Advertisement
Published: March 12th 2008
last week absolutely flew by...
we celebrated dan's birthday on tuesday with a meal courtesy of our kind japanese friends. yoshimi is so friendly and every week the table has to be extended as she invites more and more people! we keep telling her that if she carries on like that, we'll have to spread out into different rooms and won't even be able to chat! the meal was delicious, complete with a cake that said "Happy Birthday" in chocolate... well, actually it said "Happy BRIthday" - we did well not to say anything until dan announced that there was a mistake - duuuuuh! everyone gave him some really lovely japanese gifts... it made laura's and my presents look really bad: a cheap bottle of sake and a homemade "vochure" (laura's spelling is appalling - haha!) for ramen noodles with his favourite saga girls!
i had fun at my conversation class on thursday night and am sad that this week will be my last one... i don't ever look forward to going because it means that i don't get back home until 8 (by which time, i'm STARVING!) but i really enjoy the class and always come away laughing
over the games we've played or something that they've said.
it seems that i'm the only person leaving japan soon, as everyone else is signing on for another year. laura told her schools a few months ago that she would be leaving in march to head off to australia, although she has now changed her mind and decided to stay in japan until the summer. but when she visited one of her elementary schools last week, they had obviously made a note of when her last day would be and had prepared a big leaving ceremony for her! the head principal and deputy both made speeches in the staff room (laura was still unaware at this point of what was going on!) and then, they asked her to make a speech and presented her with flowers - that's when the penny finally dropped and she didn't have the heart to say she was coming back in april! haha... so she made a speech and thanked them for everything and said how sad she was to be leaving... THEN, they had an assembly for her and all the students presented her with cards and pictures that they'd made! and as
she was leaving the school, the teachers all lined up and bowed, waving her off! haha... i love it - i can't wait till she turns up again in april - "uh surprise! i decided to stay!"
i took a holiday on monday, so james (who doesn't work on mondays) and i went to akizuki in fukuoka prefecture to chill out in the park and have a general explore and stroll around. the weather was perfect - lovely bright blue sky and really warm, so we enjoyed getting out for the day... after eating lunch in "joyfull" restaurant, we tried to figure out how to get from the park in amagi to the quaint old-fashioned streets of akizuki. we asked in a few different places and the locals did their best to give us directions but our japanese really wasn't good enough to understand entirely what they were saying... but one guy was an absolute legend and said he'd drive us there as it was difficult to explain where to go! so he left his wife to look after the shop and he took us there - in his flashy BMW! after 7 months here, i still continue to
be amazed at the level of kindness and sincerity which the japanese so often demonstrate!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.146s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0825s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
kevin
non-member comment
Hi Saucy!!!!
Hello saucy, how are you ok I hope?. So your enjoying flowers , wait until sakura comes out it is beautifull, ask Japanese friends what sakura is ha ha ha . I the great journey is nearly at an end can`t believe you will come to England, bet you stay long. Well enjoy yourself and will speak to you soon. Regards Kevin x