Japan

Oops, I missed friday.

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:06:44 +0100

I think I have to say a few apologies.

No. 1. Friday was the 'Mamemake' (or something similar) Festival. So I couldn't really spare time at a computer.

No. 2. I apologise to all the people I haven't replied to when they leave comments. I'll make a thing of doing it from now on.

Now. Lets get back to business.

Last week was pretty dull to be honest. Not much happened at all. Monday to thursday went by as they normally do, Monday was the ... No wait I completely forgot! Last week was horrible!! I think I forgot because I pushed it from my mind!

Last weekend I had the worst toothache ever! On monday I had to miss work because it was really sore and I went to the dentist who put a temporary filling in it loaded with painkillers. Then Tuesday came and I still had the toothache, made worse by the fact that I had to open my mouth to teach at the Senior High School!

Then it was wednesday. I was bloody terrified. All through the day I was teaching and physically sweating because I had to go to the dentist at 3pm. To get Root Treatment. You might think that I'm a wuss... but let me tell you, I am terrified of the Dentist.

So I arrive at the dentist and I'm quite nervous, to the point of throwing up. Then they call me in. Terror runs through my body, as I look and see that they keep all their instruments out in the open for all to see, probably to put the fear in the Patients hearts. I tell you, all dentists are Sado-Masochists and enjoy doing that. I sit down in the chair, and they start poking about, then they say something in Japanese, that I was supposed to understand, then by giving them a confused look, they make the motion for needles in the mouth. But by the time any sounds of disagreement came out of my mouth, they had the thing rammed into my Gum! It took me all my strength not to whimper... then they did it again, and Oh My God, it was fucking sore. I screwed up my eyes and made the same noise Shrek did when Fiona yanked out the arrow from Shreks ass in the first film... you know the low grunt of agonising pain? Yea, it was that one. When I made that sound, the dentist, who I'd met somewhere before, said 'Ganbare Ryan!' Which can be translated as anything from, Good Luck, All the Best or Fight. Then it was over, she removed the dreaded thing from my mouth. I hate needles! Then she started the proceedure. Which wasn't that bad. It involved alot of drilling, picking out some stuff with a scraper thing, and more drilling. Then she filled it. Wasn't that bad. Until afterwards and I couldn't open my mouth because I was in pain. But I was given lots of pain Killers and I'm fine now. I just have to go back on the 14th of Feb, when they can footer about some more and that'll be that. Just means I have to Build myself up before I go again.

So anyways. Like I said, Friday was the Mamemake Festival. That involved dressing up as demons and having the children throw beans at us. It symbolises chasing out the demons of winter and allowing spring to return. Or something like that. You don't really pay attention when you're able to get your own back for all the Kancho's, kicks in the nuts and general annoyances, by scaring the crap out of the kids by dressing up as an Oni, the very things of their Nightmares. But I love the nursery school really! Especially Kota-kun, Yuuta-kun and Shiyon-kun. They're so cool.

Saturday and Sunday were really boring, but we decided to take a walk to this Hotel thing, and found out that we can play pool. For only 1050 yen. About Five quid. Then yesterday (sunday I think) I decided to stay home and clean the house, instead of go skiing! But trust me, it needed it, and if I had have gone skiing, it wouldn't be done. So now, the house is very clean.

Anyways. Until friday!

Bye Bye!

Ryan

Comments

Oops, I missed friday.

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:06:43 +0100

I think I have to say a few apologies.

No. 1. Friday was the 'Mamemake' (or something similar) Festival. So I couldn't really spare time at a computer.

No. 2. I apologise to all the people I haven't replied to when they leave comments. I'll make a thing of doing it from now on.

Now. Lets get back to business.

Anyways. Until friday!

Bye Bye!

Ryan

Comments

This weekend.

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 04:27:09 +0100

God I'm so tired.

This weekend, a past volunteer, Andrew, came over from Sapporo to stay in Toya with Shiro-san, very good friend. It was quite funny. But very tiring.

