Study...pah!

Well, having just read my very sensible-sounding last update, I am happy to remind you all that I am still only 25 and still capable of a bit of excitiment in my life!

I had a fun night on Saturday (wooo I'm so crayzee). Went out to celebrate a friends birthday - which started off in Chiba (40 minutes away from home and the opposite direction to Tokyo) - to watch his band playing. They treated us to a nice mix of jazz, rock, and funky numbers which is always pleasing to my ears. Shame about the venue - but we were quickly on a train afterwards heading towards Shibuya in the centre of Tokyo to continue the party. (My friends later reminded me how I was not going to go into town as I was too tired for an all-night event aaahh).

We headed to a club, imaginatively titled 'the room'. The music seemed at first very promising - jazzy house. We later discovered that the DJ was not the brightest button in Tokyo and rarely stole so much as a glance at the party goers or changed his tunes to reflect the mood. It was a little repetitive (now thats not me getting old its just the DJ snob resurfacing in me).
None of this spoiled our enjoyment or dampened our high spirits (gin and tonic please). I danced a lot, and clubbing in Japan is so in keeping with the culture here. Everyone dances in their own bit of space, there is no pushing or shoving, no sweaty tank-topped men brushing past you and not even any stumbling into each other. It feels all organised and respectful. Perhaps the Tokyoites, having to behave like sardines on their daily commute, rightly feel that time spent letting their hair down should not resemble this hummiliating experience.

So with sore feet and tired limbs we stumbled into the still-just-dark but crowded streets at about 6am. The birthday boy mentioned Karaoke and there followed a 2 hour stint of belting out the Best of British and general idiotic behaviour...(since when did I start to enjoy singing and dancing to the Spice Girls?). We would have stayed longer had the karaoke staff not insisted that we leave the premises at what could have been 8 o'clock.

The commute home was filled with our delirious blithering on about the evenings events etc, much to the obvious annoyance of the fresh faced morning travellers.
A cooked breakfast in our pijamas at 10.30 before finally admitting defeat.

I only discovered the next day that I had been cruely videoed....I really do wanna zig a zig ahhhhhh...

Better late...?

Oh dear, I just checked and my last update was in July! Sorry!
Well in August, I went on holiday with my family to Turkey. It was a really lovely holiday. Great place, delicious food, good company (my Japanese teacher joined us too) and good activities. I tried scuba diving, sea kayaking, mountain biking, paragliding, and my favourite, canyoning which was superb, oh and lots and lots of swimming in turquoise sea! Then spent 24 hours at home before flying back to Tokyo.

Since then, it has been full-on. I have moved house (not as easy as it may seem), changed the schools where I teach (still at the same company for now) and been studying really hard. I am taking a Japanese proficiency test in December and consequently spend most of my evenings with my nose in books. It is making sense to me though so thats nice. I will be taking level 3, but for Japanese to ever be of real use to me I will need to take level 2 next year - quite a jump but I want to give it ago! For level 2 I will have to know 1000 kanji including at least 2 readings of each kanji. Plus extra grammar and vocabulary of course. That said, learning Japanese has become my only real hobby here so I should stand a good chance! (such a nerd) It does mean though that I have committed myself to another year in Japan!

I am also in the process of looking for and applying for new jobs. In April when the new academic year starts, I'd like to start teaching high school level. On verra.

So apolpogies for the long absence. Will try to have something more wild and wacky to recound next time but for now, Oyasumi nasai.

Hanabi

This week is summer festival time. On Saturday went to the biggest firework display in Tokyo. Its on a very Tokyo scale - lasting over an hour and with 20,000 fireworks and of course you get to behave like sardines. Since I have to admit, fireworks to me are pretty for a while and then too samey, and then slightly boring, I wasn't really into the true spirit of this festival. And the green side of me can't help but feel its a lot of expense and a lot of unnecessary pollution!
However,I wasn't all bah humbug and since it was a good excuse to get a big group of extended friends together for some beers by the river, I could hardly complain! And the Japanese women who usually dress up in traditional yukata for this season looked very beautiful indeed.
One of my students wants to get me dressed up after school this week in Yukata so there may be some interesting photos to follow...

