Honey, I think it's snowing outside!

(Photo pilfered from BBC Photos)

Another Installment of Japlish - please study hard.

"Psy-ko!" (psycho) ~ Cool / Awesome.
"Toi le" ~ Toilet
"Hum baa gaa" ~ Hamburger
"Pooh" ~ Winnie the Pooh
"Kitty-chan" ~ Hello Kitty
"Potato Fry" ~ hot chips
"See-ru (seal)" ~ sticker
"Daietto" ~ Diet
"Purikura" ~ 'Print club' those little sticker photos you get from a booth.

Just finished watching 'Never-ending Story' with my English Club students. They loved it, despite me being annoying and fastforwarding bits - coz I was trying to cram in the last 45 minutes of the movie into 30 minutes! That's the problem with having ESS at lunchtime I guess. Apparently their favorite scene was the part where the horse dies in the 'swamp of despair'! hmm a bit of a depressing choice!

I'm quite sleepy today, coz an old friend Lloyd came to visit us yesterday. He used to be on the JET programme like us, but he left last year as he got an excellent job in London. We ate at our regular 'okonomiyaki' (fried omelette-but much better!) restaruant for dinner, then stayed up talking till late. I went to bed around 12am, but Michael and Lloyd stayed up drinking and chatting till 3:30 this morning! As I dragged myself out of bed, I thought, "I'll bet Michael's going to pull a sickie today"... and yup. He did. Wish I could have, but I'd already pulled one last week... (c'mon, I had no classes that day).

Bought some new jeans on saturday. It was about time. The material on the butt of my old jeans had nearly worn through! Then coz I'd bought new jeans, I had to buy a new top to go with it.... maybe next month, new shoes... my pink sketchers are looking rather grey and shabby.

hmm I already had a nap before lunch, but I think I could go for another nap....

Ok, it's about time I taught you some Japlish. It's everywhere in Japan, and it's easy.

What's Japlish? It's Japanese-English, which is used in everyday life, and which Japanese people believe you should know because it's 'English'. So perhaps if you learn a little Japlish, you can get by in Japan without even learning real Japanese.

Let's start with the basics:
"Combini" = Convienence Store.
"Mansion" = Apartment Blocks
"Pasucom" = Laptop (Personal Computer)
"Honey or Darling" = boyfriend or girlfriend. (Usage: "Do you have a darling?" or "My honey wrote me a song") Hmm how very quaint.
"Labu Labu" (love love) = In Love (first time someone asked me this, I had no idea what they were talking about!) (Usage: If you answer positively to 'Do you have a darling?' the next question might be, "Labu Labu?")
"Nooto" = Notebook
"Shu (shoe) Cream" = Cream Puff
"Makudo" or "Makku" = Mac Donalds
"Fight!" = Try hard (Usage: "I will Fight!" - used during exams or sports, etc.)

I'll Fight!! to think of more Japlish later.

This weekend was a bit of an expensive one! But it was worth it! I'd planned this trip last month because we haven't been to a proper onsen yet, and Michael really likes hot springs. We travelled by a few different trains for about 3-4 hours to get to Shirahama - Onsen town!

Shirahama is not only famous for having lots of natural hot springs, but also famous for it's golden sandy beach imported from Australia!! Why did they import sand from Australia?? Well, apparently there was some kind of natural disaster that made all the original sand wash away, so they decided to get new Aussie sand! So, it's also a really crowded tourist spot in Summer.

Luckily, we went in the off season, so we had most of the place to ourselves. Which is good, because I didn't fancy crowding into a hot pool and squishing up with lots of other naked people.

This is the first onsen we went to. It's by the sea. Apparently, a looong time ago, the sea waves created these dips in the rocks, and people started to pump hot springs water into them. Behind Michael in the photo, is a onsen crater that was not in use.

The water was really hot in this onsen, and at first I was worried that I might waste my entrance fee and not be able to get in! But I finally got in, but spent more than half the time with only my legs in. After the onsen, we walked down to the beach and the sea breeze (and a beer!) helped us cool off.

Here's a very Japanesey picture of me, drinking Ume Shu (Plum wine with a sour pickled plum at the bottom) and eating Hello Kitty chips.

Later that night, we walked around town looking for a place to have dinner. We were recommended a very good sushi restaurant (the guy said "a little expensive") and we thought, "ah, how expensive can it be compared with the flash sushi restaurants in big Kyoto-city?" ... but when the bill came, I was shocked. Luckily we hadn't eaten too much! I'm pretty sure the 'free dessert' (cute as it was..) was included in the total cost.

