Home sweet

I don't want to count the days, but the truth is I've been home for 3 days, and only got 3 left (excluding the hop-over to Bangkok for 3 days) :(

In the past three days I've slept about 16 hours in total, eaten shanghainese vietnamese cantonese sichuanese hongkong-ese. I've met up with more people than can be counted with fingers and toes. I've watched a movie. I've combed the Central side-street markets. I've been to IFC Mall twice. I've stayed up til 3am in LanKwai. I've been to 2 church services. I've met people I've known for 18 years, as well as people I've known for the very first time. I've been asked countless times about life in Japan. I've eaten at home once. I've played badminton. I've been on facebook 3 million times. I've kicked myself over 9 thousand times for being a dufus and booking such a short trip.

Sweet home.

How much more can I fit in in the next 3?

In love with the messenger man

Despite darling little kid's daring confessions of his feelings for me, I must confess myself...that there is someone else.

Awful hair, awful glasses, but an enthusiasm and cheerfulness that brights up any day preceding the dawn of hell the second he walks into the staff room.

His shinkansen-speed "gozaimasu" blurbs brings bundles of laughter (to me) everytime, without fail. The shuffling of his feet on school slippers round and round the staff room distracts (me) from procrastination. His unbearable politeness is always entertaining (to me) as he bows and greets every single person in the room, and excuses himself 3 times as he leaves the room.

This is no fictional character.

This is the messenger man.

♥

Confessions

Wednesday, 4:15pm: School's over, I got on my bike, was just leaving school as I passed a few of the 2nd grade boys waving goodbye to me...except one of them wasn't waving, but kissed the tips of his fingers and saluted me.

Friday, 4:37pm: School's over, I got on my bike, was racing down the school drive-way when I passed the same few 2nd grade boys waving and saying bye to me...except for that same boy, who waved, said bye, and just before I turned the corner yelled "I LOVE YOU!!"

That made my day.

That made my coming all the way here all worth it.

Separation

I was listening to a sermon this morning, and found this profoundly heartbreaking.

Excerpt from Ravi Zacharias' talk on "The Lostness of Man" (22/6/08)

"Man has traded away the glory and beauty of God for the ugliness and crassness of man and creatures. Listen to what Habakkuk says: Of what value is an idol since man has carved it, or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes and trusts in his own creation, he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood 'Come to life!' or to lifeless stone 'Wake up!'. Can it give guidance? It is covered in gold and silver but there is no breath in them. But the Lord is in his Holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

"Listen to what David says in Psalm 135. He talks of idols that are blind, idols that are deaf, idols that are dumb. And then he adds this rather pungent comment, he says 'Those who worship these idols become like them.'

"Isaiah in chapter 29 has an analogy for worshippers of idols, and those who deify themselves: He says they are likened to a man who is hungry, who went to sleep at night, and while he was tossing and turning and night he dreamed he was feasting at a banquet. He ate all the food that he wanted to eat, only to be shocked when he'd woken up to find out it was all a dream. It was likened to a man who was thirsty, rolling in bed at night desperately seeking some water in his stomach, and as he is sleeping he is dreaming he is drinking from a fresh spring, he drinks and drinks and drinks to his body's content, only to wake up and find out it was all a dream.

...

"Habakkuk captures the lifelessness of idolatrous persuits as destitute of truth; David reminds us that we become like those whom we worship; Isaiah captures it as an illusionary dream that leaves one hungry...Chesterton describes it as waking up in the morning, looking into the mirror and seeing nothing."

I'm still alive.

Just about.

It's only Wednesday..but I'm exhaaausted.

20 more days til I return to the motherland for 2 weeks!

Reminder

Tonight I thought I'd go through some of my friend's newsletters/prayer updates/monthly prayer letters etc...And I was really grateful for my friend Jeremy's newsletter, which began with something so important, yet is so often neglected, or underestimated, or at least not mentioned or thought about enough. Let me quote..

