Asamushi Sunday

Hello dear neglected blog. I'll try to keep you updated more often.

I agreed to be part of a team for the Cheseborough Cup swimming relay in Shariki in August. It seemed like a good idea, and then I realised just how far 1000m was. I have been training in the pool for a couple of weeks, but yesterday Mel, Michelle and I headed out to Asamushi Beach to try swimming in the sea. We dragged Dom along for the ride.

After all that exercise (and playing silly buggers) we decided we deserved pizza. While waiting for the pizza we went to the foot onsen, which was quite hot.

After that we collected our pizza and headed back to the beach and sat on the end of the jetty sort of type thing. We interrupted the romantic atmosphere of girly sunglasses man and "do you love me?" T-shirt girl.

Good times.

Interesting Sunday

Interesting day today. Went to Hirosaki. I got my camera back too. You can have some cherry blossom pictures soon. They were beautiful. I'll tell you all about my day too. It was interesting.

Arrrrh! Bloody Pirates.

Last night I went to Misawa with Mel and Bec. We met a group of other JETs there, and went to see "Pirates of Penzance", put on by the Misawa Base Theatre Guild. Two JETs had starring roles - Sam as the Pirate King, and John as his lieutenant. It was excellent. I have never seen a straight man prance as well as Sam did. Anyone in the vicinity, I recommend you go and see it.

After the show, a big group of JETs headed to a Mexican restaurant just off base for some food. In little America, it is possible to get all sorts of food you can't find in the rest of the prefecture.

Filled with Mexican food, we headed back to the city. I live on the complete opposite side of town from Mel and Bec, so I crashed at Mel's for the night. In the morning she dropped me in town, and I realised my keys were in my coat pocket. Which was in Bec's car still...

I think the most annoying thing was that I had said to Mel "oh, my coat is in Bec's car. It's OK, it's not cold and I'll see her tomorrow anyway."

After I caught the bus back to that side of town, Bec was kind enough to drop me in town again. Then I caught the bus to my house. In all, an hour and a half balls-up. The spare key has now been put somewhere OUTSIDE my house...

I spent the rest of the morning tidying, and then Koto and her kids came for coffee. Minami has just started school, so she was a bit tired and not as genki as usual. Taichi was as hyper as ever.

Tonight, I think is DVDs, junk food and taking it easy. Tomorrow is an EofA meeting in Hirosaki, and then an "Area Leaders" meeting. I am planning to go early and visit Kinokuniya book shop, and go and see the cherry blossoms in Hirosaki park. The cherry blossoms have just started. They are early this year.

That is all for now. Really need to get my camera back...

Kia ora, talofa lava, good morning girls.

Hello. I'm still here. My camera is still at Steve's house, so no photos. Nothing terribly exciting has been happening lately, only several thousand enkais to go to. Last Friday night was the welcome party for the new teachers at Nishiko, and Friday night was the second grade teachers' party. I am trying my best to be the super-genki gaijin, so all the new teachers think I am, and always have been, super-genki. It is exhausting! At the welcome enkai I think trying to make everyone think I was super-genki just came across as "Wow, quiet Karen is super-drunk." Oh well, what can you do?

I have been having a lazy weekend. I just made a couple of banana cakes to take into the office and earn brownie points. The God of Cake is still smiling on me and they came out pretty well.

I suppose I ought to go and find something for lunch. Perhaps I will leave Little New Zealand and see what is happening in Japan.

So, I'm lazy. Whatcha gonna do?

Several weekends ago, in March, I went to Hakodate with Bec and Anne. It was great fun. Here is photographic evidence of good times, in no particular order.

Bec and Anne on the tram:
Chocolate AND prawn crackers, anyone?

Or how about some corn ice-cream?Creepy music-box man! Hisashi-buri!

Fun with statues.

Goryokaku Tower.
Hakodate yama.
King of the World.
Oohhh. Pretty.
Oohhh. Pretty.
Fun with statues. Never gets old.
Never.
Ever.
Miserable looking onsen monkeys at the tropical plant garden.
Original heart made joy な fit? That's just what I was thinking!
And since then, all sorts of exciting things have happened. The end of the school year has arrived and with it crazy boredom and ten thousand nomikais. Teachers have been transferred, and new ones arrived. Unfortunately quite a few of the teachers I get on with have been transferred. Very sad. I'm sure the new ones will be fine.

I went to a two-day junior high English camp at Lake Ogawara-ko. It was fun. I have some photos but they are on my camera.

My camera is at Steve's house (hopefully), because I left it in Helen's car after our Tsugaru peninsula road trip. I have photos. They are on my camera.

Last weekend I went on another road trip with Bec and Dom to Lake Towada-ko. I have no photos, my camera is still AWOL.