The saturday we went out, we went Alcohol Shopping. So much alcohol was bought, and comsumed that day. We picked drew up from the train Station and and went to lunch. After the meal, one of the funniest things any one could ever say, was said by Steve. It's quite a small mistake to make, but it was a funny one none the less.

We each ordered a big lunch, but steve didn't get a big one like he asked for, but after the meal the guy came over to us and said, 'I'm sorry, I think I made a mistake with the meals, I was supposed to make a big one wasn't I? I'm very sorry.' To which, Stephen replied: 'Daijoubu, oppai.'

'It's ok, Tits.' That's the translation. It's ok, Tits. He ment to say, It's alright, I'm full. But since the two words are very similar, Tits and Full (Oppai, tits, and ippai, full) it's easy to make mistakes. Needless to say that I pissed myself with laughter when we got outside.

Anyways. After that, we went to Karaoke for two hours. It was cool, with two High School Girls constantly looking in and waving at us. I forgot to mention that Drew also speaks fluent Japanese, so one of the Staff was complimenting him on how well he could communicate. And what does the legend, that is shiro-san do? He Says, out loud, and in japanese, 'Andrew, I hope you're not trying to pull her.' It was so funny seeing Drew's and the Girls face go bright red.

Then we went to Shiro's house to get drunk. It was cool. With snacks of Dried Salted Squid and Tororo, (A kind of potato that has the consistency of Flem)

The next morning, it all went down hill. I had the worst toothache in the world! It was like someone had stuck a mains wire to my tooth! I had a toothache all day, and couldn't do much about it since dentists are closed on Sunday! So I had to go ot the dentist this morning. To find out that on Wednesday, I have to get Root Canal Surgery!

Anyways, that's all the news I have for now. I'll update again on friday with news on how the dentist went... (T-T)

Laters

Ryan

Comments

More from Japan

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 09:36:30 +0100

Hey everyone that reads this! (Don't know who, but if you do, let me know you do by leaving a comment please)

First thing's first. We are now up to 1.5m of untouched snow in the fields, but elsewhere there are mounds of the stuff up to 6m high.

Anyways. This week has been fun. Sort of. This week I just feel like I've been sitting in the back of my mind, watching myself do all the usual work. Taking part of course, but this week I've actually stopped and paid attention to the differences between cultures here.

Well before I get into it, I'll not pretend that I'm the only foreigner that's been here. I do live with Steve, and there have been voluteers doing the exact same thing as me for 15 years.

Anyways, The main thing is that, from my point of view, they are a much better people than any other I know. In Toya anyways. They're kind, accepting and accomodating. There is no violence and everyone knows you and talks to you, whether in English, broken English or Japanese! It's such a community spirit! During the day we work and teach people. But after that it's completely different. We become one of the people so to speak. We go out together, we eat together and we get drunk together! We sing together, we dance together and ski together! It's so fulfilling! They adapt so quickly to foreigners here, and everyone of them is different! Volunteer, that is.

For example, Our rep, Yuko. She is one of the best people in the world! This week when we were out clearing snow, Yuko walked by, as she normally does because she goes for little walks every day. Anyways, we had the opening usual conversation that we have with everyone here. 'Lot's of snow, isn't there?' 'Yea, I know' 'how was work today' 'The usual, tiring' ... Then we got on to the topic of Sleds. Because of the huges mounds of snow. And we said that we'd love some sleds right now! It seems so much fun! So what did yuko do that same day? Yup, that's right. She brought us two of them! Last years volunteers, were completely different. One was a raving homosexual, and I mean raving! And one was a shy boy (apparently). The year before that, were relatively quiet and the year before that one of them was like Us two! It just makes me feel so good!

The only problem I feel that I have here is the loss of communication. Two people speak fluent Japanese, a few speak advanced and some, basic. But I'm not really fussed with making friends with the older generation. Don't get me wrong, I love everyone up here. It just makes me feel out of place constantly having friends that are my mothers age! I want to speak more freely with the younger generation! Which is why I'm teaching them English, but I'd like to make them feel more comfortable by speaking with them in their own language!

