simple questions

It must be my lucky week this week. I get 2 parcels! One from Garlon...filled with the most amazing things!!! Creme egg!!! niiice..be impressed guys I still ahve not eaten it...I want to save the moment...and make it truly special. I also got some bacon and egg plasters (or bandaids...as the americans would call it), which are...awesomeness!!! and some beautiful photos of Garlon`s baby (The motorbike...not one of those squishy ones). Dylan sent me a letter too with a mixed CD awwww man! music yeah!!!! the letter had lots of funny cartoons all over it too....so yes..Thanks guys for making smile a massive amount!

Anyways.....so yes...I have another hour and a bit to go..before the week is finally over! Kalli is leaving tomorrow very early in the morning..but before that we are all going to Mikage`s birthday celebration meal. should be good! yesterday I stupidly ended up going to bed at an ungodly hour AGAIN. why? Because we were out in Royal host drinking thick hot chcolate and talking about random crap. It was really nice though. Met some really cool people as a result. We got talking about a strange topic..that seems to be quite different for boys and girls...and it got me thinking.....do they really get each other?
the topic was relationships...and communication in relationships. Nobody denied that communication is important...so that`s being able to talk about random topics...but also..as one girl pointed out....issues and things. Now here Doran and me got confused. One of the example questions that boys should apparently be good at to answer...but aren`t is "Why do you love me?". We were both stunned...neither of us...would know what to say in such a situation. The girl gave examples of what one could say and how she was upset that the guy couldn`t say much beyond "because its you". I had to sheepishly admit that that`s what I would say too...and Doran too.....

So what would you say to that? This is pretending you have been in a relationship for a looong time...and are thinking of tying the knot.....how could you answer such an apparently "easy" question? Is there really an answer to something like that? Love isn`t really.....planned? it just happens? Should you know why you love a person? Or should it be inexplicable?
Thoughts please.
Another question which I never even considered was from Doran...what should the ratio of talking be between the guy and girl? That made me laugh so much!!!! He said he didn`t want it to be fifty fifty....he didn`t want to talk that much...hahahahahhaha

Don`t trust things that bleed for 7 days and don`t die.

Must....stay...awake....

Ok it is 14.08pm....2 and half hours before I can go home! Yaaaay! My lessons went well today too...It`s a shame really, that now I am leaving I am getting the hang of controlling a wild class better. Today my 1st graders were slightly high. After a while I just stopped them all mid hyper attack by going..."ok everyone!!!! breeeeeaaaathe" we all did deep breaths together...I was impressed it was working....and then I started whispering...so they whispered back...and beautiful silence filled the room....ahhhhhhhh
I also started getting the hang of demon girl`s hissy fits. I just dialed up the " I am going to ignore you" mode. It worked. I didn`t give her time to go in to full tantrum. Instead I just moved on to the next person immediatley...she started doing her whiny pitch raising number...so I was "Ok next..GO". hehehehehehe....I will not let a little spoilt 7 year old get the better of me! harharhar

yesterday was horrible though. Damn...I teach shopping to my kids here..and it all works wonderfully..the kids all use english...they understand the rules..they stick by the rules..they have fun. I try the same thing at my other school..and what? They don`t use english they mess about..they steal my play money....they have "destroy" written across their brains. arrrrrghhhhhhh...I gave up..I didn`t even go and check after a while whether they were still speaking english....I seriously couldn`t have given a flying.....monkey.

My grade 2s at that school were angels though and saved the day as they usually do. Coming in to the room with a cheery "goodmorning!" and singing that cursed "old mac donalds" song fantastically. They also could do the shopping well....calculating correctly..speaking english...seriously they were the hit! I told them again and again how amazing they were...if only they could understand that I meant it.

The evening made everything better. We met up with the usual wednesday night crew and went for sushi. Kalli and yo yo came back that day and joined us. Kalli ate whale and loved it..while some of my friends tried pufferfish! No one died from blocked acetylcholine receptors!!!! Still..it was pretty expensive sushi really. We then all went to a bar and took over basically. It was a pretty place though and the staff were really lovely. We got chatting to some japanese guys at the bar too. I met a strawberry farmer called...Teku? possibly? He was very young (24) and looked nothing like what I expected a farmer to look like. His english was really good too! We then got chatting to the 2 bar staff who turned out to have been married for 6 years already 8and they were only 24 too). I was like "wow" That still exists nowadays????? That`s pretty bad innit? That 6 years seems to me like it`s the most amazing accomplishment.

oddness

So I wake up this morning, and hear the rain smashing down on to our roof. My heart sinks. I do NOT want to cycle to school for 25 minutes, and then arrive wet as a fish. Plew...So I decide to be damn cheeky and .....take a taxi. Yes yes I know...spoilt! But hey....if it had been my other schools..I would have cycled. Because I would have been taken care of by the lovely staff once I arrived looking like I'd drowned. But not at this school.....

