Chuhi Chic

Goodbye Kanazawa,onto the next adventure!

2010-03-31T13:03:00.006+09:00

Just a quick goodbye!

I'm flying to Fukuoka tomorrow, then down to Kumamoto for 10 days working at a wood workshop and finally Okinawa to do some serious de-thawing! Working on a bee farm down there. Yes BEES, bzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Lets hope I'm not allergic.... My friend translated the website and it reads "surrounded by deep forest, you can feel the nature breathing.... I can say our place "shasi kumar" is a "green uterus"...." Yep apparently he used the words "green uterus" Hmmm...should be interesting. Below is a video on their website, I think the girl is trying to find the source of the umeboshi (plum) When she's in the car she says "hito ga nai" meaning there's no people. Great, that's where I'm going. Eventually she finds the source of the umeboshi, it's honey umeboshi from the bee farm I'm going to (I think....!) Watch below

Will try and track progress on my brand spanking new blog http://sowtasty.wordpress.com/ Yep my alias will not be The Sow Tasty Gardener. Sow tasty will be all about growing your own veggies, gardening in general and of course experiences organic farming in Japan! Some places don't have internet I've been told BUT apparently I can use the neighbours PC. Oh wow, fun stories to come I'm sure.

Going to leave the blog up for anyone who wants to find things to do in and around Kanazawa. I'm off to wwoof for 6 weeks (and a trip to China and Mongolia in between!)

Thanks for reading, wish me luck!!

xxxx

The mighty sumo!

2010-03-25T13:56:00.012+09:00

Staying in a temple with monks, check. Capsule hotel, check. Playing taiko drums, check. Sing karaoke badly, check. Sumo, oooh not yet!

Without further ado we bought tickets to the March leg of the Nihon Sumo Kyokai Grand Tournament in Osaka. Getting tickets is pretty easy in Japan if you speak Japanese but a bit of a challenge if you don't. The best way is to do what Maylee did to get ours. Turn up at a Circle C or other convenience store in Japan, point to thing that looks like a cash machine in the corner and say "Sumo, kippu hoshi onegai shimasu" and with any luck the lovely helpful people will come and press all the right buttons on the machine. We decided to spend a little extra on getting good tickets (arena S) at 8,500 yen, about £60 but worth it for the good view.

I had watched quite a few sumo matches on TV usually when I got home from work and loved them. They're crazy and only last a few seconds sometimes. To my surprise not all sumo wrestlers are actually Japanese, there's this white Estonian guy called Baruto who obviously stands out from the crowd and looks a bit odd wearing his mawashi (the silk padded g string looking thing that they all wear to hide their crown jewels)

Well what a FAB experience! We had really good seats considering its practically impossible to book them near the ringside (all reserved for VIPs) but we could see everything really well. The place had a great atmosphere, families and groups of friends who had booked the boxes (4 in a box) sat on floor cushions with bento boxes whilst waiters came along bringing them green tea.

We arrived around 3pm and watched a few juryo matches just to get us warmed up. Basically there's 2 professional ranks in sumo, the juryo (the lower) and the makuuchi (the top). We watched a few final juryo matches and then it was time for the Naka-iri which is basically the opening ceremony where all the wrestlers from the top league come on wearing these silk pieces that looked like aprons. (worth around £4k apparently) See photos above.

Next for the Yokozuna (横綱) ceremony, the yokozuna is the highest rank of sumo which I think is only held by one wrestler, currently its a fierce looking guy called Hakuhō Shō. The crowds went pretty wild when he came into the ring and he did this ritualistic dance accompanied with a sword bearer. See photo below.

Hakuho performing yokozuna ceremony

Next it was time for the makuuchi division matches. The rules are simple. The aim is to get your opponent either outside of the ring OR to touch any of the body parts (except for feet obviously) onto the floor inside the ring. The build up lasts longer than the actual battle but its just great!

They eye each other up, then split up and each throw salt into the ring (for purifying the area apparently) then re-position to stare each other out before they start. Then suddenly they charge, there's lots of skin slapping (or should I say fat slapping), shouts and clutching of the mawashis as they try and pull each other down.

Staring each other out

3,2,1 go!

....and the guy with the black mawashi wins!

Didn't have a clue where the scoring board was until we saw this tiny ancient looking hung up in the corner, yep this is the score board. The red dots are who won the match. Yep it took us a while especially nursing a hangover when everything takes just that little bit longer ; )

We did wonder how those mawashi stay on the wrestlers. The knot doesn't even look that tight at the back and sometimes they have so much front bottom fat hanging out that its amazing nothing else escapes...Oh and the non Japanese wrestlers were so hairy! Hairy backs, hair chests, hairy legs, yuk. Here is my fave wrestler, Baruto who is in the third highest rank, towering over the other wrestlers. He doesn't look like he belongs does he?

Once the matches were finished at 6pm they held a final bow ceremony took place but I felt pretty sorry for the rikishi wrestler who was perfoming it as everyone started to leave before he finished, how rude! The ceremony is centuries old, the bow represents the gratitude felt by the day's victors.

Time to go, thrilling afternoon, hangover cleared but not looking forward to the train ride back to Kanazawa! I filmed one below.

My first capsule hotel experience, Osaka

2010-03-25T12:14:00.009+09:00

From one accommodation extreme to the next...Saturday night spent in a temple with monks in the mountains of the beautiful and serene Koyasan and Sunday night in a quirky capsule hotel smack bang in the middle of "America-town" in the bustling Osaka. You have to love Japan!

My bed, top floor

For anyone who has no idea what a capsule hotel is, its basically a type of hotel in Japan with extremely small rooms (aka capsules). They're usually men only but some have a ladies floor. They were initially designed for men too inebriated to travel home or to embarrassed to face their spouses. The best thing is that they're super cheap, like around £20 per night. Some people in Japan even rent them on a monthly basis as they're so cheap.

Once we entered our capsule (http://www.asahiplaza.co.jp/) we put our "outdoor" shoes into lockers and checked in no probs. I had initially expected some kind of unmanned reception with vending machines that spit out your keys (this is the case for some capsules) but there were actually humans there to check us in, wow! Locker keys in hand we went down to our ladies floor which we accessed via a key. Once inside, we went to find our capsules, all very exciting!

Home for the night, look like morgue chambers don't they?

They weren't half as small and claustrophobic as I thought they would be although it did look like we'd just walked into a scene from CSI, these morgue type chambers stacked up both sides, spooky!

Mine was at the top so I had a little ladder to help me get in.Once I crawled inside it really wasn't that small, I could sit up easily and mine had a built in TV inside, pretty darn cosy if you ask me! No doors of course, just a screen that you pull down for privacy.

I also thought it would be like a noisy hostel full of young drunken travellers running about everywhere but no. It was so quiet, everyone respects the need for peace and quiet. When we first saw our capsules though, we did get a bit over excited and started taking pictures of each other hanging out of our capsules remarking on "how lucky it was no-one was about". To our dismay, some girl shouted out in English "I am" Well that taught us! We didn't make a sound after that.

Kari and I squeezed into her capsule (silently of course!)

On the ladies floor there is was a locker area where you have to store all of your stuff. They even give you pyjamas, a yukata (summer kimono) and a towel! There was a relaxation room, a sauna and sento (small bath) room for freshening up and a huge vanity area. All you need really! We got ready for our night on the tiles in Osaka and went out wondering whether the ladder up to my capsule might turn into a challenge after a few drinks...

5am, 9 hours later...Crawled into our capsules amazingly managing not to fall up or down the ladder. Had a wonderfully peaceful sleep in my little capsule for the night!

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Koyasan; the sacred mountain & staying with monks in a temple

2010-03-23T10:50:00.012+09:00

Wow its amazing how much you can pack into a 3 day weekend! With 4 months left in Japan there's still so much I want to do here, eeek. So this weekend we decided to go for a "cram Japan" weekend starting at Koyasan (or Mount Koya), a sacred mountain and Shingon Buddhist temple complex and spending a night in temple lodging (known as shukubo), then hitting Osaka for a night in a capsule hotel and if that wasn't enough go see a sumo match! Soooo much to write about, I'll start with Koyasan.

So on Saturday morning at 6.50am we took the gruelling but cheap 5 hour bus bound for Osaka from Kanazawa (its the old age, I used to be able to handle long bus trips!) In fact it ended up being 7 hours as the traffic was so bad going into Osaka. From Osaka we caught the train and thought it was odd that the scenerey wasn't getting any more mountainous and pretty. It took us over an hour to realise that in fact we were en route to Kansai aiport, DOH! Mild panic setting in as the temple was serving dinner at 5.30pm and they wouldn't wait for anyone, it was now 4pm....

About 4 more train changes, a ropeway tram (see above) and a final bus we ended up in Koyasan, 11 1/2 hours later. Yep, we could have flown to London in that time!

The minute the bus entered the towering entrance gates and this huge stone Buddha appeared from nowhere in the trees we knew it was going to be worth the effort. Just some quick history for you about Koyasan, in 806 a monk named Kukai had travelled to China to study Buddhism. Some years later he returned and established a Shingon monastery on Koyasan, which then grew over the centuries. Kukai has become one of Japan's most famous religious figures and is revered as a Bodhisaattva, scholar and inventor of the Japanese kana.

Nowadays, the Shingon school of Buddhism has 10 million members and presides over nearly 4000 temples all over Japan. Today Koyasan enables tourists to stay alongside monks, eat their characteristic vegetarian cuisine (shojin-ryori), observe their prayer ceremonies and learn meditation techniques. We were to do all but the last.

Reception room at Shojosh-in temple, our home for a night

The temple we stayed at, called Shojoshin-in, blew our away. No reception desk, just a monk who comes and greets you and leads you to a beautiful tatami mat room (above) to check you in.

The main hall at Shojosh-in, where we stayed.

They gave Raquel our list of "rules", meal times, morning prayers time 6.30 and bath times (only between certain times in the evening and not available in the morning).

With no time to settle we went straight down for dinner (luckily they had agreed to still serve us despite being late) The food was so tasty. I honestly thought that we might go hungry what with the monks eating simple diet but no, we had 3 trays of food each! The monk who had been manning reception was now our waiter and was scurrying in and out with the food and hot green tea.

For the next hour we gorged on tempura veggies, pickles, fried tofu, daikon radish, rice, rolled omlette, ginger soup, miso, pickled chinese cabbage, fruit, it went on and on.... see above.
After dinner we drank a few glasses of wine in our room under the kotatsu (heated blanket surrounding a table) had a good ol chin wag and eventually passed out wondering what was in store for the next morning's service.

6.15am on the dot, a loud bell was rung a few times indicidating it was time to get up. We headed down to the prayer room a bit dreary eyed. Well, what an enchanting experience. Listening to the monks chant rythmically almost puts you into a trance like state and certainly took me back to my zazen experience in November.

After morning prayer which finished by 7am we had a huge breakfast and headed out to see Oku-No-In, a cemetary where Kukai rests in eternal meditation and the most sacred site at Koysan. Anyone who is anyone in Japan is buried here including former feudal lords, politicians and soldiers who served in WW2 are all buried in this huge cemetary (200,000 graves to be exact).

I'm no fan of graveyards here but there isn't a creepy tombstone in sight, just a quaint path that leads you through the cedar forest over quaint bridges, past monuments and towards Toro-Do (Lantern Hall) and Kukai's mausoleum.

En route we passed so many people cladded in white jackets and holding walking sticks. I initially thought they were tour guides (big faux pas jessie!) They were in fact "spiritual tourists" starting or ending their pilgrimages to the "88 sacred places of Shikoku", an impressive 1,100km trail.

I could go on about Koya and the wonderful places including Kongobu-ji and Garan (the temple complex), the golden pagodas but I'm running out of time and have a few more posts to write! Have a browse of the pics and you'll get a sense for the wonder of the place.

Making Japanese sweets (wagashi) in Kanazawa

2010-03-12T07:02:00.018+09:00

Maylee and I, proudly showing off our masterpieces!

Running out of time and there's still so much I want to do whilst living in Kanazawa. The longer I'm here the less daunting it all seems to be (i.e I'm even calling people up and speaking in my broken Japanese, something I never thought possible when I arrived a year ago!)

So one thing I had read about in the list of things to do in Kanazawa is to make wagashi (和菓子), a traditional Japanese confectionary which is often served with tea and is almost considered an art form.

Of course all the information about doing this is in Japanese so it's a bit of a challenge to work out where, how much and what its all about. So having made a wobbly reservation on the phone, we went down to the Ishikawa Gifts and Souvenir centre on Saturday with the hope that they had actually understood me on the phone and to my amazement they did!*

We were ushered into a big hall with long tables, the last group were finishing off and then it was our turn. Each of us had our own set of wagashi mix, utensils, a sieve and some wet tissues.

The head chef, a big bloke who I think must teach the classes on rotation all day, put on his mic and began his presentation. We could see everything he was doing as he must have had a mini TV camera attached to a huge screen, unfortunately we didn't understand what he was saying but this is practical so it doesn't matter, just copy everyone else!

We started off by making the easiest wagashi that looked like a pink sugar mouse. There are tons of different types of Japanese wagashi depending on the ingrediants and style but as I'm sat here at school not even my teachers know the proper name for this pink one! You take the wagashi mixture (which feels like a soft play dough, it is in fact rice flour mixed with water), flatten it and then place the azuki bean paste (same consistency) inside.

You then carefully mould the edges of the outer layer around the inner and make a ball. Then you roll it in your hands until it forms an egg shape. To finish it you make two cross marks across the top with your wagashi utensils, see my video!

We then moved onto the next one, a green one with a marble type effect that bunched together at the top.

It looked near impossible to make but was actually not too hard. The secret was in getting a damp handkerchief, wrapping the wagashi inside, twisting it hard and then finaly pinching it with 2 fingertips....

Et voila!

The last looked like something I used to produce from my mop top hair shop when I was young (god remember those?) This time the wagashi mix goes through the sieve provided, watch us doing it in video below!

After, you must pick up the wagashi shreds using only chopsticks and cover the inner ball of azuki. OK this was a bit tough as I have zero patience and it just doesn't stick that well.

Once you've picked every shred of wagashi mix your'e done! The waitresses then give you a cute little box (recycled I hope) for your 3 pieces of art form (and they include an extra wrapped one in there) Here are my final masterpieces ; )

I might even try to make my own daifuku (a type of wagashi which I just LOVE!) if I have time this weekend (a nice leaving present for my teachers)

At the Ishikawa Gifts and Souvenir centre you can also decorate traditional Japanese dolls as well as paint on glass.

The sweet making cost ¥1200 and is available from 10am to 1pm on weekends and national holidays only.
*To be honest I'm not sure a reservation is really needed as there weren't that many people there. Turn up and I'm sure they can fit you in.

Map is at http://www.hot-ishikawa.jp/f-lang/english/kanazawa-area/shopping-detail.html (third picture down, there's also a map in English of how to get there)

Warning, don't scoff all your wagashi sweets in one. I did....

Fun Easter lesson for elementary, an Easter egg hunt!

2010-03-10T15:21:00.010+09:00

Nearing the end of my classes now and decided to do an Easter themed lesson as my last lesson for the kids.

So first I had the assistant here talk for 5 minutes (in Japanese) about Easter. Why we celebrate it, the significance of the egg and chick (I'm ashamed to say I didn't know until I googled it), lent and the tradition of Easter egg hunt.

I then taught the prepositions on, under and in using a chocolate Easter egg I found in my local convenience store and a box. Each time I'd ask them "where's the Easter egg?" and pupils would respond "It's in the box" or "It's under the box" etc

I'd then move over to an area of the gym that I have already set up with boxes, bags, balls and books on the floor (about 6 of each) I put the egg in certain places, for example, in the book and ask again "Where's the Easter egg?" Good practice. Once this is done I divide the class into 4 groups so we can start a real Easter Hunt! (only in the gym although with my English Club we played it throughout the school)

So each team has 4 eggs. They take it in turns (in pairs) to hide the egg (well I use paper cut out eggs) for the the other half of their team. Each pair of hiders must give the hunters a clue, i.e "Its in the book" and the hunters from each group must all go and hunt for it. Of course the more books there are on the floor to look in the harder it is. I also make the eggs smaller and smaller so hunting for an egg the size of my little fingernail becomes quite a challenge!

After this, I give out Easter certificates which you can make at http://www.123certificates.com/ or make them bookmarks (which I laminate) If the teachers allow it I'll give each team a chocolate easter egg.

Happy Easter everyone! I'm just thawing out properly......at last.

Livening up a very bored 6th grade elementary class

2010-03-05T16:08:00.012+09:00

6th grade elementary kids- the bane of my year! It took me a while (well nearly a year) to figure them out. You see these kids have totally outgrown elementary/primary school They're aged 11 and 12, have lost their genkiness, have developed a bit of attittude, don't want to volunteer for anything in class or be shown up in front of their class buddies or even be seen to be trying hard. The boys have even got stubble (well some) and the girls hairy legs (sorry but its true!). Basically they're growing up...

