So this is Christmas and what have you done.. (^^)

Hey hey look what santas brought ya!!??
An update!!! wwwwoooohhhooo!! aren't you lucky? lol (^^)
So what to say, 9 months in a country I had never been to before.
I don't think I've done too badly :))
This year has been a year of lots of firsts, and next year I think
will be much the same.

One of those firsts being buying myself a
christmas tree, albeit a titchy one :P
There's still so much to see and do I can't even begin. But now is a time of reflection and I can say this has been a great year, I've made
a lot of new friends and had tons of fun even though most of my time spent
here has probably been spent working lol.
Tuesday I'm heading off to Hong Kong, which should be a lot fun. Looking
forward to seeing some familiar faces. I'll be there from the 26th of December
till January the 6th so if your in HK give me a bell, would be great to catch up.






Speaking of HK I need to pack!! rofl ah well. I'll leave you all with a big MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!





and Good night (^_^)










PS miss you all xxxx




S

A Belated Return (^_^)

Hhhheeerrss Simon!! :))))
So finally an update!! and the reason for such a long hiatus? just blame it on old laziness hehe
Also I spend a little more time on these things than your average joe Blog so you feel privileged!!!! lol
Anyway not much in the way of news. So I'll give a round-up of what's been different in the last few weeks.
First thing happened a while back now, but was still
very cool. I went to Tokyo (again!! :P) to see the Tokyo Yonex Japan Open!! Very cool :D It was on a Friday so I took the night bus on Thurday night at 11 pm and got to Tokyo on Friday morning at about 6 am. Man that was a rough journey!! next time I need to bring a pillow!! Was surreal to see Tokyo so early in the morning. Was pratically empty (^^)
Anyway the hall was very nice and quite packed which was suprising, although mostly older viewers I noticed. Here some pictures and video too!!




Got to see Taufik, Lin Dan, and Cai and Yu so I was well chuffed (^-^)
Had to take the Shinkansen back due to having work the next day. Bus is like hlaf the price of the bullet train so if it was possible I would have done that :/
The next week was a busy one, because I only had the one day off. The Sunday was taken up by a spot of teaching training. A tedious affair by all accounts but some nice ideas were given and we made the time fly by with lot of inappropiate jokes :P
That night the other teachers and I spent the night downing beers on school premises haha a good night ruined only by one of the teachers misplacing his ipod video :(((
On to last week and it turned out to be and ok week.
Work was work, Friday I played some Tennis rescheduled from my usual Sunday. The reason? I got to play some Badminton!!! woohoo!! Was so good to play again. Played ok considering I haven't played in so long. Have a mean cross court round the head jump smash now, but the other way is a bit iffy and needs work :/ Also got invited to another Badminton session on Saturday nights by some of the guys, and also to a tournament in November!! Which will be fun to the max!! Playing with an old man so I'll have to play all out and cover all the court but still, fun!! :D
And that's all folks, ja ne from the land of Japan.




S

Some news is better than no news :))

Wwwwwhhaaattt another update!!!??
Yep!! :)) another!! and even though my bro is being a lazy so and so, I am trying at least a little.
So first up anything different to report? well how about a little trip to the Tokyo Game Show!! So this happened last weekend, another teacher named Scott and I ventured all the way to Tokyo for the day to see a lot of gamage and lora lora booth babes!!! Not going to post any pictures here but I've upped a lot of pictures here for your viewing pleasure ;-P http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4050979
The show was very good and packed to max!! ssssooo many people!! you wouldn't believe!! Much to mine and Scotts' disappointment Nintendo didn't make an appearance :((( although some games were there and we were able to see the machin in action, we weren't able to get hands on it and test it out gggrr!!!
Here's a video of a Nintendo wii game called elebits, a wacky game that has you searching you surroundings for little aliens called elebits:

