New Years Eve

After debating just how to see in the New Year, Carol, Dawn and I decided to go out on the town and then head up to the castle for the midnight countdown.

We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, did New Year purikura, sang at karaoke and then went up to the castle. The last time I went to the castle for the countdown, everyone assembled in the park. Tonight there was no one in the park but there were groups of people assembled in and around the shrine.

Believing the celebrations had been moved this year, we wasted the last ten minutes of 2008 taking pictures and wondering when it would all start.

11:57……………11:58…………11:59………..

It seemed there would be no countdown this year and so when Carol’s phone clicked to midnight, we shouted “Happy New Year” and sang Auld Lang Syne. The Japanese people around us were obviously in a different time zone as they started to celebrate about a minute later.

It was all a bit of an anti-climax but we laughed it off and headed to the shrine to say our New Year prayers. It was getting pretty cold by now and I was thankful a few hundred people had gathered to get in line. It helped keep us warm but my feet and hands were already cold.

By 2am we had said our prayers, bought our trinkets and fortunes and wandered home in the cold. We had planned to wake up early and see the first sunrise of the year. When we get home, however, none of us could sleep because we were so cold. It took another hour and a long, hot shower before the shivers stopped.

When the alarm went off to wake us in time for the sunset, we were all too cold and sleepy and the weather was not inviting. I rolled over and went back to sleep!

Baby's First Bath

I remember how hard it was to get my budgie to take a bath so I was very surprised when Luna took one look at the one we bought her today, and jumped right in – so cute!

And as a treat after taking a long bath – she got to eat her favourite biscuit. I think I’m feeling very maternal towards baby Luna. Did I just call her baby Luna? Ha ha crazy!

A Busy Christmas Day

After looking forward to a nice relaxing Christmas day it actually turned out to be quite busy.

* For breakfast we had pancakes at Carol’s apartment and spoke to her family in Canada via webcam

* Then we drank Bucks Fizz and opened our presents in my apartment

* As Carol left to do another webcam, Dawn and I prepared lunch

* Dawn made mulled wine and I prepared the food

* We went to KFC to pick up the chicken for lunch (it has to be done when you live in Japan!)

* We had crackers with lunch, wore our hats, told jokes and ate and drank till we nearly burst

* Carol had a plane to catch after lunch so she left us and Dawn and I did a webcam with my family and then watched “I am Legend”

* After a quick nap we woke up at 5am to do webcam with Dawn’s family in Hawaii

Canada, UK and Hawaii in one day - so tired now…..time for a nice, long sleep!

Christmas Eve

If I hadn’t booked time off I would be working today and tomorrow as they don’t have time off for Christmas in Japan. However I don’t think I could ever bring myself to work on Christmas Day.

It felt just like Christmas Eve as lots of presents arrived. I had two boxes from home and dawn received a box from Hawaii which contained goodies for me too. I spent the evening wrapping presents and getting ready for tomorrow.

This is a little video I took as Carol, Dawn and I welcomed Christmas Day with a drink or two.
(Carol is so mean)

Christmas Decorations

Do you like my Christmas decorations? I suppose after listening to non-stop Christmas songs on Itunes while decorating, I couldn’t help but feel a little more Christmassy. I miss decorating the whole house at home though. I miss spending the whole of December making Christmas puddings and mince pies. I miss frantically driving around delivering last minute cards and presents. I’m glad I don’t have to worry about going anywhere this year though. I don’t think I could handle the chaos of Christmas travel and it will be nice to just relax, eat and sleep. Oh and clean up Luna’s poop!

Bah.....Humbug

Today was the last orphanage visit before Christmas and so we made snowflakes, played pass the parcel and gave each girl their Christmas presents before we left. They couldn’t wait to open them and even though the presents were simple things like sweets, socks and towels, the really liked them.

Even after doing Christmas lessons, writing cards, playing games and handing out presents, it still doesn’t feel like Christmas yet. Even though they have decorations around the city, I know they don’t celebrate Christmas and so it all feels a bit fake – like celebrating New Year in July or something. I hope the Christmas spirit kicks in soon….

Loony Luna

I will have a house visitor for the next few weeks. Carrie and David are heading back to the US for Christmas so I am going to look after Luna.

Yes it’s a boy bird but they gave it a girl’s name. I haven’t looked after a bird since my budgie, Joey, died. I had him for ten years but he hardly left his cage as my mum didn’t want him to fly around. Luna loves to be out of the cage and I’ve decided to just leave the cage door open until I put her in for the night.

She already loves to sit on my hand when I’m typing on the computer and lick her reflection on the microwave buttons. I think the next few weeks will be fun!

No Bloomin' Way

As part of my Christmas lessons I decided I wanted to show my students the Father Christmas movie I used to watch at home. I knew they wouldn’t be able to understand all of it but I thought they would enjoy it. I ordered a copy from Ebay but was disappointed to find that it was the American version and not the British one.

They completely ruined it! All of the humour and everything that makes the movie fun and special was gone. They took out anything to do with the word “bloomin” and any reference of drinking was also gone. It was completely boring and so I decided not to show it. Maybe I can get my hands on a British version for next year!

All Done!

Yay the test is done for another year. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but I’m worried those words might come back and bite me. Either it didn’t seem as bad because I understood it or I just convinced myself it wasn’t that bad while not understanding a thing. Oh well I have to wait until the end of February to find out!

Testing Time

Tonight was my last Japanese class before the test. I was happy that my scores in the listening and vocabulary section had improved but the grammar section seems to be getting more difficult. I couldn’t help but feel dejected. It’s so strange though because I always get the most difficult questions right and get the simplest ones wrong!

ARGH – Japanese particles and grammar!

Sushi Surprise

Today Sara and Dai from Aberystwyth arrived in Kumamoto as part of their year round the world trip. It was crazy to see them after so long and ever weirder to hear Dai’s thick accent – it was such a reminder of Wales.

I had to go to work so they looked after themselves during the day and we went out at night. You might remember a few months ago I blogged about how my favourite sushi place had suddenly been knocked down. Tonight we went to see the new restaurant and we got a very pleasant surprise.
It had been totally revamped. Instead of writing your order on a piece of paper, every table had a touch-screen ordering system and the food was delivered to your table, not by a waiter, but by an automatic mini train that ran above the usual rotating belt.

Sara and Dai tried all kinds of weird and wonderful things (ones that I know better than to eat now) and I think they enjoyed it all. After dinner it was time to head home and talk about the good old days!