Sapporo holiday

I know some of you have seen the photos of our most recent little trip away, so here are some of the stories that go with the pics.

Our Sapporo Photo Gallery

Sapporo, on the big northern island of Japan, was really quite fun! Unusually for us we were up and about early each morning (and early to sleep - missed dinner a few times)!! Saying that it did get dark at about 4pm and pitch black at 4:30pm.

Snow: Yep - there was lots of snow! An interesting powdery snow that doesn't compact - very difficult to make snowballs, and easy to become knee-deep when walking. Dan was more careful than me when walking as he was wearing shorts (well, what did you expect?) and material shoes. We both managed to stay warm.

The thing that is always forgotten about snow is the slippery, muddy, slushy mess it turns into after everyone's walked through it. But I guess that's all part of the fun too! Dan and I both managed to stay on our feet the whole time.

Drinking coffee while watching the snow: this was one of our favourite pastimes while in Sapporo. We went to a number of different cafes - on the street and overlooking the city. It was also fun watching huge chunks of ice slide off cars while they were moving..

The Zoo: beautiful and exotic creatures, although many were in small (by Australian standards) enclosures. The highlights were the polar bears and sea lions. They were very playful and seemed to be enjoying the cold weather. Some of the big cats were fun too - but seemed like they didn't really have enough room to stretch their legs. The lions and some of the other bears just appeared cold.

Festivals: our trip coincided with a German beer festival and the "Christmas Illumination festival" (Christmas lights). This was just a few minutes walk from where we were staying. We did enjoy nice beer and snags on a number of occasions.

Other things we got up to: exploring the city, investigating shops and going up a ropeway (time for another coffee?).

The hotel: really nice with the most comfortable bed we've ever slept in. The massage chair was quite nasty, but Dan seemed to enjoying it... but it did look painful!

So, all in all, a great time away. We kept busy but enjoyed the time together.

Summer vacation

I really feel a long way from home when I'm using phrases like "summer vacation" but that's what everyone calls it, so I do too!

Summer has been reasonably hot but very very humid! It's stopped raining now and the skies are often blue.

Today was my first official day at my new school and I had to give a speech to the whole school. I decided that I prefer using Japanese and English (even though no-one else does!) it's good for the students to hear English in different contexts and I'm so much more comfortable using English! I've spent a bit of time with some of the students and the student who I helped with the English contest said I did a good job! (Thanks JB for the editing .... and a few translations).

I'm enjoying it here so far. The student's English allow for much greater conversation and they have a bit more confidence to carry it through. It's also much closer to home... I can walk it in about 30 mins (probably less when I'm not tired and it isn't hot) or I can catch the bus (still a bit of walking, but it takes one hill off the trip).

The school has a big marching band which are playing while I'm writing this. It sounds great. Often when I'm here in the afternoons they're all practising - but different songs, all over the school! I have been invited to practise (play?) with them. If nothing else I can get a bit of regular practise without worrying about the neighbours. And no-one is going to notice an extra noisy musician here!

I know I called this a vacation, but actually it wasn't really - I had 3 days off, but otherwise went to work. I mostly visited junior high schools (I went to my old one a few times) helping students with speech contest practice or English clubs. I also visited a kindergarten (pre-school and kindergarten kids), the senior high school (my new school) and did other random work related things (conferences and meetings). I must admit that I'm looking forward to going to the same school everyday and doing more than just helping kids with their pronunciation (th, l/r) for English contests.

(It seems that instead of writing lots of smaller blogs more often, it's just a big long one every month or so..)

I took one day off and went on a day trip with one of my teachers. We went up north to the next island, had lunch off a roof tile and drove over the longest bridge in Japan. (I have to admit that I forget the names of the places we went to... sorry).

So, lunch off a roof tile? Yep! Noodles are cooked on a roof tile and are nice and crispy, then there is also some finely shredded egg, beef, and seaweed. It's a lot of food, so basically one tile between 2. You pick up some food, dip it in some sauce then straight to your mouth! Actually it was really good.

It was also nice to see water (no waves) but there was lots of people!! For some reason I was surprised how many people were there, but I should have expected it.

Guess that mostly covers the basics.. All going well - strange to think that's it's been a year already (although sometimes feels much longer).

