Mumsie Comes to Japan

My mum came to Japan for a couple of weeks so I was a bit of a tour guide around Tokyo, then we went onto Kyoto and Hiroshima. This was back in ... hmmm ... November so i'm pretty slow in putting these up. I started writing this post back then, hence the November 30th tag on the post.

Kyoto - basically temples. Very nice old temples and pretty trees with autumn colours. But basically just temples. Good for a few days but I don't think I could stay much longer than that.

Hirosahima - Wide streets, nice big parks and promenades, numerous nice shops and bars. Basically because its a new city, which nobody lets you forget as every thing is called 'peace' something. Peace Parks, Peace Streets, Peace Buildings, Peace Monuments, Peace Biscuits, Peace Underpants....O.K I made the last two up but you get the idea. Not that I'm trying to belittle the seriousness of nuclear weapons or the fact that countless innocent people were killed. But basically we know that and everyone will go to the museum anyway so theres no need to ram it down tourists throats in every part of the city.
The museum was interesting but could have been half the size and as effective. Auschwitz was better.....hmmm...maybe that came out wrong.

As usual there are more photos if you click the title. More holidays and photos coming soon.

Does anybody read this aside from me?

Gundam Salutes your patience

Hisashiburi ni blog oh kaite desu ne?
Or, It's been a long time since i wrote my blog hasn't it?

4 Month break and nothing groundbreaking to tell you about in that period. I'm sure i've done interesting things, but nothing big. No holidays, no major news, so just a quick summary (some of which should explain why i've not been galavanting around doing exciting things), some photos and a preview of my busy months ahead. All conveyed through the medium of bullet points, because they're all the rage this November.

• I moved house from my overpriced pokey private apartment to a cheaper pokey room in a guesthouse, sort of like a hostel. My room is basically the same size but I share the kitchen and shower with other people in the house and pay about £200-300 less a month.

• I've been sick a couple of times, bit of a cold here and there, but most recently I got a strange bulge on the left side of my stomach...ignored it...fainted....stopped ignoring it. Went to hospital two times, and a British doctor both of whom said 'don't know what it is', 'don't worry about it'. The bulge went of its own accord and i haven't fainted again. I'm putting it down to stress and being tired, was pretty busy at the time it happened. But it wasn't the nicest of experiences, foreign hospitals, doctors who don't speak much English, and the large amount of money it cost me wasn't too nice either. Hopefully i'll get some back from my insurance when i pull my finger out and send off the forms.

• After that little break I got back into training at my dojo - kickboxing, wrestling and ju-jitsu. Been going 4 times a week recently, so i'm super fit again. I might actually do a fight soon, but not sure of the details so if it happens and i win i'll post details of my glorious victory, if it doesn't happen or I lose I might not ever mention it again! :-)

• My mum is coming to visit for about 2 weeks soon. I have a Japanese test at the start of December and I'm going to Thailand on a 16 day holiday over Xmas and New Year. I'm thinking of spending about a week of that time in a kickboxing camp, will try and see a bit more of the country than the 4 days i spent solely in Bangkok last year and also meet my mate Will who's living over there.

• I got a massive local tax bill (equivalent of council tax) which i've now almost paid off but cost me about £1000!
  

Much more has been happening in my friends' and families lives and i've been a bit slack in contacting them recently. My cousin got married to his girlfriend Jo, Chris and Lynn had a baby girl, as did Rick and Jo, and Jacko got married to Thao and moved to America. I've had very limited contact with you guys recently, i'm in the midst of correcting that though so if you've not got anything from me in the post yet you should do soonish!

Right...all done, just a few random photos now...





















I get my good manners from beer - Gent Half normally, Super Gent if i'm meeting a lady.




















Mari Mokori - My favouite Japanese character, a green man with a bulge in his pants!




















Good advice on the side of this vending machine.

Vending Machines at 3,776 m (12,388 ft)

My mystery cold/stomach based illness which I picked up in Vietnam finally disappeared last week. After around 2 weeks of inactivity I decided to get the blood pumping again. So starting on Sunday I got back into the fitness regime. Kickboxing for three consecutive days was the baptism of fire, then I followed it by climbing Mount Fuji!