In other news - I am going on holiday with my family to Turkey for one week starting next Monday. Am very very very excited!

Mt. Fuji

Yessss! I have conquered the highest peak in Japan!! And at 3776 metres, the highest I have ever climbed.
Mt Fuji looks like such a beautiful mountain in all the famous pictures of it - gently sloping, perfectly symmetrical, mystical and colourful. I can assure anyone that it is a whole different picture up close!!
We set off from Tokyo on Sunday morning at 6 after having had very little sleep. Arrived in the area soon after 8 but had to queue at what is known as the fifth station (where most people set off to climb from - at about 2200 metres) to find a parking place. We eventually opted for a spot 2.5 kilometres away - a mere hop skip and jump on fresh legs, which ours were most certainly not by the end!
After faffing around for a while, we were on our way by 11am. Later than hoped and we were not sure we'd have time to make the summit in time to come down before it got dark. However, we did make quite a good pace. It is bloody hard work though. The weather stayed dry for us but there was a terrific wind blowing near the top which would occasionally blow you off your feet and you'd have to redo valuable paces. Its not a pretty mountain - the rock is volcanic of course and either dusty rubble (hard to climb or get a good grip) or dangerously spiky, hard and potentially dangerous rock. Its a real scramble and with the wind so strong, there were times when all you could do was cling to the mountainside for fear it would blow you away. Also past 3000 metres, you really start to notice the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere and towards the summit, it was a real struggle for me to move each foot a small distance. Knackered does not do justice to how we felt!
I had one moment near the top, where we were all on our own (I went with another English woman and two Japanese men) plodding along at our own pace, where I started cursing violently for putting myself through this! One of the guys I was with was doing it for the third time! It was really really tough and I'm not sure what was keeping me going at times!
We reached the summit by 4.20pm - faster than the average 6 hours - which was great. There is a restaurant at the top - and we were lucky to catch it just before it closed (I feel for the poor souls who were battling their way up after us). It is a very welcome shelter and they served us with hot soups, or noodles. Its very Japanese, but it caters for the tourists - apparently during peak season (and Fuji is only open to climbers for 2 months of the year) around 2000 people climb it everyday. So its clearly good for business. It is certainly not a quiet maountin - with people all around you, but we were wise enough to avoid the main masses who try to climb it in the evening and to reach the summit for sunrise. It sounds very beautiful watching the hundreds of headlamps trudge up in a line and to watch sunrise from the top, but I have also heard that you then have to queue a long time just to get to the top - and the way we were feeling when we got there - it doesn't bear thinking about.
It was an immensely rewarding feeling reaching the top though. We were in the clouds but occasionally the wind was so strong it would blow the clouds away and we got a spectacular view accross the valley and mountains below.
We opted out of the extra hours hike around the circle of the crater and set off at a very brisk pace down the more boring route. Its all scree and loose stones - very hard work to climb up but easy to come down. It was endless zigzags on paths that were always the same. It seemed to go on forever and it wasnt long before we slowed right down owing to tired legs. Again it became a battle of wills and it was a case of heads down grin and bear it. My legs were shattered and wobbly, I had a stinking headache brought on by the altitude (luckily I had no sickness) and it was getting late! At one point we took a wrong turn and had to scramble up only about 20 metres height - but at the late stage in the day, it nearly killed me!
It did get dark before we got back to the car and we had to use torches to see our way. Towards the end we were met by hoardes of happy, laughing fresh-legged climbers ready to do it for sunrise - and were able to breathe a sigh of relief that it wasnt us! Plus we reckoned that celebrating with a beer when you get down at 9 in the morning is perhaps a little strange!
We got back to the car just before 9, absolutely exhausted. What reserves of energy we were using for the last couple of hours I have no idea, but somehow you just know that you have to get back to the car. It took us 3.5 hours to get down - a little over the average 3 hours. All in all though it was a full 10 hours out. One of my students had given me a pedometre a while back and I decided to take it with me. We did about 66000 paces that day!
We stayed overnight in a lovely hotel - with our own private onsen (hot spring), massive plasma TV, and most importantly comfortable beds! The beer, warmth, comfort, good food and shelter were very very welcome!

