2008 here we come!

The flight back to Tokyo was bliss!

* I had three seats to myself in the middle of the plane

* I didn’t have to worry about my nerves because I drank two bottles of free wine and slept like a baby
* British Airways entertainment systems are amazing

The flight to Fukuoka was a little bumpy especially the landing as it was snowing when I got back.

Dawn was waiting for me at the airport with a car full of Costco goodies. We arrived back in Kumamoto around 9pm and being too tired to go partying around town, we opted for a quiet New Year celebration. We had Costco pizza, cheesecake, wine and a TV – what more could you ask for?!?
2008 here we come!

Time flies....

7am and I was all ready to go. The taxi pulled up, I said a sad goodbye to dad and two hours later we were there.

Of course mum couldn’t hang around so I had to say a sad goodbye to her to (so many tears in the last few weeks) and go check in.

I so enjoyed spending Christmas at home. It was just what I needed and I feel so much better. I’m ready for a new year and a new start in Japan.

* Celeb Spot – Angela Rippon at Heathrow airport!!*

Taxi for one?

The only sad thing about being home was seeing dad sick. You never think of your parents as normal human beings who can succumb to such things as illnesses. They’re your parents they’ll always be there to drive you crazy – right??

For as long as I can remember my day has been active. When he wasn’t at work he would be doing the gardening or decorating or he’d be out fishing or playing badminton. Seeing him sick and unable to walk upstairs was a big shock.

We all agreed today that he was no way strong enough for the journey to Heathrow and back and so we had to look at other ways of getting there. I said I would take the train but that would mean leaving a day earlier than planned and stayed over in London. No-one was keen on that idea so we decided to book a taxi.

Thankfully dad knows the guy that runs the taxi firm so they said it was no problem for mum to drive down too and then they would drop her home. She was so relieved and to be honest so was I!

Carrington Christmas

* Eat breakfast (more bacon)
* Prepare half the dinner (forget the other half and get shouted at later)
* Meet mother at work
* Go to the club (spend too long there)
* Wait upstairs while father gets shouted at for making a mess
* Drink champagne and pomegranate juice (the new range apparently)
* Miss the Queen’s 50th speech
* Open half of the presents
* Search desperately for mothers present that she bought for herself a few weeks ago and that I totally forgot to wrap since being here
* Open the other presents
* Eat a huge dinner complete with soup, turkey, pudding and crackers
* Fall asleep in front of the TV
* Wake up and go to bed!

The perfect family Christmas

H-A-P-P-Y

Why the last three days have been bliss (in no particular order of course)

* CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
* BRITISH PUBS
* ENGLISH BREAKFASTS - bacon
* OTHER FOOD - cheese
* FAMILY
* FAMILY FRIENDS
* OLD FACES
* MY HOUSE
* MY ROOM
* MY BED
* I finally got dad to clean the car (first time in 5 years)

Final Destination

I had arranged for a family friend to pick me up at Lichfield as mum and dad had no idea I was coming. I had been stringing dad along all evening telling him I couldn’t sleep and I needed to talk to him (he thought it was 6am in Japan and wondered why I was up so early). I told him to be online at 11pm for a web chat and so at 11pm, as I was 5 minutes from the front door, he was switching on the computer wondering what was going on.

Picture the scene: dad is upstairs waiting for me to log onto MSN, I am outside the front door and call him on my mobile.

Dad “Hello.”
Me “Hello, it’s me.”
Dad “Have you logged on yet?”
Me “No. I can’t get in the house.”
Dad “What do you mean?”
Me “Can you let me in?”
Dad “Let you in where?”
Me “Can you let me in the house. I don’t have any keys.”
Dad “Wha-, I don’t…., Wha-…”
Me “I like the snowman outside the front door by the way.”
Dad “You’re not here!!!!”
Me “LET ME IN!”

Dad is always in on surprises and he always knows what’s going on. Tonight he had no idea at all. He was so shocked! I then had to go and surprise mum who was already in bed and then we had the hugs and tears…..

Two hours and a lot of talking later there were three empty wine bottles on the table and we all trudged bleary eyed to bed.

It’s Christmas – I’m home!

ARGH!!!!!

This is the last time I book a last minute Christmas flight to the UK. Everything was going fine until we landed in Heathrow!