So though we were a little disappointed we were cheered up up by the many many many booth babes :D (see link above) All of which were absolutely gggoorgeous and kawaii as well.
Apart from that not much else to say, apart from a change in schedule this month.
I've mentioned before my problem class was a group of kids in a school in Mikawa Anjo. Well I've been booted out of that school and moved to a school closer to home.
I've been told it's because one of the mothers asked for a different teacher and my boss in the end said yes. On the one hand I'm happy not to face that class again, although it was only the one boy who was annoying, and if he wasn't there I'm sure it would have been fine. On the other hand I'm disappointed not have to have had a chance to work it out. I'm a kind of guy who likes to finish what he starts and doesn't like things half done :/ and a big blow for me is that two of my favourite classes were at that school. A kids class and a high school one both of which I enjoyed teaching immensely. So I'll finish with some pictures from my last day at Mikawa Anjo School:
- The lovely receptionist Kazuko
- Sweet highschooler Natsuki
- Funny and cute Kanako
- My favourite class, from the back Rina,Chihiro,Reo and Yugo. Cute and sweet and all smart to boot a perfect mixture and fun to teach.
- The problem class, from the front Hikari, Konamu and Rena were very nice kids just Kosuke in the back who was a pain
And finally a group of very nice housewives




S

It's aaaalllliiivvveeee!!!! Indonesia Update part 1

hey hey!!
Just another ditty to show that this blog isn't dead, just on a ventalation machine (^_^)
So I thought I'd weigh in a with a little info on the Indonesia trip. I'm still trying to get more photos to post up but I guess I'll just post the ones I've got.
So the holiday was a very good one by all accounts. Indonesia is a a strange country to get to grips with. At once it seems like one of the poorer Asian countries and one of the richest. I was in the Capital city of Jakarta for a total of 10 days.
It's at this point I lament the fact I don't yet have a camera with which to take quality photos with. I'm working on it and will hoepfully have one soon.
The city is a mix of poor parts followed quickly by area with many skyscrapers and massive shopping malls.
In which most of my time in Indonesia was spent :P Before going to Indonesia I hadn't intended on doing much in the way of shopping, but by sods law I ended up doubling the weight of my luggage when I arrived in Indonesia!! lol The malls are wonderful to behold, enormous and imaculate. In all I must have gone to about 5 or 6 different malls all of which were miles better than Bluewater or Lakesside.
Anyway enough about the malls what did I actually do?
Well apart from shopping :P most of the time was spent either playing Badminton or prepearing for the wedding. I played Badminton three days in a row and man was I hurting after!! There was Meng (the groom), Lucy (the bride), James (the pedo :P) and me. We played with Lucys former coach and her students. All of which were supremely good and gave us a good kicking. Better than any girls I know of thier age in the UK. Strong quick and with great touch. It really made me want to play Badminton again, which I had started to get bored with. So my excuse for losing to a bunch of girls is that I haven't played much Badminton lately hehe honest!!
One of the girls, a cute girl, by the name of melee caught the roving eye of James lol and much as he pined for her, nothing came of it but she may come to the UK so there's a maybe lol. Howvever apparently when told by Lucy that James liked here, Melee told Lucy to tell James that she was married hahaha how's that for a rebuff? :D aahhh poor James. Some pictures:
- James in his moment of glory!! and he blinked!! lol!!
- Kickarse girls and the whipping boys :P
More on that later, now a little on the wedding. When I get more pictures I'll write another update. So first thing to say is that James and I actually ended up being 'Bridesmen' now I know what your thinking, what the heck is a Bridesman? and does it really exist? Well we didn't know so we ended up doing it. It also meant that we needed to buy a whole new get up in order to match the Bridesmaids who were wearing pink. So you know what's coming next right? :P yup pink shirts!!
So the upside of wearing pink shirts? the bridesmaids of course!! Two very cute girls by the name's of Grace and Vidya, who James and me got to talk to alot, well mostly me talking but James was there :)))
Sssoo on the the special day itself and after many problems such as getting James out of bed one time, we made it finally to the church. On the way we had a police escort!! something that you could never do in the UK. The church was a traditional style church much the same as any you would find in the UK, albeit a very big one :)
And on that note I'll leave you with some pictures from the wedding ceromony of Meng Tan and Lucy Anindita:
- Vidya :D
- The happy couple
- Everyone assemble!!
- James and Vidya
- Grace and I




