A weekend of two halves

So last weekend saw Morgan, Miyu and myself go on a little road trip to the east of Chiba (the most eastern point of this part of Japan, I believe). We just wanted to go exploring and eat seafood, so why not!

It started off with me staying at Morgan’s on Friday night as he lives a lot closer to Chiba than me. I have to include this bit in here because I’m still, nearly a week later, so impressed with ‘Hotel Morgan’!

See, a towel, bar of soap, and even chocolates on the bed! We just shan’t mention the fact the airbed was nearly completed deflated by morning, haha.

We met Miyu at around 10am (10:20 maybe) the next day and the road trip started! The weather was utterly atrocious; the rain lashing down across the windscreen, but it was a pretty fun hour and a half or so in the car. I’m trying to remember if we stopped anywhere along the way, but I am struggling.

Our first destination was a seafood restaurant Miyu’s friend had told her about. It was a nice traditional place where the tables are low, you take your shoes off, and sit on cushions on the floor. The seafood was so fresh! (okay, they had open air tanks in the middle of the restaurant, so that’s how fresh! – sorry vegetarian friends). I ordered a 1000 yen set meal plus a 650 yen bowl of sashimi, which are amazing prices for what I got!

Soooo much food! (There is rice under all that battered fish)

Sashimi (raw seafood) I liked the tuna best!

Restaurant selfie with the lovely weather in the background, lol.

After lunch we drove a very short distance and then stopped to go run on (or near?) the beach in the rain (because we are actually 5 year olds >.>).

We drove to Inubosaki lighthouse after that and debated going in but decided we would come back the next day as the weather was going to be much better. We did take some photos outside though (not of the actual lighthouse though, bizarrely) and go for a walk down to the beach despite how rough the waves were (we’re so brave, or maybe just stupid).

After a quick look inside the shops and bakery here, we drove onwards towards our Airbnb about a 40 minute drive away. It was a little hard to locate amongst all the other ornate looking, traditional houses in the area, but eventually we found our lodgings for the night. It was a huge house owned by an older couple (I think they advertise 7 bedrooms on the Airbnb site). They had two dogs, who I had been excited to meet, but it turns out the younger, male dog was a bit bite happy. He managed to bite both me and Morgan, so yeah, not so good.

Our room – note the traditional sliding doors and tatami mats

Room selfie! (does it count as a selfie if the camera is on a timer?)

There was a break in the rain so we decided to walk down to the beach (it was a very short walk from the house) Unfortunately, only Morgan was clever enough to bring a coat, so when it inevitably started raining again, Miyu and myself got absolutely drenched!

A random sign that was tucked away so nobody could see it – it amused us greatly.

Walking in the rain (and eating ice-creams >.>) ^^;

After trying our best to sneak back into the house without the owner seeing how soaked we were (we totally didn’t succeed), and subsequently getting showers and putting dry clothes on, we spent the rest of the evening eating snacks and playing a card game called Fluxx.

Further hilarity happened at bedtime when we found out Miyu is deathly scared of, well, just about everything. I’m guessing it is mostly the darkness though. She especially didn’t like ‘zombie face Morgan’ and clung very close to me for a while, haha. We did all eventually fall asleep though…

…Well, until the thunder storm woke us around 2am. The loudest thunder! Miyu is very scared of thunder, of course. We had to all go to the toilet together because she needed an arm to cling to, haha. Again, eventually we all slept again, though not for as long as we would have liked because the room was very light so when the sun came up, that was about it for us sleep wise.

We started Sunday with some breakfast and showers and packing our stuff up. Then we went for a nice sunny (finally!) walk down on the beach. The storm had washed up many different things, including but not limited to, oodles of scurrying crabs, a dead fish. a dead bird, and a dead dolphin. Yeah, not the most pleasant of viewings. The combination of sun and wind made for some good photos though!

We went back to the Airbnb to pick up our stuff and then headed off with plans to do many things that day. And here is where the second half of the weekend comes into play. Anyone that knows me well, knows that I get sick pretty easily, and unfortunately this is what happened here. I started getting a headache as we were packing up to leave but I didn’t think anything of it, but then it suddenly got a whole lot worse, and I was physically sick. This, without going into too much detail, descended into being very very sick and dizzy and pretty much passing out in a convenience store toilet, leading to Morgan and Miyu calling an ambulance.