This weekend I have another enkai (welcome party for the new teachers), and the E of A indoor soccer tourney. I'm not playing, but I am going to help out. For a while.

That is all the photos I have for the moment. Until I get my camera back. Hopefully on the weekend.

Ciao.

Hirosaki Monday

On the Monday following the graduation ceremony I had a holiday because I had worked on Saturday for the graduation. Bec had a holiday as well, and we headed over to Hirosaki for they day.

We visited Hirosaki castle, had lunch at Zilch, and visited Kinokuniya bookshop. I managed to keep my hands in my pockets at Kinokuniya, which was quite an achievement.


The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. The students had exams all week, so I had nothing to do all day at work. I had one class on Friday, and by then my brain had turned to liquid and was beginning to leak out my ears.

Graduation

On the first of March was the graduation ceremony at Nishiko.


After the ceremony was an enkai for the teachers. It was fairly uneventful. Sugisawa Sensei got smashed (as usual), and an ex-Nishiko principal wanted me to go to a snack bar with him. It was an offer I politely declined.

Challa Bagundi!

Here are the last of them!

After pointing at the non-existent star, Honey had to wash Dave's feet. After washing his feet, Honey then had to ask for money. Being a boy with expensive tastes, he asked for an iPhone. Whether he actually gets it or not is another matter altogether. To ensure getting something, Honey and some other cousins held Dave's shoes for ransom. I'm not sure what happened in the end. I was trying not to spew up again.

After that it was lunch time (for those without a stomach bug...), and then photos.

Here are the happy couple with Dave's parents:Dave's friends, Sam and Tamaki, modelling their pyjama suits:
Me, Dave and Shilp:
Shilp's extended family:
After the wedding it was back to the rented house. I slept most of the afternoon, and felt much better. I spent some time hanging out with Shilp, Dave and Neel. Later on I went for a walk with Neel and Honey to try and find an internet cafe. It was Sunday night, and not much was open. It was good to get out and breath is some of that pollution though!

The next day we left the rented house. After sitting outside, chatting and drinking chai, everyone went their separate ways. I went with Shilpa's mum, aunt and Honey to another aunty's house. From there, Honey and I went to Kovur and spent the day with Shilp's grandmother. It was nice to have a lazy day! Shilp's mum and aunt joined us there in the evening, and then Honey and I caught an overnight bus back to Hyderabad. I didn't see Shilp at all, so I never got a chance to say a proper goodbye. I spoke to her on the phone though. It was tough saying goodbye to her mum though. She had done so much for me! I'm sure I wouldn't have had half as good a time if it wasn't for all her hard work and organisational skills. A big お疲れ様ですto you Aunty!

Honey and I arrived in Hyderabad early on Tuesday morning. After a brief panic, in which he thought the keys were still in Nellore, we got back to the house. We both slept for a while and then Honey "went to school." I took an auto across to one of the shopping centres I knew from last time. I was absolutely convinced I was going to get kidnapped, but I got there in one piece. I'm pretty sure I got ripped off, but it was still only Rs70 (about Y200), so I can't really complain. I did some shopping (books and movies), then headed to another shopping centre, and back to the house. Successful Indian adventure on my own!

That night Honey and I went to one of his mother's friends for dinner. I insisted I could cook something and there was no need to go to any trouble, but it was all arranged. Imagine my suprise when we arrived at the aunty's house and there was another foreigner there! The aunty's niece was visiting from America, along with her American husband. They invited me to go shopping with them the next day, which is what I did.

The driver came and picked me up in the morning, and imagine my delight when the car was an Ambassador (best car ever!). I tagged along with them for the day. It was nice to have someone to hang out with for the day.

After shopping it was back to the house, final packing, a little dinner, and then off to the airport.

I was thankful I had been through Indian airports before with others, because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have coped with the disaster that is Hyderabad airport otherwise. It is so confusing! I did laugh when going through immigration - the officer asked me where I was going, why I was going to Tokyo, and how much I earned.

I can't be too critical of Hyderabad airport. It was in it's last week or two of operation before the new airport opened. Luckily for me I flew into the old one - it only took half an hour to get to. The new airport is apparently 2 hours away from Shilpa's aunt's.

I left Hyderabad at 11.50 on Wednesday night, and arrived back in Aomori (via Bangkok and Tokyo) at midnight on Thursday night. My house was freezing, and everything was very, very quiet. I had to stay up until about 2 am for the place to warm up enough to sleep and even then I couldn't sleep because it was too quiet!

Alright, I could go on about India for hours, but I'm sure by now you are sick of the subject!
It is past my bed time. Have to get my beauty sleep.

Wedding Day

Here are the last of my pictures from India - the wedding!