Despite the expense, it was the best sushi restaurant we'd ever been to. And it was a wonderful experience. The restaurant had a long counter, with the sushi chefs on one side, and customers on the other. Stretching down the center of the counter was a long glass case showing off all the fresh seafood that was available to be made into sushi. So, we ordered a few different types of fish (this is not the rolled sushi, it's raw fish placed on top of a lump of rice, with some wasabi in the middle). The chef would take our orders, make it up, and place it on the (clean?!) counter in front of us. The fish was so fresh and delicate! The best one was the "Ta Chu Cho" a long silver fish that is sliced into smaller pieces, seared lightly over charcoal on each side, and sprinkled with a tiny pinch of salt and Japanese lime, and placed on rice. yum. I commited a 'faux pas' by dipping my sushi into soy sauce at a high-grade sushi restaurant. Apparently it's an insult to the chef. Oh well .

Very delicious "free" dessert: Raspberry jelly layered on top of light creamy stuff.

We just had to stop by to soak our feet and drink some hot sake when we saw this restaurant. What a pleasant way to spend a cold evening, dabbling your feet in hot water, watching onsen-relaxed people pass by wearing yukata (robe) and geta (wooden clogs).

It was a lovely night, and on the way home, we spotted this really cute wee bar, it just screamed cozy ambience, so we popped in and had a drink or two, and chatted to the friendly bar owner about his huge selection of alcohol, and music. He served Michael a huge glass of unique tequila, and I drank a light blue lychee-flavored cocktail with a pink flower and a lemon on the side.:P My night was complete.

Next day, we followed the signs to "Onsen Town". The name made me think of tacky theme parks, but when we got there, it was simple and natural, but with lots of different pools to choose from. It was high up on a mountain, so we had a beautiful view of the town and the sea. It was wonderful to sit in the hot spa and look out to sea. Living in Kyoto, we don't get to see the sea much, because it's about 3 hours away. The men's and women's onsens were seperate (fair enough). And it was so quiet, that I had the pick of the women's onsens. It was really nice, but I got a little bored sitting there all by myself.

Onsen Land's Mascot: The Sumo guy! ... not Michael!

During our time in Shirahama, we stayed in a Minshuku (family-run inn). The owner there was really friendly and he could speak good English, which was handy for us. It was a traditional style house, built around a cute Japanese garden with fat carp in the pond.

The trip back to Kyoto was pretty boring and I slept most of the way, and got a bit grumpy and tired too. Thus ends another eventful weekend in Japan.

Some very cute chocolates that a co-worker (woman) gave me for valentines day. And they were yummy too!

This weekend, we travelled 2 hours out of Kyoto to visit the Ninja Museum. It was fun to see the trapdoors and secret hiding places of the Ninjas. Also watched an amusing demonstration of different ninja weapons.

Shuriken - to throw at your enemies - ouch!

Demonstration of how sharp a ninja's sword is :

Sorry not a real live Ninja...

Child Ninja: There were lots of kids in Ninja costumes running round outside the souviner shop bopping each other with squeaky swords! I'm not sure the bright colors will serve these small ninjas very well as camoflague though...

After lunch, we walked to the area's castle, I guess the lord of that castle employed Ninjas? Our friend was rather influenced by the museum, so spotting the castle walls, he decided to try out his ninja-wall-climbing skills.

It was quite an impressive castle with beautiful dragon-fish on the roof. Apparently the dragon-fish are supposed to be a kind of dolphin? A kind of talisman to protect the castle from fires.

Inside the castle we saw all kinds of warrier's armor and helmets and things that belonged to the castle. This was a particularly funny helmet (I thought) with the huuuge looong bunny ears sticking out of it! Definately a case where fashion got the better of practicality! I read that the General who wore this to battle was killed. No kidding. With a helmet like that, he may as well have drawn a giant arrow saying "here I am!"

Ninja TrainMany ninjas were women, and here's proof of it, on a train! haha. Cute train. We got to ride it back home.

Funny Sign: Be very very careful that you don't try to walk under the train barriers when a train is going past! This could happen to you...

Valentines day for the Japanese is a day where only women give men chocolates! Rude eh?! What annoying man thought up that one?! And then they have 'White Day' a month later for men to give chocolates to the women who gave them chocolates on Valentines day. But Valentines day is so much more popular (and well known) than 'White Day'!! Not fair! Oh well, luckily, I'm not a Japanese woman so I don't need to play by their rules.

Anyway, this is what I saw in a shop and I just had to buy it coz it was so Japanesey! It was a fake beer can with chocolates inside (for a Man obviously coz it's Valentines day and women don't get anything for V-day here...) and on the front it said - "I know I'm cute, but I wanna be the cutest for you". Hmmm I think I may have found the summary of Japanese obsession with cute right there on that beer can!!

