Aileen

Aileen, you were asking for it 'mrs'!! After 'giving out to me' that you achieved the highest score on my 'How well do you know Helen?' quiz and yet you've not been featured too heavily in either my blog or my latest paper pages, I decided to dedicate a whole post just to you (now people really will think we're lesbians lovers).

As you're one of only four people who read my blog, I'm sure you won't mind all the pics! Valentine's Ball (our favourite) - February 2005 Bridin and Aileen in Takayama - February 2005Aileen and me with the parents in Tokyo - May 2005
Fiona, Aileen and Bridin at the Tokyo Design Festa - May 2005

Aileen in Tokyo - November 2005
The nun and farmer/Oliver Twist at the Halloween Party - October 2005
Aileen at 7 in the morning on Saturday

Aileen, you know I have like a million pictures of us, but I'll stop there for now. Love you xxx

Happy Pancake Day!

I'm one very happy, genki bunny today! I usually complain bitterly that when I'm at Matsuaka High I am shoved into what can only be described as a store cupboard for the day. The only good thing about this usually is that students can come and chat and have lunch with me. Today though I haven't had any lessons and I've been left pretty much uninterrupted all day. I've been listening to radio one on my laptop and doing some 'paper pages'. I'm also hoping I can slope off at least on time today rather than the usual 6pm!

Tonight we're going to have pancakes at Aileen's which I'm really looking forward to. So lent starts tomorrow and I'm supposed to be giving up alcohol I'll let you know how I get on with that one!!

Kanpai!

I'm feeling quite tired in work today after a crazy weekend but I'm also feeling all the better for having had so much fun!

Nagoya

Aileen's brother has been checking out Japan for the week so we spontanesously decided to head up to Nagoya where our friend Sean was doing a set at a club.

It was only a small place but filled with lots of cool Japanese people, so not at all like the sleezy, gaijin bars we are accustomed to!

The music was great and we had loads of fun dancing around and when we'd had enough of that, (at about 4am) we decided to hide out in Denny's until the first train.





Sake

After a power nap at Aileen's we took a train down to Matsusaka to meet everyone to head off on the sake factory tour that was planned for the day. Fortunately through one reason or another almost everyone was feeling as tired as us!

We were a little early for the tour so we went to a nearby shrine, there was an amazing view over the river and the shrine was really interesting in itself. Women go there to pray if they are having difficilty having children, then if they are successful in having a child they place a photo of the baby inside the shrine. Then a few of us took a foot onsen (bath) which was suprisingly nice.

There was a short tour of the factory before we went to sit in a room where we were plied with different types of sake all afternoon! On previous occassions I haven't really enjoyed sake so I was feeling a little dubious but it all turned out to be nice. The men who had organised the trip for us proceeded to get inebriated (at an incredibly fast rate) which just added to the entertainment for the rest of us. There was a camera woman filming the event for a local television station and she was persuaded to sample some of the sake too, she ended up being the most drunk out of everyone there. So her car was left in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere and she was shipped back to Matsusaka on the bus with us, along with her now broken camera!

Tsu

In the evening we went to meet people in Tsu for dinner and then karaoke, which was really fun. The next day we went for purikura (print club) and ate a mountain of food in saizeria.

I got to do all my favourite things in one weekend; dance, eat a lot, purikura, meet some fun people and sing atrociously at karaoke. All good.

Our 'Lost' Dinner

Back in January they held a services auction to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, Nigel bid on Scott's offer to make dinner and won. Last night Scott came down from Kuwana to make dinner for our 'Lost' group (we get together and watch Lost every Wednesday). I had such a nice evening; the food was amazing and we had lots of wine. It was such a lovely treat!

We had soup, salad, pasta with clams and apple pie - I'm not really doing it justice by just listing the menu - it really was delicious!

It turned out the episode that was on the TV last night we'd already seen but it was probably a good thing as we were too busy chatting and drinking wine to concentrate on the crazy events of the weird island!

BTW - My head hurts today!

Dancing at Matsuko

Every Tuesday I work at a school in Matsusaka, I really enjoy going there and it makes a nice change (as they usually keep me very busy). I get irritated though when I arrive at 8.15am and if I don't have any lessons I sit there all day only to stay til nearly 6pm because I'm helping out with English Club, practice for the STEP test and at the moment I hold a class for the students going to the UK next month on a homestay after school.