I am really pleased to have done this. I was born into a walking family and climbed Mt. Snowdon when I was three, yet this was really a great challenge for me and feel very proud to have done it!

Spent a short while the next day visiting the surrounding lakes (very beautiful) and gift shopping before heading back to Tokyo. Yattaaaa!

Okinawa

I spent four days on one of the many sub-tropical islands to the south-west of the main Japanese islands, called Ishigaki-jima. We were able to escape the rainy season which had already been and gone there, and which gave way to gloriously stinking hot summer days!
Day one - went for a walk and a quick swim in the turquoise sea. Sampled the local 'goya champuru' made from tofu and bitter gourds - very tasty, as were the pineapples, mangoes, Okinawan doughnuts and local beer. The food there is amazing - really healthy and really tasty. Lots of seaweed, noodles (often spicy) and fish. That evening ate in an Italian inspired Okinawan restaurant. Had pasta and pizza made with local ingredients such as seafood, and a seaweed salad - I had no idea that so many different types of seaweed were edible!
Day two - took a ferry accross the waters to a smaller island called Taketomi-jima. Hired bikes and cycled a quick tour of beach - lovely turquoise waters - restaurants and gift shops. They also have a local tourist bus - which is pulled along very very very slowly by water buffalo which looked about ready to die in the heat! Poor things!
The icecreams were great - sweet potato flavour - which was naturally bright purple in colour, mango, passion fruit, local Okinawan lime, and natural sugar cane flavours. Yummy.
Got a bit of heat-stroke that day as the sun is very powerful there.

Day three - got up and drove around to the other side of the island. We had booked snorkling and kayaking through the mangroves. Snorkling was wonderful - I have neved seen so many tropical fish, including Nimo!! We fed them with a kind of fish sausage. Whe they get bold enough they come up and attack you! My friend's hand was bleeding slightly as a fish misjudged her hand for sausage! The coral was aslo lovely.
Kayaking through mangroves was cool. We were led there by an instructor who told us all about the plants and animals. There were hundreds upon hundreds of crabs on the muddy banks, and also 'Tontonmi' which is a local word for a kind of flying fish - I liked their bug-eyes and the way they jumped!
Had lunch in a super restaurant with great views over the sea.
Souvenir shopping - including the local Shisar - which have derived from the kind of guardians which can be seen at the entrance to temples. The locals on Ishigaki have turned them into wonderfully imaginative and colourful creatures, some of which are very funny. They can be seen on the roofs of most of the houses - they look very playful.
Next a trip into some caves. Nice to do - but the concreted trail, music and fairy lights distracted somewhat from their natural beauty.
Had a Korean barbeque in the evening followed by an hours karaoke - now become a compulsory holiday activity!
Vacated the hotel too early the next day. Set off for a last swim in the sea, a bit of souvenir shopping - including buying the most expensive piece of fruit ever - 6 pounds for a mango - but it was worth it as it tasted amazing! and returned to the airport.
Ishigaki is well worth the visit - the food is amazing, the weather and scenery very beautiful and generally a very welcome relaxing break from Tokyo. I had never been anywhere as exotic so that was also a treat for me.

Rainy Season

It's officially rainy season now which means not only getting wet (of course) but being eaten alive by insects and needing a shower as soon as you've just had one. Everybody here moans about rainy season and I fear I will turn into one of them. One of my main complaints is the sheer numbers of umbrellas that suddenly appear as soon as there is a speck of rain in the air. Here in Japan, it seems, there is no such thing as a raincoat and certainly no such thing as an attitude of "grin and bearing it" ("musn't grumble" !!). Walking down the street is hazardous these days, fraught with the worry that I might at any moment lose an eye.

There, a good whinge always makes me feel better.

