Home Its graduation time again... Fri, Mar 16, 2007 Well, its that time of the year again to pull the suit from the cupboard, dust it off, and head over to the Junior High for graduation. In Japan, students have to sit exams for High School, so groups of friends who have been together since Primary School often get split up and go to different High Schools. Because of this, there's often a lot of crying going on during the ceremony (which they seem to go out of their way to make as sentimental and sad as they can). It's okay, though, as the moment they get out that door its all laughter and smiles. This year was no different. It's sad to see the students go, as they were a really good bunch of kids. I really do enjoy teaching them. Hailey Marie... Sun, Dec 24, 2006 ...was born at 1:05am today, several weeks early. Both my sister and her first baby are doing well after a difficult pregnancy. A very special Christmas Eve present indeed. Homeward Bound Fri, Oct 6, 2006 Finally organised my plane tickets home for November. I'll be flying out via Hong Kong and landing in Sydney on November 3rd. Then on November 13th I'll be on a plane again and heading back to Japan. I'm looking forward to going home for a bit of a break and seeing family and friends. Finally, things are starting to happen Thu, Sep 21, 2006 Finally got back into the classroom and I felt so rusty. Next week I'm at the Junior High for the first time since the summer break. This weekend we have a Pub Quiz in Matsusaka, then the following weekend we're all off the Nagano for the annual Japan-wide ALT soccer tournament. Not long after that and I'll be getting ready to come home for a flying visit. Can't wait. A Long Slow Summer Tue, Aug 29, 2006 Its been a long, hot, slow summer. No kids to teach, nothing to do in the office. Pretty dull, actually. 2 more weeks to go before lessons start again. Although its been hot during the day, the evenings are starting to cool off a little. Even managed to sleep last night without the fan on, which is a first. Well, thats it. Were you expecting something more interesting? Photos! Thu, Aug 17, 2006 I've FINALLY put up some of my photos from China. You can see them in my Photo Album. China (part 2) Wed, Jul 26, 2006 Well, I'm back in Japan and back in the office. I'm not feeling so well at the moment due to a serving of tea at a restaurant where the water perhaps wasn't the cleanest. Should be over it in a day or two. Luckily it hit me and the rest of my travel group right at the end of the trip so it didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the holiday. Shozhou was really nice and I enjoyed the gondola ride very much. Shanghai was ok, and the night cruise on the river was really good, but there were just too many people hassling you constantly to try and sell you stuff. You couldn't even sit down with a cold drink for a rest without being harrassed. That was the one drawback of the trip. If not for that (and the weather), then it would have been a great trip. And speaking of the weather, we got our first blue sky of the trip on the very last day. This was a good thing as it was our free day in Shanghai and I did all the shopping I wanted to do there. I got the wall hanging pictures I wanted, as well as a few small gifts here and there. I don't think I'll be in a rush to go back to China. A return to Korea is definitely on my wish list, but for now I'm happy with just the one quick stop in China... China (Part 1) Sat, Jul 22, 2006 Hi from Shozou! I've finally found an internet connection at our hotel, so this is the first chance I've had to update how things are going. I don't have a lot of time, so here's the basics: Beijing: I had a pretty good flight out of Nagoya and caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel. The traffic was absolutely crazy. Cars, motorbike and a few bicycles were going in every direction at once. The weather hasn't been so good. We went up to the Great Wall but it was raining a misty rain and you couldn't really see more than about 100 metres. Went to a Chinese acrobatic show which was excellent. Visited Tianamin Square and the Forbidden City, then the Temple of Heaven. They were ok, but a lot of the buildings were surrounded by scaffolding as they try to clean them up before the 2008 olympics. Xian: From Beijing we went to Xian. I really enjoyed Xian. Its about half the size of Beijing, at around 10 million people, but the inner part of the city is surrounded by city walls and only has about 1 million people. We cycled the top of the city wall and did a complete lap, which I really enjoyed. Also went out to see the nearby terracotta warriors, which was also excellent. To get to Xian, we took an overnight sleeper train for the 12 hour journey. I"m now only about 2 hours from Shanghai and have just got off another 14 hour overnight train. The overnight trains are fun, but I didn't get the best of sleeps. Today we go for a gondola ride in the canals of Shozou, then off to a silk museum and