two.wans

Miscellaneous Information: Logitech USB microphones compatible with Singstar

2009-12-23T10:06:00.004Z

I had previously tried using a Logitech USB microphone included with Karaoke Revolution on PS2 with Singstar on PS2 to no avail so I assumed that this was the case with the PS3; although I had a suspicion that this was not true since PS3 games like Rock Band have been patched to improve hardware compatibility. It turns out that my suspicions were correct! I tried using the standard Logitech USB microphone included with my Guitar Hero World Tour on Wii with my new copy of Singtar Motown on PS3 and it worked! No need to buy a set of Singstar microphones unless I want to stop pursuing a solo singing career! :p

Note that the Rock Band microphones should also work since those are also Logitech USB microphones.

WCCF 08-09 part III

2009-11-23T15:56:00.006Z

This post is about a defender who was with Arsenal for a long time but left in the summer for Manchester City, Kolo Touré:

WCCF 08-09 part II

2009-11-19T17:39:00.006Z

My second post about WCCF and this time highlighting Arsenal's main English representative, Theo Walcott:

WCCF 08-09 part I

2009-11-12T22:04:00.007Z

With the release of newest incarnation of Sega's World Club Champion Football I thought put up some posts of cards from the game. First up the present captain of the best club in the world! Francesc "Cesc" Fabregas Soler:

Test Post

2009-07-30T10:35:00.001Z

This is the first post from my phone!

N
Sent from my iPhone

Six Films

2008-07-14T12:21:00.002Z

I used to watch films in the cinema and at home quite regularly but life has often taken precedence in the last few years so it was refreshing to have some time to spend in darkened room over the last couple of weeks! I saw five films and here are my brief reviews:

Iron Man ****
I'm a fan of the character and was looking for to the film so it was a relief that it was not a disappoint. It was your usual Marvel comic book adaptation but there was a surprisingly good amount of humour and a great turn by Robert Downey Jr.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ***
I'm also a huge fan of C.S.Lewis's books and as with the first film this was a disappointment. It is certainly better than the first film but something is clearly missing from the series or perhaps it's nostalgia that's clouding my judgement. For one thing the interpretations of Peter and Susan are different to the way I remember them with the latter being incredibly petulant; perhaps my memory is failing me. On a positive note Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes, who play Lucy and Edmund, are both fantastic and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of them in Voyage of the Dawn Treader; a book I really loved and remember vividly having seen a stage production as a young boy.

Kung Fu Panda *****
It's a pretty simple film but perfectly executed in every way; it's clearly the most beautifully designed and animated of any of Dreamworks efforts with great slapstick humour. Perhaps one might say it doesn't have a lot there for the adults but do there always have to be knowing references for an animated film to work?

Wanted **
Another simple film, there really isn't much plot but the action is great and very, very violent.

Hancock ***
This film has an interesting premise and plays with it very well for the first half but once the major twist is revealed it starts to loose steam. It is still fun and I found the ending satisfactory but one is left feeling there should have been something more to it; I would normally expect more of a bombastic finale.

The Forbidden Kingdom ****
Jackie Chan and Jet Li face off for the first time and it's a fabulous confrontation. I really enjoyed it eventhough it was a pretty straightforward coming of age tale with an American teenager lead. There were lots of references to Hong Kong martial arts film including in the soundtrack that conjured up images of those films combined with the more theatrical "Crouching Tiger" tunes.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

2008-06-26T09:04:00.004Z

I've been a fan of Spider-Man for a long time; I started out buying the UK monthly publications in my tweens but they were only compilations of slightly older stories. After finding out about Forbidden Planet in my teens on Tottenham Court Road I started to collect the US publications but in recent times, aside from the films, I've not really followed him. A couple of months ago I stumbled across a clip on YouTube of a Spider-Man cartoon that I'd never before but it turned out that the series was new and had only started in in March. It's called The Spectacular Spider-Man:

In the West, cartoons and comics are seen as childish but in the East both are just another tool for artistic expression. In the East they're better known as anime and manga and they deal with a huge variety of themes for everyone of all ages. I must concede that western perceptions have changed a little over time with the advent of modern comic book movies and the greater exposure of western audiences of Japanese animation and manga.

The series is in a children's TV slot but it is well written and aimed at a very broad audience. The dialogue, ideas and themes can be appreciated by everyone. The series follows Peter Parker's career from soon after becoming Spider-Man and is based on the original comic book stories from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the creators of the character. It's fun to watch with a simplified art style but very fluid animation allowing for very dynamic and energetic action sequences.

If you're a fan of Spidey I would highly recommend checking it out! Personally I think it's much better than the series from the 90s:

Movies to look forward to...Part 1

2008-06-25T11:19:00.003Z

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would start with something simple. I'm big fan of Pixar and their new film WALL-E looks particularly good. It looks absolutely gorgeous and the characters seem incredibly likeable from the snippets in the trailers and featurettes:

It also looks like a lot of fun and oddly I feel more anticipation for this new one than I have for previous films from these talents guys and gals. It's out on the 18th of July in the UK.

The Second Coming!! maybe :P

2007-07-29T12:12:00.009Z

Hey hey fffffiinnally an update!!! lol :P wwweelll I thought it was about time, it's only been like about 2 months since the last one!!! haha Ssooo what's up you ask? Life and all that jazz, I won't bore with the complete run through but I'll try a match of the day highlights like rundown (^_^) Work's been work albite a mite busier than this time last year :S A lot more full days which is good for the company bad for my beauty sleep heh

Been playing a bit of badminton but haven't for the last 3 weeks due to other arrangements. Tennis is pretty good. Almost there, but still need to work on a consistant flat serve and get myself a backhand return :) Weather is getting barmingly hot now and I'm expecting August to be an absolute killer :(

Watched some good movies recently. The first being Die hard 4.0 which was a lot better than I thought it would be (thanks Zulfi for recommending that one :)) ) The second being Harry Potter 5 which was very good I thought. Not much happens but I thought Daniel Radcliffe put in a very good performance and feel he's getting better as an actor.

On to bigger things of which there are four.
1) 1 week in The UK - If you didn't know I had a short stint back in the mother country :)) It was short but sweet. I didn't get meet everyone that I wanted to (due to a few cancellations you know who you are!!! :( ) but the friends I did meet I had a great time with :) It was nice to be home and everything was very nostalgic. I don't know what I was expecting about going home after a year away, but nothing much changed lol A few new licks of paint here and there a building knocked down and a new one put up :)and of course there was the english weather heh I managed to get two and half days of english summer sun which was a result!! the rest of days were the kind of weather that I had grown up with all my life. Grey cloudy and sometimes, not always, wet :P

2)Japanese festival - This is something I didn't get to do last summer. One because I was in Indonesia for a large part of the summer, and two because I didn't have as many friends here in Japan. A year on and I do have a few now :P and so I was able to go to a Japanese summer festival yesturday evening.
A Japanese festival means girls usually dressed up in kimonos or just dressed up, and guys in Yukatas or casual hehe The main event however is the fireworks. A strange concept, fireworks in summer when you're used to seeing them while freezing your butt off outside in the UK winter time heh, but one could get used to it :)) luckly this was one of the times I remembered my camera and remembered to use it lol I had on 'fireworks' mode and the results are quite interesting. Try to work out what the thing is in the centre of the explosions rofl. Unlike the fireworks displays in the UK which last only minutes, Japanese like to go overboard and the thing lasted over an hour amd was almost constant!! very impressed I was :) Needless to say there were a lot if people who came to watch. The roads were full of cars and streets full of people, but everyone was polite and civilised which was lovely to see. Might go to another one if time permits.