So faced with a class of 40 x 11 and 12 year olds who are half falling asleep its a pretty difficult challenge trying to get them interested! One of the things I have recently started doing (thanks to my friend Kari for the suggestion) is playing a game called "crossfire" (also known as crisscross or rows & columns game) It's a simple review game and always guarantees they'll enjoy it whilst reviewing past subjects. It can take 5 mins (if you hurry them), no moving of tables or pupils, they just stand up. See below for rules*

It's such a fun game and I always try and spice it up a bit by showing them revolting food (from genki English website- i.e worm ice cream, snake salad) and asking them "Do you like snake salad?"

I have learnt that 6th graders don't really respond well to manic racing games (although sometimes I have played them and they work, ie the soldiers & ninjas game- look at Genki English site) They like to be creative and think for themselves. I try and apply real life to much of the target language they learn. For example, lesson 5 is directions so we had the pupils draw a map of Oyabe City (which is really small so like a town) and then direct me to their favourite places in town such as the video game shop or the park. If your town is too big you could make a map of the school and have pupils direct you to places.

Also for birthdays, we had the pupils interview each other and work out what their star sign is. If you have time you could even have the teacher give them their star sign forecasts for the year (make it positive of course!) Trust me they're interested in this sort of thing at this age.

I also had the 6th graders form a band to practice "Can you play....?" a few lucky pupils were the band managers and had to form a band. They loved naming their band and had a lot of fun.

So if you're a new ALT faced with a class of 6th graders at elementary, I hope this helps a bit!

* Crossfire can be played many ways. Either the whole class stands up or it can be played in rows.
Either use questions (how old are you?, when is your birthday? etc) or flashcards. Flashcards make the game go much quicker, increasing the level of energy.

I play with all students standing up. I either ask a question or flash a card. The first student to raise his hand and say the English word for the picture card or answer the question can choose to either have the pupils standing in his/her horizontal row or vertical column to sit down (technically "saving" their friends). Keep going until one student or a row/column is left standing. I sometimes feel bad having only one student left standing so usually ask the last few people standing a question they can answer together.

Japan: what next contd...

2010-03-05T15:43:00.004+09:00

Hmmm. So after much deliberation I've decided to leave Japan, boo hoo. I'll be so sad to go as there just seems to be so much I haven't done yet that I still want to do! I mean I haven't climbed Mount Fuji, haven't eaten the famous poisonous puffa fish and played taiko drums in a festival.

There were no suitable jobs in Chiba so I gave up on that idea. As much as I want to go to Laos & Vietnam I can do that anytime in my life sooooo I decided to go volunteering in Japan for a while. I've organised it through a scheme called WWOOF (stands for willing workers on organic farms). It's a worldwide organisation where you can basically pay a small fee to register (￥4000) and you volunteer at places such as organic farms, art & craft studios, hotels/ryokans, environment centres and outdoor sports centres. In exchange for about 6 hours work a day you get full board and lodging. Since its quite expensive to travel around in Japan it offers a good solution to tourists who don't have a huge budget. Of course, it also offers a real insight into the Japanese way of life. I think its worth a try anyway! So I'm off to Kyushu, the southern most island of Japan, to work near Kumamoto City and then to Okinawa (an island even further south of Japan which is apparently tropical this time of year!) for a further 2 weeks. I'm fed up with the cold to be honest ; )

I won't have regular access to email/web from April 1st but I'll try and let you know how it all goes!

Heading off to China and Mongolia after a short spell of wwoofing, mainly to research a business idea but also for a little holiday too.

OK signing off!

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note, 5th grade. Lesson 7 What's this?

2010-03-02T13:02:00.006+09:00

My 5th graders already know what "What's this?" means! Yikes 4 x 1 hour lessons to cover "What's this?" and "It's a ....." is a bit too much so I decided to shorten it to just 2 lessons instead.

We played a fun mystery box game suggested by Eigo Note for the first lesson. We also played a Silhouette Quiz which they enjoyed. I showed them some famous optical illusion pictures (like the vase or two faces, see http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/gex_opti.htm) on the projector and they had to tell me what they saw. I would say "What is it?" each time.

Anyway a short post for a short section! Feel free to download my two lesson plans below

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 7- (5.28) What's this? part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 7- (5.29)- What's this? part 2

Have fun!

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note, 5th grade. Lesson 6 What do you want?

2010-03-02T12:00:00.012+09:00

Hmmm...this is a difficult one. The target language is "what do you want?" but I tried to explain that a waiter is more likely to ask "What would you like?" as its more polite than "what do you want?". I then thought that people do ask "what do you want" but its generally kept to friends and family members otherwise it comes across as a bit curt.

So for the first lesson we just practiced foreign words and I had the kids work in groups to think of foreign words in a few categories (i.e classroom, games, food/drink etc) Hilarious when I asked one group they came up with "Pocket monster next generation"! Well I guess they are foreign words..I also had Mr Donut..ok fair enough. Second lesson it was Christmas so I had them work in groups asking each other "What do you want for Christmas?" (although I still don't quite agree with them saying "I want an ipod"- not polite! but I let it pass)

Then I decided to do something totally different than Eigo Note since the rest of the lesson seemed to be based on ordering parfaits and I just didn't think it was an effective way of learning "I want...." (Also it seems that in Eigo Note they only really practice the question but not the answer- i.e "What do you want?" and then the response is just "peach, pineapple and melon please")

So I found a fantastic learning English website though a teacher run by NHK, a TV station in Japan. It's basically a robot called Gabby and a family. They produce short video clips that concentrate on a specific language per clip and my kids find them really funny (especially 5th and 6th graders- the 10/11/12 year olds who can be so difficult sometimes) See http://www.nhk.or.jp/gabby/ja/frame.html (wait for Gabby to load and then hit "watch" button at the bottom)

One of the scenes (episode 09-1 is "I want") features a character called Jack who eats loads (I want pizza! I want chicken! I want....I want.....) but he then gets a bit chubby and has to exercise. So I had the kids watch it and then they had to act it out as a drama in groups. They really loved it. I've posted a video above of one of the performances.

Download my lesson plans below for more detail (if you want):

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 6- (5.24) What do you want? part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 6- (5.25)- What do you want? part 2

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 6- (5.26)- What do you want? part 3

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 6- (5.27)- What do you want? part 4

Hope your 5th graders enjoy making the dramas as much as mine did. Thanks NHK and Gabby the robot!

Jess

The wonderful Shirakawago in the winter

2010-02-24T14:49:00.025+09:00

When mum and I decided to take a last minute trip to Shirakawago last summer we weren't expecting such a beautiful spot, see my other post about Shirakawago in the summer. The only thing we weren't able to do back then was to stay in one of the farmhouses aka "minshuku" (they get fully booked early in the summer) so I was so excited that I had the chance this weekend to return for a winter wonderland scene and to stay in a real minshuku! So we set off on the bus from Kanazawa on Saturday, an easy 1 1/2 hr trip (￥3010 rtn) and the heavy dumps of snow started to re-appear as we climbed up the mountains through the mile long tunnels.

Got to Shirakawago, well Ogimachi in fact, and found our thatched minshuku (Japanese farmhouse style B&B) stayed called Yoshiro, a bit spit and sawdust but ran by an old Japanese couple who turned out to be so sweet that it just made it a "real Japanese experience" that you could simply never get staying in an impersonal hotel. More to that later.

So Yoshiro has only signs in kanji so both myself and Maylee were wondering whether we were just walking into someones house! (they rarely lock doors to these places) We knew we were in the minshuku when we heard the lady out the back shout "irasshaimase" (welcome) and she then appeared and took us to our tatami mat room complete with kotatsu (a table with built in heating device underneath and blanket) ready for our cold tootsies! After a quick cup of green tea (which I'm now starting to like...) and a biccie we headed out.

In Shirakawago there are about 3 or 4 gassho style houses converted into small museums. We went to Nagaske (since I visited the others on my last trip) Each one charges a small entry fee of ￥300 and you get a translated leaflet with a bit of history. The house belonged to the Nagaske family wgh were doctors for the Maeda Lords in Ishikawa Pref.

The 2nd floor is packed with medical instruments, gifts from the Maeda family as well as tools for raising silkworms.

In each of the gassho houses, usually in the middle of the living room downstairs stands an "irori"- an open fireplace used for heating (an absolute necessity in these winter months) and sometimes cooking.

Amazing that they can erect these gigantic houses with not a SINGLE nail! See ropes binding foundations together.

Met Raquel and Ayako at Yoshiro and had a good catch up under the cosy kotatsu (thats the table not a bed!) until it was time for din dins. As soon as we walked into the small tatami mat restaurant the old lady had us get to work stoking up the irori fire!

What could only have been her elderly husband then bought out these wonderfully prepared trays of food, just check it out!

OK I'll try and take you through the food here-

Top right: boiled spinach, slices of daikon (a huge white Japanese radish) & marinated fried chicken

Top left: mountain vegetable tempura

Top middle: Sato-imo (里芋) a tiny Japanese sweet potato

Middle left: Kinkan- a Japanese kumquat/tiny orange- (金柑), zenmai (an edible fern, the stuff that look stringy green beans but brown) and sutake, mini bamboo shoots.

Middle centre: Chopped tomato
Middle right: Silk tofu sprinkled with katsuobushi shavings (鰹節) which are dried fermented & smoked tuna flakes!

Bottom left: Grilled river fish called Iwashi (like a sardine)

Best of all that I forgot to take a piccie of (oops) was the hida beef (local speciality) & onion cooked on a mini stove we had each. Then came out a huge Japanese teapot of green tea.

The food was soooo yummy and after stuffing our faces we were just about to retire to our room when the little old lady (fairly mute up until now) comes out with her shamisen! You couldn't get more of a real Japanese experience. She played and sang some traditional Japanese songs and then asked us where we all from (2 Americans, me British and 1 Japanese) She then started playing again.

It took a while to figure out she what she was playing (kind of 'out of tune' sound) but then realised she was playing the Beatles' Hey Jude! (ironically Ayako, my native Japanese friend was the first to figure that one out..) and we all sang along. She then started belting out the American national anthem. Classic! We then had a try at playing but it's so difficult because unlike a guitar a shamisen doesn't have frets so its amazing that they know where to put their finger.

After a sing along we went back to our rooms and as always in a ryokan the little bed fairies had been busy. Our beds were all out ready on the floor but weirdly each one had a huge bulge at the bottom. We all had no idea what the bulges were (including Ayako) and they turned out to be mini plug in kotatsu heaters to heat the beds! I guess like our equivalent of a heated blanket except these things are wooden boxes (see photo below on left side). Hmmm fire hazard?

They obviously get in the way a bit but very cosy to have your feet next to.

The next day we were woken up at 6.34am by our neighbours in the next door room playing music. Don't expect peace and quiet staying in Japanese ryokans/minshukus, the rooms are only separated by thin wooden screens.

After another wonderful breakfast we had a stroll around the village, tried out one of Japan's infamous rice burgers, (yep packed rice instead of a bread bun- great for those on a yeast free diet like I'm supposed to be!) and then headed home.

Shirakawago is one of my favourite places so far in the Ishikawa/Gifu area. For anyone in Kanazawa wondering where to go, don't hesitate. GO! It can be easily done as a day trip (the village is actually really small) or if you want to stay a night make it a gassho farmhouse like Yoshiro for an authentic experience (Cost for 1 night dinner B&B was ￥8000 including a heating charge of ￥300, about £55) I reserved through the tourist info office in Shirakawago. Some of them speak English or send them an email info@shirakawa-go.gr.jp

Snowboarding near Kanazawa: Raicho Valley, Toyama Pref

2010-02-22T19:09:00.021+09:00

OK the only thing to save you from mild depression whilst enduring a winter on the West coast of Japan is the fact that you can ski/snowboard every weeekend! I'm afraid I'm writing this post a tad late (over a week, eeek, i can't keep up) but last Sunday, Valentines day to be exact Maylee and I decided to drag ourselves out of bed at some ungodly hour to go skiing.

Japanese music on the ski lifts, brilliant idea!

There are quite a few ski resorts near Kanazawa, about a 40 min drive away (which I will write about when I've been) but we decided to get really adventurous and head to a resort near Tateyama mountain in Toyama Prefecture. (Tateyama by the way is the tallest peak in the Northern Alps 3,015 m to be precise so I thought the snow would be better and the resort higher)

The train ride up to Tateyama

Anyway we caught the 6.30 train to Toyama (40 mins) and made a quick change onto this teeny little train bound for Tateyama (60 mins). Despite being half asleep it was actually a really scenic ride up to Tateyama, the train chugged across huge valleys and cut up through the beautiful mountain forest and lucky for us it was a perfectly clear sunny day. The first sunny day we've had here for weeks!

Arrived at the tiny Tateyama station and had quick panic about what to do but the wonderful thing about being in Japan is that locals ALWAYS help you out even if they don't speak a word of Japanese.

Little bus station opposite Tatayama station

There's a little bus station office so we asked for "Ski resort" and were promptly given 3 leaflets. If you can manage "Ichiban iie ski no tokoro doko desu ka?" (Which is the best ski place?) which we did they will say Raicho Valley and quite literally take you to the bus (well we later found out theres only one bus that takes you to the 3 resorts) doing a daily loop.

All easy so far, we were quite surprised. This must be a right locals spot since the only other people on the bus were 2 old men with their traditional ski boots obviously going for a Sunday ramble.

Got dropped off at Raicho by which time all the locals were helping us and telling us when to get off.

The skiing area isn't huge to be honest but I think I've been spoilt with the French Alps a bit and was expecting a dizzingly high mountain and a ton of runs. Luckily Raicho Valley and (big breath...) Gokurakuzaka are actually joined up resorts (or at least we managed to do both by accident?!) so between the two resorts theres about 10 runs. Great for a day but don't book for a week.

Anyway, this was so exciting for me, my first time on a Japanese ski resort. How different would it be? Well hiring my board/boots was an experience not really sure how much the total package was (it turned out to be ￥2500- 17 quid for board/boots)

The guys in the shop were super super friendly (and insisted in having their pic taken- see above) not like those nasty grumpy French frogs we're all accustomed to! (they even give you a complimentary drink after) Day lift pass was ￥4000 (about 27 quid)

Board boots on and already cutting the circulation to my toes, sun shining, no suncream, pocket hand warmers in (the best invention ever, why don't they sell them anywhere thats cold?!) and we ready to go.

Ski slopes at Raicho Valley, Toyama Pref

The snow was absolutely fab in the morning and I was fine on the board despite getting a bit worried I was going to be terrible since I haven't boarded for 2 years. Like a duck to water I tell you!

The slopes were pretty busy but probably because it was a Sunday AND a beautiful day. The funny thing about ski-ing in Japan is that they play music everywhere, on the chair lifts and on the slopes. It's great! The only thing they don't do which I love so much in France is put the deckchairs outside of the restaurants. You see the Japanese don't care about getting a tan unlike us pasty Brits always desperate for a bit of colour.

My tonkatusu & curry lunch on the slopes!

Lunch time was just a joy. Japanese tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) with rice and a beer basking ourselves in the glorious sun outside and watching the skiers come down. (we found a picnic bench) Who could ask for more?

Chopsticks on the slopes!

After lunch we repeated a few more runs and then found a few jumps where we could watch each other crash and burn. Tried to ride fakey (opposite foot going down the mountain for all non boarders!) for a while but it tired me out so much. Brilliant day though and its made me want to go more.

We caught the little bus back to Tateyama station and after a few loops of the ski area he dropped us off. We were back in Kanazawa by 7pm exhausted and pulled muscles just kicking in. I have to admit I couldn't MOVE the next day ; )

Dying to go again but next time we'll check out Ichirino and Seta which are a 45 min bus ride out of Kanazawa, thats unless the snow melts away. Watch this space!

The day the jellyfish became a cloud: Cool restaurant in Kanazawa

2010-02-21T14:39:00.013+09:00

Dining for 2 overlooking the floodlit garden

Well after 10 months of living here I thought I'd sampled my fair share of some of the wonderful eatieries in Kanazawa but none that could quite match this little hidden gem. I say hidden because this really isn’t a restaurant any tourist or gaijin resident of Kanazawa would simply stumble upon, unless you get totally lost down the back streets down the back of the samurai district and even then you wouldn’t know it was a restaurant!

And I say gem because, well....I’ve not been to anything that mixes contemporary cool with the traditional so brilliantly, it made me feel totally untrendy! My only caveat here is that I’m not a tourist in Kanazawa, I live here on a measly ALT wage and quite possibly there are many other top hidden gem restaurants in Kanazawa that I just can’t afford to go to. Cue the boo hoos...

So a few weeks ago I was sat in a bar with my friend Maylee and she showed me this cool little wooden ketai chain (like a keyring for mobile phones) explaining that a work colleague had taken her to this fab restaurant with a wickedly bizzare name..wait for it.... "The Day the Jellyfish became a Cloud" (くらげが雲になる日 or in romanji : kurage ga kumo ni naru hi) that had a member/loyalty scheme. Basically the first time you go to the restaurant you get given a blank key ring and a first timers menu, the 2nd time you get the next menu up with a few more dishes added and even cooler they engrave your little wooden key ring with a kanji symbol. Not just any kanji either, it’s the first kanji symbol for the The Day the Jellyfish became a Cloud.

Anyone looking for a break from Japanese cuisine but still wants modern Japanese style and ambience then this IS the place well that’s if you can find it, hehe.

