Sunday, 30 May 2004

First Kids Class

Has my first kids class today and I loved it! I wish I could do kids lessons all the time!

It was a one-on-one with a kindergarden boy and he was a star pupil. Followed instructions and loved the lesson!

In the afternoon I sat in on one of Sally's lessons. Her boy was a bit nervous at first because of another adult being in the class but he lightened up towards the end and we both ended up getting really competitive with each other in the kiddy games. Cracked me up. I think I have an 8 year old rival!

Saturday, 29 May 2004

Words can't express...

... how traumatising last night was. Remember that scene in Lost in Translation with Bill Murry and the old man with the bear? Think that and add kissing on the hand (several times) followed by prolonged LICKING on the hand followed by my telling the man to "Fuck Off!" with a STUDENT sitting next to me for the majority of it and most of the passengers on the train giggling.

It's worse than it sounds.... TRUST ME.

p.s. At least the worst is out of the way now!

Tuesday, 25 May 2004

Exploring Omiya

I didn't do much this morning at all though in the afternoon, I headed into Omiya to pick up an SD Card for my mobile phone (so I can transfer photos to my laptop) and see TROY at the Omiya movie theatre.

I was really hungry by the time I got there so I headed to the top floor of the main plaza and checked out the restaurants. Found a great mexican style place that served Italian food (?) and had the best pizza I've had in MONTHS. The staff were really nice and spoke a bit of English and even gave me a general direction to the theatre (the other side of the station).

After eating I went to the ground floor and bought my SD card. Very cheap and 61 megs!

I then went in search of the theatre but instead found a beautiful walkway with trees and little shrines on each side. It kind of reminded me of that main path in Hyde Park. Lots of people were walking dogs and riding bikes. It had a very relaxed atmosphere. I wouldn't mind moving to Omiya so I could be near this walk!

The walk was very long and eventually became a larger path with lanterns on either side. While I was walking, the lanterns were lit (electric) and made the walk much more enjoyable. Soon there were ponds, and more shrines. Very nice. I stopped at a vending machine to get a bottle of water, and at this point I decided not to see TROY and simply explore this path some more.

Eventually the path led to a huge temple (apparently on of the largest in the area) but it has closed up. I still managed to get a few photos though.

Monday, 24 May 2004

Kids Training

Had Kids Training today in Kasukabe and it was really fun! We basically spent the whole day playing games and looking at cards! I can't wait to teach a class on Thursday!

Saturday, 22 May 2004

All organsised

Well it took some shift swapping with three people and moving on of my weekends forwards but I now have about 12 days off for when Mum and Roger come to visit. I'll still be working half the time, but too much of a good thing can be bad for you, right? ;)

Thursday, 20 May 2004

Postcards Away!

Remember those postcards I bought at Ueno on my 3rd day here? Well I finally wrote on them and posted them about an hour ago! If you want a postcard, email me your address and I'll see what I can do! Sending 5 postcards overseas cost ￥350. Not bad!

p.s. Could someone send me Dale's address? I don't have his on me!

Wednesday, 19 May 2004

Shibuya Shopping

Well I headed into Shibuya today for some shopping, and while I had some further frustration with trying to find a place to sit down and eat (it was raining and the park was full of homeless people) I had the best day I've had in a long time!

I found a comic shop that supplies American comics (didn't have the regular Witchblade series though) so I picked up the latest Transformers and a few others that I don't think Dale is getting me.

Plus, just when I thought that I would have no luck in the clothes departement (most clothe stores here are REALLY bland, mostly white and tan shirts... think GAP on a mass scale)I found this store called The American, and if I wasn't saving up for when Mum and Roger come visiting I would have bought almost everything! They had the hats I've been looking for for over a year, great, original shirts and jeans (I picked myself up a cool multi brown pair of jeans which I had never seen before)... even the thongs/sandles were cool! I think I'll buy something there every pay day!

I also found a VERY cheap (cheaper than Australia) shoe store and got a new pair of black shoes for ￥2000! (about AU$20!). Because it's the rainy season (apparently this lasts for a whole month) I came to the conclusion that walking around Japan would be a bad idea when one of my shoes looks like it had lost a fight with a machete.

I finished off the day with a Mocha Frappuccino and a lemon cake at Starbucks while reading a comic. While I NEVER drink Starbucks back home, I've found myself drinking it a lot lately. The names are all in English and I basically know what I'm getting though it does taste slightly different due to the milk (Aussie milk all the way!).

Saturday, 15 May 2004

Coming Soon....

Finally fixed the site!!! Don't worry though I have everything written on my laptop just waiting to be uploaded!

Posts coming soon!!!

Wednesday, 12 May 2004

...

Just chilled out today at home. Slept in until midday and then checked out three of the shrines/ temples near my appartment. Got some great pics, which you can see below.

Tuesday, 11 May 2004

Sunshine!

Headed into Ikubukura again today to check out that 60 floor shopping centre, the Sunshine. While it does indeed have 60 floors, 57 of them happen to be offices so really it's a 3 floor shopping centre. ;) A bit of a disapointement though there was an amazing view from the top floor, which is an observation floor with a 360 degrees view of the Kanto Plains. It was really amazing as you could see the edge of the plains where the mountain ranges start. Saw Tokyo Tower (still much small than everyone thinks it is) and saw where Mt Fuji is on a clear day. Today wasn't clear. Maybe one day I'll see Mt Fuji!

I also checked out the Aquarium which is about the same as most aquariums but had rediculously small tanks for the animals (like Ueno Zoo). It was verging on cruelty.