* We were 45 minutes late landing
* We had to sit on the runway for 45 minutes because there was nowhere for us to go
* Only those with connecting flights were allowed off first
* I had to wait 45 minutes for my luggage as they decided to put 3 flights worth of cases on one carousel – genius!
* The underground train I got on was suspended after 3 stops

After leaving myself nearly 4 hours between my flight arrival time and my train to Lichfield I was gutted to arrive at Euston station 20 minutes after my train left! I got no sympathy and had to buy a new ticket finally arriving in Lichfield just before 11pm after 30 hours of travelling.

Where would I be without them?!?!

Noe and I left my apartment at 3:30am as she kindly offered to take me to Fukuoka airport. It is a 4 hour round trip and she had to go to work after driving all that way!!

Thanks Noe and Bunny Boy!

After 2 1/2 years I finally flew to Tokyo and caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji.

I think this is going to be a great trip home!

Life's Too Short

I’m going home for Christmas! After much debate I have decided that it I the only way to get me out of the funk (only word I can describe it with) I have been in all month. Christmas is always the hardest time to be away but after the plans to go to Thailand fell through I didn’t make any other solid plans and so why not??

I feel bad about leaving dawn in the lurch but she understands and knows I need to go. I searched the net and made a few calls and found a last minute BA flight. Luckily it’s only 50 pound more than the flight in August!

As soon as I’d booked the flight I was told I had 24 hours to pay which was fine but then I got a call 15 minutes later saying to secure the seat I only had 1 hour to pay!! Dawn and I made a mad rush to the bank to make the payment and it went through with 10 minutes to spare.

I was only home during the summer but that was a very hectic visit and I do miss Christmas at home. Now that I know I’m going I actually feel a lot better. I have no time to panic about getting on the plane as I have to start packing!

You can't fake it...

My house is all ready for Christmas! The decorations are up including my first ever black Christmas tree complete with PG monkey on top! The presents are waiting to be opened, the Christmas CD is in the player and there’s only 9 days to go.

But…..it doesn’t feel like Christmas.
I’m down……..I miss home……

Michan's Gyozas

Michan is like a mum. She loves to fuss and spoil her favorite people and when she sets her mind to it she really goes all out to do it. This time she decided to throw a gyoza party. (Gyozas are a kind of small meat dumpling.) They are very popular in Japan and despite her wanting to have a party entirely of gyoza; Michan doesn’t like them so much!

I dread to think how much time she actually spent making them or how many were actually made. Every time I went to her apartment the week of the party there seemed to be trays of gyoza everywhere!

Needless to say she outdid herself and we had gyoza, rice balls, tamago-yaki (egg roll) and miso soup!

Seeing as it is nearly Christmas we also decided to have a Criss Cringle. Everyone had to spend 1000 yen on a present (about 5 pound) and after dinner we drew pieces of paper out of Christmas hats to decide who would choose first. The rules were simple – you could choose to open an unopened gift or steal a present that had already been opened. A gift could only be stolen three times!

I got to choose second and opened a present to find a Starbucks gift voucher inside. Dawn quickly stole that from me so I got to choose another one which had chocolates and a moose pen from Canada – perfect!

The Criss Cringle was good fun and I think most people got gifts that suited them in the end. With the drinks still flowing even though it was getting late the night descended into much drunken antics including drunken twister and a few compromising situations involving Minika’s souvenir from the sex museum in Beppu.

Sometimes you just feel.......

OUCH!

I am recovering from last night!

The Japanese word for hangover is 二日酔い (futsukayoi)

It literally means "two days drunk"

futsu kaYOIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII indeed!

Mid Year Madness

It is Mid-year seminar time again and seeing as it my first time attending the conference as a senior high school ALT; I sat back and watched while others presented. We listened, discussed problems, and came up with ideas to make our lives as ALT’s run a little smoother. Here’s a picture of us hard at work…..

Well maybe not but at least the hats were free!

Seeing as the conference brings all of the ALT’s in Kumamoto prefecture together it is usually a good excuse for a night on the town. This year AJET organized a fantastic party and the whole gang was there to eat, drink and get very merry! See I did my hair, wore nice clothes and made such an effort to be a lady!