So, in short, because I don’t fancy going into too many details here because it’s bad memories for me, I got my first experience in a Japanese ambulance (I remember thinking it seemed pretty retro) and 6 hours or so in a rural Japanese hospital. They were extremely thorough, doing a CT scan and an MRI because of my seemingly unending dizziness. Everything turned up fine, of course, and it was all just put down to heat, dehydration, lack of sleep, and stress. Typical me really.

Two things I do want to mention though. Morgan and Miyu were absolute superstars! I’ve only know them for a few months but I could not ask for better friends. They looked after me amazingly and, particularly with the language barrier, were the most helpful they could possibly be! Also, and this takes me onto my second point, they bailed me out when it came to paying my hospital bills. So I, stupidly, didn’t have my health insurance card on me, so had to pay for the full bill up front (health insurance covers 70% and I will be getting it back). I didn’t have the 30,000 yen as it was a few days before payday, so the two best people ever covered my back for me! (Thank you 6,000!!) But yeah, this really highlights how bloody important the NHS is. I’ve never sat feeling absolutely awful in hospital and had to worry about money before! The NHS needs to be kept safe from the Tories!

Anyway, rant over ^^; So yes, the rest of the weekend was spoiled by my stupid ills and spills. We never made it back to the lighthouse, but we made the most of the sunny weather on the drive home. Stopping for photos here and there and seeing a gorgeous sunset!

Sunshine selfie! (excuse my face, I had just spent 6 hours ill in a hospital)

So yes, in conclusion, despite how Sunday turned out, I had an absolutely brilliant time in Chiba and can’t wait for the next trip somewhere! Also, thank you again, Morgan and Miyu, for everything. The -good- memories will stay with me forever! 😀

Quidditch, a Sri Lankan feast, and more footie celebrations!

So another fairly epic weekend has passed. Coming to Japan has definitely given me something to talk about on a regular basis, which was the plan, so yay!

Saturday started bright and early as we are now being even more dedicated and starting our Quidditch practice an hour early in preparation for the Asian Cup at the end of July. I had to leave my apartment at 7:30am (actual leaving time was about 7:47am >.>) and arrived at our training ground raring to go at just after 9:30am. It was an extra physical session. I think because there were less of us than there has been recently. I got bludgers (dodgeballs) to the face at least twice, and our lovely captain tackled me twice in quick succession during one of our practice matches. I now have some lovely bruises and aching muscles as souvenirs. I really enjoyed the session though! 😀

After practice we were all cordially invited to Ranil’s (one of our beaters) apartment for what turned out to be a Sri Lankan feast! He and his amazing wife cooked some of the most delicious dishes, and there was so much variety. Every mouthful was a new taste and sensation! I honestly can’t thank the pair of them enough for this brilliant experience! 😀

Nicest mix of so many different dishes I’ve possibly ever had!

A well fed team! Compliments to our hosts on the far left and right!

So we ate and drank until we nearly popped and then played a card game, the name of which I forget. ‘…… Night’ (maybe ‘Every’ or ‘One’ or something similar). It took a couple of games for me to really get it (as seems to be the case with me and card/board games) but it was good fun! Then eventually we all dispersed back to our individual abodes scattered across Tokyo and (well for me) Yokohama.

Sunday started off in the usual way for me: lazily! Then I did my ironing and other Sunday chores. And then at about 4:15pm I left my apartment and headed for Ebisu to go join the Official LFC Supporters Group Japan in Epilogue (the pub) for a few hours of Champions League winning celebration fun!

The pub was crammed full of fanatic Japanese Liverpool fans. It was awesome! I couldn’t speak with many of them because of the language barrier but there were a few people there who could speak at least some English. Also, once the singing started the language barrier was all but forgotten. As I said to somebody there, ‘football has one language’. There was a guy there playing guitar, and another guy who made the trip to Madrid in hopes of getting a ticket. He didn’t get one but had a blast with some Australian people in a pub there, and got some amazing photos and videos of the atmosphere there.

The last hour or so was just us all singing and jumping around and having a great time! I will definitely be joining them next season for some matches! May there be many many lunchtime kick-offs!