some show in a garden. Tomorrow morning we hit Shanghai, then on Tuesday its back to Japan. The group I'm traveling with is good and I'm definitely enjoying it. Gotta go now, so I'll add more when I get back home. Ever tried to live in your oven? Thu, Jul 13, 2006 ...While its probably too small to fit inside of, it would give you some idea of what its like here at the moment. I've been at the Junior High School this week and there is no air-con, ceiling fans or anything to cool down the rooms. Luckily, we're not far from the ocean and if you open up all the windows on both sides of the room, you get a half decent cross-room breeze that makes life at least bearable. But not today. No breeze. Nothing. And on top of that, I had a 3-lesson-in-a-row stint that didn't allow me to return to the air-con comfort of the teacher's room. Just walking in to the room and seeing all the kids sitting there, drenched in sweat, summoning up what little strength they have to fan themselves with the little B4 sized pieces of plastic they use, gives you an idea that its not going to be a very energetic class. Still, we played a few more games and got through the lessons without too many problems. But it was ridiculously hot and I'm not keen to repeat it tomorrow. I hope there's a nice breeze tomorrow... Busy, busy, busy... Thu, Jul 6, 2006 Its been a busy few weeks. We're into the "Sayonara season" at the moment, where most of the leaving teachers are saying goodbye, so there are plenty of parties and trying to catch up with people before they go. There was a big party up in Suzuka last weekend that perhaps didn't go as well as planned, but was still fun. This weekend we head to the deep south, to cabins by a river up in the mountains. This was great fun last year and should be again this year, even if the first typhoon of the year might just make an appearance! On top of all this, I've finally finished getting my trip to China all organised. I fly out on the 17th of this month and return on the 25th. I'm looking forward to this trip. I'll be doing a bus trip that takes in Beijing, Shanghai and where ever the terracotta warriors are. As you can see, I've really researched this well! Things are starting to heat up here. Its been raining for most of this week, and the moment the rain stips it gets HOT. I missed the worst of the summer last year when I went home to Australia for a few weeks, but I'll be here for the worst of it this year. My aim is to study, study, study my Japanese over the break when I'm stuck in the office without any classes to teach, but the heat will have a major influence on how much I get done. And just on an additional note, we went down in the rugby, so no Prefectural championship for us this year. I guess there's always next year... Rugby... Fri, Jun 23, 2006 Well... this weekend has come as a bit of a surprise. I know we've been winning pretty much all of our rugby games lately (I even scored a great try 2 weeks ago on my birthday), but it seems this Sunday's game in Hisai is for the championship!! Things are always a little difficult to understand in Japan, but from what I've gathered, if we win on Sunday, we become Prefecture Champions! So esentially its the grand final. It's kind of hard to believe holding the title of "State Champions", to use a more Australian term. After all those years struggling with Tech-Tahs 3rd grade, maybe there's the chance for a little glory.... :) A Night to Remember Sat, Jun 17, 2006 Wow. That's the only word I can think to describe this weekend. A HUGE thanks to Nigel for organising what has been a most amazing weekend. This weekend a group of us made out way to Kyoto, where we had a nice traditional Japanese dinner in the Gion district, and where a Maiko came and visited us for about an hour and a half. Hazuka, our Maiko, introduced herself and served a few drinks, danced beautifully, joked around, taught us a drinking game (which I won!), and was just really, really cool. I can't really describe it. It's kind of hard to understand without being there. All I can really say is that it was one of those experiences not many people get to do, but will always remain as a highlight in my time in Japan. For those who don't know, Gion is the "Geisha" district of Kyoto. A Maiko is a junior Geisha, ranging in age from 15 to 20. From there they progress to Geiko, the Kyoto name for Geisha (which is the Tokyo name). After our wonderful dinner, we went and saw an OK cultural show, which was perhaps a little too touristy for me. We then followed it up with a night out in Kyoto. As sometimes happens, things didn't quite go as planned and we found ourselves wandering the city in search of somewhere to go. The night was fun, but I guess nothing really compares to the awesome start we had. Australia vs. Japan Mon, Jun 12, 2006 Tonight, Australia took on Japan in the Soccer World Cup. