October Photos

01/10 - Random Party
02/10 - Kanashima-san's House Blessing
08/10 - Linden Hall Sports Day
10/10 - Yoshitaka Amano Exhibition
16/10 - Miyazaki Road Trip (Day 1)
17/10 - Miyazaki Road Trip (Day 2)
22/10 - Devil Hunting Festival and Flick's Birthday Party
27/10 - Halloween Party
30/10 - Walk

Halloween

This is my favourite sort of Halloween: the one that doesn't involve anything Halloweeny. Today was like that. I liked it.

Had my usual Japanese lesson this morning, and I taught the 1st years with Lauma in the afternoon. Nothing particularly exciting, though. The girls were playing "Mums and Dads" in the gym, though. There was a mum, a sister, a cat and a dog, which I found amusing. Not sure what happened to Brendan's second years, as they didn't ever show up, and he has yet to appear back home...

Going to watch a film now, maybe.

Walks and Curry

Another lazy day today. I got up at noon and had myself some UFO brand yakisoba. They're weren't so good, but still edible. After that I took myself on a little walk around the neighbourhood with my camera. The pictures should be up soon, and I've harnessed the power of Google Maps to show where I went. Check it out here.

In the evening, seven of us cycled to "Que Sera Sera", the Indian place run by the Argentinian. It's the first time I've used my bike and it wasn't so bad. Quite a nice ride actually. It started to rain, so we stayed for a bit longer, with Brendan ordering a second meal. Then Seb turned up with his wife, which was a nice surprise for us, and probably a bad surprise for him!

In the evening, we had another barbershop rehearsal. There's only three weeks to go now until our first performance. We're coming along now: we've started learning some moves as well. It should be good!

Sleep

Sleeping is good, so after getting up to talk to my beloved Hannah, and after having breakfast... I went back to bed.

I reemerged at 2pm whereupon Rushen and I had a wander to You-Me Town. We had a look at some of the clothes, though I think I require a size LL, which seems to be a rarity. Then we moved on to the sports shop next door. We had a look at the baseball gloves, but they were quite expensive and those that were in our price range didn't seem to fit. There was even one there for £250, which is a bit excessive in my opinion, especially given that it looked exactly like all the others.

Onwards we went to Cosmos for some supplies. I got my usual yakisoba, which I ate when we returned home at about 4.30pm. I was so hungry!

The afternoon has been spent mostly copying other people's photos. Dinner was not amazing, either. I then spoke to my parents, and my girlfriend, and watched King Arthur. It's a good film, though there's a whole list of historical inaccuracies listed on the film's page at Wikipedia.

No More Halloween Parties!!

I did my last Halloween party today to end my run of five this week. This one wasn't easy either as there were 22 children there! But I survived and we all got through. They seemed to enjoy themselves, though, which I suppose was the main thing! One kid (a boy) did come dressed as Marie from Aristocats, though: it was a full costume!

I got another party bag as well. It had a can of orange juice (she said that she'd forgotten to give me juice last time, though she hadn't), the left over chocolate balls, and a left over bag of cracker-like things (I think). Great stuff.

Had dinner in the cantine as usual, and chatted with Nozomi and Akiko, and their friends: Ayami, Hitomi, and Fumae. The friends left, and were later replaced by two others, one of whom was called Kaore. Then Ciarán turned up just as they were teaching me stuff in Japanese.

What they said was that まじぶっころ (majibukkoro) could be said in response to "How are you?". In fact I think it means something about "death road", so I'm not going to use that one.

The other one they said was 死ねばいいのに (shinebaiinoni), which they wanted me to say with a smile. They told me it was a better way of saying "cute". Seems that it actually means "You should have died!". Glad I found that out before using them!

More Halloween Parties

Today I went into Daiichi early with Rushen and Binks. Partly because I was bored and partly because I wanted to help: Sakaguchi-san (the head gardener of the English Garden) has an English class twice every Thursday. From today, some of us are going to go to each lesson to speak English for 15 minutes and then practice Japanese for the remaining 15 minutes. It was quite fun, though I didn't say much, and neither did they. Even when they were supposed to talk to us in Japanese they didn't really say anything much. I think it's a lack of confidence, maybe.

Then we had our two Japanese lessons. More Kanji today: 花 (flower), 茶 (tea), 肉 (flesh, meat), 文 (pattern, letter, sentence), 字 (letter, character), 物 (thing), 牛 (cattle, cow, bull, ox), 馬 (horse), 鳥 (bird), 魚 (fish). Kanji count: 75.

After all this I had yet another couple of Halloween parties. This time for Mika. She is a friend of Noriko's, but Liz normally works for her. But now I'm in the door and so will be able to take any classes Liz cannot, which maybe quite a few as Liz is starting to work at Linden Hall soon.

Two parties today, but each was only an hour long. The kids were a lot better behaved and more confident in these classes, which was nice. Though I've yet to find any of them with any real English skills. They always need prompting from me or the teacher, and will never speak in sentences.

The parties were practically the same as the one's I did for Noriko. I even the decorations were the same ones! Thus, I did introductions, and then made up something about my Halloweens as a child. A little quiz, and then flash cards. A few more games and another food tasting session. Then after that we made ghosts! You start with a plastic glove and draw a face on it. Then you put some pointy chocolate things in the fingers and fill it with popcorn before tieing it closed with a pipecleaner. Mika found that name hilarious!

