Hey everyone……….Long time no speak, I know.

Not going to look for excuses as to why I haven’t posted in a while. If there is one excuse, it’s that I’ve been very busy. A lot has been going on at work and outside of work. Have been traveling a lot back and forth to Tokyo to see Junko. Knowing I’m going to see her every few weekends definitely makes the weeks fly past.

The Japanese Sakura (cherry blossom) season came and went very quick, the duration of the season varies from year to year and usually only lasts about 5 days. To be perfectly honest, it didn’t blow me away all that much. The Sakura tree itself is quite a old and dead looking tree. The colour of the flowers also vary year to year and range from white to a mid-pink and anywhere in between. The weather here in Maizuru during ‘full bloom’ was very poor. A fair bit of rain and lots of overcast days. The colour this season was mostly white and trying to get photos of them against a dull grey sky isn’t too inspiring. Anyway, the Japanese go crazy regardless and people travel all across the country to see different regions Sakura.

Back to Tokyo, a few weeks ago, Junko took me to Shinjuku botanical gardens (an area of Tokyo city). I never thought a city like Tokyo would have any parks, let alone botanical gardens. There are a heap of parks around Tokyo and make a great place to wind down after enduring the City’s chaos. Never did I think one of the nicest places I would visit in Japan would lie in a city of 30,000,000 people. It’s such an interesting city. People cram onto trains so much that the last 5 or so people board the train walking backwards so they can squeeze in. It’s hilarious. Shopping means every luxury brand you can think of. There are some great menswear shops. Brands that I have never heard of but very reasonably priced.The people here are so brand conscious its borderline sad. Coffee isn’t bad, but at about $6 a cup, I don’t indulge too much. So, as much as I hate to admit it, Starbucks is my new best friend when I go to Tokyo.

Have slowed down on the mountain climbing of late but instead have been out taking pictures of Japan of a weekend with one of our other teachers. Susan is an American in her mid 50’s and is a professional photographer in the making. Here is her website, http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/gallery.asp?memberID=130891 . I serve as her security as we head out of the cities deep into the country and she serves as my photography tutor. In only a few outings together, she has taught me an immense amount.

For those of you that I didn’t have a chance to catch up with, forgive me, but I came to Sydney from the 29^th April to May 6^th. Arrived back in Japan on the morning of the 7^th (my birthday). Japan has a national holiday week ‘Golden week’ , the first week of May. It was great to catch up the family and see a new family member for the first time. To be honest, didn’t really feel like I was home for a few days. A bit of culture shock. Seeing so many non-Japanese and hearing so many Aussies complain at the airport was a shock. Oh, and had completely forgotten about Sydney traffic. The week went way too quick. Flew back to Japan with Qantas via Singapore. Qantas’ new onboard entertainment is fantastic. TV’s on the back of every headrest. So much choice. Music (full albums), movies and TV shows, all of which you can stop, start and resume whenever you want. Believe it or not, my suitcase didn’t get put on the connecting flight to Osaka, but instead stayed on the Qantas flight and went to London. They found it which I was so relieved to hear, it came back to Japan on the Tuesday night and then got delivered to my apartment on the Wednesday morning. So my suitcase has been to England, but not me.

So back at work now and enjoying being back here. Summer begins next month, so plenty of hot weather coming up. Looking forward to getting back to the beach. I don’t start work most days till mid afternoon so I’ve got a few hours early in the morning to hit the beach for a swim. One of my students has a sports boat and has promised to take me Wakeboarding in a few weeks when the water warms up a bit more. Will let you know how that goes.

This posts photos : Kyoto tower, a local spring afternoon, a variety of Japanese maple, my usual dinner (fish,tofu,rice and salad), Hanami party with students, the view from a mountain temple back down on Nishi Maizuru, a good mates farewell party and another photo of Amanohashidate.

Take care,

Tim.

Lets just all pretend I did post something last month.

Uuummmm, what have I been up to lately ?

Work. Work is going well. The school year in Japan goes from April to April so next month, I should be getting a few new students. Nothing really new at work. A few students have left in the last few weeks. Maizuru is a Navy port town so there are a lot of families based here only for short periods, a few years at a time. Students leave every so often because their father has been re-located to another Navy base elsewhere in Japan. We do teach a fair few students who aren’t interested in English at all so this is an on-going problem. Japan is the land of extra curricular activities for children. Most of the children in this country learn and practice a handful of activities after school and on weekends. Calligraphy, piano, dance, sports and ‘Juku’ which is basically tutoring for all school subjects after school ending as late as 10pm. A lot of kids do these activities not necessarily because they want to go but because their parents worry that they will look ‘different’ if they don’t send their kids to them like everybody else. Early February, we had more cooking classes with the kids. This time it was chocolate fudge for Valentines Day. I ended up cooking chocolate fudge 18 times over 5 days. I hated the sight and smell of chocolate by the end of the week.