"God has existed throughout eternity; He is the creator, enabler and sustainer of the universe and all life within it; He is the source of all wisdom, beauty, justice and truth; He is today being glorified as He restores the world, marred by human rejection of Him, and more and more people, made in His image, come to recognise His love and power to forgive through Jesus' sacrifice; He is building His church of followers and preparing an eternal home for them in a new heaven and earth which will come about when Jesus returns as judge and everyone will see Him and bow before Him." - Jeremy Rowe

I needed this reminder. I live on reminders, and this is probably one of the most important reminders I've had for a long time. (Thanks Jez!!)

The pastor at church on Sunday said that the most important thing, the first and foremost, is to know God. Know Him, not just about Him, but know Him. Personally. Churches or mission organisations often talk of spiritual warfare. And I've been thinking about that since coming to Japan. But Pastor Thomas made a good point as he drove me home on Sunday, is that before we should even start thinking about spiritual warfare, we need to be submerged into the knowledge of God; familiarise, and stay with the Real Thing. So that when something dodgy comes along, we'll know.

what's a teacher?

Having been here for 3 months, being an assistant to 14 teachers in 4 schools and spending most of my day in the teacher's room, I find the simple definition of 'teacher' not quite so easy to define..

Teaching, for the teachers at my schools, is probably about 50% of their job. I've seen a sensei (teacher) give this student a haircut cos apparently his hair was a little too long. I've seen teachers yell the living daylight out of a group of kids who secretly brought chocolate to school. I've also seen a teacher spank the living daylight out of a student. On top of all the disciplining, they have to organise school events, students' workplace experience days, after-school and weekend activities (which are actually compulsory for all students, and happen almost everyday), supervise the students cleaning the school everyday, supervise inter-school matches on weekends,...

Another occasion - a student didn't show up for school one day. He didn't call, and the teachers couldn't reach him. So two teachers got up, left school, and went to look for him at his house.

Once I saw a teacher mend the hems of a student's trousers. "Why doesn't his mum do it?" I asked my fellow senior ALT. "Maybe 'cause he probably doesn't have a mum..."

I don't think all teachers in Japan have quite the same role as those that I see here...I think its to do with the area. Kids at my school aren't as well off; many come from broken families, poor upbringing, parents who are always out working...one of my students was described as "better off raised by a pack of wolves".

I have a lot of admiration for the teachers here. They may not be the best at actually teaching, but they have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of patience, and a big heart, no matter how harsh their bark may seem....

winter conversations

寒い

SAMUII



(with much emphasis on the 'SA')


which means COLD.

so it usually goes something like "saaaaaamui neh!!!!"

As winter approaches...

It's getting quite cold here in Fukushima.

I think its almost time to turn a few things on...such as my heated toilet seat, the warm water in the bidet, and the kotatsu - its a low table with a heater stuck on the underside of the table top. I've also started to heat my wet face towel in the microwave in the mornings. Just like they do on airplanes.

How's the weather like in Martinque, Larry? (It seems like you're the only one reading my blog nowadays :P)

Itch

its been a while - thought I'd update on what's been happening with my freckles...

Last weekend (Saturday - Monday) I had the greatest privilege of going to the JET Christian Fellowship weekend away, in a beautiful place in Tokyo Prefecture called Okutama, surrounded by beautiful scenery, blessed with beautiful weather, and graced with the presence of beautiful people who have a beautiful heart and passion for a beautiful God in this beautiful country. (Yes I have also noticed the limitations of my vocabulary.....must be being in this country too long!!)

We had some great fellowship, some great worship times, and best of all, being able to pray and sing with a bunch of English-speakers, in English!! It was so refreshing, and so encouraging. At Passion Tokyo, it felt like I jumped back into Jesus' big arms; but this weekend felt like I was now actually walking with Him, hanging out with Him., catching up...just like long lost friends. And seeing some of the fellow JCFer's heart for Japan was greatly inspiring and encouraging.

Tuesday - Wednesday -- the JET ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) Mid-year Conference in Fukushima City, about 2 hours from me. It was a bit of a doss 2 days, although I did take away a couple of good ideas from other JETs. The most interesting thing though, was that the keynote speaker, an old Japanese Waseda Uni professor, turned out to be a Christian, and was quite outspoken about it in his speech...!