3) + 4) Nakashima Spa land and Summer Sonic - The last two titbits are small and so can grouped together. The first is a proposed trip to Nakashima Spa land next week which should be fun. It's a big water amusement park here in Aichi and will no doubt be full of bikini clad girls......not that that's the only reason I'm going :P
Will try to remember my camera for that one ;-P. The second is that I'm going to go to Osaka in August for the Summer Sonic music festival, which is the biggest music festival in Japan. Think Glastonbury but without the rain and mud and set it in the city in sweltering hot conditions lol.
Think that will warrant the bringing of a camera too :P

So that's all folks, guess it'll be another 2 months before another update lol or not.
ja ne

The other Wan :P

2007-05-05T08:44:00.013Z

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

Review of Sunshine...

2007-04-10T14:40:00.000Z

...I found a good review of Sunshine, that includes spoilers, that match my own feelings about the film:

The Register

N

Wiiiiiiiii...

2007-04-10T13:43:00.000Z

A predictable heading but I thought I'd mention that I finally got my hands on a new Nintendo Wii console! It's been a bit of a nightmare buying one in the UK because it's sold out everywhere, including the online stores; as soon as any new stock arrives it's sold within hours if not minutes! In the end I ordered one through Gamestation's online store and using the Wii Pre-Order website; I still have my Comet pre-order and the damned discounted vouchers I planned to use... :S

On the subject of playing the machine itself, it's a lot of fun although there are far too many short and simple games available at the moment. There aren't many titles that you can sink your teeth into aside from The Legend of Zelda (7+ hours in at the moment). Scarily the mushroom in particular appears find the boxing game in Wii Sports very satisfying...

N

Visual Entertainment

2007-04-10T13:28:00.000Z

Easter weekend was first time in a long time that I've been to see 2 films in the cinema in quick succession. There hasn't really been much on lately so the last time I'd been was when I posted last.

On Friday I watched watched Blades of Glory, a new film from Will Ferrell, and on Sunday I watched Sunshine, a new film from Danny Boyle. Both had pretty good reviews so there was some expectation when the lights went down. Luckily they were both excellent and exactly what I had envisioned. The former being a predictable and silly comedy that didn't cross the line of being just plain stupid; the latter was a very serious and slow science fiction "thriller", although the mushroom would probably question where the thrill was to be found. I've not watched 2001 properly but I would probably compare it with Sunshine in terms of style and pacing.

N

It's about time (^_^)

2007-03-22T10:53:00.000Z

And so here it is FFFIINNNAALLLYYY!!! another post from yours truely :P
Well I thought it was time, since my last post was way way back when lol
I decided to wait until now to conincide with a very big event for me. Namely moving to a new flat!! wooohhooo!! :)))
Will be moving to a flat in Fushimi which is in the heart of the city. I have a friend who is kindly renting it to me for a lower than normal fee. As you can imagine living in the centre would usually cost a bomb, but not for me hehe :P
Today I've been cleaning and packing. Can't believe how much dirt you can find in a place as small as mine!! rofl :S
Anyway it's as clean as I can get the place without going at the place with a sander and sanding the whole place down!! Packing as well, really can't believe how much stuff you can accumulate in 1 year f(^_^; bemusing!!
So any news? Well there was a certain slightly big event that happened this month.
MY BIRTHDAY!! (^O^)/ which was really cool and managed to spend it with a whole lot of good people I'd met over the year.
Other than that unbelievably it will soon be my 1 year anniversery in Japan!!!
Wow doesn't time fly by heh I've decided to stay another year but will definitely be making an effort to visit the mother country sometime during the year ('_^)
Sakura (cherry blossoms for the unenlightened few :P) will soon be blooming and the sight of drunken Japanese people having picnics in parks will become common place :P Last year I only had Kwok to spend the time with, but this year I have a few groups I can go with, so I'll be able to experiance the phenomenom in its entirety
v(^_^)v
Times a wasting and I gotta have dinner before giving the place another look over. The moving people will be here early tomorrow morning so I need my beauty sleep as well (^^) When I move to my new place I won't have internet access so it'll be quiet from me for while until I do. Or I might be lucky and have an unsecure wireless network near me tum ti tum (^_^) ja ne for now.

S

British Films and American TV

2007-02-05T15:37:00.000Z

Wow it's been a long time since I last posted but I think I'm going to make it a regular task from now on; although the posts will probably be shorter to make the whole thing less daunting!

I saw "Notes of a Scandal" at the weekend starring Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett; an finely acted film, interesting and slightly disturbing. There is a good synopsis and review written by Roo on the British Born Chinese discussion board.

There are a lot of films out at the moment but very few that I think are worth spending £8+ to see at the cinema. One that perhaps might be worth seeing on the big screen is Hot Fuzz; a film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. I've not the previous film although it looked pretty good; I just haven't got around to it. The new film looks like a lot of fun with some good comedy and action; so something a bit lighter than last weekend's film!

On the TV I'm watching Heroes, a serialized American show about "mutants". It's a bit like X-men, specifically the more serious and realistic storylines from the comics, but without the spandex. It's one of those shows where you are on the edge of your seat and can not wait for 7 days to pass before seeing the next instalment!

N

The dawn of a new age....well a new year anyway (^^)

2007-01-11T14:50:00.000Z

Happy new year!!
新年快樂!!
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!! \(^O^)(^O^)/

Sssoo first post of 2007!! wwooohhooo!!! a sad face and wave goodbye to 2006, where a lot of things happened for me. Not least me moving country :P Whats it been now?
9 months going on 10!!! wow time does fly f(^_^;
So how was new years for you?
It was an okay one for me, I was on an island not so far from the one I'm on now. A mite smaller but just as lovely of the name Hong Kong you might know it :)
Was a fun time all in all, spent a lot of time with my family over there. Mainly my cousins who thank whole heartedly for putting up with me before my parents arrived.
Was great to see my parents again and to know somethings never ever ever change hehe.
Bro as well and we just fell into the groove that brothers do, not many words but we know what we're on about lol
As well as people from the same bloodline I alse spent a good amount of time with some friends who had gone over for their holiday. 2 lovely ladys who it was a joy to see again. The first was the camera shy (lol) but delectable Sara (without an 'h') who had to sneak a pic of (not a very good 1 I'll add and she'll kill me later for posting it).
Even though we only met once in 11days (!! (:_;) ) It was still great to see her and talk to her, but the larger part of the time and my phone bill was spent texting her. In proper English text style, which I miss alot since I'm quite the text fiend hehe.
The 2nd of the two ladys was the delightful Ling who I can count as quite an old friend. We spent two sunny talkative days together. The first day we went to the peak, which nearly didn't happen because of silly me going to the wrong station (>_<)
We took the tram up which you can see in the background of the picture with us both in it. The day was quite windy (hence the messed up hairdo) but it was still very popular with us having to wait in a lllllooonng queue for the tram. But it was worth it, it being a very clear day with not a cloud in the sky, we were able to get a great view of place.
After coming down from the top, we had dinner with Lings' 'loving' parents. A private matter not to be divulged on the interent but an amazing insight into another persons life other than your own. I was also able to see the Ling family house in HK which was quite the impressive abode. All white with fish under the floor and a snooker room to boot,sweeet (^^).
After a little stop we then went to find a good place to drink, it was new years eve after all :)
We went to lui yun gai which was overcrowded as expected and then to tsim sa jui (sorry cant spell :(( ) which was just as crowded. In the end new years was an underwhelming affair. Just not the same without seeing someone puking their guts out on the street :P but the atmosphere just didn't feel right, didn't feel like new years :(
The next day we went to Disneyland, which was a first ever for me v(^_^)v. A very nice day and spectuarly hot!! felt like summer!! honestly I got a little of a tan!! :P 'small' was the word used by Ling like a hundred times during out time there, compared to the other disneylands. Their were some nice rides but you got the impression the place was made purely for the younger kids. Highlight was the last show which was a live rendition of the Lion King. An all singing all dancing show which made want to go see the stage show :))The day ended late with us walking and talking into the night. Miss you lots Ling Ling :)
The rest of the days were spent with my parents and family, shopping, eating, walking ,eating some more and of course eating some more again :P So I leave you with some random pictures and some pictures of my last night in Hong Kong spent eating at the Famous floating restaurant.

