IN SHANGHAI

It's a great big, dirty city, but a ton of fun and the people are great.
Helping clean up.
New wheels.
Making friends.

OSAKA TO SHANGHAI

THE LONG WAY HOME

My two years in the Japanese countryside will end tomorrow. After a night in Tokyo and a night in Osaka, I will catch a two-day boat to Shanghai and begin a new adventure. I'm taking the long way home.

JHS GOOD-BYE

Friday was my last day at junior high school so I had to give another dreaded speech in terrible Japanese. I really didn't want to do the tear-jerker 'Japan is so great, you're all so great, how can I ever leave this place?' speech. So instead I tried to use this last opportunity to encourage these countryside students to travel. I told them that I'd leaned two things from traveling. Firstly, all over the world there are kind, nice people. And secondly, it is okay to do things on your own; if you wait for friends or are too afraid, you might miss out on your dreams.
And then I did the mushy 'you're all so great' stuff (which is totally true). But I've no idea how they took the speech. Japanese are all so polite that they always say 'great speech', even if it was rubbish. So I hope at least a couple of the kids understood what I was trying to tell them.

LAST KENDO CLASS

Tonight I returned to Kendo for a last farewell. 'Cuz of my ankle injury I haven't trained in over four months so it was more of a goodbye and a photo-opt than a training session.
I learned a lot from both my Sensei and students in the last two years. Kimio Sensei is one of the strictest teachers I have learnt from, but also very, very kind. The kids love him, and despite such a small class they regularly win city competions against much bigger clubs.
I know I learned a lot, I just hope I can remember some.

Sensei presents with me a small present.
The elementary kids that beat the crap out of me with sticks for two years.The kids in practice.

A NIGHT AT ME LOCAL

Me and the Kendo students parents out for a beer at 'Mama-san's'.
Note: That's Mama-san under the dartboard.

GRADE 2 (LAST CLASS)

Head, shoulders, knees and toes. A great way to start the day.
They're gonna get me, they're gonna get me.
They got me!

NO PRIVACY, JUST ADVERTISING

I recently changed email providers from Yahoo to Google's gmail. Sick and tired of yahoo's ridiculous, noisy, animated, irrelevant, unwanted advertisements taking up huge proportions of my computer screen, I opted for gmail's advertised: 'no pop-ups or untargeted banner ads in Gmail, only small text ads'.
However, I'm worse off now. Instead of untargeted advertisements, gmail have gone to the trouble of providing me with: 'Ads and related information are relevant to your messages, so instead of being obtrusive, they may even be useful for once'. Which translates as THEY'RE READING MY F***ING EMAILS!
What next?

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SKY

CHOC-MINT

I had chocolate ice-cream this morning. Then I brushed my teeth and it was like choc-mint flavoured toothpaste/ice-cream. It was really cool. If you have free time, please try this :o)

PULLIN' ME SOCKS UP

As I was pulling up my socks this morning and getting ready for school, I noticed a little birdy peeping in my window. Just had time for a quick picture before a car scared it away.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PHOTOS

My last classes with Grade 3 and 4 were this week.
They're laughing with me, not at me. Really!
Peace!
Koutaro tries to distract me from my lunch. But I'm focused.
We trace out the alphabet with our 'magic pencils'.
Tatsuhito tells me secrets over lunch.
The kids get giddy during lunchtime grace.

TYPHOON WARNING

The winds have been picking up this afternoon. Flagpoles are rattling and papers are being blown off desks. There's a big typhoon on the way. Forecast to start down south tomorrow and make it's way north. Should be timed perfectly for monday when I attempt to climb Tohoku's (northen Japan's) second highest mountain, Chokai-san. Watch this space.

ARIGATOU GOZAIMASHITA

My Japanese tutor, Chikako-san, is the most patient teacher in the world. For two years she smiled away my missing homework and quietly listened as I massacred the Japanese language and spoke gibberish in a Northern Irish accent. And her generousity was even further extended when she and her husband cooked me a goodbye feast last night. Thanks for everything sensei.
千賀子先生、本当にありがとうございました。

RAINY DAYS

Regardless of weather, it's always a bright day at the elementary school.

IRISH STEW

Point 1:
I leave Japan in two weeks.
Point 2:
The head dinner-lady is really cool.
Take these two points and put 'em together and what do you get?
Irish stew for everyone!!
Kuto-sensei, the head school-lunch cook wanted to make an Irish meal for everyone before I left.
Everyone being all the elementary and junior high school students in my town (over 200 students).
So after much discussion (in terrible Japanese) and preparation, it was decided to make Irish Stew, bacon and cabbage, grilled salmon, wholewheat bread (with butter :o)) and Irish apples for desert.
Yesterday it was dished out and despite the fears of the head teachers and myself, the kids loved the grub.
Yay!!
Photos:
top: Lunch with second-year students
bottom: Kuto-sensei holding Irish Stew, bacon and cabbage, etc.

THE BIG 27

Tried to keep my b'day a secret this year, but it didn't work.
My good friend Junko was adamant about celebrating it since I'm leaving so soon.
So we went out to a local 'izakaya' (bar/restaurant) and got trashed.
I was the lucky, unworthy recepient of some awesome presents and a delicious cake.
Cheers.
Oh, and we also knocked this picture off the wall :o(

I'M SORRY

Following the previous post I received a couple of unhappy emails askin' why I couldn't find a few minutes each day to post a blog.
And since I'm weak at arguing and fightin' back, I thought it might be easier to continue blogging despite my RIDICULOUSLY BUSY SCHEDULE!!

BUSY BLOGGER

Beloved friends and readers. Or should I say beloved friend and reader, since it's the same one person :o(
I'd like to apologise for neglecting my blog.
With only two weeks in Japan I'm getting really busy.
As you can imagine after two years I have a lot of good-byes and arigatous to say.
So free-time is scarce.
But I'll try to post a few snaps sometime soon.

ZEITGEIST

http://www.zeitgeist.com