I mean even as you enter through the Japanese courtyard it’s hard to know whether you’re not wandering about in some randoms garden...blink and you’ll miss the sign outside and no signs for anyone who walks into the courtyard. Just follow the stepping stone path to the right and through the door to the deceptively large and beautiful Japanese garden all lit up, it gives you a good feeling of a place.

Floodlit garden, sorry only had my mini camera

Although Maylee had been once before she started walking across the garden but I had an intelligent moment (first time for everything) and noticed that she was making fresh footprints in the snow and questioned whether that was the right way. It wasn’t!

Anyway round the back we found a tatami screen door, no sign or anything, and cautiously entered. Yep this was it, hallelujah. After literally unchanging..well shoes off, coats off, and then multiple unpeeling of layers we had a chance to marvel the inside of the restaurant.

A superb place with a orori (traditional fireplace) in the middle centrepiece, urban Japanese style, a long dining bar and a unique 2 seat dining set up exclusively overlooking the beautiful garden. How romantic, check it out! Even the table accessories were very cool. See pics

Menu was quite simple, about 5 choices of noodles and curry “pan asian” according to Maylee who was now looking at her members menu…I was so jealous, she had more choices! I opted for the Beef noodles which were sensational and really woke up the taste buds again. Awww fresh lemongrass and coconut, close your eyes you’d think you’re in Thailand. Well sort of.

Anyway didn’t want this to turn into a long, gabbling post but if you’re in Kanazawa and fancy a wonderful “pan Asian” dinner (especially if you’re a couple) then this is the place to go. Oh and apparently they’re open every evening apart from Sunday 5pm-10pm.

I could only find websites and blogs with more photos in Japanese but feel free to have a look at these fab pics

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/teamnorinori/59591530.html

http://30min.jp/place/376974

What are you waiting for?!

PS Google map below

View The day the jellyfish became a cloud restaurant in a larger map

Sapporo: Hitting the bars and clubs, night 2

2010-02-21T12:24:00.012+09:00

Ready? 3,2,1 drink!

Tonight we decide on a different strategy considering we got so lost and had no idea where to go last night. Before hitting the wonderful steakhouse we did our homework courtsey of Maylee's iPhone and headed to the Electric Sheep Bar (although we'd been trying to find the Electric Ship Bar for ages until realising it was a typo!)

Ahhh bliss, this place was a LOT more civilised cocktail bar/eatery full of the trendy local crowd (not Russians off a navy ship) plus it was on the 9th floor so good views over the Sapporo streets which meant we could smugly watch the poor buggers walking through the blizzards.

They also had a "nomihodai" offer on which roughly translates as "drink as much as you can". Think one of those all you can eat buffet but for drink, the only difference being that with the nomihodai there's a time limit, 90 minutes to be precise. So we set Maylees countdown timer on her iPhone and got stuck in. The poor bar guy, we were definately out to get our 90 minutes worth. No sooner has he bought us 2 drinks we were ready for the next round to the point that we even tried to order multiple drinks at a time (to save his feet right?) but he politely told us this wasn't allowed.

Ah so that's why its called "electric"- the drinks are lit up in funky electric colours. Not sure where the sheep bit comes from.

Don't worry we were in too bad a state when we left, they simply must have watered the drinks down. Great bar though for atmosphere and views, we had gone up in the world compared to the previous night thats for sure ; )

Sapporo Snow Festival: Eating wagyu beef, kind of..

2010-02-19T13:39:00.005+09:00

All this cold and we fancied a big piece of steak. Well Hokkaido is famous for the fact it has cows, horses and actually just animals unlike some places in Japan.

Maylee found a Steakhbouse serving wagyu, you know that famous Japanese beef? Its almost a delicacy here, renowned for its flavour but more so by breeding techniques such as massaging the cattle and adding sake to their feed.

Reservation made, a quick download of the address onto her trusty iPhone (all in kanji, you see its not as simple in Japan trying to find places when you can’t read the kanji!) and we were on our way to Steakhouse Ushitei in town.

For those thinking about going to Ushitei a reservation isn’t needed, only if you’re in a big party. It was quite a casual place but really friendly staff and an English menu. Unfortunately for us poor earners (ok me not Maylee) the wagyu steaks way too expensive at Y 6,500 for 250g which is about £45. Oh to earn proper money again!!

Anyway, we ordered the 350g hamburger steaks instead forgetting that in Japan hamburgers don’t usually come with the bread bun, the salad, onion and gerkin! Yes in Japan they come as they are, a hambuger steak with sauce. It didn’t matter as we ordered some rice as accompaniment and I can honestly say it was soooo gorgeous.

We then asked her if the burger steak was wagyu and she said no. only the steaks. Shit! We’d gone out of way to find a wagyu steakhouse and didn’t even eat the real macoy..

Ah well we made ourselves feel better by remarking on how much money we had now saved for hitting the bars in Sapporo for a second night running.

Sapporo Snow Festival: Best snow sculptures

2010-02-19T12:19:00.004+09:00

Some of the giant snow sculptures truly defied belief; towering more than 10 metres in height and made entirely of packed snow. The larger statues apparently take about 2000 cubic metres of snow.

There was a true to size replica of the Baekje Royal Palace in Korea (both pictures above above) , a mini Tokyo disney resort scene with a stage in front for performances, a German church and a castle! Yep all made out of snow.

One of our favourites was an animal scene apparently representing the two notable zoos of Hokkaido. There were twin polar bears playing with their mother, an incredibly detailed snow leopard as well as penguins, orangutans and an Eagle.

This photo isn't mine. My camera and I had a big row so couldn't get one of the entire animal scene

So how the heck do they make these enormous snow sculptures? Well, apparently they start with putting up a huge wooden frame which they then pack down with snow. once the packed snow is hardened the frame panels are removed and they start carving. Most of the carving happens at night due to warmer daytime temperatures making the sculptures fragile.

Japanese girly pop band dancing in shorts in front of ice sculpture!

Sapporo Snow Festival: Snow sculptures in a blizzard

2010-02-19T11:03:00.012+09:00

Woke up with a good old cracking hangover, nothing a bit of traditional Japanese breakfast of fish, rice, pickles and miso can’t sort out”! Weather, sub zero but actually sunny. Wow, it all looks so welcoming! Decided to head out to the Tsudome site (snow tubing and mazes) and then come back and see the snow sculptures at Odori Park after. My idea and in hindsight it was a crap idea.

We spent the most part of the morning trying to find the bus stop then we managed to get on the wrong bus, each of us relying on the other that we knew where we were going, it was hilarious. By the time we got off the wrong bus and had boarded the right bus heading in the right direction a huge snow blizzard had started to the point that I didn’t really want to get off the cosy bus!

We stayed about an hour there, the snow tubing was brilliant fun and there was this place where a snowmobile dragged inflatable tenders around a track, now that's a great alternative to sledging, I’ll have to tell Ben!

Got back for the snow sculptures but our timing was not great as the blizzard had decided to hit the city. I’ve never seen anything like it, I couldn’t even lift my head up! Could but only because her glasses were blocking out the snow!

Check out these scenes....

Watching the Sapporo snowboarding competition in a blizzard

Bloody hell, this snow blizzards giving me a right headache

Yep Maylee is under there somewhere...

Japanese girl in mini skirt in snow blizzard

Oh and of course we’re in Japan so you’re still going to see a handful of people with their mini skirts on and no tights (and some kind of weird tail thing going on)

Near the bottom of the Odori Park we came across the international snow sculpting competition which including competitors from the US, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Singapore, Hong Kong, China etc. Each team (it looked like) got given a block of packed snow a few feet high/wide and a set time to create something amazing.

Well...the Dutch decided to do nothing with theirs (is there enough snow in Holland for them to even have professional ice carvers?!) and so instead handed out snow gifts, basically a snow brick hacked off and wrapped up with some ribbon, with an underlying message about the icecaps melting. Personally I wondered if they just knew they wouldn’t win so went for the easy option instead of slaving away on the ice? Ok that’s me being totally cynical.

Over to the Finnish sculpture and a very cute family in the sauna scene, the Singapore team and a wonderful flower display, China working on an amazing Buddha image and then to the US....

Well we all know the US usually excel in all competitive events but I was sneakily chuffed to see that the US sculpture was absolutely dire, a guy from Portland trying to sculpt some grapes which didn’t really look like grapes. To rub salt into the poor guys’ wounds his neighbour, the super talented Hong Kong team, had carved what could only be described as a Chinese looking dragon masterpiece. Well see the pics and maybe you’ll see what I mean.

Sour grapes.....

Walking on a bit we stumbled on what my friends know as a personal favourite of mine; an international outdoor food hall. Brilliant. Since the Japanese don't do anything but chipolata sized Frankfurter plastic tasting sausages I just couldn't resist a fat meaty Brazilian sausage on a stick....

He looks friendly but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this guy.. check out knife

Sapporo Snow Festival: Hitting the bars...

2010-02-19T10:22:00.013+09:00

Tweedle dum....making me cringe

Being the prepared person that I am (and Maylee more so) I’d quickly printed off a “guide to Sapporo nightlife” at work hoping no-one would notice. Unfortunately in my haste I failed to realise I’d printed out some juvenile English teacher part time cassanova who only talked about bars and clubs in Sapporo that were good for a lay or a "hook up" (if you don't believe me read it)

But crap, we were two civilised and older Western girls looking for a civilised nice time! By this time it was too late, I had crammed the print out in my bag and we found ourselves in the first bar called Rad Brothers in the Susukino area of town. What a dive! Some wannabe Japanese hip hop dudes, a group of Russians straight off the Navy ship, some butch Americans with attitude and drunken clingers on wandering about.

One double vodka and red bull later we were out of there remarking on how “awful” and “crass” the place was and how the club/bar just down the road called Booty looked the same. We cockily moved onto our next bar called “VIVO” but after getting a million contradicting directions from bouncers and doing a few circuits of downtown Sapporo in sub zero temperatures we were forced to admit defeat. By now it was midnight already, we were freezing and needed a drink.

With our tail between our legs we agreed that to save ourselves from freezing outside we’d have to hit Booty (the place that we turned our noses up earlier) and was as bad as expected. Well ok if you’re into R&B or you’ve had an obliterating amount of alcohol I'm sure it'd be bearable. We sat upstairs in the lounge area (thankfully huge with big comfy sofas) and finally sat down to have a drink which was disturbed within minutes by Japanese tweedle dum and tweedle dee, two far too young drunken idiots trying to chat us up. The one I got stuck with had limited English vocab, in fact he had only learnt 2 expressions in English (which maybe worked for him in the past?) which were “I love you” and “what are ya talking about”. I did find it mildly amusing and had to film him actually saying it, see below.

We later saw them getting ticked off by about 5 cops (Japanese coppers must get soo bored, hardly any crime happens here)

We then try to sort out another bar/club to go to and with our limited knowedge of the area coupled with the fact that it was far too cold to stand about on the streets gulped back our pride and went back into Rad brothers which had slightly improved (but maybe that was the number of drinks we’d now had?)

Oh god, another dumb enlisted.

Some enlisted military guys from the US Navy then came over and started talking to us. Not too much offence intended but this is the second time I have talked to US military folk and I’ve never met such stupid unintelligent men! So I was making small talk saying how I didn’t find Japanese men very manly as a whole and were a bit whimpy. The American guy turns round and says “Well you know why that is though don’t you?” He then tells me that in fact they were manly, heroic and courageous etc before the Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Oh wow. What a bloody insolent statement especially for a guy who is stood in a bar in the middle of Japan, I just couldn’t believe my ears!
We stayed until about 4.30am chatting to a group of “normal” (considering who we’d met earlier) Ozzie lad and girls who were in town from Niseko where they worked and were also clueless about nightlife in Sapporo.

We headed back to the ryokan around 4.30am drunk and suddenly not feeling the cold at all despite me taking a pic of the electronic weather dial!

Sapporo Snow Festival: Ramen experience no 2

2010-02-16T12:47:00.012+09:00

Both numb with the cold we decided to save the larger snow sculptures until the next day and head to the ramen shop that the head lady at the ryokan recommended. Ramen Alley? She said forget it. This ramen shop (sorry dont know the name!) was her personal favourite.

The ramen shop was......well a typical ramen shop; tiny, packed with people (mostly men) slurping on their ramen and beers and Japanese cooks with those towels on their heads running about.

Struggled a bit with the all Japanese menu but Maylee (who has no fear) asked the guy “ichi ban oishiee” and “ichi ban Hokkaido no yumei” which probably isn’t the best Japanese to ask for the best most famous ramen in Hokkaido but he understood (or probably just sent along with it as we were clueless tourists speaking broken Japanese) and recommended “Ichigo” and “shinshue”.

I opted for the spicier one served with a Sapporo beer (when in Sapporo and all that....)

To be honest I’m still not convinced why people rave on about ramen so much; glorified super noodles with a piece of fatty pork floating on the top and a pinch of spring onion springs to mind (god have I just committed total ramen sacrilege here!)

Maylee assured me that it wasn’t that great and she’d eaten better Hokkaido ramen in Kanazawa. “What?” I said “You mean you think that you can get better Hokkaido ramen in Kanazawa than the one at this ramen shop recommended to us by a local?” (She later told me she got it confused with ramen from a completely different area in Japan, DOH!!)

Maylee totally has the slurping thing down to a tee. I, however, seem to nearly choke every time I try and slurp. I still can’t quite get over that cultural hurdle though.

Maylee with bowl bigger than head slurping away with the rest of the locals in the ramen shop.

Before anyone starts commenting and in my defence can I just say that I read in "Eat, Sleep, Sit" that Zen Buddhist monks in training were also forbidden to make noises when they eat!

Anyway, ippai with ramen we headed back to the ryokan to get ready for our big night out in Sapporo!

Sapporo Snow Festival: Ice sculptures, hotto wain and kiddy slides

2010-02-16T10:24:00.015+09:00

Sapporo snow storm...

Why is it when you finally meet someone who wants to travel about Japan and DO things its time to go?! Damn!

Anyway, the latest of the Jess and Maylee “discover Japan” adventures was a trip up to Sapporo to see the much acclaimed snow festival (yuki matsuri) This trip warrants a few separate posts since we crammed so much into our 3 night trip it felt like we’d been there ages.

Took the bang on time, totally efficient bus to Komatsu airport to get on the bang on time, totally efficient 90 min flight to Sapporo where the model looking air hostesses with painted on smiles gave us a totally efficient complimentary drinks service (no free booze though...there just HAD to be a flaw!)

I thought Kanazawa's weather was brutal but walking through the double doors out into Sapporo's -11 fresh air hits you like a hard slap around the face, ouch I say! We found our ryokan (Nakamuraya Ryokan) just before full on frostbite set in thanks to Maylee’s wicked iPhone google mapping device. Little did I know at the time that the phone would feature a LOT in our little break..back to that later.

Were greeted by the friendly staff at the ryokan and taken to a simple but nice tatami mat room by a young Japanese lady who served us the obligatory green macha (tea) and sweet (mochi) She then fussed a lot and did lots of bows and backed out of the room bowing, coming back in with our yukatas and backing out of the room again only to re-appear again to tell us safety instructions, breakfast hours etc. Coming from England and its distinct lack of service-orientated culture I couldn't help but feeling a tad too fussed over (if thats possible?!)

After a quick cuppa we headed out into the sub zero temperatures to make it to the snow festival opening ceremony....which we then MISSED! Hahaha, well actually we’re not sure. We found a load of poor suited and booted Japanese sat in the freezing cold outside (bear in mind it’s -11) listening to what looked like some kind of ceremony. We were looking out for the “ice queens” but didn’t see any.

Church ice sculpture

This is actually a BAR made totally of ice, note drink bottles on bar. Very cool!

Light tunnel, not sure why...but it was nice

Yep real crabs and fish set in ice block sculptures, poor little blighters

Instead we walked around the ice sculptures which were truly amazing. Have a look at the pics. I bought my tripod out but didn’t get any nice pics this time. My excuse? It was -11 (ok I now I’ve mentioned that three times now) and the tripod was a cheapy. The legs of the stupid thing were like bambi, buckling every time I’d try and take a pic.

Maylee standing outside the igloo eatery made of ice blocks, it even had a gas heater inside

Hallelujah, just when I lost the feeling in my fingers we stumbled upon this cool igloo type eatery selling “Hotto Aka Wain” (hot red wine) Felt pretty chuffed that I even managed to read the katakana, its only taken 10 months! For some reason I was expecting some kind of yummy vin chaud delight with brown sugar, spices and fruit but no. This was quite literally "hot wine".

Refusing to feel defeated we ordered some “oden” – a kind of snack that’s sold in most convenience stores, this one a kind of chewy processed fish cake and fried tofu on a stick. I've eaten better, thats all I'm saying on the matter (I know Maylee LOVES it!).

Maylee with the oden she loves

Time to move on...

At the bottom of the street there was this wicked little mini slide made purely of packed snow. Well why should kids have all the fun on it? So we both had a go. It was only after I realise that sliding down snow on your bum when you're only wearing jeans isn't such a great idea.

Wicked little slide made purely of ice

I never thought I'd say this b/c I never thought I still had feelings in my bum but it went totally numb, ouch!