The students this week were practicing for the performance they're going to do when they're in the UK. I couldn't believe it - we were going to practice their dance for 1 1/2 hrs! I definitely don't mind having to stay late if we get to dance! The students are practicing a dance that class 3G did at Ohka last Sports Festival. I was really impressed at the time and it turns out it's some really famous Japanese dance and I should have known that - don't know how but I should have done.

Mo (ALT at Matsu ko) wisely sat the dancing out. I say wisely because I'm in so much pain today, it's getting gradually worse, I can barely walk to the other side of the teacher's room to get to the kettle my legs ache so much! But it was fun and the students are going to be practicing every day - I actually wish I could join them.

Here is a picture of 3G doing the dance last June.

I love Nagoya!

I spent most of this weekend in Nagoya, I spent more money than I had anticipated but it was all worth it for a fix of 'normal life'.

Shopping

On Saturday afternoon I went shopping for all those little things I'm never going to find in Taki-cho; Body Shop moisturiser, nice cards, taco shells and weetabix. I think that was about it as I managed to avoid Gap and Zara. I went to a cafe and drank good coffee and ate delicious food. In the foreign food store I even managed to find this:-

This is exciting because aromatic bitters are what makes a 'long vodka' a long vodka. Now, most people don't know what they are anymore - they don't even know in 'the Basement' anymore. It's sad. But I was very happy to find it in Japan, needless to say I didn't buy any 1) because of the price and 2) I'm leaving soon and I have a bottle of this stuff at my parents house and I've had it for 5 years and there's still only about 1/5th of the bottle gone.

Miwa

I took the train to Beccy's house where we hung out, drank wine and Tomo made us nabe. Beccy and me decided on impulse to bike to a karaoke place near (ish) her house. I had so much fun, although it's hard doing karaoke with such a small number of people - you have to think of songs that you can sing all the time and there's no opportunity to just sit back and watch other people make fools of themselves for a while.

The Boots

So when I was at home at Christmas, I bought some new boots. I love them. They've the best boots ever. They broke. I had to walk around all day with safety pinned boots. Sorry to Beccy and Tomo about the rage I was in before I left them - I guess screaming wasn't really helping the matter and thanks to Tomo for trying so hard to fix them!

Atsuta Jingu

I decided to go off (in my safety pinned boots) and check out Atsuta Shrine. I had a really nice time strolling around and it was a nice change in pace before heading back into Sakae.

Kane

In the evening we went to see Fiona's play. It was brilliant and amazing. Enough said.

Team Teaching, Okinawan Teachers and Palm Readings

The students are completing this activity where they have to ask each other what food they would like to order and then write down their partners response. After a while I shout over the class 'why have some people finished and others haven't written anything yet?! Come on!' Then the teacher says to me 'erm, Helen sensei, well, I told the students that sit in odd numbered seats to remain seated and the others to go around and ask them and then they'll change roles. So half of them won't have written anything yet'.

Got to love team teaching!

Sometimes I understand a little of what the teacher says to the students in Japanese but I usually just switch off - I wish they'd tell me what they've told the students, especially as I just presume they're directly translating the directions I'd given in English and am oblivious to the fact they've told the students something completely different!

In other school news, we had a special open day today where teachers from all over Japan (including Okinawa and Aomori) came to check out school and our cookery course. As part of this the students made lunch for us all for free. My school rocks.

And in my second year class we did palm readings for their last lesson (which by the way I'm totally gutted about as I'll never teach them again), according to my palm reading; I'm apparently very smart, I'm going to live a long time, I'm going to have MANY romances but at the same time I'm going to marry young!! Am destined for a life filled with extramarital affairs then oh and almost forgot - NO money as well!

Valentine's Ball

On Saturday it was the Valentine's Ball, in the morning I went to have my haircut in Tsu. I find getting my haircut in Japan a little strange, well like everything else. To start with they always wash my hair, then completely dry it and then cut it. Weird. This time they then proceeded to wash it again. Weird. But then they gave me a head, neck and shoulder message. Great.