It's just getting so frustrating at the minute! I know basic Japanese, but not just enough to hold a proper conversation! Which makes communicating freely a big big problem! I'm getting friendly with some of the high school pupils, but it's just not the same, not having... proper friends? No that's not right. They are proper friends, but I just don't know how they feel when I talk to them. Which makes me feel so awkward!

But I'm sticking at learning the language, and I mail all my friends here in 'Japanese' lol, so hopefully soon I'll improve quickly. I'm talking with alot of people. And making many friends who speak english in various fluencies! Who in turn help me with Japanese! Not to mention that when I return to Britain, I'll be going to Uni to study Japanese. So I'll hopefully be much more fluent then!

Crap. I kinda went off on a tangent there. Oh well, what can you do!

If you read this one, let me know what you think. Please leave a comment.

Until monday!

Ryan x

Comments

I'm really getting sick of the snow.

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 08:58:31 +0100

There is so much bloody snow! I swear to God.

Everyday I have to shovel the stuff away so it doesn't crush our windows. In our back garden, if you could call it that, there is 6feet of snow. And it isn't the light powdery stuff. It's solid chunks of the stuff that weigh a ton! And everyday more slips off the roof and everyday we're outside clearing it away! It's becoming a bloody pass-time!

Anyways, I was supposed to Update this on Friday but I kinda forgot, but since no one can actually Chastise me, I'm not worried.

Last week was actually pretty dull to be honest. But we started back to work after a long holiday, so that helped pass some time. The nursery school kids we delighted to see us again, as was I to see them. I love that place, it's so cool. The first thing that some one said to me after they said good morning was, 'Asobou!' Let's play! Which involves me running after them, catching them, tickling them and all the while evading their kancho's.

I'll stop to explain exactly what Kancho is for those of you who don't know. At first I thought that it didn't exist. Steve McCorkell showed me this site where a guy is doing basically the same thing as me. And he had to put up with Kancho. I honestly thought it was a spoof, but no. It exists. And it's very very disturbing.

What it involves is: Little children clasping their hands together so that their index and middle fingers are sticking out. Sort of like a gun. But they don't run around pretending to shoot you. No... that I could put up with. What they actually do is run around trying to ram their fingers up your arse! Where this game come from and who invented it I do not know, but I do know this. If I ever find out, I will find that person and 'kancho' him. Only not with my fingers, no, that would be too forgiving. I'd kancho him with the Giant Phallus at Uwajima Sex Shrine.

Anyways. Apart from Kancho. The Nursery School is excellent.

I finally started back to the Hospital. Only to find that there are a few new patients. Fair enough that's OK. But one of them is really bitter and resentful for being there. She is cheeky and cruel. And mocks everyone around her! Also, the staff pay her no attention. Which I think makes here even more bitter.

The work there is boring too. Plus the fact that there is a fat twat working there who thinks I'm incapable of doing the work he does, even though I do it with the other staff. Normally it involves changing beds, helping the patients out of beds into their wheel chairs and wheeling them to the seating area. But this guy wouldn't let me help him, and made me play with the patients instead. Normally I wouldn't have any objections to doing that, but I already had done it, and the patients we getting bored. So when I had finished playing with them, he made me sit down and talk with them. I wouldn't have a problem with that either, but I don't speak fluent Japanese. I can hold my own when Talking about my Family, but I think they might hit me the next time I mention them, because that's all I can talk about, as well as the weather.

But from 12:30 it's lunch time, so I say good bye to that bit of the hospital for a week. From 2pm we work in Rehabilitation, AKA Physiotherapy, where we play games and sing songs. That part is cool.

Not much else to mention. This week looks to be very exciting. I finally get to start Kendo and Yosakoi, plus our ever faithful and legend of a friend, Shiro-san invited us to his house to get wasted!

So I'll let you know how all that goes!

Laters!

Ryan

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Holidays.

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 08:31:06 +0100

あけまして　おめでとう　ございます！
akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!
Happy New Year!

Well that certainly was one of THE best Christmas's and New Year's that I've ever had!

And if you're wondering, Yes I did end up cleaning the house. It was just getting too messy, I couldn't stand it!