Oh, on a side note, the elevator is one of the fastest in the world, and goes about 1m per second.

Also enjoyed the 7 floor anime store opposite Sunshine and the Ghibli (pronounces Jibli apparently) store in the Sunshine where I bought a minature stone statur from Spirited Away for my mobile and the anime movie Laputa, which I hadn't yet seen. Am about to watch it now. Looks great!

Before I headed back home I finally saw Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, all in Japanese with no subtitles. Great visuals and all the computer screen readings where in English (in the movie) as were the credits so I walked away with a feeling I understood some things that noone else did. They had terrible service at the ticket gate. Only 5 people in front of me and it took the woman about 20 minutes to serve them! Drove me insane! All these technical things she had to do like check their student cards, verify the movie (about 10 times) and all the while speaking through a microphone system to the customer who is only one metre away! Only took her seconds to serve me. I said the movie name, gave her the cash and then she started talking and talking and talking to me.... I just walked away and up to the theatre. If I ever meet her boss and find out that he speaks English, I'll be sure to complain.

Sunday, 9 May 2004

Had a great sleepin today and decided to have a home day watching movies and relaxing and washing clothes (almost run out!). Just watched the first two Lord of the Rings films back to back. Found it really refreshing watching a huge dose of English film for a change. Just makes me feel at home.

I also got to check my email thanks to Tim this morning on his laptop, though I didn't send as many emails as I would have liked.

Saturday, 8 May 2004

Good Day!

Today was like every other work day but Dad actually called me at work (on my mobile)! A great suprise though I had to ask him to call back later as I had seconds to plan a lesson.

During the day in one of my lessons I asked a student who lived in Sengendai, if he knew of any internet cafes and he did! I checked it out after work and it blew my mind! Over 70 computers, a no smoking zone, interior design with plants, statues and free drinks (the best coffee I've had since I've been in Japan!). Computers have plasma screens and the work! Dad rang me again when I was here so we had a good catch up.

I pretty good day!

Friday, 7 May 2004

One Month!

As of today, I've been in Japan for exactly one month! Man, has it gone fast.

Anyway, today I had "follow up training" in Ikebura, about an hour and twenty minutes train ride from Takesato. I'm definitly going to come back here on one of my days off. Tim says there's a 60+ floor shopping centre there. I saw signs for it but didn't get a chance to check it out. I only really had an hour there before my training started.

The training was pretty basic though the grammer test was a bit rediculous. Who in their right mind knows what a "perfect present tense" is? I got 16/25 which is about what everyone else got as well. I don't think it holds much weight in my employment with Nova.

Got to catch up with a few guys from Orientation and my earlier training at Omiya and grabbed a few phone numbers.

I've definitly got to do some more exploring around Japan. I'm thinking of changing my roster so I get 3 free days a week. That way I can go on more substantial trips, maybe up north or to a few islands.

Tuesday, 4 May 2004

P! I!....?

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've simply been too busy with work and teaching myself Japanese to post. Plus I have no access to the net at the moment (this is being written on my laptop to be posted at a later date) so that's a sort of motivation killer.

Work is going great. I can now make up a lesson within 5 seconds! I almost missed my first lesson the other day. I had a break in my fourth period after 3 lessons. For some reason (lack of caffeine) I had thought (in my 3rd period) that I was in my 4th. Naturally I went for a walk to get myself and others coffe from Starbucks. When I got back everyone was freaking out asking "Where have you been?". I zipped up to the lesson immediately. I was only about 10mins late and the students didn't seem to mind. In fact they thought it was pretty funny! I was told later that almost everyone has done this at least once, so that made me feel better.

These past few days have been a kind of Hell for me as I typed my PIN number incorrectly at an ATM (I swear it was right) and consequentially got my key card universally banned (my Jap account) so I can't take money out. What makes this even more fun for me (feel the sarcasm) is that this week is Golden Week so all the banks are closed for the next seven days! I should be able to apply for a new card on Friday (the 7th). Right now I'm living off VISA transactions which is almost impossible since no ATMs accept VISA withdrawl. I've been told the ATM at the postoffices accept VISA withdrawls but they might be closed for Golden Week.

Godzilla!

Had today off and decided to head into Ueno to see Appleseed or Innocense (two anime movies that look excellent!) but couldn't find a cinema that was showing them there, so I went to Tokyo for the first time. Couldn't find a cinema there at all but did stumble across a Godzilla exhibit with models from almost all the films! I got one of the security guards to take my photo. The first one he had had his finger over the lense, and the second one was out of focus which is almost impossible with my phone as it has an autofocus and I was standing completely still! Asked a regular guy to take my photo and I took one of him next to a Godzilla on his phone for him.

I got very frustrated when buying lunch in Tokyo. There's a HUGE foodcourt but no seating! It's insane! Where does everyone eat their food?!?

Finding the Studio Gibli store made me happy though, though I didn't buy anything there. Think I'll head back and pick up those Princess Mononoke tree spirits though. I also came across the Pokemon Centre but it was the same one I had found before! Strange thing was there was a line around the block to simply shop there! Pokemon is REALLY popular here, even after 7 years! I just heard the first Pokemon Theme Park is opening up next year. I've got a feeling it'll do very well. Can't wait to see it either!

Monday, 3 May 2004

$$$

Two things made my day this morning; I got a letter from Pam (thanks!) and the ATM at the post office was open and worked so I got some money out! The rest of the day went pretty much as usual. Just hyped to have cash again!