Hopefully if you click on the following link it will take you to the Facebook post from the LSCJ and give you a little taster of how Japanese fans celebrate a big trophy win. There’s three videos including the ones in the comments. My personal favourite is the rendition of We Are The Champions! 😀

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=393596037910736

So yes, another fun weekend. Oh and just quickly… On Friday I had my first earthquake drill at school. It was the most bizarre thing. I’m used to fire drills back home that are very quick and efficient. This one seemed to take forever. We all went to the gym (and I’m sorry but I don’t really fancy standing underneath those big basketball hoops during a big earthquake). We had to take our shoes off before going into the gym (oh no earthquake is happening and I have to stop to remove my shoes and carry them. Ehhh??) And then lots of Japanese spoken through a megaphone and then we all got to leave. Oh well, yet another experience for me to write about, huh, haha.

We won it 6 times! :D

As you can probably tell from the title this is going to be a rather self-indulgent blog entry, so apologies in advance!

For the last week or so the one thing that has been pretty much dominating my thoughts has been ‘where oh where will I watch the Champions League final?’. I thought I would watch it at Epilogue with the Official Japan LFC Supporters’ Club, but I found out from the JT journalist that they had sold 70 tickets in 5 minutes so there would be no room at the inn, as it were.

After several messages and phone calls to different people/places, Shyam and I decided on Legends Sports Bar in Roppongi. This appealed to me because I used to frequent a sports bar of the same name in Prague back during the Champions League campaign in 2004/05. This was further endorsed by my friend from home, Nicola, who had been there before.

Anyways, after a chill Saturday day time spent hanging out with TJ and family in Tokyo, followed by trying to sleep a bit during the afternoon/evening, I got the train to Roppongi, arriving a little after 11:30pm. Shyam and I went to the midnight showing of Detective Pikachu at the cinema, which turned out to be a great way to kill a couple of hours before the match! Random fact, drink/popcorn combos here are way cheaper than they are back home.

Then it was onwards to Legends bar (after a little walk around trying to kill more time before the bar opened at 3am). We paid our 2,000 yen entrance fee (this included two drinks so more of a guarantee than making money off us as drinks were around 1,000 yen each anyway) and got some nice prime seats in front of a screen.

There was a good mix of both Liverpool and Spurs fans in by the time the match started. We had a couple of Liverpool fans sharing our table and it turns out one of them was a JHS ALT in Yokohama just like us. So that was a fun coincidence! The match itself was not the best. You could definitely tell the season ended 3 weeks ago. They all looked very rusty! But the main thing is…

WE WON!! :DDD

Haha, yeah, I said it was going to be self-indulgent. Winning number 6 after the disappointment of last year’s final was amazing! And to share it with all these new people I’d just met in a bar in the middle of Tokyo made it even more special. There was much high-fiving, singing, clapping, and just general jubilant celebrations going on long after the final whistle. It was after 6am, we’d had no sleep, but we were all happy. Well, the Spurs fans weren’t, but I made sure to shake the hands of at least one of them. They were very nice people and I hope they win something next season.

I eventually left the bar and made my way to the station to go home and finally sleep, but not without getting in some more high fives along the way from fellow fans leaving other bars.

What a night!! :DDD

My first Enkai (and other weekend adventures)

I’ll just start with a quick explanation as to what an Enkai is. Put plainly it is a traditional office party here in Japan. They hold several throughout the year but the main, big one, at least in schools, is the one held at the start of the school year to welcome new teachers and say goodbye to departing teachers. What I knew of them before my first experience on Friday was that they are expensive and consist of a whole lot of drinking.

So my first Enkai was held at a relatively posh hotel in the middle of Yokohama. There were around 60 teachers (current and past) in attendance and we were placed at several well dressed tables in this large event room. I arrived with the Japanese English teacher who’s unfortunate job it is to look after me for this year, haha. I was placed at a table where there wasn’t a massive amount of English ability but the ladies I was sat next to were lovely and we managed to communicate just fine with a little bit of English and Japanese on both sides.

I must have only been there for a maximum of ten minutes when I had to go up onto the stage with all the other new teachers. One by one we had to make a short speech to the whole room. This would have been nerve-wracking enough in itself apart from I had to do it in Japanese. So, second to last of about a dozen or so teachers, I was finally handed the microphone. I gave a nice cheerful ‘konbanwa’, which was merrily parroted back to me. Then I stumbled through a basic self-intro in Japanese, finishing with ‘Watashi no Nihongo wa warui desu. Sumimasen! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu’ (Sorry, my Japanese is bad. Pleased to meet you.) This got a good laugh, so I handed the mic to the last person feeling rather proud of my efforts, haha.