Anyways. New Years was much more eventful than Christmas, what with the guys Skinny Dipping in Lake Toya on New years Eve at 1am. And let me remind you that it is the middle of winter and there is about 1.5m of snow! Not the wisest of Ideas but funny none the less. I didn't take part. I was an innocent bystander looking out for people walking past so that the guys didn't get arrested!

That was all fun and games. The 2nd of Jan was spent cleaning and recovering. Konrad drank half a bottle of Vodka and a few glasses of wine, but funnily enough, he was fine and he didn't skinny dip the night before. But he did fall asleep while we were watching Blade. But anyways.

The 3rd should have been a day spent travelling, but it wasn't. There was too much snow, so our train to take us to the ferry terminal was delayed. We had to get the one at 23:45, which was a royal pain in the arse.

The next day, after a few ups and downs, we finally arrived at our destination, TOKYO!! I met up with my very very good friend, Yoshihiro Takahashi. And he took me about all the places in Tokyo. It was so so good! Exept Harajuku and Akihabara. There is just one word for those parts of Tokyo. Ugly. Pure and Simply Ugly. Harajuku does have a few nice places like the Meiji-Jingu Shrine. But that's it. Takeshita Street is a mess. Takeshita street, if you didn't know is supposed to be the Height of Fashion. Fair enough it has loads of shops for all different tastes, but there are only two shops there that I would buy from. And get this. There is even a shop that sells glasses. Yea well, so does Vision express, but what's different with this one is that the glasses aren't perscription, just for show. How can people be that Vain?! Harajuku is also where you go if you're into Cos-Play. It's cool in some respects if you see some really good Cos-Play like Cloud, Yuna or any FF character. Or random things that look really good. But when you see a grown woman dressed up as a kids TV character, you get kinda depressed. Especially when you see her having a cigarette! Imagine the impact that would have had on a child who adores that TV programme! the kid at 7 years old starting to smoke because he saw his hero do it. The all his friends would start, and then who knows what? Anarchy for all I know! All of this because of one tiny place in one huge Metropolis. Harajuku.

Akihabara isn't much better. No it doesn't have grown men and women dressing up as Cartoon characters. But it's so full of nerds! And it's so so dirty! Shops are thrown up anywhere and everywhere. You can find anything you want there. But you have to know where to look, and to know where to look you have to spend time there. Spend time searching through all of those shops looking at what they have to offer. Fair enough, if you're into computers and what makes them tick and all the latest computer gadjets, processors, RAM, ROM, Webcams, Anything, it's the place for you. But you have to spend time looking. And I couldn't spend anylonger than 15mins in that place. It is not nice. And that's that.

I also visited Shibuya, Ueno and Otsuka. Not much to write about. It's everything the guidebooks say aout them. But if you are ever going to go to Tokyo. You have to visit Shibuya. I love it there. I only spent at most 8 hours there. But it was 8 hours that i will not forget. Yes it's huge, unorganised and very busy. But I was in awe there. There's just something about it. Just sitting in the Starbucks across from Shibuya Station, looking down at the very famous crossing. Seeing all of those people waiting to cross, then the lights changing and the people crossing, the lights changing again, the people stopping, more people arriving to wait for the lights to change and when they change, it happens again. So many people crossing to each side just to meet in the middle and for a brief moment the mass of people reaches a peak and then dwindles down to nothing, only a few stragglers rushing at the last minute. It's almost like waves crashing down on a beach. The crest just about to crash down, just waiting for the light to change and when it happens, Chaos. Bubbles, water and sand all mixed into one. Then it all slows down. It relaxes and the water receeds. The light change and another wave waits to cross and start the Chaos. It's a constant. And the most peaceful thing in the world. Sitting on the seaside watching the waves hit the sand. Only realising that you're sitting in a Cafe in the busiest City in the world watching the waves of people hitting the sand.

Don't ask me where that came from. It'll probably not happen again for a while. But it's because of Japan. That's a fact. You have to think about these things. There's something wrong with you if you don't.

