Weekend in March

Despite the fact that I did not venture very far this weekend, lots of things happened; I went cafe hopping and treasure hunting at the vintage shops with Ayako, I made marmalade, I went to an art market with Kentarou,I sat in a tree house at the art market, I ate lots of good food, I attended a premature Hanami party, my cold hands joined lots of others trying to get some warmth, I fell asleep at the kotatsu, I did a book swap,I went for a long bike ride to the beach, I played frisbee,I cried so much I wanted to go home, I laughed until my sides hurt, I hope you had a lovely weekend.



Ken and I at the art market.




Ken's friends made takoyaki (octopus dumplings). I had tried them once before in Osaka and didn't like them much. This time, they were amazing. Maybe even as good as okonomiyaki (my favourite Japanese food).



Isn't it beautiful?



xo

Goodbye lovelies :-)

The school year in Japan runs from April to March, and this week is the final week of the academic year. At Josei, with the exception of a second year Conversational English class, I only teach the first year. This week, I had my final classes with my six first year classes. My friends both here in Japan and back home know that at times, I have found this job difficult and it seems that when I think about all the classes I've taught since September, the unsuccessful/so-so classes far outnumber the ones that have been a success. It was therefore only when it came to saying goodbye to my students that I realised just how fond of them I have become.

When I look at these photos, I can name every single student. Not only that, I can recall a funny quirk or endearing little thing about each one of them. I am really sad to have to say goodbye to them. (You can click on these photos to make them bigger, they are just a sea of faces when they're little)




(some funny faces)

These two photographs are of class 1-3 (they are split into two for team teaching classes). Class 1-3 are my absolute favourite class. Their enthusiasm and happiness is infectious. I love their seasonal confusion syndrome; despite the fact that it is now March, the four boys to my right in the top photo, Ryosuke, Junta, Naohira and Sone continue to greet me with 'Happy New Year!' I will miss 1-3 so much.



This is my favourite student, Sachiko.



I love these two sweeties from 1-3 too. I will remember them most from the class we did on 'What do you want to be in future?' After a stream of the usual responses, I was really amused when these two chimed in with 'The only thing we want is to be rich girls.'



This is my smartest class, class 1-1. We always get through the material in each class really quickly so our classes were more conversational than team teaching ones. This was really nice as I got to know lots about them all. 1-1 were my final first year class today. I cried so much at the end. This set off not only all the girls but Shingo, the little guy directly above me too. Shingo is a magician and aspiring doctor who gives chocolates to girls (me!) for White Day :-)

I will never forget my first year students.

xo

Cycling a go-go

On Sunday, I visited the island of Shodoshima (小豆島)with Yumi, Ed and Sean. It was such a beautiful day, so we rented some bicycles and set off on the biggest bicycle ride I have ever been on. We cycled over thirty kilometres and a lot of it was uphill. It was all worth it for the not so gruelling return journey where we whizzed down hills without having to peddle at all. Cycling is the simplest of pleasures, I love it.



Shodoshima smelt beautiful.I couldn't quite pinpoint the smell but olives are grown there, so perhaps it was that. Whatever it was, it was lovely.


Little olive house, big olive trees

We cycled to Kankakei Ropeway where we took the cable car through the gorge. Ahh, it was lovely. My favourite part was when one of the elderly passengers in the cable car spotted a deer on the mountain. Within seconds, news of the deer had spread throughout the small cable car. Cameras were a-clicking and there were shrieks of excitment, with everyone clambering to the windows of the car. I never knew deer were so popular here...







Here we are at the top of the gorge.



The bicycle ride back to the port in the early evening sunshine was so beautiful. I liked feeling the wind blowing through my hair! We stopped off at the beach, missed the curfew for returning our bicycles (the owner of the shop was not so impressed but we said a quick sayonara and made a quick getaway before he could fine us) and fell asleep on the boat ride back to Takamatsu.






My name in hiragana, by Yumi.

It was such a lovely day. In April, we plan to cycle the Shimanami Kaido bridge - a forty kilometre bridge that connects Shikoku to Hiroshima.

I'm feeling both apprehensive and wildly excited about my solo jaunt to Vietnam in a couple of weeks time. I also feel a deep sense of relief after having made the decision to finish up here in Japan in August. I am enjoying myself, but I feel curious to see more of the world. Recently, I have been devoting less time to worrying about my classes, in favour of planning the next part of my adventure; my head has been stuck in various Lonely Planets for the past couple of weeks. Last week, I read loads about Angkor and the Khmer Empire in medieval Cambodia. Researchers have concluded that Angkor was the largest preindustrial city in the world. Its decline is both mysterious and fascinating - I want to go there so much.