There was also a raffle and I have been dreaming about this raffle all week. In my dream I won the ipod shuffle but in reality I won a bottle of champagne (not bad either way!) I tried to make in to Sanctuary to dance the rest of the night away but I lasted about 10 minutes before Minika put me in a taxi and sent me home!

This photo was taken about 5 hours after the previous one! Hair and appearance not so good, definately not much of a lady and probably couldn't have told you my name!

Xmas Tree Wish Hands - Fun For All!

Proof that the Christmas Tree hands work at any school with any students. Just get them to draw around their hands, write what they want for Christmas and decorate the other side. Then paste the hands onto card in the shape of a tree – they love it!

My first graders are off to Tokyo this week for a school trip. I told them to bring me a present back and they laughed - you never know one of them just might!

JLPT - Level 4 - Take 2!

After only 3 hours sleep I had to be up at 6am to take an early train to Fukuoka. All across Japan, foreigners are taking early morning trains, buses and subways to various JLPT test sites. Yes it’s test time again! I was disappointed not to pass last year and I failed by such a small amount which made it more annoying.

There were a lot of familiar faces as the test is popular and many ALT’s take it. The test itself wasn’t bad but the listening test was trickier than the previous years and the harder questions towards the end (where I usually start as those are the ones I understand) were also harder than the past papers I tried.

As soon as the test was over I felt sick. I think my body had been waiting to give out but thankfully it lasted until the JLPT was over. After a long, uncomfortable train ride home I dosed up on hot lemon and went to my happy place – bed!

First Class Service

After all that work Minika and I had lunch in town. Ramen is very popular in Japan and is especially good on a cold day. Ramen is a huge bowl of noodles, mixed with a meat based broth topped with meat and vegetables. That’s the very basic description as you can get lots of different kinds.

To show your appreciation for this delicious food you are supposed to eat ramen very noisily making lots of slurping noises. I haven’t quite got this down yet but I’m practicing!

One thing that always amazes me about this country is the level of service you receive and their attention to detail. I have never seen this in a restaurant before but it’s just one example of how far their service goes. Because there is a lot of broth in a ramen bowl, those with long hair might find eating it tricky so they GIVE OUT FREE HAIR BANDS at the restaurant!

I am going to miss service like this when I leave Japan!

Saturday School

As part of the extra curricular activities at school the second graders had extra Saturday classes. All of the second grade teachers (plus me) were asked to come up with an 80 minute class and the student would then choose a class to attend.

Because I only usually teach the kids from class 2-7 I didn’t want English to be the focus of my lesson and I finally got to try an activity I’ve been itching to do since I got here.

When I was in high school and at university I played “The International Trade Game”. It’s a team building game focusing on communication and I know that it is used in Economic theory and a lot of companies also use it as part of their training schemes.

Here is the basic idea. Teams are competing against each other to draw and cut out shapes. Each shape is worth a certain amount of money. The team that makes the most money wins. Very simple!

But then you hand out the materials and things go crazy.
Team A has pencils, scissors but no paper.
Team B has one pencil, one pair of scissors and four sheets of paper.
Team C has twenty sheets of paper.
Now they realize they have to trade materials and work together!!

After they have been playing for about 15 minutes you can also throw in a few extra things i.e. if everyone is making triangles then you drop the reward for triangles. I also had extra scissors and pencils which I sold for ridiculous prices to encourage team work between the groups and I offered small rewards for small shapes to see if groups would use up the paper they were wasting.

After letting them make shapes for about 40 minutes I stopped the game and the teams counted their money to find the winner. I wanted to explain in detail about the game and so Minika came along to translate for me as I’m sure some of the explanations would’ve been too difficult in English.

Here is what it’s all about. The game reflects the world markets. Team A represents developed countries like America with lots of technology but scarce natural resources. Team B represents countries with a bit of both and Team C represents third world countries.

The prices of the shapes are determined by supply and demand just like a real market which is why the prices change and I introduced the smaller shapes to make the students think about waste. Most groups decided it was too much effort to make small shapes and chased the big money – just like in real life!
The students enjoyed the game and seemed interested in the discussions. Having played the game at home I was interested to see how Japanese students would play the game and if there would be any major differences – there were!