Oh no, I have realised that I have another moan coming....I was victim recently to Japan's most common crime - bike theft!! My bike was locked up and parked outside my house when I left it in the evening, but no longer there in the morning. I was fuming! Having got used to such low levels of serious crime and such honesty here (found wallets and other valuables are very rarely stolen and almost always handed in with no money taken), it made me even more stroppy to have fallen prey to such petty crime! Anyway, I have a new one now and a better lock. However, when I reported it to the police (and spent one hour there late that evening filling in paperwork etc), the police had to get me to sign some documents. In Japan though they don't use signatures but rather their own personalised ink stamp. Refusing to accept a signature I was fingerprinted! Apparently it doesn't have the negative connotations that it has in England, but I felt almost ashamed for having to do it in the police station with glass windows open for the world to see!!

Also..went to see The Da Vinci Code when it came out. Was decidedly underwhelmed by the whole thing. Haven't read the book though.
Watched Dragon Boat racing in Yokohama. Although spent most of the time picnicking and chatting on the grass, not watching the races.
Waltched the England football game. I am able to see the early matches which start at about 10pm here, but the later ones are too late for me. Not that bothered but am off to the pub tonight to support Japan against Australia.
Gambatte Japan!

Neglect

Ooops, have left it quite long enough without an update....

Here are the highlights therefore of the last few weeks:

A late evening trip around the main places in Tokyo on the back of a motorbike. That was fun, and made a change from the monotony of trains.

Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. Have been meaning to visit this temple in Tokyo since I came out and was pleased I finally made the effort. It's a very beautiful escape from the concrete jungle and a nice reminder of Japan's history.

Watched Chiba Lotte Marines play baseball (and win). Didn't find the game thrilling, and didn't understand much for that matter, but the atmosphere, the friends, the beer and the chanting in Japanese (or attempt at) made up for that. Worth doing once.

Had a Barbeque by the river with lots of friends. Great day, and also very very hot.

Went away overnight and stayed in a log cabin in the countryside part of Tokyo prefecture. Yes I didn't believe that there was countryside within an hour of Tokyo, but apparently there is. Akikawa river in the mountains is very beautiful and again a scorching day, into the early 30s. aye aye aye. Got bitten three times by a monster mosquito and my ankle swelled up so much it was painful to walk for a few days and still after 2 weeks, I can still see the bites. hmph. Had a nice barbeque by the river though and overindulged as if it was Christmas.

Went to another rock gig, had fun.

Sumo!! Great, great day out. Fantastic to watch those fatboys wrestle. Started to understand the ceremony , rules, history, and etiquette of the whole event towards the end, which did add to the enjoyment of it. Got some great photos too which will show you soon....

That is about it, short but hopefully sweet. Will update this with photos asap but until then bye bye now.

Hanami

Have had two Hanami (cherry blossom) parties - and just for balance, one during the day and one in the evening. Although the blossom does indeed look very beautiful as a white blanket covering up the sky, I have descovered that its not really the main focus of such events and in fact just a cheeky excuse to drink and eat a lot in the outdoors (whilst outwaredly pretending to be at one with nature again).
Last Sunday, armed with our plastic sheets and hampers, a big group of us trooped off to Yoyogi park - which is one of the greenest parks in Tokyo, particularly popular with the younger generation and budding musicians - blissfully ignoring the 'oh so accurate Japanese weather forcasters' in order to drink beer and have a picnic under the cherry trees. Much merriment. (and the rain stayed off long enough for us to enjoy a few hours partying). ha
Then last night went to the more classic areas to enjoy this seasons' favourite trees, Ueno park - which is much less green but still very pretty. Again the same deal, drinking and eating outside. There were more obvious casualties last night and its always a source of amusement to me to see young Japanese women tottering around on high heels, clutching YSL bags, in the middle of the park totally drunk.
ha ha. And so I am told Hanami brings with it the start of a glorious 2 week springtime in Japan with warm and sunny days before its back to the sweltering heat of a long summer. I remember August last year was unbearable and apparently the worst is in July....

Hiroshima

I went to Hiroshima for four days last week. Its a city that needs little introduction, although today it is of course a very vibrant modern city, not solely characterised by its terrible history.