Mika was as nice as Noriko and gave me a party bag also:

• Some Haribo
• A Halloween pog-like thing
  
• The ghost I made
• A ghost candle in a yellow bag
• The leftover chocolates
• The left of over Ritz crackers

Think I'm going to go and play pool with Drummond now, if there's a free table.

Bicycle Clamps

There's been some discontent about our bicycle situation. Some people have not been leaving theirs in the "designated parking space", against their knowledge that there was such a thing. As a result, their bikes have been chained together in pairs (still in the wrong place) and the reception people have refused to unlock them again.

This caused a little anger in people, which slowly escalted into WWIII due to some misunderstandings and mishearings. Hopefully, everything is sorted now though and there won't be any hard feelings. Not on the bike front though! They are still locked up.

As for today, there was the morning's Japanese lesson that included both vocabulary and kanji tests. Also, tomorrow we have another vocab test for stuff we haven't even looked at yet! Should be... interesting.

Had Seb's history lesson as well. I quite enjoy them, though a lot of people don't seem to for some reason. I find it all very interesting; we even had the word "samurai" today, which caused a little excitement.

Also, Seb has an English conversation class with some of the Japanese students on Mondays, and he says he is planning to show them an episode of "Trailer Park Boys", which is about a group of ex-convicts who swear a lot. An interesting teaching ploy, if ever I did hear one. He says it's so that they can learn to understand what people are saying. Plus they talk slowly.

Linden Hall in the afternoon again. Taught the first years with Flick. We did a flash card hunting game, and then hangman and they didn't want to stop! Nothing much in the evening though. Just chilling.

Party Bag

I forgot to mention that Noriko gave me a party bag, unlike Yoko who gave me nothing. It contained a bottle of orange juice, a Yakult, a little bag of peanuts, some chocolate covered peanuts, four chocolate eye-balls, and 12 tiny chocolate balls (four white, and eight dark). Nice.

Halloween Marathon

The internet was still broken this morning, which meant I didn't get to speak to Hannah. I really missed that. Kanashima-san even emailed us all to tell us it wasn't working in the university either. Then my alarm clock magically set itself forward 12 hours so my alarm didn't go off. It was fine one minute, then weird the next! I was dosing, at least, so I wasn't late.

Lesson was none inventful, as usual, then went back on the bus. The internet was working by now, so I sent a few emails.

I went downstairs early to try and sign up for the tea ceremony that Cambridge House is having on 1st November, however no-one was at reception and I got mobbed by a load of Chinese-speaking only Taiwanese students asking me questions. Thus I didn't stay long; luckily Noriko picked me up at about the same time for my lessons.

Today was their Halloween party. Well two of them, as she combined the four classes into two. It was a lot of hard work, though, even just playing games. The second time through was better, though, as I had figured out what I was meant to be doing. Plus the second class was all girls, which seems to be a lot easier. The boys seem to be a lot more disruptive and fidgity. Plus they don't listen as much, and don't even try to understand.

It was all good in the end though, and I had quite a good time. Doing it again on Friday, though only once more. Noriko's threatened to leave me for the whole time, whilst she sleeps in the car. I hope she was only teasing as I would just die.

I had a late dinner in the cantine, where I was joined by Drummond, and then by James. Akiko and Nozomi also came and sat around and talked random Japanese. It's quite fun having other English speakers there, as you don't feel so crowded and you can do joint mickey-taking!

New Game

The internet went down again, so Drummond and Rushen invented a new game to play (and you know it's going to be silly). Called "Nell Ball" after the film Nell starring Jodie Foster, it is again a variation on volley ball. To understand, first you must know that there is a fold-out, white, fence-like structure that can be manouevered to block off the corridor. This acts as the net. Two duvets are placed either side of the net on which the participants kneel (like "Nell", you see?!). The court is defined, but after which anything goes. The scoring is like volley ball.

For a variation we played doubles Nell Ball, where an extra duvet was added on each side. Great fun!! Hurts the knees a bit though.

More Kanji Made From Pictures

Japanese this morning and another load of kanji. See if you can guess what each one means without looking:

目 (eye, item), 耳 (ear), 手 (hand), 足 (leg, pair, suffice), 雨 (rain), 竹 (bamboo), 米 (rice, America), 貝 (shellfish), 石 (stone), 糸 (thread, string). Can you see how they look like what they're describing?! Kanji count: 65.

Haven't done anything of much note this afternoon. We've drawn up a new Linden Hall timetable that should hopefully reduce the number of cover-shifts people are doing. I think it was a nice bit of handywork by me, though.

I played pool with Rushen today in the afternoon. I managed to beat him once, so the overall score is now 7-1 to him. I blame the cues myself.

Day of Rest

Got up at 4pm today, so I had about 9 hours sleep! Haven't really done anything today - I haven't even left the floor. I melted some cheese onto some bread for lunch and then ate it whilst watching the end of Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle. It's a really bad film.

In the evening I had some chicken flavoured Super Noodles, after which we had another Barbershop practice. We're now adding "Fever" to our repertoire. Our voices are all still a bit whacked from last night, though.

Flick's Party

It is Flick's birthday today and so after the festival we went to an Italian restaurant in Tenjin. Kanashima-san came with us, which was good since we didn't know where it was. I think we highly emabarassed her on the train, as we were wearing our horns cuasing the normally starey Japanese to stare even more. Then we sang happy birthday to Flick. It brought back bad memories for Knasher, as the year before one of us lot had been so drunk that the driver had asked Kanashima to stop him singing! We even got asked to have our photos taken!