It was worth it!

Aaaanyways. I discovered the miracle cure...or the holy grail of dealing with handicapped class!!!! Are you ready for this?.....drum roll......board games! Seriously it worked like the teensy bit of rum you stick in the milk for the baby, so that it sleeps through the night. The start fo the class was the usual shenanigens....them not listening..not responding...doing their own thing bla bla.....and then after about 15 minutes of torture I brought out my snakes and ladders game I made for this particular topic (stationary and "what's this? , It's a .........."). It was amazing. They actually settled down and played. The class was quite quiet and peaceful. Even the teachers said they had fun today....because the kids enjoyed it. And I finally had a good handicapped lesson.

so that was the first odd interesting thing.....the second was a tantruming child that started having a screaming match at the teachers room. She started screaming "sensei" several times....the teacher wasn't answering...so she got louder and louder. Then...she started going full blown mad. It was highly entertaining....though a little awkward. Again it made me wonder about this trait of drama in children. Where does it come from? Where does this sense of drama come from? Why do children ahve to be so loud? attention seeking? and obvious about things so that everyone can see how they feel? I guess adults do this too....but then again...why is that?....do we like that sort of thing? I wonder if there is some sort of evolutionary significance to that. mjaaaaa

totally addicted to sex and the city, it makes me giggle with girlish delight...ohhh dear

videos that I wanted to put on here

Hmmm....let's see if this works.
there are a few videos which I have wanted to put on here but wasn't able to due to whatever reason....

So let's see....one is of our trip to Kyoto (Anthony and me) during x-mas.

The others are videos of karaoke in Hakone..which made me laugh A LOT! especially Capt'n Maney's amazing dance.

Lake hunting

well well...It's been a pretty busy week/weekend! I am so close to going home...it's scary actually. I am really loving this country, and I am also aware that I will probably miss a lot of things once I return to england. It's gonna be a culture shock. Who knows...maybe I'll go so mad that I'll just have to return! hahahah anyway.

School was going well mostly. Apart from horrible wednesdays where i nearly killed my 6th and 4th graders. Gawwwwd teenagers are so darn dramatic! What is it with the exaggerations??? I swear if I have kids and they do this whole drama number..they're gonna be shipped off somewhere far away till they learn to get over it. My handicapped class was the worst class on monday. I really want to give up with that. It's unbelievable how much mess 7 kids can make, and how frustrating they can be. It's so scary. I wonder if I would ahve the strength and patience and love to deal with a child like that 24/7 let alone 45minutes once a week. It's pretty amazing really. Hats off to those that can.

Friday I got to leave early because we had a big ALT meeting. I do love those meetings. It makes me feel like I am part fo something important. It's also great to meet all your "colleagues" and talk about how school is going for them. It makes you feel less alone with the little daily struggles.

Friday night was a chilled night with Imo, Capn Maney, Jeremy, Hannah and me. We started off in an izakaya having some random food and the most gorgeous pudding. We then moved on to playing pool (I actually didn't TOTALLY suck...just mostly), and then went off to karaoke. It was a dingy little place but quite fun! I found some bravery and sang a song...I was shaking all the way through it but hey! I managed! be proud of me! The guys were lovely bout it and applauded me! yaaay. Saturday was immensly chilled out and involved a lot of scrubs.

Sunday, I had Franny call me through our slidey doors checking if I was awake. We went on a road trip around the lakes in this area with Rudd and Joe. It was really fun! We basically made a round trip of Mt Fuji, seeing it from angles we had never known existed. The lakes looked beautiful too. It was strange Japan felt so empty today, we were often the only ones around. It was cool though. There were remnants of snow all around the area, and we also saw these amazing snow/ice....sculpture thingys? The day was rounded off with a hyaku yen sushi visit....mmmmmmmhhhh........there's one thing already that I am gonna miss. The list goes on.

Ghibli studios aka Ross's day out

my goodness....I seriously need to get some sleep!

So yesterday was sushi with Minae and her boy. Kalli loved it and Yo yo wasn't entirely sure about the seaweed concoctions....we then went to the beach together. It was a beautiful day!!! I was actually out in shorts and T-shirt!!!!! awesomeness! In the evening we then all met up for dinner for Ross's birthday. The food was great and obviously it was nomihodai. We then moved the whole thing to SpeakEZ and had a brilliant time. I was a "DJ" for a while sorting out some tunes. Gave me an oppertunity to play some MUSE and ting tings and MGMT and get people hooked! harhar! Well bed time was aorund 2....or 3?...I dunno.....

getting up wasn't easy. But it was time to go to Tokyo to ghibli studios! We went in a small group; Dion, Doran, Ross, Amy, Dr Z and myself! The studio was brilliantly done. Really cute and interesting...showing all the media and how they do the illustrations and tricks....It's a great place to go for anyone who is interested in animation anyway. Afterwards we went off for some food and then our long ride back. All in all it was a great day...and I soooo don't want to teach tomorrow!

tsugoi nemui!

raaaaaaaar.

ehm......I really should do better with sleep and all that jazz...I have a feeling my body is a lil pissed off at me.

aaanyways! My cousin and his tomodachi arrived this monday, which was a lil chatoc as I had probably forgotten to tell him what exit he should come out of, anf he had forgotten to write down my number or address. SO...I waited for about an hour...going from south to north side checking if he was there. In the end they went to the southside and an internet cafe. they emailed my phone from there.

ha....