I got up at 5 on Sunday and got to Hiroshima just after 11am! I travelled alone for the first two days and was joined later on by a friend for the second two. I spent the first day going to a couple of art galleries - one was really good, the other a little thin. And I walked around the city a lot, which made a real change from Tokyo where I spend a lot of time on trains not knowing the geography of the place. After a few hours in Hiroshima, I had located the main streets and was able to orientate myself very easily. They do have a local tram, but I found it easier and more enjoyable to walk.

The next day I spent the whole day in the peace museum and peace park. It was indeed very sobering but they have really hit the spot in terms of information, shock value and sensitivity. I think it is a very respectful and well considered museum. There is a lot of first-hand accounts of the bombing, which I found the most powerful, but they were also keen to point out that Japan was not just a victim during the war. The surrounding park is a lovely place - it is very quiet, away from the main noise of the city, very green and has a number of memorial buildings and stones. The most interesting was the Childrens memorial. I didn't know that at the time of the bombing, many high school aged children were outside at work clearing and demolishing old wooden houses because of the threat from airraids. Sadly, therefore they were some of the　worst hit victims. There are a great number of burnt scraps of clothes, lunchboxes and personal items on show in the museum from some of these children, along with testimonies showing how they struggled with horrendous injuries to find their families.

There is one girl who epitomises, in the minds of the Japanese people, the struggle of the children who survived the bomb but who were exposed to radiation and later died of leukemia. A ten year old girl was diagnosed in the early 1950s with leukemia and decided that if she could fold 1000 paper origami cranes (the symbol of longevity in Japan), she would be cured from her illness. She died before she reached her target but since then schoolchildren all across Japan now fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima. There are littlerally thousands upon thousands of them outside the childrens memorial and in other areas of the peace park.

The A-bomb dome, as it is commonly known, is also a very thought-provoking place. It was built around 1915 as an International Promotions centre and was one of few buildings not to be completely destroyed by the bomb, despite being very close to the epicentre. It is still a totally gutted structure - with the metal girders bent and the stones singed. It was going to be demolished but later decided that it should remain standing as a reminder of the disaster. Its now a UNESCO world heritage site and has had work done to preserve it as such.

The follwoing day Clare came to Hiroshima and we went back to the Museum of Contemporary Art because I wanted to go see the temporary exhibition they had on - contemporary leading animators. It was wonderful - my favourite was a 'wallace and gromit' style plasticene animation of a little blue and yellow worm called 'Knacki' as seen on Japanese TV. Its a childrens program really but full of humour and references from contemporary films.

Then later that evening we watched a film at the cinema - Syrianna - which I didn't follow. And then to 'Okonomiyaki Mura' or Okonomiyaki village. Okonomiyaki is a local speciality rather like a big stuffed pancake - cabbage, bacon, eels, seaweed and spring onions, covered in a sauce similar to barbecue sauce. Its delicious and very very very filling. I could barely move after leaving the restaurant! We spent a couple of hours after that doing Karaoke before heading back to the hotel.

On Wednesday, we got up early to go to 'Miyajima' which is on an island off the coast of Hiroshima. It is widely considered to be one of the top 3 most beautiful sights in Japan and I can see why. There is a shrine called 'Itsukushima' shrine (also a world heritage site) with a 'Tori' or gate which appears to be floating in the water at high tide. It was high tide but unfortunately it rained the whole day, which didn't really spoil it too much though. In fact the mist on the top of the mountains gave it a very moody atmosphere, very beautiful.
We had a guide - a friend of a friend from Tokyo and I spoke mostly Japanese all day to him and felt very proud! We didn't have time to do the walk up onto Misesan - a small mountain on the island, but the views wouldn't have been anything special that day anyway.

Returned to Hiroshima station　and got the bullet train back to Tokyo - it took four hours and I got home late, tired and happy! A good week and a very good holiday. Hiroshima should be visited by all travellers to Japan. It is very thought provoking and I hope it will be remembered for a long time to come.

Next weekend the whole of Japan will go mad for the Cherry Blossom season - it is the start of warm spring weather and people celebrate by having picnics under the cherry blossom trees. I can't wait, it is supposed to be very beautiful (and also very drunken apparently)!

p.s. as you can see I have finally started getting myself organised enough to put some of my photos here for you all to see. More to follow soon!