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note, 5th grade. Lesson 5 I don't like blue

2010-02-15T15:03:00.006+09:00

This part of Eigo Note is called "I don' t like blue" but my poor little blighters had just done 4 back to back lessons learning "I like" and "I don't like". As a consequence I changed the target language for Eigo Note lesson 5 to "Do you have...nani nani?" and the reply would be "Yes I do" and "Here you are" or "No I don't".

We played some really fun games whilst practising the target language. One was so simple and was called "Search and Find" It basically involved a group of pupils coming to the front of the class and facing the board whilst other pupils hid about 10 flashcards amongst each other. They then had 2 minutes to collect as many cards as they could find. So one pupil from the searching group had to ask another pupil "Do you have some brown shorts" to which they would reply "No I don't"

We also played a bargaining/shopping game which I found on Genki English website. I've never seen my 5th graders get so excited haggling away their goods and exchanging money. If you do play the game, it might be best to split into smaller groups to make sure you can listen to the transactions. My pupils would somehow forget to say the "Do you have...." part and go straight into the haggling.

I then finished lesson 5 off with having pupils do a final introduction on themselves and what they liked and don't like. They were pretty confident with the language by then. Anyway download my Eigo Note lesson plans below if you want:

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 5- (5.16) I don't like blue part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 5- (5.17)- I don't like blue part 2

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 5- (5.18)- I don't like blue part 3

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 5- (5.19)- I don't like blue part 4

Signing off......

The English board at school- what do I put on it?

2010-02-15T11:43:00.008+09:00

If you've ever been a ESL teacher or ALT in your lifetime you've probably been tasked with keeping the all important English board at school up to date. This is a notice board usually in the corridors at school that has been dedicated for the purpose of educating all those little pupils passing by about English customs and language.

Well I was lucky enough to only cover 2 elementary schools per week whilst working as an ALT in Japan so I had time to do mine (I know other ALT's cover up to 10 schools at a time and simply don't have the bandwidth to maintain them)

Anyway if you're a new ALT and wondering what to put on your English board at school I've put this post together to help you! (I went through the same) Sometimes I used to have so much time on my hands I'd spend an afternoon putting it all up and then take a step back to admire my masterpiece! Hahaha

OK so here is what I put on my English Board throughout the year:

For a great self-introduction put up info about you (kids are always intrigued with you as a foreigner) postcards of your town/county, your national flag, your family tree with photos and pets (Japanese rarely have pets due to space)

Another thing you can do is put together a comparisons chart, I did England vs Japan and had a picture of knife and fork/chopsticks, milk tea with a biscuit being dunked/green tea, Queen Elizabeth/Emperor and Dangermouse/Hello Kitty (Admittedly Dangermouse was huge when I was younger, about 25 years ago, but the kids are never going to know that right?!)

Schools in England vs schools in Japan display. I had done a presentation about my niece Tegan's school as part of a lesson so decided to use the presentation for the English Board. I had included their timetable, what they eat for lunch, their school uniform and pictures of their school.

I keep a corner of the English board just for things we've been doing at English Club which includes photos and a write up (in Japanese)

If the school is happy for you to take photos during a lesson (or ask a teacher to do this) put up photos of various games you played in lessons so the rest of the school knows what each grade is up to.

Every month I put up a picture of something associated with that month both in Japan and the UK, ie for November I'll put up a picture of Guy Fawkes night bonfire & fireworks and then for Japan I'll put up a picture relating to the Shichi-go-san holiday celebrated in Japan. I'll also include a 1 or 2 paragraph write up (in Japanese translated by a willing teacher) explaining what this custom is and why we celebrate it.

Anyway I hope this helps any panicked ALT who has to start an ESL English Board at elementary school!

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note, 5th grade. Lesson 4 I like apples

2010-02-03T14:04:00.008+09:00

Well for this section I was asked specifically by my teachers to follow the Eigo Note plans for Lesson 4 (eeeek, panic) as they had to provide feedback on them. Well some of the ideas in Eigo Note for this lesson were surprisingly ok. I liked the "guess what your teacher likes/doesn't like" game on page 27. I also don't mind the listening exercises, I think they're good practice.

The self introductions are a good idea but I had already taught them "I don't like...." so instead I had them stand up and say what they liked and what they didn't like. I again thought teaching "I like" was overkill so for the 4th part I decided to teach them "My favourite..." just so they wouldn't get bored.

Anyway, you can download my Eigo Note lesson plans below if you want!

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 4- (5.12) I like apples part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 4- (5.13)- I like apples part 2

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 4- (5.14)- I like apples part 3

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 4- (5.15)- I like apples part 4 *

* This "whats your favourite..?" needs this worksheet.

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note, 5th grade. Lesson 3 How Many?

2010-02-03T13:34:00.015+09:00

For "how many" lesson, I had the pupils recap on counting and numbers for the first two lessons, then did a more specific "how many" lesson for the third part and then did a totally random body parts lesson for part 4.

Well I guess the guys at MEXT who produced Eigo Note also realised that having 4 x 45 min lessons to teach "How many?" was a bit of a stretch so stuck the Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song and game in there. Well it suited me fine as I think the kids were over counting by the time we got to part 3 and they loved the doctor doctor game using homemade plasters instead of loo roll. (thanks Richard at Genki English' website)

I must admit I hardly used Eigo Note for this lesson. The Lets Sing 10 steps is a tad too easy for 5th graders, I'm teaching it to my 1st graders and even they find it easy but 20 steps was much better (if a bit fast). I did do the Lets Listen exercise once, counting to 10 in different languages which doesn't have much to do with How Many but they found it interesting and laughed at some of the different pronunciations.

For how many, I decided that it'd be fun to steal a few Where's Wally pictures and have the pupil work in pairs and count how many items were in the picture (like how many towels? how many animals do you see?) It actually worked really well. I mean who doesn't like Wheres Wally?!

I also had them play the timebomb game. They absolutely love this and its a perfect game for counting 1-10 or even 1-20. We also had fun with a lottery game I invented and a secret code game. Anyway, I'll stop gassing, all the games are in the lesson plans below. Have fun!

Download lesson plans for Eigo Note lesson 3 below.

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 3- (5.8) How many? part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 3- (5.9)- How many? part 2

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 3- (5.10)- How many? part 3 *

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 3- (5.11)- How many? part 4

*I copied some Wheres Wally pictures from the internet for this lesson, see worksheet here

Enjoy!

Omi-Cho Market: Kanazawa's Kitchen

2010-02-01T10:38:00.013+09:00

Wow, I can't believe I have yet to write a post about the wonderful Omi Cho market in Kanazawa. This is a must for anyone visiting Kanazawa.

Omi-Cho has around 200 shops, stalls and restaurants so give yourself at least an hour. The atmosphere in there is fantastic; a chorus of "irasshes" (welcome) from the stall holders who follow up by shouting out their deals and whipping the customers crowds into a frenzy of buying.

These stalls overflow with seasonal Kaga veggies, specialised dry foods, tubs of fresh pickles and of course seafood. If you're only visiting Japan this is a great opportunity to see what the locals eat and even try food out for yourself. One stall owner was cracking open fresh oysters for passing customers at ￥300 a pop. If it wasn't for my stomach's turbulent relationship with shellfish I would have had one.

You can also eat some of the fresh seafood in Kanazawa both on the market floor (there's a couple of good sushi belt restaurants) and on the 2nd floor above the market (more upmarket) When mum was here we went to a really popular restaurant upstairs, just take the escalators to the 2nd floor, take a right and look for the restaurant with the live fish tank just inside the entrance (sorry Ive lost the photos) . The menus aren't in English but the waitresses are so friendly and can help you choose. This place must be a favourite for the locals as by 12.30pm the place was full with a queue forming outside. Our food was absolutely out of this world.

I have been to the market so many times but it was an amazing sight in December, snow crab season, where an eye boggling amount of fresh (some still live) crab were being sold everywhere you look.

Some crabs, with ridiculously long claws, were being sold for ￥8000 each (about £55) or is that a batch of 10? I'm not sure!

I had a great day taking pics, just wandering around the bustling market and marvelling at how lucky I am to have a fresh market to buys my groceries. Make sure you go if you're in Kanazawa.

NB Most of the shops at Omi-cho market are closed on Sundays and holidays.

Japan: what next?

2010-02-01T10:31:00.004+09:00

This indecisions bugging me....lalalala.

My year in Japan is rapidly coming to an end. It has totally flown by and now I've hit that dilemma that I'm sure many people who move to Japan have experienced. What do I do now?!

Half of me wants to stay for another 6 months, possibly a year (the wilder side) but then the other half of me (the more sensible side) is reminding me that I'm turning 32 in a few months time and it's time to get back to the old job and establish some roots again. Oh to be 18 again!

Moving to Japan has been such a huge stress releiver for me. Being an ALT is a stress free job and gives you so much time on your hands to contemplate life. It has definately allowed me to take a step back and evaluate everthing (oh and appreciate the simplest of things like speaking English!)

So at the moment I'm either going to move to Chiba (find out soon) or do some travelling in Japan and maybe Laos/Vietnam before going back to the UK in time for the summer. I've seen a voluntary project in Japan that looks interesting...hmmm decisions decisions...

Valentines day (and White Day) in Japan

2010-02-01T10:06:00.011+09:00

Yes the Japanese celebrate it too.

The Japanese are renowned for their obsession with all things cute (Kitty and Care Bears are huge here even with the adult and male population!) that as Valentines day approaches it just gets even more sicklier sweet!

You can't really ignore the deluge of pink gifts taking over the shelves, the chocolates piled high and (unlike in the UK) self baking kits containing cookie mix, paper cookie holders and cute little gift bags to put them in.

Get baking girls!

Yep Valentines day is as big in Japan as it is in the UK but they do things slightly differently here. In fact in Japan they have TWO valentines days. The first day, on Feb 14th, is reserved for the women only to tell their loved ones how they feel by sending them a "honmei choko" (handmade chocolate of love). The second day, on March 14th (which they call White Day) is an opportunity for the man to reciprocate.

Ahhhh...at last I find a cake tin that cost less than a tenner! too late..

How unfair! The poor women have to make the first move and even worse have to wait an agonising 4 weeks to find out if the guy is interested back.
On the plus side, on White Day the reciprocated gifts are usually a lot more expensive. White Day gifts can be anything from white marshmallows to white underwear and jewellery.

Sickly sickly valentines displays...cynical moi?!

The funniest thing I heard from a work colleague though is that in South Korea they celebrate Black Day on the 14th April for all of those singletons like me out there. On Black Day in South Korea single people get together and eat jajangmyeon (noodles with a black bean sauce).

Right, I've put the date in the diary since I have zero love interests. Now where's the licorice?

My first bowl of ramen in Japan

2010-02-01T09:46:00.005+09:00

Yes I've lived here for 10 months now and ashamed to admit that I have yet to eat a single bowl of ramen...well until this weekend. I blame it on the fact my friends have all been here for years and the novelty of eating shed loads of Japanese food has worn off. Ramen, for those who don't know, is a a Japanese noodle dish that originated in China.

After knocking back an infiniate number of vodkas, dancing badly at Apres, stumbling out at 4.30am and roaming the streets on Saturday night what better time to try out the infamous ramen! So the three of us fell into the ramen shop. Eating ramen in Japan is probably akin to hitting the kebab shop in the UK after a boozy night out (except ramen is eaten during the day in specialised ramen shops too unlike those nasty kebabs....) Full of drunk men with fags hanging out of their mouths (yes they still smoke indoors here) and falling over themselves to speak English ("Allo, you are total beautiful") Well that's until the ramen arrives and the deafening chorus of slurping begins.

I opted for the shoyu (soy) ramen (the other was miso ramen), a steal at only ￥500 (about 3 quid) If I'm honest I wasn't that impressed, really salty. I could have made better super noodles at home.

If you want to try ramen in Kanazawa there is apparently a good ramen restaurant called Ippudo. http://www.ippudo.com/store/#koshinetsu. It's just on the street around the corner from Zara in Tatematchi (the paved shopping street in Katamatchi) Good luck!

Eighties Haiti party at Apres, Kanazawa

2010-02-01T09:35:00.009+09:00

Saturday night I went to a Haiti Earthquake fundraiser party organised by the Ishikawa Jets, a great idea for raising much needed funds for Haiti.
The party was being held at the NEW Apres club in Kanazawa 2 floors below the Apres bar which has been opened a few months now. We were well excited. I can categorically tell you that there is NO cheesy clubs in Kanazawa to dance to some Justin or shake ya booty to Beyonce....There's 8 Hall and Manier if you like hard dance music but for a rapidly aging 31 yr old it's not sooo appealing anymore.

You spin me right round, baby right round, like a record....lalala

Wow gaijins altogether in Kanazawa!

Anyway that's all set to change with the opening of the Apres club and boy did we shake our booties! The place was absolutely heaving and I've never seen so many foreigners in one place since I moved to Kanazawa.

OK it was a JET organised night so I guess usually its not so packed. DJ's including Dipika, Gav from Fuji Rocks' mate and a few other gaijins cranked out some fantastic 80's cheese, there's just nothing like a bit of Belinda Carlisle to get everyone going, hahaha.

I had originally gone all out with my 80's outfit managing somehow to look like a care bear (a really scary wrinkly one, see piccie at top) but when I turned up at Karis for pre-club drinks the girls had dressed up so sophisticated that I felt compelled to change my outfit. Maybe my dressing up days are over?!

Anyway, we danced our socks off until 4am at which point I realised the dance floor had been deserted and we were the only ones on it. Hmmm....time to go......to eat ramen! See my other post...

My British cookery lesson debut!

2010-01-27T15:12:00.024+09:00

Looking the professional chef as ever

Last month my Japanese teacher Yoko somehow roped me into agreeing to teach at one of her monthly cookery classes. Each month they cover a different nationality and she decided it was time for a British one. Cue lots of panic, sweat and gooogling "traditional British food" and before you think "fish and chips" don't, I'm not going to be blamed for reinforcing that stereotype!

I was lucky enough to be going home for Christmas so just thought I'd get a ton of practice in for my actual lesson scheduled for 24th Jan. I'd originally decided to make beef and ale pie, a proper British dish but after a failed attempt at home (the meat was so dry it was like chewing cardboard..) I decided on a more festive option; mince pies, brandy butter and mulled wine. OK not exactly great for January but it'd do.

So the day before I hopped on a flight back, my sis in law Hels, nieces and me squeezed in some last minute practice making mince pies for the first time using this really handy pre-rolled frozen pastry. They turned out really well although mine looked ready for the pig trough and Hels' looked liked Delias ; )

Anyway, back in Japan and I'm brimming with confidence. The day before my cookery lesson I set out with a shopping list as long as my arm. I found a lot ingredients with no hiccups but where are the cake tins? I went to every cookery department in Kanazawa slowly realising that the Japanese just don't use them! Ahh of course not because they don't bake. Why? Because they don't have ovens!

So my friend Ayako, bless her, ran around another part of town looking for anything that looked remotely like a cake tin taking pics of on her phone and sending them to me for checking. In the meantime, I was sending her pics on my phone of foods like sugar bags and flour for her to read the Kanji for me and check that I wasn't buying salt when I needed sugar. You see, things are twice the challenge sometimes in Japan!

I also discovered on my `rapidly turning stressful` shopping trip that the Japanese don't sell icing sugar, that raisins are considered a semi luxury item in Japan (a small fancy looking bag will cost ￥780, about £5) and the worst news of all, they don't sell that really handy pre-rolled frozen shortcrust pastry, agggggh.

Sunday came. I was soo worried. Having lugged a dead body weight of a rucksack full of ingredients to the cookery school, I hurriedly prepped everything up and it was time to start. About 15 people showed up, all women apart from Nori my helper at school, thank god it wasn't 40 like she had at Christmas.

Some of the cookery school gals

The lesson kicked off with Yoko telling everyone what we were about to make and I gave out my wonderfully prepared handouts with some history of eating mince pies & drinking mulled wine. Good start. Next though was pastry making. I can hand on heart say reveal that this was the first time I'd ever made pastry. I somehow managed to convince them I knew what I was doing as each group would ask me to check the consistency of their pastry was right and I authoritatively would tell them they needed more flour/water etc. Hahahahaha

Once the pastry was all in the fridge they were all asking what next at which point I'd check my step by step recipe guides hidden away on a side table.

Rock n Roll-preparing to roll my rock hard pastry... (note look of horror on ladies face)

I thought the worst was over but oh how I was so wrong! When the pastry was ready for rolling, Yoko thought it'd be best for everyone to watch a pastry rolling and cutting demonstration from me first. So in front of 15 keen and eager cooks huddled round a cooking station, I picked up the pastry (which was now rock hard, eeek?!) and tried to pretend I knew what I was doing. Well the minute I rolled it out it fell apart. It almost blew my cover but then behaved itself enough for me to cut out 2 round shapes for the top and bottom of the mince pie. Typical my luck, the pastry cutters were too small. What a pavala.

My class then went back to their stations and it was like police academy meets cookery school. Flour was everywhere, gooey dough sticking to the hands and then on the opposite scale dough that was falling apart at a touch. Somehow everyone managed to line their tins with pastry (although some poor buggers had to use muffin tins)

In comparison to the pastry, making the mincemeat was a dream. I think the Japanese ladies were a bit shocked at how much booze I poured into the mincemeat mixture, although I did note a few gleeful looks amongst them too.

