Running

The school marathon (a Japanese marathon is not 26 miles - a Senior High School marathon is the equivalent of our school cross country run, I'm guessing they only run about 5km so nothing like a marathon then!) is on Friday. Last year I jumped around with Kobayashi sensei cheering the students on and promised everyone at school that in 2006 I'd take part. Now it's time for the marathon again and I'm about as prepared for it as I would be for entering space! I've told them I couldn't possibly do it because of my recent injuries (hm...) and they all thought this was a fair excuse.

I go walking a lot after school and I've always done some kind of exercise but for some reason I just can't run ('for some reason' - because I'm so damn unfit!!). My chest and throat go tight, I come over all dizzy and my head throbs. It seems to be physically impossible but this is ridiculous a record 32,899 people crossed the finishing line of the London marathon in 2002. Plenty of people manage to run great distances all the time. Why can't I be one of them? So ...

On Saturday I decided that I would go for a run! Ha ha! Jen told me that the first 10 minutes is always the worst and then once you get past that first 10 minutes it gets easier. Well, I'm not that stupid as to try and run for 10 minutes - so I decided I'd try for 5 minutes. I managed my five minutes - just. This was a great achievement as I don't usually get past 5 metres. To say I thought that I might die is of course an exaggeration but the possibility of me keeling over into a rice field was a distinct possibility! Anyway I walked for about 50 minutes afterwards . Milena tells me that I should run for 5 minutes and then walk for 5 minutes and then try running again for 5. Eventually I might be able to join the running together. So I have decided that this is what I'm going to try and do but so far it's been raining everyday. Of course. Back to the Ministry of Sound dance work-out video then ...

Another Weekend

Here are a couple of pictures from dinner on Saturday night.

The Weekend

On Friday night I headed down EARLY into Matsusaka to meet everyone for drinks and food. I had a really fun night and we ended up at karaoke, where I think we sounded even worse than we usually do!

On Saturday we made it for a Chinese lunch and then I went home to clean my apartment before Beccy and Vicky arrived but instead I spent over two hours sleeping and then only had 30 mins to have a quick clean around before they arrived at Taki station (i.e. threw all my clothes in the cupboard - think every item I owned was previously on the floor).

On Sunday we ventured down to Ise Shrine (it was my 7th time) . It was crazy busy but it was a really nice day and I always enjoy going so I had a really nice day.

The Best Present

At the end of the last week, I received the best present ever from my Mum in the post - a hot water bottle and a thermal vest. What has become of me?!!

Snow

Last week was the Mie mid-year conference, it went fine and was surprisingly uneventful especially in comparison to last year and two days out of school is always good.

This weekend a group of us went to Akakura in Niigata on a ski trip; except I didn't ski or snow board. When I signed up I originally thought that I'd give one or the other a go for the first time but decided that it wasn't worth it - my back still hurts sometimes and didn't think it would be such a good idea to go hurling myself down a mountain.

Instead I walked around, ate lots of food, drank lots of coffee, did lots of reading and went to an onsen (Japanese hot bath). I had such a nice weekend and it was great to hang out with everyone. I even enjoyed the onsen, I was previously unconvinced by onsens. I'd only really tried it once before and found the water to be so hot I came over all dizzy and I hate to be so British and prudish but thought of walking around naked is really quite unappealing. However, most of the time I was the only person there and there was a bath outside so you could sit outside surrounded by the snow (and if I'm honest rain but I won't dwell on that as it makes it sound far less romantic) which was really nice.

Even the journey wasn't so bad, I was REALLY nervous before heading off as some people had pulled out because they'd be warned the road conditions might be bad because of all the snow. I'm already a very nervous passenger these days without the extra threat of skidding off an icy road and plummeting to our deaths on a snow covered mountain. Needless to say though, the roads were fine, driving conditions were good, Doug's driving was great and we made it up to Akakura in five hours.





This is a hotel in Akakura which had a whole team of people clearing the snow from it. I have no idea how it had got in this state in the first place as no other buildings in the town were in such a bad way.

At the izakaya in the evening.





I took a cable car up the mountain, here's the view from the restaurant where I sat and drank lots of coffee.











Here is a picture I took from the cable car of a small road that had been cut through the snow.

Christmas Pictures

Linds' Birthday.


Nick and me in Edinburgh.


At the start of the hols.


Last night out.


Vinny and me at Oasis Holiday Village.


The view from the plane.

Back in Japan

So I've made it back to Japan and the journey wasn't quite as bad as I'd been expecting but it was still pretty rough.

I met Aileen and Momo for a lovely dinner on Saturday night but apart from that I've not done much else at the weekend apart from sleep which I have really paid for today, seen as though I woke up at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. After phoning home, watching several episodes of Friends and still not managing to fall back asleep I decided the best thing to do was just to get up. Which now means I'm really tired again and I'm very tempted to go home and have a nap after school but I guess I've got to stop all this random sleeping and try and get back into some kind of regular routine again.

School has been suprisingly fine, in fact I've had a really nice day and have been quite busy which is always good.

Christmas

I think I've probably had the best Christmas and New Year Eve ever, thank you everyone! I've consumed far too much unhealthy food and alcohol and despite the weight gain and hangovers it's all been worth it. I'm really dreading the journey back to Japan tomorrow but I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone and I know as soon as I'm back I'll have a great time.