Friday -- Onahama 2nd Junior High School's 地域交流 (Local area exchange?) Festival & Bazaar - I had to 'make' a Chocolate Brownie the night before (does it count as make if I sought the assistance of Betty Crocker's Brownie Mix??) to bring to the 'Ethnic foods demonstration'..

THEN, YeeChiang (fellow ALT) and I, sang and guitared, respectively, 2 Japanese songs for the closing ceremony of the festival (this is Japan - everything has an opening and closing ceremony). We only started practicing one of the songs the night before, after being told there'd be a request for encore after the ONLY ONE we prepared for. Nontheless, we pulled it off. The kids went wild. We were heroes.

And thus concluded one of the most exhausting weeks of my Japan adventures so far.

But I still haven't had a chance to play badminton since I got here.....where am I gonna satisfy that itch!?!!?!

Almost home...

I love travelling.

Since coming to Japan, I've travelled quite a bit. Tokyo, Miyagi, Gifu, Toyama, and lots of places around Fukushima. But one of the best things about travelling is coming home, returning to familiarity, knowing your way around, the comfort of your own bed, your own shower...

So when we come to think about it, life is one big trip. We're on a business trip; our business - to bear the light of the One who saved us, to make His Name known to the world, to celebrate His accomplishment on the Cross..

...and ultimately, the home we're heading to - heaven. If coming back to our (earthly) homes feels so safe and familiar and comfortable again, how much more amazing of a home do we have to look forward to! Heaven, eternity, to be with the One who created all, the One whose love for us is deeper than anything beyond our brain capacities can grasp...

That's really something...to look forward to.

Girls on a Grandma tour

It was a painful, regrettably early 5:45 a.m. start on the 18th Oct. We joined the bus tour at the bus stop at 6a.m., and thus embarked on our 2-day, 20-hour-bus-bound 'grandma tour' through 2 prefectures.

On the first day, after 8 hours on the bus, we finally got to Unazuki 宇奈月 in Toyama 富山 prefecture. After a short walk around the little village and refuelled with some sushi-type things and freshly steamed manju from this lovely lady (who gave all 4 of us free daifukus!), we got on a little train ride around the famous Kurobe Gorge　黒部峡谷, saw the dam, saw a few red autumn leaves just starting to appear.. it was beautiful. This was especially special after a weekend in Tokyo, surrounded by buildings, shops, technology, and several thousand perfectly decked-out youngsters roaming the bustling streets of Shibuya or Ginza. The contrast in this country is incredible, yet never uncomfortable or awkward.










After that, we were chauffeured off to our hotel in Tonami 砺波 (still in Toyama prefecture).

Day 2, again an early morning set off to Shirakawago 白川郷 in Gifu prefecture 岐阜県. This place is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and I'm glad it is. Although a few too many tourists, tour buses and souvenir shops about, its serenity and outback/rural/valley-village-ness was still (kind of) there. The perfect weather helped as well. We really want to come back in the winter, to see the traditional houses in several feet of snow; surrounded snow-capped hills and what were once rice fields.

Then Takayama 高山 also in Gifu. Apparently it looks like a mini-Kyoto, with old shops/restaurants/booze stalls along the narrow streets. Again, tourist overflow, but still fun trying Soya Sauce Ice Cream; beef sushi; roast beef on a stick...which lined our stomachs for the 9-hour bus ride home...

Right. I'm tired of typing.

A Passion Renewed

...and so does Jesus!!

I went to Passion Tokyo on Monday as a conclusion to my Tokyo-long-weekend, and was utterly blown away. Passion Tokyo, part of the Passion World Tour 2008, was a concert/conference event where young adults got together and worshiped God and heard the Word of God at the CC Lemon Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. I had been waiting for this event for weeks, and it was nothing short of what I expected. It was a thousand times better. Because God was there.