I had used suet bought from the UK for the mincemeat (I'd at least had some sense that the Japanese wouldn't sell suet) but I hadn't anticipated them asking me on the spot what they could use as an alternative! Errrrrr....maybe cornflour I said?

The mincemeat worked out perfectly and I had a lot of "iee yo ne's" (smells good) and caught a few of them dishing out spoonfuls of the stuff to taste.

Next was the mulled wine, nothing too stressy here. They did find sticking the cloves into the orange halves quite fascinating and akin to poking a voodoo doll. I also made a non-alcoholic mulled wine with grape juice which didn't taste too bad (In Japan you can't even drink a sniff and drive)

I honestly didn't realise how tricky it is to line pastry tins. I cleverly decided against doing my own "show pies" during the lesson knowing they'd turn out like a dogs dinner. Awwww that wonderful fresh baing smell filling the kitchen and the mince pies were finally ready.

What do you think? OK they don't really look like mince pies but I didn't think we did too badly for a first attempt. Three and half hours later we were ready to sit and eat our freshly made pies and drink mulled wine.

Such a fab day full of laughs. I think everyone enjoyed themselves by the looks on their faces!

An evening with geisha (yes real geisha!) in Kanazawa

2010-01-21T14:30:00.028+09:00

I'm so excited to be writing about this post but it's hard to put my overloaded cultural geisha experience into one coherent write up but I'll give it a go. (Geisha by the way are traditional Japanese female entertainers famously known for their white painted faces, elaborate kimonos and hairstyles)

On Friday night my friends Ayako, Maylee and myself went along to an "ozashiki asobi" evening in our very own city of Kanazawa. "Ozashiki-Asobi" literally means Japanese traditional entertainment with Geisha in a tatami mat room.

As soon as I hear about the evening facilitated by the fantastic team at the Kanazawa Ryokan & Hotel Cooperative Association (they also coordinated my Zazen meditation day) I jumped at the chance. Sometimes it is sooo difficult to find out about cultural activities and events in Kanazawa and these folk make these types of things accessible to foreigners living in Kanazawa (like myself) as well as tourists.

So after work I met the girls at the Matsumoto Ryokan (Ryokan is a Japanese style hotel/B&B), a deceptively big place, and were greeted by a super friendly guy from the Kanazawa Ryokan Association who ushered us up 3 flights of stairs (hard to master in slippy indoor slippers) and to a bustling tatami mat room housing guests around those low Japanese dinner tables (called chabudai)

I have to admit I was expecting a room full of businessmen and although the majority of guests were in fact men there was a few women in there including another table of gaijins (foreigners) so we thankfully didn't stand out too much.

True to the Japanese' "on time" reputation the evening started bang on 6.30pm with the "house master" introducing us to our hostesses for the evening, 2 white faced younger geishas and 3 older non painted faced geisha. It took me straight back to a very hot day in Kyoto when mum and I spotted two maikos (training geisha) scurrying down the street with me on their tail trying to look at them. It was the same starstruck type awe I had then that I had at the moment these geishas walked in the room. WOW!

Trying my best to look comfortable sat next to a geisha

After a brief introduction, the geishas split up and each came to our tables. I was in such shock I couldn't stop staring at them for the first few minutes in disbelief that I was in such proximity to a real geisha. Whilst busy trying to get a grip of myself the geisha had come over to sit next to us, aggh asking Ayako where we were from etc. At first I sat there in petrified silence but then was totally put at ease when I realised she was so genki, down to earth and friendly that I joined in after a while. I guess I had a preconceived idea (and I'm not the only one) that geishas would be so quiet and submissive but this must be a complete Western misconception.

Geishas moving from table to table pouring drinks

The geishas moved from table to table pouring us beer and confidently chatting away. I tried so hard not to be the stereotypical tourist pointing a camera lens in their faces at every opportunity but they surprisingly welcomed photos. We were really intrigued to ask questions about their lives as geisha so had Ayako ask a few questions on our behalf.

Are there real geishas in Kanazawa? We'd all been to the old chaya districts in Kanazawa and the geisha house/museum but we were never really sure whether geishas still practiced in Kanazawa. Well the answer is yes! These geishas worked for a small geisha chaya operation in Nishi Chaya district. I even got given their business cards. They are generally hired to attend hired to attend parties and gatherings, traditionally at tea houses (茶屋) or at traditional Japanese restaurants.

She also pointed out that in this area (as well as the whole west coast of Japan) they are better known as "geikos"(芸子) . I've just discovered that "geiko" is the Kyoto dialect of the word geisha and "geisha" is the Tokyo dialect of the word. I'll refer to them as geikos in this post from now on.

We also wondered why two of them had their faces painted white and the other ladies' aren't?We immediately presumed this had something to do with their ages and level of training, perhaps the younger trainees (maikos) are the ones have to have painted faces. I think this is true for the Kyoto based geikos where maikos have to wear the heavy make up constantly but we were told that here it was just because the younger girls were dancing and the make up is seen as part of the dancing attire.

After a lot of chatting we tucked into our beautifully prepared starter (the best I have seen in Japan to date) which consisted of petite kamaboko pieces (like a steamed fishcake) and other fish pieces.

Next came these huge steaming pots of Nabemono (see my other post on Nabe dishes), full of meat balls, fish and veggies. What a wonderful winter warmer and no doubt the best I've tasted to date.

After dinner it was time for the performances.

First one of the older geikos played a beautiful high pitched tune with a tiny wooden flute which apprently takes years of training to master. Then the two white faced geikos danced whilst the other two ladies played the shamisen (a banjo type Japanese instrument) and sang.

We sat there in a silent awe. There was something so mesmorising about their performance as they flipping their fans in perfect unison and moved gracefully to the music, as though they were practicing tai chi. Each dance apparently tells a story and each dance move dictates it exactly.

One of the geikos then performed on two small taiko drums. I'll let the video performance and photos speak for themselves.

After it was our turn! The geikos wanted volunteers and of course I was straight up there. It was so much fun (although I was crap) especially when they all tried to sing along to my missed beats, see the video.

Next they introduced the rock, paper, scissors (Janken in Japanese) game and boy I thanked my lucky stars that I'd already had my stage debut and didn't have to go up again. Basically you played janken in time to the beat. If you lost you had to turn around and if you won you had to beat the drum. If you won 3 times in a row you're the winner and move onto the next geiko. Sounds easy? Errrrr no! Everyone struggled to get it.

I volunteered my friend Ayako (much to her dismay) and she played like a pro beating all the geikos until it was the final showdown with the head geiko and yep you've got it, she won!

It was so funny to watch especially when she had all the geikos on their knees bowing at her with respect. See the video above.

Now for the last bit of fun for the evening. We were each given a paper bowl (o-chawan) and a plate (sara) each leaving us a bit puzzled as to what this was all leading to. The master then started singing "O-chawan sara" to the tune of "Oh when the saints go marching in". "O-chawan" sounding like "Oh when" (sort of...) and "sara" sounding like "saints" (not really...) Very funny and he had us all up from our seats beating our plates and bowls in time to the words.

Alas our night was drawing to an close. One night in a lifetime evening with our geikos. I didn't want it to end. We had some pictures taken (yes again!), see below.

Our new best friend, the master of the house, then booked us a taxi and waited outside with us like a true gentleman.

An evening with geikos in Kanazawa can be organised through Kanazawa Ryokan & Hotel Cooperative Association The cost is ￥10,000 (about ₤65) which includes dinner and a drink. Definitely worth every penny and a must do if you're in Kanazawa.

Signing off!

A Japanese sniffle, sniffle, snort, snort

2010-01-21T14:03:00.010+09:00

Anyone who has spent any time in Japan over the winter months will hopefully sympathise with me here. The Japanese don't blow their bloody noses in public! Now I can't speak for the entire Japanese nation here but from what I've seen in Kanazawa it just doesn't seem to happen.

Go on mate, give it a good ol blow!

This morning (and bear it in mind that this is peak time for sniffly colds) I had to move seats twice in one 20 min journey to avoid having to listen to interminable sniffles and snorting. To be more precise the first guy actually snorted like a pig consistently every 2 mins or so. Surely one short blow of the nose would sort this out and put me out of my misery? Even more frustrating is that he just didn't seem to realise how annoying he was being. They never do!

The second offender I tried to film (see above), you can just about hear it at the end but it still doesn't paint the true picture of sheer annoyance!

It doesn't just seem to be men in Japan. One of my 3rd grade teachers is a lovely lady but also has a habit of snorting like a pig which still, after 10 months living here, leaves me shocked and looking around the room to see if anyone else recoils with disgust (and yep no-one does)

So why don't the Japanese blow their noses in public? Well apparently its considered slightly bad manners so the majority of people would prefer to continue sniffing than to cause offense by blowing their nose. Surely there's a cultural middle ground though where if your cold is that bad, a polite turn of the back and quick but quiet blow would suffice?

Who knows but for me, I'm going to invest in a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones for the winter period, a wise investment for anyone with a daily commute on public transport in Japan!

Handkerchief for nose blowing or a hand drier?

Whilst we're on the subject of nose blowing. I may have properly disgusted my Japanese colleagues the other day when I pulled out my hanky as normal to blow my nose. Handkerchiefs, as I was so politely told, are not used for blowing the nose in Japan. They're used for drying hands (public toilets sometimes don't have hand driers) and to pat the excessive sweat off the face and neck during the very humid summers.

Pilsen: Lashings of German beer but not a lederhosen in sight

2010-01-21T13:37:00.010+09:00

When the rest of the Japanese nation are probably hibernating under their K otatsus, Kari I hit a little German restaurant in Kanazawa called Pilsen. We tried to get into before Christmas but it was packed. Always a good sign...

Kanazawa, despite being really out in sticks (not on the Shinkansen line), has such a great choice of International restaurants. It's great too if you can't bear to look at one more piece of sushi or bowl of noodles (believe me it does happen and I'm a sushi fanatic...)

This little German joint looks a bit like a beer hall (just minus red faced, pot bellied beer swilling guys) downstairs where you can eat at the bar. Upstairs is a restaurant. I can hand on heart say its probably the only place in Kanazawa where you can buy a huge pitcher of beer and sink your teeth into a proper sausage!

Pilsen has a huge choice of yummy sausages including white sausage, garlic and pepper sausage, peppery hot sausage, hard sausage. If you're really feeling piggy (excuse the pun) you can opt for the 5 kinds of sausage platter. For the non-sausage fans they also serve chicken, pork and beef stews as well as pizzas and taste-tastic salads.

Kari and I ordered the garlic sausage, a pizza and a salad (the salads are surprisingly big for Japanese standards) Two sausages arrived on a plate with a dollop of sauerkraut and a pot of mustard, small but neatly presented as I'm beginning to become accustomed to in Japan (sorry forgot to take pics). They were delicious though and despite the pizza being the size of my palm it was also really good. As my nan would say "an elegancy of efficiency"

English menus available at this restaurant (cue hooray!)

Food ranges from ￥600 to ￥1680 for the 5 sausage platter.

Map below, enjoy!

View Untitled in a larger map

Snow, snow glorious snow and those clever little sprinklers

2010-01-21T09:17:00.014+09:00

Wow, sashi buri ne? (long time, no see!) I arrived back last Sunday and within a few days so did the snow.

Car near my house in Kanazawa, poor owner!

Having just come back from a snow laden UK which caused thousands of schools to shut, brought public transport to a standstill and a tirade of weather forecasters' "only travel in exceptional circumstances" warnings I was wondering how the Japanese handle snowy conditions?

My walk home in the snow, Kanazawa

Well they handle the snow doing only what the Japanese know best- calm, ease and technological sophistication! OK so we're at a slight disadvantage as we're just not used to it in the UK but they do truly put us to shame. The Sea of Japan side of Honshu where I live sees a LOT of snow. I can now totally understand why they spend weeks prepping up their precious trees and branches last month (see my yukitsuri post).

My little bus stop near Oyabe that I couldn't get to on Monday!

When I say it's been snowing I mean a proper DUMPING of snow to the point that I actually started to feel claustrophobic sitting in the school staff room because it had piled so high up against the windows and didn't seem intent on stopping. (at time of writing its stopped....but we're due another spurt tomorrow)

My huge Canadian 4 x 4's (snow boots) have even bent under the pressure and I've resorted to buying wellies, the only fail safe option when the snow is over the knees . No gritters in sight here.

Japanese "snow clearing" sprinkler systems

The Japanese have developed a very sophisticated snow clearing system for the roads here. As soon as it starts snowing these mini water sprinklers which are set in the middle of the road start spraying the road with warm ground water. Despite getting over a metre of snow these little things just about manage to clear the roads although leaving an unbelievable amount of slush. Wellies, you see now, are a must!

Railway tracks covered in snow but my train was STILL on time!

I've only been delayed twice since the snow arrived (once by 4 minutes) despite treacherous conditions, no-one has missed a minute of school and life continues as normal.

The downside is that the frequency of snow in Japan makes it less of a novelty and more of a nuisance so whilst the entire adult population back in the UK regressed to being kids again sledging, chucking snowballs and building snowmen the Japanese set out on little ant type missions equipped with snow shovels to clear the snow (sometimes as early as 2.45am, I can personally vouch for that....) and the kids get roped in to dig out the snow too, poor little devils!

NB Despite me thinking the Japanese handle the snow better than we English do, according to my friend from Canada (where it also snows heaps) they're half as efficient as the Canadians.
Well let me know what you think!

Need a doctor Kanazawa?

2010-01-19T14:31:00.000+09:00

Hi folks,

Thought I'd drop a boring but hopefully useful note to say if anyone is desperate for a doctor in Kanazawa then I can recommend the one at Kanazawa station called "Kanazawa Medical Station". If you go to Caffe Arco inside the station and take the escalators to the 4th floor you'll find it right in front of you.

You don't have to book an appointment so just show up and wait (if its your first time you'll need to register but they will all help you complete the form) Unlike in the UK where we'd be assigned one family doctor for all problems in Japan they go to different doctors according to the nature of the problem. This medical surgery is a rareity though as it deals with different issues under one roof. Oh and its sooo nice, like a 1st class departure lounge full of plasma, thick piled carpets and glamorous looking nurses donning matching dresses! Such a far cry from nothing like the heroin junkie one in Bedders, Brizzle.

Reception

According to my patient card (given when joining) this surgery can deal with the following issues;

Internal problems
Surgery
Checking bones
Cosmetic surgery
Skin problems
Womens problems
Health checks - ears, nose, throat.

Yesterday I was in and out within half an hour with no appointment (have sinusitus). The doctor speaks English (and if they don't the young female assistants always seem to) The best way to describe your ailment is to write your problem into google and print out the kanji description. If you're not sure what is wrong you can just translate your symptoms into google and take along with you. Its a start!

Make sure you have medical insurance as my recent visit to get antibiotics cost me just short of ￥5000 (about £35) inclusive of the visit and the drugs.

Signing off....

Japanese random acts of kindness

2009-12-15T14:18:00.009+09:00

Sometimes it's so nice when someone unexpectedly does something for you that's kind isn't it?

Well in Japan it really is becoming a common occurrence for me. Since I arrived I have experiences so many wonderful acts of kindness from the Japanese. They really do go out of their way to help you out. There will be moments when you're really struggling to adapt to the Japanese culture and a random act of kindness can suddenly make me feel instantly positive and upbeat again. I must remember to pay them all back!

There's my coordinator (Kyomu) at school who buys me little gifts from her excursions and sneaks choccies into my hand when no-one is looking.

Then there's the old little bus driver in Oyabe who takes me (I'm usually the only passenger) up to the education centre every Monday and asks me the same question every Monday "How do you find Japanese food?". Knowing I usually miss my 4.03pm train he always puts his foot on the peddle, skipping red lights and screeching round corners to make sure I can catch it.

There's also Etsuko, who works for Interac, has also gone out of her way to take me pick me up from home, take me to the doctors and wait with me when I was ill. Oh and the porter at the Cerulean Tower hotel who walked up 3 blocks to help me and mum find a restaurant we wanted to go to.

It was one lady recently though who really brought a smile to my (sometimes) grumpy post school face and compelled me to write.

Her name is Fumiko (文子) and she is a lady I met at my gym when I was trying to master the art of pool jogging the other night. She had struck up conversation with me (using her impeccable English amazingly self-taught) and gave me a few tips on how to actually pool jog. (yep there's a technique) Anyway I had been telling her how hard it was to find traditional Japanese gifts to give as Christmas presents and that all the gifts in Japan are covered in English (since it's cooler to use English than Kanji)

Anyway on my next visit to the gym a few days later I was just checking out of reception and to my surprise the receptionist handed over a cotton bag tied with red ribbon telling me it was a "presento" from "Fumi-San". I opened it at home and inside were these beautiful kimono silks and a letter from Fumi, see below.

Such a nice kind gesture isn't it? Unfortunately I left my textiles skills back in the GCSE classroom but I might see what I can do with them when I go home, any suggestions please write below!

Happy Christmas Everyone!