Unfortunately, the night before the wedding Prathima and I both had a dose of Delhi Belly. It was a rough night. I slept very little, and was absolutely exhausted the next day. I dragged myself out of bed, had a wash, and was one of the last people to leave the house.

But I made it.

I was able to just sit in the audience and observe. I couldn't stand up for more than two minutes anyway. I have the utmost admiration for Prathima. As the bride's sister she had to run around and be useful, and look after Dave and make sure he knew what was happening. I don't know how she did it!

Here is Shilpa arriving:The lady on her right (in the light coloured sari) is Neel's mother. The lady behind her (in the green and purple sari) is Shilpa's uncle's mother-in-law. We stayed at the uncle's house, and she looked after me. I think she felt bad because I had no idea what was going on. She kept talking to me in Telugu. Somehow, between my three words of Telugu and her three words of English, we had some communication.

Here is Dave arriving in his Maharajah suit:
Dave and Shilpa:

This is after the ceremony. The bride and groom go outside and they point to a star. It is a south Indian thing. They do it for the photos, even though it is day time and there are no stars.
And I lied. There will be one more lot of photos because this won't let me put up any more than five for some reason.

How was India?

How was India? I'll tell you how India was. I got up this morning and shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How an elephant got in my pyjamas I shall never know.

Sorry. I've wanted to use that quote from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for such a long time!

On to the photos.

This is the start of the wedding stuff. Early on Saturday morning there was a blessing sort of thing for Shilp.

After that Shilp went off to the temple in Kovur, and everyone else had time to kill until lunchtime. Shilp's cousin Honey and I escaped the house for a while, and went to visit Dave's family and friends at their hotel. Being on the Indian side of things, and having been to Prathima's wedding, I was considered the expert in all matters relating to the wedding. I didn't know much more than they did, but having gotten used to "Indian Time", as well as too long in Japan with no idea what is going on, I was better prepared. If it is important, someone will tell you what to do...

Lunch was about 2 o'clock. We ate outside at rented house. These are Dave's friends, Sam and Tamaki. They are eating a collection of things wrapped up in a betel leaf. It is supposed to be good for your digestion. Maybe... it is pretty gross.
I hung out with the foreigners for a while, before I realised there were no Indians still outside. I figured there must be a reason for this, and moved inside. Sure enough it was much cooler!

I hung out with Honey and Neel for a while. Luckily, Neel wasn't trying to charge me a million dollars to take his photo this time:
Later in the afternoon Shilp was sent back to the beauty salon to get made even more beautiful. Prathima went with her, while I got ready for the evening function. When I was ready we swapped shifts. The beauty salon was about five minutes walk from the rented house. Everyone at the house was busy, so I walked over by myself. Such a funny sight you have never seen - the whitest thing ever to hit Nellore, dressed up in a black dress, high heels, walking across to the beauty salon. I didn't dare look left or right. I KNEW everyone was staring at me, I just didn't need to see them...

Anyway, I made it, kidneys intact.

Shilp got made pretty:

And then we went to the wedding hall. And here are a series of photos in which Shilp looks gorgeous:

These are two of Shilp's cousins - Naviya and Honey.This is Shilp and her uncle. I had trouble getting him to smile for the photo...

The whitest thing ever to hit Nellore:

When I arrived in Hyderabad and met Shilpa's aunt, who I had met last time I was in India, she apparently said "she's whiter than last time." That is what an Aomori winter will do to you!

Shilp and her mum:

Shilp, her mum and her mum's siblings:

Shilp's sister, Prathima; Shilpa; Shilp's brother-in-law Neel:
Sunday was the wedding proper. I'll put those pictures up soon.

Today is Friday! TGIF! Unfortunately I have to go to work tomorrow - it is the graduation ceremony. Today and yesterday we have had practices - bowing practice, singing practice, entering the hall practice, exiting the hall practice... today it wasn't so bad, but yesterday was awful. The hall is FREEZING! They have two big heaters but they are noisy, so they turn them off while the actual practice is going on. So bloody cold! Today they had the other smaller heaters out as well. Hardly makes a difference if you are the students, but I am not and carefully chose a place to sit near the heater. AND I was prepared and wore a polypro...

Tuesday was the entrance exam for the junior high kids who want to come to Nishiko next year, and Wednesday was the marking day. It is quite fun - all the teachers sit around a table and mark one section each. Unlike most ALTs, I am allowed to help. I even had sentences to mark, not just the multiguess questions. My other job was "advisor" - when the teachers weren't sure about the answer the student had written I had the final say.

There were some real gems in the exams. The best was a finish the sentence - "In Canada schools start in September, but in Japan..." and the student had written "everybody angry." The model answer was "schools start in April."

OK, that is enough for today. I'll go and dust off my suit and make sure I have a shirt ironed for tomorrow.

Hi Mum!

