Forget Atkins

Having bought a my car, I now have absolutely no spare money, so have been on a bit of an economy drive. One of the things I have cut out is alcohol and sweets. Not only is this saving me about 10 quid every time I go shopping, it has also been amazing for the waistline. In the last two weeks I have lost 6kg (half a stone) simply from cutting out junk food. Forget all the fad diets; I would recommend the "poverty diet" to anyone.

Is it spring?

Today we had the first rain of the season. I know people mostly complain about rain, but I quite like it, and after having had nothing but soft snow for four months, the sound of rain hitting the roof is quite exciting. I guess it's true; you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Sadly the weather report says more winter is on its way, so no more rain for a while it seems.

Saturday fun

I think as the weather has become a little warmer now, people have come out of hibernation, because Saturday I was overwhelmed with stuff to do for the first time in ages.

In the morning I headed down south to Morioka with some students to go bowling. First we met the rest of the table tennis club in Bukkuri Donkey and ate lunch there. It was a good buy party for the third years who are graduating, so all the food was courtesy of the table tennis club budget, so of course tasted much better than usual. After that we moved to the bowling alley and played a game and did some print club. I came second in bowling, which is better than my usual position of last, but probably due to the lack of talent from the rest of the players, not an improvement in my ability. Print club with students is really rather fun. After you take the picture you can decorate it on a screen. I have never seen so many stamps on one sticker! They just go crazy! I think actually knowing what is going on spoils it a bit though. Trying to do it while drunk with 5 people of whom nobody can read kanji is much more entertaining.

After we finished I drove two hours north to Jo`s house. I arrived to find them watching some rather strange French film and quite a few empty beer cans. After a bit of a chat, we headed off to Ninohe to an Italian restaurant. One of Jo`s friends quite likes a boy that was coming, so everyone was rather exciting, but to mine and Jo`s excitement, the object of affection also bought a rather nice marine biologist, so we spent the evening practicing our Japanese using the "we only just met and don`t speak the same language so let`s just ask random questions" method.

One good thing was that I got to well and truly try out my car. In total I drove over 4 hours that day and I can say she is a little dream to drive. The engine is only about 660cc, but it has a turbo and she goes quite well. We decided to call her Daisy.

My house isn`t freezing!

This week I have been treated to some lovely new double-glazed windows. I know at only 25 this should not be the highlight of my week, but when you live in a house that is below freezing point for most of the winter, it is quite exciting when your heater actually makes a difference to the room temperature.

I have never been a fan of replacement windows, especially when nice wooden ones are ripped out of lovely English turn of the century houses to make space for plastic monstrosities, but I must say these are rather nice. They look really like the shoji screens we used to have, but actually work as an insulation material. I am impressed.


(not sure why it is sideways, sorry about that)

New car!!!

I have eventually, after an excrutiating wait, been to collect my new car...and I am just a little bit excited about it. For such a small little thing it really does move quite well, but I am still getting used to being so high up and the whole thing being about the same width as me. I was amazed how much of a difference my insurance was too. I was quoted 500 pounds for my old car, but the new one was a trifling 220 pounds. I shall take some pictures of it soon.

Photos from Friday night

The room before it was invaded. It was a little private room, so when they shut the door it is a mix between being in someone`s living room and also a little like incarceration.

Freddie and Isabelle Hazel and Mike #3

Mike and Ryan Jo and me (slightly drunk?)

(origional post: http://laventdunord.blogspot.com/2006/02/fire-mask-dancing-party.html)

Apples or oranges?

I watched a very scary programme last night on TV. I think it may have been a BBC programme at some point as it was that sort of style and the original presenter was British before they dubbed it. It was about global warming and what our planet will look like in 60 years time if we don't change our habits. A time when a lot of us reading this will still be alive. Particularly scary was the fact that the rain forests will be totally gone. The effects the temperature changes will have is amazing too. They will only rise by about 2 or 3 degrees on average, but this makes a huge difference to the crops that can be grown. Spain will basically have no areas that are suitable for agriculture, and the rice that Japan will be able to produce will be 15% lower than now, which coupled with a increasing population does not bode well. Now a lot of areas are apple producing, but by 2050 most of these will have changed to satsuma trees. And the number of nasty infection carrying bug that will spread across the world is just unbelievable. Certainly made me want to recycle!