My cousins (left to right-Jun Bong,Yiw Yun and Kai Hong)

The floating restaurant we ate at, then my mother brother and father in front of said restaurant. Then my ikle cousins left to right, Katie Amy and Jenny :)

Lastly the whole family bar the littleuns (because they were too tired aaww (^^) )
Have a great one!! ja ne

S

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

2006-12-24T14:43:00.000Z

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 (^_^)

2006-10-30T01:13:00.000Z

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 :))

2006-10-01T14:59:00.000Z

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

2006-09-03T08:42:00.000Z

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

2006-08-23T01:53:00.000Z

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!!!

2006-07-28T03:26:00.000Z

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

2006-07-20T11:29:00.000Z

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

2006-07-20T11:16:00.000Z

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...

2006-07-09T12:51:00.000Z

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...

2006-07-06T11:12:00.000Z

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)

2006-07-02T13:55:00.000Z

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

2006-06-27T01:43:00.000Z

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...

2006-06-21T12:48:00.000Z

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

2006-06-12T08:53:00.000Z

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!!

2006-05-31T14:48:00.000Z

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!!!

2006-05-31T03:46:00.000Z

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

To infinity and beyond!!

2006-05-15T02:14:00.000Z

Hey hey all ^_^
So not much happening in the posting department, because to be honest nothing new happening at the moment lol
Think I've settled now, getting used to the system and people around me and the area I live in.
Been paid as well!! Woohoo!! loaded!! not!! :P
First few months I wont get full pay, because I have to pay off the money for the bedding which they got us at the begining, but hey I got money!! Woohoo!! Now what to spend it on? hehe
Last week was the first week of my 'proper' schedule, as I may have said before. For the last few weeks I've been covering various teachers, and been traveling to a lot of different schools. Now, finally I have a fixed schedule with all regular students. All except Wednesday where one of the teachers pulled a sickie. So the head of staff, Gareth, decided to take my day, and shift me to the other teacher's day. Now a quite a few of the other teachers have told me that Gareth is a bit lazy and I from this incident I can see why. My Wednesday being a pretty empty day, and instead of letting me get to know my students, he takes my day and moves me to the busier schedule of the sick teacher :/ Well he's a good guy so I let him off.
Other than that, the only other thing to happen last week was a belated welcome party for Scott, Julian and I the new teachers to Nagoya. It had been pushed back due to Julians late arrival (2 weeks ago). We went to a very nice a popular restaurant chain call Murazaki. Basically lots of finger type food, with a lot of variety. A bit pricey but recommended :))
Yesturday I played a bit of Tennis, and officially joined the school, paying for 6 lessons in advance. The session was pretty good. Forehand is getting more solid and I'm begining to give it a bit of whack as well. I like the fact my strokes are the most extreme they can be. Not just top-spin, but super top-spin!! hehe. Backhand is a joke though :(( I seem to tighten up on it and dont follow through properly so it just goes everywhere bbbooooo. The session finished with a game which was cool. I said before I've been practicing my 'twist' serve which will be my 2nd serve, but I havent really practiced my banger of a 1st serve. So I decided to try it out in this game. 1st serve banger 2nd serve twist serve ^_^ Managed to get two bangers in.1st one was the best!!
Absolutely pummeled the ball and the it landed about 1 inch from the middle line!! The guy barely moved to react to it!! saiko!!! :D 2nd one was to the same guy, I saw he had moved towards the middle to cover the line, so I sliced it out wide and got him as well :P
Well I'm off to the main office to get some work done, then I'm meeting someone I've been emailing for a bit. I got some emails ,from the Nagoya international centre, of people (mainly female :P) who wanted a language exchange. I thought I might as well, as a way of meeting new people, so I've been emailing a few people and I'm meeting one of them today for coffee. Wish me luck!! teehee gambarimasu!!

S

Final Round!!! Fight!!!

2006-05-07T07:38:00.000Z

Nnnooooww then now then, now we're up to date it's on to todays action packed day ooofffff???
Housework :P
Up to the present time, I've managed to iron all my clothes and clean up the flat ^_^
I also got to watch some Badminton on my phone while ironing. At the moment there's a womens team event happening in Japan. The match I watched was China versus Holland. China rolling out 3-0 winners *sigh* really missing Badminton :(
Also got to watch some golf as well, and am now writing emails and other bits and bobs.
Tommorow is lesson planning day and then it's back to work on Tuesday. Life goes on eh?
One thing of note, is that for the whole week I've been out and about, we've had some perfect weather, sunny and pretty hot to boot. Today being the first day in a long time, of me staying in, it decides to pour it down. Looks like it's making up for the the whole week of good weather. It's seriously raining cats and dogs here, and hasn't stopped since about 10am :(
Ah well always look at the brightside and all that.
Ja ne

S

Three for one!!

2006-05-07T07:06:00.000Z

After the events of Tuesday, Wednesday was spent playing a bit more Tennis.
My tennis is moving along, still needs lots of practice but I am getting better if a bit slowly :P.
Thursday then was spent participating in another first for me.Watching a Baseball game. Football is okay over here, but the Nagoya team isn't particualarly good. The Baseball team however are very good, and are at this moment 2nd in the league to the Tokyo Giants.

(Tis a very bad pic I know, and this was when I really really hated the fact I don't have a good camera *sigh*)
Our seats were pretty good and you could see most of all that happened. As for the game itself, it was very enjoyable. The game peters in and out, with the begining being a duel of the pitchers, and not much in the way of hitting. the 2nd half picked up and we had one home run (from the opposing team bbooo!!). In the end the Chunichi Dragons (Nagoya) ran out 3-1 winners yay!!.
A very good day out and will probably go again ^_^.
On to Thursday, and a bout of trekking in the countryside. Alex, Brent and I took a train from Nagoya station out to a place called Sekigahara near Gifu. It's the place of a very famous battle, which resulted in much of Japan being united. Before we took a look at the battlefield and the touristy things there, we decided to trek it up one of the mountains of which there were many.
Starting at about 11 we trekked for about 2hours, going seriously offroad at the end.