2009-12-14T14:52:00.004+09:00

Hello lovely people, well its countdown to Christmas time. I'm pleasantly surprised that the Japanese, despite not being Christian, have adopted so many Christmas customs. It's made these last few weeks really feel Christmasy as well as the plummeting temperatures and hail that nearly knocked me out on my bike last night helped ; )

Every shop is belting out Christmas tunes, selling santa hats/costumes and the streets are all lit up with Christmas lights. They haven't quite caught onto the mince pies and mulled wine thing though.

This is me and my 1st graders today after a fun filled Christmas lesson, singing We Wish you a Merry Christmas (a simplified version) and playing Secret Santa which they squealed with excitement about.

Anyway, I'm off home very very soon so just wanted to wish everyone a very very Happy Christmas and New Year. I'm like an excitable child especially since this year we're having a big family get together.

Love to you all xx

Decorating chopsticks with Kanazawa gold leaf (kinpaku)

2009-12-14T14:03:00.012+09:00

I've had a right old cultural spurt over the past few weeks. From zazen meditation to silk painting and now today......gold leaf (kinpaku) chopsticks decoration! As part of my mission to buy/make Japanese only related Christmas presents I headed to the famous gold leaf shop Sakuda in the Higashi Chaya area of Kanazawa. Kanazawa is the largest gold leaf production area in Japan, boasting a 98% share of the market so thats a good reason to make something with gold for Christmas!

So todays mission was to decorate chopsticks with gold as a Christmas pressie for my sisters boyfriend Andrew. He's a big burly Ozzie tree surgeon so I'm doubting he uses chopsticks a lot but its the thought that counts right?

I arrived at Sakuda (reservation required to do this) and in true Japanese style I was greeted by two Japanese ladies who knew immediately I was Jessica San and ushered me to the workshop at the back of the shop. I paid and then was asked to choose what I wanted to decorate. There were laquerware boxes, plates and different coloured chopsticks. I opted for the black laquered chopsticks at ￥600. If I'm honest I don't love laquerware (it's heavy looking and dare I say it looks a bit plastic) however its traditional in this area so I should respect traditional craft.

The instructor, Ill call him chopstick sensei, then hand gestured me through the process. First he showed me some examples with varying patterns of gold, one had gold and black stripes across, another some little hearts.

I was then told to draw my own pattern onto a thin piece of masking tape and then cut it with one of those teeny scalpels. Well typical of me to try and be clever. I didn't just want some conventional gold pattern around my chopsticks, I wanted to personalise them with Andrew's initials. Well if anyones ever tried to draw and scalpel out a letter the size of their little fingernail then you will sympathise with me!

My terrible effort at cutting out initials

My chopsticks just rolled with gold leaf

Once I had managed to stick the butchered letters onto my chopsticks the chopstick sensei then covered them with a potent smelling glue substance. Now for the fun part. He picked up a pounded sheet of gold leaf with his tweezers that was sooo thin, 1/10,000 mm to be precise and laid it out on the mat. Just to put this gold leaf into perspective, if you stacked up 300,000 units of gold leaf it would only make a stack 1 inch high. Anyway, you then have to roll your chopsticks, one at a time over the gold leaf without touching it with your fingers (as it'll just disintergrate into your hand if you do)

Me brushing down the excecss gold leaf from the chopsticks.

At this point it looks a bit of a mess and the surface is all uneven but after a quick brushing down you have a perfectly smooth surface.

The last step is the trickiest which involves picking off the tape to reveal the original colour underneath. Chopstick sensei helped me do this, he was a real sweetie.

My finished chopsticks! Done in 45 mins

Ok so mine don't look too pro but at least they're personal......I'd definately recommend this as a fun activity on a wet afternoon in Kanazawa (there's plenty of those) I reserved but I'm sure if you just turn up they will slot you in a time.

Outside of Sakuda (in case anyone gets lost)

Map below

View Sakuda Gold & Silver Leaf Shop in a larger map

ALT Lesson Plans with Eigo Note. Grade 5. Lesson 2- How are you?

2009-12-09T20:08:00.008+09:00

Eigo Note suggest 4 lessons to teach the question "How are you?" and only 4 feelings (I'm happy, I'm sleepy, I'm fine and I'm hungry) which would actually drive me insane teaching nevermind learning!

I have to say that some of the Genki English "how are you" games really saved me for this topic. I also ended up adding "I'm cold, sad, great, good, ok, hot, angry and wet" to save the pupils from sheer boredom of learning and the fact that some of the games require a bit more vocab. Gestures are an obvious activity for teaching feelings so I had a laugh watching the pupils come up with their very creative gestures. Warning though. I'm angry was the most popular and in fact I still have pupils stop me in the corridor saying "I'm angry" with full facial expressions and a fist in the air. I'd suggest skipping that one.

Here are my lesson plans:

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 2- (5.4) How are you part 1

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 7- (5.5) How are you part 2

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 7- (5.6) How are you part 3 *

Grade 5 Lesson Eigo Note Lesson 4- (5.7) How are you part 4

* Worksheet for the how are you drawing game

The opposites game in part X was fun. Basically if someone had the hungry card they had to walk around and find their opposite solution card, a hot dog. When they find each other they were to come to me and repeat the question and answer. The only issue is that I did have two pupils with these cards and the boy asks the girl "How are you?". She responds "I'm hungry" and he says back "I'm a hot dog". bless! I tried to explain that he wasn't a hot dog and that he needed to say "Here's a hot dog". It's so terrible of me having a giggle at the expense of the poor kids but sometimes it just can't be helped...

Silk painting (katazome) at Kaga Yuzen Shop, Kanazawa

2009-12-08T14:32:00.019+09:00

Sometimes I just can't believe that I'm living in Japan and I'm struggling to find traditional Japanese gifts for Christmas presents! Yes I'm Christmas shopping and with a shopping list as long as a double decker bus and a family of all ages and varying tastes I've found it hard.

As I pass through Kanazawa station every day I had seen some beautiful Japanese silk hankercheifs and scarves for sale which I thought would be perfect for my Nanna as a present. I had heard as well that you can try silk painting for yourself somewhere in Kanazawa so I thought I'd give it a go.

So I decided to go along to the a short walk from the Kenrokuen to see if I could practice the art of 'katazome' (stencil cutting and and painting) on a silk handkerchief.

Admittedly I find turning up at these places with my limited Japanese always a bit daunting but I had practiced my "hankachi o tsukritai onegai shimasu" (I'd like to make a handkerchief please) and it worked a treat!

I was ushered to the basement floor and a lovely little old lady showed me to my paints and explained everything in Japanese. I politely kept saying "wakarimashita" (I understand)but only actually understood about a quarter of what she was saying.

The lovely lady at Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

Basically they have the outline of the patterns already set up on the hankys. You choose whether you have 3 basic colours ( ¥1050) or 6 colours that you can mix ( ¥1890) I went for the latter.

Note to anyone thinking of going- give yourself at least an hour to do the painting and if you're super pedantic (like me) and want to mix the exact shade of green for one of your leaves then give yourself 2 hours. The basic patterns are nice but if I'd had more time I would have made my own sakura (cherry blosson) stencil.

Anyway I set to work mixing my colours which is sooooo hard but the classical music playing in the background calmed me down and made me feel like one of those boho arty types. Didn't last long though. I then realised (after it was too late) that there's an actual knack to painting onto the silk and you have to mix it with this white paste BEFORE applying to the silk to stop it running....as a consequence one of my leaves was a bit messed up.

Painting the leaves!

Next the flowers....

Anyway, heres the end result! I found it a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon instead of my usual running about.

My finished silk hanky

By the way, I should really mention that the ground floor of the Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall has yuzen kimonos on display. Yuzen is a type of dyed textile unique to Japan and used for kimonos. In the 18th century, Miyazaki Yuzensai, an excellent dye craftsman developed a technique to draw ordinary flowers and trees on textiles. It was revolutionary at the time and yuzen was named after him.

Also worth a mention and something I really want to see is that in the winter season in Kanazawa, you can apparently watch the locals washing out the starch and dye from silk directly in the river, one of the last steps of the whole hand dyeing process.

The Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall website is http://www.kagayuzen.or.jp/english.html

The kanji sign outside Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

The entrance of Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall

Map below

View Kaga Yuzen Products Display Hall in a larger map

Bowing in Japan, STILL getting used to it!

2009-12-08T14:14:00.005+09:00

Every morning on my train journey to school I still watch with fascination the train conductors walking down the train (normal in my book) and before reaching the door to the next carriage turning around and taking one long bow (not normal in my book!)

I have got used to the custom of bowing (o-jigi or お辞儀) when meeting someone for the first time but still haven't quite got used to Japanese people bowing before they go out of a door. The swimmers all do it before they leave the pool at my local leisure, the gym instructors do it before walking out of the door of the gym and the supermarket checkout assistants also do it after handing over your change.

One lady, Fumi who I chatted to whilst I was doing my pool jogging, (new sport for me since I can no longer run) told me that they do it to express gratitude, like a "thank-you for the opportunity to share this pleasure with you" type humility.

So I have now started doing a bit of bowing, probably looking totally amateur but it makes me feel as though I can show some respect in a body language that is native to the Japanese.

Fun shinkansen sushi train at Mori Mori restaurant, Kanazawa

2009-12-08T13:35:00.013+09:00

Saturday night I was invited to join the lovely Kimura sensei and family for dinner (along with Nori, my assistant aka the assistant's assistant) in Kanazawa. It's so nice to mingle with teachers out of the school staffroom. They always seem so stressed at school, well its no wonder really. They don't have a single break the entire day and just run about like headless chickens. I'm so glad just an ALT.

Anyway we went to もりもり (Mori Mori sushi) restaurant for dinner. Embarassingly I have to admit this is the first conveyer type sushi restaurant I have been to in Japan, yes and I've lived here 9 months! My friends here are just not that into sushi so we never end up going (although I do buy mountains from Omi Cho market and my local supa)

So I had been doubly excited when I found out we were going to MoriMori as this is restaurant renowned in Kanazawa (probably amongst kids in playgrounds) as the restaurant with a mini shinkansen (bullet train) that delivers sushi to your table. Wicked!

I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw it chug along the track for the first time that evening and I actually screamed with delight. In fact I was more excited than the kids who probably thought it was so old hat.

The girls were adorable though and the elder one Mizuki (10 yrs old) had been learning English and bodly chatted away to me in English. The younger sister Haruka (5) just wanted to practice her ninja dance she'd learnt at nursery school, shes soooo cute!

The sushi was fab. One dish that Nori ordered was called "Hotaruika" (ホタルイカ) which literally means "firefly squid". In my defence I thought I was just eating regular squid sushi at the time but no this is a special squid.

About 4 cm in length and the smallest in the squid pack, these little blighters illuminate the sea just like their firefly pals do on land. They're common both in the Noto Penninsula area as well as Toyama Bay but are apparently expensive in Tokyo. I just read that apparently in Toyama you can go on a tour where the local fisherman will throw them in the air to light up the pre-dawn sky. Yes they went down the hatch. Don't worry my mouth didn't light up like Blackpool illuminations, they were dead!

I can't say they were that tasty, a bit salty but apparently we're eating them out of season. I guess I'd better try again in March....

Mori Mori Sushi on the 6th floor of Forus Shopping Mall, right next to Kanazawa station.

Map below

View Mori Mori Sushi Restaurant, Kanazawa in a larger map

My little niece Tegan's show class. I study.....

2009-12-02T21:26:00.013+09:00

Today I had to teach a "show class" at my elementary school. The show class itself is a 45 min class where teachers from around the prefecture come and "observe" your class to get ideas as well as give you constructive feedback. (although the feedback is in Japanese so I rarely get to hear it) Show classes tend to involve a string of gratuitous meetings beforehand, a lot of stress (from the homeroom teacher) and last minute panic!

Note: Only one not wearing those awful masks

This lesson was a 5th grade lesson and was team teaching with my favourite teacher Kimura Sensei. The topic was subjects (I study maths, I study English etc), part of the Eigo Note curriculum, so I suggested I talk for 10 minutes at the beginning of the lesson about my niece Tegan's school in England, their timetable, what they study, what they have for lunch etc and they agreed.

I sent my documents to Nori for translation and to put into Powerpoint and then it dawned on me that most teachers (I guess this is global!) are computer illiterate! Nori had spent half a day trying to lay out a slide so I showed him a few shortcuts. Word went around in the office and the next minute I had been hailed as the computer super whizz kid in the staff room! Hilarious, lots of "segoi's" (amazing) Even kyoto sensei (deputy head) came over for the scoop.

Back to the lesson. All went pretty well. The kids in this class are usually so loud and genki but because it was a show lesson they were sat in some kind of petrified silence, shame! They enjoyed hearing about Tegan's day at school although they couldn't believe that Tegan (unlike most Japanese pupils) doesn't have to clean the school after lunch and that in England kids start primary school as young as 4 1/2 years old.

My "Tegan theme" English board at school

Thanks Benji and Tegan for sending all of the information over!

It's now time to cut the....tuna?!

2009-12-01T21:30:00.007+09:00

Is this ACTUALLY for real? Can someone who speaks better Japanese than me please confirm?

From what my eyes are telling me (well this is what I filmed from my TV) these recent newlyweds decided to do away with the customary wedding cake and replace it with, yes believe it, a huge 100kg, 2 metre slab of wet slimy tuna fish (maguro in Japanese). Priceless!

Only in Japan could something as crazy as this ever happen. All respect to the couple for daring to break away from the norm though.....

Yukitsuri- "Snow Suspension"

2009-12-01T21:27:00.004+09:00

Yukitsuri at the school I work at, Isurugi Elementary

"Yukitsuri", the pyramid shape structure that the locals here use to protect the tree branches from the heavy snow, is instantly recognisable from the many Kanazawa tourist brochures advertising the towering 30ft ones in the Kenrokuen (gardens). In fact I had seen pictures of yukitsuri before I had a clue what they really were let alone they had an important purpose.

About 2 weeks ago on my walk to school I noticed these contraptions suddenly popping up everywhere, in peoples gardens and then at school. Bless the school gardener! He spent an entire week prepping the trees on the school grounds with the yukitsuri structures. I think its admirable that they go to such lengths to protect their prized trees and shrubs. It's no surprise that bosai trees originated in Japan having seen this sort of display.

Apparently the art of "yukitsuri" isn't Japan wide, its only common here in Ishikawa Prefecture and Toyama Prefectures. Apparently we get a lot of "heavy wet snow" in these prefectures and these structures are essential to support the tree branches. I can't comment yet as it hasn't started snowing YET although its getting VERY cold!

Yukitsuri at the Kenrokuen, Kanazawa

Yukitsuri at the Kenrokuen; see my other post for pictures but I have to mention this. I read in the Japan Times that it takes the gardeners at the Kenrokuen around 2 hours on average to put up one yukitsuri frame and for the largest trees in the Kenrokuen, the Karasaki pines, it takes a full day.

Amazing. I look forward to seeing the yukitsuri doing its job in January!

Kenrokuen Garden Autumn Light Up, Kanazawa

2009-11-29T14:52:00.014+09:00

Moments like this make me just so happy I decided to come to Japan for a year. Seeing something with your own eyes that is just so spectacular that it defies description.

Every year the Kenrokuen (one of the most famous gardens in Japan) host a 2 week long "Autumn Light Up" event where the richly coloured autumnal trees, waterfalls, yukitsuri and fountains within the Kenrokuen are lit up to create some seriously breathtaking scenery. I met Kari & gang and we set off.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and stop yapping for a bit!

Amazing! Just as I thought I couldn't be any more astounded we walked around the corner and were greeted by a towering almost outerspace looking landscape of Karasaki pine trees all covered in these wooden teepee looking structures called yukitsuri (literally meaning "snow suspension"). This teepee framework actually has an important purpose in protecting the precious branches from the weight of the forthcoming heavy snow.

The sight of yukitsuri at the Kenrokuen is famous across Japan (I've heard!) since we apparently have "heavy wet snow" in Ishikawa and Toyama Prefectures. Here you'll see the structures everywhere (as well as Toyama where I work, see other post.)

We reached the lake and it just got better. The beautiful sound of a string quartet was playing in the distance. it turned out that the music was coming from a traditional Chaya (tea) house right next to the lake. Had I been with a guy it would have been SO wonderfully romantic, unfortunately I was with Kari and friends so my feet were kept firmly on the ground!

I did my best to take piccies but without a tripod it was near impossible so I actually ended up going back to the Kenrokuen armed with tripod a few days later. Typical my luck it was peeing down with rain, I lost a glove en route, my waterproof trousers split and it was sooooo freezing!

Soaked, cold and looking bedraggled I took a few last pictures of Kanazawa castle and the beautiful lights they put up in Katamatchi. By then my fingers (especially on one hand) had frozen around the camera so I decided to call it a day!

Ps I got details about the Kenrokuen Autumn Light Up from the following website in the "What's New" section. It took some hunting to find out finer details of the event I must admit (but worth it)

http://www.kanazawa-tourism.com/eng/info/info6.php

Japanese morning commute: is anyone alive?

2009-11-17T21:37:00.004+09:00

I'm sure I've covered this before somewhere but after 8 months of living in Japan I STILL can't get over the fact that everyone passes out on the train in the morning. I mean yes I'm a bit tired and yawny but these lot just completely pass out for dead. How the heck do they know when it's their stop?! I'd worry far too much...