* Japanese students are nice! Team C should realize how valuable paper is and charge a lot of money for it. I was charging $1000 for one sheet so they could’ve easily charged $500. At home they did but in Japan they were nice and gave it away!
* At home scissors are valuable as you need to cut out the shapes. In Japan the kids are such expert paper folders and tear-ers that they could tear the paper and it looked so neat. We let it slide for the first class but not for the second!
* In most cases Team B wins because they start out with a little of everything and get a good head start. However Team A won the first class in Japan!
* In a bullying tactic (ironic as it was Team A – America) some of the girls found a novel use for the waste paper and started writing out free massage and free golf lesson tickets in return for paper!

I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game and thanks to Minika for being my little helper! I can’t wait to do it again next year!

The best in the world?

Minika and I were at the supermarket today when I spotted an apple that was priced at 780yen which is about 4 pounds. Thinking it must be a mistake I wandered over but no it was correct. The label said that it was the best apple in the world which it should be considering the price.

She told me to buy it but I refused point blank. Micchan though can always be gently persuaded and with me half teasing, half coaxing her she ended up leaving the store 10 minutes later with said apple in her bag.
Was it good?
Sure!
Was it the best apple in the world?
Probably not.

I wonder what I can get her to buy next time we’re out!?!?!

An easy week!

Because my students have tests this week I have been out at elementary school. I really do miss working with the little kids because 99.9% of them just want to have fun and English hasn’t become something they dread learning.
My classes were great and today I had the 6 year olds who were so cute!

Another reason why elementary is good is that I usually get out earlier. Yesterday the school had a meeting of it’s own and so I left school at 11:30am and was finished for the day.

This gave me lots of free time to study for the JLPT test that is next week. I had a practice paper today and passed so they may be hope yet ;)

I am thankful for......

So apparently the Americans have a special festival called Thanksgiving; something about being thankful for stuff and had something to do with a big dinner between the Native Americans and the white people?!?!?!

Ha ha just kidding! I always get asked to teach the kids about thanksgiving and the teachers suddenly remember I’m from England, look embarrassed and run away!

We decided we wanted to do things properly this year and so Elyse and Kittie offered the use of their apartments and Dawn was in charge of inviting all of the Kumamoto City ALT’s and organizing exactly who was bringing what!

We even took a car down up to Costco today to buy whole freshly cooked chickens and real American pumpkin pie! Things were a bit hectic as traffic was bad on the way back and I had about an hour to get ready and make 3 different types of mashed potatoes.

After a few hiccups everyone had arrived, the food was laid out and Minika said a wonderful grace before we all tucked in. Chicken, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, vegetables and real gravy made by moi! It was a huge success but we had no time to relax as it was soon off to Kittie’s for dessert.
I had my first taste of pumpkin pie (delicious) and we passed the time by playing a rather dated (therefore hilarious) game of Taboo. By midnight I was out after thoroughly enjoying my third (and best) Thanksgiving in Japan.

Ageing Population

The Japanese society is changing rapidly. It is sad to think that the country that has been my home for over two years now, will have so many problems in the future. The graph speaks for itself.

In other news, winter is finally here. It is cold and dark in the morning which just makes me want to stay under the covers! It is getting colder in school and I rarely finish work before it’s pitch black outside. Winter Wonderful Winter!

Happy Birthday Micchan!

The day started with a pancake breakfast cooked by Elyse. Minika had sent me an email a few weeks ago with birthday requests and one of them was lots of birthday kisses! Everyone thought it would be good fun to blindfold her and then each take a turn kissing her on the cheek to see if she could guess who we were! She was so scared as she had no idea what was going on but, once she’d guessed everyone, she said it was a great idea.

Once breakfast was over and everyone was ready we set off to another onsen. Allen had booked a private room for us so we could all have a quick bath (very relaxing and they even had an outside bath which was great as the autumn leaves were falling in the water) and then eat lunch together.

After such a relaxing start the big finale was always going to be hectic and so around 5pm it was time to blindfold Minika again, load up the cars with supplies and set off. We had bought her a cake and instead of just eating it and someone’s apartment we wanted to make it special so we all drove to the top of Mt. Kimpo (the highest in the city). It was freezing cold but the view of the city was amazing. The candles stayed alight just long enough for us to sing Happy Birthday and then we all tucked in. And then, after so much planning the weekend was over! I hope you had a wonderful birthday Micchan and I am so sad that next year you won’t be here : (

Onsen Onsen Onsen!