Anyway, the restaurant was an all you can drink place, and they brought out about 8 dishes for us we shared between about 2 or 3 people. Best bit was the steak, which just melted in your mouth. Though they also had pizza, spaghetti, aubergine and tuna. Overall it was pretty tasty. Then we had cake to finish with that Katherine had brought. By this time however we had missed the last train home! We performed our entire repertoire of barbershop songs as well in preparation for "The Cream Teases" debut next month.

After the restaurant we headed to a Karaoke bar where we sung our hearts out for 2 hours. Nothing else much to say about that, apart from that I make a wicked Scatman! Following that we went to Fubar, which seems to be the place where all the foreigners hang out. Not many Japanese people there, and everyone spoke English. The owner was called Jodi and he was pretty safe. He even remembered my name. Only had one drink there, and that was the free one included in the ￥1,000 entrance fee. Had quite a good time, though and it was soon 5.30, about the time of the first train home. Binks was quite drunk and wept the whole way home, with Brendan also about as drunk trying to look after her. I think it took them half and hour longer to walk back from the station than us.

I think I'm just going to sleep now. No alarms. We'll see what happens.

Devil Hunting Festival

Got up late today after forgetting to set my alarm, so it was soon 5.30 and time to leave for the festival. We caught the train to Tofurou-mae where we met Kanashima-san. It was a little walk to the festival site, where big tents had been put up containing stalls and places for people to sit. We got given a bento each and went and sat so that we could see the stage where various oriental dances were being performed. Yuu from Linden Hall just happened to be right next to us and came over and made sure that we each noticed him! He is quite an attention seeker and his English is quite good; if only he were like that in class. Anyway, his parents gave us some plastic sheeting to sit, which was very nice of them, but we didn't stay long as we had to get ready!

We put on little red tops; I don't know to describe them: maybe like martial arts tops, or the sorts Taiko-drum players wear. This was accessorised with a white bandana, a piece of rope round our heads: like horns, and a piece of rope around our torsos to hold the top in place. To top this off we then had to paint our faces with black chalk. We were each given a big bamboo pole with a white sign on the end (運). We spent some time talking to the other students there. They were about 18 years old wearing their school uniforms. Some of them kept telling us that their friend was a drag queen!

When it was our turn, they lit a big pole that some of the other students were carrying. They looked quite nervous as they were all facing away from the fire, but that didn't stop them hurling it around quite a bit. We followed behind, running in a circle around some children playing drums in the center, chanting "onijya, onijya, onijya". It means "Go away, devil!", or something like that. Then after a few rotations they threw a could of flares down no each side of the stage and we had to stand and fan them. I think it's meant to symbolise us burning the devil's house down. Then some more students burst through some walls on the stage, with the lead person wearing a devil's mask, and ran off. I think we were victorious! A couple more laps around the circuit and we were finished.

It was really cool being part of it and just being silly like that. We chatted to some of the teachers afterwards who invited us to their school festival! Yuu came and found us again and we stood around for a bit watching the fireworks: Yuu on Rushen's shoulders.

Bad Behaviour

Had our two usual classes today. We're now studing adjectives, and we're really are studying them. We've been introduced to about 30 all at once, which means I can't even remember one! In Japanese there are two types of adjectives: the -な (na) adjectives, and the -い (i) adjectives. They behave differently, and negate differently too, so it can get quite confusing. It also had the added complication of having to remember which group each one belongs to.

We were very naughty in the afternoon class, probably owing to Friday-afternoon syndrome: tiredness and and eagerness to start the weekend. Anyway, the afternoon's teacher likes to make us repeat things quite a number of times, which meant that today, instead of not bothering, we took it to extremes saying a phrase as many times as possible. It was quite childish, and she started treating us more like it.

This afternoon I taught with Yoko, though I say taught, but it was their Halloween party so it was just an hour of games. Quite fun, I think I'm warming to kids, especially the well-behaved ones and the ones that smile at me, or at least acknowledge my presence. Hehe. Only downside was that Yoko picked me up early, and then we had to wait for one girl to turn up at the end so she could have her presents. In the end I was out for three hours and paid for one. Oh, well. I had fun as opposed to being bored like I normally am, and any money is good money.

It was Yoko's last lesson, and so my last time working for her. However, she says that her friend that is taking over the class might want me to do the same sort of thing. Yatta!

School Founding Day

Today is Daiichi's founding day and so everything Daiichi has a holiday. Thus no lessons and no Linden Hall. Despite this I was still up at 7.30 to talk to Hannah, followed by breakfast and then a barbershop rehearsal. We've decided to call ourselves the "Cream Tease Barbershop Quintet". Oh, the hilarity. Ciarán's now working for "Fukuoka Now!" a local bi-lingual magazine. They are having a 7th anniversary party at the beginning of December and we've already been booked to perform. This could be the start of international fame!

I had lunch and then went into Tenjin with Rushen. I finished Osu! this morning, having battled through all four difficulty levels. Success. So I bought myself a new game as a reward (or maybe just to relieve the boredom). I now have Jump Superstars, though this will be harder to play since the language barrier is more significant. It's a bit like Smash Brothers, though. Hopefully should be good.

We wondered around a bit more in Tenjin, though didn't really get much. Afterwards we came back and went to McDonald's as Rushen wanted to. I wasn't so keen, but caved in the end and had a medium fries. Not much, but it still makes me feel dirty.

Had a nice dinner in the evening: fish, though I didn't take the raw egg. I am now going to go and play pool with James and Nozomi, et al. after which I suspect she'll want us to do her English homework. I think I'm beginning to understand why she's being friends with us!

