Last day of school

So whilst everyone back home is in Corona lockdown, I went to my school for the last time today. My company is making me change schools for the new school year (hopefully) starting in April, so today I had to say goodbye at my current school.

Most of the students came back in today, briefly, so they could tie up the school year properly and say goodbye to the departing teachers. It was all very controlled, with limited contact, and it was nice to see them again, if only from afar. The day started with speeches from the leaving teachers, via video link, to the students. So they were sat in their classrooms and we were beamed onto the TVs in each classroom. I was so nervous because I get stage fright easily, lol, so I spoke much too quickly, but I hope the kids understood the simple English I used. I was handed some flowers after my speech and tried not to cry, haha.

I spent the next couple of hours tidying and practising my speech that I would soon be giving to the teachers. They’re very big on speeches here and I decided I’d make an effort and write it in Japanese. So at 11:30 all the teachers gathered in the staff room and the departing teachers stood at the front to give goodbye speeches. God, it was so nerve-wracking. I took my prompt sheet with me because I knew I’d forget the Japanese, lol. It went okay though! I spoke mostly in Japanese, with a little English section for the six Japanese English teachers, and was complimented on my Japanese by several people afterwards. So pretty happy with myself!

Then me and the English teacher I’ve worked closest with went out for lunch to this really cute Italian place nearby. They did lunch sets that included free drinks, soup and bread, so it was very reasonable. It was lovely getting to know her a bit better over some nice food. We had to go back eventually though, but we spent the afternoon cleaning her classroom together. It was hard work but made easier with The Beatles playing in the background.

Then it got to my leaving time and I started the motions of leaving for the last time. I handed out cookies to all the teachers, as well as special presents to the aforementioned English teacher and the school nurse who sat next to me and always tried to chat to me despite not having much English. Then I tried my best to sneak out with all my belongings, but no chance! Loads of teachers gathered in the entrance and the first grade English teacher played Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da on his guitar and they all sang for me and I blinked back tears and thanked everyone again, and then practically ran out of the door.

It was lovely.

I got home and put my flowers in water in the middle of my kotatsu. They make my tiny apartment feel a little bit more homely.

So now I have the 2 week Spring holiday with the uncertainty about whether schools will actually start up again or not in April. We’ve been very lucky here in Japan so far, but there is talk tonight of some sort of lock down happening in Tokyo over this weekend, so we shall see. For now, I shall bask in how lovely (if a little sad and definitely nerve-wracking) my last day at my school was.

Graduation Day

Okay, wow, so I haven’t updated this for a whole month! Honestly, the last month has just flown by in a bit of a coronavirus haze. I’ll be the first to admit that I was very dismissive of it at first and fully expecting it to blow over without too much fuss. Well how wrong was I? So here in Japan we’ve had schools close, museums and theme parks close, and much difficulty in the purchasing of masks, hand gel, and toilet roll (I realise the latter is the same everywhere now, but we totally started it right here, lol). On a personal level, only the lack of hand gel is bothering me currently, but I sincerely hope the toilet rolls become readily available again within the next couple of weeks. On the plus side, the trains have been less busy!

Yeah, okay, that was a Saturday lunch time on the Keikyu line, but even the rush hour trains have been quieter! Very nice to quite often get a seat on the way to school in the morning. Because yes, I have been going to school still. The kids stopped coming in over a week ago, but us teachers still gotta warm those desks. I have been getting a whole lot of Japanese studying done, that’s for sure! But today, the kids (well the 3rd graders) did come into school as, happily, they were still getting an (albeit scaled down) graduation ceremony.

So, let me tell you about my first (and possibly last) experience of a Japanese graduation. They get to officially graduate from all tiers of school in Japan: kindergarten, elementary, junior high, senior high, and university. So for a Brit like me who only got to graduate once, from university, the concept is kind of weird, but also nice. It’s a very special day. Not just for the students either, but the third grade teachers too.

The students all came in looking their best in pressed uniforms with a cherry blossom corsage (I guess it’s classed as a corsage, I’m a bit clueless on these things) pinned to their blazer lapels. The teachers wore either smart suits or their university graduation hakama, which is a traditional gown. The school gym was the venue, as always, and we’d decked it all out the day before with banners, flowers, chairs, etc. Random point on Japanese efficiency: they actually lined up the chairs with a special measuring line to make sure it was all 100% perfect. I was so surprised! Haha.

