My Apartment

I realised today that though I've been living in Japan for over a year and blogging since June, I am yet to show you my apartment...  Despite shacking up in a one-bedroom unit, I consider myself quite lucky - my pad is one of the biggest in the prefecture and after a raft of early shopping trips, looks quite good (even if I do say so myself).  So, while it's relatively tidy at the moment in prep for guests on the weekend, check it out:

This is my kitchen.  I'm lucky to have a massive breakfast bar style counter for heaps of benchspace!

The apartment is very open plan, though there are sectional dividers that I can pull across to separate the rooms if necessary.

This is my loungeroom.  To the right is where I hang my washing to dry (it's too cold at the moment and there are too many bugs to hang my clothes up on the balcony).  I bought the lounge, fluffy floor rug, throw rug, cushions, lamp and TV when I first got here - you should have seen it when I arrived (it was a thorough bachelor pad!).  Unfortunately, the photos on the wall aren't mine, but were taken by my pred.

A small display table in my house.  Apparently it is very New Yearsy in theme...

This is my combined bathroom and laundry.  To the right is the shower room.  To the left, the WC.

This is my bedroom.  My closet is mostly full of storage boxes, shoes and chests of drawers, so this is where I hang my clothes and park my laptop.

This is my bed, of sorts.  Essentially it's just a futon on the floor.  I always thought about buying a real bed, but with 7 months left in Japan, it seems like such a waste of money to buy one now...

The Daiso

My favourite store in Japan is a little place called The Daiso.  At The Daiso you can pick up any sort of items - from crockery to pet food, wrapping paper to glassware, stationery to beauty products, toys to craft supplies - all for the bargain price of 100yen (1.20AUD).  It is essentially Japan's version of the Two Buck Shop, though I find it to be of a higher quality and larger range.  I often visit The Daiso when I need school supplies and it's the best place to go to for generic goods or alternative gifts.  It's the one shop that I am REALLY going to miss when I go home.

Shopping at The Daiso also has its moments of hilarity - you'd be amazed at the sorts of crazy/weird/random products I've seen on the shelves!  I've purchased cat nappies, Engrish signs and fluffy handcuffs here before...  Check out the pictures I took just yesterday for example...

I believe this odd-looking kitchen item is a silicone ice-cream holder tray.  Why you would need one, I have no idea!

The pink and blue items above are collapsible funnels, apparently.  The long yellow thing is a banana holder. Of course.

The Daiso is the cheapest place to lay your hands on these beauties - HEAT PADS!!!  Simply unwrap, scrunch up to mix the powder inside and set off a chemical reaction that keeps the pads heated all day long.  They are perfect for slipping into your pocket, sticking to the soles of your feet or attaching to your torso in order to keep warm.  Conveniently, they come in a range of sizes, most with sticky pads on the back.  Perfect for winter!

Men's disposable panties.  Just because.

Shopping for Food: Part 1

Grocery shopping in Japan can be an arduous task.  Not only does one have to contend with the inevitable curious stares from other shoppers, but finding the items on your shopping list can be quite a challenge.  I have learnt that google is my friend when it comes to food shopping and I always make sure I have my phone handy at the grocery store.

The upside to grocery shopping in Japan however, is the surprising and often amusing things you find along the way.  Check out these weird items, all readily available in my local supermarket...

Eggs are very cheap in Japan, though the way they package them for sale is a little bizarre!

I'm not quite sure why, but these bags of eggs are markedly more expensive than usual.

Quail eggs anyone?  Also note how eggs are sold in cartons of ten over here, not twelve.

Random dried foods/beer snacks.  There are a million varieties of these on sale.  Some are delicious, others are purely horrifying!

Despite being eaten for every meal, rice is relatively expensive here.  Also, Japanese rice cookers take a very long time to cook rice (40 minutes or more).  As a result, these pre-cooked packets are pretty popular - not only are they fairly cheap ($4 AUD for 3 packs) but they also only require 2 minutes in the microwave to cook!

Fruit in Japan is very expensive.  This watermelon for example costs about $17 AUD.

Kobe Luminarie Festival 2012

Every year the city of Kobe hosts a Christmas light-up event called Luminarie, as memorial for the lives lost in the Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.  The lights were donated by the Italian government and each globe has been hand-painted.  I decided to check it out this year, seeing as it would be my last opportunity to do so, and so on Friday night I travelled to Kobe to see my friend Jarryd and the beautiful Luminarie lights.  As we wandered through with our Kahlua-spiked Starbucks coffees keeping us warm, it was truly a spectacular sight to behold!

The start of the festival lights.

Each globe has been individually hand-painted!

This part, at the very end of the display, was like a beautiful Christmas winter wonderland!

The lights juxtaposed against the red autumn leaves of Kobe.

