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...

Sapporo

Last Friday night 5 intrepid travellers and I caught the overnight train from Aomori to Sapporo. My luck was in and there was no one sitting in the seat next to me on the train so I could stretch out. We arrived in Sapporo at about 6.30 on Saturday morning, found our hotel and then hit the onsen. Feeling a little more human we got our caffiene fix at Starbucks to finish the job off.



Sufficiently caffeinated we split in to two groups - Alex and Steven went shopping, and the rest of us did a Tiki Tour. Here is Marti at the Hokkaido Jingu:Next stop was the Maruyama Zoo, where we got hijacked by an elderly man and taken to make Christmas trees from pine cones. Here is Dom-chan with his kindy creation:
Once we had kindy out of the way we explored the zoo, quite possibly the most depressing zoo in the history of ever. Bec described it as having been built in 1960, some animals put in it, and no one had done anything since. Add to that it was freezing cold and trying to snow. They did have more exciting animals, but these are the first sheep I have seen since I left New Zealand. It was very exciting for me, even if somebody from that country across the Tasman sea wanted to take pictures of me in compromising positions... This is a random statue dressed up for Christmas and being attacked by gaijin in downtown Sapporo:

We ate ramen in Ramen Alley for lunch:After lunch we went to the Sapporo Beer Museum. The museum was pretty much a waste of time, apart from the bar. It was really cheap!

After the museum we hit the beer garden for the Hokkaido specialty - Ghengis Khan. It is barbequed lamb, and the name comes from the shape of the hot plate it is cooked on. It looks like a Mongolian helmet. We went the whole hog and did tabehodai (all you can eat) and nomihodai (all you can drink):I suspect the "lamb" was actually hogget or mutton, but whose complaining?

After dinner we went back to downtown Sapporo. Here are Bec and Marti in Odori koen Christmas Village with some hot cocoa:
We also went up the TV tower. Because it is Japan, everything in Japan needs a cute character or no one will go there. Sapporo TV Tower has terebi to-san (TV Father).
And because I can't go past random English:

That'll have to do for the moment, I will put up Sapporo Sunday photos when I can. Happy Flowery Christmas 'til next time!