Us teachers took our seats first, complete with compulsory masks (much to my displeasure – I hate wearing one), and then clapped all eight classes with their teachers in. I have never continuously clapped for that long! Then commenced a whole lot of bowing. The vice principal bowed to the flag, then bowed to us, we bowed back, he gave an opening speech, and then bowed to the flag on the way off again. And this set the bowing tone for the rest of the ceremony. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, just trying to accurately record it. The bowing culture is absolutely fascinating to me and I actually really like it.

We all stood and sang the school song after the vice principal’s speech (well I just listened because I don’t know the words, lol). And then the diploma presentations began. The principal had the presenting task, of course, and each homeroom teacher introduced the students in their class. So we sat through 270 odd students going up onto the stage, bowing, accepting their diploma, bowing again, and then walking off with a wistful or triumphant smile. It was really lovely and I might have shed a tear or two, but it was mostly because they played ‘Canon in D’ and that song always gets me.

Then the students sang the same song they sang at the chorus festival back in October, which nearly brought fresh tears for me. I’m so emotionally weak, haha. Thank goodness that mask I had to wear helped hide my wet cheeks. Then the vice principal gave the closing speech. And then us teachers formed somewhat of a guard of honour either side of the red carpet and clapped the students and their teachers out of the gym. Many students and some of the teachers were openly crying and it was quite emotional but I held it together!

After a quick break, we held ‘operation: clear up’ in the gym and efficiently packed everything up. Unfortunately this made me miss the students leaving, which I was very sad about. But then it was lunch time! We were having a special graduation sushi lunch. It was in a big bowl (see photo below) and I don’t even know all the different types of fish, but I liked all but two of them. The wasabi was a little too potent for my taste but I powered through it!

Blurry pic because I kind of sneaked the photo as it didn’t really feel that appropriate really ^^;

After that the afternoon just sort of lulled into the same as the other days, aka me studying Japanese, lol. But one other very notable thing to mention, I got a thank you letter from one of my students. The English wasn’t anywhere near perfect but he really tried and it made me so happy! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to interact with the third graders anywhere near as much as I would have like this past year, but somehow I’d made enough of an impression on this lad that he wanted to write me a letter. I shall honestly treasure it forever!

So yes, very long, text-heavy entry, so well done if you read it all. I just really wanted to document today as this sort of experience is one of the big reasons why I’m here. Japanese culture is so interesting to me and an event like this is perfect for me. Now I have nine days left at school before Spring break and unfortunately the students won’t be coming back at all because of the virus. A school without students is a very empty, cold sort of place. I hope the situation gets better in time for the start of the new school year in the second week of April.

Until next time! 🙂

Team trip to Fujiyoshida

So, last Saturday we decided we’d earned a well deserved rest from quidditch practice for one week after back to back tournaments, and went on a day trip out to Fujiyoshida. Big thanks go to Morgan for organising it and paying for our bus tickets up front. It was an absolutely fantastic day!

The day started early. I left my apartment at 7:05am and caught the train to Shinjuku. 9 members of our team (well technically 8 + Stephen’s couch surfer of the week, Jed) assembled at the south gate and made our way to the bus station. After an aborted attempt to board the bus when we were a Soulef down, we safely all found our seats and settled in for a one and a half hour ride out into the countryside.

The ride was fairly uneventful but we were all thoroughly intoxicated by our first views of Mount Fuji up close. And when we arrived at our destination and hopped off the bus to see Mount Fuji, or Fuji-san in Japanese, up close without the window glass in the way, we were even more enthralled by the sight.

Ran into a field to take this photo not realising how much better the photo ops were going to get.

We headed straight for the Chureito Pagoda, which was our chosen destination for this trip. As with a lot of shrines here, there were a whole lot of steps awaiting us before we would find the pagoda. 398, I believe, is the exact total. Before making the trek up these steps, we all took great pleasure in viewing Fuji-san through the red torii gate at the bottom.