(1st and 2nd pics-A shrine we saw on the way up, 3rd pic-Brent and Alex taking a break, you can see from the growth around us that we were deep in there, with no walking path in sight)
Following our little adventure in the mountain, we met up with a student of Brent and Alexs' who lived in the area called Sai. However we didn't just meet her, we met up with her,her friend and her family!! lol!!
Anyway with their help we managed to go round and visit the important points in the battle.

And last but not least Saturday, which was saw me play a little bit more of that game were you hit the ball over a net :P
Today saw the problems I have at the moment with the game. My game just seems to swing up and down. It started with my serve completely messing up, with me hitting everyone on my frame :( very annoying. And ended with me serving two aces in one service game, and finishing the other two off with a serve volley each time. At the moment I'm putting a lot of work into my serve. It's really my second serve, as the first serve will just be a blaster. This serve is the one only twist serve!!! haha and it is a proper twist serve, it's side and top spin together. Still need practice but it's coming along and when it works it really works ^_^ The rest of my game just needs hitting practice. I need to practice hitting it at full pelt and getting a feel for the ball.

S

The Traveling thing (Golden Week mega update!! Part1!!)

2006-05-03T11:14:00.000Z

Hhhherrreess Simon!!! ^_^
With a MEGA update for ya :)
Ssssoooo for my first bit of traveling in Japan we have to backtrack to Tuesday. When two other teachers (Alex and Brent), and two receptionists (Ayumi and Chikako) went on a day trip to Kobe:

Kobe is a port city very close to Osaka. We took the Shinkansen from Nagoya station at 8.46am, arriving at Shin-Osaka by about 10am. After arriving at at our destination there was only one thing on our mind. Food!!! :P So where else would we head to? But Chinatown of course!! lol!!

(The last pic is of Alex and Brent (haven't got any of the girls, but I will be getting photos from them which will :P)).
Thing to not about China town in Kobe is that its China town but not as we know it. Shops are very small with limited space, so most of the selling and eating takes place in the streets. An interesting and tasty experiance :)
After filling our bellies we went off to see some tourist spots. First up was the port. Kobe port was destoyed in an earthquake in 1995,resulting in many deaths.

(1st pic-Kobe port tower, 2nd pic-Prototype electromagnetic ferry,3rd pic-An old ship,4th pic-The museum,5th and 6th pics-damged parts of the port which shoe the damage caused)
The port has been rebuilt since and there's a lot of information there detailing the events of that fateful day.
After that we decided to visit the european houses town. Confused? well basically it's this town built ages ago to house important european visitors. The town has a house for a lot of european countries including Holland, Germany, Denmark and of course England. The houses are built to a european design and i think to a style from that country too.
We went round and saw most of the houses, and even climbed to the top of the mountain.

(The view from the top, if the closely at the third pic you can just make out the port tower, we were at a short time ago).
The last thing to do was of course to have dinner, and sample the local speciality, Kobe beef.
Leaving with a once again full belly, we headed home via the now familiar Shinkansen :)
I leave you with a pic of the shrine at the top of the mountain and also of a building plucked straight out of the mother country.

S

The Tourist thing

2006-04-30T13:09:00.000Z

Hey ho again,
Another day another update ^_^
So the day started off nicely with some spectacular weather, and a nice sessoin of Tennis. 2nd lesson and still much to work on. Groundstrokes are a bit wishy washy, don't have the same control over my shots as in Badminton. I can't seem to hit it gently, either I hit or I don't. If I try to hit it nice and easy, it just balloons or it goes in the net :(. Volleys are my best shot, apart from a few miss hits they're ace :P Today we practiced smashing which I can do in Badminton but Tennis is another matter. Another shot to work on, but I'm enjoying playing.
On a side note I decided to see if I could play with contacts, and it turns out a can!! yay!!
I have had contacts before back in UK, but for some reason(either they were dodgy or something) I couldn't play Badminton at all with them. I couldn't seem to judge the distance to the shuttle properly while in flight :S.
Anyway after Tennis I had thought to go see the Nagoya castle, but I forgot to check when it closes and only looked after Tennis which finished around two. After that I had lunch and did an errand and it was 3, with Nagoya castle finishing at 4 I decided against it. So instead I decided to try the tourist sites around Sakae.
First I went to see the Oasis21:

It's a platform which you can go up and walk on. Also theres shops on levels which go down below it.

1st picture is what on top of the platform, 2nd is the view from the top :) At that moment it started to cloud over so the pictures aren't as good :( 3rd picture is of the bottom floor where there was this bike show.
After that, I went for a walk down Hiyasa-odori park, which is this big long park down the centre of Sakae:

It's split up with roads between each section. In the centre section there's a large space, where on Sundays, it seems to harbour a big market of somesort. On another note there always seems to be some form of music or another, usually there's a lot of buskers around, but instead of the buskers you get in the UK, you get a whole band busking!!
Today there were a few around, but there was also this small percussion group who were playing some latin beats, and had a few people dancing along with them (2nd picture).
I sat down in the park for a bit, and some Japanese revision done. Then I spent sometime in an internet cafe and headed home ^_^ The End ^_^

S

Just a quicky

2006-04-29T02:53:00.000Z

Yo peeps,
So just a quick and short update today.
First a little information about a nice phenomenon here in Japan. There's a few second hand shops over here, but the biggest and best of these is call BOOKOFF.

They also have other branches, I've seen another one for clothes which I can't remember the name of, and one for games and toys called HOBBYOFF ^_^ (original name init?)
Anyway in BOOKOFF you can find 2nd hand CDs,DVDs,Videos and (for those who haven't cottoned onto it yet) books!!
Now I like a good read as the next person, but the thing that has really taken my fancy is the Manga section!! which is massive!! and each one for 100yen (50p). Basically I could buy a whole series for hardly anything!! For example Hikaru no go is 23 volumes so I could get it all for 2300 yen which is just over a tenner!! ssswweeett :))) Just a thought now, because I'm kinda skint and saving the pennies but will definitely invest in some when I have the dosh.

As for moi, 1st day of the golden week break and I'm spending it at home. Doing housework and stuff. Gonna try and get the TV to work today, and also gonna sort out my Japanese notes and get some revision in. A nice thing that happened this morning, one of my neighbours (a nice Japanese lady who always says good morning to me), decided to stop and have a chat with me ^_^. Was very brief as she was heading off but still very nice. Ja ne

S

T-minus 1day till holiday!!

