Well we were walking through Kyoto Station, and there was this little 'arty' tent. I caught a glimpse of pottery and pretty art and had to take a look. Inside, there was an old man (with a curiously young face...) doing some very intricate paper cutting. Displayed were detailed scenes of Kyoto, all cut out of paper. So I was looking around and marvelling at his skills, when the old lady running the place with him told Michael that the old man wanted to give him one of his paper cuts. Michael said "oh no...thank you" but then the old man said he'd give it to me. So he got me to write my name (I wrote it in Chinese, so he could kind-of read the characters) and he copied it with a calligraphy brush. Then, he got me to choose a pre-cut picture. I chose a picture of a crane doing a dance or a bow, and he
made a cut-out of my name on that paper.

Then, using the cut-out picture and my name, the old lady painted it on lilac-colored silk! And gave it to me! Free! Nice eh?! Then we took a photo outside.

Michael and I felt really fazed, we weren't used to being given something so nice for free! Under no obligation to give anything back! It was a funny feeling. Happy and bewildered. We wanted to give him something, but we are in his country and didn't have anything to give that wasn't already 'Japanesey'. Oh, I should take a photo of the silk. Will post a photo of it soon.

We finally went to see "Kinkaku-Ji" (the Golden Pavillion). This temple is covered in gold leaf. Probably the most touristy of all temples in Kyoto, most people count this as a "must see" when they visit Japan. So it was kinda odd that Michael and I hadn't gotten around to seeing it in nearly 3 years of living here. Well, here we are. It was golden. It was pretty. It was old. It seemed like more of a tourist trap than anything else.

The "I was Here" photo:

and you can't be bothered going to the supermarket to buy some... you can bake your own bread in the toaster-oven. Yes, you can. Ask Michael.

Saturday was so stressful! First, Michael was diagnosed with the influenza that has been going around all the schools. Then, we did some shopping (that was nice..) but then I had to bus back up the hill with the heavy bags coz Michael was biking up the hill. And when I got off the bus I realised that I'd left my handbag (with cellphone, important cards, and lots of recent payday money!) on the seat! Maybe a stressful occasion for anyone, but I was so stressed because I didn't know who to call or talk to, and how to say what I wanted to say in Japanese! This called for higher levels of Japanese language and comprehension than what I was used to.

Michael was so kind. Even though he was down with the flu, he chased the bus on his bike... but didn't manage to catch it. He even rode back down to the original stop in the town where I caught the bus, because suddenly I couldn't remember if I had my handbag on the bus or left it at the first bus stop!

I tried calling my cellphone a few times, but no one answered. Then, I ran down to the bus stop to catch the next bus driver, hoping that he could radio the bus that I'd left my handbag on. He gave me a phone number to call, so I ran home and called it. It was so difficult to speak in Japanese when I was in a panic. I couldn't think of the simplest words! And couldn't understand what the man on the phone was saying. In the end I understood enough to give him my phone number and he said he'd call me back in a few minutes.

In that time, I ran down to the bus stop again, thinking that maybe my bus did a 'round' and I could catch it on the way back down the hill. Well, it was the same number bus, but the driver told me "wrong bus!" and shut the door in my face and left in a hurry. When I got back home again, the phone was ringing, and it was the man in the office that I'd called earlier. This is what I gathered from my megre amount of Japanese: 1500yen, take a taxi to "Hirakata Shoten", and "bag=OK!".

I knew Hirakata was a place, so I looked up "Shoten" and found out it was a "garage" or "car shed". So, I went to the bus stop yet again... caught the bus down to central, caught a taxi, asked to go to Hirakata Shoten. I must have looked so worried in the taxi. The driver gave me 2 lollies. 20 minutes later, I was there. It was a central bus depot, and I managed to ask the taxi driver to wait for me while I collected my bag.

When I walked into the office, there were about 5 burly bus drivers sitting there in their uniforms, smoking. They stared at me as I walked in. One of them got up and dangled my wee handbag off his finger. "Is this it?"

Reunited! I was so happy.

They got me to check inside my bag to make sure everything was there. It was. Luckily I'm living in one of the safest and most honest countries in the world! Whoo hoo also one of the most expensive! Cost me a good NZ$60 for the taxi ride to collect my bag and back home! Ah well. Expensive mistake, but could have been a lot worse.