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to go out and make the most of what I hoped would be a fun night. so, after a little bit of investigative work, I found an internet cafe in Ise that was showing the game on teh big screen. In preparation for the game, I was jucky enough to have Mike send me a Socceroos scarf, and then my brother sent me a Socceroos T-shirt for my birthday. so, decked out all in gold, I made my way with a few of my Japanese friends to Ise to watch the game. As the only person there supporting Australia (from the 100 or so people there), for some reason my friends didn't want to stand too close to me! Anyway, I wasn't so happy about that first Japanese goal, and I was starting to lose hope toward the end there, but those last 3 goals saw me jumping around and cheering while the rest of the people there just sat there in stunned silence. Needless to say, I went home very happy! Princesses and Rain Thu, Jun 8, 2006 Last weekend was the annual Saio festival here in the town I live. The Saio was a Princess of the Imperial family, usually the Emperor's daughter, who live here nearly 1,500 years ago and served at the nearby Ise Shrine. Once a year, on the first weekend in June, a 2 day festival is held to remember those who lived here so long ago. The costumes are Heian imperial kimonos and are quite beautiful. I didn't participate in the parade this year, so it was good to just watch it this time. I particularly enjoyed the Saturday night. Photos to come soon. And today marks the arrival of rainy season! Last year we sort of missed it, but its raining now, and from what I understand it'll rain on and off for 2 or 3 weeks and then start getting really hot. Summer is just around the corner! I've also been making inquiries about going to China from July 17 to 25th. If I can get the flights organised, I'll go, otherwise I might go to Hokkaido in late August instead. Golden Week Fri, May 5, 2006 It's Golden Week and I've been making the best of it. Tuesday night I had an enkai (a "work party") with the teachers of my school, which was fun, and Wednesday night I drove to Suzuka to watch a concert some of my friends were playing in. Yesterday was a long but fun day, which I spent wandering around Nara and just being a tourist for once. Today I headed up to Kuwana in the north of Mie, and then on to the small town of Tado for their festival. I was told that boys between the age of 15 and 17 are chosen at random to participate in this festival, which involves riding a horse at speed up an embankment and over a 3 metre vertical wall at its top. If the boy refuses, his family is shunned by the village and pressured to leave (though apparently it has never happened). The riders get all dressed up in traditional garb and it really is quite spectacular to see. The first horse somehow leaped at full run and made it up the wall in one bound. The last horse, though, balked badly and threw its rider, who then had the horse fall on him. No one was hurt, fortunately, but thats festival life in Japan, sometimes dignified, sometimes crazy, sometimes more than a little dangerous, but nearly always fun. Photos from Nara and Tado have been added to the second page of the photos section of this website. Hanami Sat, Apr 8, 2006 Hanami (Cherry Blossom viewing) was disappointing this year. The weather has been bad, with a lot of rain and wind, and to top it off, on the day we set out to have a picnic under the blossoms, the wind had carried so much sand from the Mongolian deserts that it almost obscured the sun, making the day all hazy looking. Oh well, there's always next year. No Snow due to snow Fri, Feb 10, 2006 I've been looking forward to going to Sapporo in Hokkaido to see the Snow Festival so much... but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We set out on Saturday morning for the new Nagoya airport. There's a high speed ferry from Tsu straight to the airport that only takes about 40 minutes, so it's quite easy to get to. It was there that things started to go wrong. All flights earlier that morning had been cancelled due to snow at Sapporo airport and, after waiting for a few hours, so was ours. In the end the airport was closed all day. There was a flight available early the next morning, but it was too early for us to get the ferry, so we had to just cut or losses and go home. Mind you, we stopped off at a really nice restaurant in Tsu for dinner. It was probably the best meal I've had since Seoul. Later we got purikura (I can never remember if that's the right spelling), they're little photo booths that print out stickers that you can decorate first. We picked snow settings and pretended we were in Hokkaido. We ended up at Jade's and just relaxed. It was a good evening until an idiot on a mobile phone made a fool of himself and I ended up going home. Despite the cancelled trip, it snow here on Monday. Not just the light dusting of snow I've seen several times this winter, but full, several centimetres thick snow! I went for a long walk and took a few photos and just pretended we'd made it to Sapporo. Pretty sad, really, but I enjoyed it. The