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!

Tokyo Disneyland!

So, as promised at the end of my last entry, here is my blog about the rather last minute trip to Disneyland. Jess wrongly thought I was working this week and mentioned how she was going to Disneyland with her friend Emma on Tuesday, so naturally it didn’t take much persuading to get my non-working self to go also (despite not really being able to afford it, but it’s Disney damnit! and I had never been to any Disney theme park before. It was long overdue!)

So we arrived there for bang on 10am like we planned – miracles! My inner child immediately came out, as did my camera!

Emma and Jess on the approach to Disneyland!

The Disney Monorail! – we didn’t go on it 😦

I guiltily parted with my cash and we headed into the park. As you can see from the above photos it was a beautiful day and my coat did not stay on for long, I can tell you. We dashed straight to Splash Mountain hoping to score fastpass tickets but the next eligible ones were for like after 7pm, so we dashed across to Space Mountain instead and got fastpass for about 3pm, which was better. Then we headed back to Splash Mountain and joined a rather eye-watering 2 hour queue! Where Jess decided to spend her time wisely by polishing her leather jacket, using me as a coat stand in the process, haha. I also took some photos.

Jess taking a break from jacket polishing

When we eventually got on the ride it was totally worth it! Jess and I got thoroughly soaked, shielding Emma in the process as I don’t believe she got wet at all. In case anyone doesn’t know, Splash Mountain is a rather awesome log flume ride. I can’t remember exactly what we did after this as the day was a bit of a blur of awesome fun! So I shall just list some stuff we did below, interspersed with some photos.

We checked out a few of the shops over the course of the day and were very tempted by the various headgear on sale, which many other people were sporting throughout the park, but we couldn’t justify the prices for them in the end. We just posed for a couple of photos instead.

We tried out some themed food stuffs!

Lightsaber churro – melon flavoured and really yummy!

We went on many many rides throughout the day. There were the other two big roller-coasters, Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain; the latter being my favourite! The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s A Small World, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Pinocchio and Snow White rides that were very similar but like 5 min queues, the Star Wars simulator, which was awesome! and Buzz Lightyear Blasters, which I was terrible at. I maintain my laser gun wasn’t working properly, haha. Also the carousel, of course!

And the absolute last ride of the night we went on, which wasn’t really a ride but yeah, was the Stitch Encounter. Now it was 9:55pm and I was very tired so what happened next seems very unfair to me. So basically you go into this room and sit in front of this big screen. They then have a movie play with Stitch on it and it interacts in real time with the audience. Naturally, I got picked on, and first to boot! So I had zero idea what was going on as my Japanese is terrible! But basically I said my name into the microphone and Stitch started talking to me in Japanese (thank god for Jess hurriedly translating in my ear) but yeah I was totally clueless and the rest of the people in the room found it hilarious. And the worst thing was the photo of me looking clueless and just so done being on view outside the room afterwards. I posed with it anyways because I am a good sport!

We also watched the day parade and some of the night parade, which were both really good, as you would expect. Then they also had a fireworks display at about 8:40pm, which was done to some good Disney music! Overall it was an amazing day and I bought a t-shirt as a souvenir, which I haven’t taken a photo of yet, but it is black with ‘Tokyo Disneyland’ written in Katakana in white on the front.

I shall just leave you with some more random photos from the day. My next blog will be up in a day or two covering my trip to Kamakura.

Hanami and staying up all night for football!

I have been very busy over the past few days and have a few blogs to write to catch up, so expect maybe 3 or 4 over the next few days.

Today’s blog is about last weekend, which saw me attend my first ever Hanami! So just a little bit of background on Hanami first. It literally means ‘flower viewing’ and is a traditional Japanese custom at this time of year. Cherry Blossom (Sakura) trees spring into bloom at this time of year and basically the entire population of Japan will attend at least one Hanami party. Essentially it is a big (or small) get together in a park that has some Sakura trees. Much eating and drinking is done and hopefully at least some flower viewing, haha.

So, on Saturday I attended Quidditch practice, as is my usual routine now. This session went much better than the last one, as the week before I had managed to accidentally cut deeply into my thumb with a kitchen knife so was basically playing one-handed (I have since managed to burn my finger on a frying pan quite badly and also scratch my hand to pieces on a thorny bush, so clearly need some adult supervision, haha). But yes, we started actual tackling, which is basically rugby tackling, and I paid for it the next day. Here’s hoping I get better at falling safely!

So after Quidditch most of us then headed to Kasai Rinkai Park together to partake in Hanami! It was my first ever Hanami but, more importantly, it was a special goodbye Hanami for Junna as she will soon be leaving us for a new adventure in America. Before leaving for the park we gave her a card:

So on the way to the park we stocked up on a lot of snacks and drinks and then went to join the throng of people in the park, just about finding a little spot to spread our sheet and settle in for Hanami!

After we had demolished (mostly) everything, we decided to walk some of it off and wandered off towards the sea. The weather had really got out by this point and it was absolutely gorgeous!

Then at about 4:45pm ish a rude loud speaker announced in Japanese, English, and Chinese that the park was closing and we had to leave, boo. Just in time really though as not too much later it started to rain really hard. All in all it was an excellent day!