Then the real workout began. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. I think the combination of my having been on/off sick all winter and the fact I’d dressed for arctic temperatures but actually, with the sun hot on our backs, it was more like early summer temperatures, really contributed to this. The steps were to be just the tip of the iceberg though, but more on that later. First, the pagoda. It was… kind of a disappointment. At least from the front, but when you climbed up behind it to get the iconic shot of it alongside Fuji-san, it was much more impressive!

Yay group shot in front of the disappointing pagoda.

Aforementioned iconic shot, though you probably know it better with cherry blossoms on the tree, lol.

Next we decided to do the short 1.7 mile hike to the summit. I was one of the more vocal about doing this, not quite realising what I was signing myself up for. It was, in a word, gruelling. The aforementioned hot sunshine did not mix well with the heat tech I was wearing under my clothes. Actually wish I’d followed Morgan’s lead and stripped it off halfway up, lol. The hardest part of the climb was dealing with the ice and mud that slicked up the path. It was very tiring just trying to make sure you stayed upright. But, this all made the pay off when we got to the summit all the more sweet. The view was absolutely fantastic!

Fuji-san from the summit – breathtaking!

This one was actually taken at the observation deck, not the summit, but still a great view!

We shared some more snacks up here and had a well deserved rest before having to make our way back down. It was just as treacherous going back down, but we all successfully navigated the snow, ice and mud. It was, unfortunately, a very dry slope that actually became my undoing. Suddenly my legs came out from under me and I hit the ground hard, bottom and hands first. Luckily I wasn’t too badly hurt, just had some scrapes on my hand to mop up when we found some slightly more even terrain.

Found this lovely mis-translation in a toilet block on the way down, lol.

When we eventually got to the bottom, talk quickly turned to lunch. It was already getting on towards 2pm at this point and we were wondering if anywhere would even be open for food still. We eventually decided to walk into the nearby town, which, on first glance, was a bit of a ghost town, but we eventually found life. Our first choice restaurant had no tables available, but luckily Miyu got chatting to some ladies who had just left and they told us about another place to go to. It turned out to be a really lovely hole-in-the-wall udon place. The couple who owned it were so nice and friendly. It was like going to someone’s friendly grandparent’s for lunch, haha.

I had tonkatsu because I’m not a big fan of udon.

We headed back to catch our bus after this, getting there with a cool twenty minutes to spare so, naturally, played a game of psychiatrist whilst we waited, lol. Most of us slept on the bus back, no surprise. Except the naughty school children Miyu and Ranil, that is, who seemed to giggle giddily the whole time, haha.

Overall, it was a truly wonderful trip and one that will live long in the memory for me 🙂 I’ll just finish this post with another group shot otherwise my preview photo will be of my lunch, haha.

Quidditch champions! :D

So, the last few weeks have been as busy as ever. At school we have speeches, tests, and SEPRO to prepare for, so for the second grade especially it has been a bit manic. But I like having more classes in a week, rather than twiddling my thumbs in the staff room. Outside of school, we’ve had back to back quidditch tournaments: on Saturday 25th January and Saturday 1st February.

The first one was the National tournament for the Japanese teams, which now number five as Osaka also have a team. I unfortunately missed this completely as I wasn’t feeling well on the day and stayed home. But the team did very well, finishing a very good second. The Tokyo Penguins were first and are an incredibly strong team. I was so proud of my team! 😀

The second one was the second Edo Quidditch Cup, which our team organises. We had teams come over from Korea and Hong Kong, plus our team, and a team made up of different members from the other three Tokyo teams. I still wasn’t up to playing, so I did a mix of helping with the streaming and score-keeping, and helping to manage the team from the sidelines. It was great as I still felt part of the team.

We had some truly brilliant matches. The most memorable for me probably being our match against the Seoul Puffskeins. We were up 80-50 when they caught the snitch, taking the game to extra time. They scored one, but we scored two, and then caught the snitch, making the final score 130-90. It was such a dramatic game! We, the Kaminari Monsters, were eventually crowned champions! It was an amazing moment for everyone involved! 😀

Kaminari Champions! The snitch cup is awesome! 😀

Kaminari Monsters, Baba Vikings, Seoul Puffskeins, HKU Quidditch 😀

After quidditch, Rich, Cody, Soulef and I decided to go to the sento (onsen) nearby. It was actually my first time to go to a sento and it was lovely! Very relaxing after a full day of cheering on my teammates, haha.