We left Tokyo at 8pm, got to the highest point accessible by car (on this particular route anyway, there are about 5 ways up the mountain) at 10pm, then started climbing at 10:30pm.
Woah, woah, woah Dave I hear you cry in disbelief. 10:30pm?!?. Well yes, that is not a typo, there are only two reasons to climb Mount Fuji...

1. Because its there.
2. For the view, or specifically the view of the sunrise you can get from the top.

Basically the climb itself is not that thrilling, Fuji is a volcano so the landscape is rocky and moon-like at some points, so no animals or nice foliage to look at. The main sight in the area is the mountain itself, which you can't see when you're climbing it. So getting to the top by about 4:30am is the target for most climbers, as is the hope that the weather stays fine and there isn't low cloud. If these all come together you're rewarded with a view over the clouds and a beautiful sunrise.

Apparently it normally takes 6-8 hours to get to the top, plus a lot of people will stop for a nap or a rest in one of the many mountain huts on the way up adding to this estimated time. You can see the sunrise from any point on the hiking course and I think most people see it close to, but not actually at the top of, the mountain due to underestimating how long it will take to climb.
Due to the late start there wasn't really the luxury of stopping, so battling against the occasional dizziness of altitude sickness I sped up the mountain in a mere five and a half hours, giving me 30 minutes to find a nice spot to watch the sunrise and buy an overpriced can of coffee from the vending machine on top.

After seeing the sunrise there's little else to do except buy overpriced food, have a quick nap, look at the crater, send a postcard from the post office at the top of the mountain....then....climb down again! It's a bit faster but even so, after climbing all through the night the last thing you want to do is spend another 3 hours scrambling back down the mountain.

As per usual, there are more photos if you click the title of this post.

Back from Nam

I'm back from Nam and i've got the thousand yard stare, still having flashbacks too... they're everywhere.... coming out of the trees.... agghhhhhh!

Not really. You see because there isn't a war in Vietnam anymore, I'm just trivialising a major conflict of the 20th Century that took millions of lives.Anyway, it's nicer than the 70's now, and I had a great time there.

I flew into Hanoi and stayed there for two nights, took a day trip to Halong bay, travelled by bus down to Hue, a day trip to the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), then down to Hoi An before flying back to Tokyo via Hanoi airport again. Went on a motorbike a few times on the day trips (sorry mum!) which was fun, I hired a driver too as I didn't fancy negotiating Vietnamese traffic.

People are much more outgoing than in Japan so kids in the street would stare a little bit then ask where you were from or what your name was. Normally the conversation stopped at that though, maybe they need more English teachers! In shops the saleswomen had similar questions before pointing out some wares and instructing me 'you buy, you buy'. In fact, half the people I met were really nice and genuinely interested in someone from another country and the other half saw a walking ATM and tried to get as much money out of me as possible.

Officially the currency is the Dong (hehe, that sounds funny), but they also take American dollars. If I changed about £30 I instantly became a millionaire as £1 = about 35000 Dong. But it got a little confusing changing all the prices in my mind between pounds, yen, dollars and dong. Not that it mattered that much, everything was ridiculously cheap and I sometimes felt bad haggling over the equivalent of 50p, but it was more the principle that I was being charged more as a foreigner. In fact I'd only spent about half my money by the end of the week so I got 5 shirts and a suit tailor made in Hoi An (they have about 500 different tailor shops so lots to choose from!).

Obviously I also got a bit sick from street food, fruit, and forgetting that I shouldn't have ice in drinks. Nothing too bad and it didn't stop me from enjoying myself. Got it checked when I came home to make sure it wasn't Malaria, the Hepatitis alphabet, Dengue fever or some parasite living in my stomach (didn't get any vaccinations before I went). The Japanese doctor I saw chatted to me for 5 minutes, took my temperature, told me it was a cold then charged me about £17....hmmm....easy money....nice job.

