yoroshiku!

Got to school this morning, sat down at my desk and the 1st grade teacher comes up to me and says 'yoroshiku onegaishimasu!'

Yoroshiku has many meanings, but whenever it is said to me it usually means 'thanks (for doing something i'm about to dump on you!)'

I quickly consider my schedule for today and no, no 1st grade class, so i tell her i don't know what she is talking about. To which she replies 'English song at the morning meeting, yoroshiku' and walks off. EH?!!

The next thing i know, the Vice Principle is telling me to get my ass down to the gym coz the Principle has called a school assembly.

The Principle does her looooooooong speech, of which i understood approximately 0% of, and then i hear 'music' and am ushered to the stage and handed a microphone. Holy mother of god! I manage to understand enough to hear that this months school song is 'Head, shoulders, knees ('needs' in this case!) and toes and that i've got 2 minutes to teach it.

So, off I go. And all the while i'm singing and doing the actions on the stage with the entire school watching me i'm thinking 'God, i wish i'd washed the wig this morning!'

kumo

Today one of my 5th grade kids came running up to the window of the teachers' room shouting 'Sha-ri sensei, Sha-ri sensei!' so I opened the door to see what the commotion was. 'Kumo, kumo' he shouted. Eeeek! I hate spiders! Then he said 'fishbone' in perfect English. WHAT?!! Now I was really confused. He said 'fishbone' again and pointed to the sky. Then it dawned on me. I always forget that kumo also means 'cloud'. How the hell he knew the word 'fishbone' I shall never know! The kids pick-up the weirdest words and phrases!

Anyway, he told me that I should grab my camera nad take a photo of the beautiful 'fishbone' cloud. So I did!

Coffee

I didn't get round to having my first coffee of the day today until 12.20.

By 10am I could feel something wasn't right. I was really sleepy and a bit light-headed.

By 12 noon I had a banging headache. I considered just going to bed and not returning to school it was so horrific. It was as though I'd got a bloke inside my brain, pounding his fists on my forehead trying to get out.

Had a coffee.

By 1pm there was absolutely no trace of a headache at all and I went into my lesson super-genki and jumping around like no-body's business.

Seems I've got myself a serious addiction. Scary!

Golden Week shenanigans

Golden Week in Japan is a string of 5 National Holidays one after the other, resulting in a week off work. Yippee! One of the holidays is 'Boys' Day' which involves hanging these beautiful carp kites from your roofs.

During Golden Week I went to Ninohe to stay with my friend Pete. Ninohe is 3 and a half hours by bullet train north of where I live. God, I love those trains!

I arrived at 4pm on Sunday and after dropping my stuff at P's and having a cuppa (we are so British) we headed up the 2 mountains in Ninohe. The paths were pretty damn steep and we needed gandalf sticks to steady us on route. I was still on my arse in under 2 minutes though! Beautiful views from the top so worth it.

We got back to the aparto at about 7pm and headed straight out with the Ninohe crew. We all went to an izakaya, then onto karaoke, and finally to the bar which P does a spot of moonlighting in. The bar is pretty classy for Japan! I was well impressed. It seemed like we were only in there for a couple of hours, but before we knew it, it was 6am and time to go home. We left the bar with a promise to be up and out at noon for a BBQ. I've absolutely no idea how we made this, but we did!

Had a great day. Relaxing in the sunshine, playing volleyball, chatting, and of course eating. Good times! The ball we were playing with seemed to have some sort of magnetic connection to the river in the park. Within 5 minutes of arriving (before the BBQ was even set-up) one ball had been lost to the elements. Grahame tried to go after it on his motorbike, but to no avail. By the end of the day there wasn't a single bloke who hadn't got wet trousers from wading into the river on a ball-retrieving mission!

Pete had ran off to recover the pesky ball on one occassion and returned absolutely soaked from head to toe. He'd been swept away by the current. Got the ball (woop!) but had forgotten that his phone was in his pocket and so completely bust that (boooooo!) The trouble that ball caused!