I've been back in Aomori for more than a week, so it is high time I got my A into G and put up some photos.

Shilpa and I spent one day in Hyderabad. We visited Charminar and the old part of Hyderabad. We went bangle shopping and I had my arse grabbed by a dodgy north Indian man. It was an eventful day.

This is Charminar:
And this is the view:
We had some lunch, and the first of many Thums Ups:
That night Shilp and I took the train (11 hours or so) to Tirupati, where we indulged in some coconuts:
And some vegetable shopping:
While shopping for veges, my camera and I caught the attention of these two:
Or as Shilp described it "what is this black magic the white witch has?"

In our travels we took many auto rides. Here, we are waiting while the driver fills the auto with petrol, while the engine was still running. Saftey first!

The two days we had in Tirupati involved lots of visiting Shilpa's friends and relatives (and another marathon gossip session...). Early on Wednesday morning Shilpa, her mum and I caught a bus to Chennai (formerly known as Madras).

Tamil Nadu is very pretty. This is the rest stop halfway between Tirupati and Chennai:
I think the bus ride was about 4 hours. I we had Indian junk food to keep us fed.

I told Shilpa she was trying to make me fat. She said "You won't get fat. Only people who don't eat anything get fat in India." I swear, this girl has a sixth sense!

In Chennai we took a 45 minute bus ride across town. It was a local bus. It wasn't fun. We went and visited one of Shilp's mum's cousins, had lunch there, and then took a 45 minute auto ride back across town. We had all sorts of adventures trying to find Shilp's uncle's house. We visited them, then headed back to the bus terminal.

There, we took a 5 hour bus to Nellore, Shilp's mum's hometown. We stayed with another uncle. By this stage I was exhausted, overwhelmed by too many Indians, and over fed (again!). I had my wee culture shock/breakdown and had an early night.

After a couple of hours sleep I was all genki again, and ready to visit the temple with Shilp, her mum and Pratima (who had arrived early that morning).
After visiting the temple we headed out to Kovur, the village where Shilpa's grandmother lives. We hung out for the afternoon, and played with the little cousins.

This is Shilpa and Pratima:

And Pratima with her cousins:
That night we moved from Shilp's uncle's to the house the family had rented for the wedding. It was HUGE! I made Shilp's aunt crack up laughing when I walked in - I couldn't believe the size of it. I am used to Japanese houses, and this could fit at least 4 of my apartment in it!

Here is a random photo of some buffalo. There are lots of buffalo in Nellore. There are also lots of mozzies. They seem to like me a lot. Not so spicy I guess. A little bit of ethnic food in the diet.

The next day I went with Shilp and her mum to talk about the wedding photos, then we went to see Dave and his friends and sister. They had arrived early that morning and were staying in a hotel. We went and had lunch with them, then rescued Dave's sister (she'd spent two weeks travelling with boys...) and went to the beauty salon to get Shilp all beautiful. We all got mehindi (henna) on our hands as well.

The next day the wedding events started and I have lots of photos of Shilp looking gorgeous. You are going to have to wait for another day though!

Hyderabad

Hello! Long time no see. I am sitting in Hyderabad airport waiting for my flight to Bangkok. Internet access has been a bit thin on the ground. Well, finding time to find it has been anyway! The trip has been great. It has been pretty different - not as much travelling as visiting relatives and hanging out with Shilpa and her family. The wedding and alll the associated functions were great. Shilpa looked amazing, and I will put up some pictures when I get back to Japan. I am looking lovely and slim after the tried and tested "India Diet Plan" - one stomach bug away from your optimum weight! Unfortunately Shilpa's sister and I both got sick the night before the wedding. We both came right after 24 hours, but Indian food hasn't been too appetising since...

Time to go to Bangkok. Photos soon.

Here I am...

I've been a little lazy about puting up photos lately. Sorry!

I have arrived safely in India. I took the train to Tokyo on Firday night, and left for Hyderabad on Saturday morning. I had a four hour stopover in Bangkok and almost went crazy, I was so bored.

Shilp and her cousin, Honey, met me at the airport at Hyderabad, and we went back to Shilp's aunt's house. Shilp and Honey were the only two home. Despite the fact that I'd been up for a ridiculous length of time, and it was late, Shilp and I still stayed up gossipping for a few hours!

On Sunday Shilp and I went to Charminar, in the old part of Hyderabad. We drove a hard bargain buying a bangle and a necklace, before heading back to Shilp's aunt's to get organised and then catch the train to Tirupati.

So here I am with Shilp in Tirupati, we have just come out for a walk and found an internet cafe. Her Mum is due to arrive back in Tirupati anytime soon, and her sister in the next few days, and then we are off to Nellore for the wedding.