S

Short and Sweet

Hello hello,
Just a short one to say that this blog isn't dead, although my bro should really
get off his backside and put up a few more posts :P
I'm alive and well, having just got back from a holiday in Indonesia.
At the moment I'm trying to get my hands on some pictures, and then I'll do a
proper update on the trip.
Anyway it's back to Japan and back to the old grind, so catch y'all later





S

Movies ahoy!!!

Heyo ho everyone,
So Summer is upon us!!!
And I have to say how different it is over here. The weather is bakingly hot and humid to boot, finding it hard sometimes to cope but I'm giving it my best shot (^_^)
The rain season looks like it is over so it looks like plain sailing from here, well apart from the typhoons but they coms later :P
So work has been ok, but we've been having trouble lately with two teachers leaving us for various reasons so there's been alot of reshuffling. Irritating but nothing to be done.
Other than work I been trying to get myself a ticket to Indonesia for the summer to see my friends wedding. And with the help of a Japanese friend it looks like I've got one!! yay!! going to pick it up today.
Bigger news though is this!! I've found some Badminton clubs!! woohoo!! :))))
One I'm going to try tonight, the other is a bit difficult as they play on Sundays and normally mornings, which is when i play tennis so I'm gonna have to work that one out (@_@)
So Summer!! and what does summer mean!!?? movies!!!!
Like my bro I've seen Pirates of the Caribbean the dead mans chest, and I agree it's not as good as the first. The first seems better put together, this one seems bitty but there are still some nice ideas and johnny depp is always good. Worth a go I think. Havent seen Mission Impossible 3 yet but might do soon. Superman isn't out yet much to my chargrin, not even X-men 2!! (T_T) As well as Pirates I also saw a Japanese film with my friend, which was an experiance.
The film was called Memories of Matsuko.It's a Fantasy/Drama/musical hybrid about a woman named Matsuko (duh!! :P),whose body was found by the river side, and tells the story of how she got there.The film is quite a tragic film but there are also moments of comedy and also lots of singing. Somehow I managed to come out of the film understanding almost everything, which shows how much my listening has improved if nothing else lol.
I would highly recommend seeing it, although you might need subtitles :D
So Superman is coming soon, but before that there's one other film I want to see which is Gedo Senki. It's the latest anime movie from Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki. Those of you unfamiliar with their work, and I have to say what have you been doing!!?? Their movies include My neighbour Totoro, Princess mononoke, Laputa Castle in the sky, and perhaps most famous of all Spirited Away which won an oscar.
Although they are classed as cartoons, or more officially animation, I say unto thee!! Go see one now and you won't regret it!! (^O^)This latest one, Gedo Senki, is based on a book series called The Tales of Earthsea which I have read and recomment highly, which gives me another reason to see it. It'll be all in Japanese but that's a challenge and I like challenges :)))
Well It's my off day so I got to get some ironing (oh what fun!!) so I'll leave you be, ja ne.



S

Summer blockbusters

I've been to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 and Superman Returns in recent weeks, the two big Hollywood films this summer, and they were pretty good to watch.

PotC2 wasn't a patch on the first one mainly because it seemed like it was a string of comedy, action or comedy-action sequences strung together without much thought. It was entertaining at the time but it doesn't fair well in the cold light of day.

Superman Returns was also very entertaining, at least for me, and was reminiscent of Bryan Singer's first X-Men outing with many nods to the Richard Donner Superman films. I thought the plot was decent, though the villain's plan was a bit silly, and it was moderately paced; both traits can be seen in X-Men. As with that first action film this one does give a sense of the world and a feeling for the characters and their dilemmas; so overall I was satisfied.