Argh. Ohly 5 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days to go!

It's funny how different boys and girls are. My students are writing Pen Pal letters to my friend Ruth's class in New Zealand. The girls wrote heaps, on cute stationary, describing kyoto, and the food, and various cultural things, and spent a lot of time drawing detailed pictures, and even bought small gifts for their pen pals! But the boys struggled to write even 4 sentences, handed their letters in on grubby old pieces of paper, and wrote their 'good copy' in pencil with grey eraser smudges here and there!

This concludes that girls appear to be much more adept at social interaction and (obviously)pay much more attention to little details of cuteness than boys.

The dreaded English festival is over and done with for this year! (and never again for me!!) The reasons why it's so dreaded? (1) Because it's on a saturday afternoon. (2) Because we have to spend a sunny saturday afternoon listening to English speeches by Japanese children and try to decipher what they are actually saying. (3) Because the foreign English teachers have to do an embarassing 5 minutes of drama/song/dance on a huge stage to entertain the kids.

But anyway, it turned out well, and the kindergarden kids were so cute. Japanese kids are so tiny and enthusiastic. They sang a song about the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and 'This is the way I wash my hands, wash my hands, wash my hands, this is the way I wash my hands so early in the morning... This is the way I brush my teeth,' ... etc. Sometimes I wish I could teach Kindy and just sing songs all day with enthusiastic cute kids, but 'behind the scenes' I'm sure it's a very hard and tiring job. Oh, but once they're at high school, they can be so jaded!

My High School Drama club and English club combined to do an English version of 'My Neighbour Totoro' (the very cute and well-well loved Japanese animation movie). It's about a 2 sisters who move to the country, and find the (very cute) gods and spirits of the forest near their house. The god of the forest is called Totoro, and he helps the trees to grow, and befriends the children. He uses a 'Cat Bus' to get around...this cat bus rides on the winds, and grown-up people can't see it, they just think a strong wind is blowing past. Anyway, basically Totoro helps the children out when they're in some trouble. Can't tell you the whole story in case you want to watch it, right?! It's the cutest movie, and not just for kids! Here's some pics.

Yes, Totoro is the huge grey animal.
The Cat Bus scene had an unexpected complication! Totoro had practiced getting 'in' to the bus without his costume, but on stage, with his costume on, he was too fat to fit in the bus properly! haha.

And us 3 AETs (assistant English teachers) did our drama. A Japanese folk tale acted out in English. (I already told you the story in a previous blog). It turned out well, and got lots of laughs when Irena rolled around the stage pretending to roll in and out of a mouse's hole. Lucky she's good at doing rolls... with a long white beard and an old man hat, it was quite a challenge! (no photos sorry!)

I'm scrunching up white A4 sheets of paper and rolling them into 'rice balls', and then the sticky-tape dispenser screeches 3 times as I tape the paper so it stays in a round shape. It's awfully noisy. I wonder if I'm annoying the man sitting next to me?

Do I get paid for spending 20 minutes scrunching up paper and making them into 'balls'? Well, yes, apparently I do. haha. Nah. I'm doing it because tomorrow I have to do a 5 minute drama with the other AETs (assistant English teachers) at the Yawata English Festival.

Our 'drama' is based on a Japanese fairy-tale about 'Rolling Rice Cakes' but of course to make them 'roll' they are actually 'rice balls' although that doesn't sound as nice as rice cakes huh?

This old man goes to the woods to cut some firewood, and he sits down to eat his lunch. Suddenly, one rice ball rolls away into a hole, and he is shocked. He drops another one into the hole and then tumbles down the hole after it. Whereby he sees a Mouse pounding his rice ball into rice-flour. This mouse is very grateful to the old man for supplying the rice cakes, so he gives the old man a bag of rice. The old man goes home, and shows the old lady the bag of rice. The old lady complains and mutters that it'll only make 1 or 2 rice cakes, but they discover that it's a magic, never-ending bag of rice!! Yay, whoopdeedoo! Rice forever!

I'm the old lady.

Oh, the man sitting next to me has gone away... maybe I was annoying him.

The first snow in Kyoto this winter!
It snowed lightly overnight, and what we thought was heavy frost on the ground and on the cars was actually a thin covering of snow. And as I was walking to school from the bus stop, a teeny bit of snow dandruffed onto my head. But now the sun and blue sky has come out again. Oh well, snow was a nice surprise coz it's been such a lukewarm winter. Apparently this weekend may be cold, but after that, it only gets warmer to spring!