weather forecast last night said that the first signs of spring have appeared, and it's a little warmer today. That cold that seems to seep into everything seems to be missing today. So soon they'll be starting the countdown for the cherry blossoms, so they're still quite a few weeks away. But still, it's the nicest time of the year... Busy, Busy, Busy... Wed, Feb 1, 2006 I had a horrible dream tonight. Not that the dream was horrible... I was singing kareoke with my parents, so it was kind of weird... but it took me at least 10 minutes after I woke to realise that it wasn't real, but just a dream. It made me feel crap. Anyway, besides that, I'll be pretty busy from this weekend on. I'm off to Hokkaido for the first time on Saturday to check out the the world famous Snow Festival. I'll be getting back late Tuesday afternoon. Then, on Saturday night, we have our Valentine's Day ball. After that comes our Scottish event, Burn's Night, and the St. Patrick's day parade in Ise on the 11th, and the Sumo in Osaka a little after. On top of this, I'm seeing The Rasmus, Bon Jovi, Paul Weller, and The Darkness in concert in Osaka and Nagoya. I had to give U2 a miss as they're only playing 1 concert in Yokohama, which would have cost me about $400 or $500 dollars Australian just to get there, see the concert, and get back. Far too much. Kind of disappointing, that. Christmas and New Year Mon, Jan 16, 2006 Well, things have been a bit quite lately. Christmas turned out to be a good day. I got to catch up with my family via the internet on Christmas day, even if I couldn't make it to Mum's Christmas dinner, and then I had a few of my Japanese friends around for dinner. There were a couple of kids running around so it really felt like Christmas this year. My last work day was December 28, and I then had until January 9th off. I was planning to do a few day trips around the Kansai region, but things didn't quite work out that way. On the very first day of my break I started to get sick. It was a bad chest cold that threatened to become a chest infection if I didn't look after myself. So I spent the New Year wrapped up and warm at home in my appartment. The good news is that I stopped it developing into something worse, but I pretty much wasted all my time off. I did, though, manage to get to Nagoya for one trip. I bought a new computer, a mac mini, which is a really impressive machine (compared to my old laptop). I can now make DVDs! I hope to send a few "DVD letters" home soon! But now I'm back at work. I had to give a presentation at a seminar last Friday, which went well. I was supposed to go to Nagano on a ski trip on the weekend, but they had too many people for the rented van and I decided to give it a miss. Things will be a little quiet for the rest of the month, I think. It's been a cold winter this year. I'm looking forward to spring and the cherry blossoms already... It's a White Christmas! Thu, Dec 22, 2005 It's 9am, I'm at work, and it's snowing!! It took me quite a few minutes to scrape the snow/ice off the front windscreen of my car this morning, so I was a little late to work, but as I parked my car, it got darker, then the snow started to come down! The weather forecast is for possible snow all the way up to Christmas day! I've got my last "Santa" kindergarten visit in an hour's time. They're going well. The kids range in age from 3 to 5, and the schools range in number from 20 to 120. The big school, Saiku, was yesterday. Last night I attended a little concert by a 3 piece band (spanish guitar, violin, flute) that was fun, though when the guitarist started reading some poetry in Japanese, it was totally lost on me. But still, it was a good night. The First Snow of the Winter Mon, Dec 19, 2005 Last year it wasn't until late January that we got out first overnight snow, and we had to wait till February for our one and only daytime fall, but this year it's come early! It's been very cold lately, and this morning more so than usual. The day has gotten colder and colder, and the sun has given way to snow clouds drifting in from the mountains. I had to leave the office at about 3pm to pick up a package from the post office (from my brother), and it started to sort of rain very lightly. I say sort of rain because it was more a sleet. Okay, so it's not quite first snow of the winter, but it's close enough for me! And tomorrow marks the start of my Santa Claus kindergarten visits. That's right, I'll be dressing up as Santa and visiting 3 of the local kindergartens, where the kids will get to ask "Santa" lots of really difficult questions (like how do the reindeer fly?), then get their class photos taken with "Santa". It really is good fun. At Saiku last year, they even made me dance! The plans for Christmas dinner are going well. There will probably be 12 to 15 people there. In the morning I hope to be online and connected to Mum's place so I can say hello to everyone at Christmas lunch back home, then I'll start preparing for dinner here. After