See more photos by clicking on the title of this post.

Vietnam

No posts for a month, then 3 in one day! The day trip to Enoshima and the 4 day trip to Yamanakako and Kawaguchiko were during Golden week in May, my last holiday. I only seem to add photos from my holiday when I'm planning the next one, and this is no exception! On the 22nd of June i'm flying to Vietnam for a week. Got a visa (so no more China-like incidents for me) and the flights but that's about it. I fly into Hanoi but depending on how much there is to see in the area i'll travel around a bit by train and maybe even go down to Ho Chi Minh City by train if I have time. Dave's Communist tour continues!

Fuji

Finally saw Mount Fuji after about 18 months of living in Japan. A lot of people have mentioned seeing Fuji from the train on the way to work on clear days, but I must be pretty ignorant 'caus I've never seen it from Tokyo! We went to Yamanakako and Kawaguchiko, stayed in a guesthouse on the first night and a hotel on the second. Lots of photos when you click the title, not all in the right order because photobucket is playing silly buggers.

Enoshima

A day trip to Enoshima about a month ago, one of the closest beaches to Tokyo. Few photos linked when you click on the title.

Various Photos

A nice shop















Was there ever any doubt?















Don't drink beer, slouch, and look at pictures of girls in the train please, but doing it at home is actively encouraged.



















Just 'avin a lark



















vacuuming in the street...that's fairly normal isn't it?















Playing outside in the rain with electric guitars, safe as houses.

Earthquakes

There's not a lot you can do about earthquakes, so in my mind its not really worth worrying about them to much. They're quite common (Japan experiences about 20% of the worlds earthquakes annually) and to be honest most of the time they're over before you can start thinking about what's going on. Many a time I've woken up in the middle of the night or the early morning with my bed rocking (no dirty jokes here please, we're still talking about earthquakes) but after 2-3 seconds they tend to stop and I head back to sleep only to check with other teachers or students the next day if it really happened or if it was just part of a dream.
But this week we're had quite a lot, it all started on Thursday (May 8th). The biggest was a 6.7 at about 1:45 am, but what was strange this time was that it lasted a lot longer than all the others I've felt. About 6-7 seconds at a guess. There was a 6.2 before the main quake and it was also followed by a number of aftershocks nearly as big as the original. Then there were 3 more yesterday, 5.7 4.5 and 3.5 on the Richter Scale.
The only reported injury I've seen is a teenager was hurt when his stereo speakers fell on him! but if you shift the epicenter towards Tokyo a bit and up the level by .1 or .2 there'll be trouble. Here's a few news story extracts to give you an idea...

'A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked central Japan in July last year, killing 11 people and shutting down the world's largest nuclear power plant owned by TEPCO...A 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Tokyo could kill 4,700 people, damage 440,000 buildings and leave thousands of others trapped in elevators, according to a study published by the government in 2006.'

So there's something to think about eh!
I'll do another update soon with a less serious topic. In brief, since my last post I've turned 27, been to Enoshima, seen mount Fuji up close, and wandered around two lakes.

Chinese Prisoner!

I booked a cheap flight to Shanghai about a month ago, then pretty much forgot about it. A friend of my girlfriend's offered to put me up so I didn't have to arrange accommodation, he also said he'd pick me up from the airport, and I had my flight...nothing else to think about, nice and easy. I checked the time of my flight the day before and didn't even buy a guide book until the day I was flying!

As I settled down into the three hour flight I leafed through the guidebook and noted places I could go and see. The building where the Communist Party was founded, the 'French Quarter' an area of Art Deco buildings where colonial invaders based themselves, a sex museum! (in China!? that's a bit surprising), Jinmao Tower - China's tallest building, etc. etc. All looked pretty good, I skipped onto the 'essential info' of the guidebook - currency, travel, visas, language.....wait a minute......visas, I don't need a visa, surely, I'm a British citizen, they let us in anywhere for 30 days don't they? Lets see....a luyou or travel visa is needed for stays up to 30 days in China...ah, bugger!. I was a little worried at this point but maybe not as worried as I would have been without a friend working in immigration at Heathrow (alright Russ!). Whilst he couldn't help me in China I knew from talking to him that the procedure for people who arrive without a visa is to simply send them back to the country they came from, so whilst I would forfeit a holiday at least I wouldn't be locked in a Commie prison sewing Nike tracksuits. So I settled down to enjoy what I thought would be a three hour holiday on a plane.