Which then takes us to Sunday. So one of my best friends from sixth form college lives in Osaka, having done so for the past 6 years. As is usually the way, just as I finally get myself to Japan, she is actually heading back to England next month, bah. But she was heading out for a week long cruise today from Yokohama so she came up a few days earlier to hang out! So on Sunday morning I went to meet Jess off the shinkansen (bullet train). Many hugs were had as we hadn’t seen each other in many many years!

We spent the afternoon eating some nice food at a place local to me (Jess has very good Japanese so I took full advantage!), having a look round some shops, and then settling in at mine to watch a couple of films and just generally relax. This was because we planned to stay out in Tokyo all night so that we could watch the Liverpool v Spurs match in a pub owned by a Liverpool fan!

So, we headed into Tokyo (Ebisu, to be exact) and arrived at the pub just after midnight. The match kicked off at 00:30 local time. There weren’t too many people there as it was a Sunday night (Monday morning) but it was a nice atmosphere just the same.

It was really fun and made even better by Liverpool’s last minute winner. Hooray! But then we had to leave the pub just before 3am and the first train back to Yokohama wasn’t until 4:52am, and so commenced nearly 2 hours of killing time alternately in McDonalds and just randomly walking around in the cold to try and stay awake. It was definitely worth it though! We did end up only getting about 3 hours sleep when we got back though. Oh well, haha.

And that was a fairly long blog. Many thanks to Miyu for the Hanami photos! Next time… Tokyo Disneyland!

Karaoke and Cinema fun times!

So I have had a request for continual reports on my karaoke exploits and who am I to deny that request? Haha.

So basically on Monday evening I met up with my Sepro group (as a reminder, this is the group of teachers I taught with at two different JHS during my substitute teaching stint) plus a few other people, to celebrate the end of the school year. We all met at a TGI Fridays (of all places, haha) in a place called Machida, which is about 30 mins on the train from here. Happy Hour cocktails were had, as well as some rather overpriced food and then we moved on to karaoke!

Now my first karaoke experience here was with three other people and no alcohol, whereas this time there were 13 of us and the alcohol was rather free-flowing. They had a deal where after you’d spent a certain amount you could then order certain drinks for only 100 yen each. Very dangerous!

What I bought to qualify for 100 yen drinks!

Totally engrossed but cannot remember what we were singing

So we stayed in this room singing and drinking for about 3-4 hours, I think. Reckon we could have kept going but we decided to leave in time to catch our last trains before they finished for the night (which is just after midnight here). There is a video of us all singing Bohemian Rhapsody but it is 100% not kind to anybody’s ears, haha. All in all though it was an awesomely fun night with some brilliant people! 😀

Then on Wednesday evening I had my very first experience of going to the cinema in Japan. I met a couple of the guys from Quidditch, Junna and Stephen, in Hibiya (which is in Tokyo) by the Godzilla statue, haha. We went to see Captain Marvel, which I was very excited about! The ticket prices were similar to that of the Odeon prices, although they were discounted because of it being a Wednesday, so I think full priced it is very expensive to go to the cinema here.

The film was awesome! I won’t go into it too much because spoilers, but I really enjoyed it and Goose the cat was my fave! Bring on Avengers: End Game next! Oh and the seats at this cinema were the comfiest I have ever experienced, although I’m pretty sure the ads/trailers at the start went on for the longest time ever too, haha.

Anyways, I shall leave it there for now. I have Quidditch practice number 3 coming up tomorrow and, if the weather holds out, my first Hanami afterwards! (Hanami = Cherry Blossom viewing party – i.e. a good excuse to drink alcohol in the park during the day, haha).

[NB. this entry makes it sound like I have turned into some sort of alcoholic, rest assured I have not, haha]

Spring Equinox trip to Harajuku

So Thursday was my first experience of one of the many public holidays that Japan has throughout the year. It’s called Vernal Equinox Day and celebrates the beginning of spring! Shyam and I had planned to go to Tokyo for the day and we started off in Harajuku. In case anyone doesn’t know, Harajuku is one of those big name places in Tokyo and is a real tourist trap. We took in two very different sides of it.

First off we went to the Meiji Shrine, which was absolutely beautiful! I was utterly gobsmacked that something so picturesque and peaceful was right next to a major shopping area.

I washed my hands in this well and it is really really ancient, so pretty cool.

There was also a gift shop and outside that a little stall selling Dango, which is a traditional Japanese sweet dumpling. I had to try some of course and they were very nice!

After the shrine we headed into the shopping and restaurant part of Harajuku for a look round. It was crazy busy and full of families/young people, as you would expect. I definitely preferred the calm of the shrine, haha.

Then we headed to Akihabara to have a bit of a geek out in the shops and get some food. We ended up in a place that was basically an all you can eat buffet but with a nice twist on what we’re used to back in England. So each table had two shallow fryers in the centre and you grabbed your meat/veg, dipped it in batter, then in the panko breadcrumbs, and then you fried it yourself. Very novel! Also on offer was a salad bar and noodle and curry stations. Not to mention unlimited soft drinks and a strawberry themed dessert bar. All for abut £13, I think. Was great!

So yes, all in all, an extremely good day where I ate far too much food but did a lot of walking. So I guess pretty balanced really, haha.