I spent a few of my days of my Holiday in Izu too. with Yoshi. It was really really cool. We stayed at his grandfathers house. A really nice house. But cold like most houses in Japan. But it had a nice warmth to it. Namely because Yoshi's grandfather is a very nice man. He doesn't speak english, but his gestures made me feel at home. He made the most delicious meals, some Japanese ones too. Although I did feel odd at eating pasta in the morning.

I also went to a beautiful Onsen with Yoshi. I keep forgetting the name of it, but I'm sure I'll be reminded if and when Yoshi reads this... Hint hint. Anyways, the scenery from that room was so nice. Looking down on the slightly snowy bay, which sharply rose into Hills and forest. Like much of the rest of Japan outside the Major Cities.

I travelled back up to Hokkaido by myself. It was very refreshing. And I met a really nice girl too. I forgot her name though. I am crap with this whole name business. especially in Japan. They are so complicated. But it's cool if they Have nicknames like Yoshi. Anyways. I got back to Hokkaido and was in awe once more. Not because of the people. But because of the amount of snow! There was so so much! Still is. One downside is shovelling it away. You have to incase it crushed your windows. That's how much there is here. In other places there is about 3m of the stuff! And it's killed a fair amount of people because it settles on the roofs and makes them cave in! But it's not that bad up here, yet!!

I had my first ski lesson here too. That was a hell of alot of fun. And I only fell three times. Quite proud. Until I looked at the 6 year olds going down the slopes. But then again, they live here I don't. I have another one tomorrow so I'm looking forward to it.

The mother of one of the Senior High School Pupils invited me in to their house on Saturday too. it was really nice of them. I sat and had tea and they spoke English, Badly, and I spoke Japanese, Badly. But we all understood each other. Yesterday, to return the favour I invited them to my house. Two of my Pupils came over. Which was decent enough. We watched FFVII: Advent Children and played Mariokart Double Dash. Excellent game. It was really cool. Advent Children is in Japanese and they tried explaining some of it in english. Which was good because that's what I'm there for. Their Enlgish Teacher. And it was refreshing to see that I was having some impact!

Anyways. Thats all for now. My hands hurt from typing!

Catch you Later!

Ryan

Comments

After Sapporo

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 07:25:05 +0100

Back again.

Christmas was cool. Not as good as what it was back in Britain, but we managed. Since all the guys were up it was much better.

We got up rather late on christmas. So I had to cook dinner rather quickly. Since there was no turkey I used six huge Chicken Breasts. All in all the meal was brilliant. And there was shit loads of food, but nothing got wasted. After the dinner we ended up playing MarioKart Doubledash on the Gamecube that Steve bought. It's one of those games that if you get too into it, you lose friends. And I'm one of those people! God those bananas piss me off! Little creeps (the other players) leave them just as you come out of the pipes so you lose your balloons and Die! But anyways.

On Monday we had the crazy Idea of going into Sapporo for a few days. That was cool. We got on the wrong bus at first. We thought it was the right one, but it headed in the opposite direction so I had to ask just to make sure if it was going to Sapporo, which it wasn't. So we had to wait an hour and a bit to get on the bus that took us to Sapporo, to find that if we had just waited two hours in the house, we'd have been able to get on that bus, cos it picked up people from Toya!

Anyways. We arrived in Sapporo and went for a wee walk, until our bellies took control and we had to find food. We went to a Bikkuri Donki (lovely place, I think I've mentioned going to one in Date).

Then started the hunt for accomodation. Steve had his guide out and we wanted to go to a Youth hostel, but we noticed that there was a Capsule Hotel in the Area we were walking! So we went to it and booked in then went to a bar that I7ve been to before in Sapporo, Rad Brothers. We got a little bit Tipsy, then went to a Club, which we had to pay 3000 yen to get into! It turned out to be very very empty. So we left and went to a bar. But I was feeling very tired so I left for the Hotel again.

Since the Bath place was free. I decided to use it. Very Very Good Idea. It was so relaxing and empty, I felt so at peace. I even fell asleep in the Jet Massage Bath!

