' and 'mother' parts of the peach blossom flower. The mother part is the flowers, while the father part is the withered old growth... charming!

Valentine's Day

2008-02-24T20:34:00.005+09:00

Oh Valentine's Day in Japan... Well for one the girls are meant to give the boys presents ONLY!

I, however, was lucky enough to receive 2 cards! Actually, the cards weren't given voluntarily. The English teacher asked the students to write cards - and that the cards had to be written to the teacher whose name the student drew out of the hat.

One card was quite simple: "Dear Kate, Thank you for your kindness. From...."

The second (pictured) was a lot more interesting. To begin with I'm not sure if "your glass is kind of nice" refers to my classes, or my glasses. Also "Your voice is a gift from God, and also your father" was a bit of a surprise! But then the English teacher explained that it comes from the textbook story of an opera singer. I don't know if I would claim that my voice was akin to an opera singer's.

6 months more

2008-02-14T11:27:00.004+09:00

I have been in Japan now for more than 6 months. I had hoped that 6 months would be a big milestone, but really it means nothing more than half of my time here is done. I suppose I have realized a few things. Teaching is not for me – I don’t really enjoy doing the classes, though I do like preparing for them and making the materials. That’s not to say I don’t like the students or teachers, but I am getting a bit tired of being a performing monkey/human tape recorder. Too often my job involves me saying English words or phrases, and having the students repeat them. At some other schools a visit from the ALT (me) just means fun and games – the students don’t actually expect to learn anything while I am in the classroom. It is becoming obvious that the teachers don’t expect me to teach either – my visits are cancelled when the students need to study. I have been told that classes are more efficient without me. Obviously I took it personally in the beginning, but now I don’t care. They have a lot of material to get through in each textbook so the students can pass the tests, and get into high school. So it’s not that I am a terrible teacher, but my visits are meant to be about spoken activities, and the students aren’t ever tested on their speaking abilities. I must say though, it does make me wonder why they bother to organize this JET program… However, some of my friends in other places work quite hard – often at school until after 5pm (when I go home at lunchtime) and involved in the lesson planning and marking. I suppose it’s because I go to so many schools that I am usually only asked to prepare a warm up game. Sometimes I get asked to make a worksheet, but then inevitably the school changes the plan and the worksheet I’ve made is useless!

I don’t want this to sound like I am having a terrible time. I am cold – as most of you know. It’s not colder than Canberra (though it is colder than Melbourne), but the heating here is terrible, so it’s that I am always cold which is the problem. I am beginning to feel like winter is never going to end. A week ago February was really nice and sunny, but over the last few days the weather has worsened, to the point of snow all day yesterday (Feb 13). I am struggling because I am not used to being cold all the time. Riding my bike everywhere means that I can’t wear my super heavy winter coat because it’s too restrictive. I wish I had thought about that when I was packing!

I do like Hagi – I sort of have a routine now, though there is no routine with my school visiting schedule. I have Japanese and Ikebana classes, and I have made some foreign and Japanese friends. My Japanese is very slowly progressing. I spend a lot of time asking people to repeat themselves, and speak more slowly! I maybe understand 5-10% of what’s going on around me! It’s quite frustrating only understanding words here and there – though it does motivate me to learn more!

I am glad I came – I have definitely used this break well. And it really is a break for me – given my work hours! Our contract has our working hours as 8.30-4.15 but I am usually home by 2pm! I am definitely going back to Canberra to do legal workshop so I can be admitted as a lawyer. I think I will do it part time over 12 months so I can get a decent, and relevant, job at the same time. I also think I will continue to work on my Japanese when I get back – I feel like I have made a lot of effort so far, so intend to keep studying when I am back in Australia and take a proficiency test next December. I hopefully don’t see myself in Canberra after I have done workshop – so September 2009 should be the end of my time there! Not that I know where I am going, but I think that it will be time to leave ‘Canboring’.