Then it was time for the quidditch after party. We went to an izakaya nearby. Not everyone could make it, but a good number of people from the four different teams came along. Much drinking and eating was done. The karaage was great! And Stephen went mad ordering all kinds of meat I wouldn’t normally entertain eating (pig heart, anyone?). There were many many ‘kanpai’s and other fun moments.

A ramune-flavoured ice-lolly drink – soooo good!

We, of course, went for karaoke after this. Maybe the biggest group I’ve ever done karaoke with. There must have been around twenty of us, it was mad! One big room, only two mics, lots of crazy singing and dancing. It was hilarious! A really fun way to round off an amazing day!

A quick group selfie before heading home.

Okay, that’s it for this post. Next blog will be about what I got up to today. I shall try and write it up on Monday evening. Thanks for reading 🙂

The year so far…

So, what have I been doing in January so far? Mostly just getting back into the swing of my usual school routine, but there have been a few notable things that I wanted to blog about.

So on the 11th I wasn’t feeling up to playing quidditch, but I met up with them afterwards for lunch and a little ping pong session (I was just the ref cause I am rubbish at ping pong). It was a very exciting few games and everyone had a lot of fun!

I went to Morgan’s after that and we, with several others, recommenced the playing of the wonderful board game, Wingspan, complete with the new European expansion pack. One game lasted 3 hours and it was so fun! Love that game. We were all rather peckish afterwards so decided to partake in a rather late trip to Jonathan’s (I think it was around 10:15pm, lol). And, naturally, I got home well after midnight! Such a party animal, haha.

Sunday was a chill at home kind of day, happy in the knowledge that Monday was a bank holiday and therefore no school. And on Monday, Shyam and I went to Todoroki, which is just a little way out of the centre of Tokyo. There is a ravine there with a lovely little boardwalk, with a shrine and many bridges. It was a delightful haven of quiet so close to central Tokyo. The quiet walks away from the hustle and bustle of the city are definitely my preferred places here.

Back to school on Tuesday, but on Wednesday it was Shyam’s birthday. We went to the Maxell Aqua Park aquarium in Shinagawa. It was brilliant! The set up and resulting aesthetic was amazing. It felt incredibly magical! It’s fairly small but well worth the entrance fee, and the dolphin show was excellent! Most importantly, the birthday boy loved it 😀

The walls were interactive! It was so magical! 😀

We went to a rather nice Italian restaurant afterwards called Obica. They had no seats inside but there was outside heating, so we went for it. We had a cocktail each and ordered starters and mains. Shyam’s starter arrived first. Then his main came, and shortly afterwards my starter came. No sign of my main. Eventually we had to ask for it and were told it was still being made – a likely story – and eventually it turned up. So, the food was nice, but the service was a bit um… all over the place. That aside though, we had a lovely meal.

The long lost lasagne! – it was worth the wait, to be fair.

And finally, on Saturday just gone (18/1), Shyam, Audrey and I met up at the Tokyo Dome for the Furusato Matsuri. An annual food and culture festival that celebrates all things Japanese, with stalls featuring food from all over Japan. There was a big stage area where cultural activities were being showcased, and next to that was a maze of so many stalls. Mostly food, but also non-food ones selling all sorts of interesting merchandise. We bought karaage, Okinawan donuts, apple steam buns, and many other things I’ve forgotten. It was sooo good!

After that we got a late lunch in a rather um… interesting Indian restaurant. One guy was cooking and serving and it was a bit rough and ready but the food was good, with the biggest naan I’ve ever seen! (I should have taken a photo). I left Shyam and Audrey after this as they were going bowling and I’m still not fit for something that active. Instead I met up with my favourite, Miyu, and we went to karaoke. Two hours of fun singing and we could have done more! Instead we did a little shopping and then um… got more food. I eat so much here! Italian again. Two very nice pasta dishes, followed by dessert! I had Zuppa Inglese, which may be my new favourite thing.

Lovely Saturday out! And then Sunday was a mostly chill day, but also the usual get ready for work the next day kind of day. And I am up to date! Well done if you got through all that. It was longer than I meant it to be, as always ^^;

New Year’s Week

Okay, finally back with my New Year’s blog. This one will take us from Monday 30th December to Sunday 5th January. Action-packed shenanigans ahead! Haha.