After scoping out the light show we wandered along "festival lane" and tried to find ourselves something delicious to eat from one of the many stalls.  I ended up getting a Turkish kebab (so rare to find here!) and a cup full of karaage chicken (Japan's version of fried chicken) - so good!

Kobe beef shishkebabs.

Strawberry mochi cakes.

Yakisoba (Japanese noodle stir-fry).

BBQ seafood - still in the shells!

Takoyaki (chopped octopus cooked into dumplings).

Toffee strawberries!

Baked potatoes.

Fish-shaped ice-cream waffle cones.

My Turkish kebab!

Making Mochi

Yesterday at elementary school I was invited to stay back after hours to make mochi with the teachers.  Mochi is a pounded glutinous rice cake, of sorts, that is usually filled with "anko" or sweet red bean paste.  It is commonly eaten at special occasions (most famously at New Years) but can be snacked upon at any time of the year.

Mochi is ridiculously simple to make.  Yesterday's efforts involved steaming a large pot of rice (wrapped in gauze to stop it from clogging up the steamer pot) and transferring the cooked end-product to an automatic rice pounding machine.  The arm at the bottom of this machine spins around, causing the rice to form a large doughy ball shape.  It took barely 20 minutes in this machine for the rice to be thoroughly pounded, at which point the Vice Principal lifts it out and onto a (rice) floured tray.

The steamed rice being pounded into a dough ball by the machine.  The rice is still very hot at this stage.

The dough is then kneaded for a short while before being fed through a hand-cranked tubing device (functioning somewhat akin to a sausage-making machine).  The dough tubes are cut at 5cm intervals and dropped into a large tray filled with rice flour.

The dough balls are now ready to eat!

To eat the mochi now all you have to do is put a dough ball onto your plate, top it with a tablespoon of red bean paste and sprinkle with sweetened toasted soybean powder.  It is deliciously sweet but also amazingly chewy - I imagined at times that it would be a lot like eating glue or that bouncing ball of drama in the Robin Williams film Flubber.  Apparently you can also cook the dough balls in the oven for a few minutes each and eat them as mini dinner rolls with soups etc.

The finished product, moments before I 'nommed it.

My teachers kept trying to get me to take some home, and truthfully I should have accepted.  I would have loved to have tried cooking the dough balls and turning them into a little savoury snack.  Unfortunately, after smashing down two rather large sweet mochi cakes at school I was incredibly full and couldn't bear the thought of eating anymore of the rice dough!  Oh well, next time.

Immersion Theory

Prior to moving to Japan, I'd long been of the opinion that learning a language would be comparatively "easy" if you were fully immersed in it, i.e. living in that country.  Having lived in Japan now for a year-and-a-half and having only acquired a basic functional level of language proficiency I can safely say I have debunked this theory.  There are several reasons behind my rather average skills in Japanese - and I'd like to discuss a few of them, quite honestly, here:

1)  Other Foreigners.  Dealing with culture shock in a country  that is so very different to your own can really take it out of you and at the end of a long, tiring and difficult day the last thing you want to do is be surrounded my more Japanese-ness.  It's in these moments that you seek out other English-speakers, people who share your cultural knowledge and can relate to your experiences.  The friendships you can make while living abroad are great - a true lifeline at times - but they do nothing to assist your acquisition of a second language.  Why?  Because together all you do is speak English!  It's comforting, it's easy and it makes you feel like you're at home!  And once forged, it's difficult to give up this safety blanket.  It makes you feel good to hang around these people, so you keep choosing to hang around these people - sometimes at the expense of having true communicative experiences with Japanese people - which is hardly conducive to learning Japanese...

2)  The Internet # 1 - Online TV.  But you can't spend every minute with friends can you?  What about the times that you are home alone, can't you watch Japanese TV and practise your listening skills that way?  Sure, I could, but at the end of a trying day of not being able to understand a word around me, I like to come home put on my favourite show and relax while eating dinner.  Watching Japanese TV is just frustrating.  If you don't believe me, just try watching a foreign language film without turning on the English subtitles - there's only so much you can deduce from the action onscreen.  But isn't Japanese TV weird and quirky and inherently interesting?  Well, here's to smashing another myth, but no, it's not really.  There are a lot of Home and Away-esque dramas or panel talkshows.  I'm yet to see a screening of Iron Chef (cancelled in Japan quite some years ago) or one of those wacky gameshows where people have to run through an obstacle course covered in dishwashing liquid.  They might exist on the internet, but they sure as hell don't exist on NHK's regular weekly programming, so far as I can tell.

3)  The Internet # 2 - Skype.  Let's presume I don't have English-speaking friends and actually enjoy watching Japanese TV for a second...  And then let's imagine that after a crappy day when all you want to do is go home (to Australia) you have no way of contacting your friends or family.  Kind of impossible to imagine isn't it?  Especially given Skype and long before that, the humble telephone.  I might be thousands of miles away from home, but I'm only ever really the click of a mouse away from seeing my mother's face or hearing my brother's voice.  And that's not to mention Facebook, Viber SMS, email etc.  We are in more constant contact with people now than we've ever been and when things don't feel right (or sometimes when they feel so right you just have to talk about it) in my immediate world, ask yourself honestly, who am I going to turn to - my Mum via Skype or my Japanese study book?