Hooray – day one was a big success!

Anthony and I took Minika to Kagoshima for the day. She had no idea what I had planned but I’m sure she enjoyed herself and it was nice to have just our original gang together even if there are only three of us left!

First stop was Ibusuki home to the famous sand baths. It is just as it sounds; you have a bath in hot sand. There is a group of old ladies waiting to bury you and when you’ve had enough (a mere 15 minutes for us amateurs) you dig yourself out and enjoy a hot water bath.

The town of Ibusuki came as a bit of a shock to us because it seemed deserted. Even the main street had no shoppers and we passed hardly anyone. The most exciting part of the town was a car accident that happened just before we got there. I only joke about it as it was apparent no-one got hut and the driver appeared to have lost control and bumped into a lamppost.

Next we headed for Sakurajima; an island home to an active volcano and hundreds of homes and businesses. The volcano spews smoke and ash over the city on a regular basis. We headed to the Furusato onsen: a famous onsen over looking the sea. It is a shared onsen so everyone wears a robe in the water. We arrived just after sunset (perfect timing) and enjoyed the warm water as the skies got darker.
After all that bathing we thought it was time Anthony got to choose what we did next and of course he chose a hike up a hill to get night view pictures of the city. If Anthony was paid just a penny for every photo he took he would be a very rich man. He assured us he knew where he was going and we followed. 20 minutes later I was regretting my decision as we were stumbling in the dark, half-way up a hill, surrounded by trees and being followed by an evil cat.

The view was nice when we reached the top but we were all cursing Anthony when we also found a fully paved, well lit path on the opposite side!
After all that excitement we just had time for dinner and purikura before catching the last train home. One down – one to go!

Anything you can do.....

What a busy week! I have been running around like crazy organizing Minika’s birthday weekend. I hope it all works out as I have to try and out-do her : )

We have sort of a birthday competition going on and always have to do better each year. I have never looked forward to my birthday so much before but that also means I have make it work this weekend.

It is now 2:30am (technically the 17th but I’m sure I’ll have lots to write tomorrow anyway) and I have just finished making her present and writing her card. I have to be up at 7am tomorrow when the madness will commence – wish me luck!

Volleyball World Cup 2007

The Volleyball World Cup has been in town all weekend and we have been lucky enough to get free tickets for the entire weekend. Being foreigners in town can be handy sometimes! I always liked volleyball but was never that good. Netball will always be my first love even though no one here knows what it is!

It was great to go to an event like this and see how things are done “the Japanese way”. First of all we have these great inventions

To save your hands you purchase these noise makers (for want of a better phrase), blow them up with a straw and bang them together – genius!


Cheerleaders The Mascot The Cleaners

We watched quite a few games but I was more obsessed with trying to take a good action shot on my camera. It has so many setting I doubt I’ll ever use them all but I thought I’d give it go. This was my best attempt

Not exactly newspaper worthy is it?

After the games we made our way out of the centre and noticed hundreds of people crowded around the team coaches. I always thought the Japanese people were quite shy and quiet but I now know they are mean autograph hunters!
They all had their pens and paper (or in some cases shirts, bags, body parts) ready just in case one player decided to stop at sign.

I was surprised to hear my name being called and turn around to see some old students of mine from Tenmei. She handed me her pen and notepad and yelled “Sign please!” Wow I am a celebrity after all, or so I thought! It turns out she thought I would have a better chance of getting a signature (being foreign and all) so she gave me her stuff and urged me towards the front!

By this time we were pushed against the glass windows of the sports centre and could see the American team inside. Dawn was just as excited as the kids as she could see the player from Hawaii and was dying to say hello.

It was then that I had my stroke of genius. I tore a piece of paper from a notepad and wrote “Robin, Hawaii is here” on it. Then I held it up to the glass and as soon as Dawn realized what I was doing she jumped up and down to tried and get someone to read it.

I’m sure they all thought we were very enthusiastic volleyball supporters but finally one of the players came over, read it and then called Robin over! She wanted to get us inside but the security guard wouldn’t let her so she came out and posed for a photo.