Review Test

Today's Japanese lesson was taken up fully by a review test on everything we have learnt so far. The first half was a listening test, which was followed by a written test over three A3 pages. Wasn't too bad, though. I finished first, and a few others followed shortly after.

We decided to try out a different canteen today. It is right next to the kindergarten-teacher teaching school and so was filled with girls wearing their pink trousers. It's their uniform! We were stumped slightly as we were supposed to take our shoes off, but we only found this out after walking through the whole room. I don't think it's the best one, though; they are quite stingy on their meat portions in their ramen.

We also had Seb's lesson again but instead of doing history we looked at early Japanese literature. He gave us a list of about 10 different titles along with their Kanji and brief overviews of what they are about. They sound quite interesting and I shall have to read a few at some point. There is one on the bookshelf here in Cambridge House, but I'm guessing that the others will be wanting to read it too, and I don't like reading under pressure.

Dinner was nice tonight: fish, spinach and carrot, some manky meat on salad, a bowl of rice, potato soup, and a chocolate and banana spongy roll thing. I ate everything apart from the salad. Then I went to Cosmos (a local pharmacy, but it's more like a supermarket) with Lauma. Mmmm... chocolate.

Kanji Attack

Another vocabulary test today, and another onslaught of kanji. This time they are kanji create by combining ones we already know. Maybe your paying enough attention to guess the meanings, or see the connection:

明 (bright, light), 休 (rest), 体 (body), 好 (love, like, favourite), 男 (man), 林 (wood, grove), 森 (forest, jungle), 間 (between, interval), 畑 (cultivated field), 岩 (rock). Kanji count: 55.

Apart from that, I taught the first years at Linden Hall with Katherine, which was a new experience. She's in to all the teaching stuff (I think she wants to be one) and so has lots of ideas of things to do. It makes it easier on me, as I just have to play along. Not as many injuries today, however.

Oh, and the mysterious word "omiyage" that the man was saying so much on Sunday means "souvenir". We learnt it on Monday; if only we'd done it before the weekend!

Softbank Hawks

Played pool with Rushen: he beat me 4-0. Oh the disgrace. Nozomi and Akiko turned up half way through, and afterwards we sat down and watched the baseball. It's was the first series of the playoffs and the local Softbank Hawks were tied 2-2 with the Chiba Lotte Mariners. Unfortunately they lost 3-2, despite having won the league with the Mariners in fourth. Oh, well, we'll have to wait until the season starts again to actually go and see a proper match in the stadium.

Normality Resumes

Back to school today, for a lovely kanji test. Joy! I came back after lunch briefly before heading back to teach the first years at Linden Hall with Lauma. The kids always seem to damage themselves a lot: we had someone hurt their shoulder when they ran into something, and Takachiko hurt his hand somehow. Then outside, Brendan accidently kicked a football right into Yu's face, and finally Mariso hurt her leg playing on the bar-thingies. I bet they're glad that we're looking after the children so well. At least we're giving the nurse something to do.

Am going to play billiards with Rushen soon. Hopefully no Japanese people will interfere with our game; we're very serious players!

Miyazaki Road Trip (Day 2)

Was woken up by Ciarán calling our room to find out if we wanted anything from the shops for breakfast. Then Drummond left to go to the onsen as it closed at 9am. Rushen and I slept more. Eventually we got up, and finally we checked out. The rooms were really cheap at only £35 for each room, so it was only just over £12 each for the night. Cheaper even than a youth hostel.

We drove to a little beachy place near to the hotel, and sat on the rocks. We had a breakfast consisting of bananas, oranges, onigiri, bread, bread rolls and cheese. We also had orange juice to drink, though we were told we'd have to buy cups in the hotel. Instead James stole little shochu tasting cups, so we had shots of OJ.

Then we drove down the coast to Aoshima island. No cars are allowed on the island, we were so enthusiastically told by a Japanese man with a car park business! It wasn't expensive, though, however he kept telling us that we should go upstairs for "omiyage" and it would cost ￥3,000. He also said something about shochu. Was he advocating drink driving? We will never know.

According to all the guides we had read it was supposed to be the place to go for swimming in the sea, with beautiful beaches of white sand. We saw nothing of the sort, however. Though the island itself was amazing because of the strange rock formations (called the "Giant's Washboard") and the huge crashing waves. We walked around it and then spent a few hours sitting by the sea.

Coming back from the island we found the "Miyazaki Prefecture Subtropical Gardens". These were pretty nice with palm trees and the likes, but the best thing was the giant greenhouse in the middle. Inside they were growing pineapples and bananas, which was really cool. Did you know pineapples grow on stalks above the plant, and when it gets big enough, the stalk breaks. Such an interesting plant.

We bumped in to one of the guys we met the night before in the bar, which was impressive, seeing as we were about 30km away from there. We carried on driving south to the Udo Jingu shrine, supposedly dedicated to the great-grandfather of Jimmu (the first emperor whose shrine we visited yesterday). It was up a big flight of stairs, or so we thought, but we couldn't see which way to go when at the top, so we came back down. The lady at the bottom seemed surprised, as we were supposed to come back down a different staircase. So, instead we went up the second one to see if it would be easier to find that way. As it turned out the main shrine was a really long way away, but it was so worth it when we got there.