So the rest of the night was a nice mix of lots of different ‘a la carte’ style courses of food, plenty of wine/beer, and lots of individual speeches from the departing teachers. I didn’t understand most of what was said but impressed myself with the little bits I did pick up. I also had a good chat with a couple of the Japanese English teachers as well as the aforementioned ladies on my table.

Overall it was a very good experience, made even better when they said that just for this one I didn’t have to pay. 6,000 yen saved that will definitely help come the last week before payday ^^;

I took it easy on the drinking at the Enkai so that I was okay to go to Quidditch the next morning. So glad I did because it was a good session! We had a reporter from the Japan Times there. A lovely American chap who usually covers Japanese football (so naturally I had a good chat with him about that!) who is going to write an article about our team! I even did a video interview with him, so we shall see if any clips from it get used (probably not as it wasn’t the best) but I’m looking forward to seeing the Kaminari Monsters in print!

It was so hot we utilised the shade as much as possible!

We went for our usual post-Quidditch curry afterwards. There were a record 17 of us crammed into the restaurant. I’m still undecided if the owner/waiters love or hate us for invading them at the tail end of their lunch sessions most Saturdays, haha. It was here that I experienced my very first Japanese earthquake! We were all happily sitting there, chatting and eating, when everything starts shaking rather vigorously. I didn’t have time to really register what was happening before someone helpfully said ‘oh an earthquake!’ and I was like ‘oh wow, it is!’. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s a very surreal sensation, Luckily it wasn’t a big one and there was no damage/injuries. But I’m glad I was with my team because if I’d been on my own it might have scared me more ^^;

After curry most people went their separate ways, but seven of us headed to a park nearby to hang out for another couple of hours. We got a surprise chocolate cake for Camila as a late birthday surprise, which was yummy! We also acted like the big kids we are on the kids playground (because you just have to) and played a fun game called Psychiatrist, which I definitely want to play again because it was hilarious! The only downside to our park adventures were the swarms of mosquitoes. I didn’t realise it at the time but I got bitten about a dozen times. They are so itchy! >.<

So yes, a very eventful Friday night/Saturday. Yesterday was calmer but sooo hot! Consistent temperatures in the late 20s/early 30s when it’s still only May is madness to me. Here’s hoping for it to cool down a bit over the next few days!

Quidditch tournament!

So I’ve already been back at school for 2 weeks since Golden Week. Time is flying as per usual. I’ve mostly been teaching first and second grade classes and I definitely prefer the former. The second graders are… difficult. But I was warned this would be the case. 13/14 years old is a funny old age to be. Hopefully things will improve.

Outside of school, this weekend just past I attended my first Quidditch tournament! Our team hosted two other Tokyo-based teams at Edogawa rugby ground on Saturday. We had to get there bright and early (my alarm was set for 5am!) and we turned out in our numbers! I think there were about 17 of us, which is fantastic considering you only have 7 in a team. The more the merrier as Quidditch is played at a frenetic pace and you can have roll on/roll off subs.

So we all gathered and helped set the pitch up. We had two official IQA officials in attendance. Two lovely people from Germany and Norway who are currently travelling over here. They both play for the German National Quidditch team and were very knowledgeable and strict with their refereeing.

A glorious photo (haha) of me before any matches were played.

The other two teams played the first match and it went on for a whole lot longer than the 20 minutes a match is supposed to last. The conditions were pretty difficult with high winds forever blowing the hoops over, not to mention the dusty ground combining with the wind to create billowing clouds that reduced visibility to ‘very poor’. There were one or two injuries but eventually the snitch was legally caught and the game finished.

Then it was our turn! So we decided who was starting and distributed the relevant colour headbands (white for chasers, green for keepers, black for beaters, yellow for seekers). I started on the bench and, I’m sorry to say, only actually played for about 5 minutes as I went walkies during the match to find the loo (so typical me). But yes, it didn’t go amazingly unfortunately. We got soundly beaten as there were a lot of us and a many of us were very inexperienced, whereas the other team had much more experience. But it was a good taster for us all and will definitely help going forward.

Pre-match fingernail check – can’t be scratching up our opponents!