Japanese education lecture

Today Mike and I were very enthusiastic and motivated students and got the 8.30 train in order to attend a lecture at Iwate University about the education and problems of foreigners who live in Japan. Generally it was very interesting and half of the speakers were very clear and easy to understand. There was one woman who spoke so quietly I think only her computer screen could hear, and I have never heard anyone speak so fast in my life. Definitely a case of needing presentation skills training. There was one man though who had traveled all over the world and hitch-hiked in loads of countries and his speech was very interesting. He spoke about his travels and various aspects of multiculturalism.

In the afternoon we went to Sony Plaza to return some chocolates. I had bought a box of very expensive Maxim de Paris truffles and when I was eating one found a piece of wire about 1cm long in the chocolate. Luckily there were no injuries, but it could have been quite nasty if it had pierced the gum. So my supervisor rang up and complained and then I went in and they gave me a refund. I have also written to the manufacturer, so will be interesting if anything gets done about it. Watch this space....

Fire mask dancing party

After we all got good news when it came to the exam results, we celebrated with a meal out at Universal Dining. It was the first time I had been there. The place itself is really cool in a Arabian nights kind of way. It looks a bit like the place we used to go in Norwich which I cant remember the name of. The food was kind of average, but it was more than made up for by the amusingly named cocktails; lovely babe, dancing princess, cherry boy and our favourite, Fire mask dancing party. Two people I hadnt met before also came along. They arrived this year and one isnt even a JET, so it was nice to meet some new faces.

Will get some photos of this up tomorrow.
(photos: http://laventdunord.blogspot.com/2006/02/photos-from-friday-night_22.html)

Is this a joke?

This has to be a wind-up, right? I am sure it is very serious for the parties involved, but it sounds like a Monty Python sketch!

(taken from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/4721954.stm)

"Nurse was 'hit with frozen fish'

"A disciplinary hearing has been told how a nurse allegedly hit a colleague with a frozen fish at a Kent hospital.

"One nurse said she was slapped in the face with a frozen trout after a patient brought several of them into the hospital as a gift to staff. Ms Jennings then said "give us a kiss" while moving the fish's mouth, the hearing was told."

Speed eating rules!

This week was the ４８ｔｈ wanko soba competition in our beloved Iwate ken. It takes place in Hanamaki, a place so far south of my town in might as well be in another country. The competition consists of eating as many small bowls of bite size portions of buckwheat noodles as possible in a certain time. This year`s winner downed an impressive 241 bowls.

However, this is nothing compared to the leader board they have in the restaurant with a man from Yamanishi prefecture eating 559 in one sitting in 1996.

Happy Valentines Day

Japan has not escaped the clutches of the Valentines Day commercial madness. In fact, the chocolate shops maybe even more frantic than Toys R Us on Christmas eve. In particular people go in for handmade chocolate as the gift, so the shops can make a huge profit shoving some chocolate and cream in a bag with some little heart shaped paper cups and charge three times what the ingredients are worth.

But of course there is always something different about everything in Japan. Instead of reciprocal giving, Valentines Day is for the girls to give chocolate to the boys they like. Then a month later on "White Day", the boys can return the favour...hopefully at twice the value. There is also a problem with "obligatory choco" where young office girls feel obliged to give Valentines gifts to their leery bosses.

Now I have a reason to go out on Friday

We have planned for quite a while now that we would be going out for a meal on Friday night, but we never had a reason other than we felt like it. But now we do...

Yesterday was the results of the Japanese proficiency test that a few of us took back in December. Some people are down at the Leavers` Conference in Tokyo, so don`t know their fate yet, but Mike and I got to read the scary little piece of paper yesterday....and....we both passed!!! Yay!! Mike got a good score and I scraped it by only a few points, but a pass is a pass.

For those of you who don`t know the JLPT, it is a test given once a year that tests foreigners on their language ability. The bottom level is 4, and level 1 is for people with better grammar than the natives. Mike and I took level 2, which I am guessing is about an English A-level. This graph taken from www.mlcjapanese.co.jp gives an idea of what we are supposed to know.

(click for a bigger version)

Where is my sanity?

This Sunday I had a little lapse in my usual cautiousness and splashed out on a new car. It is second hand and very small, so wasn't too expensive. Next month my present car is due for it`s MOT, which after all the repairs it needed was going to cost a small fortune, plus having gone from a monster of a car, to a K-car (the Japanese classification for a small car), I am going to save loads on insurance and tax, which are also both due in March. In fact, my road tax bill is reduced from 250 pounds to 30 pounds! After working out all the numbers, it seems it will save me money in the long run.