It was right next to the sea, with more odd rock formations. There's something about watching big waves crash against the rocks; it's really captivating. In between the rocks was another rock (surprisingly) but which had a "shallow pool" in the top. You could buy five little clay balls for ￥100 (50p) and try to throw them down into it. I think the idea is that it'll grant your wishes, or something, of you get one in.

We began our trip back, stopping at an udon place for dinner. Not a big fan of udon, but it was okay. Though they gave us some really strange, weak coffee to drink, and when we asked for water, they just gave us a top up! The drive home was eventless, stopping for petrol, and at a little parking spot to change drivers. I have the honour of being the only one awake for the whole journey back, given that I was chief navigator in charge of the GPS!

I'm glad I went, as I wasn't sure whether I'd enjoy it. Don't think I'll go too often, as it drains the ol' money, but it's good to get away. Glad to be back now, though. I missed the contact with Hannah, and my family, and I'm all sunburnt and mosquito-bitten now!

Miyazaki Road Trip (Day 1)

Drummon, Ciarán, James, Felicity, Rushen and I caught the 8.35 bus into the university, where we met Kanashima-san. We then went to the car hire place just down the road and got our car: a 7-seater Toyota. The guy didn't seem to think we could drive, and everytime we were about to drive away, he opened the driver's door!

Drummond drove first on the 3 and a half hour trip, though he didn't seem to adjust to the bigger vehicle too quickly. There was a few sways, and sometimes shouts from the rest of us to tell him about the oncoming concrete block. We made it, though, to a little stopping point about half way through the journey, where Rushen took over. The in car GPS was really useful for getting us to the hotel, it even avoided one of the toll roads.

We stayed at the Hotel Sheradon Phoenix, which seemed like a really swanky, and luxurious place. There was a piano in the lobby, and pictures of Tiger Woods everywhere. Whilst we were waiting to check-in, some of the Hashin Tigers baseball team walked past us in their uniform! How cool. My name was the only they had spelt correctly, with things like: "Felecity", and "Drunnond". Our rooms were the cheaper, Japanese-style rooms, which meant that we slept on futons on the floor.

We didn't stay too long, just enough to leave our stuff, and we got back in the car and drove into Miyazaki city centre. We went in to a postoffice to get money, and I found some postcards at last! However, they are paintings, not photographs. Still good though.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant called "La Vie en Rose"... go figure!? It was nice, though, and made a change from Japanese food. After that we drove on some more to the Shinto shrine to Jimmu, the supposed first emperor of Japan. It was a really spread out shrine, with loads of little windy side paths to explore. It was really cool. There was also a really big derelict house, and most disturbingly: a big mosaic with "Rotary International" written on it!

Then we popped into a buddhist temple that we had seen on the way in. A little lady came out and told us to go inside, so we did. Everything was gold, and it all looked really lovely. Then the buddhist priest appeared, and invited us to sit and have some tea, which the lady brought out for us, along with some cakes. So we spent the next 40 minutes trying to communicate with him in our best Japanese about buddhism. It was a Shin buddhist temple, not a Zen one, and he had been on a 6 month bus tour around most of the world. We've learnt how to ask "What did you do today?" in lessons, and his answer to this was: "um... praying". It was a really cool experience, though, and made the whole trip worthwhile.

Afterwards, James, Ciarán and Flick drove back to the hotel to change, whilst the rest of us stayed and tried to find a place for dinner and drinkage. It was raining quite heavily and after getting lost once, we went back to the station and bought umbrellas from the ￥100 shop. We went to a place called the "Suntory Shot Bar", since there was supposed to be an English speaking manager there according to the Lonely Planet, but no such luck. I had a revolting shot of whiskey.

After that we tried in vain to find a place called "Restaurant Bar de Metre", but the map didn't seem to be right and no-one had heard of it. In the end Drummond asked a couple of girls where a good place to eat would be, just as the others met up with us again. They took us down a little road, where, lo-and-behold, was the place we had been searching for. What a coincidence?

They had an all-you-can drink for 2 hours offer, so we took them up on that. The waitress, Chie, had lived in California for three years, and so spoke good English. She even pretended we had come in 15 minutes later. We ordered some pizza and started drinking, with the necessary games to accompany. Chie joined us later on for a few drinks, and we got quite drunk.

Some more gaijin arrived and sat at the table next to us, so we harassed them for the rest of the evening. They didn't seem to mind that much, however. We left at about midnight, and began a drunken walk back to the train station. Drummond repeatedly threw his newly purchased umbrella around, trying to get it on to roofs, but failing horrendously. He broke it in the end, but it didn't stop him. We got into two taxis and got taken home. In our taxi we spent the whole time shouting at him in Japanese - again, asking him what he had done today: "um... driving".

Back at the hotel, Ciarán found that the door marked "Private" was unlocked, and so ventured in. He stole two kimonos (the dressing-gown style ones): one for me, one for him. Cool. Our beds had been made for us, and we slept well.

Countdown...

Lessons today were more interesting than normal, for some reason. Maybe it's Yoshimatsu-sensei, who is hilarious. We call her squirrel, and she's always prentending to be shot in the chest and falling backwards. Or maybe it was the comprehension we did in the afternoon: we had to write an introduction about ourselves by answering questions. It's fun writing in Japanese, especially using kanji: it looks really cool. I think though, that because we were studying giving and receiving, it was all the chocolates they brought in for us!

Drummond and I went into the English gardens after classes and before Linden Hall. He'd brought his guitar to play songs with the first years, and we brought it long, so we played some stuff next to the lake. He's really good, but totally modest and so will never admit to it. It started to rain however so we went to Linden Hall early.