N

Newcastle's sights

Just a quick post and put up some pictures I took up on my 2nd trip to Newcastle.


There appear to be some rabbits living in that bush right in the University of Newcastle grounds!

N

Sssooo here a late update on something I did durin...

Sssooo here a late update on something I did during my little break two weeks ago.
Most of the holiday was spent watching tele, but with both Wimbledon and the World cup on that was a given (^_^)
However one day in the week, I managed to pull myself away from the tele long enough to get out of the house. Once out in the open I decided to see one of the main tourist sites in Nagoya. Namely the Castle.
It turned out to be a perfect day so I managed to got some nice pictures :))

So first we have a long wide view of the whole thing, a picture of one of the smaller parts and one of a map of the place. Thing i liked most about it was it's white :P. The real castle was destroyed in the ar or something, and this is a reconstruction but it's till pretty old.

The weird thing is though because it is quite new, you'll find some strange things. Like...a frikin lift!! lol!!!

*Some more shots of the outside :)*
So what's on the inside you may ask?








Well it's full of displays showing the history of the castle, as well as some old artifacts.



*Swords,swords,guns and armour yeah baby!! :)))*


Lastly we have a shot from the top.

The castle is 7 floors up, so the view isn't too bad.
After having my fill of the castle I decided to pay a visit to the Noh theatre which was just down the road. I leave you with a few pictures from there, ja ne.





S

It's not so grim up north...

I had another business related trip last week and it was in Newcastle; oddly enough it's a quite pleasant place to visit. I had this preconceived notion that it would be very grey and industrial but it was quite the opposite.

My impressions of the city? Well it's feels far more like a town than a city; there are not very many tall buildings and the roads are quite wide which adds to the openness of the place. It helped that the weather was very good, as it was across the country; in fact I found it a bit too warm for my liking.

I visited the Chinatown up there, unfortunately there didn't seem to be very many of the small shops that serve quick meals. Most seemed to be the stuffy chinese restaurant variety. The main street was also not for pedestrians alone; which made the place feel like any other street rather than a small community. I had the usual roast duck and pork rice that was nice enough and came with brocolli.

The first picture should be easily recognisable to all but the second perhaps not, it's the new music and arts hall that is affectionately known as the armadillo. I walked across the rotatable Millenium bridge but forgot to take a picture...

N

When it rains it pours (T_T)

Hey hey,
So ends another tournament for England :((( we was robbed!!!!
Damn that argentinian referee!! (pardon the french)
Have to say in the last few tournaments the situation has always been stacked against us. Either some's injured or gets sent off!! and then we never lose properly, either it'e fluke (ala Brazil) or its penalties (damn penalties!! pardon the french again).
I'm ranting but I'm annoyed and I have to go back to work tommorow. Everything just piles up on ya when your not looking doesn't it?
So a change of schedule starting this month. Off days are now Friday and Sunday. Going to take some time to get used me thinks.
Anything else to update? well weathers still messed, today was torrential rain followed by clear skys (?_?). Tennis is going well (still no Badminton so whats new :(( ). Twist serve is no very close to completion, in the last session I got about 70-80% over and in (^_^). First serve is getting better, volleys are mostly good. Ground strokes are frustratingly inconsistant. Moments of brilliance punctured by moments of absolute spasticness. Much like my Badminton :P.
Anyway gotta look somethings over for tommorow, so caio for. dewa dewa mata ne.

*will give an update of my much belated trip to the Nagoya castle when I have the time*

S

Mini me

Hello hello, and back to the blog we go (^_^)
Just a mini one, so the last month has been pretty busy with a lot of paperwork being thrown my way. I had a load of student counselling and kids reports done by the end of the month.
Counselling is just a talk with the student about how they think the course is going, and how to improve the class. Doesn't sound like much but when you have a good number of students to get through, it does go on a bit (-_-)
Anyway thankfully the last week of the month of June, as in this week, is a school holiday!! woohoo!! so for the last few days I've just been resting and watching the footie and now wimbledon too!!:))) shame about Tiger Tim but he was playing Federer :( Go Murray go!!
Oh something that happened that I thought was kinda cool, while walking around some part of Nagoya, I come across a hachiroku!! a hachiroku!!!! what you don't know what a hachiroku is!?
*sigh* look at the pictures then :P

Even has the black hood (^_^)



S

My return...