dinner, maybe some karaoke or a movie or something. We'll figure something out... :) Saitama...? Wed, Dec 14, 2005 Just got a very interesting email... The team that knocked us out one win short of going to play soccer at the venue that hosted the 2002 World Cup final, Saitama stadium, has pulled out of the tournament! We've been offered their spot! Come January 14th, I might be playing soccer at a 75,000 seat capacity stadium! HOW COOL IS THAT! Of course, the weekend is the same as our ski trip, so I don't know if we can get a team together... I hope we can! I'll keep you informed. A bleak day for a test Sun, Dec 4, 2005 Well, my Japanese test was today. I sort of stopped worrying about it too much a few weeks ago, though I kept studying. I think I actually did better than I thought I would, though I probably still failed. It was good motivation to study. But with the test, winter also arrived in it's full glory. It's times like these that I'm reminded just how close to Siberia we really are here. The temperature struggled to make double digits during the day, and the wind and drizzling rain made the night even colder. They're now getting snow in the mountains, so I guess from now on it'll just keep getting colder... And on a final note... HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY NAT!! Signed, Sealed and Delivered! Thu, Dec 1, 2005 Well, it's now officially done. Just a few moments ago I handed in my recontracting form to my supervisor, with the little "I want to stay for another year" option circled. That means I'll be seeing out my 3 year contract right to the end, which will be late July 2007. 2007?!? But it's still only 2005! I know that sounds like a long way off now, but the forms have to be in soon and there's still a fair bit I haven't done here yet. There's now no stress. I know how long I'll be here, I know when I'll be finishing, and I can just enjoy it! It's been a great experience coming here. My students are great, I've made good friends (both Japanese and other teachers from around the world), and I've got to do some really cool things. Probably the highlights so far have been the Saio Festival, the trip to Souel, going to the Sumo in Osaka and 4 days of travelling with Mike and Andy to Wakayama and Kyoto. And, of course, catching up with Mum when she came! Now, if I can only somehow talk Nat into coming with her next time... :) Rocking Nagoya Mon, Nov 28, 2005 I rushed to Nagoya after school today see "Rooster" in concert. I caught up with Takahiro, Yukari and Kae in Nagoya station, then it was off to Sakae for the gig. It's starting to get real cold at night here, but the venue was really warm. And the band rocked. It was only a small venue, but I really enjoyed it. It was a great night and a can't wait to go back to Nagoya for the Pixies concert on the 9th! I've just got to get past this Sunday's exam... Kings of the Pub Quiz Sat, Nov 26, 2005 Off to an early start today to catch the 7.30am train (on a Saturday?!?) to help out at an English Activity Day at a High School in Ise. It was good fun, and the students enjoyed it. It's amazing to see how different the student's English is in just the two years after they leave Junior High. But the main event of the day was the Pub Quiz in Tsu tonight! We could only put together half of last year's winning team (me and Gordon), but Anners and Heather would prove to be more than qualified to take over from Helen and Shirley. If was a close thing, but we won by just one question! That's 2 years running now that we've won it! We are now officially the most trivial people in Mie... hey, that didn't come out right!! Soccer glory... almost! Sun, Nov 20, 2005 Well, fresh off the high of watching Australia qualify for it's first World Cup in 32 years, we, Mie FC, set off at 4am for Awaji Island for the annual Western Division JET soccer competition. This year we took 2 teams, and for the first time I found myself in the "B" team (as did a few others). The team captain decided to go all-out to make the finals this year and tried to tailor the "A" team for that purpose. After a tough first day, the A team found themselves already bundled out of the competition, but we B's made it through to the top 8! One more win and we'd be off to Tokyo for the finals. The top 4 from the East and West divisions get to play at Saitama, the 70,000 seat stadium that hosted the most recent World Cup final. Unfortunalte, we came up against eventual winners, Real Osaka and bowed out one game short. I had a good weekend in goals, though. On Saturday I kept 2 clean sheets, which helped put us through to Sunday's finals. I also saved a penalty in Sunday's game, but it was all to no avail. Overall it was a fun weekend. Queen dethroned? Tue, Nov 1, 2005 Well, tonight I went to Nagoya Dome with Yukari, Takahiro and Shelley to see "Queen + Paul Rodgers". Though Freddie is long gone, I still thought Brian May's guitar work would be worth going to see. So how was the concert...? Disappointing. It