Miyu and I getting pumped for the start of the match!

An incredibly fine looking substitute bench!

The one photo of me in action – shame we had just conceded a goal ^^;

We had a picnic lunch afterwards, with much food sharing and lively chatter. Unfortunately we naively left the remnants out when we went to partake in the Quidditch training workshops and the huge crows descended! Cheetos everywhere! ^^; But yes, the workshops were run by our new friends from the IQA and were extremely helpful! We did some general drills and position specific ones and learnt some excellent defending strategies.

By 5pm I was absolutely shattered so left a bit earlier than everyone else who had stayed for the workshops. It was a fantastic day out though, but next time I will definitely remember to reapply my sun-cream more than once as the back of my legs are still bright red and sore now ^^;

Until next time! 🙂

(Photos taken by Vimmy ❤ )

Super Golden Week

Sorry, I seem to have neglected this blog a little bit. It’s been a busy last couple of weeks. I had another week of school that included my first actual grammar lessons with the second and third grades. Teaching around one grammar point for 50 minutes is pretty hard! I don’t think I bored the kids too much though, I hope! I am currently enjoying another extended holiday as it is Super Golden Week!

So, Golden Week. It is something that happens in Japan this time every year and is basically a cluster of Bank Holidays that culminate in extended time off school/work for most Japanese people. They have holidays on 29th April and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th May. However, this year is extra special because of the new Emperor’s succession taking place yesterday creating an extra holiday. So it’s been dubbed ‘Super Golden Week’ as an unprecedented 10 consecutive days off are being enjoyed by most this year.

So my Golden Week has been fairly busy so far. On Saturday I went to Quidditch practice as usual, and scored a pretty good goal, I might add! Then afterwards a few of us went for food and, just to change things up a bit from the usual curry, we went to a Yakiniku place. This was actually my first Yakiniku experience and very yummy it was too! You basically order a plate of meat and then cook it yourself at the table.

Meat waiting to be cooked, miso soup, salad, rice, and annin (almond) tofu with pineapple

Then on Sunday I went back into Tokyo to meet up with TJ and her little one. We were planning on going up Tokyo Skytree but there was an hour and a half queue for tickets (thank you Golden Week ¬_¬) so we went for a wander in a park nearby instead and took some photos.

Skytree: the tallest tower in the world! Hence why I chopped the top off >.>

Pretty waterway with carp flags for Golden Week!

We also bought bento boxes to eat in the park because the restaurants all had long queues (again, thank you, GW, lol).

Bento boxes are so fun and interesting to eat!

Then we caught the train to Asakusa and went to the temple there, which, according to Wikipedia, is the oldest temple in Tokyo.

The five-storied pagoda next to the main temple building

It was very busy, of course, but we managed to do the traditional thing of getting our fortunes told. Omikuji are found at, I think, most temples. You pay 100 yen and get to shake this metal container releasing a stick that has a number on. You then open the correspondingly numbered drawer and take out your fortune. Sadly, both TJ and I got bad fortunes, so we tied them up with the other bad fortunes to purge it or something, haha.

We headed back to TJ’s afterwards and I got to see her nice apartment with awesome views of Tokyo from the balcony. We just hung out really, playing Nintendo Switch and watching Guardians of the Galaxy, whilst also eating some yummy food! I also got to sleep in an actual bed for the first time in weeks! Thanks, TJ! 😀

We went to Ginza the next day and did some shopping (or at least attempted to, haha) and had a nice lunch at this pasta place, before parting ways. I then headed back to mine for a few hours before going out again to meet some of the Quidditch people to see Avengers Endgame, which was amazing! No spoilers here though, haha.

Then on Tuesday I finally hung out with some of my neighbours! So I live in a building that has 24 little box apartments in it, and of those 24 there are 7 of us English teachers all working for the same company. One girl has been here for a year already but the rest of us have all arrived recently. So six of us (plus another teacher who was staying with one of the other girls) all got together to throw a surprise birthday party for one of the girls, Rashelle. We played some games, ate some food, and hung out some.

We then went out to Machida (which is about half an hour away on the train) and went to this sushi place, which was a conveyor belt sushi like Yo! Sushi but a bit different. You have a tablet at the table and order what you want. It then gets put on the belt and as it’s approaching your table your tablet sings to you to let you know. Very fun! Haha. Plus it was very cheap!