About half of the group I started with are leaving Japan at the end of the contract – the other half are re-contracting for a 2nd year. It’s been great to make friends with people from all over the world. I have also used Japan as a good travel base – though I have only been to Singapore for Christmas so far I have a few more trips planned – Bangladesh, a trip around Japan and then to Korea. Me being here has also meant a few of my friends have/will do trips to Japan! Geoff will have been here twice, and a few others will get a different experience by visiting Hagi than just visiting the big cities in Japan.

Of course I’ve missed people back home. It’s been strange living by myself – not that many others would fit in my apartment for more than a night or too!

I am glad I came, but I am looking forward to starting the next phase of my life in September!

Let it snow!

2008-02-14T11:25:00.006+09:00

Yesterday morning (feb 13) I woke up to this!

I went outside and my little bike hut had protected my bike!

And can you think of anything more normal than handing the 6th graders some rakes and telling them to clean the snow off the plants???

This is what I looked like after riding my bike to school!

Apparently last year there was also a freaky February snow storm too! It really snowed all day, however it didn't really stick to the ground, and what had been deposited there overnight melted pretty quickly when we had short bursts of sunshine!

Dear Sweet Dot's sister or brother

2008-02-10T17:49:00.001+09:00

Dear me, the Engrish around here just gets better and better!

Latest Ikebana sensation

2008-02-10T17:39:00.001+09:00

My latest ikebana creation! Also, as today is Geoff's birthday, after class we ate doughtnuts and did "kampai" with hot mik tea!

Actually, class today was quite long - and Kiyoko-san tried to teach us so much kanji! Aaah, got quite tricky.

How I entertain myself...

2008-02-08T19:42:00.001+09:00

This week I have taught for a grand total of 8 periods - and this included 1 period of breadmaking and eating (see the previous post) and 1 period of playing Japanese card games with the 1st and 2nd graders at an Elementary school. Actually, I managed to win one of the card games, even though I had, and still have, no idea of how to play the game. In fact, on Friday I had no classes. There was 1 English class scheduled, but the Japanese teachers decided it would be more efficient to have those classes without me. So instead today I made a poster about English proverbs. Given I had HOURS to spend on it, I got a little too creative with coloured paper!

Actually, I often have a lot of spare time at most schools, but especially at Hagi Nishi! So over my time I have been known to go a little wild with coloured paper a few times... here are some of my creations!

Left is my Australia Day Special

For Halloween I attempted to introduce Hamlet's 3 Witches to the school (right)

Christmas Confession - I only made the tree, and all the students had to make decorations in class.

Eating in Class! Practically illegal in Japan!

2008-02-08T19:38:00.001+09:00

On my lesson plan on Wednesday just gone it had "bake bread" as the theme. Firstly, I wasn't sure if we were actually going to bake bread, or just talk about it. Secondly, I was worried that I would have to explain how to do it! Thankfully they employ home making teachers in Japan! So I went to the Special Ed class, and watched them make the bread (they had already mixed and kneaded etc in first period so all they had to do was roll up the dough with chocolate or sausage and put it in the oven. So while the bread was baking I was actually expected to teach some English - easy though, the relationship of hour, minute and second... then the bread was done! Now I remember back in high school we would just take home whatever disgusting mess we had created in home ec but here it is much more civilised. The home making teacher made tea for everyone (proper black tea) and we sat down and at the bread... best English class ever.

Nothing says I love you like Hello Kitty!