Outside work, I’ve been pretty busy.

I have been to Tokyo quite a few times lately to see my girlfriend Junko. It is either a 10 hour drive or a 4.5 hour train ride. A regular train for two hours from my house to Kyoto and then a 2.5 hour Shinkansen to Tokyo. Tokyo is mind blowing. The streets are like the Show bag pavilion on the busiest day of the Easter show. Absolutely Manic. Trains are packed like tins of sardines. Going into a packed department store requires a bucket load of patience and energy. Everything you’ve probably ever heard about Tokyo is true. It has to been seen to be believed. Lots of great design, architecture and things to see though. Certainly the most ‘ahead of the times’ city I’ve ever been to.

Locally, I went and saw my first movie in Japan a few weeks back. Well actually, not so local. I drove an hour each way to go to a large cinema complex that has some better movies than my cinema nearby. Roughly $13 each way in tolls plus petrol plus my $21 movie ticket. About a $60 movie trip but it had to be done. I Couldn’t live in Japan for a year and not see a movie. I climbed another mountain nearby. This time ‘Akaiwa’ san. The name translates to red rock. The top third of the mountain was covered in snow so it was quite tough trudging through deep snow. There was a great from the top looking across this part of northern Kyoto out to the Japan sea. I Went to Kyoto mid last month to meet my Junko for the day. We visited a few temples, Nijo castle in the centre of the city and had late lunch at a famous Kyoto udofu restaurant. Udofu is a local dish in Kyoto city of boiled tofu cubes. It sounds boring but it’s not at all. As I’ve said before, it’s largely about delicacy in Japanese cuisine. I have become good friends with a temple master and his wife at a temple 5 minutes from my apartment. I head up there every so often to relax. Yes, Buddhist priests etc are allowed to have wives. They took me out to dinner at a classy restaurant here in Nishi Maizuru with their son about month ago and later that week he gave me a men’s kimono as a present. A perfect fit.

Spring is now here, so the weather has been slowly getting a little warmer. Off to the beach in a month or so and maybe a few more mountains. The ‘Sakura’ or cherry blossom season is almost here in Maizuru. The season usually lasts a few weeks and begins down the warmer areas of southern Japan and moves north up to Hokkaido. It is the most famous flower in Japan and heavily promoted overseas when it comes to things Japanese. People across Japan get out to local rivers and parks and even on the streets during the Sakura season to sit under the cherry blossom trees and have their ‘Hanami’ parties. Looking forward to these.

Haven’t tried much in the way of strange food recently. Although I have been told to try ‘basashi’ ……dried horse ….like beef jerky. No thanks.

Nothing else really blog-worthy. Im on a weeks spring holiday at the moment so if I get up to anything interesting, ill make sure to blog it. All in all, having a great time. Have been here 8 months already. Time sure is flying.

This posts pics : A Valentines Day cooking class, a typical Japanese wedding in a Tokyo temple, me at the top of Akaiwa san, Kinkakuji temple in Kyoto (not real gold, just gold foil), Wakasa bay sunset, Wakasa bay (look at the humidity on the ocean), Tokyo fashion and empty Sake barrels in Tokyo.

Take care everyone,

Tim

Happy New Year !

Well the Festive season came and went quicker than I expected. I had all of my work Christmas parties over the weekend of the sixteenth and seventeenth of December. Heaps of fun. The kids had a ball, especially getting their present from probably the youngest Santa they have ever seen. They kept trying to pull off my beard. There was actually a couple of the younger kids who didn’t realize it was me. Very funny watching the expressions on their faces.

As mentioned earlier, I went snowboarding in Nagano for 5 nights over Christmas. A good holiday overall. Conditions were not the best. This is a very mild winter by Japanese standards so the snow hasn’t really been falling. The hotel I stayed in was quite good. Nice and comfortable. A six hour night bus trip turned into about ten hours with toilet and food stops every hour. My luck, I sat next to the biggest guy on the bus and also the only person to snore. I snowboarded for three days and on the fourth day went to a monkey sanctuary. This is a sight that has to be seen to be believed. Upwards of 100 monkeys in their natural environment, bathing, cleaning each other and fighting. They have no fear at all of humans and walk right around your legs like you are not even there. Here is a link to a live cam site of the monkey onsen.

http://www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/livecam/monkey/index.htm

Arrived back in Maizuru on the 27^th and relaxed for a few days. Took part in another traditional Japanese activity of preparing Mochi for new years celebrations. Mochi are generally small sweets made mostly from rice that has been pounded into a tough pulp. Steamed rice is put in a large tree trunk that has large bowl carved into the top, and then beaten with a large wooden sledgehammer. Lots of fun but very tired later that day.