After I arrived and confessed to the immigration people I was offered the lifeline of going to Hong Kong (where British passport holders can stay for 180 days with no visa!) to apply for a fast-track Chinese visa and then flying back to Shanghai. I couldn't do it that night as it was 10pm by this point, so I stayed overnight in a hotel mainly used by employees. I wasn't actually 'in' China as it was before the immigration section, so I spent the night in what I guess is international airspace or maybe no-mans land, in a twin room with an immigration guard in the other bed keeping hold of my passport and making sure I didn't try and run away. The next day I got up at 6:45am and was on a plane to Hong Kong by 7:20am as having an immigration guard with you gets you past all the queues. It does draw a little attention from other passengers though, who perhaps thought I was some sort of international criminal.

Anyway, I went to Hong Kong and got the visa in about 5 hours then flew back to Shanghai that night. Obviously this little mishap meant my holiday cost a LOT more than I originally planned as I had to buy last minute flights to Hong Kong and back, a visa, and pay for the night in a hotel. It did give me about 7 hours to look around Hong Kong which was quite nice and also gave me a good travel story!

Anyway, I went to all those places I mentioned from the guidebook as well as looking around Hong Kong, I've put a lot of photos online, click the blog title to see them.


I went through the 'Bund Sightseeing Tunnel' which has nothing to do with Shanghai at all, very weird, and very funny. You might be able to hear the descriptions of the light shows such as 'hot magma' and 'space swirl'.



Chinese people singing in a park on Saturday, and a woman in traditional clothes dancing a bit. They weren't asking for money, just having a bit of fun!

Now I don't confuse cauliflower and broccoli

Just checking in

Not a lot of news. I'm back at the gym after a 2 month or so break around Christmas and New Year (both kickboxing and the regular gym, also did a 20km or so bike ride today! whoohoo). Passed the Japanese test I took in December, which is nice, not sure I'll ever need it but was a nice incentive to study a bit harder. Maybe try the next level up this year. Am off to Shanghai in about a week so will have more news then. In the meantime here are a couple of food based photos.

Deep fried Brussels Sprouts covered in mince with a citrus based sauce.

Nothing like a good snaffling.

Osaka

Most of my little jaunts away from Tokyo have been to scenic places, little towns or the like so I thought I'd try another big city.

Osaka is the 2nd biggest city in Japan and has a bit of an 'us and them' relationship with Tokyo. Perhaps a bit like Manchester and London in the UK. Tokyoites say that Osakans are loud, rude, dirty or crazy. I didn't see much evidence to these claims. There was however a very vocal argument between two men in the middle of the street which is the only time I've seen such an outburst of emotion in Japan.

It was just a 2 day stay but we managed to pack in the majority of the 'sights' in that time. To be honest I wasn't that struck on the city, but it was nice to get away. The pictures are linked from the title of the post so just tap on 'Osaka' to see the 2nd (?) biggest aquarium in the world, parks, a tower that looks a bit like Tokyo tower (both are a bit ugly and could be radio masts) a castle (reconstructed from concrete after the war) and some other bits and bobs.

I'm still a bit out of sync since coming back to Tokyo. Work is back to normal but my gym visits aren't on track yet, in part due to the stinking cold I've picked up. Again I'm going to blame it on air-conditioning and students! Hopefully it'll clear up before 28th February because......pa, pa-pa-pa, pa-pa, pa, paaaaaaaa......I'm going away again. Shanghai this time, quite a lot of snow in China at the moment so there's time for that to thaw before I go too. Don't really know what's there, but it was a very cheap flight and I've got time to check a few guidebook before I go. Anyone been there? send me some suggestions if you have.