2008-02-06T15:37:00.002+09:00

Every week in my supermarket there is a different 'stall' - crockery, kitchenware, furniture, clothes, seasonal food - and of course, who could forget the delightful laundry supplies as Christmas presents stall! Mostly, these stalls are up for 1 week then the next one comes in - and there is not an everlasting supply of different ones. Now I have been here 6 months I think I have seen most of them twice. At Christmas the laundry supplies were available for about 2 weeks, and it looks like the Valentine's Day products will be out for the next couple of weeks. Of course, there are the standard boxed chocolates selection, but this being Japan there are also some delightful other options. Most of your favourite cartoon characters can be found adorning a chocolate box - Kitty chan, Doraemon, Pokemon, the Dragon Ball Z characters and Snoopy. Of course, there is also some great engrish - my sweet happy heart (trans: i love you?), dear hold me (presumably "hold me dear" the wrong way around). Also, there is a surprisingly large collection of 'adult' candy on the open shelves (very rare in Japan, given that kind of stuff is usually only available in vending machines) - the best thing about the adult candy is that all the packaging is covered in photos of gaijin (foreigners) - seeming to say, there is no way a real japanese person would want this stuff!

Another temperature related post

2008-02-06T15:30:00.002+09:00

Every school possesses a red flag, and the Vice Principal controls it. If the flag is hanging outside the teachers room it means that the heaters can be used in the classrooms. If it's not hanging then all the kids will be cold all day.

So as you can imagine I look for the red flag when I arrive at the schools. And all the schools have different rules - some schools hang the flag if the temperature is less than 8, and other schools wait until it is less than 6 degrees (no prizes for guessing which schools I prefer). One of the English teachers and I amused ourself yesterday thinking of ways to distract the Vice Principal to steal the flag and hang it out. Of course, heaters in the teachers room can be used regardless!

Calligraphy Update

2008-01-29T10:50:00.002+09:00

So as I mentioned, whilst in the calligraphy class a couple of weekends ago the Hagi Cable Television crew filmed me. I sort of understood from their Japanese that the film would be shown only once, on the Monday immediately after the class. However, it appears I was wrong. Many teachers from the different schools I teach at have mentioned seeing me doing calligraphy on TV - and it seems from their comments that my calligraphy film has been shown at least 3 times! Even worse, the teachers all talk about how kawaii (cute) it was!

For the health!

2008-01-28T11:29:00.001+09:00

"For the Health" is a phrase I hear often in Japan - used to excuse terrible school lunches on the whole, but today I learnt 2 new things that we must do for our health

1. students must gargle between each class - there is a special solution called "husu" that sits in a pump pack, with piles of small disposable paper cups, in each room for this purpose.
2. the air in the classroom must be changed regularly - this means that in the middle of the class all the windows must be opened and the heater turned off, and this in sub 5 degree weather. Seriously. And of course the students don't want to do this, so what happens is they slide the windows back and forth, arguing about who has to have the cold air blowing on them. Apparently new air is good for the health. However, I tried to explain that maybe freezing cold air was not so good... not sure if I was understood!

I am a calligraphy master!

2008-01-20T17:07:00.001+09:00

Today the Hagi International Volunteer Club had its fourth Calligraphy Class. The aim was "to paint your new year hopes." However, my kanji skills are fairly limited so I let Isa sensei (left) choose a kanji for me - I started with 'dream.' Luckily it ONLY has 12 strokes, and he drew it out, and marked the stroke order.

So he made me practice that kanji a few hundred times... and then he gave me a new kanji 'fun.' Even though it had less strokes, it was way harder, I kept making it look like a stick figure rather than a kanji!

After we had drawn our hopes we were interviewed by Hagi Cable Television - and will be on the news next Monday at midday apparently.

After class a couple of the Club members brought out sushi and beer and we had a little party!

The bowing phenomena

2008-01-19T16:31:00.002+09:00

So there is a LOT of bowing in Japan. People bow whilst they're on the phone, in their cars, on their bikes, and whilst walking.

Today was the first time though that I have been to a sporting event - a Junior High basketball tournament and before and after each game the whole team (all the subs etc) come and stand on the court and bow to the scorer, to the umpires, the timekeeper, each other and the crowd at each end of the court!

