Make the most of it

Hey.

Im back in the internet cafe again. I figured tomorrow was going to be a busy one, so it would be better for me to use the time now for emails, rather than use valuable time tomorrow.

Anyway, checked out my emails, and have recently discovered that if you look at bands websites you can usually listen to their music for free! Nice - I`ve just been thrashing The Killers "Mr Brightside", and James Blunt`s "You`re Beautiful". Previous to that I had listened to Creed. My CD collection over here is fairly limited.

This week has been not all that interesting. Last night we had a teachers gathering, to celebrate a teacher leaving the company, but not Yokkaichi.

Tomorrow will be a busy one. It appears I have a parcel from home to pick up from the Post office, and then at 2:19 I have to meet my new flatmate at the train station. In between I will be tidying the pile that is my bedroom.

This weekend will be a quiet one, possibly. I might go to another international party, if someone else wants to come with me. Im a little tired of going by myself. But at the same time, it becomes a conflict between having company and having competition. No Japanese lesson, as my teacher is away for Golden week. Sunday or Monday I might try to go up Mt Gozaisho. Knock it off the list. Generally I want to get my stuff sorted (bedroom, life, random jobs etc).

Next week is Golden week - of course I have to work it - albeit earlier. Hopefully though, the students will spend their holidays with their families, and it will be a quiet week.

Next month I am thinking I will go down to Hiroshima, possibly visiting some old friends from my Canpac/Tech days (from NZ) and either on the way there, or on the way back, see an old original castle (Himeji castle), and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka.

Anyway, Laters

Calculated and miscalculations

The title relates to the jam-packed-ness of my life here. The miscalculation relates to the fact I texted someone (Japanese) a brief message (so there was no room for misunderstanding) but because it was brief he got offended because he thought it was unpolite. Anyway enough of the negative stuff.

After my last entry I went to dinner at a restaurant where we had pancake/fritter like things with pork and noodles in them. Nice. And later I went with Lee and had Yakiniku - and had Mutton on a gengis khan (a hotplate that looks like his helmet).

Mostly boring since then - except Saturday nights international party, socialised with some Japanese girls afterwards, then met up with an Aussie and a Brit later - as I had missed my train. Another long night in Nagoya.

The next morning I had my Japanese lesson - almost falling asleep due to lack of sleep, and then had Italian with my teacher, at a cool restaurant - quite classy yet cheap. Following that we had the Nihongo cafe at the YIA - basically snacks and an opportunity to talk in Japanese to people. I was OK - however my vocabulary was limited to a lot of sugois and hontos (Great! and Really? respectively). Following that I had dinner with 2 Americans and a Japanese at the pancake/fritter place again. I then had to return some videos - so I took them back, and then stopped at a 100yen sushi (on the conveyor belt) restaurant, then had a huge ride trying to find another restaurant a student had told me about.

Today I went on a misson, I went with the Aussie girl to Tsushima - which is hard to get to, because I need to teach there in a few weeks time. Anyway, we had lunch, then I decided to come to Nagoya since I was so close. By the way I saw some turtles in a drain/creek - that was cool. So I came here.

I went to a Shrine that I had seen was close on Saturday, then I looked at some shops, and came here - to Shooters, to make use of the free internet while it was quiet, and chow down on some tacos. Anyway, here I am. Hopefully that covers it all.

Feel free to email me. Despite having lots of emails lately, they all seem to be ads and forwards. I crave some real emails from real people.

Just another manic Monday

Hey all.

Just at the international centre checking my emails. Today, after sleeping in for ages, I got up and had brunch (or more accurately a mixture of breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea) at the all-you-can-eat chinese restaurant I didn`t find the other night. It was actually quite good. The outside is rather classy, and the food was nice.

Anyway after having lunch I had an explore of Yokkaichi on my bike. Its a bit like Huntly, just with a lot more traffic LOL.

Yesterday I went to Nagoya and had a free health consultation, then caught the last five minutes of an Easter church service. Then I came home and started watching a DVD.

Anyway, closing time so I better go.
Have fun where ever you are.

Its all good

Well its a Saturday night, and Im back at the internet cafe. I thought I better prepare my website for the Japanese market, as I have had a few people interested in it.

Since the last entry, not much has happened, until today.

Not a bad day. Still in pursuit of interesting lessons for my students. Also my cute 3 year old kinder kid student (the ice cream one), started crying, as his dad dissappeared for a while. He started asking Otaasan wa? Otaasan wa? which I think is Father in Nihon-go.

I got home from work, finished reading my book Cadillac Jack - which was interesting, yet relatively plotless, and then got a call from Anandia, the new teacher from Brisbane, asking what I was doing tonight. I said lets go and check out an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant I had heard of near her place, and near here. Anyway we went in pursuit of that - the one it was, actually looked too flash to be it, so we went to one next door, to see if that was it - anyway, what happened was we struggled to communicate for a while, and then a lady who spoke english helped us, and told us that the other restaurant was not so good, and to stay there. She then invited us to eat with her family. They ordered us an awesome selection of food, and then ended up paying for us as well, and sold Anandia a really good bike for cheap. So we were massively happy.