(PS it's not that dark in the morning, the train was going through a tunnel at the time!)

On the subject of zazen....some crazy Japanese TV for you!

2009-11-17T21:29:00.009+09:00

Since I'm on the subject of zazen, lotus poses and numb limbs I thought I just have to share this one with you.

A few weeks ago my overused cheapy DVD player broke so I reluctantly resorted to watching Japanese TV. It's not that I don't like it, it's more that my Japanese just isn't good enough to know what's going on!

Sometimes though TV can transcend all language barriers as it did in this TV clip that I saw the other night. It was some sort of show where contestants had to take it in turns to see how long it'd take them to reach the finishing line of a running track EXCEPT they had to first sit on their knees for a few hours beforehand.......it just tickled my sense of humour.....just like me after zazen, hahaha

My Buddhist Zazen (Seated Meditation) Experience at Daijoji Temple, Kanazawa

2009-11-17T15:40:00.021+09:00

Anyone who knows me is aware that I can't sit still for one minute so going to practice zazen (seated meditation) for the day was always going to be a challenge...

The Kanazawa Ryokan (hotel) Association had been looking for eager volunteers to trial out a day excursion to one of the main temples of the Zen Soto sect, called Daijoji, to practice meditation. The day would include return travel, lunch, the zazen session followed by a talk with hot tea & cake, all for free. I jumped at the chance to take part (and no not because of the free cake)

I had recently read "Eat Sleep Sit: My Year at Japan's Most Rigorous Zen Temple" by Kaoru Nonomura about a 30 yr old Tokyo salary man who decides to leave the comfort of his contemporary lifestyle and put himself through the toughest physical and emotional limits in training to be monk at the head temple of the Zen Buddhist sect, Eiheiji. It was such a compelling read and great insight into the world of Zen Buddhism; their beliefs, their way of life and practices. This was a unique opportunity to see it with my own eyes.

Daijoji is actually just on the outskirts of Kanazawa. The temple was founded by zen master Tettsu Gikai about 700 years ago. What's interesting to note is that Tettsu practice under the guidance of Dogen, THE founder of Japanese Soto Zen Buddhism and was the 3rd Abbott of Eiheiji. Daijoji is also the third oldest temple in Japan after the two main temples of Eiheiji and Sojiji.

It was a cold, rainy and blustery mid November afternoon. After a 10 min walk through modern suburbia from our bus stop we walked up a long driveway to the temple. Soon we hit the two huge wooden temple gates of Daijoji, the primary gate (So-mon) and a further main gate guarded by the guardian Niō（deva kings who act as protectors against evil spirits.）

You would certainly not stumble upon Daijoji. Although on the fringes of the city, the temple is hidden away by a forest, grave stones and beautiful autumn foliage, it felt totally isolated.

We piled into a toasty warm tatami mat guest room (it was so cold outside and it was so kind for the monks to put the gas heater on- NB I’m discovering the Japanese are very hardy people rarely putting the heating on despite plummeting temperatures)

Hadyn, the Aussie training monk

Two monks had been waiting for our arrival, a native Japanese and to my utter shock a big bald Aussie called Hadyn (well obviously bald as all monks shave their heads but he definitely stood out more than the others)

We sat down to a quick sushi pack lunch and were given some leaflets as well as a freebie cotton bag.

Lunch was followed by a talk (in Japanese but was translated) by an older monk who covered elements of meditation including breathing technique and practice. We were shown the one hand position called GASSHO which is basically putting together so they make a V shape (exactly like the houses in Shirakawago are shaped- see my post about Shirakawago). This is an expression of respect, faith and devotion. See picture of Gassho hands below.

He told us not to try and control our thoughts during zazen, just to let them come up and go away freely. Concentrate on breathing and when this settles the mind will become tranquil. Easier said than done I guarantee, my mind is like Tokyo on pro plus at the best of times.

He also covered the Kanki-Issoku. This is a breathing technique, with your mouth slightly open make a deep exhalation expelling all the air out of your lungs and exhale from your abdomen. Then close your mouth and inhale through your nose.

He told us the eyes should remain slightly open, cast downward at a 45 degree angle and the hands should be in the cosmic mudra (hokkai-join) pose. See below.

So much to remember! I was getting nervous that I’d do it all wrong. After his talk, we all headed down the long dark wooden corridors of Daijoji to the zendo (the zen meditation hall) in anticipated silence. We had been allocated a spot just outside of the main hall. This was basically a waist high wooden elevated ledge with small velvet cushions lined up about a metre apart.

I chose a spot on the end (which I’m now thankful for since at least I’d only be seen wobbling about by one person to my right instead of being in between two people) We then stood in front of the elevated ledge in front of a cushion, we bowed once with hands in gassho form and then again facing outwards. The monk then demonstrated the really awkward looking backwards technique of sliding onto the ledge; right leg first goes up onto the ledge (whilst you’re facing away from the ledge) and then the other leg comes up. It’s not the easiest of moves especially since the ledge is pretty high, I’m certainly not the most flexible of people.

I sat in a half half lotus (I’ll call it) Not a full lotus but I had my legs crossed with one foot resting on my thigh but the other one was free. Typical that a seasoned professional sat next to me, legs in perfect lotus, back perfectly straight and no wobbling whatsoever (he was from India so I'll let him off). The session was split into two 30 minute meditation sessions with a 5 min break in the middle. The bell was struck 3 times to indicate the start of the first session. It was time to meditate!

So they did say to let the thoughts come and go and wow mine did in their hoards. Here is (in brief) what went through my mind in the first 5 minutes of meditation:

1) Wow there’s such a strong wind blowing out there its making the wooden partitions in this temple rattle so hard…
2) …that reminds me of the double lounge doors at home that rattle so badly and where a mini gale force wind blows through the gap in between them…
3) Oooh that fire at home, it’s so cold here I can feel my nose getting numb…to be in front of that lovely warm fire…
4) ..thinking of fire, if there was a fire place the temple would be burnt down in minutes…
5) CONCENTRATE ON BREATHING JESS, in, out, in out….and try a Kanki-Issoku?
6) Wow, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open, it’s so difficult focusing on one spot, I’ll think I’ll close them for a bit..
7) Ooh I think I’m wobbling, I’ve definitely started slouching, the Indian is still sat totally upright, I can see him out of the corner of my eye!
8) Aggggh the monk’s coming, I can see the shadow behind me, he’s probably seeing if anyone’s slouching, I’d better straighten up a bit..
9) I can hear what sounds like a mower or strimmer in the distance, someone cutting grass? Reminds me of the old days when I used to play at the village hall…
10) Oooh I’m so cold, nose is going numb…
11) Ouch my feet are starting to get sore and my coccyx is burning
12) I wonder how much time left?

As you can see, I really don’t have a mind apt for the practice of Buddhist zazen! It’d obviously take quite a few more sessions to reach inner calm. I wonder how many other volunteers had so many thoughts running through their heads?

After 30 minutes the bell was struck again indicating break time. Phew. During break we had a quick peak in the zendo hall which they explained was their eating and sleeping quarters. Each tatami mat (85.5cm wide and 179cm in length) had a wooden kanji name tag hanging above and represented a single living space. That towering Aussie monk MUST struggle! I suddenly really appreciated the luxury of my 23m sq pad back in Nishi Izumi.

Next 30 min zazen session. Less ridiculously distracting thoughts running through my mind this time so my mind must have calmed down a bit although I still struggled to keep my eyes open.

I did get distracted however for a second when I heard a loud smack of a what sounded like a ruler. I later found out that this was the “Kyosaku” or in English “the encouragement stick”, a stick that the monks use to give monks a blow on the shoulder during meditation to keep them alert. If you need to be struck by the kyosaku you must signal by putting the palms together in gassho. Thank god (or the Supreme Buddha?!) that wasn't me.

The bell is struck again and our zazen is over. We were instructed to sway our bodies forward and backwards and then unfold our dead legs gently and get up. I nearly fell over!

After plumping up the cushion and placing it in a certain way we had to put our hands in sanshu position and took half steps (kinhin) with each breath until we left the zendo.

We headed back to the toasty guest room for some serious thawing out and お茶 (O-cha) and cake. We discussed our experiences and I was so thankful that other volunteers also struggled to keep their eyes open and minds free of distracting thoughts.

Haydn explained a little bit about the different depths of meditation (beta/alpha/theta) and the science behind it. I don’t think I even hit alpha. He then opened up the Q&A. The strict training that Nonomura (Author of “Eat Sleep Sit”) had gone through during his Eiheji training had, at times, been so brutal that I wondered if it was the same here. So I asked. He told us it wasn’t although a lot of the practices are the same. They get up at 4am (Eihehji it was 3), their daily routines are similar and they have the same hierarchical type structure.

Their meals also sounded similar, breakfast consists of minimal portions of okayu (rice porridge), takuan (pickles) and condiments (such as roasted sesame and nori) For lunch, miso soup, vegetables and rice followed by the same for dinner. Haydn told us he lost 35kg (that’s about 5 stone) in 3 months! This guy must have been humongous when he arrived as he wasn't exactly small.

Haydn was a funny guy. He told us that for 6 months of the year there was a “lock down” period where trainee monks were forbidden to leave the temple grounds. However as he was learning Japanese he had special permission to leave the grounds for his Japanese classes and revealed that he had, on occasion, grabbed a pack of biccies from Lawsons on his way, hilarious!

I have so much more I could write but am fully aware that this blog post is turning into an epic novel of war & peace proportions. In summary, a fantastic experience for me. I can’t say I've experienced untold depths of inner peace but I’m happy that I got to see and experience Zen Buddhist zazen in one of the oldest temples in Japan as well as learn more about the faith.

Going to Noriaki Nakabayashi San's house

2009-11-13T15:27:00.021+09:00

Mouthful of a name isn't it? Well I call my assistant at work Nori for short. The other day he invited me over for dinner at his house. At 26 yrs old his household comprises of him, his father, both of his grandparent and his great grandmother (who is amazingly 100 yrs old this year)

It's actually very common in Japan for 3 or even 4 (like Nori) generations of a family to all live under one roof with the younger generations having more of an obligation to take care of the aging parents (compared to us shameful lot in England who just throw them into old peoples's homes!)

Got to Nori's house which is just on the outskirts of Tonami City (about half an hour drive from where we work in Oyabe City) The house is a typical Japanese style and really big (believe me "big" is a rarity in Japan when it comes to dwellings) In fact I was told that Toyama Prefecture (prefecture is the county/state) has the highest home ownership in Japan and one of the largest average size of house (150m sq). I'll move on before this starts sounding like some a statistics report....

Nori's house is like walking into one of the samurai's houses in Kanazawa. Huge tatami mat rooms divided by wooden shoji screens (apart from the front door Japanese don't generally use doors in houses) and old scroll type paintings on the walls. One of the rooms was called "butsuma" which can be literally translated as "Buddhist family chapel". Nori opened the doors of this plain looking cabinet in the corner and inside was the most beautiful, intricately designed shrine all in gold, like opening the doors to a miniature size Emperor's palace. It's actual name is "butsudan" and Nori's father works for a company who sells them so that might explain why this one had the WOW factor.

The beautiful Butsudan at Nori's house

The house was soooo cold, so cold that I thought my fingers might freeze around my chopsticks. You see the Japanese DON'T have central heating. Can you believe it? A country whose winters are almost more brutal than in the UK and a country that is so technically advanced? What?!

Instead they archaically put gas heaters in the room they want to heat and all huddle around it OR they the kotatsu, a low wooden table with a heater built into the table which is then covered by a heavy blanket OR I guess they use both!

Nori on the left, Nori's father in blue shirt, his uncle and grandmother

Anyway I digress. After popping down to the supermarket we prepared raw veggies, beef, gyoza and some white fish for a Nabe dish, absolutely perfect for cold winter nights. The gas heater was put in the second lounge and in no time it was toasty warm and I was a happy bunny!

I then met Nori's father who returned late from work and his lovely grandmother. Neither of them spoke a word of English but I stumbled through using my terrible Japanese. At least I tried! I only met Nori's grandfather briefly and he later explained that his grandfather hated the Americans and the English. How bad did I then feel?! The war scars obviously never really healed. I did my best to promote international peace, gave countless bows and "dozo yoroshiku onegai shimases" ("nice to meet you" or more literally "please be kind to me")

Nori's uncle then appeared clutching a few bottles of Toyama's best sake. We laid out all of the Nabe ingredients on the low table, placed the camping gas stove in the middle of the table (yes camping stoves are very popular household item here!) and chucked everything into the bubbling pot.

The Nabe was so delicious and its the first time I've drank sake and actually liked the taste, hallelujah. I didn't particularly want to spend a whole year in Japan only drinking Chilean Cab Sav! I'm sure his father and uncle were trying to get me drunk. I did my best to stay sober but must admit was a bit wobbly when I left the house and didn't even feel the cold when I got outside. So that's why hot sake is so popular in the winter!

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 4. Ping Pong, Karaoke & Spa

2009-11-13T15:10:00.008+09:00

First the drag then drumming what next? It was time to get competitive with a ping pong contest (how random?!)

Yes, still wearing our yukatas and indoor slippers courtesy of the hotel we got into teams and played in a mini tournament. I just found it so funny to watch these elegant looking Japanese ladies in their yukatas battling it out over a ping pong table. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean, brilliant fun.

I won the singles (vs a very good Yoko) but lost with my partner in the doubles. I forgot how much fun ping pong is! We then decided to hit the karaoke and hired a private room.

Some of the girls belted out tone perfect enka (a traditional Japanese style of music which most of my pupils hate but I think is popular within the older generation) and some contemporary Japanese songs.

I then destroyed the wonderful Japanese ambience by attempting to sing Beatles' Twist & Shout and teaching them how to do "the twist". In true Japanese style they all applauded me encouragingly kept saying "jozu" (you're good) but really I was rubbish ; )

Next morning, after a huge Japanese buffet breakfast, we went to try out the outdoor natural spring foot spa, 40 degrees of wonderful heat.

A blissfull weekend all in all. Thanks Yoko, you really are a star.

Saigawa cycle path & Kenminkaihin park, Kanazawa

2009-11-11T14:53:00.019+09:00

Beach at the end of the Saigawa cycle path, Kanazawa

Got home from my wonderful Kaga weekend at 2pm on Sunday so thought I'd make the most of the beautiful afternoon and go on a bike ride to the beach.

I know the cycle path pretty well as in the good ol days when I could actually jog (still can't, knees are wrecked) I used to head as far as the small harbour on the outskirts of Kanazawa which is the point where I'd hit the "wall" and run out of water (then I'd run back dehydrated in the midday heat, CLEVER).

Anyway the cycle path is such an easy ride, 8km, flat all the way, no traffic, no stops and starts for the lights and quite a pretty route along the river. Today I managed to go further than I'd been before (thanks to the wheels!) and just before I got to beach (30 mins later), walked the bike up this huge hill and rode down into a really beautiful little park with a boating lake and BBQ/picnic. The trees were such beautiful autumnal colours. (only had small camera so pics don't do it justice!)

I took a path down to the beach and was surprised at how quiet it was for a warm, sunny day. Anyway, this is the beach near Kanazawa (not Uchinada) and the Sea of Japan. It was so lovely to have sand between my toes again!

Local fisherman in Kanazawa

Saigawa cycle path just by my house in Nishi Izumi

Girls Weekend in KagaOnsen Pt4: My hilarious "Doctor Fish" experience!

2009-11-11T13:53:00.014+09:00

The Japanese creations and innovations never cease to astound me and here's a belter for you. I just couldn't believe my eyes.

In the ryokan where we were staying for the weekend there was a blow up pond full of little grey fish. Ahh for the kids, I initially thought, maybe a "catch a fish and win a prize" type game? But no, I failed to read the sign above the pond "ドクターフィッシュ" which literally reads "Doketa-Fishu" or "Dr Fish" to you and me! These fish are, in this sense, doctors who give your feet a good ol' pedicure treatment. You pay to sit on the edge of the pond, dangle your feet in and have scores of fish nibble off the dead skin on your feet! Yep, throw away that old pumice stone, these hungry little nippers will polish off that dead skin in minutes leaving you with baby smooth feet (well in theory).

Yoko having her Dr Fish experience!

The fish aren't exactly phirana size nor do they remotely look like the vicious cousins. They're tiny but still they're ALIVE!! I'm all into holistic medicine but this takes the biscuit.

Anyway this is Yoko having her Dr Fish foot cleaning experience. She did tell me it didn't hurt, just tickles but every time I so much as submerged a toe the little buggers would come up in their hundreds all chewing at the bit to get some of my foot, AGGGGGGHHHHHH!

We paid ￥500 (about £3.50) for a 10 minute session with Dr Fish. I couldn't even bear it for 30 seconds but was such an hilarious experience it was worth the money.

NB!! After writing this post I found out that Dr Fish actually originated in EUROPE! (Turkey) God and there was me thinking this was a crazy Japanese invention. Doing a bit of web research it seems that the fish (known as Garra Rufa) are used to consume the skin of patients with psoriasis and eczema, leaving the healthy skin to grow.

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 3. Playing taiko drums!