Mushi-atsui (in Japanese: humid and hot)

July has been a rather interesting, busy and very wet month. The Japanese wet season goes for about a month (plus or minus - currently "plus"), and is mostly cloudy and lots of rain with a few storms. And humid. Very, very humid. It's quite pleasant while it's raining, but as soon as it stops, the humidity shoots right up. Now that we're nearing the end it's starting to get more hot, but less humid. I always have an umbrella with me, usually a very small one, but when I'm expecting rain I take the big one. Finally got a clear umbrella - have always wanted one, but it's never really rained enough, and I could never justify having more than one. Yesterday, I got caught in the rain - I had my big brolly, but the rain was going horizontally. Hmm, ended up rather wet! When I got home we realised that one of the windows and balcony door were open, so the apartment was a little wet too.

In news apart from the weather:

I'm changing schools for the next year. I'm going to a senior high school. I'm looking forward to it - it's closer to where I live, the students are a bit older and I will be helping with the English club after school. It was really sad saying goodbye to my teachers and students, but I'm looking forward to a slightly different challenge.

Our Aussie friend Cheng went home this week, we're going to miss him at our saturday card games (esp as he's an awesome cook!) but a new Aussie guy will be taking his apartment soon, so we look forward to meeting him.

Summer is festival time in Japan, so in anticipation I bought a yukata (summer kimono) to wear. It's surprisingly complicated to put on, and the shoes don't really fit, but it was fun to wear.

I ended up getting a distinction for my uni subject, and at this stage I'll be doing 2 subjects this semester.

Anyway, hope you're all going well and enjoying the cool.

The lounge

We succumbed to buying the piece of furniture that every house should have.  The humble lounge.  As nice as it is to sit on the floor, (or sit on something else which is on the floor) sometimes it's nice to sit/lie/sleep/lounge on a lounge.  We could do without a lounge for one year, but it got to the point that we decided it's time to be westerners again.  

And isn't it nice to have... I think we've gotten our money worth out of it and it's only been a week or two. 

Furniture delivery in Japan is a really good service.  For one thing - it's free!  It's expected that you want it delivered (and carried up the five flights of stairs).  They also assemble it for you (unwrap it, screw the legs on, etc) and then take the rubbish away.  

 

Spring stories...

Now that summer is here (hot humid and sticky) and I have got all my photos off my camera I can tell you about spring.  I have also finished my first subject of my graduate certificate, which gives me a little more time for writing.  

So, spring in Japan.  All Japanese people love spring.  They complained when it was too cold and now they're complaining that it's too hot.  (I even had one teacher today tell me how much he preferred winter over summer.... interesting, I remember he didn't like winter at all!!).  One thing I have learnt in Japan is to like what you have or otherwise you'll never be happy.  Apart from a few weeks in autumn or spring the weather in Japan is not that great.  As you can see (or possibly know) spring is about cherry blossom trees.  Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom.  They really like cherry blossoms - they have elaborate picnic drinking parties under the trees, the locals take photos of the trees and they even make cherry blossom flavoured soft drinks.  And yes, it tasted terrible!  The cherry blossom chocolate was ok though.  

At the end of spring is Golden Week, almost a week of public holidays.  Children seem to be rather important at this time and there are different festivals and activities for boys and girls over this time.  Lots of fish-flags are put up (our neighbours made a lot of nice that Saturday morning).  The picture is near our local castle where flags have been coloured in/painted and strung up over the water.  While you might think a week of public holidays is a good time to travel, guess again!  Every Japanese persons thinks so too.  So we had a very nice relaxful time close to home.  (That was also the week I did some serious work on my essay for uni).

The last thing of interest was "the mystery of the swollen eyes."   One night I woke up halfway through the night and discovered that one of my eyes had swollen shut.  It was a bit of a surprise.  At that time I thought I'd just gotten bitten by a mozzie (I'd had a few bites on my face previously and they swelled a little but were always ok by morning).  I wasn't quite sure whether to put cream on, so I just left it and went back to sleep.  In the morning both my eyes were swollen.  As always these things happen on a day off work, and after some debate (and the realisation that it wasn't going to go away on it's own) I decided to go to the doctor.

The incredible thing is when you go to a doctor in another country, there are some things you just don't have to explain.   Once they decided that I didn't have renal failure, and it was probably just an allergic reaction, I was able to go to the chemist (more stares and exclamations), get some antihistamines or something and it went down over the next few days.  Ready for me to go back to work!  But the mystery remains: allergic to what?  something I ate? mozzie bites?  my new feather pillow?  Incidentally I decided Dan could keep the feather pillows, and I used the opportunity to ask my employer (who organised my apartment) about fly screens.    