Later alligators.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

I just haven't done anything terribly exciting lately. Here is a quick run down:

• Sat at my desk and spoke to nobody every day for a week.
• Went skiing at Hakkoda.
• Read some books.
• Went skiing at Moya.
• Got tickets to India organised.
• Spent lots of time stressing out over the Indian visa (continuing).
  

Tonight I am heading up to Moya with Dom and Bec. I finally got the Indian visa application posted and now I have quite a lot of stress hoping it will come back in time.

So that is it. I am still here. Away with the fairies most of the time, but still here.

Today I am Happy.

Today I have nearly recovered from my cold. And I almost finished reading War and Peace. And the sun is shining. And I was allowed to go home at 2 o'clock. And the office lady was nice to me. That is all. Goodbye.

Just for fun...

Too much time at home doing nothing this weekend. I found these gems on the interweb-thingy.

From the Sunday Star Times:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4345943a4560.html

From YouTube (via the Sunday Star Times):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48eHkZfnGug
This is Brett Lee, from the Aussie cricket team. Somebody tell him not to give up the day job!

I'm also following the disaster that is Britney Spears:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10485265

Snow

On Thursday I took some pictures of the snow.

The view from my balcony:

The view from the bus stop:

The Utou Shrine in central Aomori:
The shrine still had the New Year decorations up, and was busy with people getting their fortunes for the year ahead.

This is another (less busy) shrine, just off route 4:
Yesterday was the first day back at work for the year. I was bored out of my skull - no students, few teachers, no work. At least it was Friday. I called the whanau to say Happy New Year after school, and then hung out with Mark who had time to kill on his way to Tokyo.

The dreaded lurgy had hunted me down so today I am taking it easy at home and hoping it will pass quickly. Actually I feel guilty because I'm wasting the day, and I'm trying to convince myself it is better to stay home and do nothing and get better quickly.

New Year Traditions

I managed to fit in a lot of the whanau's New Year traditions this year, despite being away from home. Here I am with my silly hat, my bubbly with sugar and a strawberry in it, and some fish.

CO-OP had smoked salmon last week, but I couldn't find it this week so I bought some salmon and grilled it instead. I served it on a cracker with some cream cheese. It was pretty good!

よいお年を!

Happy New Year!
I spent New Year's Eve skiing at Mount Hakkoda with Becky, Helen and Steve. We had an exciting detour getting to Hakkoda - we missed the turn onto the 103 and went as far as we could on the 122, before turning around and going back to the turn when the road turned out to be closed.

We skied until 3, headed down for an onsen, and then Becky and I went back to my house to get changed. After a quick trip to the supermarket before it shut for two days we headed into town and met Mark, Helen and Steve. We went to an izakaya, and had all kinds of adventures trying to sort out nomihodai and food.

After nomihodai ended about 10 we went and shared a bottle of bubbly in the snow.

Here is the bubbly, chilling in the snow:

Me, Mark, Helen, Steve and Becky:
After finishing that we headed to the Utou Shrine, just off Shinmachi. It was too early and there wasn't much happening. We caught a taxi to my house and shared another bottle of bubbly (I was well prepared!).

I gave Mark a Christmas present - its washing powder called biizu, his surname in katakana.
We walked down to the small shrine near my house to see in the New Year. We bought omiguji (fortunes) and then held our own countdown just outside the shrine gate. It was a very Japanese way to spend New Year.
Unfortunately most of the photos are blurry.

Helen and Steve headed back to his place from the shrine. We stopped at the konbini on the way back to my house to buy another bottle of bubbly (why we thought this was a good idea I'm not sure...) and then drank that and the other bottle I had back at my house (why we thought this was a good idea...).

New Year's Day started slow, and remained that way all day. We ordered pizza, and that was about as exciting as things got. We put Mark on the bus home about 7.30, Becky and I watched a movie, then it was bed time.

Today Becky and I had planned to take the bus up to Hakkoda (due to lack of friends with spare seats in their cars...) but we were rescued by Helen and Steve again. It was a great day skiing, although it disappeared really fast! I really, really, really enjoyed my last run down the direct with Helen. I nailed it! It was great.

Tomorrow is also a holiday. I'm going to chill out in town, sit in Quadrille and read a book, do nothing!

Boxing Day

After breakfast, making sandwiches and packing up we headed back up Hakkoda in time for the 10 o'clock ropeway. It was a beautiful day. I felt much better about the skiing. I think going at my own speed rather than trying to keep up with everyone else helped a lot.

Tine, Joel and Mel on the ropeway: The view from the direct course:
Becky and the snow monsters:
Sabastian, Joel, Matt, Mel, Tina, Jason and Becky at lunchtime:
Joel made the best sandwiches ever!