Bangkok

I didn't take many pictures in Bangkok (more than the zero I took in England though! shocking), but I've uploaded a few photos of tuk-tuks and the golden palace. Click the 'Bangkok' title to be whisked away to the website.

Hakone

A three month gap, must be the longest so far!

Firstly, I've changed to another photo hosting service but it's still playing silly buggers when I try to link to old pictures. Despite me putting a link to the photobucket website it still goes to shutterfly when I try it. Hopefully its more successful for the rest of you!

Hmmm, quite difficult to remember what's happened, guess that's the problem with leaving massive gaps between my posts. I'll try and do it fairly chronologically.

At the end of October I went to Hakone with Akane for a night, its a tourist spot not too far from Tokyo. Basically it has hot springs, eggs cooked in the sulphuric springs which turn black and supposedly add 5 years to your life when you eat them (tasted horrible), a big lake with fake commercial pirate ship included and some nice walks and scenery once you get away from the crowds of people evident everywhere in Japan.

In Novermber the only thing of note I remember is sustaining 2 injuries. I pulled or twisted a muscle in my back kickboxing and went to a physiotherapist for massage and acupuncture and around the same time I did something to a finger on my right hand. The back was much more of a problem at the time but I got it sorted in around a week, however my finger is still swollen and I can't get my ring over the knuckle 2 months on. I'm thinking I should go to a doctor soon as my personal diagnosis of a sprain might not be so accurate.

December saw a few Christmas parties, no silly behavior or drunken stories from me or anybody else I know though. I went home for 10 days or so and saw a lot of family and friends, then called in to Bangkok on the way back to Tokyo. I took surprisingly few photos in both these ventures but i'll dig them out soon and see what I can find.

I started work again three days ago, but am yet to go back to either of my gyms after a huge break, I think tomorrow or Sunday will be D-Day.I have a few days off this month so am planning on getting away somewhere else in Japan for a night or two so there may be more photos of me in a yukata coming soon...calm down ladies!!

If my system works then can see the Hakone photos by clicking on the Hakonetitle at the start of this post above the kitty character dressed in a black egg, you should be magically whisked to the correct site! If it doesn't work then console yourself with this picture of a t-shirt promoting the North of England.

I've still not completely sorted out the photos on the Internet problem. I found ANOTHER website to host them (3rd one after the first closed and the second wouldn't let me link to the page without people having to join the site) but then I couldn't transfer from the other site so I've been re-uploading them all. It's a hassle, and very boring so I've done it in small blocks. Pretty much finished though so hopefully when I change the links they'll all work again!!!

The focus of my energies has shifted slightly in the last couple of weeks. Rather than spending a lot of my time studying Japanese my new flavour of the month is fitness. I've been going to the gym quite a lot recently and in the last fortnight I joined a martial arts gym too. (I went to a kickboxing gym for about 5-6 months when I first got to Japan but the hours clashed with work and it was taking a large proportion of my money so I quit around March-April time). Maybe 2 gyms is a bit excessive on my wallet as well as my muscles but I'll see how it goes in the next month or so and maybe quit the regular gym if I don't go enough to warrant the money.

So In the last week I've done kickboxing, wrestling, grappling and jujitsu classes. It's a fairly small place and as yet I've never seen more than about 8 people in a class, normally less. I'm the only foreigner there but my Japanese is a bit better than the last time I was training so it's a bit easier to understand and the instructor can always physically show me if I still don't get it!

No pics of the gym but heres an idea of what I've been doing...

A year on

I've updated the photo link on my last post so it should work now, there were problems of having to register/log in etc. so if someone can try it then send me a message letting me know if it works or not that would be nice. If it does I'll go back and sort the others out, if it doesn't then its back to the proverbial internet drawing board.

I've just passed my 1 year mark in Tokyo, which should probably lead me to summarize my time in some sort of clever analysis of Japanese society and people and perhaps my plan for the next year. I have neither to hand though so you'll have to make do with my usual shallow post but with much more rambling.