4)  My Job.  My job title in Japan is this: Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) for the Japanese Exchange Teaching (JET) Program.  I am paid to be a walking, talking example of "foreignness" in my schools.  Sure, in Junior High School I get to stand at the front of the class and deliver lessons that I have had a hand in creating in order to teach the students English grammar or vocab.  But mostly, and especially at Elementary School, it is my job to foster "grassroots internationalism".  What the f*** is that? - you might ask.  Well, in a society as homogeneous as Japan (where 98% of the population are Japanese) it's my job to expose people to 'the outside world' simply by becoming the living embodiment of the Western world.  Sometimes that means I'm not even expected to be an ambassador from Australia, but a woman wise in the ways of the world at large.  You want me to teach first-graders about Thanksgiving?  No problem, let me just Google what that is and let's make some hand-turkeys in class.  And of course, speaking Japanese with my students isn't the point, at all.  I'm expected to speak English with them.  To encourage them to want to speak English with me.  Which means that all day at work (minus some occasions in the staffroom talking to other teachers) I speak English, I'm expected to speak English.  Which is great for me - I know how to speak English!  After 29 years I actually find it very easy!  It also plays right into my comfort zone, and sadly, lessens my motivation to learn another language to communicate in.

5)  The Immensity of the Task.  Learning Japanese can be really overwhelming.  As if speaking and listening wasn't hard enough, there are also 2 syllabaries (katakana and hiragana) to learn plus a couple of thousand kanji characters if you wish to be able to read anything.  So far, my studies have focussed on speaking skills. I am learning vocab and sentence structure, and truthfully, finding that difficult enough.  Understanding spoken Japanese (especially at native speed) is hard - to the point where eventually you just kind of tune it all out as incomprehensible.  One of my friends admitted to me that Japanese to her sounds like white noise - sure she might understand a word here or there and the general gist of the conversation, but she has accepted the fact that she might never understand the rules of grammar or the pronunciation of conjugated verbs enough to decipher a whole sentence.  And I completely agree with her.  After a while, you just get used to not understanding.  While it sucks to be illiterate at this age and with my level of education, the task at hand can seem so overwhelming that it (figuratively) stops you in your tracks.

5)  Motivation.  At the end of the day, it really comes down to my motivation.  I moved to Japan mainly to achieve the goal of living abroad.  It was never my intention to become fluent in Japanese, nor an expert in the field of Japanese culture.  I just wanted the adventure of trying something new and stepping outside the box.  And so, even though I take weekly Japanese lessons, the motivation to truly succeed at this language acquisition isn't there.  I rarely study on my own throughout the week.  If I can speak in English instead of Japanese I will choose to do so.  If I go to a restaurant I can either point at the picture of the food I want or ask one of my Nihongo-jouzu (good at Japanese) friends to order for me.  I have a supervisor that I call on for technical conversations like banking or taxes.  I am not fluent in Japanese, nor could I ever realistically hope to be, but I am 'caveman-style' basically functional.  I've discovered that I can get by without actually learning much Japanese.  And the sad reality is that maybe that's enough for me...

Home-made Dried Persimmons

A couple of weeks ago one of my darling elementary school teachers gave me a bag of persimmon (which I have recently discovered are DELICIOUS) with printed out instructions from the internet on how to dry them yourself at home.  This is common practice in the rural farming area that I live and so it was with great interest that I looked on as several school staff members began excitedly demonstrating each step as they hovered around my desk.  I gratefully took the persimmon home, along with the length of rope my Vice Principal offered me for the task, and a few days later attempted the process for myself.

First I had to pluck the leaves from the tops of the persimmon and then peel them, leaving a small portion of the skin on the bottom to stop the juices from dripping out.  Then I had to wash them and tie string around the stalks (which had been left on), one persimmon at each end of the string.

Wielding my persimmons-on-string I then went out to the balcony to hang them on my clothes line.  I wrapped each string around the clothes pole, in a place where they were both protected from the rain yet coud receive enough sunlight necessary for the drying process to be effective.  Each string had to be hung so that the persimmons weren't touching each other and could get maximum sunlight.

Now, I have to wait until January until they are ready to cut down and eat!  Oh, and did I mention that in order to ensure maximum flavour distribution throughout the dried persimmon I'm supposed to gently massage them weekly?  Haha.  Definitely an interesting cultural experience!

Burma Bound

It's official!  Today I booked the rest of my flights and will now, happily, be holidaying in Burma for Christmas/NYE this year!  Yeaboi!