An hour and a half early, it turned out. We didn't think we were that early, and the nurse came out trying to explain to us that the class didn't start until 5 o'clock (she doesn't speak much English). We went downstairs and sat in the cantine. More guitar playing and some Japanese learning. The nurse gave us some of the vegetable juice and a cookie that the children were going to have. Despite it's name, the juice was quite tasty, though Drummond said the cookie was horrible, so I didn't even try it.

The kids came downstairs eventually. They were really cute though as they all had to put their hands together and say “Arigatou gozaimasu. Itatakimasu”, which means “Thank you” followed by something a bit like grace, but without the religious connotations.

Had the second years today, all three of them. Keisuke wasn't there so Ryo behaved, as did Mariko and Mayu. We played Countdown which they seemed to enjoy, well, they were interested at least. I think if you make it competitive they'll enjoy anything out of a sheer desire to win. In fact, there were whole 30 second periods of very enjoyable silence!

Kanji Keep Coming

Another 10 kanji to learn today, as well as a whole chapter of new vocabulary, including such great verbs as: "to cut", "to lend", "to phone". Not sure how much I'm going to use them; I'm sure there are other verbs that would be better to learn first.

The new kanji are: 上 (above, on, up, superior), 下 (under, down, inferior), 中 (middle, inside), 大 (big, large, great), 小 (small, little), 本 (root, origin, true, main), 半 (half), 分 (division, part, minute), 力 (power, force, ability), 何 (what).

It's all getting harder to remember. I might actually have to sit down soon and go over things, heaven forbid!

Wednesday

Another Japanese lesson, another history lesson. This time we moved on to the Nara period. This was a time when China was very powerful, so many nations, including Japan, attempted to emulate them. Japan brought in the great Taika reform, but over the next 150 years they tweaked it so much that it just ended up like it was before.

Another interesting thing is Empress Shōtoku, who was in love with a Buddhist monk called Dōkyō, and lavished him with praise. She almost made Dōkyō emperor, but died before she could. This angered the ruling families at the time since it would have reduced their power, so they moved the capital and banned the Buddhist temples from moving with them. Since then there hasn't been another Japanese empress.

Then I played pool with Akiko and Nozomi in the evening, and chatted to them after that. I also helped Nozomi with her English homework, which even I found difficuly. Both Lauma and James also chipped in a little when they were passing by.

The Day After National Sports Day

Back to school today. One uninteresting lesson. They just don't seem to feature in my memory much. Oh, well. Tests tomorrow.

Taught this afternoon for Yoko again. Two classes, one of three girls aged seven and eight. The second was five kids aged 11 and 12, though there was one aged only eight. I felt a bit sorry for her, as the others were more confident and talkative, and she barely said a word all lesson. I think Yoko got a bit bored towards the end of the first lesson, as we ended up just playing Uno.

Yoshitaka Amano

Went in to Tenjin this morning with Liz, Katy and Katy's boyfriend Daniel. We went to the 11th floor of "Best Denki" the giant electronics shop, where there was a mini-exhibition of some of Yoshitaka Amano's paintings. He's done a lot of character design and concept art for the Final Fantasy series of games, which are my favourite, and so it was really cool actually getting to see some of this work for real. There were a few Final Fantasy X drawings, including one of a dead Tidus and the commissioned work he did for IGN.

Then, I found the floor with all the computer games on, so I bought a Nintendo DS along with "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!", a game about male motivational cheerleaders! It's basically a rhythm game, with the gameplay being to hit the screen in time with the music in certain ways. All good fun!

We had another barbershop practice this evening. We've now added "We Were Gathering Up the Roses" and the start of "Stand By Me" to our repertoire.

Jazz.... Nice!

Professor Ikema met us at Gojou station at 7pm tonight and took us to Dolphy's, a jazz bar named after Eric Dolphy. We all managed to crowd in to the tiny place, and Ikema-sensei paid for everything. We thought that he'd just bought us a beer each, which was a nice gesture, and then ordered quite a lot of food with the plan to share the cost between us. However, he refused and paid for everything! He must have spent over £100.

An eight-piece woodwind jazz band called "Clef" were playing tonight, and Ikema-sensei knew the baritone saxophonist who works at Daiichi. They were really quite good, though they have been together for seven years.

The programme was as follows:

• Take the 'A' Train
• Mission Impossible Theme
• Hard to Say Sorry
• Pick Up the Pieces
• something that I didn't catch the name of (though I recorded some of it note to self cf. 051009_1958~001)
  
• Tchaikovsky's "Overture" from the Nutcracker
  
• Tchaikovsky's "March" from the Nutcracker
  
• Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" from the Nutcracker

Then came a twenty minute interval. This was ended by a long drum solo which led into:

• Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing"
• You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
• Birdland
• When You Wish Upon A Star
• "Masquerade" by the Carpenters
• A theme from the anime "Lupan" (last note to self cf. 051009_2123~001)
  
• Nightingale Song
• You've Gotta Try Harder

For their encore they played:

• Bridge Over Troubled Water
• Danny Boy (the fastest version you've ever heard!)

It was a really good evening, though. What does scare me, and all of us, is that Ikema-sensei is an English teacher despite not being able to speak, understand or write at all competently. I feel so sorry for his students. He does try hard, though.

Sports Day

This was unlike any sports day I've ever been to, and certainly much more enjoyable. The majority of the events weren't competitive and, of those that were, most of the children took part. This alieviated the boredom of sitting around for your race, and the child of every parent took part in almost everything, so the parents also behaved! And to top all it off, everything was done to music, be it cheesy 80's themes or something more modern.