New years eve I caught a Shinkansen (bullet train) up to Tokyo to see a good friend. This was my first visit to Tokyo and also my first time on the Shinkansen. These trains are unbelievable. Average speed is about 270 km/h with a top speed of 300. Such a smooth trip. Tokyo wasn’t as busy as expected because a lot of people go back to their home towns over the new year period. New years eve over here is nothing like it is in Australia. Apart from the fact Japanese aren’t raging alcoholics like us Aussies, new years day is a family day so people don’t hit the town to the extent we do. New years day, my friend and I went up Tokyo tower for a look across Tokyo city. A huge city to say the least. 28 million people live in Tokyo city alone. We stopped at a large temple at the bottom of Tokyo tower to join the crowds in making their new years wishes and spent the rest of the day sightseeing in close town called Asukusa. This town had a real European winter feel, small winding lanes, lots of restaurants, coffee shops and people rugged up to escape the chill. Definately a place I will revisit next time I’m in Tokyo.

A few days ago, I went snowboarding again. This time it was only a two day trip two hours away and I drove instead of catching a bus. I went with another young English teacher who lives here in the same town. The worst snow conditions I have ever seen. It was so bad that we started a list of everything that was going wrong on the holiday. This in fact turned out to be funnier the bigger the list got. We turned a woeful holiday into something we can look back on and laugh about. Conditions were beyond terrible. Hardly any snow at all. We ended up heading down the same run about 15 times in a row. On the way there we got lost and the scheduled two hours became five. Oh well. A must after a hard days skiing, we stopped into a great onsen on the way back to Maizuru. This was after we walked into a hospital/rehab clinic with a towel and a change of clothes, thinking it was the onsen we were after. The looks we got I will never forget. It looked more like a hotel than a hospital. Our onsen was about a kilometre further down the highway.

Walking into a rehab clinic with a towel and a change of clothes, thinking it was actually an onsen.......... Priceless.

Winter and festive food. One of the most frequent meals I have been eaten over the past month or so is Nabe. It is essentially a hot-pot dish of meat, poultry or seafood, seasonal vegetables, tofu and Udon noodles with varying soup bases. A really warming and filling dish. On the dessert front, I have been indulging in a lot of Anko soup. It is made of boiled, mashed Azuki beans that have been made into a paste and have been sweetend with sugar or honey. Mochi is usually added to this soup for a more filling meal. Still eating a lot of seafood even though it is so cold.

Take care everyone,

Tim.

Hi everyone,

I know it’s been a while but I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks and I like to wait until I have a decent amount to write. Time is still flying. I must be having a good time. Just over four months since I arrived.

I bought a car. It is a 1999 Nissan Wingroad. Full time 4WD, 1800cc, Automatic, electric windows, alloy wheels, roof racks and 99,000km on the clock. Aud $1800. It’s a very comfy car. It bought it from a prefecture about four hours away. A local Pakistani man owns a restaurant here in town ands also a car export business. He did absolutely everything for me in the process of buying a car from an online auction to having it delivered and on-road, all as a favor.

Winter has just begun and it has turned quite cold in the past fortnight. Average daytime temps are just below 10 but late at night and early morning it has been about 3 degrees. So the thermals are on. Gloves will soon be a necessity and so too a beanie. Not looking forward to the months ahead of falling over on the icy pavement.

I caught a bus down to Osaka city on Sunday and on the way out of town, about two minutes drive past my house, all the mountains tops were covered in snow. Locals say that the first snowfalls of winter in Maizuru usually happen mid December.

A couple of weeks ago, I went hiking in some local mountains with a few friends to see all the colored leaves at the end of autumn. We finished the days climbing with a long relaxing onsen. Inside the onsen sauna, there is a wall mounted plasma TV that has all the Sumo wrestling matches across Japan. You couldn’t be any more immersed in the culture than having an onsen and watching sumo.