I've finally got my arse in gear and returned to the blog! I've yet to finish my account of the China trip or start one about Singapore and Japan so I'll just go right ahead and completely avoid it by talking about my trip to Sweden! ;)

It was my first business trip! I have another to Newcastle at the end of the month. My Project Manager and I flew out to Stockholm on a Sunday afternoon expecting cooler weather than we had in London; which was baking! However the weather seemed to travel with us; it was sweltering in Stockholm the whole time we were there!

We touched down in the evening at Arland airport; which as you'd expect is very Swedish in design being open, wood panelled and square; very different to all the airports I normally pass through. We took the 20 minute express train ride to the Stockholm city centre and walked to our hotel that was nearby.

I'd skipped dinner on the plane because you had to pay and there were only sandwiches available! Unfortunately after dropping our bags off it was past 10.30pm and the restaurants had stopped serving food; we ended up eating in McDonalds who stop serving at 11pm.

The next day we took the underground train to the office. An interesting thing about the underground system in Stockholm is that all the stations look like roughy hewn cavernous passages and not the usual uniformly shaped examples on all other systems I've used; a picture would have helped here! Additionally after 9am, if the ticket office is closed, then you can effectively travel for free! In fact I don't remember seeing any ticket machines; it looked like residents buy booklets of tickets to use on the system.

The food I sampled in Sweden was very good! They eat a lot of fish over there and I had a typical grilled Mackerel salad for lunch on the first day and not as typical roast Ox (?) salad on the second; I don't normally eat a lot of salad but it is the norm for summer.

In the evening of the first day we were taken to a very nice restaurant (pictured), that effectively sits in midair, where the food was excellent. I had a veal dish with potatoes and vegetables, including asparagus, followed by a warm Winterberry and Vanilla ice cream dessert; the berries being a Swedish speciality.

After the meal we walked back to the hotel and we based a motor powered Viking boat for the tourists(pictured). The building in the background was the national gallery or museum, I don't remember which...

We took a taxi to the airport on our trip back and facing a good amount of traffic partly due to the many bridges around Stockholm being bottlenecks; the city is made up of several islands off the mainland with a network of bridges.

My PM had said that he almost always experiences delays with flights and we did this time; due to the storms around London! I usually don't have problems with flights, bar the resent experience of Singapore that I will recount at a later date...

N

Waiting for Big Brother

So here's another update then while waiting for big bro to get off his butt and get in his two cents :P
So lately I've had even less time than usual.
Last week I had parents observing me teach their children. Not the most fun thing in the world to be doing I'll tell you. Nerve racking and muchos stressful. By the end I got a good response from all the parents except one class. Yup you've guessed it it's the problem class in Tuesday.
Not only are the kids hard to control, the parents are also major education freaks. They want their children to be having conversations in English during the class. They're only 6!! and learning two languages at the same time *sigh*Well at least thats over just have to some paperwork then it's back to normal.
Still playing Tennis and looking for Badminton (still!!). Broke my first Tennis string last Sunday. Broke smacking a bullet serve. Break was right in the middle which is cool :D but stringing costs a bomb which isn't.
Another reason for my lack of time, is that I've been meeting up with various people who I contacted for language exchange. So far theres Yuko (a School nurse), Kyoko (a trainee Japanese teacher) and just recently Harue (works for an import/export company).
Met up with Harue yesturday and had a ball. She was born in China and can speak Mandarin. We spent the day teaching each other. I taught her English and Cantonese, and she taught me Japanese and Madarin :P.
Last reason is of course the WORLD FRICKIN CUP!!! :))))
So watched England and what a shite game that was, crouch played shite, but the referee really ruined it for me. Kept blowing the whistle at every oppurtunity :(( And still don't get erikssons choice of substitutes. I understand resting Owen but bringing on another midfielder? the side was just completely off balance *sigh sigh*
Watching the Japanese game tonight with Kyoko and hopefully Yuko as well, should be fun ^_^.
dewa ja ne



S

Update shimashou!!

