My apartment is surrounded by paddy fields!

I'm sure Ive mentioned this before but when I first arrived I was surprised to see despite being in an urban location my new pad was surrounded by these small fields. Luckily at the time I asked Etsuko (my co-ordinator who helped me move in) what they were and she told me they were paddy fields, otherwise I wouldn't have understood what the fark they were doing with them. Apparently they plant in May & harvest in Aug/Sept so I felt lucky to be able to watch it right from my front door! I must admit I wasn't sure how they actually grow rice...doh!
Ok so here they are when I moved in, kind of dried out grassy fields. Oh yes and thats my apartment block over there!

So within weeks the little farmer (yes everything is little here) with his little tractor comes and ploughs the fields. Ooh, I feel Im at home! Don't have a piccie of that one. Within a few days of plouging they started flooding the fields, water was pouring down these gulleys (you can see one on the right of the above photo)


Within a day or two the fields are submerged in water. When someone said "flooded" I wasn't expecting totally submerged so that was a bit of a shock. I was then told by Ugee (ok prob wrong spelling), Cari's boyfriend that flooding would mean the arrival of the frogs. I took what he said with a pinch of salt but then got home that night to a chorus of frogs. I recorded the noise (as its quite mental) below. I'm just praying I won't step on one on the way home!




A week later, which was Thursday this week, on my bleary eyed daily morning walk to the train station I was actually excited to see the first shoots in two of the fields! I had to get my camera out like a proper tourist!

Kanazawa Karaoke!

I've been for 3 weeks now so it was about time I experienced the karaoke phenomenom! Last night I went out with Sarah (works at GEOS, met her through Kari) and some of her Japanese students in Katamatchi, the pub/restaurant district of Kanazawa. We kicked off the night at an izikaya, was really gorgeous food so clocked where it was and will definately go back. After eating 3000 yens worth of food (about £25) we went up to meet her mate Paul and another guy whose name I've forgotten now, oops, I'm so crap.

The bar was run by a beautiful filipino lady who was fun with a capital F. We sang karaoke with her and another guy Tony (the guy in above pic) who was working behind the bar until 4am. OK so to me thats bloody late & my bedtime radar was sounding but they then took me kind of dragged kicking & screaming....tempting me with a free drink...to Sturgis, another bar in Katamatchi. Wow, what can I say about this place. Firstly, its tiny like all the bars seem to be in Kanazawa but it's just sooo damned cool! Dark, retro and crammed with bric a brac, guitars on the walls, posters, postcards, a video camera with screen and just random stuff everywhere. Run by a local guy who looks like a proper Japanese hells angel but is a sweetie.

Anyway people, video from Sturgis bar below (owner is playing the guitar) beware crazy music and crazy people!

First day at school- Isurugi Elementary, Oyabe

I've realised I've not really written much about school so far. Jeez, where do I start! my first day at Isurugi honestly took me back to my first day at school. The big gates, bigger kids, clueless to know where I was going.


I was ushered into the freezing cold office of Kancho Sensei (Headteacher). We had some green tea which warmed me up a bit and sat on his big leather sofas. I gave him the present (Abacus tea towel with some choccies wrapped in it) and he loved it, phew. Currently my Japanese is sooo bad that I had to gesture washing & drying up to him otherwise I think he would have left it pinned to his office wall.
Anyway, I was taken to the staff room and showed my teeny weeny desk, shit I thought I can't even get my legs under that! I managed with some effort.
So my schedule for the day was 2 x 6th grade classes. Two students came and collected me from the staff room. God my heart was in my mouth, I was sooo nervous! It was all fine though. In hindsight that very first class is actually the worst class of all my classes, 40 kids in one cramped room including some disabled and autistic kids. A proper challenge to get 100% attention! I'll try and write up some of my lessons in a separate blog (and when I gain some confidence ask the teachers to record parts of them)

Hanami: Cherry Blossom Viewing

So today I was invited by Sam to a Hanami. It sounded like some ominous ritual that I wasn't sure I wanted to dive straight into, that was until he explained that this was traditional event held across Japan to enjoy the beauty of the flowers, mainly cherry blossoms. In other words, a picnic under the blossoms. How wonderful!

Admitedly I had walked around Kanazawa a few days before and wondered what the huge blue plastic sheets pinned down to the grass were for. Well now I knew. These were reserved picnic sheets. Someone compared it to the Germans laying down their towels early in the morning to bag the best spot at the hotel pool..damn I used to hate it when that happened. At least in Kanazawa you're not confined to the small hotel poolside.

So boys will be boys and the picnic turned into a few cans of Chu-hi (an alcopop type drink, see post) on a sheet nowhere near the cherry blossoms but was nice anyway! The very next day I was invited to another Hanami by Cari along the Saigo river. It was such a beautifully hot day. Cool river, snow capped mountains as a backdrop. Not many things can beat that...

Board of Education meetings...

Oh bloody hell, where do I start? So today was the day I was to meet with the board of education for my teaching area Oyabe. I was told to dress smart but not to worry about speaking in the meeting as my IC (international co-ordinator) would handle it all. OK fine, so I just need to look nice oh and smile a lot since smiles go a long way in Japan!



So my first formal meeting in Japan. Typical then that instead of meeting one of the usual lakkies in the department this time we have to meet the head of the BofE in Oyabe. First time for Etsuko, my IC (international co-ordinator- helps with settling in). She got so nervous which just makes me nervous. We both get out our speeches in the car. I'm trying to remember how to say "I'm learning Japanese but its not good yet" and am struggling. She's trying to recite where & what I did at uni. Poor love. Communication and cultural studies with media doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.



So we were ushered into the big cheese' office where 6 or so men stood up to greet us; a flurry of bowing. Eeek, I didn't know who to bow at first and how low to bow so that all went a bit wrong but nevermind. I made sure I wasn't the first to drink my green tea (now I should say in Japanese; O-cha) so not to offend. The meeting lasted for approx 5 minutes and in that time the head cheese decided to target all the questions at me. My "wakarimasens" just didn't work, he carried on with his questions. I smiled a lot and ended up answering in English. I was cringing. My intro Japanese course got me nowhere!

The minute I landed back on Kanazawa soil, I signed up for 2 x Japanese lessons per week at the Rifare. Never again! I'm going to be fluent in no time....