Blogs from Shizuoka, Japan, Asia - page 24

Heres a little glimpse into everyday life in Shizuoka. Its getting warmer here so even tho cherry blossoms are thinning the chance of having a clear day and a good view of mt fuji are improving. My week consists of kindy 9-2 Monday to friday, where i have a class of 24 3 and 4 year olds with varying levels of english. 5 are new students who need to learn the routine etc, so its all a little chaotic, expecially seeing two of them are escape artists with basically no english!!! I then have tuition tuesday, wednesday and thursday nights, with children form the surrounding area ranging in age from 4 to 12. The aim of these classes is to get the kids using as much english as possible, so we play games, use flashcards and ... read more

Saturday night was my first experience of Japans night life and while very different to Oz thoroughly enjoyable! Everything is so much smaller- the clubs are just one room with a bar and sometimes a dance floor, you pay about 20-30 bucks to get in and then get given drinks tickets. Para para dancing (think it should be called paro paro, coz thats wat you look like when ur doing it) is a pparently all the rage over here- its a bit like when the nutbush or bus stop comes on at timewarp- everyone knows the steps to the songs and stands in lines to do them. Theres a guy that marissa has seen a couple of times whos always up the front leading, and they really dont care if complete no hopers like me stuff ... read more

It turns out that I arrived in perfect timing for the cherry blossoms. Marissa and I drove to a park in the city and then out to Nihoindara (about 20 minutes away if you dont count the little detour we took in the other direction!!!) where the views of Fuji were great and the blossoms beauiful. We have had lots of funny encounters with people who speak limited English, we tell them we dont understand and yet they just keep on talking and yabbering and laughing. ... read more

Our First Big Ticket Item Dom finally arrived in Tokyo on 28th March. Hooray! After a day of rest and relaxation, I quickly whisked him around town for some sightseeing, and not intending to stretch things, on Day 2 we somehow managed to cover the Rainbow Bridge, Odaiba & the Fuji TV building, Asakasa Shrine, the Yasukuni Shrine and dinner in Shinjuku! By Day 3, we were then on the train to Hakone to try our luck at seeing Mt Fuji - as on most days its either covered by cloud or smog. And luck was on our side.......... The trip to Hakone is made a hell of a lot simpler with the purchase of a Hakone Freepass. Whilst it covers 2 days of travel in the region, for the 1 day trip we had ... read more

Cherry blossoms in Japan are a big deal because they only flower for a couple of weeks each year, so Amy and I went for a drive around Shizuoka to do some cherry blossom viewing! We went to a park fairly close to our house, then to Nihondaira where there was a huge park and nice views of Mt Fuji.... read more