We hit the arcade after this on our way up to the karaoke place (because karaoke has to be done!) and I finally won on one of the UFO catcher machines! 😀

A giant Pooh-san and I gave him to Shenelle too cause I’m nice like that 😀

Much karaoke was done and then we headed out in time for the second last train home, hitting our local 7/11 enroute for much cheese-related snackage!

And yesterday and today have been a little bit more relaxed. Sometimes you really need some chill out days as well. So now I have 4 days left of Golden Week before school starts again. Time goes extra fast here, I think.

First week at school!

Okay, so Spring vacation was a fantastic 2 weeks of chilling out and trying out new things in this weird but wonderful country. But… It feels like a distant memory already. I have officially completed a week and 2 days at the Junior High School I have been assigned to for the year. Honestly, my entire nearly 2 months here (what? already!) has flown by so fast I feel like I have been here for at least twice that time.

So, Junior High School. It is a massive school situated 6 stops on the train away from where I live. I get there about 8:30am and get to leave at 3:40pm, so a shorter day than I was getting back in the UK. However, the lessons I have done so far have been like running 50 minute mini marathons. Especially with the 1st grade classes (12-13 year olds). These kids work really hard and their one lesson a week with me is meant to be a bit of light relief, so I am trying my best to put my all into these lessons.

My lessons this week have been my ‘self-intro lesson’. So basically I talk a little bit about myself in simple English with lots of pictures/photos/gestures/etc. and then host a quiz about it, which includes a ‘draw the flag’ round and creates a lot of fun excitement in the classroom. I have wondered if we’re not disrupting the whole school sometimes with how loud the squealing and shouting gets over drawing the flags, especially the Wales flag, haha.

And just to break up the text a bit, and because I am in a giving mood, please see below the hilarious photo of myself I start the lesson with.

Yeah, the kids think it’s hilarious, especially when I start re-enacting the pose. I’m sure I look ridiculous parading back and forth in front of the class, bopping down and pretending to roar! It’s good fun though and I can be ridiculous if it helps inject some energy into the classroom.

Some other fun things… the kids that are into football are great! As soon as I bring my Liverpool scarf out they are getting really excited, and the name I hear after ‘Liverpool’ is always ‘Salah!’ So I chose right when I decided to print a picture of Salah off and present him as ‘my favourite soccer player’. I love the whole LFC team but I had a feeling Salah would get the most attention. Also, the main first grade Japanese English teacher loves The Beatles and has been teaching the kids to sing ‘Hello, Goodbye’ and so far I have been greeted twice with the kids singing this to me. It’s so cute!

Outside the classroom, I spend a lot of time in the staff room. I have my own little desk and my predecessor, bless her, left so many useful materials that are really going to make my life so much easier! The school nurse sits next to me and we have been having some nice conversations despite her English being limited (it is still tons better than my Japanese!) I really must learn some conversational Japanese quickly though as I do feel a little bit like a fish out of water sitting in there sometimes.

So yes, overall, my first week and a bit at school has been equal parts tiring, exciting, terrifying, and ridiculous! I think this year is going to be great! 😀

Ueno Zoo

So just a quick blog post about yesterday because I need to get to bed in a few minutes because it’s my first day at school tomorrow.

Yesterday I left my apartment bright and early and got the train to Tokyo to meet TJ and her young daughter to go to the zoo! We wanted to get there for when they open because there is always a big queue to see the giant pandas and the earlier you get there, the shorter the queue. The best thing about this zoo is that it literally only costs 600 yen to go in, which is about £4! Imagine paying only £4 to go to, like, London Zoo! TJ and I decided they were equivalent to each other and London Zoo costs £30 apparently!

So we got to see the pandas and the queue was only about 15 minutes, so success!

It’s a pretty sizeable zoo with lots of animals in it, which is why the token entrance fee makes me grin so much. We unfortunately didn’t see the lion as it was hiding/sleeping, but we saw many other animals, and for times sake I will just post some more photos.

So yeah a fun few hours were had. Zoos are always way more enjoyable when there is a small child there to stare in wonder at everything. So magical! Plus TJ’s daughter is the cutest! 😀

Anyways, yes, school tomorrow! Gotta try my best with a basic Japanese introduction to my fellow teachers!