I've always felt the need to travel to this country (the place where my father was born) and this year the time finally feels right to cross it off my list.  After a difficult year, Burma seems like just the place to wake up on Christmas morning and usher in the New Year.

Despite flying in and out of Rangoon and travelling solo, I am very much looking forward to everything Burma has to offer!  So far my itinerary includes an initial few days lounging about Rangoon (with plans to visit the famous Golden Pagoda on Christmas Day), a couple of days each in Mandalay (the City of Gems) and Bagan (the flat lands strewn with temple ruins as far as the eye can see) then back to Rangoon for NYE.  I'm also hoping to throw in a few day trips from the city, maybe out to the Golden Rock Temple in Kyaiktiyo or across to Bago.  I'm super excited about eating Burmese food for breakfast/lunch and dinner, doing some shopping, taking a million pictures, chatting with the locals and of course spending some time relaxing with a cocktail.

I've decided it's a sans laptop holiday but stay tuned for a full run down of the trip and some awesome pics when I return in 2013!

Annual Child Welfare Centre Christmas Visits

Every year at Christmas-time, the Tokushima JETs make a point to visit the six Child Welfare Centres (CWCs) in the prefecture.  These CWCs house needy children on a short-term, long-term or temporary basis' and usually have anywhere between 25-60 kids in residence.

In the months preceding Christmas, 6 volunteers from the JET community in Tokushima take on the role of Coordinator and contact these centres to schedule in a 2-hour visit - usually occurring in the December weekends leading up to the big day - where interested ALTs can volunteer their time to play games with the kids.  Furthermore, another 6 JETs fill positions as Gift Coordinators and fund-raise for each home, collecting gifts or pledges to the value of 1000yen (approximately 12AUD) from donators in the community.  After having such a good experience with it last year, this year I have again nominated to undertake the Gift Coordinator role at two CWCs.

So far I have made a giant toy order online at Amazon.co.jp with the first shipment of gifts arriving yesterday.  As someone who LOVES wrapping presents too, this next step is almost as exciting as the shopping part - I get to separate and wrap presents for more than 40 kids!  But all of that pales in comparison to the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you watch the kids rip open their presents and feel the love.  It's nice to be able to put a smile on these kids' faces and hang out with them for a few hours, especially at this time of year!

The first visits are due to happen this weekend, with 2 visits scheduled every weekend thereafter.  Unfortunately this year I can only make it to two separate CWCs but I'm really looking forward to playing some games, making some Christmas crafts and getting schooled in origami folding!

As a result of online privacy issues we usually can't take too many pictures at these events, but I'll post whatever appropriate pics I can afterwards.

Nude Supperclub

On my recent trip to Kagawa for Halloween I made a number of new friends and became better acquainted with some old ones, so on Saturday night I decided to catch up with some of them and tag along to Nude Supperclub for an evening of dancing.  This time, my local friends Natasha and Greg decided to come with me and at about 9pm (after a housewarming party) we set off down the expressway bound for Takamatsu.

For some reason Google maps were being a b*tch this weekend and so we got a little lost on our way to Saad's house, winding up a few streets over from his apartment.  We made it there eventually though, dragged our stuff upstairs, started getting ready to go out and began pre-drinking over a game of mini Jenga. By 11.30 we were ready to head out and as four non-Japanese-speakers-unable-to-call-a-cab we wandered down to the nearest combini (convenience store) to ask someone to order us a taxi.  Our poor taxi driver seemed a bit overwhelmed as we piled into the car trying to explain where we needed to go and instead of taking us straight there he drove to the nearest depot to ask his friends for help with our directions.  Following a Google map pin, we ended up getting a little lost but hopped out of the taxi to try and find our own way to the club.  A few phonecalls later and armed with a couple of new map pins, we flagged down another cab and made it to the club just in time to take advantage of the cheap-entry-before-midnight rule.  We almost didn't make it past the door bouncer as Greg forgot his ID - thank goodness for Kristin and her connections, who were able to help us out and usher us inside!

Wearing my new, blue, Australian shoes!

I have to say, I don't think very highly of clubbing in Japan - finding most offerings incomparable to venues at home and either lacking musically, in cost or atmosphere - so I was rather keen to suss out this seemingly popular club...  Nude Supperclub is a nightclub reminiscent of the clubs from home however, though set in a residential area somewhat out of the main city centre.  After ascending a flight of stairs you meet the door girl and bouncer, pay your entry fee (receiving a fancy looking free drink card in exchange for your 500yen) and then walk through a white sliding door to the lounge area.  This level houses a few leather bench seats, some upmarket bathrooms (with free merchandise for use - perfumes, hairspray etc) and a locker bay for stashing your coats/handbags.  Up another flight of stairs and you'll see another white door.  Once you open the door the sound of the music starts to flow out and if you can find your way through the mirrored hallway you'll see another white door to the club.  Behind this door is the club itself and opening it reveals a smoky den with banging house music playing LOUD.  We made our way to the bar to order our first round of drinks and then sauntered over to the dancefloor to see everyone who'd already arrived.