Five months is not a lot of time, but it will force me to squeeze in all of the things left on my list that I want to see and do before I leave.

xo

Tired eyes

This week has been a week of uncertainty as I wait to find out whether my contract will be renewed. My eyes are tired so here are some photographs of the nice things I have enjoyed this week.


Making chocolate glitter hearts for birthdays.


Little flowers in teacups.


Lovely tulips.

I had a day off on Tuesday; the weather was perfect.

My castle in the sunshine.




Letter writing


Strawberry eating.


Petals by my feet.


A snappy poster for a festival at the castle in May

Last night, a bunch of us went out for some karaoke fun times in a little bar in Marugame. I had such a good time.







Today, I climbed a big mountain (the mountain in the strawberry photograph!)




Home.


Mountain cat in the evening sunshine. Hello little one.



My castle at sunset.



I found some really cheap flights to Vietnam, so I'm going to Hanoi!

xo

Spring time is coming.

This weekend, I went to Okayama to see the Hadaka Matsuri; the Naked Man Festival, which was held in a town called Saidaiji, just outside Okayama city. I'm really glad that I saw this; hundreds of loincloth clad man, running around a temple and crushing together to dispel their misfortunes, in the cold, bitter Japanese February is something that I am unlikely to get the opportunity to see again.

The festival began with hundreds of men dressed in fundoshi, running through the little paths of Saidaiji shouting 'Washoi! Washoi!', which apparently means 'enhance yourself' (manly) and ending up at the temple.
Once at the temple, they did a bit more running around and some more 'Washois!', with a nice little dip in the water. I suspect that this part might have been a window of time in which the men mustered up the courage for what they were about to endure next...



The most exciting part of the evening was when the clock struck ten. By this point, all of the men had gathered inside the temple. I have never seen so many scantily clad men in such a small space in my entire life. Look at them!





At ten o'clock, all the lighting in the area was turned off apart from the lights inside the main temple, which looked eerily beautiful. Pieces of wood called shingi were then dropped from inside the temple. Those who catch the shingi are said to have a year of good luck. When the shingi are dropped, all I could see was an ocean of flailing arms and a crush of men falling over eachother and down the temple steps. I was quite a way back from the main temple, so the sight of falling men actually looked quite graceful and beautiful - like a set of lovely man dominoes.




By the end of the night, my feet felt less like feet and more like little lumps of ice encased in boots but I had such a fun time watching the Naked Man festivities. I also loved all of the little food stalls, bedecked with lights that lined the streets. If I had had more time, I would like to have tried some of the sweeties that were being sold - there should always be time for sweets.

On Sunday, after a green tea/white chocolate muffin and coffee breakfast, Iain and I spent the afternoon pottering around Okayama. I love Okayama, it's a real city and somewhere I should really take some future jaunts to, especially given that it is only a forty minute train ride across the bridge. It's a really contained and attractive little city, with a beautiful river walk and gardens. It also has clothes shop aplenty....wonderful clothes shops. The kind that make my eyes light up. The pleasurable quest for spring and summer clothes is about to ensue and I bought a beautiful crisp white broderie anglais top, I love it.

The plum blossoms were out on the trees at Korakuen Park...soon the cherry blossoms will be on their way...Sunday was the first day that I was able to walk around without my coat on. I am so happy to say goodbye to winter for another year, I feel a little jaded by it.






School has been up and down lately. I've had days of true happiness at Josei with my classes of sweet natured students. I really look forward to seeing my classes there, and I feel like I am actually doing my job;an average job of it mind, but nonetheless,I leave each class knowing that at the very least,I have taught them a set of new phrases on a given theme and have enjoyed being in their company. I haven't been enjoying my classes at Maruko at all lately; I've had a string of disastrous lessons complete with scrutinising teachers and obnoxious seventeen year olds, but exams are coming up this week, so I shall attempt to erase those disasters from my thoughts.

I feel excited about the next couple of months. The weekend after next, I want to go back to Osaka and one weekend later is the beginning of my two week Spring holiday. Iain and I are going to Okinawa. I'm looking forward to dipping my feet into the sea and trying Okinawan food. Okinawan cuisine is said to be very different from the food on the mainland in that it has some Taiwanese influences. I especially want to try the kinugoshi tofu; it has a really soft, almost silky texture with a nutty flavour, yum yum. On my return from Okinawa, I have another five days in which to do something fun. It looks like whatever I do will be on my own, which is unfortunate as I would much prefer to have company. Any suggestions as to what I should do? Here are my thoughts, please help me to decide. I want to go somewhere where I can have an enjoyable time, despite being alone.

* more exploring here in Japan (though it will be really expensive, and I want to save for Golden Week)
* take a jaunt to Seoul
* go to Hong Kong

I need to decide where to go in Golden Week too. I want to go to Vietnam more than anything, but the flights are either very expensive or all sold out, boo. Perhaps Thailand...