There were a few opening speeches: one by the Principal, and then one each by two of the children. All were done bilingually. There's something about seeing one of the kids you've taught doing something like that. I have no idea why, given that I had absolutely no part in helping them. But it does make you think "why can't you do that for me?!?"

The first event was "English Radio Exercises" which everyone (including the audience) took part in. It was some sort of strange, old-sounding workout tape with a man giving instructions and then counting "1 2 3 4 ...". Quite strange.

Then came the "Warm-Up Dance" which all the children did to "I Like to Move It!". It's quite impressive seeing them all lined up and doing the same actions. Some novel choreography as well.

Then came a skipping routine by the second years. I took a few videos of them doing that. Not so much skipping as them twirling it around the place.

The first "race" of the day was the hurdle relay. There were only 3 hurdles, and then some hoops and cones to weave through, so more of a mini-obstacle course. All the kids took part in it, with them all being split into teams names after planets.

Then they did a really cool parachute dance with one of those huge coloured parachutes (believe it or not). The teachers had joined in, though, and looked like they were putting in most of the effort to lift the thing off the floor and into the air.

After a quick drink break came the true obstacle course. This race was strange in that it was lots of little mini-races, as opposed to a relay race, which is what it looked like it should have been. The positions of each team in each race were taken together to give their overall rank after everyone had had a turn.

The kids then did two G-ball routine (those big rubber balls), one of which was to "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis. The second one was cool as it was more upbeat and fast.

We were given bento boxes (like ready made lunches in a box) for lunch as psuedo-employees of the school. All the parents had brought picnic mats and their own food. So we sat around and ate, before going off to explore the adventure playground that they have there. It's pretty amazing the things that they have at the school. They even have their own tea ceremony room complete with water wheel, and a pottery room.

We switched to sitting by the side of the track after lunch, and it felt like we were much more involved; egging the children on as they ran past. The next race was a parent & child one involving a three-legged stint, wheelbarrow and piggy back. They also had to blow up and tie balloons, which proved a challenge for more than one parent, so we had a few on standby in case they were in real difficulty. Then they had to run to the end and pop it by sitting on it. Brendan and Drummond had to take part as some fathers couldn't make it, with Brendan carrying his kid for most part of the race!

Then came a round-robbin tug-o'-war game with the longest rope I've ever seen for such purposes. The kid at the back even had to tie the rope around themselves, like professionals. Most didn't last very long, but there was one of two closely fought victories.

The last race was the baton relay which was totally continous from start to finish. There were many changes of fortune during the race, which is what having 16 runners to a team tends to do. One girl even knocked over her own runner whilst handing over the baton, which meant they fell far behind and never caught up. I think they all still enjoyed it though.

Finally, the closing dance was a full participation event again with everyone doing the moves along to the Macarena. After this there was the trophy presentation to the winning team (Mars the red team) and a few more speeches. James and I were the only ones of us left at the end with the others having caught the last bus, so we helped put the tents down.

Many More Kanji

More lessons again today. We've learnt some new kanji in the past few days. I forgot to post some the other day, so here goes a long list.

The first batch consisted of: 火 (fire), 水 (water), 金 (gold, money, metal), 土 (ground, earth, soil), 子 (child), 女 (woman, female), 学 (study), 生 (live, birth), 先 (previous, foregoing), 私 (private).

Today's kanji were the numbers from one to ten: 一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, and also: 百 (hundred), 千 (thousand), 万 (ten thousand, all, every), 円 (circle, yen), 年 (year, age).

There is so much to remember; we've done 35 aleady so far!

Also worked again today for Noriko. Pretty much the same as on Tuesday, but for only two hours. It was still fun, but I think I prefer the other classes as opposed to the hairy girl that shouts a lot and the boy that sounds like he's been chain-smoking for 50 years.

We're planning a trip to Miyazaki for next weekend, but it all sounds like it's going to go horribly wrong, and cost far too much for just one night away. Oh, well. We'll see how it turns out. I feel like I should go though for a few reasons: to keep the costs down for everyone, to join in, and because I do feel a need to explore the country. They kind of conflict with my "money saving" personality, but I guess I just have to go all out this year to make it worth while.

Friends

Another two Japanese lessons, another film afterwards. Today it was "Titan A.E." - an animated classic, though American, not Japanese. Good film though, good soundtrack.

I spent the evening downstairs talking with some Japanese. I'm getting to know quite a few now. Played pool with Rushen and some crazy girls: Aya, and Taeko. Then chatted with Akiko and Nozomi with Rushen, and later with Brendan. I also saw Ryu and Yuu briefly, which about covers all the Japanese people I know! Spent almost five hours chatting in total. It was quite fun, we don't get through talking about much since we're constantly having to explain things to each other. Plus I'm not sure I retain much!

Who you gonna call?

Since today was Wednesday, we had our usual morning Japanese lesson, followed by Seb's history lesson. Today we did the Asuka period. Afterwards we had our photos taken for this year's Linden Hall brochure by a professional photographer. Maybe we'll get a copy?

When I got back I watched "Ghostbusters II", as I had nothing better to do. It was good though, not having seen it for many many years.

Haven't done much else this evening, either. Though Seb came round with a bottle of Shochu he's been promising to give us for a fortnight.

New Job

I met Noriko outside Cambridge House after class today, and she drove me to a community hall in some town closeby. I taught four classes of an hour each, with most classes having about six children (the last class had only two). The first class was the youngest (4-6 years old) and the last class were 11 years old with the middle two somewhere in between.