Greg and I posing in front of the Ladies Room mirror after he accidentally wandered into the wrong bathroom!

The music at the club was a mixture of vocal-heavy house music, danceable American hip-hop tunes and inexplicably popular-in-Japan tracks such as "Sex on the Beach" and "Shots".  Several dancing platforms were set-up for women only and a few of the girls got up on the bar to shake their thang on the stripper pole!  The crowd was a mix of foreigners and a cool, laidback Japanese crew - everyone looked super hot and were really friendly.

Leah, Greg and I getting our pose on for Nude's resident photographer.

Saad and Natasha.

A hot hot hot Japanese chickie dancing on the bar/stripper pole.

Unfortunately due to it's proximity to housing, Nude has a 3am closing time and soon enough we were being escorted out of the club to the parking lot downstairs.  We spent 30 minutes organising rides to the nearest Macca's and 3 carloads later we all made it one piece.  After eating the group broke up, with some choosing to stay at Sarah's (just around the corner) or catching a taxi back to Saad's for some early morning Jenga and last ditch drinks.  Needless to say, the hangover on Sunday wasn't pleasant and was only compounded by a trip to YouMe Town shopping centre (for lunch and to meet up with some other Toku girls who'd come across to go shopping).  To my immense relief, Natasha offered to drive between Takamatsu and her home in Naruto so I was able to gather my wits on the ride back to Tokushima.  After dropping her off, Greg and I went back to his place to chillax over dinner and a movie (how painful is Office Space btw?) before I made the 45 minute sojourn back out west to Awa.  All in all, another great weekend - though I have to admit to feeling like there wasn't enough coffee in the world to get me through this morning!!

With Fresh Eyes

For as long as I've lived here I can remember experiencing much of Japan with a somewhat jaded outlook.  Sure, at times things have seemed exciting and new but for the most part I just felt weary and lately have longed for home like nobody's business.  All the little lifestyle changes have niggled at me (the language barrier, my illiteracy, the excessive politeness, my role as an assistant teacher, the pay cut etc) and looking back it's pretty clear that I've spent a lot of my time in a mild cultural depression.  But not anymore!  Recently I have started to look at Japan with fresh eyes and in all honesty, I'm loving what I see!

It's not that all of the irritating things have disappeared or that I have better learnt to live with them.  It's just that I've come to appreciate the fact that my time in this, often bewildering, country is finite - and quickly evaporating.  I've started to feel like I don't have enough time for all of the adventures out there for the taking, as my social schedule booms and the diary begins to fill fast.  The weeks aren't long enough and the weekends can't come fast enough to allow me to do and see and experience everything on my list.  It means that downtime spent at home or even within this prefecture has begun to grate on me, especially as I look back at all the time I've spent tucked under the sheets watching films, lolling about my apartment in my underpants or idling the weekends away in Tokushima doing nothing really special at all.

And it's not just my motivation towards doing things that has been revitalised...  I am also thoroughly enjoying my (albeit minor) role teaching, food has never tasted so good, the countryside seems teeming with golden photo opportunities, my creativity is piquing and I've started looking around with awe and wonder again (crazy products at the supermarket or advertisements on the train, anyone?).  Not quite sure how long the upswing will last, but for as long as it does, I'll be happily chilling here in my little Stage 1 bubble.

Halloween (post-blog: good v. bad)

Halloween kicked off early this year with the Friday ALT-English-Day gathering at Kitako High School.  I decided to roll with a "Good versus Bad" theme in 2012 and start the festivities dressed as a princess, figuring all pink is about as far from my usual as possible.  Walking to my car in the morning, I passed a delivery man entering my building - the look on his face as he took in my tiara and overwhelming girliness was priceless.  Stopping at the convenience store a little further down the road had the same effect, with most people clearly wondering whether I was dressed up for Halloween or just because I'm a strange foreign person...

The English Day at Kitako itself wasn't too bad.  All of the 75 ALTs were dressed up in Halloween costumes ranging from snuggly animal onesie suits to cartoon characters to movie stars to the British royal family.  The classes themselves though got a tad boring after a while, as we were, as predicted, repeating the same activity over and over again simply with different students.

The Princess and her Superman (Viet)

The highlight of my Halloween though had to be my party-fun-times in Kagawa.  I ended up imbibing quite a bit on Friday night and didn't depart for Kagawa as early as I had hoped on Saturday.  Instead of visiting temples on my way over, I cranked the stereo up loud and got myself out of a hangover and into a party mood!  I first landed at Kristin's house in Marugame, where we got ready together (turns out I have zero talent when it comes to things like eyeshadow and fake lashes!) before driving the 20 minutes to Sarah's house in Takamatsu.  The rest of the girls were getting ready there and the costumes were divine.  There was an African princess, a cowgirl, a cute/crazy Ronald McDonald, a butterfly and the Statue of Liberty!  Needless to say, in my red dress and with flaming red hair, I was incredibly bright as Jessica Rabbit.