So, on the Monday, I lazed around for most of the day trying to clean my apartment (I’m still cleaning it now on the 8th, so that’s how productive that was >.>). In the early evening I caught a train to Roppongi to meet Miyu. We started off in the Outback Steakhouse and ate a ridiculous amount of food!

We shared it, but I reckon Miyu could have eaten it all by herself, heh.

Miyu with the Snowman outside Outback, lol.

After that we did some shopping to kill some time and then headed to the Coyote Ugly bar (this was the reason we were in Roppongi). But it had only been open half an hour so was pretty quiet still, so we took a quick selfie and went to karaoke for an hour, as you do!

Karaoke was fun! We’re getting better at singing ‘Please Mister Postman’ together, haha. Then we went back to Coyote Ugly and got the Tequila Sunrises in and managed to snaffle seats at the bar. Woohoo! The bar dancing started at 10pm, and if you’ve ever seen the film, you’ll know what we got to see. It was a whole lot of fun! I definitely want to go again in a bigger group.

Miyu looking cute and me looking like the Cheshire Cat, ha.

Then on Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, Shyam, Miyu and I met together at Tokyo Dome for lunch. We went for Italian as it was a little out of the way and not as busy as all the other restaurants there. It was pretty decent, though I forgot the name of the place, so not very helpful. After that we went to Akihabara because I wanted new earphones and a new watch (since I lost mine and the police haven’t found it 😦 ). Managed to get both! The watch is a Kiki’s Delivery Service one with Gigi the cat on the face. Sooo cute!

We met up with some other people after that in Kita-Senju. A Hub pub of all places, haha. We lasted a few hours in there but we started too early (like 6pm) and just couldn’t make it to midnight. We left at about 10 and went and got late night food at Yoshinoya (one of the only places open). Then Shyam, Cesca and I gave up because we were too tired. The others went onto Shibuya for the countdown. Fair play to them! (And I don’t have any photos for some reason. Fail.)

New Year’s Day was unfortunately lost to me being very very sick. Not alcohol-related, I might add. Some sort of random 24 hour viral thing. I was not well at all Also the 2nd January I took it easy as I was very weak and tired.

Then on the 3rd January, the Friday, I was back up on my feet! I met Miyu and Ranil in Shibuya and we went to, wait for it, an Italian restaurant for lunch. Miyu is so predictable, haha. This was a really good one though! Posh looking, delicious food, for very reasonable prices. Will find out the restaurant name from Miyu to edit in here later.

Then we went bowling and I actually fared a lot better than last time. Scored 66 and 71 in the two games. Definitely beats the two games I had with Shyam, Nicola, and Matt, haha. Ranil was amazing though! Completely wiped the floor with Miyu and I. We all had a lot of fun though, and decided to carry it on a bit longer by playing a couple of games of darts. Both of which I, somehow, won! Yeah!! 😀

Ranil left us at this point and Miyu and I went off in search of cake. We found this cool bar called Bohemia and had chocolate gateau that was definitely more chocolate fudge than gateau, but very nice! Also tea (I consented to drink Earl Grey, lol). Then we went shopping for Shyam’s Christmas present (I know I’m a terrible person but I just really struggled to buy him the right thing). We succeeded and I’m happy to report he loved what I chose him! 😀 Another awesome day out with Miyu (with added Ranil! :D) ❤

Saturday was another fairly low key day. Went out in the evening to get dinner with Shyam at the Hawaiian restaurant under Yokohama Station. Then on Sunday we went to Nogeyama Zoo, which is a small, free entry zoo a little way out of Yokohama. I say small, but they had two giraffes, a lion, tiger, black bear, and many other animals. My favourite absolutely being the red panda, of course. I bullied Shyam into buying me a red panda soft toy just before we left, hehe.

Okay, I’m done! what a monster entry! I need to start writing these earlier in the evening. It’s nearly midnight and I was supposed to go to bed earlier tonight. Whoops! Until next time! Thanks for reading 🙂

Christmas Week

So, to the Christmas blog! Now, of course, Japan doesn’t really celebrate Christmas in the same way I’m used to. The most startling difference for me was the fact Christmas Day is the same as any other day. Get up and go to school/work, lol. So yes, I was still at school on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th, but I didn’t really do anything much apart from teach half a lesson and sit in on a few others. It was very chill, but kind of surreal for me on the 25th. But I can now say that I’ve worked on Christmas Day, lol.