2006-04-27T14:02:00.000Z

Hey hey another update arent you all lucky? ^_^

Ssssoo backtrack to Sunday and I had my little does of Tennis. Which was very enjoyable. Felt good to get up and running about and hitting something with a racket lol. The instructor was a nice guy and he attempted to speak to me in English and I attempted to speak back in Japanese :))). The lesson itself was all in Japanese and though I only caught bits and pieces I was able to participate quite thoroughly. At the moment my groundstrokes still a bit dodgy, specially the backhand but my volleying is ace!! Tim henman eat your heart out!! teehee looks like my badminton skills to transfer a bit then.
*Interesting fact about me - I was part of my schools Tennis squad and played the occasional match. I also used to have lessons at David llyods Tennis centre in Chigwell through junior school*
Will have another trial lesson this Sunday as well, then I gotta see if I wana join up or not, probably will but need to get paid first :/
As for the week, its been a pretty nackering week all round. Only one regular day this week, the rest have been covers and they've all been full days finishing at 9 or there abouts.
Classes are going quite well but I'm averaging about 50/50 on kids lessons, one bad then one good and so on. Adults I would say its about 70/30. Still work in progress me O.O
For those in the know, and have had teaching experiance, I would share a thought. I think for me teaching is much like performing or even acting (especially with kids). I was never one for acting and hated Drama classes at school, so its strange that I have to do it for a living. Difference between teachers and actors and that, we are also directors and have control of how everything plays out ^_^ well just a thought.
Anything else to say? well just got me self a TV!!! yay!! for the grand price of 3000 yen, which is about 15 quid, not too shabby I think :P. Ja ne.

S

Finding nemo

2006-04-22T12:25:00.000Z

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!! ^_^

haha haven't been much for updating for a while, been kept busy with various bits and bobs.
Think I'll scratch this diary thingy I was going for as it's getting a bit old, and just do general updates from now on.
So what's been happening?
Work obviously and lots of it. Last week has been a bit on the heavy side, I've been covering this guy called Douglas's classes, and they're all full days :/. Got the same thing this week so will be glad when the next week is over. Doublely glad actually, why you may ask?
Because then its a holiday!! yay yay!!
*Interesting fact about working for Shane - You have no paid leave days and can't really request leave unless you got a good reason, instead we get every public holiday in Japan*
This coming holiday is called Golden week (should be known to those who watch anime :P).
So far I've got planned a day trip to Kobe with a few of the teachers and the receptionists. And got some sessions of tennis lined up with one of the receptionists called Mayumi, who likes to play.
Yes I'm playing Tennis, can't be helped I'm afraid as so far I still can't find any where to play Badminton. I've still got a lead on possibly one place, and I keep seeing people with Badminton bags around town, so it does exist. As for Tennis, I've also signed up for a trial lesson at my local Tennis centre tommorow. Thought I might as well as I haven't got much else to do, and I'm itching for some excercise. Will post how it went soon as I can :)

S

Reflection time

2006-04-14T14:09:00.000Z

Wednesday
A nice and easy day, with my favourite receptionist and one of my favourite students at the moment :)))
Had to get up early again, like most of the days this week, because I'm trying to get my AR card done. This time I went to the office to get a certificate which I can use to open a bank account.
While waiting for the bus I took some pix :P:

They are of a shrine in Ueda.
Lesson was fun, and I followed that with a Taiken which wasn't too bad either.
The day ends in Parco and a new student called would you believe Aki!! lol Wednesday is Aki day :P

Thursday
From the relaxed to the busy, I decide to try and get everything together to open a bank acount. By sheer luck I bump into the head of the Japanese staff, and she offers to help me. Result!!
So after a long a slightly painful process I manage to get me and account yay!!
After that its work and a whole day at Parco. The day ends up being one of the most fun days I've had teaching and the day went down without a hitch ^_^ shame this day is a cover as I like the classes on this day and was starting to get a really good repore with the students. Next 2 weeks I'm off somewhere else, fingers crossed I can come back.

Friday
Another easy day starts with my 1st lie-in in a while. I clean the flat and get some washing done, lessons starts at 1 and was a nice relaxed one. Met a new receptionist and she happens to like to play tennis, and was nice enought to tell where I could find places to play. And even said i could join her and her friends sometimes which was nice.
Day ends again in Parco and I have one taiken lesson, was supposed to have two but the other was canceled because the person couldn't make it. Lost of free time today so I spend it planning my lessons for next week, I have an observation next week, so gotta make sure I plan properly :/. After work I decide to join some of the other teachers for a quiz night (even though I'm shit at quizes). Saying that at the end of the night I end up winning the thing!! lol though I have to say most of it was down to m partner :P

So ends my 2nd week of work, and now the third week I've been in Japan!! Almost a month!!
Thoughts so far? I like I like!! Nothing I can really say I dislike at the moment. Though one of the teachers told me this theory on how working in another country works, and that its usually takes on average about a year to get used to a place. First there's the Honeymoon period where everything smells of roses, then after that your supposed to have the 1st of 2 breackdowns where you hate everything, then its okayish then another breakdown then your okay with most of everything. So that would make me in the honeymoon part :)
Dunno if thats going to happen with me, but time will tell. Feel like I'm fitting in quite well, and not feeling out of place or anything. Still much to do and plenty to see, so you could say things can only get better ^_^
*Interesting fact about me - I'm an absolute pessimist and always think the worst will happen, which why I usually carry an umbrella with me even if its sunny. So when things go well I'm always content*

On and on

2006-04-11T15:01:00.000Z

Monday
So first day of the 2nd week of work, and get to cover another teacher in Parco (seems I own this place as I always seem to be here lol). The day was a pretty nackering one, a full day including a Taiken lesson due to it being a setsumeikai week.
*Shane school info - So setsumeikai is basically campaigning. At the begining of a new term we offer free demo lessons to people to get new clients. Taiken is the name of the lesson*
Nothing much to say about the day except in my last class there was this super kawaii gal :PP (*sigh*student so shouldn't really go there, but hey my DOS is getting married to a former student of his!!! lol!! ah well probably won't see her again anyway as it was a cover).

Tuesday
On to today and the weather had again turned nasty on me. Seriously wet and windy to boot aaahhhh reminds me of home :)).
As I had a late start for this morning I decide to try and get my AR (Alien Registration) card done. Which meant a long and annoying journey some far off office in the middle of no where, only accessible by bus in the frickin rain :(((( Well really want to get it done as soon as possible, so had to be done.
The rest of the day went ok, but my first kid class went out of control, as all four of my kids seem to have taken E, because they were super duperly hyper, and was a nightmare to control them. Was glad to see the clock say it was the end of the class :/. The next kid class I had, one of the girls started crying a little, didn't make a sound but i could see some tears, think she thought I was picking on her a bit. Managed to rescue the situation with a good last game, and the lesson ended all happy phew!! Still need to work on this kid lesson thing. Gambarimasu!!!

2nds out round 2!!

2006-04-11T14:41:00.000Z

Hey ho and another catch up session. The excuse? been catching up on my beauty sleep ^_^

Saturday
So a pretty exhausting weekend starts with me exploring more of Sakae. I set out to check out some digital cameras and mobile phones. Of which I must say there is a lllllaaarrrggee collection :P
Didn't end buying anything, want to wait until I get and account and more importantly get paid!!! before I decide to but something. After a heck of a lot of window shopping, I decide to find a place to get my fro cut. After an unsuccessful search round, I decide to ask at one of the Shane schools I work at, the one in Parco, as I was in the area. With the help of the recptionists I was able to find a place, and the freak out weirdest thing is, that the person cutting my hair happened to be one of my students!! :S I remebered that two of my students had said they were hairdressers, but I didn't ask where. The shameful thing is that I forgot her name!!! and I had to sheepishly ask for it again :////. As well as a haircut I also got it dyed because I thought I might as well, and I had a very good conversation with my student, name of Aki by the by,and a pretty kawaii gal to boot :P.