I don`t get to pick it up until the weekend, but this is a picture from another website of the same type of car. Mine is a very, very dark charcoal grey. It also has all sorts of exciting features like a remote control key, an MD player, pink headlights, and a really cool little flap thing above the drivers seat where you can store your glasses. And best of all...it`s manual!!! \(^_^)/

On Saturday, Mike and I went to Koiwai farm to see the snow festival. Having visited Sapporo`s mighty display last year, it was bound to look a little tame, but it was a nice day out all the same. Half of it was just food anyway, so we spent the first half an hour just eating. Then we had a look round the shop and tried out the ice maze. It was really slippy inside and every time you turned a corner a little kid slid into your legs. Highly hazardous fun!

One of the attractions was a stage show. This had some girls dressed up in very scary cartoon character outfits. They really looked like 5 foot walking dolls. I was absolutely petrified by them. They were doing some sort of pantomime type thing, but they just seemed to repeat "fuzakenna" a lot, which means "don`t mess with me". I think if you click the image you can see them in their full fearsome glory.

Although, this many people apparently thought they were worth watching....

Since it was snowing, we took the sensible option and went to Morioka and had a big meal in the volcano restaurant and took advantage of my free drink tickets.

Walking Disaster

Well, having eventually recovered from my neck pains last week, and the following dodgy throat infection, I thought I was a picture of health....until this morning. Walking to work in a howling gale that was whipping up the snow into my face, I rushed down the hill and promptly ran straight into a patch of ice and found myself at an angle 90 degrees from where one usually expects to be. During this move towards the horizontal, I decided somewhere along the way that my elbow would be the most effective stopping mechanism. I grimaced, said some words that made me thankful that no one in the immediate vicinity were English speakers, and headed for the teachers` room. On removing my coat, I found a nicely swollen lump that was quickly turning blue. The very nice nurse (who I have got to know quite well this week) gave me cold patches to put on it and a rather fetching bandage to provoke sympathy.

Creative English

It`s exam marking time again and that means it is time for all the crazy English to surface from the little sweethearts` brains. Here are some of my favourites so far...

correct answer: eat-in or take-away?
student`s answer: eat or I`ll taek (sic) it! / eat it or take me?

How about this red sweater?
text book answer: It looks good.
students`s answer: I`m looking good. (extra marks for sounding like the cat from Red Dwarf)
text book answer: I don`t think it suits me.
student`s answer: You don`t look good. / I am bad.

Hello, I`d like to make a reservation.
text book answer: How many people is it for?
Student`s answer: How many humans are there? / What people? / May I take you?

Doolally over Daikon

You have to love a country that can get quite this excited over a long, white root vegetable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4677262.stm

Injury Update

I was going to write about this on Friday when it happened, but I was still feeling rather overwhelmed, so had to wait to compose myself.

After 5 days, my neck was still rather painful and immobile, so I took myself off to the doctor. After a few x-rays and a lot of gabble about bones and sockets, he pulled out a big fat needle and said "this might hurt a bit". I have never enjoyed injections, and they do make me feel a bit queasy, but I wouldn't say they are normally painful. This however was off the chart. He injected whatever it was into my shoulder BONE!!! Oh my god, that hurt! Ugh, still feel rather unsettled just writing about it. Only good point was I got to tell lots of people about it and so I could practice my medical Japanese. Downside is that my neck still hurts and I still can't move it.

Bean Bonanza

Today was Setsubun, so we had a special sushi dinner. I am not sure about the whole nut throwing thing, but I am very happy to munch my way through a big sushi roll and some soba. For some reason you have to eat the sushi in one big lump, rather than cut it into bite size pieces. I was told why, but I cant remember now, so I shall go away and find out about that one. For now, here is just an example of what eating a really big sushi roll looks like.



"So what is Setsubun?" I hear you cry. Let my friends at www.japan-guide.com tell you...

"Setsubun ("seasonal division") is a festival held on February 3 or 4, one day before the start of spring according to the Japanese lunar calendar.

For many centuries, the people of Japan have been performing rituals with the purpose of chasing away evil spirits at the start of spring.

Around the 13th century, for example, it became a custom to drive away evil spirits by the strong smell of burning dried sardine heads, the smoke of burning wood and the noise of drums. While this custom is not popular anymore, a few people still decorate their house entrances with fish heads and holy tree leaves in order to deter evil spirits from entering.

In modern days, the most commonly performed setsubun ritual is the throwing of roasted beans around one's house and at temples and shrines across the country. When throwing the beans, you are supposed to shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Devils out, happiness in"). Afterwards you should pick up and eat the number of beans, which corresponds to your age. "

Was it a compliment??

This morning I was told my hair looked like ramen. Maybe due to the colour and being slightly frozen into strands. I was assured this was a good thing. I'm not so sure...