ladyleah
Leah In Animation Joined: March 30th 2008
Logged in: December 26th 2011
Logged in: December 26th 2011
Travel Blog Posts
Negotiations with my agent
Well, I'm most definately back at home. I'm in the spare room bashing away at my parents laptop, thinking about what kind of job I can get in Sydney and just home from a reunion with the delightful Niske at our new dancing studios at Central. Everythings pretty much as I left it. Unfortunately, I did take all my nice clothes away with me, so pouncing on my wardrobe the second I got home to suss the situation ended up with me feeling slightly dejected and I'm still strutting around in my Tokyo finest. In great news, one of my blogs Day 111: Culture shock thy name is Japan was published in the New Zealand Herald in their travel section. I wasn't able to find it online, but a copy arrived in the post today and ... read more
Top Ten Tokyo
My six month trip to Japan has come to a close, so here's a last blog with some of my favourite moments of the trip. Thanks for reading xoxoxo My Top Ten Tokyo Memories 1. Using the Japanese remote control toilet for the first time and being sprayed with the bidet nozzle because I was wondering what was taking so long and stood up to see what was happening 2. Um-bah-rella Ella Ella Eh Eh Eh 3. Arriving a a kindergarten and having sixty 4 year olds rioting at the gates chanting "Leah Sensei, Leah Sensei" 4. The ten seconds before the Saikyo train pulls into Shinjuku when you can see get the lights of Kabukicho 5. Watching the sunrise from the top of Mt Fuji with Yumichan 6. Dinner with Sanaes parents, especially the first ... read more
Go discovering the Ice Cream contains real beef tongue
Namja Town Ikebukuro has got the craziest ice cream combinations you can imagine. The ast time I went there was with Myles and Tiff a few weeks ago and we experimented rather chastely with buttered potato ice cream. As I prowled through the various types on display before we made our selection I knew it was the perfect place to bring my friend Kieryn on her trip to Tokyo. We met up with Go and his boyfriend Twinkle had some lunchtime gyoza and then made our way to Ice Cream City where we gorged ourselves on the most varying and somewhat horrific flavours; Pumpkin, India Curry, Beef Tongue, Sea Salt, Pudding, Sakura the list goes on and on and on. It's amazing at how much these Ice Creams actually taste like the flavour they're supposed to ... read more
Horse Sashimi
I held my chopsticks in front of me cautiously. The raw piece of Horse wobbled and sauce and Raw Horse juice dripped slowly on the table. I was starting to feel sick. I took a deep breath and hardened myself up. I'd been talking about eating Horse Sashimi for 6 months now, I had to do it. And besides what kind of tourist would I be if i didn't try horse? I'd be laughed off the backpacker circuit. Another deep breath and the Horse was in my mouth. I chewed furiously through the applause of my friends around me and tried not to think of Mr Ed. Clip Clop. Clip Clop. The meat was stringy and chewy in my mouth with a strong repungent taste. It didn't seem to be getting any smaller and the smell ... read more
The Bringer of Natural Disasters
The earthquake woke everyone in our little flat up, the shifting of the bed, the rattling of the mirror and the sharp intake of breath from Kizzy lying on the bed next to me means that it was at least a magnitude four. I rolled over on the small lounge and faced my longtime friend from Australia. She was lying on her back with her eyes fixed on the ceiling, a familiar vague look of terror forming silently in her eyes. "Earthquake" I muttered, my voice thick with sleep. "Oh" she replied, darting me a look "I thought you were shaking the bed" and thus comforted by the knowledge that it was not me causing her sleep disturbance, but in fact a natural disaster, she rolled over and fell once more into an enviable slumber. It's ... read more
GOTOOOOOOOOOO!!
The slightly built Japanese man with the gelled down hair and emo glasses pushed his way through the crowd on his way to the bar. I started a slow, drunken chant "Fuuuu...ma, Fuuuuma, Fuuuuma..." Kieryn picked up on the vibe and turned to face my victim "F to the U to the M to the A" she cried waving her hands around in his face. Fuma turned around a huge smile on his face to respond to our cheers "Fuma! he cried "Fuma!" five drunken girls cheered back before breaking into giggles I just love mingling with the celebrities after an event. We were at Club Asia, watching an afternoon event that one of my dance teachers was headlining in. It had been the most spectacular afternoon, the dancing had been wicked, the performers hilariously bad ... read more
The cover of one of my picture books
My last lesson as Sensei Reah took place today at Tokiwa kindergarten. I felt like having a bit of a celebration so I veered off the general cariculum slightly and ended up getting them all worked up with the missing game before having a Hokey Pokey Dance off with all of my morning classes. Because I have both morning and afternoon classes there I've grown quite fond of the school, and have realised after today that the school has grown quite fond of me too. I gave a small speech at the end of each of my classes that it was my last lesson and they have to be good for the new teacher etc and then to my shock some of my kids started to cry and cling to me. It was lovely that they ... read more
Attituuuuuuuuuuude
I am completely and whole heartedly in love with my dance studio which is why I'm having a bit of a hard time letting go of it. I've been saying goodbye all week in preparation for my last ever lesson tonight and bouncing and dancing my little heart out trying to master the hand slapping, foot stomping and crazy mad butterfly arms that will forever more remind me of Tokyo. It's hard to explain how much going to dancing has changed my life in Japan - I've learnt half of my Japanese from there, it's taken up the majority of my evenings and commandered my social life with almost every weekend now involving a night out with the Hip Hop girls in Shibuya busting out the moves from that weeks lessons. I've made so many friends ... read more
Sanae taking the wheel
Do I have the greatest friends or what? As a farewell to Japan gift to me Sanae and Yumiko have been plotting and planning away for months and thrown me a mystery tour. It was by far and away one of the highlights of my trip so far and the sweetest present I've been given in my life ever. See below for the Itinerary by Sanae in bold and comments by me in Italics! Mystery Tour Schedule 14th Sep. 2008 This is today’s tour schedule. Please read through and follow your tour guide Program 1; trip to Gunma prefecture 07:00 - dep from Nishi kawaguchi (7am is the latest departure) DO: - Enjoy the view and Road in jp - Listen to the music - Eat breakfast A 7:00am start? Thats nothing! I was so excited ... read more
Sanaes witty Love-Okonomiyaki
I went on a date today, by accident. You may think that dating cannot be an accidental thing and I'm only just saying that as way of fobbing it off because it didn't go well but you have to believe me that it was entirely an innocent mistake. I have nothing against dating Japanese men, it's just that if I was going to go out on a date I'd probably prefer it to be with a man who wasn't under the impression that I am a scuba diving, gun owning, goldfish enthusiast who is a former resident of Malaysia named Jessica. I really never intended it all to get this far. When I started applying for private students I used the name Jessica so people couldn't track me on the internet and murder me in my ... read more