I had my observation week a little while back. Overall, it went very well. Kids were generally well behaved and the parents were quite happy. After the nerves of the first day, I just continued the week pretending the parents were not sitting there watching. It was all over before I knew it.

Three weeks ago, I attended my first ‘tea ceremony’. Really trying to get as deep into the culture as possible. It was in a village of a nearby town. It is like having a cup of tea with friends, without saying much for the first 10 minutes and following precise methods of picking up the cup, drinking, giving thanks etc. It’s a very interesting aspect of Japanese culture. Following the tea ceremony, we sat down to a very traditional Japanese country meal. The event was held in one of the most old and traditional houses in the area. Yep, I was the only foreigner there in a group of about 30. Stood out like a sore thumb, but everyone was very polite and friendly.

Last Tuesday, some students and I ate at a very traditional local restaurant that was about 500m from my house. Expensive but great food. On my menu was, Kawahagi (leatherjacket) liver. This was probably the best dish of the night. A very similar texture to foie gras. Next were female snow crabs where almost the entire crab was eaten, eggs and all. Third was a sashimi platter. The fourth dish was Namako (sea cucumber/slug). An almost bland dish so a dipping sauce was on hand. A very strange and tough texture. Worth trying though. Lastly was a hot-pot dish of udon noodles and vegetables. Of course, beer and sake was there to accompany. The chef and staff were shocked at the amount I ate and also that I liked all the dishes. They told my friends to tell me to come back again and just put money on the counter and not say a word, they will look after me.

Restaurants aside, I have been eating bucket loads of prawns and bananas. Both are very very cheap. I have been averaging 2 bananas a day and prawns about three times a week.

Even though it is winter, the bananas are imported and I usually buy 5 bananas for about $1.30. Sorry to rub that in.

I went to another cheap concert recently. A big, local Jazz orchestra played at the city hall. Tickets were about $12.50. After the concert, the students I was with took me out to their favorite ramen bar.

I have three weeks holiday starting December 18^th. I am going snowboarding in Shiga Kogen, Nagano (98 winter Olympics) for 5 nights. I leave on the 22^nd and arrive back in Maizuru on the 27^th. My first white (and cold) Christmas. Speaking of Christmas, our school Christmas parties are coming up the weekend after next. Three children’s parties and an adults party over two days. I have the joy of dressing up in the Santa costume for all the Christmas parties. The adult’s party is at Fururu farm (mentioned in a previous blog) which should be a lot of fun.

Hope I haven’t forgotten anything.

Hope everyone is well. Miss you all,

Tim

Hi everyone. Sorry it’s been a while. I have been very busy the last few weeks and the invitations from students to go out and about on the weekends don’t seem to be slowing. Well my sea freight finally turned up a few weeks back, so now my apartment is all the more homely. It is about one month into autumn here. Beautiful weather throughout the day, sunny without being hot and cool evenings.

Work has been busy but fun of late. This last week I had all my adult students fill out a form I had made to try and find out exactly their views on learning English conversation. It asks questions on why they are learning English and their thoughts on different teaching methods. This feedback will allow me to prepare lessons the best lessons I can. The children’s classes had Halloween cooking classes last week. This year they cooked sweet pumpkin muffins. They had lots of fun cooking but I can safely say that if I see a pumpkin muffin again in the next six months, I will murder somebody. I must have eaten 15 of them last week. Each student got to eat them at the end of the lesson and take a few home in a small Halloween gift bag. It was a relaxing week of teaching children.

A few weeks ago I went to a relatively new restaurant here on the Japanese coast called Fururu Farm. It is a very healthy buffet restaurant. The Japanese call them ‘Viking’ restaurants. Adjoining the restaurant is a fruit and veg store, a cooking school, the farm where all the fruit and veg is grown and about a dozen cabins that can be rented out. It reminded me a lot of Kiama. This area is known as the Sezaki peninsula. Quiet, but relaxing. Later that day, they gave me another few hours tour guiding around Maizuru. They took me to a few different temples, the local fish markets and up to a sky tower on a local mountain to get a good view of the Maizuru area.

With these same students, two weeks later we went out on a Saturday night to a Maizuru City Brass Band concert in the local music hall. Ridiculously cheap tickets. $6.25 Australian dollars for a great concert of about two and a quarter hours. After the concert, they took me to a local Izakaya restaurant. This style of Japanese food is basically a choice of about 40 entrees to eat while indulging in great Japanese beer or Sake.