Sunday
The next thing on my checklist was a look for a place to get contact lenses. I go to a place one of the teachers recommended, but they end up not doing contacts at all :( but they happily tell me where to go to get some. So after much thought I decided to dive in, and go for a eye test and see what they say, and end up buying some lol well I get paid this week should be ok :S but my thought on the matter is that I might as well get everything done now anyways, because it can only get busier as the year goes on.

So not a very eventful weekend, but muchos tiring as I had to speak a lot of Japanese, on Saturday to the hairdresser (and student), and on Sunday to the optometrist.

Shumatsu!!! (weekend :P)

2006-04-07T14:48:00.000Z

Hey hey long time no blog, and the reason for that is because I been pretty knackered these last few days, so heres a mega update for ya'll!! :)
Wednesday
Strange day this one, only had three lessons, but due to the nature of the company you have to work 6 hours so, if you aren't working then you still have to be in the school for the required time. First class was in a place called Nonami. A nice looking place. The lesson was nice enough, and after that I spent the rest of the time talking to the recpetionist, a very nice woman called Tae. She happens to be the same age as me, married unfortunately, but we had fun time talking about various things. The next lessons were in a place called Yaba Cho, in a shopping centre called Parco. Its the newest of the schools and looks it. Most people don't like this school due to the location, and I have to say the 10th floor of a shopping centre is a strange place to have an English school.
Thursday
This was my busiest day. I had a full day of classes starting at 1pm and finishing at 9pm. The whole day was spent at the Pacro school, which I had been to yesturday so I had no trouble finding it. All the classes were adult which was cool, and meant that preperation time wasn't too long. At the end of the day I was pretty much drained, and as soon as I got home I headed straight to bed.
Friday
Like wednesday, today was what is known as a split shift, which means that I spend half my time in 1 school and half in another. This time the first half was spent in a place called Hirabari.
Before that I went to get my ARC card (Alien Registration Card) which is the ID card foreign residents need over here. But ended but being told I had gone to the wrong place, and that I needed to go to another office :( So have to get that done some other day. Lessons today were again all adult so they were okay, but I'm basically following the lesson plans laid in front of me with me adding a few things here and there. Until I get used to the material I can't really do anything of my own. Time will tell.

So it's the weekend!! yay!! so got some time now to explore some more. Looking to see if I can pick up a mobile phone of my own tommorow, will shop around and see. Gotta wash some clothes and get me suit dry cleaned as well, ah well living out eh?

S

The First day

2006-04-04T15:27:00.000Z

Tuesday
The first day of work arrives and I've got a major hangover, what a way to start the new job eh?
Somehow I manage to recover enough to get all my stuff together and set off on time. My first lesson is with a 2 and 1/2 year old girl called Sumika. And she is the cutest thing ever!! and a prefect parrot!! At that age we are not expecting much in the way of production and if you get them to say one word in English its considered a success. Sumika is an exception in that she can repeat nearly all the words I throw at her. She probably doesnt know what the mean, but her pronunciation is good, and she does already recognise some colours and objects. An amazing little girl. One thing that I was told about her prior to the lesson was that she was a bit of cry baby, and that she cried at the slightest thing. Somehow though I managed to get through the whole lesson without her crying!! much to the astonishment of the secretary who also told me she liked to cry. Big yay for me!! :))))
The next class was an adult class full of housewives, a very relaxing and enjoyable class very much like the classes I used to teach back in the UK. The next two were young classes of ages between 6-9. Lost of games were played but I struggled to think of enough games and lots of time was spent thinking of things to do. I need to make better plans is the moral of that story. Then the last two classes were private one to one lessons, which worked resonably well, but again need to plan better.
Well thats the first day over, not to bad I think and fingers crossed I'll get better as I go along.
Ta ta for now

S

Prep day

2006-04-04T15:06:00.001Z

Monday
Back to yesturday and it was the first meeting with my DOS (Director Of Studies), a very nice man by the name of Gareth. A very English English man who's happening to be getting married to a Japanese woman ^_^ he proposed on Sunday in fact, congrats all round.
The day was then spent preparing lessons for the next day, when I would be teaching for the first time. The place where this lesson prep was taking place was a place called Fujigaoka.
Heres a lovely picture of the street where the school is, a cherry blossom road :)

*Interesting Japanese fact: For those not been to Japan the underground system is an interesting prospect. The pricing is based on a single price for a certain distance,one day travel cards are available but most of the time you just buy singles. The longest journey one way is Nagoya is 260 yen, the shortest is 200 yen.*
Heres a picture of the underground map:

Fuzzy but you can get an idea of what its like :P
Monday night was spent drinking with my new DOS and two other Nagoya teachers. Not being the brightest tool in the box I got completey smashed and had to wobble it back home, where I battled with me body to get into some shape in order to work the next day.

S

More Exploration

2006-04-02T08:35:00.000Z

Zuzuku..
Sunday
On to today and the weather has made a turn for the worst with a bout of terential rain :(((
Stupidly I hadn`t bought myself an unbrella yet d`oh!!! after having seen one in the conveniance store yesturday as well!! *sigh* So basically I had to speed walk it to the nearest conveniance store and buy any unbrella I could find lol.
First stop today was the Nagoya international centre. Kwok had told me,the day before, that I would be able to find a notice board with people wanting to offload stuff, and information on various things in Nagoya like Japanese classes. After lots of walking around like a headless chicken (which I do very well since coming here :P) I found the right floor and the notice board too. I also picked up a lot of pamphlets of information about Nagoya (bag much heavier than when I got there ^_^). Wasn`t alot on the notice board but still took down a few emails for people selling stuff. There was section for wanting work and it was full of English teachers :))
There was also a board for language exchange where people want to meet friends to chat and learn another language. Most of the people on there were girls :P so obviously i took down a few. Not that I would use my status as a teacher to my advantage of course,but it might be nice way to meet people ;))
After having a bite to eat I decided to head to Sakae. This I was told was the centre of Nagoya, and I can say that it`s pretty much as you would expect a centre to be.

Lots of tall buildings, shopping centres, big name stores etc etc. Since it was still raining quite a bit, I decided to duck into an internet cafe after a painful conversation in broken japanese, I found out that if you fill out a form you can join and get 2hours free if you show your card :)))
I'm gonna remember that place lol
Didn't get to meet up with Kwok this time, he had to cover a shift because someone called in sick, so he was knackered out. So I ended up going back to Yagoto to do some shopping. Picked a 'few' things and lugged them back to me place. Now sitting home, just had some noodles for dinner :) and have to do some ironing now and read up on some stuff for tommorow when I'll be going in for the 1st time.
Ki o tsukete ne?
Mata ne

S

Exploration

2006-04-02T08:02:00.000Z

Ssssooo after arriving in Nagoya on Friday, I had the luck of not having to work until the next week, with both Saturday and Sunday both off ^_^
First a bit about my new place. The location is again about 15minutes from the station. There is a hospital very close to me (very useful in case of emergencies :P) and a university as well (interesting to look at :) ).
This flat is smaller than my 1st place, but still a good size. The kitchen and entrance are all in one, with the bathroom the door on the right as you enter. After that you have the living room with cupboards for storage. Where do I sleep? up the ladder!!!
(2nd one from the left is me :P)

Saturday
Saturday was spent exploring Yagoto one stop down from where I live. Managed to find a 100yen shop (yay!) and a supermarket called Jusco (those chinese among us might recognise the name).
There were also some old historical parts, a temple i think and a old walkway.