After that I crawled into my capsule. They are very very comfortable. Not too hot, not too clod. I fell asleep right away. I woke up a little because i heard the guys come home. At 5am.

Woke up the next day, felt excellent. Had a stroll around Sapporo with Steve and Paul and bought four books and Super Mario World for the GBA. We also found this really nice Juice Bar with a waitress that spoke very good English. we sat around to pass the time, spoke with her a few times and then we said goodbye and went to Catch our bus back to Toya. I had to make sure it was going to Toya, so that required more Japanese Skills (Sugi no basu wa toya-mura ni ikimasu ka?) It was going to Toya so we got on and slept until we got there.

We got home and the house was still the same way we left it, (not that I expected anyone to clean it, but it would have been a nice surprise) But I swear to god, I will not tidy that house again while the guys are up. I've cleaned it from top to bottom, apart from Steve's rrom, twice now since the guys arrived. Once while Konrad was playin R. E. 4 and once before that when they were doing something else, and they didn't even bother to ask whether or not they'd give me a hand. So they can do it themselves this time. If they even bother. By which time it'll probably ber clean because I'll have gotten fed up with the mess and in a rage cleaned it all myself again.

Anyways. Thats all from me for another few days!

Don't forget to post if you read please! I do actually care about what you write.

Thanks

Ryan

Comments

Christmas Eve

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 07:21:53 +0100

There's the picture of my house. Sorry it took so long to be put up, and sorry for the crappy picture. It's all i could do.

Anyways. Updating Time.

It is now Christmas Eve here in Japan. Not really as much enthusiasm as in Britain, but don't forget this isn't a christian Society.

Our house is decorated, rather craply I might add, for the lack of decorations. We have a Tree abd a few bits of Tinsel decorating the walls.

Anyways. Today the Kyoto Guys finally came up. Karel (Dutch) and Toby (English). So we have the whole country group up to spend christmas together, eating food and getting wasted. The other guys, not me. I've had enough alcohol this year. Maybe a few on New years etc, but thats all.

Last week, was basically just spent doing nothing. The Tokyo guys have just been crashing at our house while we've done our last wee bit of work for the year.

Yesterday was brilliant. We went christmas shopping and got all the food that we'll need for Christmas dinner tomorrow. Which I'll be cooking I might add!! This is going to be fun! I've no Idea what we'll be doing for New Year though. Too far ahead to plan right now! But I'm guessing that It'll be spent getting drunk. Again.

Anyways. I'm off. Have to go back home and start cleaning, because the guys are a teensy bit lazy when it comes to that department. It normally devolves into someone saying, 'I did it last time, so you guys can fight it out to decide who does it right now!' Whatever happened to people just doing it out of their own good will? I'm probably going to have to go home and kick Konrad off the gamecube so i can clean too!

Enough rambling from me. I'm off, I don't know when I'll be able to post again. So keep reading to find out!

Laters

Ryan

Comments

It's about Bloody time!

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 04:16:07 +0100

Ok. Sorry.

If you've actually been waiting on an update, i apologise, even though it hasn't been my fault. The computers that I've been using have a tendancy to crash if more than one window has been opened. So now I'm writing from Toya Senior High School, on a iMac computer. The only complaint i have about them is that i can't bloody use them right.

Anyways. Last week was pretty uneventful, apart from the Party on friday and the party on Sunday. Friday's was bloody excellent. Apart from the fact that we invited have the staff from the hospital to our house, where we all got apocalyptically drunk and threw up everywhere the next day! Cleaning up was a right nightmare, but reminiscing was fun, even though we were practically throwing up again at the sight of our own vomit.

Saturday was spent recovering in an Onsen, and sunday afternoon was spent cleaning up.

The party on sunday was cool. If not slightly uneventful. I got up to sing with the guys, then I got up to sing by myself alcohol was offered but I couldn't stand the sight of it, at least not until christmas or new year lol.

I'm sorry that this one is a little short, but my lunch is sitting right behind me and after I eat it i have to go home and hoover the house

I should have another update on Thursday then after that maybe not until the new year. I think the intention of the guys is to not be able to remember anything from Christmas to new year! not my intention but I'm sure it's going to happen anyways!!