Speech Contest

Good news everyone!  One of my students won an English speaking contest!  YAY!!  The students had to memorise a short story (in two weeks) and present it at a competition.  One of my school had 2 year 8 students enter it.  I didn't get to help my students as much as I wanted (I was at the other school while they were preparing), but I was able to record myself reading it.  Their English teacher is fantastic and helped them lots!  

The competition was on Saturday at a local high school.  I was fortunate to have my teacher take me instead of having to figure out a map to find the place!    

Both the girls did a fantastic job!  They both worked really hard - they memorised it, thought of some actions and spoke well in front of everyone.  They were the only year 8 students there - everyone else was in year 9!  I was surprisingly proud even before we found out our student had won!  No-one told me how great it feels when your student does a really good job.  I'm sure I wouldn't have felt that good if I had won it! 

They were judged on: how well they memorised it, their pronunciation and delivery.  I noticed that the student who won also had a very natural rhythm (actually sounded a bit like me, guess she really did listen to the recording I made).     

The trophy, which is quite large, seems to be kept at the school.  I also gave them an Australia pen each (thanks Mum and Dad).  

There are a few of these contests around, and it was nice that I didn't have to judge this one.  

The students were able to choose a story out of 5 options.  This is the reading they girl who won chose to memorise:  

The Fox and the Stork

At one time the Fox and the Stork were on visiting terms and seemed very good friends. So the Fox invited the Stork to dinner, and for a joke put nothing before her but some soup in a very shallow dish. This the Fox could easily lap up, but the Stork could only wet the end of her long bill in it, and left the meal hungry as when she began.

“I am sorry,” said the Fox, “the soup is not to your liking.”

“Pray do not apologize,” said the stork. “I hope you will return this visit, and come and dine with me soon.”

So a day was appointed when the Fox should visit the Stork; but when they were seated at the table all that was for their dinner was contained in a very long-necked jar with a narrow mouth, in which the fox could not insert his snout, so all he could manage to do was to lick the outside of the jar.

“I will not apologize for dinner,” said the Stork.....

One bad turn deserves another.

School graduation (opps from a week or so ago)

We are approaching the end of the school year.  At first I thought it was strange that they start the year in April and have the summer vacation in August, but after talking to one of the teachers I agreed that it wasn't so surprising - Japanese people are very conscious of the seasons and believe that it's best to start things in the spring.  

So I'm saying goodbye to the third year students (year 9) as they finish junior high school and go to another school.  This has been a great class and I'll miss them!  

I went to their graduation ceremony on Friday.  It was interesting.  The staff were really dressed up - they looked like they were at a wedding of a family member.  The female third year teachers wore traditional Japanese kimonos.  The ceremony was very long (2 hrs) and by the end my but was aching and going numb, but every time I moved my chair squeaked!  I guess I should be thankful that I was able to sit on a chair.  For most of our ceremonies, the kids sit on the floor and the teachers stand or sit on the floor.  I was amazed how much crying went on.  The third year students sang a song as a class, but halfway through there were so many crying (boys and girls) I was amazed the song was able to continue.  Then I looked at the staff and they were all crying!  

There was a bit more ceremony and photos, but I still managed to get an early mark from work so I could go home before the staff drinking party.   Yep - students graduate and the teachers go out and party.  The party cost about (8000 yen or $120 AD with the current exchange) and was held in a private room in a big hotel.  Once we started on the beer and food, the speeches started up again!  While it was difficult for me to remain interested in the speeches, I had a good time talking with other staff (something I don't usually get the opportunity to do) and avoided the after party karaoke!   

You probably haven't heard much from me over the last few weeks because I've been trying to organise a distance education course with varying degrees of success.  I'm doing a Graduate Certificate of Education (Special Education).   Although I began organising this early, they lost (!?) my application so I've been finalising everything at the last minute.  It's week 3 now and I'm still waiting for/trying to access study materials.  I also just had a look at the assignment and thinking it's not going to be possible to do while I'm here in Japan.... information which would've been useful earlier.  Hopefully it will work out and I'll be able to catch up ok - it is only one subject for this semester.