Dressed up as "bad girl" Jessica Rabbit for Halloween 2012.

L-R: Cowgirl (Soeng), Cute/Crazy Ronald McDonald (Hannah), African Princess (Leandi), Jessica Rabbit (me), Butterfly (Kristin) and the Statue of Liberty (Sarah).

Picture courtesy of Kristin S.

At about 9pm we set off to the city centre, parking the car and sauntering down the shotengai (shopping arcade) turning heads and causing a scene as we passed by.  Groups of people would literally stop walking and stare at us as we walked by.  There were a few whistles, lots of whispers and even a couple of sneaky photographs taken.

The music in the club was banging and I pretty much just spent hours dancing!  Of course, I did find time to make a few friends, stumbling my way horrendously through a conversation with some older Japanese guys intent on buying us drinks.  Sometime in the early hours we decided to switch venues and from there ended up in a greasy ramen joint for a late night noodle snack.  Eventually we made it home (not before a few hijinks!) and bedded down with some Maccas chicken nuggets at sunrise.  Surprisingly, the hangover wasn't at all bad and a lazy girls-day Sunday watching movies, eating Mexican and smoking hookah was a delightful end to a surreal weekend.

All out Halloween in Japan?  Done.

Halloween? (pre-blog)

As an Aussie girl, I don't have much experience with Halloween.  Sure, nightclubs like to run with the theme around this time of year, but the extent of costuming for girls goes simply to slutty "whatever" (as in slutty nurse, slutty witch, slutty police officer etc).  Maybe as a kid I dressed up once or twice, though truthfully I can only vaguely recall my little brother dressing up as seaweed for an under-the-sea themed disco one year.  And there was certainly no such thing as trick-or-treating.  Halloween just isn't the done thing in Oz, I guess.

At school in Japan however, I am expected to be the walking authority on all things Halloween - especially at elementary school where I am charged with teaching Halloween lore and coming up with exciting Halloween crafts/activities for all my lessons.  Much like having to teach Thanksgiving last year (you know, because we foreigners all hail from the States..?!), Halloween always leaves me feeling a little out of my depth.  And it's not only at elementary school that my indulgence in this unfamiliar holiday is expected: every year, as part of our "training", all ALTs are required to spend a day together at a local (high-performing) high school, playing English games with the students IN COSTUME!!!  That's right, last year I had to don fancy dress, drive to a high-achievers high school 45 minutes away and under the guise of professional development, play games all day.  Not feeling particularly festive at the time, I decided to dress as a vampire - which was easy enough in all black clothing, a cape, talcum-powdered face, smeared red lipstick and dodgy homemade vampire fangs.  This year however, I am planning something little different and sooooooooo not my usual style.  Stay tuned for the pictures next week!

School aside, Halloween seems to be a big thing amongst the foreign population in Japan too.  I don't know whether this is because a majority them are from the States or whether it's simply a result of adults getting excited about any chance to get dressed up and run around town like kids...?  Regardless, in this prefecture Halloween is a massive event.  Several ALTs that live in the same apartment building usually host an open house party, then the horde moves on to the local watering holes in the city for further Halloween themed revelry.  Naturally, many of the costumes at these events err on the "adult" side (a far cry from the PG rated requirements at English Day).  Last year saw me dress up as a 1920's flapper for example.  This year, though not attending the Tokushima parties (I'll be heading to a club night in Kagawa instead), I shall also be rocking a not-safe-for-work outfit.  But again, dear reader, you'll have to wait until next week for the scoop and pictures!

Last year's Halloween efforts (L-R): Ashleigh, Natasha, Tori, Claire & myself.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

It was with trepidation that I returned to Japan last week, though I have to say being back has been almost as good as being away.  Here's why.

Friday Night Lights

Running amok in Tokushima wasn't high on my agenda post-return, but the adventures of Friday night made staying local worthwhile.  Running into characters at the clubs, flirting with suit-clad salarymen, satisfying my  all-you-can-drink urges with a mere 1000yen for 4 hours (approx 13AUD), midnight snacking on some of THE MOST DELICIOUS chicken wings I have ever tasted and waking everyone up at the crack of dawn on Saturday with my incessant alarm...  Not quite the homecoming I had planned, but memorable nonetheless.


Kobe Kids

Having spoken to my Melbourne mate Jarryd prior to visiting Australia, this weekend of madness had been in the works for quite a while.  At the last minute though I decided to drag my friend Greg along and introduce him to the delights of Kobe - a city that, as a new JET, he hadn't been to yet.  And so on Saturday morning we travelled by bus to Kobe.  The beautiful city is about an hour and a half away from Tokushima - so why I have only been there twice before is beyond me!