Another young aussie teacher I met a few weeks back has been letting me use his Vespa motorbike, so I have had a bit of fun the last couple of weekends scooting around locally.
We went to a town about forty five minutes away called Amanohashidate, which translates to ‘bridge to heaven’. This is regarded as one of the three most scenic places in Japan. It is a stretch of island across a bay between two villages about an hours walk in length. We opted for the jet boat transfer instead, just for a bit of extra fun. There is a viewpoint across the far side of the bay up on a mountain, that when you bend over and look between your legs back at the island connecting the two bays, you are looking at ‘the bridge to heaven’.

I have discovered another great onsen about a kilometer from my house. The 26th of each month has a special connection with bathing in Japan; so on this day, most onsens run a special offer. This onsen offers 12 visits for the price of 10.

This weekend just past I went to Miyazu, a town where we have one of our schools. I met the teacher there Susan who is also a professional photographer and we spent the day driving around mountain villages taking photos.

In the last few weeks, the people of Maizuru in particular are concerned about the nuclear situation in Korea. Maizuru is a sea-side port and the number one port in Japan visited by North Korean ships. As a result of Kim Jong IL’s test a few weeks back, Japan has stopped all sea-trade with North Korea. A huge impact for both countries. From Kyushu, Japans most southern Main Island, you can actually see the coast of South Korea.

The pictures above from top to bottom : A photo I took on sunday in a small mountain village. See if you can see an image of two people looking at each other in the lower half of the tin wall ; cooking class last week ; a Japanese spirit I drank a little too much of a few weeks back ; Amanohashidate ; dried octopus ; a view from the sky tower looking down on my town ; a photo I took to show just how mountainous not only Maizuru, but Japan is ; your everyday cafe/restaurant strip and lastly, Fururu Farm.

Anyway, I am having a great time. I have been so busy; I think I will start writing down every night what I have done that day so I don’t forget to mention it here.

I hope you are all well. Take care,

Tim

Hi everyone.

Two months and a day I’ve been here. Time is flying by. Before I know it, it is the weekend again. I haven’t really had a chance to be bored yet. Whether it is being taken shopping, lunch at a student’s house or dinner at another’s, there is always something happening over the weekends. The teaching is going really well. In a couple of weeks, there is ‘observation week’ where parents come and watch their children. Should be interesting. A few naughty kids I am sure will be angels when their parents are watching.

I have had a good couple of weeks just past. Last weekend, I had lunch at some really wealthy student’s house. The woman picked me up on Saturday morning and took me food shopping and then back to her and her husband’s house for lunch for about five hours. On their block which is about 1700 square metres, they have two houses. The first house is a 130yr old traditional Japanese farm house passed down through the husband’s family.
The second house is a Log house built entirely from imported Canadian spruce. They stayed in a log house in Canada on holidays in the late 80’s and liked it so much , they flew a few of the builders out to Japan to build them one. While I was there, they played a full early Kylie Minogue album for me. It was the thought that counted.
On Sunday, I, the boss’ family and two students had a bbq down at Kanzaki Beach. Not your usual Aussie bbq of sausages and steak. We ate rice, fish, roasted tomatoes and pork and miso soup. Very delicious all the same. On our way back we stopped at Fujitsu onsen for my first onsen of 2006. Aaaggggghhhhh. Very relaxing. An onsen is a Japanese hot spring bath. It is a public bathhouse usually with natural hot spring water. Depending on what part of Japan you are in, the water can be 100% naturally boiling hot or the further it needs to come up from under the ground, it my need to be heated. They can be found in and around the cities, in hotels or out in the mountains etc.

I have started my Japanese lessons again. Every Monday for an hour. I am also learning how to read and write Katakana and Hiragana. It is now autumn here so it is cooling down and the occasional rainy day. A typhoon came very close to this part of Kyoto a couple of weeks ago but detoured the night before it was due. It did hit the far south part of Japan killing 9 people. Thinking about doing a few hike’s in the coming weeks around the Maizuru region with some students and other teachers. There are some good ones to be done very close to various mountain temples and non-active volcanoes. Maizuru Mountains can have the odd wild boar and black bear that need to be looked out for.

After 2 months, my freight finally arrived in Japan and is being delivered this weekend. Looking forward to some warmer clothes now I am in autumn. Next week I will be able to start practicing some Japanese cooking with my cookbooks on hand.

Thanks to everyone for all the emails. They make me feel like I am one hour away not nine. Here are a few pics of Kanzaki beach, an onsen and some from a trip I was taken on to Kyoto City with some students a few weekends ago.

Take care all,

Tim

Hi everyone,
Here are a couple of pics of my appartment.
Take care all,
Tim