Anyway, tomorrow is my Japanese lesson, then I will go to Nagoya. Monday, tidy my room and maybe explore Yokkaichi.

Balmy about Hanami

Hey all. Hanami is the name for the parties you have underneath the cherry blossoms. Last weekend was the time to have a Hanami party, (they only stay blossomed for about a week) so we did.

I went to one on Friday, but lay low, as I had to work early on Saturday. On Saturday I let my hair down and we went two stations north to where the blossoms were near a river.

On Sunday, I went to a thing at the international centre about Egypt. It was quite interesting. From the building I could see that there was a festival going on down the street, so I went and checked it out. Quite interesting.

I eventually got back to the apartment later than I should, in order to clean up and do dishes. Not too much longer after that our friends from Nagoya came and I met them at the station. I then met up with another guy who had seen this website, when he looked up Yokkaichi. So I was showing everyone the sites of Yokkaichi, but not doing a great job of it, in between conversations and phone calls.

The party was a relative sucess. Enough people came to satisfy me. I was a little disappointed that more random people didn`t come, as that the point of the party, but it was all good.

Monday, I decided I was going to make it to the mountain. I did, after having lunch, getting some cash out, and since I was near - checking my emails - the which always becomes a time vacuum. I finally made it to the mountain by 4pm. Which was a waste of time as everything shutdown at 5. To solidify things, it was pouring with rain - which I had ignored in the pursuit of my goal. So I decided not to bother with the gondola ride, and just settle with a trip to an onsen (hot spa) and fight the mountain another day. As it was, the snow has melted already.

Lucky for me the people at the gondola place were nice to me, and gave me a ride back to an onsen near the station - which saved me a lot of time, and also some money too. So I was happy.

That night I cooked some food, and then had a visit from a friend. We decided to watch "Alexander" (as in Alexander the Great).

Since then, its just been work, and attempting to provide "fun" lessons to my students.

This weekend no great plans.

I better go, as I have spent a long time here - Im not going to even tell you what time it is now - I came to this internet cafe to put up my photos - and subsequently have taken forever - checking emails and other mucking around. But this website is my hobby I guess, so its worth it. Nice half day tomorrow.

Other photos

Milo in a can - ready to drink. Nice. In Kanazawa - it was sold hot - straight from the vending machine.


Another example of a vending machine - there is a vending machine in a gap near you. This one sells alcohol. It was near a train station, conveniently located for the adequately named, station beer.

The reason why Yokkaichi used to have an asthma named after it.

Some random graffiti on the ground, that looked cool, and had a positive message.
They`ve got the power... well those neons won`t power themselves...




This one is an example of the ads Hollywood stars come over to Japan for - and get paid a million dollars for. Here Meg Ryan is selling coffee.


One for the boys. The latest (I guess) Nissan Skyline. Thought I would offer you a preview of it. Admittedly it looks kind of cool. Suzanne and I used to joke about Skyline`s having rear lights like stove elements. Apparently The Fast and the Furious 3 is coming soon, and is being filmed here in Japan. Look out for a guy in a black rugby jersey in the background... just kidding

It speaks for itself.
An example of the Japanese love of Sakura (cherry blossoms). Even hard man vehicles like rubbish trucks are not safe from flower pictures.
Yokkaichi`s local Love hotel. When I got here, I thought it was something advertising Christmas, but later worked out (when they hadn`t taken down the decorations by February) that it was a Christmas-themed Love hotel, complete with Santa, and Christmas lights.

I told her to freeze, and she took me literally... even the statues feel the cold (hence the scarf).

Yokkaichi recovery

Ki Ora,
Since the return from Osaka, its been pretty quiet. I managed to catch a train at about 8:50 but had to change trains twice. I got back to Yokkaichi by 10:50 though, so it was all good. I managed to chuck things in the wash and be sweet for the day.

Since then it has just been a case of working. However tonight Im looking forward to a Hanami party (Cherry Blossom party). Should be fun. Also on Sunday I am having the "consolidation party" so that will be fun. Anyway must go and do what needs doing (last weeks dishes, washing etc)

Missed the boat this time...

Hey again,
Im guessing your not expecting an update three days in a row.

Well, what happened was, as I was going to catch the train back to Yokkaichi - I discovered the last one had already gone. I had been making use of my day train pass - as good as I could get out of it - and the last thing I saw took a while to walk to. I thought trains would head Nagoya ways until at least 11ish, however, turns out they finish at 9.30- when I tried to catch the "10pm" train. Oh well, better to be stuck here than in some random hick town in between. So anyhow here I am, back at the capsule hotel. I should be sweet to get home in time for work tomorrow.

Anyway, my day.
It started off with breakfast. I was happy with myself that I was fairly ready early on. I texted the guy I had replaced (Matt - see previous entry) as he lives here, and I had some mail of his. We met for lunch, and had all you can eat thai - for a cheap 980yen - pretty good, but not quite as good as it sounds as thai is rather spicy, so you dont eat much. That was good, but it delayed my sightseeing for a bit. Following that I went to the aquarium. Yesterday the tourist information lady told me to get a ticket that included a day train pass, so I did.