On Friday night I had made contact with an old friend of my brothers named Kwok, and we arranged to meet up for dinner on Saturday.
The place we were to meet was called Gokiso, so I decided to go there a little earlier to explore there as well. We met at 7.30pm and having found that the original place we wanted to go to was completely packed (a very nice looking sushi place) we decided to walk to a different place. In the end we ended up walking from Gokiso to Tsuranami two stops away lol :P
There he showed me this beautiful park, and a proper park not small inner vity one, but one more likely to found in the UK. Only difference being that there lots of Sakura trees!! If you don`t know it the Sakura (cherry blossom) festival at the moment called Hanami. It`s basically a time where everyone gets together and to have a picnic under the sakura trees and get completely smashed :P We bought some beer from a conveniance store and walked around the park.
*Interesting fact about Japan - Coveniance stores are 24hour and they sell alcohol 24 hours too*
The park was a very interesting experiance, with the sight of lot and lots of people so drunk they couldn`t stand up straight. But the most amusing sight was three Japanese business men (in full get up with tie and jacket still in place) drunkeredly playing guitar while singing a song!! Now you`d never see that in the UK, definitely not in Kansas anymore :))). All in all a very entertaining night.

S

Itsuka to Muika

2006-03-31T06:50:00.000Z

Thursday
Last day of real training for all of us, Friday the rest will be writing their first lessons with help from the people at head office. While I'll be hoping on the Shinkansen (bullet train for those who don't know) down all the way to Nagoya. Much to my annoyance this means that I will be missing the party friday night after the session. Drinks and food were all paid for and everything!! Shikusho!!! :((((.
Today was particularly long as we went through a lot of material today. As a consequence not everyone was up for going out. In the end four us decided to meet up just for dinner. We had a chinese, which wasnt too bad, different to the chinese food im used to much less greasy :P. After the meal everyone headed their seperate ways, I said my goodbyes and promised to keep in touch :'(
Feels weird having to leave this place, just as i was getting used to it, and having to get used to a whole new area again. Plus the fact all the others are up here as well :( ah well, always look on the bright side eh? Nagoya here I come!!!!
Friday
Woke up at 7.30 today which seems to be my body wake up time at the mo, even though I'm not telling myself to wakeup at that time.
*Interesting fact about me :) - I have a very good body clock, I just tell my self when to wake up and I will always wake up 1hour before the time I tell myself*
Since I was leaving the flat for the last time, I decided to tidy up the place and leave it as I had found it, except for a rubbish bag with some rubbish that I couldn't get rid of.
*Interesting fact about Japan - Japan has a system where different kinds of rubbish is picked up different days. We have burnable/recyclable, unburnable, and bottles&cans. Each has to seperated into a seperate colour bag and put out on the corresponding day. Unfortunately I had missed the day for the rubbish that I had and so couldn't get rid of it :/*
I had to lug all me luggage to the station from me flat, and knowing that, I set off extra early. After many many many stops I managed to finally get to the station :P
Saw some more Sakura trees while i rested so I took some pictures:

Still amazed at their beauty :). So after a 40minutes I got to Odawara station which is the station you go to to catch the Shinkansen. Bue to a miscalculation however I managed to get there nearly an hour before my train :P so I had time to get breakie. Deciding not to venture too far from the station I found a small Japanese noodlebar and had pork ramen. Very yummy ^_^
After wasting most of the extra time I had I headed to the platform got on me train and headed off to Nagoya, more pix :P

The whole journey from Odawara to Nagoya took just over an hour. Not too shabby if you get to look at a map and see the actual distance :P
Managed to meet my contact, a woman called Hasegawa, at the station, though there was some confusion as to where we were supposed to meet. Someone told me to meet her near a big metal clock, however what they didn't say what colour!!! as I discovered afterwards there was more than one clock, and she had been waiting near blue clock while I was near a gold one :P ah well alls well that ends well, and together we headed to my flat. And after lots of really long and annoying stairs and a very long walk we managed to get to it (with me competely bushwhacked). So ends this post, I'm going to explore a bit while its still light.
Mata ne

S

Mikka to Yokka

2006-03-30T12:19:00.000Z

Zuzuku..
Tuesday
Next up on the agenda is the place I'm training. If you look at the picture, which isn't all that good mind, all of these are taken on me camera phone as I don't have a camera. Really need to get one soon as possible :(. you might be able to see a British flag on the signs beside the building. Well thats where the head office is, on the 5th floor, and thats where all my training takes place.
. Today was a little input, with the rest of the day spent observing other teachers teach. I got to see 1 adult class, and two childrens classes. The children were adorable little things, the first of the two children classe had some really young ones. The teacher and had somehow taught them to accept being hit by luffy toys, and everytime they got hit they would say 'itai' which means 'ouch' in Japanese. Super kawaii!! :))
After we finished for the day, me and another of the teachers called James wandered around Fujisawa exploring. After much walking we managed to find some foreign looking bars and some cheap places to eat :D.

Also got to see Sakura trees for the first time. Utsukushii desu ne? :))))
That night we didn't manage to go out, because quite a few of us were still feeling a bit of jetlag.
Wednesday
This was a whole days of input teaching 10am till 6pm :/. Upside was that after havinf rested the night before we were much more up fro going out this time. So we decided to go to one of the bars we found on Tuesday, and we had our first drink in Japan teehee ^_^ luckly the place we were drinking in had a happy hour thing so it didnt cost us too much, though it seems drinking Japan is comparable to UK. Will have to investigate more thoroughly :P

S

Futsuka

2006-03-28T23:58:00.000Z

Zuzuku....
Monday :)
First a word about the other teachers who went over with me on this journey to Japan. All a very nice a friendly bunch, many surprisingly had never taught before and never been to Japan before!!! a double whammy!! Im only one out of two :P Taught but not been to Japan. Out of the people I talked to, and there were quite a few of us I think about 18 in all, I found two others who had taught before. One of them, Anthony, even worked at the same company I did in London!! Only at a different branch!! strange no? The other one,James, had taught in a few other countrys including Chile. Of the 18 only 7 would be training together. Anthony, Kate, Steve, and Andy were on the plane with me. James and another called Stephanie were already in Japan before the training began.
Next a bit about my appartment. Even though it only temporary it's pretty cool, and the guy who took me it,a lovely guy called Riahcard, said he was jealous because its bigger than his :P I got two rooms, with me

staying in the smaller one because it has the aircon in. Then the 'kitchen' bathroom' and 'hall' are all merged into one really.

Not bad no? wasnt really expecting too much so was quite happy really.
The flat is about 15minutes walk from the station
*interesting japanese quirk - on escalators Japanese do it the opposite way to us Brits, people stand on the left side while the right is for those in a hurry*.
Then to get to where I'm training in Fujisawa, it takes about 5minutes, only 1 stop away. Better than some people who have a 40 minute or even 1hour journey to get in!!
Training is everyday this week 10am to 6pm, work work work!!! holiday this aint!! :P
Monday was a little input lesson, with lots of talking very much like a TEFL teaching lesson for those of you who have done one, and can remember what it was like :)

S

Hajimemashite!!!