Later everyone. lunch is made!

Bye

Ryan

Comments

Weather and Weekend

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 08:18:34 +0100

Oh My God.

You should see how much snow there is in this place!! Next time I update I'll post a pic cos now I'm just a wee bit tired. I was teaching at the Junior High today. Not english like I was supposed, but dancing. Scottish Dancing at that. Lots of fun, especially when you slip on your arse like I did! That made everyone laugh as you can imagine.

Anyways, back to what I was originally saying. There is so much snow here. On saturday it started to snow, and it only stopped this morning! There's about 2 feet of the stuff! It's bloody crazy! But so much fun. It's supposed to snow tonight as well, so I can't wait!

About the weekend. On saturday we had a two hour drive into Sapporo because I wanted to see the Harry Potter film, and thank God it wasn't dubbed. lol. It was cool, then I took a walk around Sapporo, or as much of it as I could since it's got so much. Including an underground shopping area. I don't just mean a wee tiny thing with a few shops. This area almost spans the frigging city! And it's a big city. There's 1.8 million people!! Then when I finally resurfaced it had started snowing! So I went back to the place where I was due to meet my friends (who happens to be my rep and his wife) and we returned to the car to go home. The drive took and extra hour because of the amount of snow that had fallen, plus the fact that I nearly died. We nearly crashed, luckily we hit a snow drift instead of a cliff!!

That was Saturday anyways, I had to go to bed early cos I had a very sore head!

On sunday, now this was fun. Waking up to a foot of snow and it was still going, my adult english class picked me up and took me out for sushi for lunch!! Very tasty. I don't see how people don't like it though. It's delicious, especially octopus and prawn!! So we went out for sushi. That was fine, throwing snowballs at each other as we got out of the car every now and then. We went to a tea and coffee shop thing, but it was closed, so we decided to fart around in the snow. So what do my class do? Lift me up and throw me into a mound of snow! So I got my revenge by putting snow on their seats in the cars which they left unlocked!

We got home, said our farewells until wednesday (the English class) and Me and Steve decided to go out and have a mess around in the snow. Again, for about 3 hours lol. Big children I know, but by this time there was about 2 feet of it, so you can imagine what you'd be like in that situation!

That's basically my weekend summed up lol. Tomorrow I'm going to the Senior High School to teach more dancing. But it's cool.

Ima, watashi wa uchi ni kaeru. Onaka ga suita. Yuushoku o tabe-ni iku!

Ja mata ne!!

(I'm going home now. I'm hungry. I'm gonna eat my dinner

Laters)

Ryan
(ライアン

Comments

So Far.

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 07:53:06 +0100

I should have started doing this a long time ago. I've been in Japan for let's see... whoa!! 4 months today! That means I have maximum 7 months left (;_

It's been fun so far though. Filled with ups and downs. More ups as always.

I'll give a brief overview of each months starting now then, shall I? Then I'll give a weekly review.

September: - First off, the flight over was one big pain in the ass!! 11 hours stuck in an Aeroplane with no sleep! Made worse by the fact that I wasn't able to sleep the night before flying. So all in all I was absolutely knackered. About 48hours with no sleep.

Of course I soon forgot about that as soon as we landed in Japan. I was so excited. It had always been my dream to go to Japan, and then finally when I got there I was about to burst with happiness.

We arranged (By this point I should have explained that I was with 5 other guys. Three Pairs going to three Different parts of Japan. Ryan [me], Stephen to Toya on Hokkaido; Paul and Konrad to Tokyo; and Toby and Karel to Kyoto. They're all really great guys and I couldn't have wished for a better country group. Thanks Project Trust!!) Anyways we arranged all our travel to get into Tokyo from Narita airport and I was in awe as we travelled through suburban Tokyo, if you could call any of Tokyo suburban (^-^)

We met up with our rep, Yukiko Nakaie (lovely woman), in Tokyo, Setagaya I think, (?_?) and we checked into our hotel in another region of Tokyo. Me and Steve spent 4 days in Tokyo seeing what sights we could in 4 days, we met these two great girls called Mai and Yuki. Brilliant fun, they took us to Karaoke too!