Aah, Engrish

2008-01-10T17:07:00.001+09:00

Over the course of time in Japan I have seen some beautiful examples of Engrish (or Japlish as it is otherwise known). Most days I see someone wearing a ridiculous tee-shirt, or carrying a pencil case that says things like "Sweet Happy Best". While they are funny, I generally don't share them as they are fairly commonplace. However, I bought an exercise book the other day with a BRILLIANT engrish slogan that I had to share!

"Dear Sweet Dot: For the life that is ordinary with fabric of a dear sweet dot an accent."

First person to explain wins a prize!

Erin & Teresa come to play

2008-01-09T21:14:00.001+09:00

So just before the winter vacation Erin and Teresa came to visit Hagi! They were on a whirlwind trip around Japan - Tokyo, Kyoto, Hagi and Hiroshima in 10 days over Christmas

I had sent them directions for the train/bus combo from Kyoto to Hagi, but someone at Japan Rail lied to them - so they skipped the Bocho Bus and took the later Japan Rail bus. The JR person told them that the JR passes weren't valid on the Bocho service, but that is wrong because other people use the passes on Bocho all the time!

Anyway, the driver also told them to get off at the Bus Centre, but I was waiting at the train station! Luckily Flick was on the bus, and when she got off and saw me she mentioned the foreign visitors, and I put 2 and 2 together and rode off and found them! Flick didn't actually know that the foreign visitors were my friends, but given there are 12 foreigners in Hagi (population 50,000 Japanese people) we generally notice any new foreigner, and speculate on why they are in Hagi!

So while they were here we drank sake poppers (yes you can buy sake in a box juice package in this country), did purikura (sticker photos) and they came and saw one of my schools - and the vice principal was rude, but let's not dwell on that. He wasn't rude to their faces, very unJapanese, but explained to me the in and out groups and that they were in the out group and thus not welcome in the staffroom - even though 3 foreigners in 1 place (myself and the 2 girls) was causing chaos in the corridor! Apparently permission for them to visit the school didn't include permission for them to be in the staffroom, at my desk!

Aside from that, we had fun, though I think they were cold in my little apartment because I didn't know how to work the heater (kanji for 'heater' is something I was yet to learn). On that note, I took the remote for the heater (really a reverse cycle air conditioner) to my office and they showed me how to make it a heater - no you don't just turn up the temperature! They also showed me the setting for drying clothes, and a setting for 'health' - symbolised by a heart!

Anyway, back to Erin & Teresa. I took them out for Hagi cappuccinos - cappuccinos with glace mikan instead of powdered chocolate on the foam, and we went out for dinner, and in to every bakery we went past so Erin could sample all the varieties of sausage in a bun! By the way, mikan is like a Japanese mandarin, and there are mikan trees EVERYWHERE in Hagi. It's the one fruit that normal people can afford to buy in the supermarket! I mean, usually an apple is around $3, but you can buy 10 mikan for $4 if you know the right fruit stand!

Back in J Land

2008-01-08T14:47:00.001+09:00

Well I am back in Japan - and there are a few things I didn't miss
- being stared at for being a foreigner
- squealed irrashaemasens (those people who work in shops in Japan squeal irrashaemasen at people when they walk in, effectively, welcome to the shop) and hearing 5 people squeal it at you can be a little disconcerting, especially as social custom dictates that one ignores the squealers!
- the cold!
- lack of spicy food
- katakana english (how are you? i'm goodo!)

Shopaholics Unanonymous

2008-01-07T16:11:00.001+09:00

My holiday in Singapore also afforded me ample opportunity to indulge a love of mine, shopping! Living in Japan has meant that I have done very little shopping, which has been probably a good thing for my bank account though!

So in Singapore shopping is a national obsession, along with eating (which I have already posted about) and there are malls everywhere! In fact, when you exit an MRT station you will find a mall, or sometimes 3 or even more. From City Hall MRT you can get to the City Link Mall, Raffles Mall, Marina Square, Suntec City and the Esplanades Mall - and they are ALL connected.

Despite all the options we didn’t really do that much shopping, though Geoff may disagree and think we did too much.