Stepping off the bus and being greeted by the super stylish Jarryd was delightful.  All squeals and hipster clothing, we hugged and then made our way to a little cafe under the train tracks for an avocado hamburger lunch, hangover-cure coffee and initial gossip sesh.  Wandering around the sea-breeze swept city afterwards was pure bliss, as we took in smells of Chinatown and rifled through a Saturday market at Harbourland.

Post-market-shopping break with Jarryd (pic courtesy of Greg C)

But it was always about the party and Saturday night held nothing back.  We went back to Jarryd's Port Island pad for a few pre-drinks, pop music and preening then headed out to Bar Iznt for a nomihodai birthday extravaganza.  Meeting dozens of new JETs and getting our drink on was just the tonic needed and by 10pm all three of us were more than a little cut.  Cue purikura picture time and an eventful walk to Sonic Club, before we began boozing again to the most entertaining DJ set I've heard in a long time.

With free entry for foreigners, cheap drinks, amazing music and more hot guys than you could poke a stick at, Sonic Club was a blast and the fact that we rolled home at 4am via Tits Park and a few relentless 20-year-old Japanese boys was testament to the good time I was having.

The hangover sucked balls however, and after dragging our sorry asses out of bed and through the shower at 11am we eventually made it the short distance to Ikea for Jarryd's weekend "church visit".  Swedish meatballs, coffee and shopping made up for the pounding in my head for sure!  Though it was all too pleasant to catch some light R&R back at the apartment in the afternoon, listening to K-Pop and browsing apps on our iphones.

Before we knew it, it was time for Greg and I to catch the Portliner back to Sannomiya Station and line up for the Bus of Doom back to Tokushima.  All in all, a rip roaring weekend and a fantastic start back in Japan after all the bullshit that was.  I'd leave you with a picture or two of Kobe city, but in all honesty, I didn't take any - I was far too busy enjoying myself to spend even a single second behind a lense!  Oh well, next time dear readers. xx

I did, however, spend some time getting my picture taken - here's us at a purikura booth circa 10pm!

Chilli Olives and Chocolate Milk

For those not in the know, it's been a rough couple of months for me emotionally speaking.  Having put myself in a position of ridiculous vulnerability, every possible distress and heartache seemed to pile on top of one another until even the smallest of things would turn me into an anxious mess.  Coming home seemed like a smart way of dealing with the situation, by: a) getting me as far away as possible from the madness and b) giving me a chance to redefine my identity in the context of Australia and my loved ones, instead of Japan and JETs.  And from the moment I touched down at Perth International Airport, (most) things have been golden...  Here are a few highlights so far:


Welcome Home
Prepared for an onslaught of questions regarding my year-long absence and suitcase packed full of sake bottles and lollies, I was pleasantly surprised at airport customs when the officials took one look at my passport/arrival card and kindly waved me straight through to the exit, cheerfully adding a "welcome home love" to the end.  The fact that my Mum and brother had driven up to the airport to surprise me - wielding a meat pie no less - had me in tears as soon as I spotted them.  Of course, you can't cry and chew at the same time though, so...


Food, Glorious Food
Choosing dinky-di Western meals from an entire menu that I can read has been A-MAZING.  Bacon breakfast bagels with cream cheese one day, authentic Burmese curries the next.  Cheese sausages, meat pies, chilli olives, chunks of cheddar and homemade chocolate milk.  It's been one culinary rediscovery after another and I haven't even hit the supermarket yet.  Looking forward to my first BBQ Aussie steak and sausages any day now...


Touching My Roots - Myanmar and The Lady
Looking for ways to make myself feel more like "me," I have been toying with the idea of travelling to Burma for Christmas and New Years.  Ever since I was a little girl, I've felt Burma calling me and still feel that pull deep inside my heart today.  I've been ignoring it for so long, but I'm starting to wonder whether this is, in fact, what I've been looking for all these years?  In any case, spending time with my Burmese family, eating Burmese food, watching the Luc Besson film about Aung San Suu Kyi and re-reading a Lonely Planet Burma guide book has made the decision for me...  To Burma I must go.  Not only am I looking forward to the trip, but see the planning for it to be a welcome distraction from the tediousness that this life has started to become.  The very idea of setting foot in the Motherland has given me strength and helped me to close myself off from all of the unimportant and irrelevant things that I let myself get caught up in lately too.  If I thought coming home to Australia was going to be good for me, I can only imagine how magical "going home" to Burma will be.  The countdown begins!


Shopping Up A Storm
I'd forgotten how much I loved Australian fashion!  None of the bland colours of Japan - here the girls aren't afraid to pop in tones of fuschia, emerald and citrine yellow.  The shoes are delectable, the dresses are sexy, the tops are casual Aussie cool.  There's hardly a pastel palette or polka dot to be seen and I, for one, am in retail heaven.

