a few blogs ago, i mentioned that i really wanted to see the ice and snow festival in hokkaido... well i've now booked it and i'm going! not until february though, but i'm so excited! unfortunately, because it's so expensive, noone else can afford to go (as they're struggling enough to pay for this week's food!) but i'm quite happy to go off exploring on my own! the teacher who sits next to me in the staff room was SOOOO helpful and spent nearly 2 hours of his time helping me to book the flights and research hotels... so this morning [View Full Entry]

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the last 4 days seem to have merged into one very long day with very little sleep! ... but what fun i've had! on thursday... laura and i went out with a few of our friends for gareth's birthday. we went to a delicious restaurant where we got lots of free sushi and sashimi (as the owner knows gareth really well). we all enjoyed a few drinks there whilst waiting for our friends (from training) to arrive - they should have arrived in saga around midnight but neither laura nor i had heard from anyone by then. the guys who were [View Full Entry]

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i've probably said it a hundred times already but i'm going to say it one more time just to really emphasize the point... i LOVE the japanese! i cannot get over their kindness and generosity... a perfect example - i had no classes on friday afternoon and so thought i would do some research about more travel opportunities within japan. whilst it's fine for me to use my free time in school to do (more or less) what i like, i didn't really want to shout about it, so i quietly mentioned to the teacher next to me that i was [View Full Entry]

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after a fun day of shopping in fukuoka on saturday, we set off to do some more sightseeing on sunday... we took the train to kumamoto and visited kumamoto castle, which is said to be one of the top 3 castles in japan... (the japanese love their list of 'top 3' things!) this year, the castle celebrates its 400th year! we also strolled around the beautiful suzenji garden which is a great photo opportunity for traditional japanese scenery! the park contains a lake with huge coy carp, a small temple, sculptured trees and even a mini 'Mt Fuji'! we saw some [View Full Entry]

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on friday, i took another day off work to join mum and dad on a day trip to nagasaki... first, we visited oura catholic church, which was designated as a national treasure in 1933 for its value as japan's oldest gothic-style church. we then walked to glover garden, which is perched on the hillside and overlooks the harbour... we had a lovely picnic there and got asked by a group of school boys if they could take a photo of us! glover house was built in 1863 and was named in honour of thomas glover, a scotsman, who contributed to the [View Full Entry]

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WOW - i don't even know where to start! miyajima island is too incredible to even put into words! it is a very sacred island... no trees are allowed to be cut down, so the forests are very dense... and noone is allowed to give birth or die here, so there are no hospitals or cemeteries! so... mum and dad had stayed on the island on tuesday night and, after a slight hiccup trying to find the ryokan in the pitch black, finally enjoyed a very traditional meal and rested comfortably on their futons! the next morning, i got the train [View Full Entry]

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mum and dad really enjoyed watching my dance class night and they did really well not to laugh too much at dan! the teacher couldn't stop herself from laughing sometimes and after showing him 20 times how to do a step, she realised that he was never going to get it right and just told him to do it 'dan style'! she couldn't believe how many foreigners were in the dance studio that night so asked to take a photo of us before we all left! we then went to our favourite restaurant in saga and ate tons of food - [View Full Entry]

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Friday was ‘Culture Day’ in the school and I spent the entire day watching performances on the stage. Some of the acts were fantastic - I particularly liked the drum performance! All of the classes performed a beautiful Japanese song, which they have been practicing frequently for the last few weeks. It was a really special day and I really love the way that when they do something; be it a sports day, culture day, sketching day etc. it really is an event to remember. There is a lot of time and effort put in to make it a huge showcase [View Full Entry]

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yes, it was pay day yesterday so laura and i celebrated by going to a shopping mall in saga which i never even knew existed until recently! and it's only a 15 minute cycle from my apartment! i bought some really cool black ankle boots and a grey jumper dress but sadly we didn't have time to stop for starbucks as we were meeting up with some peeps for food and drinks. we'll definitely be making regular visits there now that we know where it is! in the evening, we were to mura hatchi and had all you can eat and [View Full Entry]

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i was all packed up on friday afternoon and ready to head out of school slightly earlier than usual (i am allowed on friday, as i teach an extra class during the week!) but then a first grade teacher invited me to a home-ec class where the students were cooking okonomiyaki so i had to go along and watch them and luckily, they fed me really well as everyone wanted to cook for me! it meant that i didn't need to worry about dinner! it took 4 hours to get all the way from saga to kyoto but the time passed [View Full Entry]

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