After the BBQ we headed back to the same bar from the previous night for a bit more fun and frolics. The Master (bloke who owns the bar) had organised the BBQ and said we could carry on the festivities back there, so off we went for another night of karaoke and jokes.

Got back around 1am and watch the film 'Children of Men'. I'd not seen it before and it was pretty awesome. Reckon I'll have to watch it again though to get my head around it fully.

On Tuesday we left the aparto at 9.30am to go on a road trip. Again, I'm not entirely sure how we managed to get up in time, but we did. There were 6 of us, so we took two cars and drove the 3 hours to the beach, stopping numerous times on route for photo opportunities. It was the perfect day for the beach. Blue skies and sunshine. There was no sand at the beach however, so it was a feat of endurance to lie on the rocks and pebbles. But, when there's an opportunity to tan, there is no room for wimpishness!

I went for a quick paddle in the water, with the hope of wading across to some smoother rocks a bit further out but a) it turned out that the water was much deeper than anticipated and b) it was fecking freezing! My feet were completely numb within minutes! So, I spent the day lazing in the sunshine, watching Tyler make a rock tower and the boys skimming stones over the water.

On the way home we stopped for sushi and another photo opportunity, before heading back to Ninohe.

When we got back to the aparto, PJ and Ebun came round and we went out to get PJ some birthday drinks. We went to a small bar where we played table football (read 'played' as 'got thrashed') and did a bit of birthday karaoke before heading back home.

Wednesday morning and time to depart Ninohe. Went for lunch with PJ and Jar before nearly missing the shink back to Fukushima. As I raced to the platform, the train was about to close its doors, but I made it. Woot!

I had a great time up north and came back with a few jokes and a bit of magic too. I'm jealous of the guys up there. They all live really close to each other (3 of them in the same apartment block) and they are all super friendly, just popping round to eachothers' apartos all the time. It was also really nice to spend some time with British people. I know that sounds crazy (and a bit racist) but i'll explain...when you chat about stuff, you usually make references and jokes about popular culture and society. Even little things, like if I mention something amusing which my gran does, other British people will laugh because it usually turns out that their gran does exactly the same. All our families have pretty much the same dynamics. You dont realise what an impact on your conversation being surrounded by Americans has, until you mingle with a load of Brits again and you find yourself sliding into familiar conversations and jokes. It's really weird! Whilst I was in Ninohe, even though it was only for a few days, and on someone's sofa, I felt completely at home. They are indeed a great bunch up there and they made my Golden Week pretty fabulous!

Jet lag.

It seems I've become an expert in dealing with jet lag! The key seems to be to skip a nights sleep somewhere along the way.

On my way back to England I caught the nightbus to Narita airport and only got 2 hours sleep. I then only managed to get in another hour on the flight due to the cracking movie choices, so by the time I reached Heathrow I was exhausted. I then preceeded to sleep all the way up to Stoke and all night long. I awoke the next morning feeling a little hazy, but okay. Although I had a lazy first couple of days with the fam, my sleeping patterns were normal (UK-stylee). Hurrah!

When I returned to Japan I also skipped a nights sleep due to the seriously talkative (read 'annoying') bloke who sat next to me on the plane. When I reached my little house I had a shower and went straight to bed. The last thing I remember hearing before my head hit the pillow was the 5 o'clock bells. I then awoke at 11 o'clock the next morning. 18 hours sleep! A new record! Since then it's been back to school and Japan sleeping patterns again. As easy as that!

The other thing to note about going home is the really horrible, homesick feeling when you are coming back. It's really weird coz I don't generally get homesick, but 2 weeks at home just wasn't enough, and I also really liked the fact that I could read and understand everything! I had forgotten what it was like not to have to struggle with a language barrier everyday! I also miss living with other people. I like my own space, don't get me wrong, but just having other people tootling around the house is nice.

So yeah, the thought of coming back to my empty house and then not seeing any of my friends for a week coz we would all be at work was not a welcoming thought. Especially when I discovered that I'd forgotten all my Japanese and was breaking out into a cold sweat just buying a train ticket! (Doh!) But, to my delight, B text me and said he would pick me up from the station. I can't tell you how much I appreciated this! Not only because my bags weighed an absolute tonne, but also because a big smile and a hug on my return was just the ticket!