I Still Call Australia Home

I've never really bought much into patriotism, but it's been over a year since I've set foot on Aussie soil and truthfully that's just far too long.  At the beginning I was glad to be away and saw living in Japan as the adventure of a lifetime.  This transitioned into dearly missing home and idealising my Australian life.  Recently, I began to fear heading back for the first time - worried that I had changed too much over the course of this year and that I wouldn't fit in anymore or be able to connect with my own culture.  But today, finally, I am excited about going home.  It appears that some part of me, at least, identifies herself as a true blue Aussie.

And so as I make my journey home, I feel compelled to write a list of the top ten things I'm looking forward to about being back.  In no particular order they are:

1.  Being able to communicate freely and effectively - in restaurants, in cabs, with sales staff etc.

2.  Hugging my friends and family again for the first time.

3.  Eating a meat pie (or five)!

4.  Going grocery shopping and knowing exactly what everything is and where to find it.

5.  Thinking in AUD.

6.  Australian beer and decent wine!

7.  Watching (and understanding) TV.

8.  Not being stared at as I walk down the street.

9.  Playing with my nephews.

10. Spending time with people that I truly love and who care about me.

Sleepless Nights, Summer Days and a School Festival

Finding myself unable to sleep lately, I seem to have developed a late-night TV habit and recently acquired all number of random English-language television series to help me while away the hours.  Though happy as I am as a night-owl (I've always been more comfortable in the dark of night) I find it's really starting to take it's toll on the long summer (well, technically now autumn) days at school...

After a long, hot summer of relative ease (work-wise, certainly not in my personal life!) school is back in session and the days seem longer than ever.  Unlike the laid-back school schedule of summer "vacation" - getting to work at 9am, taking hour+ long lunches and finishing at 3 - these days things are a little more hectic.  Granted, currently I'm only teaching 10 or so classes a week and using the rest of my time to research holidays, play WWF or update this blog but having to get up at 7am to be at school for 8am is a bit of a shock to the system.  Most nights I'll be lucky to bed down before 1am and waking up every hour on the hour with bizarre dreams doesn't exactly make for a restful sleep.  Imaginably, staying at school long past my 4pm finish time (courtesy of a looming English speech competition and the preparatory rehearsal schedule for my two participating students) makes me cringe and cry out for another impossibly strong coffee!  Lately, in an attempt to take my mind off things, I've also been planning eventful evenings during the week.  Whether it's Tuesday night Japanese lessons or Friday night yoga, Wednesday night skype sessions or Thursday night dinners, I'm finding it both good (a welcome distraction) and bad (incredibly draining) to be so busy.

So you can imagine my sigh when I realised that the first week back at school would be for six straight days and that I'd have to work the Saturday for my school's annual Culture Festival (bunkasai)...

A school festival in Japan is like nothing I've ever seen in Australia before.  Part talent show part fete, everyone puts in weeks of preparation to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day (including running a full-length, timed rehearsal of events the afternoon beforehand).  Each class is expected to put on a performance of some kind (with most choosing to present a choreographed J-pop number) as well as run some kind of stall across lunchtime.  Some classes chose to sell karaage (deep fried chicken pieces) and soft drinks; others sold American-style hotdogs on sticks; one class was flogging gelato ice-cream and Yakult drinks; while another set up a PlayStation on dual flatscreen TVs and charged you per race to smash your friend at Gran Turismo.

Truthfully, most of the performances - which ran for around 4 hours - were a little dull for me though.  It's hard to get into a comedy act when you can't understand what's being said or appreciate the humour in a cross-dressing twisted rendition of an AKB48 song that you've never heard before.  That's not to say that my students aren't talented however - a few of them presented speeches in both Japanese and English, others played instruments on stage and the school's brass band even performed an extended set!

Rows of JHS Grade 1 students watching the Grade 2 class perform a traditional Japanese folk song.

But it was the lunchtime buzz that made getting out of bed at 6am on a Saturday worthwhile.  Wandering around the halls, toting my camera and getting the kids to pose for all number of ridiculous photographs put a smile on my face.  Watching the students get their stalls set up or packed away and eating my fill of junk food made for a good day overall.  As did running into countless number of my elementary school students (visiting Awa JHS with their parents for the day) and hearing the excited shrieks of "Naomi-sensei" whenever they spotted me.  Adorable.

Overall, I'm glad it's over and happy to be spending this replacement day off at home, in bed, watching my TV shows in my underpants.  Though I have to say that I am a little sad that this will be the last school festival that I will get to experience in Japan.  It's about as far from being a regular school day as possible and seeing the grounds come alive with smiling teachers and students really makes for a marked change to the norm.  I think I'll miss these school festival days, even if I won't miss getting up at ridiculous o'clock on a weekend to attend them!