Tokyo Disney La La Land

A friend of mine got some free tickets to Disney land so off we trooped on Sunday to see if Mickey was in residence at Tokyo Disneyland or not (he wasn't).
Spent all day trying to believe in the magic of Disney. It is truly a bubble world where any dream is possible and as I'm sure for those of you who know me well enough, you can guess its not exactly my cup of tea. However, a few of the rides were sufficiently exciting enough to ruffle Donald's tail feathers though sadly none that would knock Tweety off his perch.
I have to give it to them for the eye for detail which is impressive and its always a pleasure to watch hundreds of grown men sporting Mickey, Pooh, Lilo (the list goes on and on) hats, earmuffs and headpieces (only in Japan). Fighting your way thorugh hoardes of squeeky teenage Japanese girls all of them squeeking 'Kawai' (cute) at every turn is less fun however. But it proved to be as wholesome a Sunday as I have spent in a while and much as I like to take the piss, I suppose we all have a little place in our hearts for disney (even my cynical one!).

Sapporo Snow Festival

Went to Sapporo snow festival 'Yuki Matsuri' last Thursday and Friday. Its in Hokkaido which is the northernmost island in Japan. For one week the city of Sapporo is home to giant snow and ice sculptures, outdoor parties and other such merry events.
We spent the first day visiting a town called Otaru which is famed for its canal, good sushi restaurants, sake and glass making factories, of which I saw the first, ate and drank the second and visited the third. All very lovely. Since it was a company organised trip with 10 of us going, we did it in true Japanese style with a bus tour - it is true that the Japanese feel safe in groups and following the herd is not a stereotype for nothing! But it was fun enough and we were able to go off later on and do our own choice of things.
Later on the same day we went to the main event in Sapporo. The sculptures were lit up at night and looked truly beautiful. There is a vast range of scultures from the very big replicas of world buildings to smaller cartoon characters, animals and sci-fi characters. The Wallace and Gromit was good, as was the massive 'Narnia' construction - made to coincide with the launch of the new film. There was a band playing in front of one of the bigger sculptures of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. They must have suffered in the sub zero temperatures with what they were wearing although we kept ourselves warm by dancing like crazy tourists.
The detail of some of the scultptures was really impressive, every contour had been precisely thought about and carved with so much thought.

Apparently the whole event has been going for 57 years and started during the depression after the war. A few bored university of high school students started making scultpures in the snow which is so abundant this time of year, it caught on as a tourist attraction and now 2 million visitors come every year. Apparently the Hokkaidoites (if that is what you can call them) are very proud now that instead of just having to shovel the snow from their drives every day, they have something beautiful to show as well.

The baileys 'tent' was a welcome diversion too. They were serving hot baileys mixed with coffee or green tea (?) all housed in a big ice house.
We ate lavender ice-cream in the snow, went round ice mazes, down snow slides on rubber inflatables and spent a stupid amount of time putting on and taking off clothes to accomodate the changes in temperature from outside to indoors. On Thursday it was minus 9 degrees and a toasty minus 6 on Friday. The hotel, though had the heating on so high that I couldn't sleep properly overnight! But it was a nice hotel and the western bed provided much relief from the months of sleeping on Japanese futons!
Got home tired but really happy to have seen another part of Japan. Would like to go again in the summer where the temperatures are more tolerable than in the south and where there are some great places to walk.
Now I'm back at work planning my next trip away - I have four days holiday in March and am thinking Shanghai, Seoul or Hong Kong....going to have to eat cabbage stew for a month and be a bit of a hermit...

Also had a belated housewarming / mulled wine (thank you Steph) party on Saturday night with a bunch of female friends. Very nice.

And went to Odaiba on Sunday which is an island in Tokyo bay made from reclaimed land. Its essentially an amusement place with lots of shopping, entertainment centres and restaurants. Visited Fuji TV studios, and a mamouth exhibition - where they were showing a real baby mamouth preserved through being frozen for hundreds of years. It was really eerie to see not least because it was just the mamouth's head! Fascinating though.
Saw some more great views of Tokyo from more highrise buildings. Practised baseball hitting in indoor nets - I was not at all bad! Ate in nice restaurants, went to the Toyota showroom which has a moving cinema - you sit in seats that shake you around as if you were in a racing car! Also went on rides which simulate freefall - scary as hell, and also ones which shoot you into the air at some ungodly speed. My lunch stayed down luckily but had wobbly legs afterwards!