• I got a new work visa and was quite surprised that I got a 3 year one (used to be quite common but getting more rare I've been told, much more likely to get a 1 year) not sure I'll actually use it to its full extent but its nice to have the flexibility of a long visa and not having to traipse to the immigration centre each year.
  
  
• Following that I booked a flight to the UK for Christmas. I'll be back on the 23rd December and will leave on the 2nd January if I remember rightly. I'll then pop to Thailand for 4 days or so before I return to Japan. This little jaunt has used about half of the money I've saved in my year here so I'd like a warm welcome please! :-)

Today is bullet point day, so I'll continue the theme with two new pieces of information about Japan I learnt this week.

• In japan you pay to go to a wedding then receive a gift from the couple getting married, this also applies for funerals....although I guess its the deceased's family rather than the deceased themselves who give you a present. (lots of potential grammatical errors there, can 'deceased' be used with an 's' to indicate possession? and if its a deceased person whose gender is unknown do I use themself/theirself/themselves?)

• Lots of families who have a bit of money or are a bit posh hire private investigators to check out their childrens' partners before it gets serious to see if their suitable for marriage.

Despite the lack of a coherent plan for the future I'll share spew the contents of my mind today, be glad that you don't have to put up with this in all of my blog posts!!

When I first came to Japan and to this day students often asked me why I chose Japan to come and teach, unlike most people who come here after a lifetime of being fascinated by the country, have an unhealthy interest in Japanese anime and manga, or are socially inept and so come to a society where the westerner is seen as an interesting, cool, or just different creature and in turn making the standard geek seem more interesting and exotic seen in the 'Charisma Man' cartoon) I didn't have a solid reason. It just seemed to be closer to Western society than most Asian countries so an easier to adjust to and in part due to this offered more money for travelling so made a good base for the area. In return I tended to ask what they liked about Tokyo, after a moment or two of deliberation most said that it's 'convenient'. Convenience does not really sound like a good base for choosing a place to base your life but as the year has progressed this reason for living in the city has slowly crept into my life.

A couple of friends who came out here and worked for a few years really liked the city but I don't think I share their feelings. There's nothing I love about Tokyo, but similarly I don't think there's much I hate or even don't like. Here come the bullet points again...

• On the negative side there's the difficult language, the general anonymity of the city (think of a big city anywhere in the world then x2 for the fact it's in Japan and people aren't very forthcoming, then x2 again because you're a 'gaijin' or foreigner), the long hours of work, the high cost of living, a lack of labour regulation and security in an industry that pays less every year and seems to be getting more volatile (in Japan anyway - recent news about Nova the biggest school in the country with sponsorship deals coming out of its big rabbit ears and a school in ever town with more than 20 people being fined for misleading students, not paying teachers on time and closing a number of schools)
  

• On the plus side despite my relatively low wages and the high cost of living I earn more than most Japanese workers in mundane jobs like shop work, waitressing, and receptionists. I enjoy my work (the first time i've ever said that in my life, not that i've had that many jobs), on a good day I teach a few points of grammar, chat about the last week, and discuss politics/history etc., on a bad day I have to teach some boisterous kids for an hour or two who are still ridiculously well behaved compare to the majority in the UK and then I don't see them again for a week. The anonymity can be a blessing, outside of work If I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone I can spend all day surrounded by people but never utter a word. Similarly my basic understanding of Japanese means that whilst I imagine there are inane conversations around me all the time unless I concentrate really hard to pick out the words I know I can block it all out as background noise. If you don't like your own company then its a nightmare but I don't fall into that category.
  

Everything is here if you want it - parties, international food and culture, the latest technology - or not if you want to ignore it. It's an easy city to live in when you don't know what you're doing next and dangerous for the same reason, too many people stay here for 5-6 years or longer just thinking about the next week and not realising how much time has passed. I'm aware of the dangers of this thinking but I'm yet to find a solution. Maybe the occasional pondering of TEFL job websites will give me inspiration for my next move, or perhaps the time at home at Christmas will give my thoughts some clarity.