At 5pm sharp (because this is Japan), it started. And one minute in, tears were already gathering on the corners of my eyes. The event opened with a powerful slide show, of sentence after sentence about the Glory of God in Japan, about Jesus loving Tokyo, about lifting up His Name in this country...and it was all in Japanese. And even though I only understood some of it, I was overwhelmed and in awe, just looking at the words such as grace (恵み) and glory and forgiveness and love and Jesus is alive flashing on the huge screen on stage, with the crowd erupting as thousands of young adults cheered and agreed and woshipped and got excited about the same God, the same Jesus.....it was incredibly moving. It was incredibly touching. The Holy Spirit's presence was so strong from the start it was immense. I haven't experienced it for a long time, yet it was so familiar, so refreshing, so divine.

And then Chris Tomlin & band led worship with a load of songs I haven't heard for ages and again tears were still rolling down, as I raise my voice and hands to praise the one true God, along with 2000 others pouring their hearts and lives out to the risen Saviour.

Matt Redman & band and the David Crowder Band also led in more amazing worship.

I was just incredibly blown away by the fact that I was with a family of 2000 in a jam-packed auditorium IN JAPAN, all individuals melted into one heart, one mind, one goal, living and singing for Jesus. The Passion of Christ and the Passion for Christ isn't just an idea or theory or 'something nice' anymore - it became so real, so powerful. Such a powerful reality.

And not just in Japan - during the night we were shown a video of all the people in SEOUL praying for Passion Tokyo - watch this ------>
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=y1IxCG9wzgA

And I think by this time half the auditorium was in tears.

The whole thing was simply amazing. It was a full 4 hours of continuous amazingness. I was so encouraged. I was given so much that night. And now its my turn to give. To work to not let this renewed fire dim. To be steadfast in holding on to the faith and courage, to shine His light and let the whole world see. It's so easy to be fired up in one event and then forget about it within a week. But in God's strength, with prayer and feeding on God's Word, I'm gonna let this fire burn all the more brighter and louder and bigger.

Hong Kong, we're praying for you!

unless my eyes were fooled...

unless my vision was obscured by the bright morning sun, i could swear i saw a woman walking a big fat white cat down my street....it was odd.

Something heavy, something small...Something bright, something tall...

This weekend was suicide.

After rushing home from school and cramming an overnight backpack, I got on a bus to the train station, got a train, and got to Haramachi (原町) where Mari picked me up, had dinner, and drove us back to her town, Iitate (飯館), for the night. After a sleepless night and a 4:50am village alarm (its a daily thing) as I was about to doze off, we set off for Fukushima City (福島市) at 6:20am, met Billy and friends, and took a train up to Iizaka (飯坂), and thus began festival number one of october 4th...

# 1: Iizaka Festival
Shortly after arriving Iizaka, we got dressed in a happi (tradional festival shirt thing) along with a bunch of other foreigners (JETs and foreign exchange students), posed for photos, and set off with our omikoshi (portable shrine - お神輿) on a parade down the streets of Iizaka. We represented the Iizaka Rotary Club. This omikoshi, small and beautiful, but surprisingly heavy, was mounted on a frame of wooden bars, and was carried around the city for a good four hours, stopping at old-people's homes, hotels, behind other omikishis. the sun was beating down. it was ridiculously hot. the omikoshi was ridiculously heavy, but with me being quite short my shoulders never touched the omikoshi; yet holding it up with my arms was no less painful and tiring. Nonetheless it was fun and very amusing! and i'm sure very amusing for the locals as well, seeing a bunch of foreigners and local japanese tycoons yelling 'WASHOI WASHOI!!' all along the way all around the town. Although beer was provided along the way to ease the distress and pain....

After a good four hours or so of hard labour, we were treated by one of the Rotary men to onsen (温泉) in his massive hotel, and an alcohol & food-filled 2-hour welcome party (this was 3pm). At this point, I was so relaxed and gastronomicly satisfied I almost couldn't bear the thought of having to get up and show up to another festival later in the evening...

#2: Nihonmastu Lantern Festival (二本松提灯祭り)
...but this was so good I wouldn't miss it for the world! A train back to fukushima city, and another train to Nihonmatsu, we found ourselves getting into what was the 3rd largest and 3rd best lantern festival in the whole of Japan. And it was magnificent!! Gosh if this was the 3rd largest what's the largest like!?!?