wasn't Paul Rodgers and Queen singing Queen songs, it was Paul Rodgers trying to sing songs from his own old band (who I don't even know), and various band members sing their own songs, and various instrumentals that filled in time why the "aging rockers" went back stage to have a rest. I think we were lucky to get half a dozen actual Queen songs. I mean, it wasn't "bad"... it just wan't that good. But, as they say, you'll never know if you don't try. Next concert is "Rooster" on November 28, followed by The Pixies on December 9. Both of them should be very good... A very Japanese Halloween Mon, Oct 31, 2005 Friday night saw one of the major party nights of the year come and go. The Halloween party in Matsusaka was a huge amount of fun. I'd grown a bit a beard over a week or so as a part of my costume (that I changed at the last minute into a pirate). We had all you can eat and drink at Takaya before moving on to Hunky Dory's for the band, music and prizes and such. A good time was had by all. Things have been really busy lately, but now I'm happy to say I have two totally free weekends coming up. This is a very good thing as my Japanese exam is only five weeks away and I need to study like there's no tomorrow if I want to have any hope of passing. My vocab is somewhere around the 300 or 400 word mark now, but I need to get it up to 800 for the test! My grammar and kanji are going well, though I haven't started testing myself on my listening yet. I've been going through a bit of a music binge lately. I'm off to see Queen tomorrow night (well, three quarters of Queen, with Paul Rogers) at the Nagoya Dome. Picked up tickets today to see a new British band called Rooster. I'm hoping that will be a good concert, but I don't really know them too well. It's starting to get a little cold here now. I've gone from short sleeves to long sleeves now, and today I needed a jumper. You can check out my town's weather forecast here. I also finished the last book I brought with me to read. I've moved on to one Yvonne and Mark gave me, but after that I'll have to head to Nagoya to pick up something new. So the outlook is lots of study over the next few weeks before my test. Wish me luck...! Kobe, Osaka and Nara... all in 3 days! Thu, Oct 13, 2005 What a busy weekend! Saturday we were off to Kobe for a soccer tournament that turned out to be not so good. We only had 8 players, the whole thing turned out to be pretty expensive, and we lost the final game on a penalty shootout, with me in goals! I did, thought, manage to get back to Matsusaka just in time to make Mel's farewell dinner, even if I was in need of a good shower. With that in mind, I excused myself when they went to karaoke and caught the last train home. Sunday and it was off to Osaka to see The Offspring with Yukari, Takahiro and Jade. We picked up tickets to see the Pixies in December on the way. I'm really looking forward to that one. The Offspring were good, and I got to see Japanese crowd surfing for the first time! It was a good night out, but I was really looking forward to a rest on public holiday Monday. Back to work (sort of) on Tuesday, but it was an early morning departure, off to Soni in Nara for a 2 day elementary school camp. The weather wasn't so good on Tuesday, with a misty type rain, but that didn't stop the hiking. By Wednesday the weather had cleared and we had a lot of fun orienteering. The Japanese kids are great and I'm still enough of a novelty that they want to hang out and talk. Camps are fun, I've decided! A weekend in South Korea Sat, Sep 24, 2005 I must admit that I decided to go to Seoul not so much out of an interest in visiting Korea, but more for the desire of travelling a little more while I have the opportunity here in Japan. On saying that, I was very pleasantly surprised with Korea! Three days just wasn't enough, and I'm already trying to work out when I can go back again! I travelled with Nigel, Jade and Helen and we saw a few palaces, the DMZ and the war museum. Seoul has great shopping, restaurants and very friendly people. I couldn't recommend it highly enough. The highlight of the touring part of the trip was the DMZ - the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea. After going through numerous checkpoints, and showing out passports I don't know how many times, we finnally came to Pan Mum Jom, the jointly controlled (by North and South Korea) area on the border. Pan Mun Jom is both very interesting and a little sad. North and South Korean soldiers stare at each other across the 80 metre or so courtyard, twin villages on the very edge of each border try and entice the other side by their "prosperity" (the North Korea village doesn't even have any people in it, they're too scared to put real people so close to the border!). I really do need to start doing more travel. Korea was such a surprise, it's so much more open to international influences than Japan. Coming back, you quickly realise just how isolated Japan is from the outside world. Home