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.

Die Mary, die!

This blog was going to be a massive rant about teenagers when I first ran the draft through my head this morning during my first lesson. But then the day actually got relatively good. So now I can't rant so much any more....

My first lesson started off a bit badly. The kids seemed to all be in a bit of a huff about something. So when I tried to make them do stuff they'd be dragging themselves...which pissed me off. Then halfway through the lesson they decided to become a little more cheery...It was the same with grade 4. They all started off in a bit of a mood. Especially the girls... they were doing their usual silent treatment routine. There were very violent scenes in my head at the time. But again about half way through they decided to just have fun. Grade 2 were awesome. They knew the damn song! We have to sing bloody "Old mac Donald had a farm" for the rest of this month. I swear I am gonna hate children's songs by the time I get back. I already hate "Mary had a little lamb"(last month)....damn her and her stupid lamb??? Why write such patronising stupid lyrics??? and why use such awful instruments????arrrrghhhhhhhhhhhh damn you Mary! and your stupid lamb! go fall in some ditch and leave me alone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

breathe....

ehm...anyway. Yes grade 6 and 4 obviously hate singing the songs as much as I do, which makes it even more "fun" for me to stand up there by the board making a carrot out of myself singing. But enough about songs. Grade 2 were awesome! they did everything perfectly this lesson! I loved them. They saved my day!

So after lessons I was talking to my fave member of staff (He looks a little like this korean actor), while laminating mini cards of the alphabet for my 1st and 2nd graders. When suddenly we realised that one was stuck inside. I was like "SH SH SH F F F F F F !!!!" So there I was trying to figure out how to get this piece out. We tried first with a ruler...then he brought a knife. Then one of the other teachers came over and was told the situation. he then tried with his technique of putting in anothe piece of paper. That failed. Then another teacher came over. Soon there was a whole congregation trying to help. I was just profusely apologising japanese style. Basically over the course of 2 hours the entire male part of the teacher crowd dismantled the laminator step by step, we had various different types of screwdrivers out on the table...we had guys chit- chattering over the best course of action to unscrew everything. Then after 2 hours one of the Senseis finally got to the piece of paper and released it...he raised his arms Rocky style while everyone cheered and clapped. It was quite a funny bonding session really. The guys were actually happy to tamper away while my 5th grade teacher was trying to reassure me that no one was angry and that teachers constantly break stuff. I felt a bit like I was part of a family. It was really nice.

setsubon no hi

It's the 3rd of february!

yes I can hear you all go "oh really?..I did NOT know that!". Let me explain. It's a special day today in Japan. It's the last day before spring..(which is tomorrow...yes..I know....it's a little earlier than back home). Anyway..TODAY..is all about throwing beans or "mame" at this demon like thing called an Oni. It's supposed to be to like drive the devil out and bring luck in. So all the kids made masks of this Oni today, and got sweets. We had dried beans as "dessert" (not particularly nice), and the best part? We went up to the roof of the school and grade 5 and 6 threw beans at each other and the Sensei who was the Oni. I was the official photographer. It was pretty funny to see really. My classes all went well today too. Everyone was a in a good mood it seems! My grade 6 class also had a photographer in it taking pictures the whole time. That's because Grade 6 will "graduate" soon and go to Junior high school Every school seems to send in professional photographers to take pictures of grade 6 in various situations and then make a year book for them. Back in the teacher's room I got asked if I liked natto. I pulled a face and was like...no.....it's horrible. The whole congregation laughed. Then they asked if I wanted to try this chip like thing which was natto flavouring...I took it hesitantly and received applause and "gambatte" cheering. I then had the entire teachers room watch me eat this and kyoto sensei (vice principal) took pictures....I actually quite liked it and everyone was really happy. Bizarre! But it certainly made the day an interesting day overall.

Now....getting ready to see James Bond! sigh.......oh Daniel....you are so hot with your perfect english accent.....if only every englishman spoke like you.

WKend part 2 - festivals and ice cream

coffee.......coffeeeeeee.......meh

So I wake up at half 8 in the morning naturally. ...so 5 hours sleep? maybe less?....argh.

I met up with Steve and we decided to go to a street festival In Yoshiwara, under the recommendation from my teacher at one of my schools. It was SO full! and seriously what is it with people from around here and their utter LACK of personal space ...and UTTER disregard for people walking in their direction? What is up with that? People here don't seem to click that moving slightly to the side would help to avoid a full on collision.....rar rage!
the food was good at the festival though! We had.....takoyaki (of course!!!), and kind of a backed potatoe with the salitest buttery butter ever! (I have to admit I liked it....ohhh dear). I had one of those multicoloured chocolate bananas too...I just couldn't resist the onslaught of colours.....such a child. We then went to Cat's cafe for more foodage. ice cream...ohhhh yes!....I am going to develop type 2 diabetes aren't I?...So my dinner is going to be healthy...fruity tonight.

WKend part 1 - baby showers and mexicans

Well well...I feel a little bit like a train of tiredness has hit me in the face. So need to remember to get an early night tonight.

So yes! Babies! Aren't they wonderful? No I am not pregnant before anyone is asking nervously. But Rina my MC is! 8 Months to be precise...so not long before the exit of the parasite. Jodie and Franny decided to celebrate this occasion "western style" and throw Rina a baby shower. It has all been quite secretive over the past few weeks, as preparations were going on without Rina knowing. Yesterday then was the big day. I had been allocated the job of decorator and flower maker. I made origami lillies in pink and white (the whole darn theme was pink and white....nice....) which took me all of friday night. Luckily I had Minae to keep me entertained and help me make them. I then arrived early on Saturday at speakEZ just in time to blow up all the pink and white balloons. My head felt like it was floating after about the 10th balloon. Amy helped out massively though so we set about preparing the food and everything. The shower was a success. Rina came upstairs only to be greeted by lots of people shouting "suprise!!!" and cracking poppers. I had a slight worry that she might prematurely give birth due to the shock...but luckily this did not happen. :p
It was so sweet she started crying tears of joy because she was so honoured.
We played baby shower games too! The most disgusting one must have been the diaper smelling game. The girls had melted different types of chocolate in individual diapers, and we had to smell them and guess what it was. Only that obviously the mess inside the diaper looked......disturbing. I shall again confirm that the thought of having children is filling me with dread.......Other games were stuff like, everyone having a safety pin which they had to wear and if someone said the word "baby" througout the party you could steal their pin. Most pins wins. I only got 2 but I withstood severe attacks from various guys trying to make me say the word. I think the key is to not get drunk. HA!

Afterwards some of the guys decided to go play pool. We were a nice lil group, and played a few competetive games. I actually got alright and won one fo the games! yaaay. Afterwards we went to mishima to a mexican restaurant, which was actually run by an american. It was pretty good! All in all I ended up going to sleep around 4 am....and woke up naturally at half 8am.....what the Fudge?