After my escapades in Tokyo, all that's left to talk about is general stuff.
Work is going well, all except one class in Tuesday which is so annoying now I dread the day.
It's a group of four kids all of which are well above the level they should be. The material I have for them is too basic for them and I'm struggling to control them. The main protagonist however is one boy called Kosuke who I really wana smack sometimes, because he just doesn't listen properly, if he wasn't there I'm sure the class would be better *sigh*
Weather is taking a turn for the better or worse depending how you view it. Strange as it's supposed to be coming up to the rain season soon. June is supposed to be a whole month of rain. However the weather has been very different this year than normal so who knows.
The last few days it has been very hot, unbearably so. Specially if your wearing a suit to work ala moi. Finding it difficult not to sweat buckets and completely ruin the shirt I'm wearing. I'm hoping I acclimatize to the weather soon, so I won't have to be wearing one shirt a day before it needs a wash lol
Only other thing of note, was last Saturday saw a few of us gather for the sending off of one of the students at Shane, who is going to the UK for 6 months. I managed to get pretty mashed up and had a banger of a hangover the next day, and was really not thinking of going to my Tennis class which I have every Sunday now. In the end though I decided to go and was better for it. All the hitting of furry balls really cleared my head and I even managed to smash another wonder ace woohoo!!
Sunday evening I met up with a friend of Nickys in Japan called Kwok, and we went for some sushi and drank some beer in Tsuramai park. All in all a nice day apart from almost dieing in the morning :P
dewa dewa mata ne


S

Tokyo baby!!!

Hey hey!! wwooohhoo an update!!! ^_^
Well have to say been a bit lazy on these now, and the finding the time to do this properly is a bit troublesome, but I'm trying my best.
Big bro should also do some updates but he's even lazier than me it seems (if that's even possible :P)
So whats to say?
Well last week had a nice event in the form of Nicky and some friends coming over to Japan. Being the older brother Nicky pulled rank on me and had me come all the way up to Tokyo, instead of him coming to Nagoya, the bum!! :D
Anyway I didn't really mind as I hadn't been to Tokyo yet. I was only up for two days but still managed to fit in quite a bit.
Big bro and his friends stayed in a hotel called Sunshine City Prince in a place called Ikebukuro.


Coming up on the Sunday, I stayed the night there as well. We were on the 25th floor or something I can't remember now, but it was pretty high up and the view wasn't bad to boot.

First up on this magical mystery tour was Akihabara. For those who don't know, it's the techonological centre of Tokyo, where all the latest gizmos and gadgets are at.
We went looking for a Nintendo DS lite, unfortunately for us the thing was sold out everywhere we went :((((
Next up was Asakusa which harbours a very nice temple and was the reason for our visit.
Leading up to the temple is a street full of little shops much like your local market, but Japanese style.

Here's a load of pictures of the place. 2nd one has a side profile of big bro :P
The temple is quite famous and the thing it is most famous for is a really big red lantern
(6th picture), which is hung up at the entrance.
The last place we went to was Shibuya. Again for those who aren't so enlightened it's the clothes shopping central of Tokyo.

The group wanted to all go clothes shopping, but big gro and I didn't really feel like it so, we parted ways for a bit. And while they were off shopping we found the nearest arcade and got in some quality thumb bashing :P
We ended playing the latest version of Virtua Tennis, called Smash Tennis 3 over here. Very good and will definitely play again when I get the chance.
Dinner was a eaten in a large ramen noodle restaurant, after which I quickly said my goodbyes and caught the last shinkansen back home to Nagoya. The end. :)



S