The streets were packed with people, and as any Japanese festival, lined with stalls selling festival food - yakisoba, takoyaki, yakiniku, toffee apples, chocolate bananas...

and then along came the parade: on each float, a giant omikoshi is mounted on a giant wagon-type vehicle, with a large frame enveloping the omikoshi, and loads of small lanterns hanging from the frame. They were amazingly magnificent, 7 tall and bright mikoshi-floats, manually pulled and pushed by young japanese men, whilst musicians sat inside the wagon playing taikos (big drums) and flutes. It was amazing. A crowd of young japanese teenagers usually followed at the back, yelling "washoi washoi!!" to cheer the mikoshi-bearers on.

It's just mysteriously exciting to see such an old tradition, probably several centuries old, supported by so many young japanese adults & teenagers of the 21st century. It's so easy to generalise 21st century teenagers as simply sofa-hugging, nintendo-engulfed, fashion-seeking leechers of society. It maybe in some cases. But definitely not here. Stereotypes were definitely broken. A 360 year-old century, sustained eagerly by youths of a country considered technologically far far forward than anywhere else. Simply amazing. and beautiful.

Festival count

1. Iwaki bon odori - August 8

2. Uchigo bon odori - August 15

3. Sendai Jazz Festival - Sept 13

4. Moonlight Festival at Iritono - Sept 14

5. Horseback Archery at Hachiman Shrine - Sept 15

6. Iizaka International Festival - Oct 4

7. Nihonmatsu Lantern Festival - Oct 4

What's this all about...?

"Without a purpose, life is a motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. Without a purpose life is trivial, petty and pointless. Without God, life has no purpose, and without a purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning life has no significance or hope. The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without a purpose."

I believe in God and Christ's redemption not because I felt my life needed purpose or it would simply be nice to have purpose. I believe because God has shown Himself to us, and also shown us there IS a purpose for life; because the truth has been revealed.

I believe NOT because I felt my non-believing life wasn't good enough. I believe because now that I do have purpose in life, I realized how insufficient my previous life was; how unbearable it is to live without God; how ignorant I was; how frustrating it was to be separated from Him.

People say the reality of death and absence of heaven encourages them to live life as full as one can. I myself believe in a heaven not because I fear death, or fear that I won't have enough time to live well; but I believe because Christ died in order to give us life and life to the full. Fuller and better than what we can do by ourselves. And there's something so much better to look forward to in the future, not matter how depressing, how unjust, how miserable, how cold this life gets. There is, always, hope.

Japanese love affair

Yesterday I went to a beautiful Japanese wedding at this shrine somewhere in Iwaki.

Got up at 7:45am, Hitomi and her lovely grandmother came at 8:00 am to dress 4 of us girls in our new kimonos ('Key-moh-noh'). Each took about 30-40 minutes to put our kimonos on - which was relatively rushed! Kimono-dressing is a long process -

• first you have to wear this undergarment, getting the layering right, tying the strings in the right places, getting the collar right;
• and then wearing this cardboard-like thing at the front of your stomach;
• and then putting the actual kimono on, folding up the middle excess garment bits nicely, getting the length right, again tying the strings to keep the excess garment up;
• and then the obi - a waist-wrap that you wrap around your waist 2 or 3 times and then tying a nice bow or something at the back of your waist;
• and then maybe another decorative string which also holds the obi up
• and then socks and shoes, which...lets just say take some time to get used to.

it was a brilliant day, weather wise, a little windy, not too hot, not too cold. Just perfect.

The shrine was also beautiful, sitting on top of a flight of stone steps.

And the ceremony was really special, traditional, lots of weird fan-waving and blessing-esque gestures, traditional drums and flute, reading vows, and of course, this being Japan, sake-drinking. There was also a great Taiko (big japanese drums) display at the end to celebrate the event, and after that, the newlyweds get a hammer, and together smash a barrel of sake open. Very Japanese - much more exciting than cutting a cake together like the boring west hehe. And so we were all offered sake in a little wooden box, at 11am, on a very empty stomach...

which made walking down those stone steps in funny kimono-flip-flops that little bit harder..~

more signs of deterioration

last monday, I said 'sweared'.

on tuesday I wasn't sure whether the past participle if swim was swum.