Then we parted from our country group and Made our way up to Hokkaido, by plane I might add. At Chitose airport we met our reps at out project, Sano-san, Yuko-san and Namiko-san. And drove to Toya. We had a week and a half to rest and meet up with alot of people before we actually started work. Our work consisted of 2 days a week working in a Junior High School, 1 day a week at a Senior High School, 1 day at a nursery school and 1 day at a hospital for palliative care. Also we have an Adult english lesson and a Junior english lesson. For the rest of September then we were just getting our orientation for our work and resting on the weekends.

That's the end of September.

October: - October was a little eventful. We made new friends at our work places and outside the workplace as well. Notably my Favourite is Shiro-san. He's a bank manager at Date Bank (Dah-Te for those who think it's pronounced date) He is a brilliant character who takes me and Steve out everywhere, and pays for everything too.

I also got to try out at Judo. It was fun, all of the Judo pupils are our pupils at the Senior High School, so it was fun to interact with them out of School, and throw them about the room, or be thrown as the case was more often than not. Then at the end of that month, I broke my leg. Doing Judo. But the twist was that I wasn't being thrown, I was throwing someone, guy called Yano from the High School. I don't know how exactly it happened, but I'm guessing that it was when i was throwing him when he swung round from my back as i was throwing him, his hips hit my knee, knocked my knee sideways and fractured the thing!!

Then the next day I went to the hospital, got a cast on my leg and that was me screwed for the next few weeks. This marks the end of October. There are things that I've probably forgotten to add that I'll be reminded of when Steve reads this, but meh, what'll you do?

November: - This month was much more eventfull than the last. Probably because I was always popping off to the hospital for a checkup and x-ray of my leg. All the while I was working of course getting sympathy from the locals and my pupils, which always annoyed me because they always looked at me and said Kawaiso (What a pity) But most of the time people kept giving us more food and things so it wasn't that bad.

I went to the biggest city on Hokkaido this month aswell. Sapporo. It has a population of 1.8 million people. More than that of my home country, Northern Ireland!! The reason for my visit was that a previous volunteer from two years ago came back to Japan for a University exchange. He got in contact with us and invited us both out, but the weekend that we were supposed to go out, Steve got ill. I was going to do the Noble thing and stay behind and keep him company, but he told me to go anyways. So with a clear conscience I went and left him to look after himself. My first night in Sapporo was spent getting wasted at a mexican style party, drinking Corona extra and eating Fajitas and Rissoto. Then at about 1am there was a drunken Idea about going to Karaoke. Of course everyone was happy and we all went to Karaoke. 14 drunken students wandering the snowy streets of Ainosato. Then appearing at Karaoke and staying for two hours!!

The next night we went into Susikino or Susukino, Don't remember the spelling. That night was spent getting drunk aswell. So by the time sunday came, travelling home was just a nightmare, I was so hungover!

That's the end of november aswell. Like I said before, there are things that I forget so if there's anything I remember that's slightly important I'll add it as a footnote in my other posts.

Now finally December.

December: - Since it's only the 9th this one'll be short since you're probably bored out of your heads reading the above.

Not much is happening just yet, still working away. Now we only work 1 day a week at the Junior high. My Favourite places to work are the Nursery School and the Senior High School. They're so much fun. The nursery because I love working with kids and the High School because it's so funny and reminds me of how I was at school, a pain in the arse to the teachers!

Next week promises to be much more eventful because we have a lot of things planned. Tomorrow I'm going back to Sapporo to see the Harry Potter film, in english (I hope) and next thursday Paul and Konrad from Tokyo are coming up. Then on the Friday we have a Year End party in Toyako with the hospital staff, even thoug I have no idea why I've been invited because I haven't been working there in a month or so!

So. That brings everyone up to speed on how I'm doing in Japan. Give me some feed back I've you want.

Talk to you soon.

Ryan

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