2009-11-11T13:36:00.013+09:00

I thought the drag dancing show was enough crazy Japanese "cultural" drama for one day but nooooo. As we were heading back to our room when we heard the boom of taiko drums the hotel lobby. The word "taiko" means drum in Japanese, and "wa" stands for Japanese so I guess 'wa-daiko' (和太鼓) is probably more appropriate.

I first saw a wadaiko drum performance at the Hyakumangoku festival in Kanazawa back in June. It was so powerful, I was almost mesmerised and I SO wanted to have a go. The drummers (even the women) look so cool and hardcore, bandanna's, matching jackets and those cool split toe socks.

Anyway, I digress. This group of 3 drummers and a flutist were simply amazing. See my video below (although it still doesn't do it justice.)

After the show, they asked if anyone wanted to give it a try. Well Yoko immediately started nudging me to go up which got their attention so they invited me on "stage" to play. All I had to do was strike the drum with a wooden stick called the bachi (桴, 枹) to a simple rhythm whilst the other lady played some more complex rhythm on the other side of the drum. Well I swear it sounded professional! I was so proud. I then got it a bit carried away trying to play 2 drums at a time and lost the rhythm.

Me playing taiko with audience in the background....

At the end I bowed to the all Japanese audience gathered in the lobby, said "arigato gozaimasu" (thanks) and got a (non-standing) applause. Not bad for a beginner ey?

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 2. The after-dinner drag show

2009-11-11T13:13:00.022+09:00

Japanese men in drag, scary stuff.....

Posters of the Japanese cross dressing performers.

This had to be one of the most "off the wall" shows I've ever seen; a bunch of male cross dressers wearing enough foundation to fill a truck on stage re-enacting traditional Japanese female dances (I'm still not sure exactly what dance they were trying to re-enact). Japanese tacky drag at its best.

The theatre walls were plastered with posters of these chickguys all dressed up wearing really bad make up that made them look butch and scary, really not that feminine!

Note first the amount of "indoor shoes" (you can't wear outdoor shoes indoors in Japan so they usually give you courtesy indoor shoes) piled by the door of the theatre. It was some poor young girls job to come along and place all the shoes in the right direction (outwards and together as a pair) ready for everyone when they leave.

Before the performance, look at how I tower over everyone, stand out like a sore thumb...

The theatre was packed, a few drunk Japanese men started heckling the compere were sat right next to me, so I knew this was going to be interesting! The show as hilarious in a kind of "what the feck" is this all about kind of way.

Japanese cross dressers; Not quite matching the elegance of the traditional Japanese geisha...

Check out this performers eighties quiff..

Videos not allowed but managed to play the ignorant gaijin who didn't understand...

Different acts came on, one cross dresser who kept taking his arms out of his kimono sleeves and popping them up in front of his chest (I'm not sure if this is skilled or just random), one act with 2 cross dressers flipping and opening fans and another little boy, kindergarten age, fluttering around the stage effeminately.

During the show people from the audience were going up to the performers and wedging ￥10,000 notes (about £70) in their kimonos as tips. Unbelievable. They must have been doing something right. Fun performance all round, videos should be testament!

After the show we got to have our pictures taken with the performers. Brilliant, you can now see them close up.

The first time my head has EVER looked small, hahahaha

This little kid was so sweet, at primary school. The eigo sensei (English teacher) came out in me & I made him speak English...I'm so cruel.

Girls weekend in KagaOnsen, Part 1

2009-11-11T11:54:00.018+09:00

Me and Miyuki on the balcony of our room, obviously very excited!

View from our huge room at Nagayama Rokyan

Yoko, my Japanese teacher, is such a star! This weekend she organised a girly stayover at a ryokan (Japanese style hotel) called Nagayama (ながやま) for 13 of us ladies in KagaOnsen. She'd found a deal in the paper (which of course I can't read so I'd never know about it) for ￥6500　about ₤43 which included a night's stay, onsen (hot spring) to use as many time as you want, all you can eat buffet dinner (known as tabehoudai), after dinner show entertainment and a buffet breakfast the next morning. Bargain!

Any preconceptions I had about the Japanese being an enchanting and mysterious race (probably spawned from seeing countless exotic images of Geisha, their bowing culture and other fine etiquettes) were blown out of the water for me this weekend because, believe it or not....the Japanese are huge fans of Butlins type TACKINESS! They love it, in fact they revel in it. I thought it was only us Brits! This weekend was such an eye opener into what the average Japanese family do at weekends.

I have so much to write about I'll split it into several posts. So we met at Kanazawa station and took a train (about 30 mins) directly to KagaOnsen station. We then all piled on a little bus whose conductor was probably older than Grandad, bless.

Choosing our yukatas (I had to have "large" damn those Japanese for being so teeny!)

Got to the ryokan (which was huge) and spent a lot of time deciding on which yukata (summer style kimono) we wanted to wear. Once you have your yukata you can wear this everywhere, for dinner, in the bar etc like being at a health farm at home)

Some of our futon beds lined , very cosy!

Our room was huge and looked like a girls dormitory, only Japanese style of course (futon beds lined up on the floor)

Me and the ladies having Japanese tea in our room at Nagayama ryokan

Homemade rice crackers (sembei)

We then sat on floor cushions and polished off the complimentary green tea and mochi (pounded rice cake) in seconds. Once this was gone, the older ladies brought out more food, homemade rice crackers, oranges, chestnut cake and pastries. I don't know how the Japanese stay so thin!

We then all trooped off to the onsen (hot spring) on the 6th floor in our yukatas. Being the ONLY gaijin (foreigner) in the whole hotel I was actually thinking that eyes were going to be all on me in the onsen (you see you have to go naked in an onsen) especially with all my cellulite wobbling about with nothing for it to comfortably hide behind but was relieved when they didn't stare at all. Although who knows what they were doing behind my back!

Early dinner at 5pm in the "restaurant" which was more like a canteen packed with about 150 Japanese adults and kids running about everywhere. I so wish I'd filmed the ABSOLUTE frenzy of the Japanese around the buffet. I thought it was bad in India! Everyone pushing and shoving (esp around the sushi table), trays getting dropped on the floor and the kids hogging the chocolate fondue fountain. Crazy...

The buffet was amazing though, a huge salmon with head and tail cut open like we have in England, the only difference being that the Japanese were eating the salmon raw. I do actually love sashimi (raw fish without the rice) but actually picking pieces directly out of a whole fish did make my stomach turn a bit. The buffet also had miso soup, tempura vegetables with a dipping sauce, 3 kinds fo rice (plain, adzuke bean and chestnut), pickled fish, boiled tofu and soy, chawamushi (Japanese steamed egg custard), green sesame beans, sesame aubergine and countless varieties of sushi (squid, octopus, salmon, tuna etc). There was even a "western buffet counter" with (I hang my head with shame) chips and deep fried fish cutlets....

Anyway here are my first helpings, all washed down with a glass of nama! (draft beer)!

My first helpings from the buffet....

Dinner was followed by cake and ice . We then we all hit the hotel's own little theatre en masse. I'll write about that in another post.

The Theatre: Hidden gem of a restaurant in Kanazawa

2009-10-24T13:33:00.004+09:00

Me and Kari doing our best trying to look sophisticated....

Met the girls tonight for a girly dinner and catch up. Standing about trying to decide where to go, Ayako told us about this restaurant that her and her hubby Dustin went to a few weeks ago.

We trekked off to the restaurant, called "The Theatre". Never has the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" been more pertinent to describe this place!

There's a scrappy looking sign outside the building with an arrow pointing up, ahh its on the 4th floor. There's no lift so you have to trek up 4 floors of a really manky outdoor stairwell.

BUT people I promise, you will be rewarded for the restaurant is such a hidden gem and a wonderful surprise when you get inside. To be honest half way up the stairs myself and Kari were ready to turn back but it was only for Ayako's insistence...

Inside the restaurant has a french shabby boutique cafe feel (rare in Kanazawa I've realised) Wooden floorboards, soft lighting, little Parisian style patio chairs, plants and a very chilled out ambiance.

The owner was the only one there. He was not only serving drinks but prepping the food, cooking it and serving it. God I love a guy who can multi-task...

The menu (in Japanese I'm afraid peeps) advertised homemade pizzas, pastas, rice dishes, salads and a selection of yummy appetizers. We had the homemade "clog your arteries with every mouthful" 4 cheeses pizza which I can highly recommend as well as a few random appetizers.

3 bottles of Chilean's finest red wine later, we stumbled down the 6 flights of stairs narrowly avoiding injury. By the time we left the place had filled up with locals just having drinks so I guess it's a bar to hang out in too. I felt like a right "insider", this isn't a place you'd stumble across thats for sure but well worth the leap of faith and manky stairwell.

The Theatre is in the above building on a little street just behind Kanazawa City Hall. To being extra helpful I've even put it on a google map. Have fun there!

View The Theatre Restaurant, Kanazawa in a larger map

How to use a Western toilet in Japan

2009-10-19T12:01:00.005+09:00

Sign in the loo cubicle

On the way back from Osaka in the summer our bus stopped for a quick loo break at the service station. When I got into the loo cubicle I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this resist this sign of how to use a Western toilet. I guess it’s aimed at the older Japanese generation who are used to using those awful squatters (I've written a post about those here). Who knows but I simply had to take a piccie.

So take note folks. When you come to Japan don't try and back dive off the toilet, ok?!

Influenza (H1N1) at Isurugi Elementary school

2009-10-19T11:17:00.010+09:00

Me in the staff room at Isurugi Elementary school

Last week the school was shut due to the fact that 20 of my 6th grade pupils (and pupils from every other grade) were off sick with a new type of the H1N1 influenza that is sweeping the country. So I came into school but only the teachers were in. We were all told to wear masks as a preventive measure. For some reason they seem to look normal on the Japanese but I think I look ridiculous. At least I only have to wear it at school.

We also have to disinfect our hands with this spray that they’ve left at the entrance as well as gurgle our mouths with water after teaching each lesson. Scary stuff but I'm glad they're taking these measures as this thing spreads so fast. On Friday there were 6 pupils and by Monday there were 20...

Just having a quick read on the net and apparently the Japanese (who else?!) have come up with the first anti swine flu suit, check this link out http://www.psfk.com/2009/10/japanese-suit-to-protect-against-swine-flu.html

Brilliant.

Ice dogs: my favourite Japanese ice-cream

2009-10-16T11:39:00.002+09:00

My Japanese ice dog

This is simply brilliant and the reason why I love Japan. It's so random.

When we were in America town in Osaka nursing our wretched hangovers we stumbled across this ice cream shop. Nothing new there but they were selling these novelty “ice dogs”. Basically a warmed up hot dog bun (sweetened bun) that they cut open and fill with Mr Whippy (or softo) ice cream. Who would have thought that one up other the Japanese!

Me in front of the paper clippings holding my ice dog

In this case a crazy old Japanese lady who must have been subject to a media frenzy at some point as there were old newspaper cuttings covering the ice dog phenomena all over the shop walls.

You’d think that the ice cream in the middle would melt straight away with the bun being hot but it doesn’t (well ok it does a little) but it is SOOOO gorgeous I’d go back to Osaka now to get another one, in fact Im salivating right now.

I'm seriously considering an ice dog business when I get home for those scorching English summer days..

4th Tokyo Marathon 2010, I'm in!

2009-10-15T13:19:00.007+09:00

That'll be lil ol me wearing a blue vest with JESSICA in huge letters printed on the front!

Had some great news yesterday. Found out that I got through to the Tokyo marathon on the 28th Feb next year. They operate a lottery system you see so when you apply you're not guaranteed to run. About 300,000 people apply for the marathon and only 32,000 get to run so yes I actually felt like a lottery winner (albeit it the prize is running 26 miles....) Apparently if your'e a gaijin (foreigner) you'll likely to be accepted as they want the marathon to be seen as "international" as possible. Great at last, I got a face that fits!

I'm so excited. The Bristol Half marathon was such a fantastic experience. The only issue is that I self-diagnosed myself with either runners knee (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome) or Iliotibial Band Syndrome (not sure which one) about 3 weeks ago. I had sharp pains around the front and outside of both of my knees and ended up hobbling to school and back for a week.

Since then I haven't been able to run ata ll, it hurts way too much so have been cycling, swimming and doing pilates (which is great) so the knees have been easing up a bit but still don't feel 100%. Fingers crossed that they'll be ok for another 11k run I signed up to in November at Lake Kawaguchi (near Mount Fuji).

I've given myself until next week to start some gentle running again (on a treadmill to start with) Think I just pushed it a bit too hard before. Advice to anyone embarking on a marathon, don't rush the training, only increase length of runs by 10% max each week.

Good Times in Osaka: Shinsaibashi 11 hour Bar Crawl

2009-10-14T14:57:00.002+09:00

Haven't been out for a few weeks now (cross training since the old knee is bad at the mo) so felt like I earnt a night out in Osaka.

With a bar map in hand we headed out to an area of Shinsaibashi around 8. Started at Murphy's, an Irish bar (believe it or not!) on the 5th floor of this building. Very weird experience arriving at an Irish bar via a lift but despite it being a bar it still had an Irish feel with guiness everywhere, bar mats tacked to the walls and even the token very hungover, red cheeked Irish barman. We got lucky as it was live music night and this Japanese band equipped with harpiscord, banjos the lot came on and played some fantastic irish folk music. Another bizarre experience but fun.

We then headed to Wax 69, a pea sized bar with a well nice, chatty American owner Jessie who used to be a teacher (what gaijin isn't in Japan?!) so we had a good old bitch about teaching over some nachos and delicious salsa.

Next stop we headed to LA Gumbo. OK sorry rewind, when we were heading to Murphys a big black American guy who looked like Britneys bouncer had tried to get us to go into his new bar, we took a flier and walked off. So forward back to present and we decided to check it out. God where do I start!

LA Gumbo, Osaka. Note cheesy Diana Ross poster in background & guy with doo-rag!

In Japan a lot of the bars are on different levels of a multi level blocks so once you've committed to get in the lift to the 9th floor and opened the door theres not really much backing out..! LA Gumbos was quiet to say the least but it turns out that Britneys bouncer lookalike is the owner, a lovely one too from Louisiana. He gave us some amazing homemade cornbread on the house (usually a cover charge of ￥1000) and then serenaded us with some smooth jazz....ooh yeah baby!

The place had that 80's vibe, cream leather sofas, loads of cheesy posters of Michael ,Whitney and Diana in their hey days and his stuck in times looking mate fashioning a doo-rag!

Brilliant 80's cheese. LA Gumbos, Osaka.

Loved it though as the owner was such a sweetie, I would have felt totally fine going there on my own.

Next stop decided to head back to the building where Wax 69 was as Jessie's friend owns another bar on that floor called Karma Sutra. It was around 12 at this point. Met the lovely bartender who got me into shark vodka (Shark is the japanese equivalent to Red Bull) Then the karaoke came out and I destroyed Dolly Parton's 9-5, Fat Bottomed Girls, Twist & Shout and Rock the Kasbah whilst the angelic penelope cruz look a like bar girl sang Chicago and had the male testosterone levels raise the roof. We left around 3, thats what karaoke does to you!

Karaoke at Karma Sutra, Osaka

On the way home we passed a club called Sam & Daves. Brilliant! All I could think of was Jaquelines in Ross, how could it not be as cheesy? Well we only really went down the stairs to see how much it was. Bargain ￥1000 yen which included a free drink for the ladies, wooo! It didn7t disappoint. Having not danced to some cheese for 7 months, I felt like a nun on the run. Apart from the weirdo who declared his undying love for Raquel we managed to danced our socks off until 7am and then guess what, went for the kebab equiavelent in Japan, a curry! (or ramen but in this instance curry)

Fab night all round but felt rough the next day and discovered a blister the size of golf ball on my foot the next morning, OUCH!

Good Times in Osaka: Temozan & the Touchy-Feely Pet Garden

2009-10-14T13:23:00.000+09:00

Touchy-Feely Pet Gardern!

Just had a fantastic time in Osaka wioth Raquel. I must admit this trip wan't particularly cultural but sometimes you just have an urge to visit an Irish pub, order a BLT from an English menu, dance to some cheesy Eurotrash and shop. So guess what we did at the weekend? I would like to mention though that we did try to do some culture and went to the Kabuki theatre (traditional Japanese theatre) but nothing was on! (and this is the 3rd biggest city in Japan?!)

Anyway, we spent Saturday shopping for Christmas gifts (yep I'm starting early as I now have a crap salary) at Tempozan Harbour Village, a waterfront shopping area with a huge ferris wheel, an aquarium, an IMAX theatre and boat cruise operators.

In the middle of our shop we stumbled upon this indoor farm inside the shopping centre, well to be exact they hilariously called it "The Touchy-Feely Pet Gardern" (I so love Japanglish) It was the cleanest "pet garden" I've ever seen though still had that farmyard poo smell. I felt at home!
The funniest thing was watching the farm attendant (a glammed up Japanese girl who really didn't look like she enjoyed getting her hands dirty) clean up some fresh droppings from the hayless sheep pen and then finishing it up with one of those dettol wipes, hehehe. I had to laugh, it just couldn't be more different than home, see video below!

After trying out some Osaka's special "takoyaki" octopus balls in the shopping centre we headed back to our hotel in town to get ready for our night painting the tiles red.