...

....if only my japanese were also improving at this speed - i.e. the speed of my deterioration of engrish...

The sound of nostalgia

Last saturday I was invited to the Onahama & Izumi junior and senior high schools' concert, and had little idea that I was in for a big trip back memory lane.

First of all, the standard of music was amazing. Not perfect, but nearly. But it did break a stereotype I had that japanese kids do nothing but study. Its actually far from that. They are amazingly all rounded - most kids stay after school almost every day for sports or music or some kinda extra-curricular activities. Heck they even go to school on most weekends and holidays for that stuff.

Back to the concert - there were about 8 school brass bands that performed, playing all sorts of songs from pirates of the carribbean to 80s japanese pop.

But the best part was, I thought, watching the percussion department do their stuff, while all my secondary school orchestra/wind band/swing band memories flooded back, and remembering how much fun, how much drama it was; all the good and bad times; all the competitions and performances; all the banter...

ahh to be a high schooler again. I won't say I'm living in regret, but I do with I had made use of all those opportunities laid out in front of me, and done more, tried more, seen more. But seeing these kids doing all this was quite heart-warming. It was probably a good thing James was sitting next to me....the japanese probably wouldn't appreciate a crazy freckly gaijin joining the band half way through their ensemble...

On sushi, old salary-men, and sore thumbs.

So a couple weeks ago 3 of the English teachers that I work with took Yee Chiang (my JET colleague) and I to this top notch sushi restaurant/bar for dinner (called 鮨仙 - 'Sushi-sen') for an amazing dinner. I forgot the name of what we ordered, but it was basically a 10-piece selection of all the 'deluxe' sushis in the shop. We sat at the bar, ate sushi, drank sake, were merry, chatted to the sushi master...until Yeech n I started to notice the type of people that went to these places..

...and that's when I realised how we, 3 junior high school teachers, a white girl and a singaporean dude, stuck out. Like a sore thumb.

At the beginning of the night, there were a couple of solitary salary-men, who drank like 4 beers in 20 minutes and ate quietly by themselves.

And then as the night progressed, the restaurant got a little livelier, with more salary-men coming in parties of twos and threes, some eating in the tatami-rooms behind closed doors discussing billion-yen business, some merrily indulging in their sushis and sakes at the bar next to us...

And then couples of rather old men and relatively young ladies joining us at the bar, the girl always perfectly made up, sparkling new jewelry, leaning towards her aged companion; the old man composed, looking like he has no care in the world, ordering the most impressive of sushis and most grand of dishes.

But I don't think that wasn't what made me feel just the little bit uncomfortable. Maybe it was the sake.

Matsuri-tastic!!

('Matsuri' means festival)

I went to a total of 3 festivals during this long weekend, one per day, and they were all weirdly and wonderfully different from each other! Lovin' it.

Festival No. 1 - The Johzenji Street Jazz Festival in Sendai

Over 700 acts performing on 40-odd stages, big and small, dotted around the whole of the city centre, and not just jazz, but rock, indie, R&B, acoustic, spanish guitar, blues, alternative, gospel, country, folk...it was more like a live music festival. And of course, being a Japanese festival, it was all very well organised, everything was very orderly, lots of volunteers, free maps and guides, free shuttle buses, and best of all, the whole thing was free!










And of course, being a Japanese festival, it had to have the usual festival food - Okonomiyaki (photo), tako-yaki, yaki-soba, yaki-tori, yaki-niku...and beer.












Festival No. 2 - The Full Moon Festival 満月祭り @ Iritono 入遠野

























More festival food, lanterns dotted along the way into this remote town in the hills (the name of the town literally means 'Entering the far fields'..haha)

There was koto playing (photo), as well as the japanese flute, craft stalls, and 20 minutes of bucketing-down rain as if someone held Niagra falls above this hill town for about half an hour. Fun nonetheless. At least it cleared the sky to make the moon shine brightly ever after.