We had a lot of gingerbread and rum truffles left over, so Melanie shared the Christmas love with the ropeway staff:
Me, looking unco:The direct course:
Mel, Becky and I headed back into Aomori about 3.30, hoping to get Becky on the 4.15 train to Imabetsu. We made it in time, but unfortunately discovered 4.15 was when Becky had to change trains. She had to wait another 2 hours for the next train going that way.

I got home, had a shower and was in bed by 8.30.

Thursday and Friday I had the most boring days at work EVER. Luckily the calligraphy teacher told me I was allowed to go home at lunchtime on Friday. Thank goodness someone knows I have no idea what is going on!

Today I had every intention of tidying my house, but it's now 3.30ish and I've done nothing, apart from catch up here and listen to the Les Mis soundtrack a lot of times.

Christmas Day 2007

After a breakfast of bacon, eggs and blueberry pancakes we left Kathryn, Ali, Syo and Carl to recover from the previous night and headed up to Hakkoda.

I decided to challenge the ropeway for the first time. It wasn't as steep as I expected, but it was really long. I was exhausted by the end and sat out the second run. I joined everyone for their third run, this time the forest course. I had a lot of trouble getting down the first part, but after that it wasn't too bad.

This is Joel:
This is Becky:
I think everyone else did one more run before Sabastian had to head back to Misawa and we headed to the onsen at Jogakura.

When we got back to the cabin we found Santa had paid a visit:
Tina and Becky fought over the ham bone:
Jason was a force of nature:
Melanie, Jason, Joel and Tina show off their silly hats:Team Kiwi:Christmas dinner spread - ham, turkey, turkey soup, cous cous, salad, Joel's famous tacos, goose fat roast veges, followed by gingerbread, rum truffles and chocolate pecan pie. After dinner we had a very competitive game of pictionary, won by Melanie and Joel, before a relatively early night.

Happy Merry Christmas!

After an uneventful weekend (cooking, cleaning, making my house look like it hadn't been cleaned again...) it was Monday - Christmas eve. Becky caught the train in from Imabetsu and dragged all her junk to my house. We had a cup of tea and then walked over to Korona world where we met Bec and her friend Lauren, visiting from Okayama-ken. We had lunch, headed back to my house to grab all the junk. Bec was kind enough to drop Becky and I off at Moya where we were spending Christmas.

We got checked in (eventually), and were soon joined by Sabastian, Carl, Melanie, Jason, Joel, Tina, Kathryn, Ali and Syo.

The cars got unloaded, the cooking got started, and the merry-making began.

Tina gets a head start:
Melanie, looking pretty pleased with the turkey:Goose fat, secret ingredient in the roast spuds:
Me and my pavlova:
Melanie and another batch of eggnog:
We had lots of food - a ham, a turkey, cous cous, roast veges, salad... as well as plenty of eggnog, mulled wine and rum cranberry cider. It was an excellent way to spend Christmas eve.

Bonenkai

Friday the 21st of December was the bonenkai. It literally means "forget the year party". Oyanagi-san, the office lady, decided it would be fun to dress me up in a kimono for the event.

This is Oyanagi-san and I:

The kimono is really tight so you have to sit up very straight.

This is Sugisawa Sensei and I:
He got really drunk, as usual, and couldn't stop giggling. He was very excited that he'd had his photo taken with me. It was very funny.

This is the principal:The bonenkai was a lot of fun. We played a bingo game. Everyone won a prize. Mine was a combination travel alarm clock and body fat analyser.

One of the office men, the guy who looks like the cartoon character Droopy, was really drunk and kept stealing the microphone. He started singing a song called "Matsuwa" (wait for her), but changed the lyric to "matsuba" (crutches), because both Maeda Sensei and Kawauchi Sensei are on crutches at the moment. After the microphone was taken away from Droopy, the "matsuba kyodai" (Crutches Brothers) got up on the stage and started playing silly buggers.

This is Oyanagi-san, Sakata Sensei (calligraphy), Jin Tomoko Sensei, Niioka Sensei, Shibata Sensei (all English) and Mutsuko Sensei (Science I think). And me (Santa-san).I went to the nijikai with Niioka Sensei and Jin Sensei and a group of other teachers. I butchered Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas", a karaoke request from Maeda Sensei. Niioka Sensei and Jin Sensei were watching the businessmen at the table opposite and decided they were "elite salarymen" because they were all wearing glasses. Maeda Sensei and Kawauchi Sensei sang "matsuba" again. It was fun. I got home about 11.

Christmas in the Teachers' Room

On Thursday I took some Christmas treats to school for the other teachers. Here is the Famous Retter Christmas Tray: Japan Edition. It's missing most of the main ingredients - mince pies, shortbread, rum truffles, Christmas cake - but it does have the icing sugar on top which makes all the difference.

I gave them strawberries, chocolate, Mum's apple cake, and chocolate wafer stick things. On Friday I took in some rum truffles (without rum).