Festival season

The Shane system of 'standby' reared its ugly head again this week. Not sure if I've explained this before but it will help me vent my spleen so here goes anyway - My contract has 13 extra days of work written into it, some are used in training and the others are to support the standby and cover systems. This is to cover days that teachers take as holidays, take off sick, or to cover days when teachers decide they've had enough and leave with little or no notice. If the head office know someone won't be able to teach then another teacher is informed in advance that they'll need to teach that day (cover). This doesn't solve the sick absences and runaways though, so each month a list of teachers and days is put on display in the schools, if you're on the list then on your specified day you have to phone at 10am and check if you're needed to cover a teachers shift for that day.

So you can't really plan anything for that day just in case you've got to work, you can't have a lie in, and you don't get paid any extra whether you're needed or not. Questions have been raised over the legality of having people on call by their employer and not being paid for the service but nothing has really been done about it. The worst case scenario is that a number of people are sick in a different area and you're sent there rather than within the normal district you teach in. This is what happened to me, I was sent to the middle of nowhere which took me just over an hour each way and consequently had to cancel a couple of plans I had for the day. GRRRRRRRR.

Anyway, that aside, the last month has been pretty good. I've been to a few festivals involving dancing (Koenji Awadori festival), fireworks (Seibu Yuenji hanabi festival), and religious shrines (Hatanodi Matsuri festival). I even took part in the Matsuri, helping to carry a Mikoshi. I've renewed my work visa and against the odds got a 3 year one (not as common as they used to be, most teachers just get 1 year) which means i don't have to pay again each year if i do stay that long, and can travel around and come back and get a job with no problems - just more flexibility all round. And I've changed my contract from five to four days a week, obviously less money but I think they've made a mistake and agreed to give me more than I should get, which is nice!

The website I use for my photos is closing, I've transfered them all to another site and updated the old posts, however I have a feeling its not working too well so I might have to switch to another site if you can't see them. Here's a short video!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaOHDls3cN2LjQ

The Wanderer Returneth

I'm back from my holiday, and very tired!
So in the end I didn't really plan much. I Just booked a night bus and bought some cheap train tickets. I was initially thinking of going to Hokkaido, the northernmost Japanese island. Flights were expensive though and the overnight train was fully booked. So instead I got an overnight bus to Sendai (about 6 hours) and bought a 十八きっぷ, or 'jyuhachi kippu' which basically means 18 ticket. Its a ticket that's only available in school/university holidays aimed at students but which can be used by anyone.

Basically you can use any local train you want to using 5 x 1 day tickets. It's a lot cheaper than using the bullet train or even express trains but obviously has the downside that its pretty slow and also needs more planning to co-ordinate catching the right trains.

So anyway, overnight bus to Sendai (about 6 hours). The initial impression was that there wasn't much there so just went onto Matsushima, looked around there then got a train to Morioka. Stayed in Morioka for two nights and used it as a base to visit Hachimantai (a mountain) and jodo-ga-hama (a beach). Then went onto Aomori stayed there for 3 nights and visited Hakkoda-san (mountain) and went hiking in nearby mountains. Finally had a quick visit to Akita before getting another night bus home (8 hours this time).

Link to the pictures below...

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Northern%20Honshu/

*Cough, Cough*

Took my first day off sick today (not bad in 10 months considering my silly workload most weeks), picked up a nasty cold this week and suffering as a result. Perhaps due to the warmth and humidity outside and cold air conditioning inside, Japanese summers are not much fun. However as what I see as a disproportionate amount of pay is lost for sick days I doubt I'll be missing tomorrow as well. Students will have to make do with my husky voice, sniffing, and coughing spells in the lessons.
I lay under a duvet and watched 3 episodes of Peep Show, and two films - Talladega Nights, and The Simpsons Movie all on the Internet. Now I'm planning on eating shumai (Chinese pastry parcel things) and watching another film.

My holidays start next week so hopefully i'll be back to full health by Wednesday. I've got about 8 days off work so i'm gonna go and see a bit more of Japan. The exact destination hasn't been decided yet, so i'll keep you all in suspenders for now.