Tomorrow, I have a day off school. I'm going to go to my favourite cafe here in my little metropolis, catch up on some letter writing and do some reading. I've been doing lots of reading these past few weeks. Because I don't feel a great deal of job satisfaction here, I often get pangs of fear that my brain will turn into a vacuous lump of jelly so I am trying to read as much as I can. Any recommendations (or offerings!) would be lovingly welcomed :-)

I've been reading loads about the Kowloon Walled City recently. It's one of the strangest, most fascinating human settlements I have ever come across. Apparently, because buildings were so high and densely packed together, sunlight did not reach the floor, which made for a haven of deviant activity. I want to find out more.



Here's Vivian and I - on our matching bicycles, outside the lovely ginger tea cafe. I love my little town and my lovely friends here so much. <3


Ohh, and something very nice happened today...I have a mandolin! Maruko has a music festival coming up in three weeks time and I am going to play with one of my classes, so I have been leant a mandolin. I have wanted to play the mandolin for so long. I am so happy, I love it :-)

xo

Home

Oh London, my heart misses you so much this week :-(

I miss Sundays in Brick Lane, rummaging around for the treasures.
I miss the jaunts Alex and I made to The Ten Bells.
I miss the Tate Modern, even though my eyes saw the same things week after week; art in a power station is a nice thing.
I miss existing in a workplace where I can understand everything that is being said to me.
I miss lunch at the Fig and Olive with Mum.
I miss the Sadlers Wells.
I miss my cat.
I miss reading a good book on the Tube and catching eyes with the stranger sitting opposite me.
I miss the shop that I wish was my wardrobe.
I miss brunch on the Southbank with Matthew.
I will even go so far as to say that I miss the 4am nightbus.

I miss it all. Please be the same when I return.

This picture is by Miroslav Sasek. I love his 'This Is...' series - the pictures are so wonderful.





xo

It's nice that.

On Saturday, Iain and I took a jaunt to Naoshima, the arty island I visited back in September. I love Naoshima so much; it's dotted with little cafes run by twittering old ladies, arty spaces and good routes for a bicycle ride. Seeing inspiring things makes my head feel funny, I like it. Iain has a lovely new camera, so I've nabbed all of his pictures. For once, I can show you photographs that don't look like I am living in the 70s ee!

It was a sunny day so we rented some bicycles. Look at my purple one,isn't she lovely? Eee :-)


Bath house






We visited the Chichu Art Museum, which is an underground art gallery. The gallery assistants were dressed in such a way that they looked kind of robotic and sterile. It was kind of clinical, but in a curiously amusing way. I saw the most incredible installation by an artist called James Turrell. Ahh, it was truly amazing. James Turrell appropriates light and illusory methods in his work. This particular installation was really nice; Turrell had cut into the wall and flooded the space with a hazy, blue light in such a clever way that at first, I mistook the light for a blue wall. It turned out that you can actually enter the space/'wall'. When I turned around and saw Iain climb out of the hazy blue space and back down the steps, it looked like he was stepping into a picture. Ahh, it was so bizarre. Hmm, that was an awful (and needless?) ramble, but I thought it was so intriguing and intelligent. Ohh I want to know more about James Turrell.

Take a looky:



The other thing that I had been looking forward to seeing were the Art House Projects; six old village houses that have been converted into creative spaces. I saw lots of really nice work here too; photograph floors, bamboo flowers, neon numbers in water, having my senses unsettled in the dark room.

One of the houses had a giant statue of Liberty inside - gaudily beautiful eh?







I love the little tree.



Me, perusing woollen boy



Mm, I love this picture. I loved the cat too. :-)






We took a nice bicycle ride back to the ferry in the evening sunshine and had just enough time for more pictures and a visit to the Kusuma pumpkin. :-)

Hello :-)









On the way home...

Goodbye Sun.



Hello Moon.


Later on, we went to a club here in my Marugame. Lots of people were there and there was dancing!

English ones!





At Axis, I bumped into a guy called Ichiro who I had met a few months back. He is a hairdresser and spent six years living in Bethnal Green. We talked about Brick Lane and The Ten Bells. It made me think of home and all the things I love about London.


Yes,it was a perfect weekend.

Mmm, I don't quite know why the text and pictures are positioned in an odd way...

Other thoughts:
<3 running shoes have finally been purchased, and despite making me recoil every time I put them on, I have gone for a run three times this week. I especially like listening to The Magnetic Fields when I run.
<3 The things that Mitsuru Katsumoto makes are so nice.
<3 I know 100 Kanji now. I have decided to be be ambitious and take the level three (rather than the level below, as I had been intending) Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December.
<3 I want to go to South Korea and Vietnam so much.
<3I sat on the air con remote control and now my room is cold, owh.

bye bye

xo