Tuesday was then an immediate introduction to all the various ALT's as we nomihodai - ed it 3 times! (all you can drink). We started off in an Izakaya so the boys got to taste some proper japanese food. Very impressed. Then we went to a bar where everyone was getting more and more wasted, while I got the friendly bar man to serve me endless amounts of orange juice. He even personally brought them over to me which was sweet. I think me being the only non loud drunk person helped. The evening ended with a massive karaoke session. 16 of us all shouting the lyrics to songs like bohemian rapsody, come together and we are the world. I even had the microphone for "mr brightside" and sang! Be impressed people!
We managed ot get to bed at 5 am and Kalli told me he wanted to do tokyo the next daa. So we got up just before 10 and got ready. We cruised around Asakusa, Ueno,and Akihabara. To me it wasn't obviously anything new. The boys loved it though, taking pictures of literally EVERYTHING. They say it's revenge for all the japanese tourists that do that when they come to europe. School the next day was slightly difficult, but with plenty of coffee flowing it went alright. My grade 2's were high again...which really makes things a bit difficult. I also snapped at "demonchild" for the first time. Not in a particularly bad way, I just told her to stop being a baby, because she was hissy fitting that she was the 4th person in line to play the boardgame that I had made. In the end she shut up and was actually very good. I am hoping it has something to do with the fact that my attitude towards her was " I don't give a sugar lump what you think..get over it and play"....hahahahah I am so mean.

right...party time.

Hakone pt 2!!!

3 hours of sleep....yay!.......Funnily I am not that bad...or wasn't at the time. We all got ready and went off to this art gallery which Amy had always wanted to go to and Ross took the opportunity to make that part of the birthday weekend. They had quite a lot of random French artists in there..a few greats...Monet, Kandinsky, Gogh etc. It felt almost homely to see the pictures! The Gallery itself was interesting from an architectural point of view! It looked like some parts of Boehringer Ingelheim..so maybe the architect was german..hmmmm.

Anyway after that we went off to the rope...cart? I don't remember the word for it in english. Basically we got in to something similar to a ski lift and went up this mountain. The view was absolutley gorgeous, Fuji san looked beautiful today. Up at the top were many sulphur mines, so everything smelt very eggy. But this was a special place as famous eggs were steamed in these suplhur pits. They come out black, and not so nice smelling but were very nice. Naturally we all had to have some of these eggs. It was really good. Then we went back down and took the pirate ship back to the other side, and the bus back to mishima. On our way everyone got chatting to a drunken osaka dude who thought that one of the girls in our group was beautiful. It made a lot of entertainment for the trip.

Hakone!!!!! pt 1

Tadaima!!!

wow...that was an awesome weekend! ( I really gotta stop saying awesome...). A bunch of us all went to Hakone for the weekend to celebrate Amy's birthday. Ross (her slave/boyfriend :p ), organised this entire thing as a surprise 2 months beforehand. It was really sweet. So we all set off at 9 in the morning on saturday. There was 16 of us in total. It was quite a bit colder in Hakone and also quite grey...we took some pictures on the viewing platforms. There was this great fake pirate ship!! We then went to this reconstructed Edo period outdoor museum. It was actually where the original checkpoint was for japanese citizens citizens to cross over to Tokyo. They had some damn cruel punishments for people that tried to avoid the checkpoint. The men would be crucified and beheaded and the women would have their heads shaved and sold in to slavery. It was rather scary. We then went in to a few other museums, and made various photostops. After that we got on to the pirate ship to sail to the otherside of the town where our hostel was. It was sooo cold! But really great! Our hostel was a sweet little traditional place. We all slept on futons and had to be girl/boy separated. The owners were very nice to us and tried their best to speak english too. We all decided to go off for food in this yakitor place. I felt a little sorry for the little old couple that ran the restaurant. As there was basically this attack of 16 loud /drunk gaijins and there was also a karaoke machine there. So it was singing/drinking/eating (when food eventually would come.....). We continued these shenanigens till roughly 5 in the morning in the hostel.....but in the hostel it was more about throwing a sticky ear around and throwing balloons at each other. At around 11 at night we all sang happy birthday to Amy and had strawberry cake. Then it was present opening time. It was a very cool night.