Wednesday, August 8, 2007

This week in Japan, I got up to the following things.




Where to start.....well i already wrote to you about the 3 hours on the train. It wasn't too bad actually cause now i know how to get to Kara's place and got to know the train system abit better. Plus her place is so different to mine. It is smaller but in a nice way. She has a nice bathroom compared to mine. BUt the biggest difference is she has one tatami room and then her bedroom is a little loft above that room. So she uses the tatami room as her lounge room and then climbs the ladder up to bed. It is really cosy and i liked it alot. It is really nice to have all of the room that i have (two tatami rooms plus a big kitchen) but one person really doesn't need this much space. I will post some photos of my place and Kara's place on facebook.

Kara and I have planned a visit to Mt Fuji on the 25th and 26th of August. We will be going on a cruise of Lake Ashi and up in the cable car to see the view. THere are 8 levels that you can go up to on Fuji. We will be going up to the 5th. Then we are staying in a hotel with onsen (hot springs). It is going to be awesome.

I also booked a day tour to see a sumo match in September. Which is going to be really great. This weekend Kara and I are going into Tokyo. We are going to go up Tokyo Tower. Something alot of people won't be able to do in a couple of years because they are tearing it down. And then building an even bigger one. Then i think we are going to go to Asakusa Kannon Temple. Then hopefully we can find a capsule hotel to stay in.

Today, I had my employment ceremony at the Kawaguchi Board of Education. We were given our special employment certificates. Which you have to take from the superintendent by putting your left hand on the sheet first and then your right. Then bow while you both hold the certificate and then he lets go and you bow again. Very formal. He gave a speech and then we had to each give a speech about ourselves. I was very nervous but it went really well and even got a few laughs. They liked when i told them about our two dogs and that Alice Springs is near Uluru.

Then we went and saw the Mayor of Kawaguchi. Had a short ceremony in his board room and he asked questions about Australia. Like what sports are the most popular. I told him Cricket and Aussie Rules. The BOE superintendent suggested that rugby was one too. And then the mayor asked me the difference between Aussie Rules and Rugby. I had no idea how to tell him but tried anyway.

Then Morita Sensei (my supervisor at BOE) took Mario and me on a tour of Kawaguchi. She took up to Skip City, which is where the Science Museum and Visual Arts Gallery are. We had the best Ra-men for lunch. Mine was called Barikimen. Which was only 600 yen ($5.50 approximately in AU$) The name of my dish basically translates to Power of horse. So the point of it is that you get lots of energy from it and become strong so you can work hard.

Then we went to Green Park. This is a really nice park. Here we went into the greenhouse and had some photos taken. BUt it was too hot to stay too long. Morita Sensei said it is a good place to come and see the Cherry Blossoms in April.

And then we went to the oldest house in Kawaguchi. Morita Sensei had to get a special permit to show us the house. It was made at the end of the Edo period and there was lots of hand carving. There was also a beautiful traditional Japanese garden.

Mishaps of the day: Morita Sensei hit a metal pole with the car and almost ripped the bumper off the car. AND Mario hit his head in the old house cause he is so much taller than Morita Sensei and me.

Now i am just enjoying the cool inside my house. I won't venture out again till it gets dark and cools down. Today was only 34 degress but it is so still here so there is no air movement. Plus it is really humid.

Cheers,
Tubby

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