2006-03-28T23:36:00.000Z

Konnichiwa!!! From the land of the rising sun!!! ^_^
So here I am finally!!
I know I know!! I'd been saying it for so long that it seemed that I'd never go, but go I did and it surprised a few people, even suprised me!!
Time went by so quickly that i didn't get to say goodbye to everyone, for which i am very sorry for. So we should backtrack to Saturday so we that we start this right.
The flight was 12 hours long, not too bad if your used to flying to place like Hong Kong, so I was fine with it. I somehow managed to meet up with the other teachers even though I wasn't looking for them, which was a stoke of luck. A group of english people talking about Japan, not really too difficult :P
Managed to watch Walace and Gromit which I missed when it was showing around the cinemas. Which was cool, and really liked it :))) a very british movie to send me off. Also got to see a new Japanese film called Shinobi which wasnt too bad but could have been better me thought. Have to say first time flyer on ANA, it was really good. If you havent been you can actually forward,pause and rewind anything on the service!! movies and music!! so if u missed a bit then you can just rewind back!! so much better than having to wait for the next showing on BA!!
We arrive at Narita airport on Sunday 26th at about 4 (had to circle round for a bit because of too much traffic). On arrival we were met by poeple from Shane (the company I'm teaching with) . Weather was a bit chilly, but no where near as cold as UK, easy for us hard as nails Brits :P. Not much to say about Sunday, apart from the fact that the journey from Narita airport to ourside of Japan took us over 2hours by train ::SSS and after the flight we were all pretty much nackered and in serious need of some sleep.
One of the people called Shane took me to my temporary appartment in Tsujido, I'm actually going to be teaching in Nagoya but I'm training in Fujisawa. Got me bedding into the place and after arranging it slumped on the bed and conked out. So endeth the first day :D

S

Shoot, shoot, shoot!

2006-03-10T09:13:00.000Z

I was just surfing the web this morning looking for some information about a Namco game that I saw in HK to do with dragon breeding and found out that Time Crisis 4 is meant to be available from Namco! Considering that my mushroom and I really like playing the previous incarnation I shall be keeping my eyes peeled!

N

Engarde!

2006-03-03T15:30:00.000Z

On a side note I started Fencing again...finally. I'd taken another beginner's course with the local club and had intended to join the club after it had finished but Christmas holidays and work had taken up my time. I'd joined in January and bought some kit (I have my own epee sword!) but only been a couple of times through January and February. Hopefully I will be a bit more regular, especially since I've paid up for the first quarter of the year!

N

A few hours to a month...

2006-03-03T14:56:00.000Z

...well it looks like I've done it again and there's been a delay in putting up a new post! I really am very, very bad at this but I promise to change! Hopefully my brother will start to fill this out too when he's in Japan! Yep he's definitely off this month on the 25th!

So back to the holiday...so originally the plan was to go to Shanghai on a tour prior to New Year but they were all booked up! In fact most of the tours were booked up and it didn't look like we were going to go but we did find one that took place over New Year and we ended up taking it.

We arrived in Shanghai in the evening a couple of nights before New Year and we proceeded to drop our bags off on the tour bus. The tour guide and a Shanghai guide took us on the maglev train that's been built to service the airport. From what I could tell it only has a couple of stops and the service finishes early sometime in the early evening. It was an enjoyable and very quick train ride and if I recall the train did about about 300km/h but capable of more than 400km/h. We left the train at the first stop and then waited for our tour bus to arrive; which had to the usual route through traffic.

The tour bus took up to a restaurant for dinner and we were sat with other members of the tour group. The food was interesting and was typical of what we ate during the remainder of the trip; each evening meal always contained a tasty duck in chinese soup. After dinner the local guide suggested that we go to the river side to see the city lights, since it was still too early to sleep. We wanted to go, as did a few other families, but a few did not and we ended up going back to the hotel. There was not going to be another opportunity to see the evening skyline since that was our only night in Shanghai so luckily the local guide suggested taking us out using the underground system. We took him up on the offer and went out; it was a very cramped train ride in places, even worse than the tube in London! When we arrived and came back to the surface it was a neon paradise and I have to say the lighting of the buildings was quite spectacular; it was very reminiscent of Hong Kong but still very distinctive. It was cold especially since we were exposed on the promenade along the river so we were glad to be wearing warm clothes. After some photos were taken we wandered back towards to the underground station but it was decided that we'd take a taxi; which again resemble those you find in Hong Kong.

It was still not very late when we arrived back at the hotel so my brother and I and our cousin went to play some snooker! When we'd originally arrived at the hotel I'd used an information pod in the lobby to find out what was available and they had snooker, darts, a mahjong and disco areas. After an hour or two of playing snooker we were quite tired and went back to our rooms for a good nights rest...

N

Kung Hei Fat Choy

2006-02-09T10:06:00.000Z

I've finally got around to adding a new post! Yay! However I think it must be the boredom of work that has lead me to making a new addition. I have work to do but there's no pressing deadline so the drive and motivation is hard to come by...ah well there goes that particular New Year's resolutions! ;)

Speaking of which it's also Chinese New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choy to everyone! My brother and I spent it in Hangzhou this year; which I think is somewhere west of Shanghai. The family went off on a trip to HK for the second (or is it third?) year in a row but this time the parents wanted to take a trip to Shanghai. They arranged it at the last minute when we were in HK. Details to follow in another post later today!...

N

A Busy Time

2005-09-09T08:49:00.000Z

It's been an age since I last posted and a lot has happened in that time and not all good.

London was bombed on the 7th of July and almost bombed again the following week. The slightly weird thing about it was that I was actually in London on that day when I am usually in exile in Berkshire (it's not that bad really!), a bit of a coincidence? In fact I was just up the road from where the bus exploded...my other half had a closer call than me, especially since she rides the tubes and buses that were affected! It was a shock but everyone seemed to carry on regardless, that's what you can British and in particular London spirit! The Prime Minister's quick reaction and speeches that day were heart felt and for all his critics I do not think that there is a better leader for our country. The same can not be said of a certain George W. Bush and his fumbling after the floods in the Southern states of the U.S. and in particular New Orleans. He knew that hurricane Katrina was coming, having already hit Florida, and yet when it hit he continued on his holiday and didn't make a statement for 36 hours! It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and there is no excuse for the slow response from the aid effort; they knew it was coming, had ample time to prepare but took days to even start to help the people affected by the devastation. It's a bit scary to think that this is the last remaining superpower!

Achee...breakie...

2005-06-28T07:46:00.000Z

After months without activity I played Badminton twice in 3 days and it's been an experience of extremes. Whereas the workout late on Saturday afternoon was light and the one last night was intense! I was tired after 30 minutes of running around but I stuck around for just over an hour and am feeling it this morning! Hopefully I'll be able to last the whole 2 hours by the end of the month. The session also brought home the reality that I'm not as good as I thought I was; the club in Reading is quite informal and not at league standard but there are players that are possibly better than me - however I add the caveat that a lot is down to my fitness or lack thereof...it should be an interesting few months to see if I can get myself back together on the court. I'll need to especially with the idea of taking up Fencing again in the coming months floating around!

N

Testing...testing...Hello World!

2005-06-22T23:27:00.000Z

On a whim I decided that I would start writing a blog with my brother. Why write one with my brother? Well we're both too lazy to update a blog individually but would still like to have one to write up random thoughts and ideas. So here we are the start of something...interesting...I hope...

N