I spent Christmas Eve with Shyam, of course. He cooked us a Thai dish, the name of which I have currently forgotten, which was delicious! And we had strawberry cake that I bought, as is tradition in Japan, haha.

On Christmas morning I woke up extra early so that I had time to open my presents before having to go to school. My lovely mama sent me a box of pressies way in advance that I kept aside until the big day. I also received pressies from various friends, which was sooo nice! It is not cheap to post packages to Japan, so thank you soooo much everyone that did! ❤

Then straight after school on Christmas Day I headed to TJ’s for Christmas dinner and fun Christmassy times. TJ did an awesome job with cooking a roast chicken dinner. It all tasted amazing and we all had a lovely evening together, with lots of toasts and chatting and introducing TJ’s friend, Ayaka, to mince pies and Christmas pudding and Quality Street, haha.

I stayed the night at TJ’s and on Boxing Day we had a nice chilled day. Lots of playing at cooking with my favourite two year old and a nice gentle walk by the river. I headed home in the evening and slept like a log, haha.

On the Friday I was supposed to go to Immigration but um… I left late and then got held up by trains not running properly and so wasn’t going to make it in time before they closed. Oh well. So I went to Shinjuku instead and had a nice walk in Yoyogi Park, before meeting Shyam for dinner.

Then on Saturday it was time for the long awaited reunion of me, Shabz, and TJ! We hadn’t all been together for years, and to finally reunite in Japan of all places! I was so excited! We went to Comiket together, which is a massive indoor comic market. And it really is massive! We queued for ages in the biggest queue you have ever seen! And it was oh so fun to be reunited and to experience all the fun, geeky things together. Mostly Haikyuu things, lol.

Nice view of Mount Fuji from outside Comiket

Hanging with Bokuto and Akaashi, TJ’s faves ❤

We got lunch in Diver City mall afterwards, which was soooo busy so we just went to the place with the shortest queue, haha. An okay buffet place. Chatted some more and then eventually we had to part ways, but oh it was so good to hang with the both of them at the same time again. Hope we get to again soon! ❤

Sunday was a quiet day spent at home, but I did receive a package full of pressies from the amazing Ria!

And that is the end of the bumper sized Christmas blog. I’ll be back in a couple of days with the New Year’s sequel, lol.

A quick round up – part 3

Yeah, so I’m kind of a week late with this, but better late than never, right? ^^;

So picking up from where I left off in part 2, on the Sunday (December 15th) Shyam and I went with his friend Audrey and her husband, Ari, to Nichitsu in Saitama. This is one of the many abandoned ‘ghost villages’ you can find in Japan. Apparently touring these abandoned places is quite a popular thing for some people to do. It was interesting but also kind of melancholy and sad. We found newspapers and things from 15+ years ago. But the weather was great, if a bit cold, and I loved how peaceful it was out there. Nice to get away from the madness of city life for a few hours.

Climbed up a steep hill to get this shot, lol.

On the drive home we stopped at a buffet restaurant as we were all starving! We had some very interesting combinations of food, but the best part was definitely the desserts. Though isn’t it always at the buffet places? Haha.

I had a week of doing fun, Christmas themed lessons at school, which I really enjoyed! Then on the Friday evening was my school’s Bonenkai. This is the traditional end of year party that happens in every walk of life all over Japan. Our one was at a very nice traditional Japanese restaurant not too far from school. Most of the teachers attended, so there must have been about 40 there. Lots of kanpai’s and speeches, including them making me do one. Oh god, my Japanese is so bad still I gave the shortest speech in Bonenkai history maybe ^^; The food was very good!

Meat cooked sumo style – well they lit a tealight underneath it, lol.

I went to karaoke afterwards with some of the other teachers and it was so fun! So glad I finally got to do karaoke with them. I did an English v Japanese battle with one of the other teachers with a Queen medley, which was hilarious!

On the Saturday I basically took it easy and just went into Yokohama to get food with Shyam in the afternoon. Yay, Coco Curry for the first time in ages! Hehe. Then on Sunday was the special quidditch practice with the other Japanese teams. A camera crew and two up and coming Japanese comedians were also there and there was much hilarity as we showed these two guys how to play quidditch all whilst being filmed for some TV show. Watch this space, I believe I will appear on Japanese TV!