I bought some shoes – to fuel my obsession, and a few tee shirts. Geoff didn’t really buy anything except a tee shirt when he didn’t want to do laundry.

Christmas bells are ringing!

2008-01-06T17:19:00.001+09:00

Christmas sparkled, was whimsical, and was generally strange. It was my first Christmas not in Melbourne, but Singapore was beautiful. Most streets were all lit up, and all the shopping centres had made an effort to christmasify the mall, some with more success than others.

On Christmas Eve Geoff and I went down to Orchard Rd – which may have been a mistake! The streets were jammed with cars, and the footpaths with people - we ended up walking along the garden walls to get around! We also had to avoid the fake snow. There were little stalls along the streets selling cans of fake snow, 6 for $10, not silly string, but more like shaving foam, and Geoff and I got fake snowed a couple of times each!

On Christmas day we woke up, and it was just like a normal day for Singapore! Most shops and every second restaurant was open, and the shopping centres were full of people – the ‘post Christmas’ sales in Singapore start on Christmas day apparently!

Geoff and I found a Balinese restaurant for lunch, and ate cupcakes for dessert! Back in the hotel we called our families back home, and I opened up the presents people had sent over!

Eating our way through Singapore

2008-01-06T17:03:00.000+09:00

The food in Singapore was something to behold, especially coming from Japan where there is almost no such thing as spicy food! Geoff and I ate our way around the country – though Geoff ate a lot more than I did!

We had curry, and dumplings, and stir fries and many, many fresh juices. Also, to round out Christmas we bought Mince Pies from Marks & Spencer – which were fabulous.

We ate in a lot of food court/hawker centre places – where you can get a meal for less than $5, but we had a couple of fancy meals too! Geoff’s parents shouted us a meal at a fabulous Italian restaurant for our Christmas present (and I ate rabbit!). We also ate at a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, where Geoff went crazy over the meat selection: lamb, beef, ham, pork & chicken, while I ate the lamb and a mountain of olives. I have really been craving olives…

We had made a rule not to eat at the same place twice over the holiday – and we were going pretty well, trying different hawker centres and little restaurants which were all amazing, but then we went to Din Tai Fung – a dumpling restaurant on Orchard Rd.

Din Tai Fung was listed as one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the New York Times and it was totally fabulous when we went there for dinner, so we went back for lunch! Even though we had to wait at least 40 minutes for a table each time. On the chopstick wrapper there were instructions as to how to eat a dumpling – at least 6 different steps. So when Geoff and I went back for the 2^nd time I filmed him doing it properly and have put it on facebook for those of you with access.

Also in

Singapore

we saw some live delights – turtles, frogs, that we chose not to eat!

The Sounds of Japan

2007-12-20T13:38:00.002+09:00

In a previous post I have mentioned that music coming from the speakers out the front of City Hall so blind people can find the building! However, there is so much music/noise in Japan everyday.

- The traffic signals
I think it depends on the orientation of the crossing, but at some crossings when the green man lights up a bird noise sounds.

- The midday noise
At midday there is always some kind of signal. Out at some of the rural schools sirens sound out - actually, on my Island school the siren sounds like it is coming from everywhere! In Hagi I don't notice it very often because there are other noises of people going about their lives, but there is always some kind of music.

- 9pm
Every night at 9pm in Hagi I can hear some music for a minute or 2. No idea why.

- The music in the supermarket/most shops
Horrendous.

Coldness an addendum - for the love of Kairo

2007-12-20T13:33:00.001+09:00

No, I haven't misspelled the Egyptian capital! I have recently been introduced to kairo by some elementary school children. Basically, it looks like a tea bag, and is filled with iron shavings. So they come individually wrapped (so Japan!) and when you take it from the plastic and put it in your pocket for a couple of minutes it heats up. It stays hot for a few hours... it's like carrying a mini hot water bottle in your pocket!

