Saturday, May 05, 2007

The other Wan :P

Hey hey!! looks who's back!! ^_^
Well not really, still haven't got internet in my new place so I've taken to using internet cafes :) a bit of a drain on the funds but it must be done!
So since I've been away you've all missed out on a few bits and bobs. First we should start with one of the symbols of Japan. Namely Sakura (read previous post for what that means :P) This time around I had some friends to spend this festive event with, and it was a lot of fun :) sitting under the Sakura trees eating food and drinking beer, lots of beer lol The weather was kinda windy which ruined it a little as we couldn't stay out too long, but on the whole a great time was had d(^O^)b
After that there were some goodbyes to say. First was because one of my companies schools closed so I had to goodbye to some students. Not all of them I will miss hehe but here's some pictures of the ones I will.




These two are Riri and Momoko (I just called her Momo :))) ) Riri took a long while to get used to me and at first was hesitant to even come into the room. She would even cry in class occasionally :( but I won her over and after we had a lot of fun. Momo was just great, a keen learner and she had a good memory to boot. A joy to teach and I'll miss them both.

More recently saw the departure of probably my favourite student :( It's the one on the left. Her name is Takako, She's 8 years old and she was in a word perfect :D She was smart always happy and smiley, and she would do what ever you tell her do no questions asked. The perfect student ^_^ She's leaving because soon she will have to get ready for a school entrance exam, plus she has ballet as well so she just won't have any time to study English :( Her mother told me something nice, dunno if it's true, but Takako didn't like studying English before she came to our school :))) Since she's been here she has been with one other teacher than me and I think I7ve had her the longest so I played my part in that :)
From the saddness of goodbyes to the happiness of holidays!!! yeah!! (^0^)/
The week just past was a big national holiday week called Golden week. I remeber last year I didn't get up to much so this year I was determined to do as much as I could!! (with in reason lol) First up were a few parties. One was for the sorry souls... I mean new teachers who joined us this year :P Which was a lot of fun plus it was held near my home so I could walk it back in the morning :))
The second was a house party for all the teachers, new and old.
So what did I do with the rest of the week? Well apart from sleep till midday everyday ;P

I managed to visit the Aquarium!! Very cool! it was serene and peaceful.
The animals and fish were lovely and entertaining. I'll definitely make my way down there again.
And last but not least I finally did it. You know!! If there's one place you gotta go in Japan!! no not Tokyo!! no not Osaka!! :P Kyoto!!! The cultural epicentre of this country! :)) And what a place too! I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the city centre which was very gray and colourless. But once I got out of the centre I really warmed to the place. So what's there in Kyoto? temples!! temples temples temples!! and shrines too ^_^
I visited two temples in my stay. The first was Ginkakujin which is in the north east of Kyoto. The bus was packed silly (as were all buses that day) and took about 40 minutes from the main station to get there. The temple itself is quite big and overall it was pretty good as temples goes.


The second was Kiyomizu which is in the south east. The bus ride took like forever to get there!! The roads were packed to the brim with cars :( When I finally got there I had to walk up quite a long hill to get the temple, but it was worth it ^_^



This temple was a lot bigger than the first and because there was a climb to get the view was absolutely stunning. You can see over most of the city and all the way to the other side where there are some more mountains.




There are quite a few different buildings and there's a nice walk in and then around the back which allows you to get a good view of the whole place.






Overall I really liked the place even though it was packed with tourists lol Will have to make a return trip to see the other 100 temples :P


So that's my lot, back to work next week and we'll see what happens then. Take care all, ja ne.

ooohh one last thing for fans of DAI and Tomiko Ban(she's sssooo fine :D) here's a picture and video taken when she was in Nagoya for a radio interview,laaaattteerss!!


S

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