Needless to say my student and Dawn were very happy!

Bashculture

My friend Anthony has joined a band. They had their first show two weeks ago but as I was locked up in my apartment being miserable with earache I missed it.
Tonight was their second show and I wasn’t going to miss it. I didn’t tell Anthony we were coming and when Minika, Lauren, Dawn and I walked in he was very shocked. It was so strange to see the cocky Texan all nervous!

They were playing in a salon bar which seemed to have a Harley Davidson meets Wild West cowboys theme going on. The bar is also famous for its homemade burgers which are great but make sure you order one before you’re hungry as they take a long time to arrive!

The show was great and Anthony played really well. You could tell he was nervous but he did a great job. The other members of the band are Edwin (great song writer and piano/drum/guitar player) and Austin who I can only assume has never been nervous in his life. He is definitely the energy in the band.

The boys are doing well and even plan to release an album sometime next year. I will keep this picture just in case they hit the big time. For more info about Bashculture visit

Crash & Burn

I feel like I’m going to crash and burn this week. I don’t know why but little things get turned into huge issues and after a particularly hard lesson when the kids seemed more concerned with their hair than their English I felt like saying bugger it all!

Luckily the girls were up for a night out tonight and by 11pm after lots of ume-shu, a few hours karaoke and a trip to Jeff’s I was as right as rain!

Red Cross Meeting

Last week my teacher invited me to a Junior Red Cross International Meeting that was taking place today. She wasn’t going herself but asked if I would like to. I don’t mind going and actually it was a great day but I do get confused when Japanese people ask you to attend something as if they’re going themselves and then it turns out you’re on your own!

There were about 50 kids from various high schools in the area and about 12 “guests” (mostly ALT’s ) had been invited to take part in the fun. Three girls from Hitsuyukan were there and some kids that I went to the summer camp with in August. They screamed when they saw me and it was nice to see them again!

We were put into groups and spent the morning making our assigned dish and saying hello to everyone. Our group made yakisoba which is a mixture of noodles, vegetables and meat covered in sauce. Other groups made burgers, soup, vegetable rice and fruit salad. The kids did most of the work as the professionals (Japanese grandma’s and grandpa’s) looked on.

Lunch time was great as not only did we get to eat all the delicious food but we also got to talk to the kids and get to know them. After lunch an afternoon of entertainment was provided for us that included calligraphy, a mandolin concert and taiko drumming.

I love random days like this where I can interact with various members of the community. I never see them coming and I always enjoy them! The best part of the day was meeting a group of deaf students. They started to panic when I went to say hello and frantically pointed to their ears to tell me they were deaf. By the end of the day we were communicating in English, Japanese and our own range of gestures. :)

Happy Halloween!

OK so I know Halloween was 2 days ago but Friday is fun day at English club so we had the Halloween party today.

It went even better than I was expecting and Lana helped me decorate the table and arrange the food. I bought lots of Halloween candy and made black punch using juice and food colouring.

We also had Halloween games including apple bobbing, candies in a jar and pin the nose on the pumpkin. The best thing was the ice I made for the punch. Last night I filled rubber gloves with water and froze them giving me creepy, hand shaped chunks of ice for the bowls. It worked a treat!
Everything was eaten, games were played and punch was drunk so I think a good time was had by all!



I took this photo on my camera phone on the way home. Merry Christmas!

Moping Around

I have had a miserable few days!

I had earache on an off for about a week but since Friday it has been non stop!
This was made worse when I went to the hospital and the doctor didn’t know why it was hurting either as apparently he couldn’t see anything! I did get some medicine though and after spending the weekend moping around, feeling sorry for myself and generally trying to make everyone else miserable too, I finally felt better yesterday.

So much better in fact that I decided to clean my apartment top to bottom and get ready for winter. I put away all my summer clothes, pulled out the coats, jumpers, scarves, gloves, put an extra cover on my bed, got out my kotatsu blanket and threw away a lot of junk.

My ear still hurts a little but at least I’m ready to face winter head on this year!

The IgNobel Prize goes to...

The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."

The prizes are presented by genuine Nobel Laureates, originally at a ceremony in a lecture hall at MIT. The ceremony is followed a few days later by the Ig Informal Lectures in which laureates have the opportunity to explain their achievements and their relevance to the general public.