In the afternoon I rushed around getting ready and putting up the decorations. Jade gave me a lift to hers so I could quickly get ready before meeting everyone for dinner. But then I encountered a disaster of epic proportions - I had a white bra on and I was wearing a black dress. There was nothing for it I had to go home and get a black bra. Jade thought I was crazy, we were due at dinner in 25 mins and I live 20 mins away but I went anyway. I'm driving down the country back roads only to discover Jade's car doesn't have any petrol in it. Great, I'm going to break down in the middle of nowhere, in a black ball dress - with a white bra on! But I made it back to Matsusaka and was only 15 mins late.


The Ball was great fun, I had a really great time but am still very jealous that the girls got to go to Hokkaido this weekend- I'm pleased they had a good time though!


















I haven't got too many photos though as the batteries in my camera died and I lost the spare ones! Here's one of Jade and me though at Takaya.

Sam's Birthday Meal

It was Sam's birthday on Sunday so we went out for dinner on Friday night in Tsu.












Sam's chocolate pizza - would have been delicious; almonds, chocolate, icecream but it had cheese on it too. It wasn't good. But we should have known better, it is Japan after all!!

What could have been .....

Thanks Dave for coming up with this brilliant picture!

Who needs Hokkaido?!

It can't be helped ...

At the moment I'm supposed to be in Hokkaido instead I'm sat in the teacher's room. To cut a long story short, our flight to the snow festival was cancelled due to snow! We decided to cut our losses, get our refund and go home. Jade, Dave and me went for the most amazing dinner followed by purikura and wine at Jade's. We were surprisingly high spirited to say our trip had just been cancelled.









At the boarding gate. So close ....









Dinner afterwards.

Have Changed my Mind - Birthdays are Great!

I am of course having a lovely birthday - why would anyone not like birthdays?! It was a moment of madness I was having yesterday!

This morning I got up early and phoned my family. In the UK it was still the 1st Feb so when I was speaking to them Dad's and my birthday was at the same time and not Vinny's and mine. It was lovely speaking to them and I opened my cards whilst on the phone to my brother.

I was having a nice cup of coffee and then Mart phoned, it was great catching up with him for the first time in a few weeks.
In school, Kobayashi sensei, Noda sensei and Nagashima sensei ushered me into the photocopying room, where they sang Happy Birthday and presented me with the nicest dessert/cake and a lovely Japanese style bag.

I'll have the classes after school but am planning on just playing games with them - am sure they won't complain!

After I finish teaching I'm meeting Nigel and we're going for something to eat.

This weekend I'm off to Hokkaido for the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) and despite having a weird dream about it last night I'm sure it's going to be a once in a life time trip!

AND I got loads of lovely cards, emails, texts and pressies. Everything's great :)



Here's the card my Mum made me!

Birthday Blues

I have just read over this and it's a load of self-pitying nonsense (just thought I'd tell you that before you start reading ...)

I know that as things go this is pretty trivial but it's my birthday tomorrow and I can't help feeling a bit sorry for myself. OK, I know I'm getting too old to expect anything special from my birthday. I'll have had 23 of them by this time tomorrow and everyone has birthdays it's nothing of any great significance! It's just this year the whole thing is making me feel quite homesick. Primarily because (for those of you who don't know) my Dad's birthday is today and I also share my birthday tomorrow with my brother and he's 18 this year. I can't believe I'm missing my brother's 18th birthday and giving him a flash present doesn't make up for the fact I'm not there. I know he hasn't got anything too special planned but that's besides the point!

I wish I was at home and I could go for a nice Sunday lunch somewhere with my family this weekend. I wish today I was at home getting excited for tomorrow night; planning what to wear, drink, eat etc instead I'm sat in the teacher's room being gradually intoxicated by the kerosene heater and putting off all the planning I need to do. Tomorrow when I could be having dinner with my family or friends and spending the night dancing in the Page, I'll be teaching kids half the evening instead :(

I'm being stupidly idealistic, in reality if I was at home then I'd be eating Sunday lunch alone - my brother is actually away for the weekend on an orientation and my parents are going to Manchester. I wouldn't be going out into town with all my friends tomorrow night because hardly anyone actually lives in Carlisle anymore and to be honest it's about 6 years since we last went out for dinner and then stumbled along to the Page for my birthday anyway.

Despite knowing all this though ...... I so wish I was in Carlisle this week at least I'd get to see my brother on his 18th birthday and I'm sure I could have dragged Sue and Kate out to the Page tomorrow night!