Brownie points, brownie points!

Happy Merry Christmas Party

Last night I went out for dinner with Koto and some of her friends for Christmas.

Here are Mika-chan, Koto, Youko and Magic-san.
Magic-san has a name, but I can't remember it. He did magic tricks for us, mostly card tricks. It was very cool. He was funny, and kept telling us to drink more so we couldn't figure out how he did the trick.

The whole crowd: Chef-san, Youko, Magic-san, me, Hwa? (a Vietnamese girl studying at Chuo Daigakuen), Angelo, Emicchi, Mika-chan and Koto.
Emicchi, Koto, Mika and Angelo playing silly buggers:
After dinner/nomikai Mika, Koto, Angelo and I went to karaoke for an hour, and then onto a club called Brain.

We left about 2, and Koto and I walked with Mika for most of the way to her house. It was snowing. This is Koto and Mika on the Furukawa overpass:
And Koto and I:Koto and I caught a taxi back to Shinjo. We told the taxi driver we had just had a Christmas party. He told us it was a little bit early to have a Christmas party...

Today I have been really lazy, although I did get the Christmas pressies wrapped and ready to go in the post tomorrow. It's been snowing all day. I ought to get started on some Christmas baking for the office, but there is always tomorrow. Another cup of tea sounds much nicer than braving the snow to go to the supermarket.

This week:

Another crazy week here in Aomori. On Monday night I went to a talk given by the head of a medical school in Cleveland. They have some kind of partnership with Chuo Hospital in Aomori. It was interesting. He talked about training doctors and also about the controls they put in to make sure they don't make mistakes.

On Wednesday I was at Namioka again, doing Christmas lessons. In the afternoon I went to Aomori Hospital for the Christmas party. It wasn't nearly as eventful as last year. No tiger suit this year! I just had to ring some bells.

This is at the Christmas party. This woman is making everyone sing in Tsugaru-ben. It's something about me (wado) and you (nado), and then father (tocha) and mother (kacha) I think. I didn't really understand it.

This is the principal of Namiyou, or as he described himself "cos-puree kocho" (costume-play principal):

Cos-play Kocho's sidekicks:

After I had finished for the day I headed to Hirosaki. Namioka is technically part of Aomori city, but is closer to Hirosaki. I met Helen and Wyomia at Zilch, and we ran into Andy there. It was good to have a catch up with them. Wyomia and I went to Capricossa for dinner, and were joined by Steven and Alex later on. Alex had just finished taking his Italian course.

On Thursday night it was Bec's turn to cook. She did an excellent roast beef (with the help of Mel's oven). Marti and Dom couldn't make it to the party, but Mel joined us.

On Friday night I went to the ikebana club for the first time in ages, then raced home and then out again to the second grade teachers "welcome back from the school trip" enkai.

I'll be back with more just as soon as I put the jug on for a cup of tea.

Walking to School

Usually walking to school is a pain in the backside - it's cold, it's icy, it's slippery. Today I enjoyed it. I realised it is my only chance in the day to enjoy the sunlight. By the time I finish work (4 o'clock) twilight is already setting in.

Will somebody please tell Japan about daylight saving time?

Snoopy's Christmas

Snoopy's Christmas is probably the most over-played
Christmas song in New Zealand. It's like Vince Martin
from Beaurepairs singing "Winter Wonderland", it just
isn't Christmas without it. Last Christmas I never heard
it, so this year I fixed that by purchasing it from iTunes.
I was feeling very Christmassy on Friday night after
listening to it on repeat about 5 times. I was surprised
to find that NOBODY knows the song! I can't believe it.

The news it came out in the First World War
The bloody Red Baron was flying once more
The Allied Command ignored all of its men
And called on Snoopy to do it again

Was the night before Christmas and forty below
When Snoopy went up in search of his foe
He spied the Red Baron and fiercely they fought
With ice on his wings, Snoopy knew he was caught

Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ring out from the land
Asking peace of all the world
And good will to man

The Baron had Snoopy dead in his sights
He reached for the trigger to pull it up tight
Why he didn't shoot, well, we'll never know
Or was it the bells from the village below

{Refrain}
Christmas bells those Christmas bells
Ringing through the land
Bringing peace to all the world
And good will to man

The Baron made Snoopy fly to the Rhine
And forced him to land behind the enemy lines
Snoopy was certain that this was the end
When the Baron cried out "Merry Christmas, mein friend!"

The Baron then offered a holiday toast
And Snoopy our hero saluted his host
And then with a roar they were both on their way
Each knowing they'd meet on some other day

{Refrain twice}

The Week in Review

I had no classes all week, because the first and third grade students had exams. The second grade students and teachers were all on the school trip to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. It was a very quiet week at school, but I did put a good dent in the book I bought in Sapporo - an oral history of Japan in the war. It is very good.