After quidditch a bunch of us went for lunch at a food court nearby and I got to eat karaage! 😀 Then Miyu and I went to Shiba Park because I wanted to show her the German style Christmas market there. Unfortunately it was raining really hard by this point so we didn’t stay there long. Just long enough to have a Bailey’s hot chocolate each, lol. But we got nice views of Tokyo Tower lit up.

We went in search of shelter after that and ended up in an Italian style restaurant near to Shimbashi. I found lasagne here and was so happy as I had been craving it for days! But the real showstoppers were, once again, the desserts, lol.

Sooo good! The raspberry ice-cream made my life!

Another great few hours hanging with Miyu. She is the best! ❤

Okay, that basically takes me up to just before Christmas. I shall try and get a couple of Christmassy blogs in here during the course of the week. And then there will be New Year’s blogs after that. So blog-a-rific! Until next time! 🙂

A quick round up – part 2

So here we are with part 2. Not sure I’ll get it all done so there may well be a part 3 ^^; But here we go.

So, on Wednesday (4th December) Miyu came to mine after school and I helped her make Rocky Road for a Christmas party we were going to on the Saturday. We also made chicken fajitas, which are expensive to make here, but they were damned tasty! Well, once we managed to get the jar of salsa open anyway. 20 minutes or so of trying everything to open it, we eventually took it up to my American neighbour’s apartment and he managed to open it for us. Thanks, Anthony! ^^;

The aforementioned party happened after quidditch and at Morgan’s. A Christmas dessert party! Oh man, there were so many desserts. Everyone did so well making something different. My offering was some mini banoffee pies. They turned out okay. I’m so limited with what I can bake here as I have no oven. Miss making cakes and cookies. We did a White Elephant Secret Santa, which was hilariously competitive. Especially over a plant that Miyu eventually won. Very entertaining! Other party games were also played and it was a lovely afternoon/evening! 🙂

Nearly the whole of the following week I had Sepro, so I was at another ALT’s school. This school was really nice! They provided us with loads of snacks and made us feel really welcome. The students were really good and enthusiastic too! On the Friday we got invited to join a second grade Calligraphy class and I got to try it with a proper brush and ink set for the first time ever!

Then on Friday evening I went to Morgan’s again and he, Miyu, Rich and I played our new favourite game, Wingspan. It’s so fun! And we had a little toast to Morgan and Rich since they were both heading home for Christmas the following day.

Then quidditch the next day was good fun! Lots of good drills and what felt like a very worthwhile practice. Then, the most important bit, we went to lunch at the yakiniku place we had been to before. Soooo much food and so cheap! 😀

Okay, yup, leaving it there. Part 3 coming tomorrow night, haha.

A quick round-up – part 1

Ahhh I haven’t updated in a month! I can’t believe I’ve let that happen. It’s just been quite crazy here lately for one reason or another. Mostly for my own benefit at this point, to be completely honest, I’m going to do a quick summary of the last 4 weeks.

So, first, the Nationals Quidditch tournament didn’t happen. Bit of rain and bam! they postponed it. Bit annoying, but there you go. Morgan, Miyu, Rich and I hung out playing board games instead, and got a Sumo lunch!

Chanko – the traditional meal of a sumo wrestler. Super tasty!

More board games were played with some additional quidditch members, and then some of us went onward to a drinking party organised by the Azabu Stirrings. Many fun party games happened, as well as some impromptu singing and dancing. It was great to hang out with them 🙂

The next weekend, on the Sunday, saw Miyu and I have a last minute meet up for lunch since she unexpectedly found herself in Yokohama. We went back to The Tavern because she really wanted that roast Sunday lunch again, haha.

We found a Miyu-sized vending machine! Hehe.

Then we did some shopping together in Shibuya before splitting ways. I walked all the way from there to Shinjuku (because walking is fun!) and met up with Morgan, Yasmine and Soulef to watch Frozen 2. It was a fun if average film, lol. But great hanging out with these guys!

And wow it got late! So I shall, hopefully, carry on with this in part 2 tomorrow night, haha.