Did I learn from my mistake??
Well, on monday I was just about to pay for my bus ride (we pay at the end) and thought, "hmm wasn't I carrying something before?" and walked back to my seat to check, and there was my book, sitting there all alone... think I'm gonna have to tie my things to my wrist if this keeps happening!

Funny, cos on the bus, there's an announcement that always says "don't forget your things!" at every stop. But I guess I got so used to hearing it that I forgot my things anyway...

I've been so good lately and eating so many healthy and boring things. Michael has been helping and we don't eat carbs for dinner. But today my cravings said "F@%# the Wedding Diet!!!" and for lunch, I ate a huge, melt-in-your-mouth, sweet cinnamon roll with hazelnut-coffee icing. I savored every precious bite. It was so good. But probably had enough calories to require my starvation for a week. Why is healthy food so boring??

Yay! We've bought our plane tickets to Athens! We are getting closer and closer to our Europe trip! It was fun choosing our seats on the plane, and also because Michael is Pescatarian (haha. Vegetarian and fish eater), we looked at the different types of food you can pre-order for our flights. There's all sorts! Vegetarian-Indian, Vegetarian-Chinese, Halal, Seafood-meals, diet-meals... I even found one called the 'soft and bland' meal! eww. poor person who has to eat that.

Well, this past weekend wasn't so exciting to write about, but here goes...
We went to an Ikebana (flower arrangement) display in Kyoto Museum, because a work-collegue of Michael's was displaying her flower arrangement, and had invited us. It was very pretty and creative and all that, but I don't really know much about flower arranging so I find it hard to be very enthused...

Afterwards, we had a nice time walking around parts of Kyoto we haven't walked before (i.e. we got lost), but eventually found our way. It was quite pleasant being 'lost' actually cos we weren't in a hurry, and there were a few cute shops along the way. We ended up at Kyoto Station, and bought cheese, wine, pesto, and olives from the foreign food store. Michael had been craving European food as he'd just finished reading a book that described all the different foods there.

Wedding Update: We have decided on the wording for the wedding invitations, and also created a unique design to put on the invitation cards. Michael also created an elegant design to be embroidered on my winter wedding coat. Oh, and we decided on the yummy cake too. Lots of things to 'decide' eh?!

Personal Update:
Still doing Yoga 2x a week with Ashley! (ok, sometimes we cancel, but we have good intentions...)
Now I'm having dinner every Thursday with 2 old ladies, (my tea ceremony teacher and her neighbour), because they want to have 'English Conversation'. Surprisingly, we don't run out of things to talk about! My tea ceremony teacher is a skilled conversationalist!
Now is the end of the school year, so I have no classes to teach until mid-April! So I am paid to read books, drink tea, and surf the net. Lucky me.

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Or, as my Mum says, "everything in moderation!" has become my motto (with the occasional chocolate and wine binge...) Not as fun as the first quote, but I do feel good and healthy. I could never live the first motto (despite how much fun it sounds), cos I'd always be worrying about becoming obese and lethargic and getting health-problems and various diseases.

As most of you know, Michael and I are planning a trip to Europe for our honeymoon.  We have finally got the plans sorted and went to buy our tickets online last night!! However, it was a bit of an anti-climax, as I pushed the 'enter' button for all the money to drain out of my credit card, and to confirm the tickets, and turns out I didn't have enough money on my credit card!! haha. Well, everything sorted now. We'll confirm the payment tonight or tomorrow.

This is the big (40 day!!) plan. Fly from Christchurch to Athens, stay in Athens 4 nights, then off to the island of Sifnos for another 4 nights. Back to Athens, fly to Frankfurt, Germany to pick up our campervan!! Drive from Frankfurt to Munich for lots of expensive beer drinking at the Oktoberfest. Then (a day or two later when we've recovered from the Oktoberfest) drive into Italy (through Austria) and visit Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Siena, Pisa, and the Cinque Terre towns. Then drive into France, and sample the bread, cheese and wine in various small towns in Provence. From Provence, we'll drive to Barcelona and spend a good amount of time there soaking up the athmosphere and Gaudi creations. Then from Barcelona, we'll plan a route back up to Frankfurt to give back the campervan (hopefully without a scratch on it!!). 

Thank you Japan for having compulsary Pension Savings!!  
 