So most days at school I have one that I carry around! Apparently, the Junior High kids are not allowed them, but a few students have gestured that they are carrying kairo too! Apparently you can get kairo that you stick to the inside of your clothes (if you stick it to your skin you may get burnt) I haven't tried them yet, but I have no doubt I will progress to those very soon!

A selection of soy sauce

2007-12-19T14:00:00.002+09:00

So the other day I had to buy soy sauce. Up until now I had been using what Jo left behind, but it ran out. I didn't think to take a photo of the bottle (or the bottle itself) with me because I thought it would be easy!

However, as you can see, at Sun Live there is a LARGE range of soy sauce. I stood in front of the shelves for a few minutes, but I couldn't figure which to buy. So I grabbed a guy stacking shelves and said to him "korerano bottle wa shoyu des ka?" (are these bottles soy sauce?) and he indicated yes. So I said "onaji" (all the same?) and again, he said yes. So finally I summoned my reserves of Japanese and said "kono shoyu wa ichiban des ka?" (which is the best?) so he wandered around, and said "cooking?" and I said yes, so he chose me a bottle. Then he pointed to himself and said "ichiban des" which i think meant, "I am the best!"

I was amazed that he had been so talkative, and then made a joke! Most Japanese people are a little (or a lot) scared of foreigners!

The politics of the car park

2007-12-16T21:20:00.001+09:00

Next to my apartment there is some kind of office, and behind it, a car park. The car park is full most of the time, given Japanese people tend to work ALL the time.

However, some mornings I see the cars arriving. You notice that they all just park each other in, so there must be some serious negotiation at the end of the day - who wants to go, and who is trying to impress by staying the latest... I seriously don't know why they don't just mark lines, and give each other some access!

In Japan it is really important to be seen to be busy - Japanese people often talk about how busy they are, while they are sitting in the staffroom drinking coffee. Or they do this funny run/walk - moving their feet quickly but not moving anywhere fast! And, all the staffrooms are packed full of 'work' (piles and piles of papers). So I suspect parking the car closest to the building is a sign of working the hardest.

No option to be ex-directory in Hagi

2007-12-16T19:31:00.002+09:00

So this is part of the Hagi Street Directory. What you are looking at is a really zoomed in melways - all the buildings are individually marked, and the kanji on each block is the (male) owner's name!

The ALTs were invited to a Christmas party, but there was no address on the invitation, so at the Board of Education we used this map to find the house!

Can you imagine how much effort it must be to make this??? So obviously my name is not on there - but my building is marked - right next to 'Gusto' (a Japanese fast food place).

As Shak remarked, I suppose there is no 'unlisted' option in Japan!

The Famous Hagi Half Marathon

2007-12-09T18:40:00.001+09:00

So today was the famous Hagi Half Marathon - 22km run starting at the Wellness Park (love Engrish!) and finishing up at the stadium. So I went down to the arcade to watch them run through - almost the halfway point actually. I like to think of it as the Champs Elysees of the half marathon!

Brent - pictured - was probably somewhere in the top 100. He's an American exchange student at a Hagi High School. There were well over 2500 runners though - and a fair few foreigners, not from Hagi!

Actually, there were some beautiful outfits - totally 80's style. And one Japanese man was sort of dressed as Santa. Some of the runners were totally focussed as they ran past, some with music playing, but others really enjoyed themselves, high-fiving and waving!

The Japanese Club Christmas Party

2007-12-09T18:34:00.001+09:00

On Saturday I rolled out of bed to get up to City Hall for chorus rehearsal – the Japanese class is meant to be singing Christmas carols at the party from 12.30. So no rehearsal, no one was there (well Alex and the Japanese organizers were) so I just sat near the heater! Finally ‘rehearsed’ around midday.