Here we have a picture of a Gangster crab (not its real name) making a hand signal telling what its turf is (C-side). They actually live at the bottom of the ocean in really deep parts. They are huge, and look like something from Alien. The other picture is a huge dumb fish (not its real name either). It requires that netting so it doesn`t crash into the glass. It didn`t get the looks or the brains.

The aquarium was rather big, so that took most of the afternoon. It had heaps of fish, including a huge whale shark. Following that I went on a huge ferris wheel next door to it - apparently the biggest in the world - not sure - Japan seems to have the best of everything... and I noticed a cool park next door to it, with cheery blossoms out, so I went over there, and planned what i could see in the remaining time, to get my moneys worth out of my train pass.
So I went to a couple of places, the first was a tower and a cool street, but the tower was already closed. However it made some good photos. Then I went to the "Floating garden" which didnt have anyplants... It was a huge building with an observation deck at the top. An explanation wont do it justice, so wait for the photo. The killer was the walk there from the nearest station. What I discovered on the way back was there was an underpass (pictured) almost directely from the station to it. Then I rushed back to the station to discover there was no train for me.

Anyway, Im not too annoyed - Im more glad I have pretty much ticked Osaka off the to do list - I just want to come back to go to Universal Studios Japan (a theme park) later in the year. If there is anything I feel I have missed, I can do it then. Ive probably seen more of Osaka today, than I have seen of Nagoya, or Yokkaichi for that matter.

The cat picture is because I noticed there was a lot of stray cats living in Osaka

Kobe and claustrophobia

Hopefully I`ve spelt that right, too bad if I haven`t.

Anyway, thought while I have this access to the net, I would update again.

Im back in the Capsule hotel again - it was fun and cheap, and I certainly couldn`t be bothered trying to find another accomodation, especially after my long day.

I had breakfast (brunch) on the ground outside this weird octagonal building, while I planned my attack on Kobe. I then had to locate the station here in Osaka - which was conveniently pretty much below me. However the trip to Kobe seemed to take forever, due to having to swap trains several times, and one of those trains was the Osaka loop line, and I think I may have taken the long way around the loop.


So I eventually got to Kobe at about 4pm. Anyhow after locating the information centre I ascended the mountain where the early foreigners used to live, and checked out their houses, including an Austrian one, and another, that was made by a German named Thomas... interesting. The photo here is near the Dutch house. Notice how the cute Japanese girl is shamelessly dressed up as a dutch girl.

Following that I checked out Chinatown. It was ok - mainly just food that is readily available in convenience stores here, and Bruce Lee merchandise. The Japanese love Chinese kung fu stars I think. I saw some nun chucks you could buy too, the cheapest (but still could do the job) for about 500yen. Anyhow it was ok, made worthwhile by the nunchucks.

Then, I went to the memorial thing of the earthquake. That was good, and was near the other stuff that made good photos (the port tower, the maritime museum etc). Then it was a case of getting back to Osaka.

I made it back about 10:30, and then had a well deserved spa and sauna. And here I am. Im thinking I might have a bit of a photo session outside before hitting the hay.

Tomorrow is Osaka sightseeing. Looking forward to it.
By the way, the claustrophobia bit is because today I got a bit overwhelmed with the complexity of the train system, and the fact that Osaka and Kobe is so big and confusing, and there are millions of people.

Have a capsule and call me in the morning

Hey all!
Hey from Osaka.

I came down last night on the train, to see my mate Kit before he left to go home. I booked into a capsule hotel for the night, for 2600yen- which I think is pretty good (a youth hostel in Queenstown or New Plymouth in NZ would cost you $24 (approx 2400yen). If I had made better use of the bathing facilities it would have been better, but I prefered to sleep, as you do... Oh well theres probably tonight.

It was OK - not too small (the capsule) and the complex reminds me of being in hospital - you wear a robe around, and its all men, and its quite huge.

Anyhow, on my way out I discovered these computers. I figured I would edit my blog (take out the yahoo ads that appear at the bottom because I email my entries) and make a short posting. Unfortunately I can`t put my photos up just yet as when I put in my pen drive, it comes up with questions in Japanese.

Other news? In Japan April is the beginning of the fiscal year. This means students move up to the next grade etc, but also it is when people transfer. My angel girls have now graduated, I had them yesterday for the last time - but they will be taking normal lessons now, which is great - they will be treated a bit more like adults, and I think their english is better than some of the adults anyway.

My 3 year old kinder kid who says hello hello hello, and points to ice cream and makes a licking motion joked with me yesterday - I got the other kid to say what the pictures were, but he just made the same licking motion, but laughed. I thought I would have some fun and teach him something funny- so I taught him to make a scratching (as in scratching a record like a DJ) motion and saying jiggerjigger.

On Thursday night we had a gathering of teachers. Nothing special, rather it was so they could meet the new ones. We sent out the invites to our party next weekend too. Should be good.

Im getting another flatmate on the 20th. Im a bit dissappointed, as I enjoy only having the two of us, and another means the possibility of getting a bad apple. Hopefully he is cool. Hes from the USA.
Anyway - plan for today is to go to Kobe, after a good breakfast and water, and an investigation into what to see.