The next day, rather then moping around feeling tired and lonely, I had lunch with B and Pete and then in the afternoon my neighbours came round to say hello and we all went for a walk in the sunshine to see the cows. This was just the BEST weekend I could have wished for on my return -relaxing, with lots of friendly faces. No more homesickness for me!

So, now I know how it feels to come back after a trip home I will definately make sure I'm around for anyone else doing the same. Pick-ups from the station and lunch the following day are all on the agenda. And anyone who reads this can hold me to that!

Actually, I'm gonna amend that - anyone in Fukushima who reads this can hold me to that!

'H' to the 'A' to the 'M' to the 'S, T, A!'

About 3 months ago, grade 5 got a pet hamster. It is the teeny, tiniest thing I've ever seen! Having said that, I hardly ever see it because it is nocturnal! Every time I teach grade 5 I ask if the hamster has got a name yet, but it never has. This doesn't surprise me as the rabbits also have no names and one of them is 8 years old!

Today, at cleaning time, I helped out in the 5th grade classroom and was greeted by the joyous news that the hamster had been named. Yippee! It's called 'Hamu ski'. Dear Lord! So, the word for 'ham' in Japanese is 'hamu' and 'ski' means 'I like' so they have come up with an oh-so-funny play on the word 'hamster'. Dunno whether it's the hamster that likes ham, or the kid that named it? But, there you go, the little mite's name is 'Hamuski Hamster'. It sounds like a dodgy name of a 90's rap act to me!

At 9.45 this morning I found myself getting a little peckish so I delved into my bag for a kitkat only to find that it was not there. Eeeeek! I must have eaten it! Oh no! I'd got over 2 hours until lunchtime! So I decided to go for a wander around the school to take my mind off the hunger. Just as I stepped out of the teachers' room I heard a 'Sha-ri sensei!'. I turned around to see the 6th grade students waving at me to go into the cooking room. It turns out that they were having a cooking party! All my prayers had been answered!

As it was their last ever cooking lesson, the 6th graders had been allowed to make party food and then eat it all together. Well, you should have seen it! I thought I was a bad cook! The first thing I was given was a cream sandwich. Yep, you heard correctly, a CREAM sandwich! They had literally just squirted cream onto pieces of bread and then shoved another piece on top. Interesting! Actually, it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated, but then again, it's also not something I intend on repeating! I was also given tacoyakki (octopus dumplings), bread dipped in raspberry juice, and crusts fried in oil and sugar. I honestly have no idea how I managed to keep my face from screwing up as I ate it and told them how delicious it was! And you should have seen them wolfing it all down! Crazy! Well, that'll teach me to forget me kitkat!

Have you put on weight?

Yesterday lunchtime, amongst the other minging foodstuffs on my tray, were two giant balls of konnyaku. Bbbbllllleeerrk!

Now, in small amounts, or in miso soup, I can eat this, but in big balls? No thank you! So I left them. All the teachers laughed at me coz they can't believe that anyone wouldn't want to eat this stuff.

So, for you guys at home, I looked up the definition of konnyaku and I got 'root nodule bacteria'. Not quite, but it does definitely taste like it could be that. LOL! It's a jelly that is made from the starch from the bulb of some plant. It has absolutely no taste at all and is just a chewy lump.

The school secretary was telling me how lots of women eat it coz it's great diet food. This does not surprise me! It doesn't really have any nutritional value at all. But it does expand in your digestive system making you feel full, and it also cleans toxins out of your intestines. Yuck! Gross but true!

Anyway, this talk of diets prompted the school nurse to ask me if I had put on weight since coming to Japan. I told her that yes, I have, to which she gave the response 'I thought so'. WHAAAAAAT! However, she continued to say that this was a good thing and that if I lost any weight whilst in Japan, as the school nurse, it would be her problem, so please don't do it. I had to laugh.