Monday and Tuesday nights I spent recovering from Sapporo. When it gets dark at 4 o'clock, going to bed at 8 doesn't seem at all outrageous!

On Wednesday night I went to the house of a PE teacher from Higashi High School. He likes English. He lives very very close to Nishiko, so sees me walking around quite often. I met him when a group of us showed up at a restaurant to have dinner, and it just happened to be the same restaurant where the Higashi teachers (and Bec) had an enkai. When I went to say hello to Bec, he said "hey, I know you". I ran into him again at the supermarket, and he invited me to dinner at his house with Ishikawa Sensei, a maths teacher who is the Nishiko basket ball coach. Bec had been to dinner at his house before, but I couldn't make it due to climbing mountains at the time.

Alright, so now the explanation is out of the way, I went to dinner at Ogawa Sensei's house. It was fun. He talked a lot. His English is pretty good. I also talked to Ishikawa Sensei, who I don't usually get a chance to talk to at school. He is only a year older than me. He is very cool. Ogawa Sensei just got really drunk, and by the end of the night was speaking Japanese, most of which I could understand, and kept stopping to ask me how to say it in English. So I was translating random phrases into English. It was fun though.

Thursday night I went to Alex's house for dinner. Our original "dinner at someone's house every week" has expanded to include Steven, Alex and Dom. Alex cooked us excellent, authentic Italian food, the highlight being the tiramisu.

All of a sudden it was Friday night, and I was very, very happy. I met Bec, Anne, Dom and Will at Korona world to go Christmas tree shopping and have 100-en sushi for dinner. After that we decided to go to karaoke and sing nothing but Christmas carols. We managed about an hour before exhausting all the Christmas songs. We then spent two more hours singing anything and everything we could think of.

Will crashed at my house on Friday night, so we got up on Saturday morning, and headed to meet Bec at the Hard Off second hand shop. We had a look around, had lunch, went shopping for ski gear, and eventually came up with a plan for how to spend the rest of the weekend.

That saw Will heading back to Hiranai to clean his house, and Bec and I collecting stuff for sleeping and skiing. We headed out to Hiranai with the plan of staying up til the wee small hours and then going to cut down a pine tree from somewhere so Will could have a real Christmas tree. In the end we abandoned the stealth mission in favour of the (relative) warmth of Will's house.

Sunday, after an excellent breakfast of French toast, we headed up to Hakkoda-san. The skiing was excellent, and I am pleased I haven't forgotten how! Lots of JETs up there as well, so it was nice to see everyone. We headed back to Aomori, went to Akbar's for dinner, then home, a nice hot shower, and telling the world the blow-by-blow details of my week!

No photos, because I am getting really lazy about taking them!

Sunday in Sapporo

We woke up fairly early on Sunday morning and had breakfast at the hotel. The croissants were excellent but they ran out. After sending Steven, Bec and Marti off to sit the JLPT Japanese exam, Dom, Alex and I went to the fish market.

After the fish market we went to the Sapporo Clock Tower, famous symbol of Sapporo. Dom was underwhelmed by it, but I thought it was pretty cool. Then again, he is a Pom, and they have Big Ben. We have The Square...
We went shopping and had lunch at the Sapporo Factory. There was nothing much factory about it, it is a shopping centre. They did have fun mirrors outside!

After we collected the examed-out Marti, Bec and Steven we went to Starbucks because Alex was hanging out for a "robust espresso with character". After that we did a bit more shopping. Clearly it was a bit much for Dom:He is sitting in a massage chair. The Japanese says "Dear Customer. Please do not sleep here."

I was reunited with fingers-pants man, of Beijing fame. I last met fingers-pants man in a Beijing alley, near Tienanmen Square, in 2004. He has lost his trousers somewhere between Beijing and Sapporo.
We all met again and went to a very flash crab restaurant for dinner. It was Alex's birthday, so we decided to splash out.
After a very delicious crab meal, and plenty of "we got crabs in Sapporo" jokes, it was time to catch the train back to Aomori. It left at 10pm. We had a cake for Alex, so we had a little party at the end of the carriage, then tried to get whatever sleep we could get. Unfortunately I was sitting right in front of a guy who snored like a tractor. Like a tractor with a broken muffler. It was awful, but Japanese people are far too polite to "accidentally" kick the back of his seat or "accidentally" jab him in the ribs, so he was allowed to continue all the way to Hakodate. Luckily in Hakodate my prayers to the deities of the world's major religions were answered and he got off.

We got back to Aomori about 5.30, and I got back to my house about 6, just in time to have a shower and head off to school at 8. It was a tough day. I didn't have any classes to keep me occupied and falling asleep at my desk was a major concern...