All for now - Happy Valentines day to everyone too!

Happy New Year

Well, I finally get around to updating this....
I had a wonderful Christmas holiday here - it was a bit strange being away from home for the first time but there were others like me who didn't go home or away on holiday so I was able to spend time with them.
Went to Yokohama again for another day trip. Did the usual tourist sights this time with Gina, and also went iceskating outside. That was fun and I managed to get away without a bruised bum despite the kamikaze children's efforts to wipe us out.
Also visited Kamakura which is about 2 hours from my house and which was once the capital of Japan. It is home to a great 'Diabutsu' or Giant Buddha which is smaller than the famous one in Nara but widely considered to be artistically superior. Also did a hiking trail through the surrounding countryside which was very pleasant.
We then went skiing for just one day in Niigata which, like the whole of Northern Japan, has had record snow this year. We got up at 3 in the morning (my Japanese teacher drove up) and were on the slopes by 10. The skiing was good as the snow was really fresh. It snowed the whole time and was very cold at the top of the mountains but at least it wasn't painful when I wiped out (just once - head over heals!). I surprised myself that I was able to ski about as well as the last time I went when I was 18 and I even managed the black slopes without too much difficulty. We ended the day in a most relaxing way, in an onsen (Hot spring bath). We were able to get outside in a hot pool surrounded by snow and stars. It was truly a fantastic way to ease our achy muscles!

New Year's eve was spent in a bar / club in the centre of Tokyo dancing to cheese with a big group of English and Japanese friends. Good fun.

Then from the 4th to the 7th January, I went with a friend to Kyoto (on the bullet train yay! and it is fast!). Its a very beautiful city, totally different to Tokyo. It is packed full of culture. There is a temple or shrine on every street, and Kyoto is famed for its traditional cultures / crafts and good food. We spent four days doing the main sights - which are mainly temples and shrines but the market was also a highlight. I spent many a happy moment there playing 'Guess the uniditifyable food'. The smells were deliciously exotic and enticing. We had time also to see the film of 'Memoirs of a Geisha' which was fitting since we were in the city where it was filmed and set. It has caused a stir out here because the actors are mostly all Chinese and their accents are apparently dreadful on the few occasions that they speak Japanese. But I thoroughly enjoyed the film and will read the book soon (I have been meaning to for so long!) So I liked Kyoto and will probably try to go back again - there is still so much more to see.

It was back to work then - a little difficult after a two and a half week break, but I have now settled back in and am enjoying most days! Since then, my weekends have been spent meeting friends, eating out, drinking, studying Japanese, going to gigs, going to the cinema and meeting students on a social as opposed to work basis. Today in fact I am have been to lunch with one of my classes (four women) and am going to dinner with another (also four women!). It is really nice to have the contact outside work but I sometimes feel that I have no time for myself. However, they are all so friendly and totally welcoming so it's really good.

My next holiday is in less than two weeks. I am going with Shane (The company I work for not a random guy!) to Sapporo which is on Hokkaido island right up in the north. Temperatures get as low as minus 40 so that will be a shock to the senses. But at the moment there is the annual "snow festival" on. Huge ice sculptures and stunning scenery so I am told. Its only for 2 days and we are flying there but I can't wait to go. I am now saving money having moved in with two other Shane teachers so am able to spend every last penny on travelling round - something which just has to be done here!

And last week it snowed in Tokyo - and not like it does in the south of England where it turns to water as soon as it hits the ground. This was proper, heavy snow all day and night and the ice is still on the streets in parts. I gather it has been in the news in the UK about the heavy snow in Japan and the people who have died because of it. It has been a big problem here but luckily for me, Tokyo is spared the worst of this kind of weather. Now its back to dry sunny days.

I must be running out of things to say if I have got onto the very British habit of talking about the weather so for now I will shut up and write more soon....
Love to ya'll xxx