Festival No. 3 - The Horseback Archery @ Iino Hachimangu

























This was at a shrine near the city centre, and a couple of men put on the whole set of traditional clothing, which was pretty cool to see since it's probably hundreds of years old. At one point I was also slightly awestruck at how hundreds or thousands of years ago people have been doing this, and here we are, in the 21st century, continuing this little historic tradition. On the car on the way back, someone aptly said how Japan is a country of contradictions - in a way its so far forward compared to the rest of the world, yet on the other its modern day culture is rich with its past, and then there are many backward things that just wouldn't be found in any 3rd world country.

The most suitable analogy for Japan is probably their toilets. At one end its literally nothing but a whole in the ground, whilst on the other there are toilets that talk to you and wash your behind at a push of a button, heck it might even make morning coffee and read you your emails.

This place offers so much to fascinate over. I feel it's going to take quite a while to bore me. Might as well - it's not like I'm going to get a job given the current global economic circumstances!

あかべこ

is it a dog? is it a pig? is it a fox?

no...its a red cow.

and its dangling from my phone.

"Tanaka-san teached Japanese at university...."

........wtf....!?!??

that was me. THAT WAS ME. I said that without even realising my mistake until someone pointed it out to me. OMG. They say when you're in Japan, there's a correlation between the rate of improvement of your japanese proficiency and the rate of deterioration of your standard of English....SO ITS TRUE?!??!?

Somebody save me nowwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Summer conversations

"Atsui-ne!!!!"

Pronounced: Ahht-sue-e nehhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's really all you hear all day, especially inside a non-air-conditioned school staff room, with the sun beating down outside on the dusty school grounds, or the clouds trapping the heat and moisture and air.

Plus its super humid.

So sometimes they say 'Mushi atsui ne!!!!!!', with a plastic hand fan on one hand, (a 'Winnie the Pooh' fan in MISTER Watanabe's case...), newspapers on the other.

phone pics

couple more random photos from Aizu..

These are my 'siblings' -- Utako and Yuma



















<=== The trees have eyes.....o_O"""

My Aizu (会津) Family

22-24 August was the language course and homestay weekend in the town of Aizu (会津), central Fukushima. This was my first host-family homestay experience with my new Japanese mum, dad, sister, brother, aunt and grandpa, aka the "Suzuki Family", aka THE cutest and nicest family in Japan....!

the young 30 something parents, cutest 6 and 4 year olds, the most adorable 60 something grandpa and a sweet 20 something aunt adopted me for the weekend whilst i go for a 2 day japanese course at Aizu University (会津大学 - "Aizi Daigaku")

On the first night, shortly after taking me alcohol shopping, they dished out plates and plates of sushi, sashimi, and lots of other weird and wonderful japanese food things, and kept putting food on my plate as if I were a severely underweight celebrity.

Although they didn't take me out or anything after dinner, it was still really cool just hanging out with them, chatting, playing Wii, setting off fireworks at the backyard, and constructing meaningful conversation with my limited japanese, their limited english, sign language and chinese characters!

On the second night, we were adorned with overflowing plates of tempura, as well as more weird and wonderful japanese food things.

Goodbye on Sunday was a bit sad...oh how I'll miss little 4 year old Utako waffling along in Japanese without me understanding a word! And Yuma and his dinasaurs, grandpa playing Wii, and Mrs Suzuki's cooking!!

Amazing weekend!!!

I-wacky!!

Now that I've finally caught up with my 96-hour sleep debt, these posts might just start to make more sense. Or it might go the other way cos this country is just way beyond amazing and I am surrounded by crazy foreigners almost all of the time.

My struggle with the Japanese language doesn't help improve my sanity either.

Since my last post, we have been to the top of the city, 54th floor of the Park Hyatt, New York Bar, re-enacting Lost In Translation with a bunch of freshies; but we've also been down to the depths of Tokyo earth in the metro/underground/JR, zooming around the city in wrong directions and a constant 'LOST' look on our faces.


Wednesday (6/8) - I arrived Fukushima prefecture, Iwaki City, where I will spend the next 12 months of my life, immersing, teaching, freaking, and hopefully befriending.

These are photos of Friday's Iwaki Odori, aka my first Japanese festival! I've also found the new definition of 'Adoroable' that Oxford will never be able to explain

peace x