This Saturday was supposedly 'Hina Matsuri' (Doll's day or Girl's day). So we went to a couple of shrines, expecting to see little girls in brightly colored kimono, but ... nope. Didn't see any. Ok, saw a couple of kids running around, but none in Kimono. Perhaps this celebration is mostly done at home, or perhaps we slept in too late and missed the festivities. Oh well. Michael and I still had a good day walking around Kyoto.

Before hitting the shrines, we stopped at a rotating sushi restaurant that Michael has had his eye on. I didn't really feel like eating sushi, but we went anyway, and I was glad, cos there were cute Hello Kitty things to eat! This style of sushi is called 'Inari Sushi'. It's a sweet tofu skin wrapped around rice.

After lunch, we took our full bellies to the Shimogamo Shrine (famous for being in The Tale of Genji), where there was a display of dolls in traditional royal kimono. Also saw a couple of dolls in straw baskets bobbing on the shallow river that runs through the shrine's grounds. These dolls represent floating away disease and bad luck. But, no kids were floating the dolls nor did I see where to buy the dolls so I could float away any bad luck.

Pretty Views at Shimogamo Shrine:

Must be a good time and place for a wedding, as there were 2 weddings going on at the shrine! I took a sneaky photo.

We took a bus to another shrine, wanting to see people there supposedly dressed up in the royal kimonos like the doll stand in the first photo. But, umm we couldn't find the shrine, and then we thought we found it, but there was a huge stone wall that we walked around and around and couldn't find the entrance! Then, we saw another place that looked like it was maybe the shrine, but by that time it was nearly 4pm and the dress-ups were supposed to finish at 4. So we just walked back to Kyoto Station! Ah well, it was a nice walk.

Lastly, we went to the huge department store (Isetan) in Kyoto Station, to buy some chocolates for my tea ceremony teacher (she's invited us for dinner) and for Michael's mum's birthday. The confectionary range turns me into a wide-eyed drooling thing. So, I had to buy a little cute something for myself to eat at home. Michael can withstand the temptations of confectionary much better than me.

Just a few of the cards my students made for me. One of my classes was sweet enough to write me 'Thank You' cards for teaching them this year. A little 'Thank you, I enjoyed your class' is such great encouragement. It really made my day!

Last week, an old lady who I teach English to gave me some homemade plum wine (ume shu) and pickled plums (ume-boshi). She used no preservatives or coloring to pickle the plums! Just salt and a fragrant herb. They were soooo sour wow, it took me a long time to eat one, and my tongue lost feeling! Michael really likes them though, and has nearly eaten them all. The plum wine was a lot more palatable for me! Although very very concentrated and sweet-sour, it was yummy mixed with ice and watered down a bit. These are very traditional pickles and wine in Japan. But mostly women like to drink the sweet plum wine.

It's so very exciting. I've just found some warm wollen fabric for my chinese-style wedding coat (getting married in August, NZ Winter). And, you'll never guess where it comes from! The same people (from New Zealand) who created the Lord of the Rings Elven Cloaks are selling the same woollen fabrics online. So, my wedding coat will be made of the same stuff as the Elven people. Ahh how fantastic. Just waiting for some samples to decide what shade of grey...

If you're interested in what the fabric looks like, take a look at the website. www.stansborough.co.nz

Today was the day for all the Japanese High School's Graduation Ceremonies. We all sat in the freezing cold gym while speeches went on for a good hour and a half. I found the Principal's speech the funniest, because he spoke in such a quiet monotone, that I imagined he was as bored and sleepy as his audience! I took some photos, then realized that the gym was so badly lit that all my photos turned out dark and fuzzy. Ah well.

I was proud to see my students graduate. I've taught this one particular (Advanced English) class ever since they were wide-eyed first years, and it was really interesting to watch them mature and grow in confidence and character.

For lunch we were given a complimentary sushi box. It was so huge. I think it had about 10 large pieces of Nigiri-sushi (ovals of rice with raw fish draped on top), and 8 small circles of maki-sushi. I felt bad, coz I couldn't finish it. I think it's rude to not finish all your food here, but I just couldn't stomach any more rice!! I checked out everyone else's returned boxes, and they had all finished... but I just couldn't eat it all. Oh well.

Actually, one of the teachers who I usually avoid (because I had reason to believe he was sexist and patronizing) showed me where to get the rose corsage that all the teachers had pinned on, and gave me one of the extra rose corsages at the end of the day... so now I don't know what to think of him. I guess it shows he's making an effort to be nice after all... I think I'll be nicer to him from now on.