Kanamara Festival

So, Japan is really really big on festivals. The term in Japanese is matsuri and every prefecture/city/small town has at least one prominent matsuri a year, usually in the summer. I got a chance to attend one of the biggest, most world famous ones in Kawasaki yesterday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanamara_Matsuri – for more detailed information on the ins and outs of it, but it is essentially a festival celebrating fertility and it’s main theme is distinctly phallic-shaped, hah.

So I met some Quidditch people as well as others (yay for making new friends!) and we saw a tiny bit of the parade (somehow managed to miss most of it, oh well).

The ‘Elizabeth’ Phallus, donated by a Tokyo drag club

We then found our way into the shrine where the main festival activities were being held. There was many many stalls selling phallic-shaped merchandise and, after queuing for a fair while, we got hold of some of the much sought after ‘penis lollipops’, haha.

Strawberry flavoured and actually really delicious, haha

Also on offer in the shrine was the chance to carve your own phallus out of some poor unsuspecting vegetables. Camila and her friend Hendrick were more than happy to oblige.

They were to be auctioned off later (yes really!) and we found out Camila’s went for 1000 yen! Oh I should mention here that any money raised from events across the whole festival go to an HIV charity.

We left the shrine after this and headed to a park, which it turned out was just an extension of the festival, so we found many more delightful food and other stalls of the phallic variety. I also acquired a nice sunhat on the walk there from someone who apparently didn’t want it anymore.

Yay group photo, isn’t my hat phallic-ulous! 😀

It was a boiling hot day too so naturally the back of my neck got badly sunburned, but that aside it was a brilliant day! Hopefully I’ll get to attend many many more matsuri whilst I am here!

Trips to Kamakura and Kawagoe

So to continue on with catching up on my busy week of doing fun, exciting things, I bring two day trips to Kamakura and Kawagoe, taken on Wednesday and Friday respectively. (Thursday was a much needed rest day, although I did go to a pub quiz in the evening and my team won! :D)

So Kamakura is a fairly famous place just 20 minutes on the train south of Yokohama. It is mostly famous for the Great Buddha, which is a ginormous statue housed in the Kotoku-in temple grounds. But it is also a popular tourist attraction due to the many shrines and temples, hiking trails, and the fact it is a seaside city.

Shyam and I took the train down in the morning and started off by visiting some temples. They were housed in serene, beautiful grounds, which had lots of fully in bloom blossom trees.

At the third temple – I believe it was called Kencho-ji – we went on one of the many hking trails found around Kamakura. This one took about an hour or so and included a lot of stairs and careful footwork. It also took us to the highest point of Kamakura, affording us amazing views of the sea and Mt. Fuji!

After the hike we had very much earned our lunch, so we headed to this restaurant that is apparently renowned for its curry in Kamakura. It certainly looked promising when we joined a long queue, which we waited in for about 45 minutes before going in and getting some reasonably priced, very nice Japanese curry. Worth the wait!

Then in the afternoon we took a bus to Kotoku-in temple to see the Daibutsu (Great Buddha statue) and wow but it was big! I was very impressed!

And we headed back after that, but I would definitely like to go back again soon to go to the seaside part of the city!

So, on Friday we went to Kawagoe, which is in Saitama just north of Tokyo. It is a very interesting city as on one side of the train station you have the ultra modern shopping centres, restaurants, etc. And then on the other side it is very much the opposite with traditional shops and historic buildings.

We stumbled on a festival in a park first off and tried some of the street food on offer. I had some nice, fresh takoyaki (octopus dumplings).

We then headed towards ‘Confectionery Row’, which is a backstreet alley that is lined with shops that sell old-fashioned sweets for not much money. A very dangerous place! Haha. They also had on offer sweet potato flavoured ice-cream, which sounds odd but it was really nice! Sweet potatoes are their specialities and they had all sorts of different things on offer, including sweet potato flavoured beer, though I did not try this I’m afraid.

An old town street with the bell tower in the background

We headed back into modern day Tokyo after this and found a massive Pokemon Centre, among other things. But I very much enjoyed my trip back into the Edo and Showa periods courtesy of Kawagoe. Also there were many people dressed in kimono and similar traditional dress here, which was really cool to see!

That brings my blogging fairly up to date. Hooray! Spring Break is nearly over so expect some more serious, teaching type blogs soon!