She had written a lesson plan for each class, which I had to follow, and she provided all the flash cards and other resources for me to use. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and she kept whispering instructions to me. She also did some translation for them when they didn't understand. By the last class, I had just about got the hang of what I was meant to be teaching. Some of the kids were quite cute though (the younger, well-behaved ones) which made the time go quickly.

Afterwards, I bumped into Rushen at the reception in Cambridge House. Yuu was also there, and we all went to play pool. Yuu taught us how to play Japanese-style (i.e. American-style), and we somehow managed to have three players in one match. Nozomi also turned up halfway through with her usual forwardness, so we all talked some Nihon-glish whilst playing. I like practicing my Japanese on them, though mostly I can only say what we've been taught. Still, saying "what time did you work from?" can make for quite a good conversation.

Went Out

Went down a little bar last night with Drummon, Lauma, James, Ciarán and Felicity. It was covered in American and British flags, and had some stars and planets on the ceiling. The ironic thing was that they were playing a DVD of "Pearl Harbor".

Flowers

I managed to get to the classroom, find my kanji book and copy my homework into it before the teacher collected them in, which was nice. Apart from that, it was just another Japanese lesson; I don't seem to remember much of it.

I talked to Yuu on the bus on the way in this morning. He is a student, but works in the canteen, washing dishes, some of the evenings. He's really nice, but quite shy. Everytime he sees one of us, he shrinks himself and starts waving madly above his head. His English isn't that good, so I think he feels embarassed talking to us. Despite that we had quite a good little chat - mostly about food.

After lunch I continues my hunt for postcards, but failed again. At least now I know what they're called: e-hagaki. Maybe next time I'll ask someone. I'm going to try Dazaifu, or Tenjin, next as they are slightly more touristy and so are more likely to have one. I got myself some shampoo, batteries and some nice caramel sweetie-things from the ￥100 shop.

This afternoon I was meant to be teaching the first years with Rushen, but Wendy (one of the teachers) came in and told us that we could go upstairs with the second years and make tissue-paper flowers instead. So of course we did that. It was so much easier than teaching, and hence less exhausting. We managed to fill a whole box with multi-coloured decorations. Then Binks and I took a few of the children down to the gym to learn the new G-Ball routine. These are big rubber balls that they bounce on, and they are going to do a performance at their sports day on Saturday. It doesn't sound like any sports day I've ever been to.

House Blessing

We all went off to Igiri today, where we met Kanashima-san. We then walked to the location of her house to be. It is located next door to her parents' house, where Kanashima-san used to live, and the plan is to finish the house, and all three of them move in. Afterwards they will knock the parents' house down. Well, actually, four of them are moving in as Kanashima-san got married last May but has yet failed to mention it to us!

The place is actually a live building site as the workmen were still building when we arrived, using a crane to lift packs of wood up to the roof. It was all very crazy. But there was beer and, importantly: umeshu! Lots of Kanashima-san's family was there, and there were little nibblets and things.

The blessing part consisted of them taking a whole fish up to the roof, and then throwing about a hundred bags of mochi (rice cakes), and a few ￥5 coins. It was carnage, and I have no idea as to the significance of it!

Kanashima-san then made us sing some songs, even though we have never practiced. We sang "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow", and "Amazing Grace"! They seems to like it - I thought we were quite good. Afterwards, the Japanese men all sang us a song, but I have no idea what it was. I took a little video of it though.

When we left, she gave us each a little lunch-cooler pack thingy. A Disney one no less. I got Marie from the Aristocats - it's pink. Maybe I'll give it to Hannah.

This evening we had our first barbershop rehearsal. We are going to perform for the university festival in mid-November. There is a little "counselling room" on the floor, and it has a little organ in it, which is useful for practicing. We sang "The Story of a Rose" and "Goodnight Sweetheart". We were pretty good!

Random Party

Rushen and I only went to town to go to the travel agents (me to collect my tickets, and him to buy some), but we somehow ended up at a random party full of Japanese people. James had met a man at Rainbow Plaza who wanted foreigners to come to a party for lots of people who were all flying off to a combination of England, Germany, and Denmark in November. So we ended up going.

It was a pretty cool evening, with them all paying for everything: all the food and drink. Though I did feel a bit guilty about that, but you take what you can get! We had to do a little presentation on our country: about the education system, health system, and ecology and weather. That seemed to be about their only link: they were all interested in those subject, not that many of them paid much attention.

The rubbish system is quite different in Japan than in England. They seem to be very environmentally friendly - even the businesses require little legislation to reduce their waste output. It just seems to be built in to them; maybe from Shintoism, which has its foundings in a respect for nature. Anyway, the main difference in Japan is that they charge for refuse collection in an effort to reduce people's waste output. Instead they encourage recycling, and everywhere you go in Japan there are different bins for cans and glass, than for "burnable" rubbish. I think it sounds like a good system.

The only annoying thing about tonight was that the guy who had invited us all kept calling me "Matt Damon". Supposedly I look like him, and I've been getting called it for the last five years. I don't mind if someone says it once, but he was just introducing me to everyone as "Matt" and not even mentioning my real name. Oh well.

Talking to the Japanese was quite interesting. I tried to explain what "Queen's English" was, and taught them about cockney rhyming slang. I think they understood. We got a few of their numbers and some business cards, and I think they want to meet us again next week at an English bar that they know of.