If such explanations become too longwinded, they are interrupted by the cries of Miss Sweety Poo (or Sweety-Poo), a little girl who repeatedly cries out "Please stop. I'm bored" in a high-pitched voice. The awards ceremony is traditionally closed with the words: "If you didn't win a prize—and especially if you did—better luck next year!"

Ishii Sensei and I taught our international course kids about the Ignobel awards because a Japanese lady just won one. Mayu Yamamoto won the chemistry prize for extracting vanilla flavour from cow dung!

We encouraged the students to think about funny things they would research or invent if they wanted to win an Ignobel award. Here are my favourties:

Mikans and Green Tea

It is officially winter as the mikans are appearing. For those that don’t know, mikans are small oranges and are eaten in autumn. Bags and bags of them are appearing around the staff room and every day there are 2 or 3 sitting on my desk. Apparently taking a bath in mikan peel is good for your skin but I haven’t got around to that yet!

In my quest to become ‘a part of the school’ I have decided to join a club. I really wanted to do something that was unique to Japan and so I have decided to join the tea ceremony club. This is perfect as the club only meets once a week and it involves drinking green tea which is good for you!

I have been sitting in on Tuesdays after school and now the old lady that teaches it has decided she wants to train me too! Apparently this is a really big thing as she’s usually very strict and doesn’t like anyone. The only bad thing is that I now have to practice sitting in seiza (on my knees) for about half and hour – OUCH!

For more information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_tea_ceremony

Fireworks and Festival Food!

I have been hearing about the annual firewirk show down in Yatsushiro but I’d never been so a group of us decided to rectify that tonight.

The fireworks are one of the largest displays in Japan and last around two hours. It felt like everyone in Kumamoto decided to catch our train as we pushed ourselves on and found a safe place to stand.

I always enjoy events like this mainly for the festival food. Stalls and stalls of old grandma’s, bickering married couples and small kids working as hard as they can to feed the masses.

Once we’d found a good spot along the river we settled down and looked forward to the show. After the sun had gone though the temperature plummeted and even with our jacket’s, scarves and hats we were all freezing. We decided to call it a night fairly early but we saw most of the show and it was worth it.

I’m looking forward to going back next year and will definitely remember to pack the extra coats!

A new life at 60

After a long week at the office everyone was ready for the staff party. It was a special party in honour of the teachers who are 60 this year. Sixty is a very special age in Japan and signals the start of a new life.

There were four teachers being honoured tonight including the principal and one of the English teachers I work with.

I always dread work parties as it means my Japanese will be put to the test but once I’m there and the beer is flowing a good time is had by all – especially me!

FIRE! Well...maybe...I'm not sure....

I’m never really sure what to do when a fire alarm goes off in Japan. In England I would get up and walk outside but here I just don’t know.

Our super duper brand new fire alarm went off today and nobody knew what to do. I was glad that I understood what the automated announcer was saying “There is a fire in the gym. There is a fire in the gym”, but when I looked around the staff room was full of blank faces. This told me it was no drill but nobody was moving either!

A few teachers crowded around the fire system and pressed various buttons so that we then had the message and sirens. Still nobody moved. The vice-principle came, then the secretaries, then a few more teachers. There were lots of “umm’s” are “arr’s” until finally the vice principle came back and gave it a few whacks.

Five minutes later they managed to switch it off and everyone went back to work. I can’t wait until the earthquake alarm goes off. I think I’ll still crouch under my desk just to be sure!

An old friend from school just dug out this old picture. I think it was taken around 1992 when I was part of the netball team in primary school. We were the undefeated league and tournament champions. I hadn’t seen this in 14 years! I am getting old!

Taxes :( and Candles :)

WORD OF WARNING! If you happen to live and work with Americans when their taxes are due LEAVE TOWN FOR A FEW DAYS! I am so thankful that the Inland Revenue is the way it is (for now anyway).

There was a candle festival in town tonight and despite my best efforts to find out what it was for I still don’t know. Lots of holders had been craved out of bamboo and 20,000 candles were supposed to have been alight. They were placed along the roadside, along the riverbank and in the river itself. Beautiful!