Anyway, there was flamenco dancing, our chorus, random games (I won some tomato flavoured Korean biscuits) and then the JETs from Yamaguchi City had to talk about Christmas in their hometowns/countries – China, Spain and the US. The Yamaguchi City JETs are the ones who can speak fluent Japanese, so I didn’t understand what they were saying – could guess though. Spanish girl talked about Christmas Eve, American about all the food, and the Chinese JET simply said, we don’t celebrate it! Food was good, though. I was surprised that more of my students weren’t there – perhaps a good thing given our ‘chorus’ – for the record, we did Rudolph (at breakneck speed for some reason) and White Christmas.

Possibly the worst part were the Japanese people who, having been encouraged to talk to the 'friendly foreigners' by the MC at the beginning of the party, decided that 'talking to me' meant listing all the places that they had seen me in the last week. Stalker much?

Kent came for dinner

2007-12-07T13:28:00.001+09:00

I met Tsucky down at the HH Eki, and shortly after Kent’s bus arrived – we took him to the hotel, then straight to dinner. Rather, Mrs Tsucky drove us around, then dropped us at the restaurant.

We ate a magnificent Japanese spread – and in true Japanese style we got about 4 mouthfuls of everything, all on separate, beautiful plates! Drank some hot sake too…

Latest Ikebana creation

2007-12-02T18:36:00.001+09:00

My latest creation... did you know that in Japanese the flower is called 'Sutorechia' - you learn something new everyday.

The worst christmas present idea ever!

2007-12-02T18:33:00.001+09:00

I swear, if anyone gave me this...

And can you believe that its almost $30 for this laundry christmas gift pack!!!!

My Japanese "Class"

2007-11-29T19:22:00.000+09:00

Well I got to Jap Class, and it wasn’t really class! We were in the tatami room and the Hagi Bunko group were there to play – shamisens, taiko and ‘trumpet tritons’ – 200 year old ginormous shells! They played for about 10 mins, and then we got to run riot – playing all the instruments and dressing up in the costumes! Playing the shells was really hard! Managed to make some noises come out of it though. The drum was heaps more fun!

The worst part was, that at the end of the night, we all had to make comments on how we felt! Then we had a ‘party’ – a whole bunch of edible omiyage.

Also, this is a good time to remind you that the rice harvest was a J-class activity! I promise we occasionally learn Japanese!

The Naked Part of the Name is a Lie

2007-11-25T15:31:00.000+09:00

So today was Naked Man Festival Day. Phoebe, Dom and I had planned on participating in the shrine carrying but Dom got shingles, so Phoebe and I decided just to watch – we had no idea where to go to participate even if we had wanted to! Ran into a whole bunch of ALTs from the Ken. Also met Georgia for the first time - a CIR who is therefore excluded from the ALT stuff, which is why I hadn't met her.

So we went and watched the women in the early afternoon. There were 3 different shrines being carried around – I think if you had an aerial view there would have been a pattern to see, but obviously we couldn’t see that!

We were given some Amasake to drink while we watched – like creamy, sweet sake with bits of dessicated coconut. Not so nice really. Anyway, there was to be a bit of a wait before the men started, so we headed to the mall for some Baskin & Robbins, and shoe shopping. We collected some more ALTs and headed down to the festival. There were so many teams carrying ‘shrines’.

The women had been carrying things that looked like mini temples, but the men were carrying wheat barrels, draped in branches or tinsel. And these ‘shrines’ were like sedan chairs – long planks of wood coming from a platform on which the ‘shrine’ rested. And on each plan there were several people to carry it. The aim, for the men, was to carry it down the long street that leads to the temple, and drink and dance in the street. Then when they reached the temple they had to run up A LOT of stairs still carrying the wheat barrels. Once inside the temple they would smash the ‘shrine’ – no idea why.

Anyway, this activity is called the Naked Man Festival. Complete lie. No one was naked. But in the street leading to the temple, and in the temple itself, there was so much to look at and do that I am over the lies. There were so many stalls – it was probably the best festival I have been to yet.

Once all the little shrines have been brought to the temple and destroyed the teams form one mass of men and have to carry 2 bigger ‘shrines’ down the stairs and a pair of wheels that apparently weigh 2 tonnes. There were so many people, and apparently people have died in the past. We did the ambulance sirens a couple of times, but the injuries were minor. We really couldn’t see what was going on with the wheels – we saw them go over the stairs, but have no idea how they didn’t crush everyone and everything within its path.

Back to the train station – and I managed to miss my last bus to Hagi. I had a timetable which said the bus was at 8.30, but when I left the waiting room for the bus platform the timetable there said the last bus was at 8.15. So I had time to make it, but didn’t because of the timetable change! Called Phoebe, who emailed me Georgia’s details – thank God I met her today, and Georgia was kind enough to let me stay at her apartment though, so all good!

Coldness

2007-11-25T15:25:00.001+09:00

It is cold here. We went from a long summer into winter pretty quickly, so I have had very little time to get used to the cold weather.

Not coping with it very well, as I am sure many of you can imagine! The school classrooms are cold, and the hallways even colder. Luckily they turn the heaters on in the staff rooms! Also, houses/apartments aren't insulated, so they are difficult and expensive to heat. Finally I have set up my kotatsu - a table that you plug in! Basically you have a futon on the ground, and a futon between the 2 table tops, and plug it in and it gets all warm under the futons. You can also get a heated carpet - something you layover the tatami and plug in!

And of course, there is the trusty kerosene heater. Yes, seriously, I have a kerosene heater. I have no intention of attempting to use it - would most likely asphyxiate myself in the process!

So I complain about the cold. What really irritates me is when people respond with, well where I am from it is snowing/10 degrees colder. All that means is that that person has no reason to complain about this weather - in fact they should be exclaiming how it is positively warm! However, I don't come from the German Alps, so I will complain about how cold it is!

My goodness I am helpless!

2007-11-21T16:56:00.000+09:00

So after school I went to the BOE, to get Tsucky to come and change my light bulb, but he wasn’t there so I had to leave a message. In the mean time Shak said no seminar tonight – woohoo!. Tsucky called and he said, yes there is a seminar! Bugger. And he said he would come over and organize the light bulb issue. So he came over, and couldn’t reach the light bulb – in the kitchen – and asked for a chair. But I don’t have a chair! He was incredulous, but had a look around and couldn’t see a chair so had to believe me. So we went up to Sueshi-sensei’s apartment (she is a teacher at Hagi Nishi JHS who lives in the apartment above mine) and borrowed a chair! She must have thought we were crazy. And it was a rolling chair so I had to steady the thing while Tsucky removed the old light bulb. He then went and bought a new light bulb, and came back to put it in. Then had to return the chair, and Sueshi-sensei was suitably amused once more. Poor Tsucky! Then for the rest of the night, at the seminar he kept complaining that his back was sore from all the effort!

Weirdness at Nishi

2007-11-18T18:24:00.001+09:00

This week I spent 2 days at Nishi - both of which had weird aspects.

To start with, on Tuesday I arrived to find students welcoming me, and everyone else. Really not sure what is happening. I suppose it doesn't help that I can't read Japanese!

Any ideas?

Secondly, on Friday afternoon there was a meeting of all teachers of Japanese from Yamaguchi-ken. So as a result school started earlier (though no one told me) and then everyone could go home at 12, but the students were meant to stay in their homes until 4pm. So to ensure compliance different teachers were assigned to check different areas in Hagi. I went to one of the supermarkets that has a video game parlour too. We didn't find any students, but when we were leaving the carpark we found an 8th grade boy. One of the teachers started hitting him, somewhat gently. Then she told me to tell him off! Great, telling him off in a language that he doesn't understand! The whole situation was a little ridiculous really.

Everyday Japan surprises me!

Ikebana again!

2007-11-18T18:20:00.001+09:00

Today at Ikebana I made a couple of creations - both in the Shoka style, but the one on the left is the more modern shoka style.

Now they are both decorating my apartment!